From s0454533 at sms.ed.ac.uk Mon May 1 00:50:37 2006 From: s0454533 at sms.ed.ac.uk (A Khanna) Date: Sun, 30 Apr 2006 20:20:37 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] meeting on call centre work... Message-ID: <20060430202037.6r56vznwzk40c0c8@www.sms.ed.ac.uk> think this may be interesting for some... best, akshay Discussion-Meeting on Call Centre Work and of Struggles in some European Call Centres Workers' Solidarity invites you to a discussion meeting on call centre work and struggles in Europe. The meeting would consist of two parts: 1) Presentation of a workers' self-inquiry project in Germany. In 1999, a collective in Germany decided to work in various call centres in order to understand the new work organisation and possible new forms of workers' struggles. They made interviews, collected reports from different call centres, translated strike news and published a call centre workers newspaper. An activist, Marco, who was actively part the process will present these experiences and the political background of a political current in Europe which developed the concept of workers' self-inquiry as a part of revolutionary organising. Here are some relevant links: http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/kolinko/lebuk/e_lebuk.htm (link to call center inquiry book) http://www.wildcat-www.de/en/wildcat/64_65/w64opera_en.htm (link to article on tradition of workers inquiry) 2) In the second part we want to discuss the global shift of call centre work and different workers' struggles in the sector. Our main question concerns the impact globalisation of call centre work has on the working conditions and possible struggles in the various countries. http://www.prol-position.net/nl/2005/03/bangalore (link to article on global re-location of call centrers) We will also distribute copies of a booklet - In Global Circulation: Life and Struggles in European Call Centres - that Workers' Solidarity published recently and that we want to distribute primarily among call centre workers in Delhi. The booklet consists of reports from call centres in Europe made by activists there, and descriptions of strikes in some of those call centres. Please do attend the discussion and pass on this info to others. Date: 29 April 2006, Saturday Time: 4 pm Venue: Saheli office, under Defence Colony Flyover Sreerekha, Naga, Manisha, others for Workers' Solidarity From bhatt_rudra at yahoo.com Mon May 1 11:00:43 2006 From: bhatt_rudra at yahoo.com (Rudradep Bhattacharjee) Date: Sun, 30 Apr 2006 22:30:43 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] ON THE ROAD Message-ID: <20060501053043.33387.qmail@web34211.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Greetings fellow Fellows (and everyone else who's listening in), Yes, I've finally hit the road. Writing in from Bangalore. The day I reached the city, I came across a front-page article in TOI titled 'Curbs on entry of under-14s into cyber-cafes on cards'. The Karnataka govt., the writer informed us, was seriously scrutinising a proposal to bar children below the age of 14 from entry into cyber cafes and 'any other establishment which provides computer services to the general public for a cost', unless, of course, they were accompanied by an adult. The move was aimed 'to curb the harmful influence of Internet on children'. The writer also added that cyber cafe owners had, apparently, welcomed the move. A few days later, the Kavya Vishwanathan case happens. Sunil Sethi appears on NDTV 60 Minutes, and with him two senior English professors (I surfed in too late to get their names). On being asked whether they came across cases of plagiarism in the writings of their students, one of the ladies remarked that plagiarism was indeed prevelant. She added that the coming in of the Internet had further intensified the problem as young, aspiring writers would copy and paste from various sources and by the end of it not even remember what was original and what was not. The very next day, Apache Indian (remember him?), in an interview on one of the FM stations, blames piracy on the Net for harming the careers of singers like him. And the next day, the news channels are full of this Indian chap who, in his postings on the Net, was exhorting Iraqis to kill George Bush and rape Anglo-saxon women. This case, as the channels repeatedly mentioned, is particularly interesting given the sanction of free speech by the First Amendment under the US Constitution. It would be an interesting case on where you draw the line on free speech. I will move on here, but please feel free to make the connections between the above four stories here. In fact, write in. In Bangalore, the first person I had to meet (of course) was Lawrence Liang. Many on this list would know Lawrence, either personally or through his frequent postings. Lawrence is a legal researcher with the Alternative Law Forum in Bangalore. In 2000, Lawrence wrote a fascinating article titled 'Regulation of Cyber - A Space or a Medium?' While stating that "every technological revolution has brought with it a new spate of legal issues and legal problems which have to be addressed either through the modification of existing laws or the introduction of a new legal paradigm", he argues that 'the real issue for us to discuss, however, is whether the Internet is merely another technological medium or is it truly a "space". The fascinating bit about this is the whole idea of how law conceptualises a subject (cyberspace in this context) and the following insight that it is this very concept of the subject that determines how law and thereby civil society (or most of it, at least) will view it. In his words, Lawrence argues that 'law is a constituitive discourse ie. it not merely describes a particular phenomena but through such a description goes on to create the very phenomena itself." The norm in legal circles is to think of the Internet as 'a lawless frontier where anarchy prevails'. And hence the legal solution to regulate the Internet. Lawrence believes that there is something fundamentally wrong about this. Instead, he believes that cyberspace should be conceptualised as an actual social space and hopes that 'standards of behaviour will emerge within the context of virtual communities which can be enforced contractually as opposed to using criminal laws to enforce aceptable behaviour." Before going in to meet Lawrence, I went to an ATM to withdraw some money. As I stood there in the queue, I couldn't help wondering that somehow my bank and Lawrence represented two extremes of my story. While Lawrence argued for an unregulated (or rather self-regulated) cyberspace, my bank was probaly spending millions trying to come up with stronger security measures on its gateway. While I had a weak spot for Lawrence's arguments, I also liked the convenience of Internet banking. So, here was the crux of my film. How do I reconcile the two? Is there a meeting point at all? I asked Lawrence the same question. But for that, you have to watch the film!!! So long.... Deep __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From bhatt_rudra at yahoo.com Mon May 1 11:03:17 2006 From: bhatt_rudra at yahoo.com (Rudradep Bhattacharjee) Date: Sun, 30 Apr 2006 22:33:17 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] TRYING TO CONTACT DR ARUN MEHTA Message-ID: <20060501053317.23112.qmail@web34204.mail.mud.yahoo.com> hi.... I am trying to reach Dr Arun Mehta from Delhi. Can anyone forward a contact no.? Thanks. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From sachin25519 at yahoo.com Mon May 1 00:18:27 2006 From: sachin25519 at yahoo.com (sachin mathur) Date: Sun, 30 Apr 2006 11:48:27 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Update: My building and the Shahar Message-ID: <20060430184827.76681.qmail@web36909.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Hi Abhinandita / Venu Saw your articles on mathurs on the net with the images of the Holi functions , we are Mathurs having a very big family tree based inDelhi , Amroha , Muradabad and Jaipur . My Baua comes from traditional mathur family in Chandni chowk and babaji hails originally from Alwar , Mom's ancestral trees are in Amroha and Muradabad , hence dad's nansal becomes Delhiwaalas and mine based in Muradabad and Jaipur . Also many of our relatives stay in Ganesh Apartments only . We would as well like to join ur group and become a member of the strong Mathur team . Waiting for a positive response from ur side . Sachin Mathur --------------------------------- New Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Call regular phones from your PC and save big. