Follow Up

For the residents of areas, including Bhilvaas and Nagorivaad, it was impossible to move around for last two days. Thursday came as a respite for them. "We are not in support of the violence. Our area has become symbol of communal unrest for the city. We do not know how it started or who did it. We just want to end it as soon as possible," said Afzal Shaikh, a shopkeeper and resident of Shahpur. 

What I Know

My coworkers are gone, apparently visiting Udaipur, the nearest city to get a beer.  Their chairs are now occupied by coworkers I seldom see because they are based in our old city office.  
None of this would be worth mentioning if the old city wasn't in a sorry state of violence. 


Ahmedabad has a history of riots between the Muslim and Hindu communities- one of the worst taking place in 2002. I have been drafting blog posts about the 2002 riots but cant pen anything worth posting because there is just too much to say (not to mention it's an incredibly sensitive issue even today).  However, I do encourage you to read one of the best expose about the 2002 riots by Arundhati Roy.


back to today. the news is bleak. 


Yesterday, the staff from the Old City office quickly left when they heard growing tension in the streets below. On their way out rocks were flying, mobs of people were chanting and the tension was rising. The office is shut today and none of the volunteers and staff that live in the old city (most of them are Muslim) are here because of curfews. 


what is a curfew? During the 2002 riots people were forced to stay in their homes for about 5 months, allotted an hour here and there for grocery shopping or obtaining water.  Cops patrolled the roads and shot at anyone who dared to leave their home. Today the curfew is not that drastic. There was one put in place yesterday and last night, but from what I hear it has been officially lifted today. Although everyone chose to stay home today because the streets of the old city are not safe.

why are they scared? well the paper writes that one person was burned to death by acid. 4 people have been stabbed and apparently people are running around with not only knives, but also swords.  If you want to know the graphic details you can read today's article which ends with this:
Rekha Solanki, a resident of this pol, said, “The police know who these rioters are from both communities. But the police are deliberately avoiding action, which is why the violence is not coming under control.” (to which I have to say: “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.” - Jimi Hendrix)

Tear gas shells lobbed 144 

Persons injured 14 

Policemen injured 4 

Vehicles burnt 6 

Shops burnt 24 

Rounds fired 12 

Persons stabbed 6

This has been going on since Monday. The violence erupted when a Hindu wedding procession was marching through the streets of the old city at about 9:15 pm with hundreds of people and loud music being blasted by a DJ (done for nearly all weddings and the source of my agony when I try to sleep).  When the crowds reached a mosque during prayer time they were asked to cut the DJ. and bam! you have, 4 days later, continuing violence.  

Talking to locals I come to find out that this is to be expected. That the sadness, pain, and anger from previous riots were never addressed. Very few politicians and officials were prosecuted and justice was never served to those that suffered the most. This isnt about music or that one instance of disrespect, this is about the anger that many citizens still carry/suppress.  This is about the divisions that this city continues to live with. 

Take for example where I live. The new city. If I didnt read the paper I would have no idea that violence was rocking my city, and to be totally honest I only heard yesterday- 3 days in.  There are no muslims, no mosques, no diversity around me. All Hindus, all the time.  It is when I leave the new city for a Sunday outing into the old city (which I look forward to all week) or to the outskirts of Ahmedabad (nothing there, but sometimes you just want to explore) that I realize how divided A'bad remains. The muslims live way out there and the rest are in here. No reconciliation, no coexistence, no justice, no peace.

Tomorrow I am leaving for Mumbai and hope to come back to better news. 

(photos are taken from Times of India- I haven't been to the old city to see this myself)

Speak Up, Step Up

President Obama shared his thoughts on the future of journalism at the White House Correspondents Dinner:
"Today’s technology — (applause) — today’s technology has made it possible for us to get our news and information from a growing range of sources. We can pick and choose not only our preferred type of media, but also our preferred perspective. And while that exposes us to an unprecedented array of opinions, analysis, and points of view, it also makes it that much more important that we’re all operating on a common baseline of facts. It makes it that much more important that journalists out there seek only the truth."

