Funoon London - Celebrating London's Cultural Collisions

Remembering the treasures of India and Pakistan: The BBC’s ‘Museum of Lost Objects’ podcast

Fantastically narrated and produced, the BBC World Service’s Museum of Lost Objects explores artefacts and landmarks lost in Iraq and Syria, India and Pakistan. A BBC Radio 4 series and now podcast, its later South Asia-focussed episodes trace the historical journeys of treasures such as Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s summer house, Rabindranath Tagore’s Nobel Laureate medal, the Peacock Throne, a necklace from the Moenjodaro civilisation, and Kashmir’s Palladium cinema.

To give you a sense of the richness of the series, I’ve opted for depth over breadth and reviewed the…

Nitin Sawhney presents ‘India & Me’
13 August 2017

Over the past two decades or so, the inimitable Nitin Sawhney has performed at some of London’s most iconic music venues. The Royal Albert Hall, the Southbank Centre, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, the Roundhouse… the Royal Albert Hall. And we’ve been there almost every time.

Tying all those concerts together is obviously the superbness of his live performance, but also the rather massive scale of space and audience. This year Nitin’s gone intimate. He first presented India & Me – the stories and music…

Book review: The Things I Would Tell You – British Muslim Women Write

In 2001, I became afraid of the way the world viewed me. My identity caved in on itself, much like the horrific tragedy that we all saw unfold on our television screens that year. In the months that followed, I began to feel wary. Where once calling myself Muslim was like calling myself Indian, or a woman, or tall, now it became a calculated admission.

For years, I was a Muslim (raising my glass of wine/ whiskey/ beer). A Muslim (by birth not…