Sorry for the bad quality, but please enjoy a quick glimpse into what happens when two cultures come together for the sake of art:
--------------------------------
Tomorrow, after a few meetings and a film screening, i am hoping on a bus to Baroda. Then catching a 7 hour train to Mumbai. Getting breakfast with 3 other fellows, seeing the sites, and boarding a plane to Kerala. According to the Wiki page Kerala is a touristy, happening place made famous by its backwaters, massage, and tropical greenery.
Did i hear fish, massage, and nature all in one sentence? Thats right folks! i am out of the dry hot (yet occasional humid) veg paradise of Ahmedabad and on to bigger and hotter places.
(which reminds me, I forgot to buy a mosquito net. I hope there are a few on the side of the road)
This week all 10 fellows are getting back together to digest the past 5 months (not to mention ring in Passover 2010!). I am facilitating a session on 'understanding our identities' and 'how to go beyond good intentions'. The lesson plans have been drafted so now I just have to convince 8 rowdy WPF to sit still for an 1.5 hours in 110 degree weather...twice. We have 5 days jam packed with one session after the next exploring big questions and our feelings. free group therapy.
Then passover with 15 others in Mumbai. Then 4 days to visit our 2 community video units working in the slum areas around Mumbai. and then, back to Ahmedabad where the weather promises to be no less than 125 degrees for my return on April 2nd.
all this to say, wish me luck and its hot.
p.s.- i am trying to finish up laundry and brush my teeth but there is no more running water for the day.
p.p.s- the garden is starting to sprout
Friday, March 19, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
What does the world need now?
This is nice, but the videos the Community Producers for Drishti produce are much better! I may have a slight bias....
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Soviets sneak back in
The Soviet Experience
Art :: Dance :: Music :: Theater
October 2010 – December 2011
The University of Chicago Presents (UCP) is partnering with 10 of Chicago's prominent arts institutions in presenting one of the largest collaborative artistic efforts across the city since Silk Road Chicago in 2006/07. The Soviet Experience, a 14-month-long showcase of works by artists who created under (and in response to) the Politburo of the Soviet Union, will officially kick-off this October and run through the end of 2011. These exciting events will take festival-goers behind the Iron Curtain to explore its essence through the creative work of its visual artists, choreographers, composers, and dramatists.
About the festival...
- More than 48 events will take place in a dozen venues across Chicago.
- Check out the press coverage so far in the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times and Chicagoist. Keep your eyes peeled for more features coming soon!
- 11 festival partners include: UCP, Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, Chicago Opera Theater, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Harris Theater for Music and Dance, Art Institute of Chicago, Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University, Smart Museum of Art, Special Collections Research Center at The University of Chicago Library, The University of Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Court Theatre. (Additional partners to be announced in Fall 2010)
A few event highlights...
- Grammy Award-winning Pacifica Quartet will perform the complete string quartets of Dmitri Shostakovich at Roosevelt University’s Ganz Hall.
- Riccardo Muti and Jaap van Zweden will conduct Shostakovich Symphonies No. 5 in D Minor, Op. 47 and No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 65 at the CSO, respectively.
- Mark Morris Dance Group will perform Romeo & Juliet, On Motifs of Shakespeare, featuring Sergey Prokofiev’s original score and scenario, at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance.
- Simon Trpčeski will perform a program of Russian Piano Trios in his Chicago chamber music debut with Gjorgji Dimchevski and Kenneth Olsen at UChicago’s Mandel Hall.
- Chicago Opera Theater will present the American premiere of Gerard McBurney’s re-orchestration of Shostakovich’s MOSCOW, CHERYOMUSHKI.
- The Art Institute of Chicago will exhibit striking War-time propaganda posters not seen in the United States since World War II.
- The Block Museum of Art, Smart Museum of Art, and the Special Collections Research Center at The University of Chicago Library will exhibit special collections of iconic Soviet propaganda imagery, book art, children’s books, posters, cartoons and more.
- The Departments of Music and Slavic Languages and Literatures at UChicago will present additional curricular opportunities featuring expert faculty.
- The University of Chicago, Smart Museum, and Art Institute will present an interdisciplinary symposium in Fall 2011 illustrating the full scope of the artists of this era and their relationship to one another and the state.
"Communism means Soviets, plus the electrification of the whole country" by Mikhail Baljasnij
(Image courtesy of the Block Museum)
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Now, I am not the only one growing
Last week, I saved all the orange seeds I could get my hands on ( who doesnt love a refreshing orange?). I dried and husked them and threw them into water. The ones that sank made it to the next round (the floaters are dead weight). Yesterday on my way home from work i stopped at a shop I have been eyeing for some time called Divine Earth to pick up soil and ended up buying some coriander and tomato seeds for good measure.
I should have enough patience to let the seeds sprout in a paper towel, but I dont. I want my garden and I want it now!