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060430/332cd2f4/attachment.html From singhgurminder2000 at hotmail.com Mon May 1 16:32:00 2006 From: singhgurminder2000 at hotmail.com (gurminder singh) Date: Mon, 01 May 2006 16:32:00 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] IsNew Meeting Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060501/5f83b920/attachment.html From cahen.x at levels9.com Mon May 1 16:31:56 2006 From: cahen.x at levels9.com (xavier cahen) Date: Mon, 01 May 2006 13:01:56 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] 00-00-0000.org / 05_01_2003 / =?windows-1252?q?F=EAte_du_1_er_mai?= =?windows-1252?q?=2C_Paris=2C_2003_/_The_first_may_day_march=2C_2003=2C_P?= =?windows-1252?q?aris=2E?= Message-ID: <4455EAA4.5060807@levels9.com> ---------------- 00-00-0000.org Month Mois Mes - Day Jour Dia - Year Année Año http://www.00-00-0000.org To get acces to 00-00-0000.org you need to download the software below... Pour accéder à 00-00-0000.org vous devez télécharger le logicel ci-dessous... Para conseguir acces a 00-00-0000.org usted necesitan de descargar el programa debajo... ++++++ ++++++ Windows XP et 2000 http://www.levels9.com/laube/00-00-0000_PC.zip Mac OS 10 and + http://www.levels9.com/laube/00-00-0000_MAC.zip ++++++ ++++++ or accès direct / direct access Actu. / http://www.levels9.com/artprog1/actu/document_actu/1mai/1mai_2.html http://www.levels9.com/artprog1/actu/document_actu/1mai/index.html ++++++ ++++++ 00-00-0000 00-00-0000 Dawn to Dawn... de l'aube à l'aube... Amanecer al amanecer... 05-01-2003 Fête du 1 er mai, Paris, 2003 / The first may day march [ English version below ] Les défilés du 1er mai ont débuté jeudi matin dans la plupart des grandes villes françaises. Cette année, ils ont été placés sous le signe de la défense des retraites, au moment ou le gouvernement Raffarin finalise son projet de réforme qu'il doit présenter la semaine suivante en conseil des ministres. le 1er mai 2003, avec quelques 200 manifestations, a retrouvé ses origines syndicales sur le dossier fédérateur des retraites. Ce rendez-vous fait figure, à cet égard, de répétition générale avant la journée de grèves et de manifestations prévues le 13 mai prochain. Derrière une banderole unitaire, sur laquelle était inscrit : "Tous ensemble, public, privé : retraites, protection sociale, emploi, salaires, paix" les défilés de Marseille, Lyon, Paris affichaient clairement ce message. C'est sur ce même mot d'ordre qu'ont défilé les manifestants de Strasbourg, Nancy et Toulouse. Partout en France, les manifestants demandaient le "retrait de la réforme Fillon", réclamant la fin d'une société "qui n'offre que chômage et précarité". Dans la matinée, les leaders syndicaux se sont exprimés. Bernard Thibault, le secrétaire général de la CGT, a rappelé sur RMC Info qu'il "propose d'envisager une succession de rendez-vous tout au long du mois de mai". "Mais si le gouvernement nous invite à rediscuter de la réforme, nous réévaluerons ces rendez-vous", a-t-il déclaré. De son côté, Marc Blondel, le secrétaire général de FO, sur BFM, a taxé de "propagande" la campagne de communication que va lancer le gouvernement sur sa réforme des retraites dès le 7 mai, ajoutant "nous n'avons qu'une seule réponse à faire : essayer de prendre l'opinion publique à témoin". Quant à François Chérèque, le secrétaire général de la CFDT, il avait souligné sur LCI que "le niveau des pensions devait être l'élément central de la réforme"... Ce premier mai parisien fut pluvieux, mais n'entama pas la détermination des manifestants. Cette journée rappelle l'enjeux de l'action syndicale et nous ramène à ces origines symboliques... En effet, en 1884, les principaux syndicats ouvriers des États-Unis d'Amérique réunis au cours du IVe congrès de l’American Federation of Labor s'étaient donné deux ans pour imposer aux patrons une limitation de la journée de travail à huit heures, à savoir la division idéale de la journée en 3 huit : travail, sommeil, loisirs. Ils avaient donc choisi de débuter leur action de grève générale le 1er mai 1886 parce que beaucoup d'entreprises américaines entamaient ce jour-là leur année comptable. Si beaucoup de travailleurs obtiennent immédiatement satisfaction de leurs employeurs, pour d'autres, (au nombre d'environ 340.000) ceux-ci doivent faire grève. Cette victoire des 8 heures sera douloureuse et ne sera acquise qu'après des émeutes sanglantes et l'explosion d'une bombe à Chicago, le jugement de trois syndicalistes anarchistes condamnés à la prison à perpétuité et de cinq autres pendus le 11 novembre 1886 malgré des preuves incertaines. Trois ans après le drame de Chicago, la IIe Internationale socialiste réunit à Paris son deuxième congrès. Celui-ci se tient au 42, rue Rochechouart, salle des Fantaisies parisiennes dans le 9 ième arrondissement, pendant l'Exposition universelle qui commémore le centenaire de la Révolution française. Les congressistes se donnent pour objectif la journée de huit heures (soit 48 heures hebdomadaires, le dimanche seul étant chômé). Jusque-là, il est habituel de travailler dix ou douze heures par jour (en 1848, en France, un décret réduisant à 10 heures la durée de la journée de travail n'a pas résisté plus de quelques mois à la pression patronale). Le 20 juin 1889, sur une proposition de Raymond Lavigne, ils décident qu’il sera «organisé une grande manifestation à date fixe de manière que dans tous les pays et dans toutes les villes à la fois, le même jour convenu, les travailleurs mettent les pouvoirs publics en demeure de réduire légalement à huit heures la journée de travail et d’appliquer les autres résolutions du congrès. Attendu qu’une semblable manifestation a été déjà décidée pour le 1er mai 1890 par l’AFL, dans son congrès de décembre 1888 tenu à Saint Louis, cette date est adoptée pour la manifestation. A Paris lors d'une manifestation en 1890, les manifestants défilèrent en portant à la boutonnière un triangle rouge symbolisant leurs revendications, à savoir la division idéale de la journée en 3 huit. Ce triangle fut remplacé par la fleur d'églantine puis par le muguet cravaté de rouge. C'est depuis ce jour que fête du travail et muguet furent associés. Xavier Cahen 00-00-0000 [ English version] 00-00-0000 The first may day march [ Paris, May 01, 2003 ] The processions of May 1 began Thursday morning in the majority from the large French cities. This year, they were placed under the sign of the defense of the retirements, at the moment or the Raffarin government finalizes its project of reform which it must present the following week in the Council of Ministers. May 1, 2003, with some 200 demonstrations, found its trade-union origins on the federator subject of the retirements. This demonstration makes figure of general repetition before the day of strikes and demonstrations envisaged on next 13 May. Behind a unit streamer, on which was written: "All together, public, private: retirements, social protection, employment, salaries, peaces " the processions of Marseille, Lyon, Paris posted this message clearly. It is on this same watchword that the demonstrators of Strasbourg, Nancy and Toulouse walked. Everywhere in France, the demonstrators asked for the "withdrawal of the Fillon reform", claiming the end of a society "which offers only unemployment and precariousness". In the morning, the trade-union leaders expressed themselves. Bernard Thibault, the secretary-general of the CGT, recalled on RMC Info that it "proposes to consider a succession of appointment throughout May". "But if the government invites us to discuss again the reform, we will revalue those meetings", it declared. On his side, Marc Blondel, the secretary-general of FO, on BFM, taxed with "propaganda" the communication campaign which the government will launch on its reform of the retirements as of May 7, adding "we have only one answer to make: to try to take the public opinion with witness ". As for François Chérèque, the secretary-general of the CFDT, it had underlined on LCI that "the level of the pensions was to be the central element of the reform"... This 1st Parisian May was rainy, but did not break the determination of the demonstrators. This day points out the trade unions actions and brings back to us to these origins symbolic systems... Indeed, in 1884, the principal working trade unions of the United States of America joined together during IVe congress of American Federation of Labor had been given two years to impose to the owners a limitation of the working day on eight hours, namely ideal division of the day in 3 eights: work, sleep, leisure. They had chosen to begin their action from general strike on May 1, 1886 because many American companies started this day their countable year. So much from workers obtain satisfaction of their employers immediately, for others, (with the number from approximately 340.000) those must strike. This 8 hours victory will be painful and will be acquired only afterwards bloody riots and the explosion of a bomb