About Us
Chakkar kya hai?
The Chakkar is a famous ridge in the Himalayan hamlet of Landour, a circular road surrounded by the sight of lush deodars, the smell of rain, the greetings of hordes of hungry bandars, and, on its best days, the rewarding sounds of silence. For many of us, it is a path that inspires our own art, so much that we take The Chakkar along with us wherever we go: where we write our literature, where we compose our music, where we paint our masterpieces.
This website, is a celebration of India’s artistic creativity. Indie music, film, literature, theatre, art, sports, and more. We review the best of the past and the present; we feature established and upcoming art and the artists behind them; we present opinions of the finest minds in the country on the state of Indian arts.
You can find a variety of stories highlight Indian arts and culture on TheChakkar.com. We also hold monthly reading series Golchakkar to connect Indian writers around the world. Our podcast What’s The Chakkar? is a sampler of our tastes, featuring discussion on film, music, literature, and more.
Staff
Karan Madhok is a writer, journalist, and editor of The Chakkar. His debut novel A Beautiful Decay (Aleph Book Company) was published in October 2022. His creative work has appeared in Epiphany, Sycamore Review, Gargoyle, The Literary Review, The Bombay Review, and the anthology A Case of Indian Marvels. He is the founder of the Indian basketball blog Hoopistani and has contributed to NBA India, SLAM Magazine, Fifty Two, FirstPost, and more. You can find him on Twitter: @karanmadhok1 and Instagram: @karanmadhok. He eats entirely too much Butter Chicken and is the world’s foremost expert on Basketball in Bollywood movies.
Prateek Santram – Associate Editor / Co-founder: Prateek Santram, or Prateek Joseph Santram as he prefers being called, is a father of three, husband of one and acquaintance of many. He tries to play guitar and sometimes gets something vaguely musical in the process. He is also an expert on Lucknow kababs. He currently teaches history in a school in Mussoorie and doesn’t think he can go back to living in a city. He’s unsocial on social media, but go ahead and annoy him on Twitter: @prateek7285
You can find us on:
Twitter: @TheChakkar
Instagram: @TheChakkar
Facebook: @TheChakkar
YouTube: The Chakkar
And our podcast What’s The Chakkar on Apple Podcasts, Podbean, TuneIn, and more.
Special shoutouts to…
- One of our founding fathers and Landour-based singer-songwriter, Ady Manral for his advice and guidance in The Chakkar’s journey.
- Excellent graphic artist slash Swiss-Bhutanese hunk Dhondup Roder, who created The Chakkar’s logo and continues to be a partner in all our visual escapades.
- Design queen supremo Rupali Lamba for the being the true backbone of the website’s design and continuing caution and encouragement. Check out her work at: http://lwd.co.in/
- World traveler, polyglot, and digital nomad Kiran Bhat, who conceived and curated our monthly reading series Golchakkar, an online panel of Indian artists in conversation with the world.