Nirantar radio: Feminist Fiction

When young landlord Chainsingh sets his eyes on Muliya, a young Dalit woman who regularly peels and gathers grass from his field, he is spellbound by her beauty and grace. Happily married and simply uninterested, Muliya fiercely refuses the landlord's advances. But when Muliya realises the power she holds over this dominant-caste man, will her desire change? 'Ghaswali', first published in 1929, wa...

Remember when we thought we would always be 16? When we thought we’ll take over the world? Meena, Annie and Nayantara–‘the three girls from St. Agnes'–feel that they rule the world. They are dancers, they light cities on fire travelling from festival to festival, they revel in each other, and oh that glory–friendships. Then, college ends. How far do we carry love from our college friendships? When...

“Baba, how does one become a Bayen (witch)?” Bhagirath asks his father Malinder near the dead lake as the shadow of his estranged mother looms over him. The recollecting of who his mother was and how she was ostracized as a witch from the Dom community in this story by Mahasweta Devi, is the unfolding of the myth of Bayen and the reality of witch-hunt. What emerges in the exchange between father a...

Is beauty a boon or a curse? Sounds of mourning and celebration are overlapping in the neighbourhood. Sharafat Bhai's life is going to change completely after his first wife's death as he is set to marry a younger girl. Will the doe-like youthful beauty that he adores and worships age well? Or, will time play its game and turn happiness into jealousy? Sexuality is, after all, a fickle mistress.  T...

Phulesara’s husband dies within one year of marriage and then she finds a new constant companion: fear. Tune into this special feature of Bolti Kahaniyan: ‘Phulesara Bahu ki Aankh’, which is an audio adaptation of a story written by Omprakash Krityansh, bublished in book Samkaaleen Dalit Kahaaniyan. The story is narrated by Swati Kashyap. The cover image has been extracted from an original work by...

A teacher walks the aisle of the classroom with a stick in his hand, waiting to use it on anyone who falters in their dictation test. Bhisham Sahni opens this scene of a classroom in his story ‘Imla’ where the same teacher when positioned outside the classroom changes his walk and talk. How do the structures of power change around the same teacher? In this episode of Bolti Kahaniyaan, listen to th...

In this new episode of Bolti Kahaniyan, Dipta Bhog narrates ‘Hekdi’, a story by writer Vijaydan Detha. This story is taken from the Hindi translation of his anthology ‘Batan Ri Phulwadi’ published by Rajasthani Granthagar. This story was told by the river to the waves, the waves to the shores, the shores to the winds, the winds to Biiji and by Bijji to us. Bijji, aka Vijaydan Detha, is a folk stor...

In this episode Swati Kashyap narrates Harish Mangalam's story - Beni Maa. In this series, we bring you gender stories from Nirantar’s archives as well as from the Hindi fictional world at large. These stories have been used in facilitation by various gender groups, and are also great conversation starters for difficult, tricky and conflicting issues that emerge while working with communities. बोल...

In this episode of Bolti Kahaniyan, Swati Kashyap narrates a transcreation of Maitri Pushpa's story ‘Tum Kiski Ho Binni?’. When Binni's mother becomes pregnant after having given birth to two girls, everyone believed that it would be a boy but instead, it was Binni. This is what happened next.   In this series, we bring you gender stories from Hindi fictional world. These stories have been used in...

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In Episode 2, Anita narrates - Beta Kiska, which gives birth to a metaphor you'll never forget.  इस दूसरे एपिसोड में अनीता की आवाज़ में सुनते हैं कहानी - बेटा किसका? और जानते हैं कि इस सवाल पर कैसे वीरमति ने सबकी बोलती बंद की.

In this first episode of Bolti Kahaniyan, Anita narrates ‘Roti banaye Tantu', a story from our field. In which a husband and a wife exchange places for a day.  बोलती कहानियां के इस पहले एपिसोड में सुनिए अनीता की आवाज़ में कहानी 'रोटी बनाए टंटू' ये कहानी निरंतर ट्रस्ट की फील्ड से निकली है और 'आपका पिटारा' पत्रिका में प्रकाशित है. इस कहानी में पति और पत्नी एक दिन के लिए अपनी जगहों की अदला-बदली कर ले...

We are turning an inward eye to look at our mental experiences, and how they intersect with societal structures. In an attempt to move away from pathological and clinical readings and move towards lived experiences, our podcast series Mann Ke Mukhaute interweaves fictional stories and experiential voice notes. We have tried hard and not been able to find the English word for ‘mann’ - the Hindi wor...

As part of our series 'Mann ke Mukhaute' exploring mental landscapes from an experiential standpoint, the second episode features Sudha Arora’s story Rahogi Tum Wahi, an account of a woman at the other end of emotional violence. Looking at the interplay of abuse and the innovative coping mechanisms women devise to survive, this episode suggests, teases and evokes a universe, as experienced by a wo...

As part of our Public Health issue, we are turning an inward eye to look at our mental experiences, and how they intersect with the health and state systems. In an attempt to move away from pathological and clinical readings and move towards learning from lived experiences, our podcast series Mann Ke Mukhaute interweaves fictional stories and experiential voice notes. We are locating our site of e...

When going into the cinema turned into clicking through OTT platforms during the pandemic, we adapted to the 1920 x 1080 screen size and relegated the good ol' Talkies to nostalgia. But cinema is not only a medium for story-telling, is it? It also stands as a character, bearing witness to a changing city—who enters, who leaves mid-way, and who stays. Gulabi Talkies, Vaidehi's story in Kannada, tel...

Literature seeks to draw meaning from the mundane, weaving powerful narratives out of the seemingly insignificant. Fiction too has often served as a vehicle for feminist thought, by bridging the gap between theory and practice. It has made machinations of power visible, illustrated characters in shades of grey, and shown how complex, playful and fresh the world can look, when written from a femini...