in Chicago, the judgement of three anarchistic trade unionists condemned to the prison with perpetuity and of five others to be hung on November 11, 1886, in spite of dubious evidence. Three years later the drama of Chicago, socialist II nd International joins together in Paris its second congress. This one is held with the 42, street Rochechouart, room of Parisian Imaginations in the 9 th district, during the World Fair which commemorates centenaire of the French revolution. The congressmen are given for objective the eight hours day (either 48 hours weekly, Sunday alone being been unemployed). Up to that point, it is usual to work ten or twelve hours per day (in 1848, in France, a decree reducing to 10 hours the duration of the working day did not resist more few months the employers' pressure). June 20, 1889, on a proposal of Raymond Lavigne, they decide that it "will be organized a great demonstration on fixed date so that in all the countries and in all the cities at the same time, the same agreed day, the workers put the authorities in residence to reduce legally to eight hours the working day and to apply the other resolutions of the congress. Waited until a similar demonstration was already decided for May 1, 1890 by the AFL, in its congress from December 1888 held in Saint Louis, this date is adopted for the processions. In Paris at the time of a demonstration in 1890, the demonstrators ravelled while carrying to the buttonhole a red triangle symbolizing their claims, namely ideal division of the day in 3 eights. This triangle was replaced by the flower of red wild rose then by the lily of the valley. It has been for this day which Labour Day and lily of the valley were associated… Xavier Cahen Translation : Kristine Barut Dreuilhe ----------------- 00-00-0000.org dawn to dawn... de l'aube à l'aube... Amanecer al amanecer... http://www.00-00-0000.org -- XAVIER CAHEN -------------- cahen.x at levels9.com Paris France http://www.levels9.com From turbulence at turbulence.org Mon May 1 19:14:13 2006 From: turbulence at turbulence.org (Turbulence) Date: Mon, 1 May 2006 09:44:13 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Turbulence Commission: "The Saddest Thing I Own" by Matthew Belanger, A. Elizabeth Mikesell, and Marianne R. Petit Message-ID: <000001c66d25$595862a0$6601a8c0@t5x1c0> May 1, 2006 Turbulence Commission: "The Saddest Thing I Own" by Matthew Belanger, A. Elizabeth Mikesell, and Marianne R. Petit http://turbulence.org/Works/saddest/ There are some things that we own that are just so sad. You know what we mean. Sad. It seems likely that these sad things illuminate our vulnerable places, one way or another. "The Saddest Thing I Own" invites people everywhere to share the saddest thing they own. What are these sad things? What makes things sad? Do things start off sad? Do some sad things begin as happy things that then become sad? Are some things only sad because for some sad reason we kept them? Are some things just plain sad no matter what? This is what we want to know. "The Saddest Thing I Own" is a 2006 commission of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. (aka Ether-Ore) for its Turbulence web site. It was made possible with funding from the Jerome Foundation. BIOGRAPHIES MATTHEW BELANGER is a New York based new media artist, programmer, and consultant. He dedicates this site to his mother, Wendy, who passed away in October of 2005 after a long battle with cancer. His works include documentary video, large-scale digital photography, interactive online applications and software development. His complete portfolio can be seen at: http://www.matthewbelanger.com/ A. ELIZABETH MIKESELL is an artist and writer who lives in New York City. She is on the faculty of New York University's Expository Writing Program, in which she teaches writing to students in the Tisch School of the Arts. Her fiction and non-fiction have been published in a number of small literary magazines. MARIANNE R. PETIT is an Associate Arts Professor at the Interactive Telecommunications Program at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. Her artwork, including video, animation, and installation, has been exhibited in international festivals and exhibits and reviewed in a variety of publications including Leonardo, Wired and World Art. Her work can be seen at: http://www.mariannepetit.com. For more information about Turbulence, please visit http://turbulence.org Jo-Anne Green, Co-Director New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc.: http://new-radio.org New York: 917.548.7780 . Boston: 617.522.3856 Turbulence: http://turbulence.org New American Radio: http://somewhere.org Networked_Performance Blog: http://turbulence.org/blog Upgrade! Boston: http://turbulence.org/upgrade _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From turbulence at turbulence.org Tue May 2 02:31:05 2006 From: turbulence at turbulence.org (Turbulence) Date: Mon, 1 May 2006 17:01:05 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] !! Tomorrow Night !! Upgrade! Talman and Thorington Message-ID: <000001c66d62$62f1e380$6601a8c0@t5x1c0> UPGRADE! BOSTON: JEFF TALMAN AND HELEN THORINGTON Join us for an evening of listening and dialogue with award winning sound artists Jeff Talman and Helen Thorington. When: May 2, 7:00-9:00 p.m. Where: Art Interactive, 130 Bishop Allen Drive, at the corner of Prospect Street, Cambridge More Information: http://www.turbulence.org/upgrade/archives/05_06JT.html http://www.turbulence.org/upgrade/archives/05_06HT.html Jo-Anne Green, Co-Director New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc.: http://new-radio.org New York: 917.548.7780 . Boston: 617.522.3856 Turbulence: http://turbulence.org New American Radio: http://somewhere.org Networked_Performance Blog: http://turbulence.org/blog Upgrade! Boston: http://turbulence.org/upgrade _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From rajeshkumar at cds.ac.in Tue May 2 13:08:07 2006 From: rajeshkumar at cds.ac.in (Rajesh Komath) Date: Tue, 2 May 2006 13:08:07 +0530 (IST) Subject: [Reader-list] Fourth Post. Message-ID: <62485.59.145.100.68.1146555487.squirrel@cds.ac.in> Dear Friends, Ooruvilakku or Banishment: Ooruvilakku means denying a performer to perform in shrines. For example, a performer named Padmanabhan Panicker, Kotakad, has revealed that he was denied the right to performance because a ‘crime’ has imposed upon him. It was alleged that he took more money from devotees without giving any share of it to the shrine-authority. The charge against his brother was that, as a performer he had behaved badly towards the shrine authority. Next year, the shrine authority bargained with a performer and conducted a performance. The misdemand charged against on the performer may not be true, but it become evenful bane for enacting of his shrine authority to bargain for the reduction of reward for the performance. Because of competition within the community of Theyyam, they could easily exploit the performers according to their will. And, in the case of many performers in the Village of both Karivallur and Chirakal, they had the same problem. They agreed to perform at the invitation of the Asia Games help in Delhi in 1984 as these performers were going to perform outside the shrine where they could perform freely without the element of casteism and on such an occasion they receive an identity (pride) of being artists. Moreover, they could get reasonable remuneration too. But, most of the performances outside the shrine, mediated by intermediaries and take lion’s share. The performers could receive only a small share. Intermediaries are people who made contact with national and international Programme co-ordinators. This is what is the new folk- art lovers are doing by exploiting these artists while they arrange programmes on spaces different from the traditional. This also resulted in the Ooruvilakku to those who went to perform outside. Because of fear of Oruvillaku, many good performers are now not at all willing to perform outside the shrine even if they get good opportunity to perform. So, social mobility of the performer faces many hurdles, and they experience these disadvantages from the society as well as the community due to the psychological, cultural and traditional attachment to the rituals. [Sorry for late posting] Rajesh Kumar.K. Doctoral Scholar Centre For Development Studies Prasanth Nagar, Ulloor Trivandrum- 695011 Kerala, India Ph : +91-471-2442481 Fax: +91-471-2447137 Mobile: 9895056659. From ish at sarai.net Tue May 2 22:10:30 2006 From: ish at sarai.net (ish at sarai.net) Date: Tue, 02 May 2006 18:40:30 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] The sound from the City to the mountains (Audio Samples) Message-ID: Hi ... following are some samples I had recorded for