Kusum Choppra

Tell me, how are literary writers expected to register their protest on mind bans? =        a Pens Down Strike? Aah, wouldn’t the powers-that-be just love that one?   =        a thali-belan   or slate-pen rally to generate noise pollution? =        a quiet withdrawal all their work from the public domain?   Perumal did it last year. Remember him? What did it get him?   Yes, it  did  leave the field clear for all the Trolls and the Roadies and mass productions. Where are the Writer former chief minister of a southern state and his thought provoking poetess MP daughter?                 Ultimately, an 88 year old writer, acknowledged for her generation of ideas and leading thoughts, took  a lead in pointing to the degeneration of thinking in a fast slipping culture and the ongoing esasure of  a cultural herit...

Kusum Choppra: A DARE

He had dared to ride a horse for his wedding. Challenged the age old rites of Rajputism. Punishment instant by a kangaroo court. His feet  shod with hooves held with nails through his soles. left to die. They took him to the big Dilli hospital. Recovery would take weeks, they were told. They left him at the mercy of hospital staff n well wishers. Returned to a threat .... don't ever see him again or else... Dilli worked its own magic. An NGO filed a suit; media picked up the issue. "India wants to know" bellowed TV screens. Donations poured in. Infections held up recovery. From the little screen on his mobile he watched Police rounded up those who had gored him. The battle will be long. He was told. Witnesses threatened, bought or bumped off. Judges selected for bias. Will you n your village last the war? Years later the verdict came in. A prematurely aged groom, ...

Finally the truth of Mastani is coming out, thanks to painstaking research which took more than two decades of scratching patiently for the tiniest of clues. yes, it took me more than two decades to get behind the actual story of Baji Rao and Mastani's lives and deaths, wiping away the falsehoods that had been attached to both of them - in their persona and the deaths. it has given me tremendous satisfaction to see this speaking tree clip that affirms the truth, rather than perpetuating false myths. Sept 9, 2015, www.speakingtree.in carried a video story of Peshwa Bajirao I in which 6 of the 12 clips reaffirmed my blasting of the myths  surrounding  Bajirao and Mastani, including their lives and deaths --quoting from my book Mastani a Rupa publication of 2012. Hard on the heels of that came endorsements from Manjula Tekal, a US based scholar of maratha history and Dr. Usha Ram a Pune based scholar " An able warrior and administrator, Mastani ...