This Week In Culture: Sheherazaad’s ‘Khudgarzi’, In My Room In Kolkata, Otherland Galle, & More

I've always found the idea of becoming your own person a little funny, considering how much of the person you become is borrowed from everyone around you. Our opinions, our references, our ambitions, even the way we speak about the things we love — we're a culmination of everyone and everything around us. The books we've read, the music we've had on repeat, the people who've challenged our assumptions, introduced us to new ideas or taken an interest in something we were still trying to articulate. I can think of plenty of things I like to claim as my own that probably owe a great deal to somebody else. And I suppose that's part of growing into yourself: discovering just how many people have had a hand in the process.

I've been very, very lucky to cross paths with people who've had such a significant hand in mine. People who've taken my ideas seriously, encouraged me to pursue them, challenged me to think beyond my first instinct, and given me the confidence to take my own work seriously. There are people whose influence you can trace through the things you've made, the decisions you've taken and the standards you've set for yourself. And then there are the things that are much harder to account for: the confidence you didn't have before, the ambition you might not have entertained, the sense that you're capable of more than you initially gave yourself credit for. I don't think I've ever expressed how much all of it has meant to me. I'm also not particularly good with goodbyes (I cry very, very easily), but I'm just so incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to learn from someone like that, and I hope that that gratitude reflects in my time here.

So, without any segue into this week's list, here's this week in culture:

‘Between Myth & Matter’ Traces The Relationship Between Myth, Material, & Memory

Opening at Kolkata's Trace Gallery, Between Myth & Matter brings together six artists working across mythology, material culture, craft and contemporary art. The group exhibition examines how inherited stories and cultural symbols find expression through physical materials, with each artist offering a different interpretation of the relationship between memory, tradition and artistic practice. It considers how cultural narratives endure through the objects, techniques and forms we continue to create. Read more here.

In Varanasi, ‘City Lines’ Explores The Many Ways A City Shapes Art

Presented by Ether Project at Ram Chhatpar Shilp Nyas, City Lines gathers eight artists responding to Varanasi through questions of urban life, memory, identity and ecology. The exhibition considers the city as an active participant in artistic practice, tracing how its architecture, communities and contradictions inform the ways artists interpret the places they inhabit. Through these varied perspectives, the show examines the relationship between a city's lived realities and the images, ideas and histories associated with it. Read more here.

The Making Of A Selfish Woman: Sheherazaad’s ‘Khudgarzi’ Reclaims The Women History Has Judged

On her debut album Khudgarzi, musician Sheherazaad revisits women who have been cast as villains, outcasts and figures of moral suspicion throughout history. Drawing on Hindustani, Turkish, Arabic and Carnatic influences, the record gives these women room to exist beyond the judgements attached to their names, exploring ambition, desire and the politics of being labelled selfish. Through its musical arrangements and storytelling, the album considers who gets to define a woman's character and whose accounts of history are allowed to endure. Read more here.

‘The Art Of Less’ Explores Producer Bobby Kang's Layered Relationship With Music

British producer Bobby Kang traces his relationship with music, from his early engagement with hip-hop and sampling to his discovery of Punjabi sounds. Through a conversation about influence, experimentation and the decisions that shape a record, The Art Of Less looks at the references behind his production practice and the value of knowing when a track has said enough. It also offers a glimpse into the process of building a musical language from disparate influences, and the restraint involved in deciding what belongs in a composition. Read more here.

Ankita Gusain Turns Her Father’s Absence Into A Poetic Meditation On Family & Inheritance

In a 15-minute documentary, filmmaker Ankita Gusain addresses her estranged father through a visual letter to her unborn child. Drawing on family photographs, memory and the language of cinema, the film examines how parental absence can inform the stories we inherit and the ones we choose to pass on. Its approach to family history considers how unresolved relationships become part of a legacy, even when the people involved are no longer present in one another's lives. Read more here.

The Dark Age Of Kidfluencing: ‘Dhan Ki Devi’ Questions The Commodification Of Children

Set during Diwali in a small Indian town, Dhan Ki Devi uses the symbolism of Goddess Lakshmi to examine the commercialisation of childhood through social media. The short film turns its attention to kidfluencing, where children's lives become content, their identities become brands, and family entertainment takes on the logic of a business. By placing this phenomenon against the backdrop of a festival associated with prosperity, the film draws attention to the financial ambitions and ethical compromises that accompany the pursuit of online visibility. Read more here.

Through Bossman Eyes Makes You Walk In The Shoes Of The Man Behind The Counter

Rikaz Niyas' short film follows a South Asian shopkeeper in London, observing the encounters, routines and prejudices that shape his life behind the counter. Through the perspective of a man whose presence in the neighbourhood is both familiar and misunderstood, Through Bossman's Eyes considers immigrant identity, belonging and the everyday negotiations of being seen. The shop becomes a vantage point from which to examine the assumptions people carry into ordinary interactions, and the lives that remain beyond the counter. Read more here.

‘In My Room’ Is A Kolkata Bar Without A Sense Of Place In A City That's Rediscovering Its Own

On Park Street, In My Room is a twenty-seat cocktail bar built around its own set of cultural references, with a menu of technique-led drinks and indulgent food. As Calcutta's bar and restaurant scene continues to find new expression, the establishment offers an interesting case for examining how a space can establish its identity without leaning on the city's familiar symbols. Through conversations with the people behind it, we look at the ideas informing its approach to hospitality, and what it takes to build a bar in a city with such an established relationship with its drinking culture. Read more here.

Otherland Galle: A New Chapter In Coastal Hospitality Is Unfolding On Sri Lanka's Southern Coast

On Sri Lanka's southern coast, Otherland Galle brings together a vinyl-listening bar, rooftop pool, music venue and locally guided excursions in a new hospitality destination near Galle Dutch Fort. With music, food and local knowledge informing its approach to travel, the property offers a different way to experience one of the island's most visited coastal regions. Its programme of experiences also places the surrounding landscape and local culture within the wider hospitality offering, giving visitors more ways to engage with Galle beyond its familiar landmarks. Read more here.

‘Amlaan’: Jayasri Burman Translates Her Artistic Practice Into Her 1st Jewellery Collection

After years of working with gold, silver and precious gemstones, artist Jayasri Burman presents Amlaan, her first jewellery collection. Drawing from the mythology, natural forms and figurative imagery that inform her paintings and sculptures, the collection carries her artistic vocabulary into wearable objects, bringing together fine craftsmanship and the visual language of her wider practice. The move into jewellery offers another medium for Burman's recurring motifs, allowing the forms and narratives of her art to take on a tactile, wearable presence. Read more here.

The Human Upgrade Fest

The Human Upgrade Fest brings together over 30 wellness brands and experts working across nutrition, sleep, recovery, skin health, healthy ageing and cognitive performance. Taking place at Mumbai's NSCI on November 15, the event invites visitors to explore everything from advanced diagnostics to cryotherapy and red light therapy. Its focus on biohacking also brings a once-niche tech-bro pursuit into wider public conversation, raising questions about the growing appetite for human optimisation, the commercialisation of health and the implications of a future where access to personalised treatments and vaccines could be shaped by how much we know, and can afford to do, with our own biology.

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