Cybermohalla and 'World Information City' at Banglore Last year. At the World info city I gave an electronic music performance using/mixing these samples with the music composed by us(dbase etc. at frEeMuZik.net). The Live act was called 'Fables of Reconstruction' The finished version of this will soon be availabe on the web-site in 2 parts Most of these samples were recorded using MD player with a Stereo-Condensor mic and a portable DAT recorder with Condensor and Dynamic mics. I have tried to master these samples using some tips from friends and books. but any comments are welcome. These samples are Available at the Sarai Media Lab Archives in Wav(16bit 44.1KHz) format. These samples have their volumes optimized and the unwanted noise is removed from them. Their MP3 versions will soon be uploaded on frEeMuZik.net (http://freemuzik.net). These samples in Wav format will be available at the Sarai Archive on 2 CDs 'Audio Samples 01-02' best Ish (sarai.net/ frEeMuZik.net) following is the list of the samples in 2 CD's __________________________________________ 'Audio Samples CD 01' by Ish 01. barrista coffee shop - 3-4 groups of people talking mic setting at 120 degrees 02. children playing in the park - dat player recorded 2 mics at 90 degrees 03. diwali nighttime fireworks etc 04. enfield bullet - kick off - rec at sony mic's 90 degrees width setting 05. enfield leaving khirki village 06. fried food stall at Shahpur Jat village 07. fun and music jam session at friends place - no disrespect for the ragas 08. Kathak tals/bols by Namrita 09. Khirki Village Square- vendors, kids, crowd/groups walking. cooking 10. Metro train delhi Station (empty)Announcements - train approaching at the end 11. Metro Crowded station and announcement - trains 12. Metro Train - inside train - announcements inside the train 13. Mild rain on the street - thin traffic- 14. Mild rain - Thunder- Airplanes - 15. Nizzamuddin - Maulvi offering Prayers - family(kids/brothers) in background 16. Nizamuddinn streets - people - crowds talking 17. Nizamuddinf Street square - dhabas and kababs places - kawalli music in background 18. REstaraunt Ambience - mild music - plates - cranky fan - waiter 19. Wind in trees - mild traffic - birds - chankyapuri - delhi 20. Veg Fruit vendor - busy market square - small crowd at a distance ________________________________________________ 'Audio Samples CD 02' by Ish 01. restaurant/dhaba ambience - waiter - stove/cooking - FM/radio 02. Kodai Kanal - Ambient Valley sounds - Trees/wind - Dog Barking - birds - women cutting grass 03. Kodai - idli breakfast at the roadside 04. Airplane Ambience 05. Airplane Ambience - faulty announcement machine - 06. Airplane Ambience - with captains choice of music 07. landing aircraft announcements - India Airlines 08. landing aircraft - touchdown 09. aircraft landing announcements - Indian Airlines 10. Khirki Village morning streets- chai stall- small crowd - people walking 11. Ber Sarai Village - sitting outside a Dhaba 12. Kodai Kanal - Valley - birds - trees - in the morning 13. Old Kodai KAnal - mountain top - smallStream - A bird 14. Kodai Waterfall from the base - very electronic (organic-electronic crossover) 15. Kodai waterfall from top of the hill 16. Kodai Kanal - early morning- trees- windy- birds 17. Guiar Recording in the Night time under the stars (3-4 pints down hmmm...) 18. Landour Contonement area - eating pan cakes- chaar Bazar 19. Landour Contonement area - Mussoorie- trees - wind - valley 20. Landour Contonement area - Precussion on a metal box - crickets 21. people snoring (in stereo) the morning after all night partying _______________________________________ From crd at fondation-langlois.org Wed May 3 00:22:45 2006 From: crd at fondation-langlois.org (CR+D) Date: Tue, 2 May 2006 14:52:45 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] News from the Daniel Langlois Foundation Message-ID: Research Results: 9 Evenings: Theatre and Engineering by Clarisse Bardiot Each year, the Researchers in Residence Grant Program allows the Foundation to offer two researchers the chance to work at its Centre for Research and Documentation (CR+D) and explore its fonds and collections. Clarisse Bardiot (Ph.D.) was a resident at the CR+D in 2005 and focused her research primarily on the 9 Evenings: Theatre and Engineering fonds. A result of her research, this Web publication explores the technological aspects of the festival presented in New York in 1966, which brought together 10 artists, including Robert Rauschenberg, John Cage, Lucinda Childs, and many others, as well as some 30 engineers from Bell Telephone Laboratories (Murray Hill, N.J., U.S.). Ms. Bardiot's project hinges on the diagrams produced by engineer Herb Schneider. In the publication, she offers an analysis of their content by comparing them to visual material (notably the factual footage produced by Alfons Schilling), eyewitness accounts of the festival, and archival documents: http://www.fondation-langlois.org/flash/e/index.php?NumPage=571 9 Evenings Reconsidered: Art, Theatre, and Engineering, 1966 at the MIT >From May 4 to July 9, 2006, the MIT List Visual Center (Cambridge, MA, U.S.) will present 9 Evenings Reconsidered: Art, Theatre, and Engineering, 1966. Organized by independent curator Catherine Morris, the exhibition will showcase extensive archival material associated with this event and offer various points of view of the 10 performances presented at the 69th Regiment Armory in 1966. The Foundation has loaned a number of objects and materials from its 9 Evenings: Theatre and Engineering fonds to the exhibition, including, among others, a collection of factual footage produced by Alfons Schilling, stage props, technological components, and technical drawings by engineer Fred Waldhauer. An illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition. Morning Conference and Open House: May 26 & 27, 2006 Saturday May 27, the Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art, Science, and Technology is pleased to invite you to Voyageurs étonnés, chercheurs et créateurs au seuil de l'inconnu, a conference presented in French by Hubert Reeves, astrophysicist, and his son Nicolas Reeves, an artist and designer who was supported by the Foundation in 1998. The conference also marks the 5th anniversary of the Daniel Langlois Foundation's Centre for Research and Documentation (CR+D). Friday, May 26, the CR+D wil be open to the public, and at 7:30 p.m. Steina Vasulka will give a free performance of Violin Power: http://www.fondation-langlois.org/matinees/ From jamie.dow at pobox.com Wed May 3 01:53:45 2006 From: jamie.dow at pobox.com (Jamie Dow) Date: Tue, 2 May 2006 21:23:45 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] Practical Ethics issues in Computing & Technology Message-ID: Dear list members, I wondered if there is anyone out there who can help me - I thought Sarai might be just the place, with quite a strong ethics & values streak to it, and likewise a strong computing theme. I need to gem up on Practical Ethics issues in Computing Science. I'd be interested in anyone's top 10 (or top 5) ethical issues within the IT or Computing Science sector. Are there any good sites on the web for this? Any recommendations? Are there any issues that tend to be "standard fare" on ethics courses related to IT, but which you think are really not substantial ethical issues? Perhaps conversely any ethical issues in this kind of technology which are regularly ignored when people talk about ethics in computing? Feel free to answer on- or off-list, depending on how much list traffic there is! Thanks in advance, Jamie ____________________________________________ Jamie Dow Tel: +44 131 467 2115 Mob: +44 7801 033499 Email: jamie.dow at pobox.com Web: www.jamiedow.