Even though he was talking to seasoned journalists, it resonates with what community media is all about- using modern technology to create news that can be shared with the outside world while giving hope and truth to people within the community.  The Community Producers and Reporters we train create films and radio for the people in their language and about their lives.  They are from marginalized and deprived communities and never presented the opportunity to speak for themselves.  It is important for you and I to read about child trafficking and education disparities in West Bengal (read this Mother Jones article for more insight) but what if the women of these villages were able to gather and offered a platform to strategize on their own terms?  No longer are they waiting for you and I to feel moved by a piece of journalism or for politicians/ international aid orgs to catch wind of the next big cause, they are talking and solving issues themselves.  Sustainable- innovative- a better use of everyones time- I love it! The films and radio segments I hear produced by Drishti Community Units talk about the lack of water or education access or caste issues or female rights- all the things we hear about India in the west.  The differences is this journalism doesnt ask me, the viewer, what can you (the outsider, the westerner) do about it, it doesnt tell the locals to sit around and wait for the government to fix it, every time, it demands that the people of that village find the solutions, immediately- as in directly after the film is over.  After every viewing community members scream, debate, draft, and collaborate to figure out the next step they must take to better their community. So really, community media views the marginalized, the forgotten, not as powerless victims waiting for a hand-me down solution, but as active citizens eager for better conditions.

I asked Khaleel to tell me, in his own words, about his Community Unit based in Jaipur... here is what he had to say:

"AINA TV (Mirror TV) shows the community in its entirety.  We disclose the problems we face and offer possible solutions.  The discussions held after each screening inspire people to actively work towards creating change in their neighborhood."

It's Getting 'Bat'ty Here

Its so hot that...


"Hundreds of bats dropped dead literally in searing heat wave conditions in the city on Friday. The bats, adversely hit by the blistering heat, tried in vain flapping their wings in a desperate bid to cool off. More than 400 bats deaths were reported in the city."

And we have take off!

After months of work the Drishti site is complete! Give it a peek and give me some feedback...what is it missing, what is misspelled, and what more can i tell you that isnt already there!  Be sure to watch a few videos while you are there- learn something.

Drishtimedia.org

txtz r gr8

My inbox is full so its time to send these messages to you...

Believe where other doubt.

work where other refuse.

save where others waste.

stay where others quit...

and U will win where others loose!

--

A cute poem by a kid about love :)

"i hav a heart n dat is true, but now it has gone frm me2 u,

so care4 it just like I do, Bcoz I have no heart n U have two."

--

Like the warm golden morning may our lives be filled with love care health prosperity and warmth of loved ones, like the morning breez may our lives be filled of youthful joy, freedom to be whr we weant to be and energy to explore new. Like my friend reading this messge may I be as good a friend :)

--

Most Superior exmple of love in Our life..."When apples are 4 & we are 5 members in d house, Then our 

mother Says, "I dont like apples"

--

Once i happened 2 walk on a rope bridge

It was very high

I got scared

I saw my frnd on d other side

Den I called him 4 help

But der was no reply

I somehow managed & crossed d bridge

Der I was shocked 2 c my frnd...

holdin d end of d broken bridge...!!

Sometimes v think y our frnd is keeping quite...?

He may nt help u in crossing d bridge but, he might b holding d broken bridge 4u

just trust ur frnds in al situations.

So many more but its hard to write in broken english. hope this gives you a peep into every day india. or at least a good break from work.

hip to it

I take a look at one of the girls wearing a bright pink keffiyah and carrying a Polaroid camera and think, "If only we carried rocks instead of cameras, we’d look like revolutionaries." But instead we ignore the weapons that lie at our feet – oblivious to our own impending demise.

We are a lost generation, desperately clinging to anything that feels real, but too afraid to become it ourselves. We are a defeated generation, resigned to the hypocrisy of those before us, who once sang songs of rebellion and now sell them back to us. We are the last generation, a culmination of all previous things, destroyed by the vapidity that surrounds us.

--taken from: https://www.adbusters.org/magazine/79/hipster.html

Believe me when i say its hot

Yesterday I scooped Andrew Carmona (see right) and his family from the airport as they were passing through  from Delhi to Bhuj.  Andrew is a fellow WP Fellow serving in Bhuj as well as a famous blogger (he has 13 followers! 4 ahead of me, damn!). 

