Dr. Davesh Soneji Chennai has been a major site for performative constructions of Indian and particularly Hindu heritage, a place where the gestures of every dancer seem loaded with political significance. Bharatanāṭyam, certainly one of India’s most cherished cultural exports, was created in Madras, and this city continues to be…

Sahayaraj Vijayan, SJ The year 2021–2022 is yet another milestone year in the whole history of the Society of Jesus, as the Jesuits, along with their collaborators, observe it as ‘the Ignatian year’. Even though St Ignatius would expect all of us to be Ignatian at all times, he does…

JoAnne Saldanha As I sit on the balcony with my octogenarian parents, I am cocooned in the familiarity of their stories. As Alzheimer’s slowly invades my mother’s mind, the recent past befuddles her, oddly sharpening her memories of the ‘old days’. As the sun sets and the birds fly to…

Mrs. Usha Jesudasan I must have been seven years old. My younger brothers were quarreling with each other and both seemed adamant about whatever they were fighting about. My grandmother called us all together. Holding my brothers one in each arm, she told us the story of the two silly…

Philip Kumar S. J. A fundamental question My recent publication in Tamil (Ūrāli Pazhankuṭiyinar Vāzhviyal, 2022) is an ethnographic study on the Ūrāli community, among whom I had the opportunity to live and work for five years from 2014–2019. Majority of them inhabit the Sathyamangalam Forest Area, Erode District, Tamilnadu…

J Sam Daniel Stalin What makes teachings of Jesus Christ engaging and relevant across the world even after two thousand years? Well, His stories or parables synonymous with his messages do play a keyrole and it triggers the question why Jesus and the prophets made stories part of their teachings…

God’s Story-ing in 2 Samuel Fr. Yesu Karunanidhi A depressed person, who was on the verge of killing himself, was taken to a psychiatrist by her friends. “Why do you wish to die?” asked the psychiatrist. “I don’t have any hope for living,” replied the woman. “Give me a solution,”…

Dr Naga Ganesan — 1.0 Introduction Some aspects of Indian religion in the Post-Harappan period provide a great continuity with the Indus Civilization seen in its Bronze Age seals. Even in the Pre-Harappan stage, astronomical couple of the Pole Star symbolized as a divine crocodile and Aldebaran star (Rohiṇī) as a blackbuck are used…

Editorial Storytelling is a way of creating community. As I sit chatting with two friends at lunch, someone else approaches that table. There are two ways of responding to the newcomer. Either grow silent politely and thus exclude him, or welcome the newcomer by telling him briefly what we have been…