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk From karim at sarai.net Wed May 3 11:51:38 2006 From: karim at sarai.net (Aniruddha Shankar) Date: Wed, 03 May 2006 11:51:38 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Nangla: Supreme Court stays demolitions Message-ID: <44584BF2.1040302@sarai.net> On the 5th of April the High Court had ordered that the undemolished houses in Nanglamachi be "removed" without waiting for resettlement of the affected persons. During the last month the teachers and staff of the Ankur Society for Alternatives in Education and Cybermohalla practitioners have been working tirelessly to prevent the destruction of the homes that remain in Nangla. They have been collecting and verifying documentation, conducting interviews and have produced a substantial narrative that testifies to the fact that NanglaMachi has been settled for 25 years, and that the inhabitants of Nanglamachi came to Delhi to look for work. Apart from government documentation such as decades old Ration Cards, Below Poverty Line Certificates and Voter ID cards, a clear picture also emerges that Nangla was literally created by these people on top of a toxic fly ash swamp on the banks of the Yamuna decades ago. This narrative has been critical in the framing of a writ petition before the Supreme Court which, after laying out the background and context of the inhabitants of Nangla seeks to stop the impending demolitions. The petition draws on established law flowing from the Constitution, the decisions of the Supreme Court, international laws and covenants, natural justice and, critically, the established scheme of the Delhi State Government on the relocation of settlements such as Nangla that was framed with the approval of the Central Government. This scheme states that those who have established their homes before 31.01.1990 are entitled to an 18 sq.m. plot of land while those who have established their homes between 01.02.1990 and 31.12.1998 are entitled to a plot of 12.5 sq.m. The scheme states that the relocation would be partially financed by the relocatees who will pay a sum of Rs. 7,000/- before being allotted a site. The policy also states that the emphasis will not be on large scale relocations and that relocations will not take place without a specific use being envisaged for the site to be cleared. In my opinion, this is very important, as there is no clear statement from anyone setting out the purpose for which the land that Nangla stands on now will be used. The scheme states that the major emphasis will be on in-situ upgradation of the settlement, through widening of roads and alignment of plots and that the settlements would come under the Environmental Improvement in Urban Areas Scheme which looks at the provision of basic amenities and sanitation. This policy has been affirmed by the Supreme Court which has further stated that the land plots should be situated near adequate transport and other resources. The petition argues that the demolition of Nangla has taken place in complete contravention of these established practices and laws. In my opinion, this is an example of the Court exercising the administrative and executive functions that are the duty and right of the state, part of a larger process whereby the judiciary is "forced" to "step in" to "stem the rot". The petition claims that almost all residents of Nangla are fully covered by the extant scheme of the State government and that the order of removal ignores this fact. In an order granting interim relief to the petitioners, the Supreme Court has stayed the demolitions until the 9th of May, 2006. So a thin ray of hope for the Nanglamachi residents but to sound a note of caution, this is a very pivotal arena which we have now entered. An adverse decision by this court could affect the lives of hundreds of millions of people. Much hangs in the balance. Will keep you all posted. If anyone wants a copy of the order, the petition or the synopsis, please mail me. Aniruddha Shankar From aman.malik at gmail.com Tue May 2 15:51:46 2006 From: aman.malik at gmail.com (Aman Malik) Date: Tue, 2 May 2006 15:51:46 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Indians in Pakistani BPOs (URGENT) Message-ID: <95be63560605020321g42852b4q4860dcc5634a70d1@mail.gmail.com> Dear All, I need the contact information of as many stringers/freelance journalists that you can help me with. This is for a story on Indians working for Pakistani BPOs. I am especially looking at stringers in big cities like Karachi and Lahore, out of which Pakistani BPOs operate. All help would be appriciated. I will be more than obliged for all help extended. If you are have gotten this message from a group, please respond to me directly. Please treat this communication URGENT. Warm Regards, Aman Malik New Delhi, India 00-91-9810792136 -- "There is nothing more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things - because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new." "The Prince" Nicolo Machiavelli From xavier.cahen at pourinfos.org Tue May 2 19:00:59 2006 From: xavier.cahen at pourinfos.org (xavier cahen pourinfos.org) Date: Tue, 02 May 2006 15:30:59 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] ))))) radiolist.org ((((( visual arts noise platform ((((( # 3 Message-ID: <44575F13.9080401@pourinfos.org> RadioList.org Plate-forme sonore des arts visuels / visual arts noise platform (((((((((.)))))))))) It's time for your french lesson ! # 3 ;-) .((((( Abonnement RSS : podcast, ipodder, sage, etc... http://radiolist.org/index.php?feed=rss2 .((((( Abonnement à la newsletter http://radiolist.org De qui de quoi : est-ce une bonne nouvelle, Paris )))))))).(((((((((( Interview de Christian Barani vidéaste et membre actif de l’association “est-ce une bonne nouvelle”. Cette association propose de diffuser des vidéos de producteurs - concepteurs - réalisateurs, et/ou artistes, qui œuvrent dans un champ ouvert et pluriel. Extraits sonores des vidéos de Christian Barani, Yann Beauvais, Laëtitia Bourget, Loïc Connanski et Sabine Massenet. http://radiolist.org//?p=54#more-54 Madame la baronne est à la Maison populaire ! Montreuil )))))))).(((((((((( Rencontre de la commissaire d’exposition Émilie Renard, lors de la visite guidée du premier chapitre de l’exposition : Madame la baronne était plutôt maniérée, assez rococo et totalement baroque, au Centre d’art Mira Phalaina, à la Maison Populaire de Montreuil. Un portrait en trois expositions conçu par Émilie Renard. http://radiolist.org//?p=53#more-53 Création Sonore Ilios & Nanofamas )))))))).(((((((((( Ilios et Nanofamas sont deux projets d’artiste sonore utilisant le bruit comme source de leur composition. Ils ont travaillé au mois de mars 2006 à Barcelone sur une série de pièces d’une durée de deux minutes chacune. En voici un extrait : http://radiolist.org//?p=52# Mac/Val, sur les pas de Marion, Vitry-sur-Seine )))))))).(((((((((( Mac/Val , visite guidée du samedi 4 février 2006 sur le thème de la déformation. Marion nous parle d’une oeuvre des artistes suivants : Bertrand Lamarche & Nicolas Moulin – César - Alain Bublex - Franck Scurti - Malachi Farell. http://radiolist.org//?p=50 De qui de quoi : éof, espace de montrastion, Paris )))))))).(((((((((( Vous avez dit galerie ? Interview de Kiko Herrero et de Serge Ramon, initiateur d’éof, espace de monstration, 15 rue st fiacre, à Paris, dans le second arrondissement. http://radiolist.org//?p=49 Après quoi ? #1 : ONVELECDI )))))))).(((((((((( Premier numéro d’une émission dédiée à la psychocritique, sociocritique de la décomposition des objets sémiotiques informationnels. Tentative sonore de déréalisation des rapports entre l’intériorité et l’extériorité des lignes de partage. Retour sur la mobilisation pour le retrait du CPE et le match urbain opposant forces de l’ordre et … “jeunes”. http://radiolist.org//?p=48 Christian Noël, un cactus à Marseille )))))))).(((((((((( C’est le travail de Christian Noël réalisé dans la rencontre du texte, de la voix, de l’image et du son qui est présenté ici en quelques morceaux choisis. Matière sonore créée à partir de textes de Claude Ber et Italo Calvino avec les voix de Sylvana Pintozzi et Frédérique Wolf Michaux. Extraits des pièces sonores : Free Party en basse cour, Elle vit à cloche pied et Elle m’emmène au paradis. http://radiolist.org//?p=47 -- RadioList.org (((((((.))))))) xavier cahen administrateur xavier.cahen at radiolist.org http://www.radiolist.org From nc-agricowi at netcologne.de Tue May 2 13:39:49 2006 From: nc-agricowi at netcologne.de (NetEx) Date: Tue, 02 May 2006 10:09:49 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Media/Art/Cologne- survey: What is media art? Message-ID: <445713CD.6080004@netcologne.de> * *Media/Art/Cologne* http://www.mediaartcologne.org/ http://www.mediaartcologne.org/blog/?page_id=13 is a new media art project & initiative by Agricola de Cologne to be realised within the framework of [NewMediaArtProjectNetwork]:||cologne - http://www.nmartproject.net/ , aimed to feature media art in and from Cologne in a global context. As an initial act, *Media/Art/Cologne* starts during the preparation phase until its launch in September/October 2006 a survey on the question *"what is media art?"* as a basis for a broader discussion on media art related issues, and invites people interested in or dealing with contemporary art , respectively media art for reflecting about this issue and giving a substancial statement as an answer on this question. *What is media art?