When I greeted them I said, "Welcome to the coldest most tolerable day in 2 weeks!" Man was I fooled! Thinking back, I should have known.  Yesterday was SO HOT THAT while washing my hands the water nearly burned my skin.  I was forced to walk around with soapy hands the rest of the day. 

I have been thinking of starting a segment called, "Its so hot that..." and if this heat persists, as promised, it might  actually materialize. 

Check this out (45C = 113F):

Fried 'day' at 45 degree C is Ahmedabad's hottest since 2005

by Krunal Soni

There's going to be no respite from the rising mercury in the near future. With each passing day, the heat is increasing, taking its toll on citizens' health and well-being. On Friday, Ahmedabad saw a sharp rise in the maximum temperature to 45 degree C — making it the highest recorded temperature in the last five years. It was on May 21, 2005 that Ahmedabad last recorded 45 degree C.

To make matters worse (oh good!), the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast that the heat wave will continue. The city will also boil on Saturday (Hey! Thats now! Cool!) as the Met has said that it will be 45 degree C tomorrow as well.

Reena Singh, a city housewife who has shifted to Ahmedabad from Ranchi, said that she finds it difficult to cope with the intense heat. "The hot weather has made it impossible for me to step out of the house, until sunset. A fan makes no impact in a closed room," said Reena.

Heat wave conditions prevailed in parts of north Gujarat as well on Friday and the weather remained dry over the region. On Thursday, day temperatures fell inparts of south Gujarat, and changed little over the rest of the region. They were above or appreciably above normal in Saurashtra and south Gujarat.

Source: DNAIndia-

Dump it here

Trash takes on a life of its own in India, as do most other things.

Every morning a beautiful family (photos will be posted shortly) comes by to collect my trash. The mother (in her 40s), her daughter (around my age), and the daughter's two kids climb up and down the stairs of the apartment complex each and every day. They not only take my trash, but they clean the stairs, scrub the elevator, and gladly accept any and all leftover foods. I am told the apartment society pays their salaries...so no one can tell me how much they earn but I feel confident in saying it is mere pennies. For the most part no one interacts with the family, except this foreigner (clever way of saying me without actually saying me) who has fallen deeply in love with the little kids and cant help but give them fruits and veggies as well as clean water and cookies. The building whispers behind my back, but i dont mind one bit.
Let us move along. 

Having lived with so many devout environmentalists for my entire college career, several habits have been engrained: separate plastic and paper, compost your scraps, waste nothing. Thereforetoday under my sink lives an overflowing collection of plastic water bottles (forgive me, but its the only way you get clean water around these parts!), I keep my food scraps in a separate tub and dump it on the street for the cows to consume, and i reuse the cardboard boxes (from packages sent to me!) to make tacky wall hangings (look to the right) to decorate my apartment.

The other day someone questioned me on why I often refuse plastic bags at the grocery store. The answer seemed so obvious to me- the cows will choke on it and die and if the cows dont get to it then eventually it would make the earth choke and die so all in all plastic bags are bad. He wasnt impressed. He said, but what about all the people making a living off of picking through trash and reselling the plastic? What about the poor that rely on that income? 

I think its a faulty argument in many ways, but it got me thinking of how many people in India are making a "living" (maybe 3 bucks a day...maybe) off of others' unsustainable lifestyle choices. Many of these jobs have been passed down from generation to generation so just imagining the effort it will take to shift today's trash pickers to a new line of work wears me out. A lot of the laborers are remarkably talented in what they do, and most find it impossible to think outside the box, to make themselves stand out in a crowd of millions...billions. That is why you will see all the vegetable stalls in one row, why all the sponge sellers are concentrated in one area, and why getting something custom made or modified is nearly impossible.
----
Witness, an organization I marvel at and hope to one day work closely with/for, manages The Hub a multimedia site that gives life to grassroots films. They are a wonderful, powerful source of information and something that we at Drishti strive to one day give to web browsers everywhere. Take a few minutes to check out this film and better understand the complexities and layers of every day life in India.

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Just Give! (unlike Nike's Just Do It!)