Flip the bottles over and poke 4-5 holes for draining.
aren't I creative?
On the right side of this picture you can see my Tulsi (a variety of Basil) plant. Its a holy plant that has magical healing powers and deep roots in Hinduism. It only gets watered with purified water and when Ba comes to clean she takes a moment to pray near the plant.
so there you have it. the garden is set and ready to go. now i have to figure out how to make a balcony garden grow in india. stay tuned!
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Lets hear it for my ladies!
- A brief video about the study of aid effectiveness in India: Beyond Good Intentions
- Also! good news! The Women's Bill has passed the upper house of the Parliament! Now, the Lok Sabha, the lower house, needs to pass it and PM Singh must accept the amendment. VIOLA! Another amendment to the Indian Constitution allotting 1/3 of National and State Legislature seats to Women. However, there is concern that this bill will actually make it harder for Dalits and Muslims to secure seats...
Some photos of Indian women:
Monday, March 8, 2010
poetic
I have stumbled upon a wonderful new site: UltraViolet- a site made for and by Indian Feminists. Ever since I hit publish on yesterday's post, I have been feeling guilty for not highlighting the progress women are making here, especially on International Women's Day. If you have time you should read a post by another WP Fellow, Marni, on the progress woman are making in rural communities throughout India. She is working with an NGO in Baroda that helps women organize women's courts in the rural communities of India. Maybe she can guest blog about what that means some day soon...Marni? what do you say?
Today, I would like to make up for the anger of yesterday with a poem written by Divya Rajan. I cant stop reading it- enjoy.
They must’ve known my grandparents
I drive by narrow lanes called eda
in colloquial malayalam, the walls hoarded with large
posters of Mohanlal and some teenager heroine
(who won the National Award for Best Actress,
I’m told, for carrying on precariously well
as a mother of an eighteen year old, when
she herself had but known eighteen mango- textured
summers) with wisps of curls over elephantine
ears and a big, red bindi on her forehead. The car
rumbles over dead brown leaves, to be
composted; more leaves that’d borne
mid-life crises and just breathed last
beneath the tires and the smell of wet
earth rises to my nostrils. There’s
another smell that’s common in these
towns. The smell of unsmoked bidi leaves
caressed by nimble fingers of women, young
and old, in factories overloaded with
women, for they’re cheaper, more reliable
and don’t drink. All they do, is work
and smile and save money for their
daughters’ and sisters’ weddings to be
held under thatched, nameless roofs
with indistinct tharavad flavors. Their
smiles burst out, like pomegranates when
cut open. They must’ve known my grandparents.
Why else would they smile at me? My city
lips creak open like a two hundred year old
frozen fossil. A scarlet-less smile,
aching to be shed.
in colloquial malayalam, the walls hoarded with large
posters of Mohanlal and some teenager heroine
(who won the National Award for Best Actress,
I’m told, for carrying on precariously well
as a mother of an eighteen year old, when
she herself had but known eighteen mango- textured
summers) with wisps of curls over elephantine
ears and a big, red bindi on her forehead. The car
rumbles over dead brown leaves, to be
composted; more leaves that’d borne
mid-life crises and just breathed last
beneath the tires and the smell of wet
earth rises to my nostrils. There’s
another smell that’s common in these
towns. The smell of unsmoked bidi leaves
caressed by nimble fingers of women, young
and old, in factories overloaded with
women, for they’re cheaper, more reliable
and don’t drink. All they do, is work
and smile and save money for their
daughters’ and sisters’ weddings to be
held under thatched, nameless roofs
with indistinct tharavad flavors. Their
smiles burst out, like pomegranates when
cut open. They must’ve known my grandparents.
Why else would they smile at me? My city
lips creak open like a two hundred year old
frozen fossil. A scarlet-less smile,
aching to be shed.
***
Divya Rajan is a poet and artist based in the Chicago suburbs. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming inFoundling Review, Gloom Cupboard, Poetry Friends, Lily Literary Review, The Times of India, Femina and other literary publications. Her artwork has been carried by a local gallery and she is Poetry Reviewer for Sotto Vocemagazine. She blogs at Ponderings of a Porcupine.
Divya Rajan is a poet and artist based in the Chicago suburbs. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming inFoundling Review, Gloom Cupboard, Poetry Friends, Lily Literary Review, The Times of India, Femina and other literary publications. Her artwork has been carried by a local gallery and she is Poetry Reviewer for Sotto Vocemagazine. She blogs at Ponderings of a Porcupine.
oh sister!
Yesterday, on my way to the 2nd night of our Women's Film Festival (see yesterdays post), a woman driving a motorbike with a man sitting behind her sped past me. I thought, "Wow! things are really changing."
Now I think, "Wow, things are so bad that I think THAT is a sign of change!"