* There is certainly no question that "media art" is art, and it seems to be also clear that it represents a branch of contemporary art, as it entered this field not too long time ago only. What might media mean in connection with art. Art itself is a medium, and it is also defined through other media like painting, sculpture, drawing, etc. But the general use of the term /media/ is rather connected to video, film, television, magazines and newspapers, the Internet etc, and not to forget New Media, so that one may take for granted that *"media art"* might be rather related to these new typs of media than to the other classical artmedia. "Media art" might also describe a field of art which is including and combining different media and disciplines. & disciplines What is the difference between "media art" and "non-media art"? Sometimes, *"media art"* is reduced to certain media like video. Is "*media art"* just a label? And for what? While observing how the term "*media art"* is used not only in the artscene, it becomes obvious, there does not exist a binding definition, but rather a kind of Babylonian confusion pointing to a wide range of different and even contradictory approaches, opinions, explanations and statements. For starting a project about media art its seems to be therefore necessary to create a common basis for a discussion with a wider audience first. And therefore here again the question : *What is media art?* Please give your statement (of any length) as an answer on this question and send it together with a short personal profil (bio, not more than 100 words) by using the comment form on http://www.mediaartcologne.org/blog/?page_id=13 or send it as plain email to info at mediaartcologne.org subject: *What is media art?* - Deadline: ongoing until October 2006 All serious answers will be posted on this page immediately http://www.mediaartcologne.org/blog/?page_id=13 Thanks in advance! ------------------------------------------------------------ released by NetEX - networked experience http://netex.nmartproject.net/index.php?blog=8 http://netex.nmartproject.net/index.php?blog=12 http://netex.nmartproject.net powered by [NewMediaArtProjectNetwork]:||cologne www.nmartproject.net . info (at) nmartproject.net _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From kranenbu at xs4all.nl Wed May 3 13:46:15 2006 From: kranenbu at xs4all.nl (Rob van Kranenburg) Date: Wed, 3 May 2006 10:16:15 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] Practical Ethics issues in Computing & Technology In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: > I need to gem up on Practical Ethics issues in Computing Science. 1. Privacy is now a deliverable on a coding level, from privacy compliant applications to privacy compliant technology http://ec.europa.eu/comm/justice_home/fsj/privacy/docs/wpdocs/2005/ wp105_en.pdf 2. Energy, as we move towards a battery operated environment of sensor networks powerscavenging should be paramount. 3. EMF, with 'things' online through RFID, and readers everywhere, the level of EMF will rise drastically. 4. Databodies, if they do not get transparant, people will drop out, mess up databases and will not get the realtime benefits that ambient intelligence is promising. 5. Animism. Did things ask for this kind of connectivity? Greetings from sunny Amsterdam, Rob From ankureducation at vsnl.net Wed May 3 15:59:04 2006 From: ankureducation at vsnl.net (ankureducation at vsnl.net) Date: Wed, 03 May 2006 15:29:04 +0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Naglamachi (Stay Order Passed) Message-ID: <9FFF07FF-47FA-4DA0-90AE-D657FF3F6E1A@vsnl.net> Dear Friends, The stay order passed by the Supreme Court in Nagla Machi jhuggi case (2nd May 06), in response to the Special leave Petition filed (on 26th April 06) by Advocate Prashant Bhusan is attached. Supreme Court has stopped the demolition of jhuggis of Nangla Machi which was going to be demolished by MCD/Slum & JJ department in pursuant to the direction of the Delhi High Court (5th April 06). The Case is again coming for hearing on 9th May 2006. Regards, Sharmila Bhagat Ankur Society for Alternatives in Education SUPREME COURT OF INDIA RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS Petition (s) for Specail Leave to Appeal (Civil) ………/2006 Cc 3732/2006 (From the judgement and order dated 05.04.2006 in WP No. 3419/1999 of the High Court of Delhi at N. Delhi) RAM RATAN &ORS. Petitioner (s) Versus COMMR. OF DELHI POLICE & ORS. Respondent (s) (With appln(s) for permission to file SLP and prayer for interim relief and office report) Date: 02/05/2006 This Petition was called on for mentioning today. Coram: Hon’ble Mrs. Justice Ruma Pal Hon’ble Mr. Justice Dalveer Bhandari For Petitioner (s) Mr. Prashant Bhushan, Adv. Mr. Rohit Kumar Singh, Adv. Mr. Sumit Sharma, Adv. Ms. Parul Kaur Majethia, adv. Ms. Indira Unninayar, adv. For Respondent(s) UPON being mentioned the Court made the following ORDER List on due date. Stay of the impugned order in so far as the demolition is concerned. (SUMAN WADHWA) (MADHU SAXENA) COURT MASTER COURT MASTER From naresh.rhythm at gmail.com Wed May 3 23:03:04 2006 From: naresh.rhythm at gmail.com (Naresh Kumar) Date: Wed, 3 May 2006 23:03:04 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Harballabh Sangeet Mela of Jalandhar - Fourth Posting Message-ID: <9e53509a0605031033n19ebb80ch5b50acf7960de553@mail.gmail.com> Hi everybody, I am dividing this posting in two parts. The first half is related to my own memories about Jalandhar and Harballabh and in the other half I will concentrate on Devi Talab Mandir, the site of the festival. Although I spent my childhood in Chandigarh and for last seventeen years I have been staying in Delhi yet I have got a strange relationship with Jalandhar. After partition my grandparents settled there. Some of our relatives live there even today. My father established his business in Chandigarh but my grandmother used to live in Jalandhar even after the death of my grandfather. My father's uncle lived in Ali Muhalla and we were In Rasta Muhalla. Though my father had disposed off that house before he passed away in 1981 yet some hazy memories of that are still alive in my mind. It was a big house with a number of tenants. There was a woman who had a buffalo. She also ran a small shop. There was a grocery shop very nearby and from there we used to bring curds. It was after almost 26 years that I went to Jalandhar in last December to attend Harballabh. As far as the festival is concerned I heard about it when I was studying in class-VII. Mr. N.S. Rathaur, my music teacher who served at Maharaja Faridkot's court as a singer from 1958 to 1970 told us about the festivals of Jalandhar and Amritsar. "If anyone wants to quench his thirst of listening to classical then he must go there," he told. He also told that he had heard Pt. Omkar Nath Thakur singing there and the audience of the city had an obsession for his Gayaki. It was he and his elder brother from whom I heard many anecdotes related to musicians. My friend Gokul Chand, a good violinist went to participate in the Harballabh competition1 in 1990. That very year, I heard on my transistor some highlights of L. Subramanyam's recital at Harballabh from AIR, Jalandhar. Ikbal Singh, the other friend of mine who is visually challenged won the Harballabh competition in the senior vocal category in 1994. Namita Sharma, a visually impaired woman who teaches music in a college in Ludhiana told in a T.V. game show that in 1990 she won the Harballabh contest. So, from my childhood I had a strong desire of visiting the festival which materialized only when I went there as a Sarai fellow. About the site, my basic information will come from Deepak Jalandhari's book, 'Shri Devi Talab Mandir: Itihas ke jharokhe se', a document of 70 pages, published from the city itself in 2004. Along with this, I have collected some oral testimony through the interviews that I did during my two visits, the first on December-24th-25th, 2005 and second on march16th, 2006. Above all, I will be unable to avoid my own observations, which came during the fieldwork. As I have mentioned in my earlier posts that the Devi Talab Mandir is counted amongst 52 Sakti Pithas.2 This is the temple of the Goddess, Visvamukhi or Tripurmalini. It is believed that the left breast of Sati had fallen here. There is a story in Hindu mythology behind the origin of these shrines related to Mother Goddess. Sati, the daughter of king Daxa married Lord Siva, the supreme ascetic. Daxa performed a yagna but didn't invite Sati. So, Sati decided to go there alone against the wish of Lord Siva, her husband. When she reached her father's place, Kankhal, in Haridwar, she was not received properly. She felt disgraced and jumped into the holy fire in order to destroy the yagna. When Lord Siva came to know all this he reached there and picked the burnt corpse of sati on his shoulders. The place where any of the organs of the burnt body fell began to be worshiped as Sakti Pithas. Most of the Sakti pithas are in Himachal Pradesh and other parts of northern India but the most important of them is Kamaksha, 3 