Last night i caught up with one of my good friends, Inder (thats a photo of him, stolen from his facebook page). Inder is 22 and started his own bag design company that is doing really well. He is a dready strutting Sikh  whose family lives in Delhi (and would die if they knew that he had dreads), he studied at the National Institute for Fashion Technology not far from here, and he volunteers a lot (which is how we met). I wish i had a photo to post...he is a character.

We went to Seva Cafe- an experiment in kindness that started nearly 5 years back and has since become self-sustaining.  The cafe has very little staff and depends heavily on volunteers.  People come by every day (except monday- closed) to greet, seat, serve, cook and mingle. The cafe is located on posh CG road in A'bad and surrounded by high fashion and diamond retailers. The interior is beautifully done and local families come by to explore the menu that changes daily. Last night we could pick from 1. okra and chapati (flat bread) 2. rice and lentils 3. pesto pasta 4. veg sandwich 5. veg chutney 6. vanilla ice cream with choc syrup! (tried everything except #3 and #5)

the deal? you eat everything on your plate and you pay what and if you wish.

The whole concept is that your meal has already been paid for by another and you are welcome to pay for the next. it explores and teaches us how to function in a gift economy (a concept so legit, it has its own wiki page!).  One of the volunteers, an Indian girl who grew up in America and is studying at Ohio State, gave a good, brief description of the mindset behind the Cafe: rather than only thinking about giving to the homeless or those that ask on the street (viewed as a top down model of giving) we should shift our mindsets. Why not just give?  Whatever you can, whenever you can, to anyone and everyone ( a circular model- and who doesnt love a circle!).  If we are one big family- if we are sharing one big world- then why not?

Small gifts

Many smiles

Pure intentions

Gladly!

(From previous experience, I know people get uneasy when talking about kindness.  My apologizes to all the readers (i am up to 9!!!) who are disgusted by words such as gift, smile, giving, and love.  I encourage you to instead focus on the words economy, model, and chocolate syrup. Have a good day!)

This is India!

fem in (india) ism

Being in India makes me incredibly aware of how i am not a man.
not only do i have to be conscious of how I act in public (ex: no running, no laying), what i wear (big, baggy is my go to), who i am walking next to (sorry boys), how late i stay out, what i wear to the pool if i were to find a pool to go to, but I also have to adjust who i look in the eyes, who i say hello to, and how I ask for things (when in doubt, just throw in a whine with your request).  all in all, its a shift in how i carry myself.

Drishti prides itself on being gender conscious (note: they never say feminist).  We have many strong woman leading Drishti, we seek out women and girls to train in the field, we ensure that women are not a minority in the rural community governing bodies we set up, and we even had our website designed by Feminist Approaches to Technology.  However when i say the word 'feminist' around the office, the room goes silent. There is something to this reaction...sadly I haven't figured it out yet. My hunch is that young woman here no longer identify with that term.  Just like the common conception that Indians today are weary of Non Profits (because of past experiences with organizations that claim to be working as a Not for Profit but are really doing shady business and enjoying the tax subsidies of those that fight the good fight), young woman shy away from being refereed to as feminists because the word has been abused, overused, and never made itself relevant to the woman of today.
What is the woman of today? Especially in India where there are so many lives colliding together- rural woman moving into the city to work in construction, traditional perceptions of what a mother is in a time when moms no longer stay home, Women's Reservation Act passing, girls leaving home to work and live independently while sending money home for their "dowry".  How can anyone capture the experience of women today when there are so many classes/castes living one on top of the other in a deeply collective society that puts immense pressure on adhering to social norms?

Big questions. No one is giving me answers and these 7 months have taught me to not assume I know anything, so i care not to speculate much more.  I just read an interesting blog post by jaded16 and thought she was worth sharing:

I am an Indian and I live in India. How convenient. At the same time, I’m not really sure what an Indian feminist is.