----------
A few days back, I was chit chatting with my downstair's neighbor as she served her two sons (one in college and the other is a bachelor working in the finance sector) dinner. Their eyes were fixated on the cheesy Gujarati soap opera blinking in front of them while she added scoops of rice, mixed vegetables, and curry to their plates. She will eat when they are finished, if there are leftovers.
I couldn't resist, I had to protest.
I imagined marrying one of them and the expectations they would have of me as their bride. I would be expected, not only by them but by the entire community, to stand over my husband and serve him meals each and every day, not to mention each and every meal since most come home over their lunch hour.
The life of a woman here often makes me cringe. The man gets an education, gets a job, gets served by his mother, gets to select a bride, gets served by his wife, and gets praised by the culture for his manhood. Mothers spoil their sons because they want to be cared for in old age and wives want to live up to the expectations of a Perfect Bride.
Meanwhile, every day I read articles in the paper of women and children being abused, raped, and committing suicide. They are short blurbs hidden on page 4 or 5 with little details about the perpetrator of the violent and inhumane crime.
And if thats not enough, if a woman falls victim to rape, it is her fault. In December, a Russian woman was raped in the touristy Goa by a local politician. The MP (a governor-esq figure) of Goa's response?
He said while rape was a heinous crime, "...an alleged rape of a lady who moves with strangers for days together even beyond middle of the night is to be treated on a different footing". (printed in the Times of India)
Shortly after, a 9 year old Russian girl was raped in Goa.
Tourists make it into the paper, but crimes against Indian women and girls are old news. The 'Study on Child Abuse: India 2007' Conducted by the Ministry of Women and Child Development in association with UNICEF, Save the Children and Prayas, revealed that children between 5 to 15 years suffers higher sexual abuse.
As I write this post, another article appears on the Times of India site, just in time to wish us all a Happy International Women's Day: Another 9 year old victim
I dont want to mark today on a sad note, but I think about gender daily. I cant walk around Vastrapur Lake alone because I get home from work after dark, I think twice about what I wear (I always wear a scarf to cover my chest, a long shirt to cover my hips and pants to cover my legs), I look down when I walk past men as they howl at me, and when I remember I wear a bangle on each arm to show that I am married (even though I am weary of marriage). All of this not because I think something would happen to me, but so that no one can say I was asking for it.
So while mothers and wives serve their husbands, wear baggy clothes to cover their curves, and swim only during the women's hour (which is 3 pm- very convenient for the modern woman!), rape is being justified and justice for the victim is forgotten.
I have been to enough lectures to know that after a long rant like this there is always someone in the audience who will raise her/his hand and ask, "so, what are your proposed solutions?"
Well, first of all, no one needs my american minded solutions. India is a wild beast of its own with incredibly intelligent feminists who are working for every woman's right. Indian NGOs are finding innovative ways to educate society about the value of a woman and putting lots of pressure on the government to make space for women in politics.
Today, could be a historic day in India, that is if the Women's Bill (reserves a 1/3 of parliamentary seats for women) passes. A few days back Prime Minister Singh declared that the "[women's] movement" will be accelerated by hiking 33% quota in panchayats [rural ruling bodies] and urban local bodies to 50%. "More significantly, we are moving towards providing one-third reservation for women in LS and state legislatures," he added.
But a war of the words breaks out and history is put on hold:
political bla bla bla
Ah! But Happy Women's Day, whatever that means.
Now I think, "Wow, things are so bad that I think THAT is a sign of change!"
----------
A few days back, I was chit chatting with my downstair's neighbor as she served her two sons (one in college and the other is a bachelor working in the finance sector) dinner. Their eyes were fixated on the cheesy Gujarati soap opera blinking in front of them while she added scoops of rice, mixed vegetables, and curry to their plates. She will eat when they are finished, if there are leftovers.
I couldn't resist, I had to protest.
I imagined marrying one of them and the expectations they would have of me as their bride. I would be expected, not only by them but by the entire community, to stand over my husband and serve him meals each and every day, not to mention each and every meal since most come home over their lunch hour.
The life of a woman here often makes me cringe. The man gets an education, gets a job, gets served by his mother, gets to select a bride, gets served by his wife, and gets praised by the culture for his manhood. Mothers spoil their sons because they want to be cared for in old age and wives want to live up to the expectations of a Perfect Bride.
Meanwhile, every day I read articles in the paper of women and children being abused, raped, and committing suicide. They are short blurbs hidden on page 4 or 5 with little details about the perpetrator of the violent and inhumane crime.
And if thats not enough, if a woman falls victim to rape, it is her fault. In December, a Russian woman was raped in the touristy Goa by a local politician. The MP (a governor-esq figure) of Goa's response?