near the capital of Asam. The author of the book has tried to situate the Talab in both mythological and factual history. He also tells us that it is one of the 108 holy water-bodies. According to him Chinese pilgrim Huen Tsang also mentions Saraswat region and a holy place there.4 He further tells that the temple was looted and desecrated by Mohamed of Ghauri, Allauddin Khilji, Babur and Ahmed Shah Abdali with the help of local Muslims and pathans.5 >From 1809-11 the area of Jalandhar came under Maharaja Ranjit Singh and the temple witnessed its revival. Some people told that near Kali Mandir, there was a metal inscription showing that the piece of land was donated to Baba Himgiri.6 During 1952-58 the stairs were repaired and 48 pillars were erected for building the temple in the lake. In 1965 Lala Mohan Lal Chopra, a retired government officer started thinking about renovation of the temple. This materialized in a meeting, which held in the premises of the factory of Leader Engineers7 on 15-11-1970. The construction, started8 on 12-12-70. Earlier it was thought to make a copy of Laxmi-Narayan Mandir of Delhi. Finally, it was decided that the temple would be in the center of the lake9 and would be dedicated to the Goddess Durga only.10 in 1995 it was thought to decorate the temple with gold and silver.11 For this kirtans12 were organized at the houses of the riches of the city along with the processions to mobilize money and gold. Later the help started coming from ministers, industrialists and NRIs. At present there are many temples in the compound like Annapurna Mandir, Kali Mandir, Amarnath Cave etc other than the Tripurmalini temple and the recently gold-decorated Mother Goddess temple. There are three good dharamshalas for the tourists, which charge Rs.50 for a bed in the dormitory and 100 for a room. Other than Langar facility there is a good canteen where you can have very tasty food but that won't be Child-labor Free. You can see a nine-year old boy cleaning the table and his elder brother who is twelve only, standing at tandur.13 Around thirty children can be seen performing hawan while reciting Vedic chants in a traditional guru Kula managed by Mahesh Yogi14 from USA. There is a good hospital having all the latest diagnostic machinery like MRI, which is provided at a very cheep rate to the common people. The temple-committee consists of 21 members-all high-caste as Sharmas, Guptas, Aroras, and Kapoors etc. Many of the committee members are also the members of the Harballabh Sangeet Mahasabha. Sheetal Vij, the president of Mandir Committee is the vice-president of the Mahasabha and on 16th March, he brought a check of Rs.100000 for Harballabh committee, which came to him as a grant from the state-government. It was his arrival that changed the atmosphere of the programme about which I wrote in my previous post.15 Notes: 1. When the festival was revived in 1989 with the support of NZCC, Patiyala, thee competitions were started to promote young talents in classical music. The winner of the previous year is given a chance to perform. In December, Divakar Sharma and Sanjeet Singh performed as young artists. Sunanda Sharma, an emerging classical vocalist told that Girija Devi as her disciple picked her up when she was singing in the competition and being judged by Girijaji. In one of my further posts I will write about the competitions and send the interviews of Ikbal, Namita Shilpa and Sanjeet. 2. 2. There is not a uniform opinion about the exact number of Sakti Pithas. It varies from 51 to 53. D.C. sarkar's book, which I could not find in the Delhi University library, is an authority on the Sakti pithas. I don't know if it mentions Devi Talab. 3. 3. It is the place where the genital organs fell. See Jalandhari: 2004,p.p.5-7. 4. Jalandhari: Chapter-2. 5. 6. Personal communication with Rakesh Dada, the treasurer of Harballabh Sangeet mahasabha, March16th, 2006. 6. 7. The secretary of Mahasabha and the owner of Leader Engineers also told this thing in her interview, December-25th, 2005. 7. The writer says that he was an eyewitness to the beginning of the renovation. 9. I don't know whether constructing temple surrounded by water started with Golden Temple of Amritsar or it is older than that. 10. The new temple has three idols like Vaishno Devi. 11. Rakesh Dada also accepted that it was an attempt of building something like Golden Temple. Here we should not forget that the Amritsar Golden Temple was also renovated after Operation-Blue Star. 12. Devotional singing in a group. 13. I myself saw this during my visits. 14. He who owns the Maharshi Channel. 15. Please see my previous posting for knowing what happened. From anjalijyoti at yahoo.com Thu May 4 03:06:54 2006 From: anjalijyoti at yahoo.com (anjali jyoti) Date: Wed, 3 May 2006 14:36:54 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] tour de station Message-ID: <20060503213654.21217.qmail@web38915.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Chap 3:Tour de station A warm charming smile, a confident friendly bearing, very organized, very professional- that’s how the guides of Sallam Balak come across at the New Delhi Railway station. Yes its been all over the papers, gaining a lot of popularity, you have to ‘book’’ yourself in advance for this unique idea of a tour by street children of the station where they used to live. The likes of Rakesh Mehra are taking the tour in the hope of inspiring themselves into making a film.. I was fortunate to land on a day when all the foreigners who were supposed to come didn’t turn up and there was just me, Javed-the main guide, two younger ‘guides- in- training’ and a very disappointed photographer whose sole purpose of taking the tour was to take pictures of the kids with the ‘firangs’ and the street kids but ahem!, he had to just make do with me. So I had three (could I call them ex-street kids) from the SB trust to answer my plethora of questions- Javed, very much the guide was sincere, charming and helpful, communicating well in English, but mindful of the time and the routine to be carried out. The other two Danish and Chandraprem were a little shy, but more eager to share their stories once you showed interest in them, trying hard to throw in as many smatterings of English as they could jumping from English to Hindi in order to convey their story easily and correctly. So along with my three guides feeling very much the queen of the tour with a photographer in tow, I was zipped to the first place- a Salaam Balak contact point for children of the families living at or around the station. These are not children living completely on their own but children nwith familes living below the poverty line. There is a’dari’ and a blackboard- alphabets, and numbers are taught to the ever distracted kids and they hang around there from 9-4 after which they go to their respective families and are whisked off to work- selling gajras, begging etc at CP. Then I was escorted to platform No. 1-the luxury platform where all the fancy trains-the Rajdhanis and Shatabdis come- which all the station kids vie for the food and free bees which people leave behind. To hide from the police they scuttle around on the gaps between the tracks where the policeman cant reach them. Then off we went to platform no.4 where there is a fruitwala stall on the roof of which there is an arrangement for children to sleep, because they have good relations with the fruitwalla-he’s been around for sometime- they get him any fruits which they may find on the trains and he lets them sleep or hide over his stall. Few steps ahead is a chemist- the only one on the entire station- which the children use in cases of emergency- when they may want basic medication and are not aware of any hospital to go to nearby. Below the footbridge spanning all the platforms a space is formed between the footbridge and the roof of each platform where children huddle and sleep in the night. The watering line-where the kids wash themselves at least once a week along with the trains getting washed was shown from a distance. Again I was whished off to be shown a ‘pani ki tanki’ from a distance under which I was told that various gangs operate. One has to belong to some sort of a gang or fraternity in order to survive at the station- it offers you security and support-the dark side being that it also forces you into things which you might not have otherwise gotten into- drugs, abuse etc. Fights between gangs over ego clashes among the leaders or small petty grudges are common and cause many an injury. Then we head towards the GPS-the police station at the station on the first floor of which is a Salaam Balak center- they have a health department with a doctor visiting regularly every day from 10:30-2:30. The most common disease among street children I was