Creative Writing – An anthropologist among the journalists

संकल्प

मेरा संकल्प इतना कमज़ोर नहीं कि तेरा जुल्म उसे तोड़ सके मैंने अपना लक्ष्य आसमान की चोटी पर तय किया है, हिम्मत है तो तू भी अपनी ताकत आजमा कर देख ले… © Vidya Venkat (2022)

Jerusalem, Ayodhya and the God question

[I wrote this long read travel essay in 2018 after a vacation trip to Israel-Palestine.] The streets of Jerusalem lay empty the day we landed there. It was 10 am. The winter sun peeked from in between the puffy, white clouds, but not a single person could be seen walking down the streets. The shuttersContinue reading “Jerusalem, Ayodhya and the God question”

What a Himalayan trek taught me about perseverance

[First published in The Hindu, MetroPlus dated Aug 26, 2016.] My sole climbing feat before I set out on a high-altitude trek of 14,000 feet in the Himalayas was climbing a 50-feet-tall water tank in Puducherry. And that too nine years ago. I often recollected, with an odd mix of amusement and shame, how myContinue reading “What a Himalayan trek taught me about perseverance”

Unicorn and the stars

“What is the distance between the earth and the stars?” My five-year-old nephew asks, wide-eyed. The rocking horse in his bedtime story book Summons a unicorn and goes wherever it wishes. “I want to ride on that horse and get to the stars. I want to ask amma why she went away so far…” [WhenContinue reading “Unicorn and the stars”

Two fates

Coal – scum of the earth. Burned in the hearth, lent warmth, & powered the world with its labour. Diamond – precious stone. Adorned women, fuelled wars, & consumed the labour of others. [I wrote this poem at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests in America last year following the murder of GeorgeContinue reading “Two fates”