This Week in Culture: A Boy Who Dreamt Of Electricity, Climate Change Activism, & More

Earlier this week, temperature in Srinagar reached 34.4℃, the highest recorded in May in the last 57 years. In other parts of India, temperatures soared to high 40s, with Ganganagar in Rajasthan reaching the highest maximum temperature recorded so far this year at a scorching 47.6℃. At the same time, severe thunderstorms hit Mumbai, Pune, and New Delhi.

These disparate weather extremes are signs of an undeniable inconvenient truth: the climate crisis is no longer a distant threat in South Asia. It's a lived reality that seeps into everyday life — reshaping how we work, eat, sleep and dream. In India, rising temperatures, erratic monsoons, and stagnating social mobility are now colliding with centuries-old atrocities and new-age anxieties, laying bare the deep social and ecological inequalities that define the region. Climate change here is not just an environmental issue — it's a cultural and structural one, cutting across the intersecting fault lines of caste, class, colonial legacies, and rapid urbanisation.

This week's stories aren't just about art, creativity, and popular culture in South Asia, they are a lens into how artists, musicians, filmmakers, and local communities are responding to this complex landscape. From a film about how Caste hierarchies define who benefits from India's much-vaunted 'development' to a vinyl store in Bangalore offering an antidote to algorithmic enshittification to exhibitions and workshops that examine our precarious climate futures to a Kolkata cocktail bar that indulges in the absurdities of late Capitalism, here's what we have for you this week:

'A Boy Who Dreamt Of Electricity' Peels Back The Systemic Rot Wreaked By The Caste System

'Batti: A Boy Who Dreamt of Electricity', the debut feature by filmmaker Jigar Nagda is a story about Bheru, a young adult from a remote tribal village, who lives in a house on the hill that has no electricity with his mother and father. When a marriage proposal falls through because of this lack, it isn’t just a personal loss for the family, it’s a signal that the outside world has written them off.

Read Disha's review of the film here.

Kolkata's Nutcase Etc. Is A Euphoric Fever Dream Of Cocktail-Fuelled Existential Angst

If Salvador Dalí opened a bar in Kolkata after binging on instant ramen and a Gangs of Wasseypur marathon, one imagines it would look a lot like Nutcase Etc. This 650-square-foot fever-dream deep in the bowels of Kalighat isn't quite your neighbourhood watering hole (although it could certainly be that!). It's a postmodern shrine to poor life decisions, midlife crises, and the evergreen philosophical question: What if your dinner could get you hammered?

Learn more about Nutcase Etc. here.

Meet Ritwick Das: The Indie Artist Writing The Soundtrack To Your Inner Monologue

"In a lot of today’s indie and pop music, there is a growing space for something more thoughtful and more personal. Which is where Ritwick Das fits in. The New Delhi-based singer-songwriter and producer has carved a niche in the contemporary desi pop space by doing something deceptively simple: telling the truth, gently."

Read Disha's profile of Ritwick Das here.

On The Jungle Floor Has Opened Its First Brick-and-Mortar Store In Bangalore

For almost six years, On The Jungle Floor lived online, shaping a space for vinyl heads across India. Just a week ago, they opened the doors to a brick-and-mortar store in Bangalore, that feels like a natural extension of everything they’ve been building; slowly, steadily, and always with intent.

Disha has all the details about Bangalore's newest vinyl destination here.

We Are the Ocean: Attend A New Delhi Festival Uniting Art, Activism, & Marine Conservation

Organised by the French Institute in India, in partnership with the Alliance Française network and other ecological and cultural institutions like the French Development Agency, Mongabay India, and the Environmentalist Foundation of India, the festival runs through May 25, 2025, at Alliance Française de Delhi. It offers an immersive, multidisciplinary experience designed to deepen public understanding of the ocean's role in planetary health and the urgent need for marine conservation.

Learn more about the festival here.

Join A Four-Part Zoom Workshop Exploring The Climate Crisis And How It Affects South Asia

Across four sessions in June and July, Asia Society India Centre will examine the history of climate change — tracing its roots to colonialism and how unequal development, driven by historically imbalanced carbon emissions, continues to shape its impact on the Global South, particularly South Asia. The series will also delve into the financial mechanisms aimed at addressing these disparities, the role and effectiveness of climate activists in the region, and the growing challenges climate change poses to wildlife conservation efforts.

Learn more and register for the workshop here.

If you enjoyed reading this, here's more from Homegrown:

Through Ritual, Research, & Design, Kaanchi Chopra Tends To A Planet In Crisis

What Can We Learn From The Flawed Portrayals Of India In 20th Century Western Films?

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