He said while rape was a heinous crime, "...an alleged rape of a lady who moves with strangers for days together even beyond middle of the night is to be treated on a different footing". (printed in the Times of India)
Shortly after, a 9 year old Russian girl was raped in Goa.
Tourists make it into the paper, but crimes against Indian women and girls are old news. The 'Study on Child Abuse: India 2007' Conducted by the Ministry of Women and Child Development in association with UNICEF, Save the Children and Prayas, revealed that children between 5 to 15 years suffers higher sexual abuse.
As I write this post, another article appears on the Times of India site, just in time to wish us all a Happy International Women's Day: Another 9 year old victim
I dont want to mark today on a sad note, but I think about gender daily. I cant walk around Vastrapur Lake alone because I get home from work after dark, I think twice about what I wear (I always wear a scarf to cover my chest, a long shirt to cover my hips and pants to cover my legs), I look down when I walk past men as they howl at me, and when I remember I wear a bangle on each arm to show that I am married (even though I am weary of marriage). All of this not because I think something would happen to me, but so that no one can say I was asking for it.
So while mothers and wives serve their husbands, wear baggy clothes to cover their curves, and swim only during the women's hour (which is 3 pm- very convenient for the modern woman!), rape is being justified and justice for the victim is forgotten.
I have been to enough lectures to know that after a long rant like this there is always someone in the audience who will raise her/his hand and ask, "so, what are your proposed solutions?"
Well, first of all, no one needs my american minded solutions. India is a wild beast of its own with incredibly intelligent feminists who are working for every woman's right. Indian NGOs are finding innovative ways to educate society about the value of a woman and putting lots of pressure on the government to make space for women in politics.
Today, could be a historic day in India, that is if the Women's Bill (reserves a 1/3 of parliamentary seats for women) passes. A few days back Prime Minister Singh declared that the "[women's] movement" will be accelerated by hiking 33% quota in panchayats [rural ruling bodies] and urban local bodies to 50%. "More significantly, we are moving towards providing one-third reservation for women in LS and state legislatures," he added.
But a war of the words breaks out and history is put on hold:
political bla bla bla
Ah! But Happy Women's Day, whatever that means.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Indian Sun-Daze
news item number 1: I have a meeting at Gujarat University this Tuesday to discuss a customized Hindi language course.
news item number 2: Madeleine, Paul, and I wandered around the Sunday Market near Ellis Bridge for a few hours. Here are a few of the photos Maddie and I snapped.
Director: Ananya Chakraborty
Language: Bengali, Hindi (with English Subtitles)
Legend goes, there is a magical line that Laxman drew around Sita, which no woman is supposed to cross. If any woman dared to cross the magical line, she would risk being kidnapped by Ravan the demon.
Women have for centuries been discouraged to cross the line, to remain indoors, and within limits. The lines and limits of their existence have always been defined by patriarchy. So what happens if a woman does cross the line? By circumstances, through need, or just by a desire to dare the magical line?-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dont forget that Monday, March 8th is International Women's Day! Commemorate it by donating to a gender sensitive NGO of your choice :)
news item number 2: Madeleine, Paul, and I wandered around the Sunday Market near Ellis Bridge for a few hours. Here are a few of the photos Maddie and I snapped.
Tonight is the 2nd night of Drishti's 3rd Annual Women's Film Fest. Last night Maddie, Paul and I joined around 200 others for the screening of Silent Waters and tonight we are going to see:
Understanding Trafficking
Director: Ananya Chakraborty
Language: Bengali, Hindi (with English Subtitles)
Legend goes, there is a magical line that Laxman drew around Sita, which no woman is supposed to cross. If any woman dared to cross the magical line, she would risk being kidnapped by Ravan the demon.
Women have for centuries been discouraged to cross the line, to remain indoors, and within limits. The lines and limits of their existence have always been defined by patriarchy. So what happens if a woman does cross the line? By circumstances, through need, or just by a desire to dare the magical line?-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dont forget that Monday, March 8th is International Women's Day! Commemorate it by donating to a gender sensitive NGO of your choice :)
Saturday, March 6, 2010
text messages recieved
A great source of joy for me is text messages. I would like to share the laughter with you...
Please stay tuned for more!
The first:
simple BYE make us cry.
simple JOKE make us laugh.
simple CARE make us fall in love.
I hope my simple SMS make U think of me.
and another:
Friendship is not just a word...It is a holy relationship...It is a silent promise which says. I'll be with U. Wherever! Whenever! Forever
and yet another:
Written by A TRUE love in the memory of Lost Lover- Whenever I see her I HATE him. But whenever i see other couples, I REALLY MISS him! Dats realy true..!
and the best for last:
I Mess Yo...
I Mis uo...
I Mmis Yoo...
I Miiss Yuu....
May be I Didnt know How To Write It. But U Teached Me How To Feel It.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
we are the news
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