I have read about Vandana Siva, presented a paper on Mahashveta Devi, fallen in love with words of Kamla Das, Nabneeta Dev Sen, Gauri Despande, Eunice D’ Souza, Pandita Ramabai  to name a few. There are resources that guide me to archives of Indian women who lie buried deep in local histories. The problem that faces me is a different one – I cannot seem to identify entirely with any one of them. I don’t feel victimised by the alien western culture nor do I feel like I’m treading in unknown space when writing or thinking in English as these feminists did. As a child born on the brink of the era of globalisation, my first language IS English. Like Bhalchandra Nemade , I don’t see myself as a pawn of the Colonial language. I am equally fluent in my mother tongue Gujarati as  I am in English. This rules out many issues and debates Indian feminists bring up time and again. I feel like an outsider when I read yet another essay about how alienated the author feels when faced against the Colonial giant as she goes on to equate the oppression she feels when writing in English with mainstream patriarchal oppression. As much as  I respect her words and opinions, they don’t resonate with me.

These feminists talk of forced marriages, oppression at the hands of their in-laws and society shunning them for the smallest social transgression – as a teenager living in Mumbai, these issues seem like fairy tales. I can agree I am speaking from a privileged stance, yet, as it turns out, I’m not the only one who feels this way. Most students my age feel the same disconnect with radical writers and feminists of the 80′s. We’ve grown up in somewhat liberal households, working parents aren’t a novelty to us, we’ve been exposed to mainstream Western culture all our lives. We have gay, lesbian and trans-sexual classmates and friends. This doesn’t make us liberal or progressive, but just the current demographic of the Indian youth.

We do hear horror stories of child marriages, of honour-killings, of female feticide, the daily rapes in Delhi ; there are many, many issues that need immediate attention — from reproductive rights to the need for liberal expression of sexuality — but again, all of this just translates to white noise. There is no reaching out to the afore mentioned demographic of Indian youth. This is not because they are apathetic (I agree some thick skinned idiots simply don’t give a fuck) but because of this disconnect we feel; the very same disconnect that borders dangerously close to assuming we live in a “post-feminist” world (to the delight of the omnipresent patriarchal douchebag). We don’t need a role model that ‘gets’ us, nor do we have the stereotypical need to be Americanised.

Most Indian teenagers have to negotiate their Indian identity into either blending in with Western values and immediately being liberal or retaining their Indian-ness and try to re-negotiate what norms they accept, for what purpose etc. To add to this existential burden, if the teenager is also (unfortunately) a feminist, then said teenager has to again see what norms of Western feminism to pick and which ones to leave out. There is no point in expecting a sexual revolution from a culture where parents would die of mortification being caught holding hands in public – there is a lot we have to filter and adapt to what suits us best while remaining true to the core beliefs and ideals of feminism. If I don’t then I’ll be sprouting Solanas in her original tone and next thing I know I am in an asylum. To make it simple – it’s a hard job being an Indian feminist.

I still resent and speak out against patriarchal norms that dictate many of my actions, I try to de-condition the bias we have against Muslims and point out the fallacies in pop culture and media. I can do that in the terminology I am comfortable in to drive my point home to you. So just because I talk of Nora Ephron instead of Gurinder Chadha, Maya Angelou instead of Gauri Despande, Alice Walker or Toni Morrison instead of Taslima Nasrin, Margaret Atwood instead of Arundhati Roy, harp praises about P.J. Harvey instead of Kavita Krishamurthy, bring up Gilmore Girls instead of Ladies Special – the list never ends – my Indian-ness doesn’t fade away in the Western hoo-ha. If I talk using ‘Indian’ terminology (case in point:  rotis, chai and dhobis ) I’m not being any more Indian than I am now.

I dont take a "pass"

If you thought playing frisbee 3 days a week for two hours each day starting at 6:30 AM was a joke...its not.  press play:



Soon Ahmedabad Ultimate will not only be practicing but leading 5 frisbee summer camps for kids around the city.  I hope my toss is good enough by then!

indian tourist

I came to take photos of India, but India seems to be taking photos of me. Here are a few photos from my trip to Kempy Falls near Mussoorie (a hill station north of Delhi).  

allow me to highlight a few things that make these pictures unique to India: 

1. woman dont wear swimming suits- they swim in their long shirts and baggy pants

2. men take it all off and leave nothing to the imagination

 

3. both young and old, singles and families want their photo taken with the "poor American woman" (me) traveling on her own.

 Once this family found out I was neither married nor accompanied they wanted nothing to do with me. Sad, but at least we have a photo to capture the moment, no?