Bending Borders

Between borders,there’s not just a bit of land we call a country. There’s a gamut of emotional and physical experiences that are waiting to be felt,explained and understood. And Kinaara,an online magazine launched by a group of Jadavpur University students intends to do exactly that. “South East Asia,our focus of work,is hardly ever recognized as a whole. We don’t have an identity,collectively. We are always either Indians,or Pakistanis or Indonesians etc,” says Rohit Kumar Dasgupta,a post graduate student of English literature at the Jadavpur University,also the co-founder and assistant editor of Kinaara. So Kinaara intended to give the South Asian youth a platform to talk about issues close to their hearts and also find a voice that builds and promotes a South Asian identity. The core team comprises Monidipa Mondol,Anomitra Biswas and Dasgupta—all students of JU.

“Latin Americans are so proud of their identity. And they are recognized by the same too. It’s not the case with us. Despite our differences,we do have a lot of common issues,similar colonial histories etc,” says Dasgupta. Kinaara contributors include people from Pakistan,Sri Lanka,Bangladesh as of now. “Since,it is also about diaspora we have immigrant students studying in London and the US as constributors,” says Dasgupta.

The team plans to update the magazine each month and also work around a specific theme for each issue. Following their opening edition,their August issue will be based on ‘conflict’. The editors want to include everything from poems,articles,stories,art,photographs —anything through which the contributors explore their theme for the month. “These are trying times for most South Asian countries. Look at Tibet,Nepal,Sri Lanka,or even India —we are all conflict-ridden. We have people from Nepal and Sri Lanka who are going to write about their experiences of conflict for our August edition,” says Dasgupta.

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The magazine,which is completely funded by the team as of now,intends to come out with an annual compilation of their best articles once things get rolling. “Initially we tried reaching out through personal networking – urging the people we knew to contribute. And then we created a community on Facebook so that more people comes to know about it,” says Dasgupta.

“We also want to reach out to youngsters from more South East Asian countries.”

Kinaara is available at http://www.kinaaramagazine.org