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Edward Bond's 'Lear' offers an alternative perspective on a celebrated Shakespearean play as an interaction between the complex mechanisms of social forces and power relations in a highly politicized and contemporary version of "King Lear". Lear in Bond's play is essentially a despot. The supreme authority over a people; controlling the forces of life, livelihood and labour. Unlike its Shakespearean counterpart, Bond's version of the original focuses greatly upon the various social roles that men in a society play and how their relationships with the sovereign and with each-other constitute a pattern in the existing power structures. The precepts of 'Biopower' or the power of subjugating bodies and controlling populations and 'Biopolitics' or the idea of a political body encompassing the moral and political existence of man into the scope of governance, proposed by Michel Foucault, are of paramount import here. While Foucault is of the opinion that 'Biopolitics' is essentially about good governance, Giorgio Agamben disagrees and shows how 'Biopolitics' can lead to 'Thanatopolitics' or the power of controlling man's death and hence, life. This article sets out to study "Lear" in the light of the of Biopolitics/Thanatopolitics in Bond's retelling of the tragedy of King Lear.

In this article, I revisit my roots in pursuit of my epistemology. I write about how my mother's story significantly shaped my interest in narrative inquiry. By inviting my mother to tell her story and through the process of shared meaning making, I learn that narrations are temporal and complex. Stories are built on our lived experiences and as our perceptions about those experiences change with time, so do our interpretations of the stories that we live with. Exposing my own limited understanding of a story that is so deeply connected to me, I conclude that the essence of narrative inquiry lies in multiple interpretations and in letting participants have a significant say over the shaping, structuring, and telling of their narratives.

This study was aimed at giving voice to the experiences of four people suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Five in-depth interviews were conducted on each individual constructing themselves in the light of their own experiences. A "case study approach" was chosen as the suitable method to go in depth into the information and "thematic content analysis" was used as the method of analysis. The life stories of these individuals were reconstructed in terms of themes, and recurring themes were further explored and elucidated and linked with literature. This study helps in reaching the depths of life experiences of individuals suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder and how it affects their life in the domains of family, interpersonal relationships, occupation and self- concept. The main themes identified were that of "Connection vs. Disconnection," "Feeling of Guilt," and "Authenticity" as particularly important areas for clinical practice and future research.

Vulnerability assessments by developing Farmers' Distress Index (FDI) can play a vital role in the design of appropriate adaptation and mitigation policies directed towards the various structural changes in the recent era - for those who depend on agriculture for their livelihood and well-being. This paper attempts to build a picture of the vulnerability of distressed agricultural households by identifying the distress indicators - based on seven major dimensions, namely exposure, mitigating and adaptation strategies, adaptive capacity, triggers, sensitivity, psychological factors and impact. The aim of developing the Farmers' Distress Index (FDI), considering 50 indicators in the context of 640 dryland farmers of 4 districts in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, was to identify sources and forms of vulnerability that are specific to the context of designing resilience measures. The study we undertook reports the top 10 major indicators that drive the overall vulnerability of the districts. It also recommends a particular 'distress management package' by involving the local administration, research institutions and NGOs to build a specific action plan for intervention against each indicator.

Farmer distress is a widely recognized problem in India induced by multiple causes ranging from climate variability to price volatility and the low risk-bearing ability of farmers. Tracking farmers' distress in a localized context is a prerequisite for timely action to provide sustainable livelihood options. Therefore, a field survey was conducted with 640 dryland farmers of 10 sub-district units from two states in India with the aim to identify the major indicators based on seven dimensions of distress and to construct a multidimensional Farmers' Distress Index (FDI) at the farmer and sub-district levels. The FDI was built with seven dimensions of distress: exposure to risk, adaptive capacity, sensitivity, mitigation and adaptation strategies, triggers, psychological factors, and impacts. The study developed a broad-based FDI which can be used as a planning tool that can address the causes of farmers' distress and also evolve measures to tackle those causes. Based on the result, the study recommends a location-specific distress management package based on various dimensions of the FDI. The paper also suggests an upscaling strategy to identify and prioritize the highly distressed farmers as well as sub-district geographical units by tracking a few sets of variables.