told was STD, and skin diseases of various sorts. Some also suffer from TB for which they need to be put on a special diet apart from the medication. Some of the children of the station (you don’t bump into too many of them, they’re busy with collecting bottles and such like) stop and interact with my guide- but I feel like an utter outsider, alienated from them by the fact that I’m intruding on their ‘bacha- kucha’ sense of privacy in what is anyways perhaps, the most public place on the planet. To protect their privacy photography is not really allowed (except for media coverage, which I found kind of contradictory in itself). Also you’re not really shown much of the station- nor do you interact with children from the station- few safe places- few stories and experiences of the guides themselves at the station(where they have spent 5-8 years), some anecdotes –mostly being taken to areas were salaam Balak has a contact point and is in no way conflicting with any gang or other NGO. This is also because there have been a few conflicts with the children still staying at the station and our guides from the SB trust, with those children asking for money from the guides for intruding into their life and displaying it to people for money, with the ones still living at the station having nothing to gain out of it. After the GPS, we rickshaw it through Paharganj to ‘Apna Ghar’- salaam balak home for boys-they come and go as they please-get to stay, sleep ,eat food,watch TV , attend classes, learn vocational skills –develop whatever skills they may have or be interested in. A quick tour of the building ending with a table displaying items for sale made by the children-the proceeds of which would go for their welfare If I had been a tourist from a foreign land-I guess all this would have been very interesting and unique-an experience to remember- BUT for me- I didn’t get much in terms of the spaces I was looking for, from the tour. I got the most out of my guides when we had actually finished the tour and they sat down with me for some time just to chat- we had gotten to know each other –they were more open, less guarded. Experientially, I saw more of a street child’s life at the station when I went on my own. I saw where a particular gang staying near a water tank, saw them sleeping huddled together, saw them openly taking solution in front of me, running to get food from an incoming train, messily eating dal out of an aluminium foil container, sometimes they team up in pairs and sift through trains by turn- so if one train comes along, Saif will search through it while Krishna will take a break and when the next train comes it will be Krishna’s turn to sift and Saif’s to chill. I been accosted by a 27 year old menacing looking leader or goon, Rohit who scared me out of my wits; how he openly boasted of taking smack and cocaine – claimed that he does not do a single ‘good’ thing to earn a living, and that to live the life he leads one cannot survive by doing good work-so he does all sorts of ‘bad’ things- picking pockets, lifting luggage, etc. etc. I saw kids betting their coins in games of various kinds-with kanchas and cards, a older boy openly kissing a small child (why do I write about it? Coz I guess it shocked me a bit-you may know about something but when you see it happening you still get shocked.) I saw a temple off platform 5 where the children hide from the police and also find great solace with the sandhus languishing around, who happen to be their most easy suppliers of drugs. I walked through empty trains along the length of the docking tracks where the trains are washed and where the children play hide and seek and still rummage the trains for any useful rubbish. I was humbled by a boy who took my questionarrie sheet- (questionnaire sheets didn’t really work for me ,by the way), and read it in the most fluent English with such ease- translated it then for the other boys, got bored 4 questions down the list and went off for another sniff on solution. I’ve had children tell me such tall stories that sometimes its difficult to sift the truth ,or any semblance of it, from the ‘gup’. My tour guides have added tit bits of information for me as we talked- they told about the Shiela cinema hall, where most kids go on a Saturday and when in the mood, watch 4 show- marathons. Saturdays seem to be special days for them-they have a bath, go to Sadar Bazaar and buy new clothes for very reasonable prices- Rs 10 for a pant etc.and then go watch films. Many children sometimes wear a clothing for an entire week day in day out till it gets completely tattered and then go buy themselves an new piece of clothing. They told me how children are very influenced and fascinated with films- some run away from home because of what they see in films- they feel they’ll go to Mumbai and become actors or go to the ‘bada shahar’ and find work and earn pots of money. What they told me about girls who arrive at the station was also interesting- most girls get picked up by pimps- they are easily trusting and don’t know better. If not by the pimps, the gang leaders catch them and bring them to the gang. They kind of become the gang leader’s property, and if by chance he is thrown in jail or killed, they become the property of whoever becomes the next leader. Mirroring story lines reflected in underworld gang stories or even stories from the Mughal, pre mughal era- this pattern is not uncommon in history. Many a time, and again according to the pattern, these women get emotionally attached to the very men who had abused them and when taken in for counseling and given an alternate choice of life –they object saying-‘ nahi! Main to yahin pe theek hoon, mujhe yahin pe acha lagta hai!’ Such is the unfathomable human psyche and many organizations have faced a deep helplessness in the face of this refusal of an individual to help himself or herself. Many women, of course, get used like tissues by anyone and everyone who feels the urge to sneeze and as many times they choose to sneeze (pardon the metaphor-it just came along !). Danish recounts an incident where 22 men ‘had sex’ with a woman at the platform in a single day. Javed recounts of how once when he was part of a gang- his leader brought two women from Bengal back one night, being small Javed couldn’t do much to help them, but after being abused ‘who pagal si ho gayi thi’, is what he remembers. Now, working with Salaam Balak, Javed has developed a strategy- he tries to keep good relations with some gang leaders –and since they are his friends-he jokingly tells them- that if a new boy or girl comes- what will you do-you’ll just ruin his or her life- why don’t you bring them to me –I’ll take them to a better place-at least they’ll be cared for. Till now Javed has managed to get 15 children through gang leaders including two girls. Also, currently pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Arts and wanting to prepare for MSW (Master of Social Work), he acts as a mentor for many children. He proudly claims that around 50 children have decided to change themselves after seeing what he has been able to do with his life. Danish is another wonder –he has refined the art of macabre- he makes anything and everything out of it- conducts workshops all over the country, has his own authorized card which allows him to display at exhibitions and places like Dilli Haat. What has surprised, saddened as well as amused me the most as I speak and interact with people over the past few months has been the subtle competitiveness (rivalry would be too strong a word) among the NGos working with street children. They all work at the same station but hardly interact,like one kid put it’sab apna apna kaam karke chale jaate hain’. Though that ‘apna apna kaam’ is actually a common goal or target seems to have been forgotten. They vie for awards- national and international, for titles like –‘the largest’ or ‘the oldest’ etc. The children of course love the attention and the freebies and whatever the NGO each NGO might try in order to get them to sit and study, or stay at the centre. Lets whisk off to Nizammudin Railway station and see how it goes there: Right now there are mainly two NGOs with centres or night shelters at Nizamuudin- PCI and Butterflies. Other NGOs also wrok here but do not have shelters of any sort. PCI has a shelter just off the exit of platform 7 while Butterflies has one more towards Okhla but the children have a shortcut along the tracks to reach it. The Butterflies one is a night shelter- it has the added attraction of having a T.V. which draws many of the younger children like moths to a bulb. But interestingly, though the Nizamuddin station is small –only 7 platforms and not too many children stay there as compared to the other railway stations, they all don’t sleep in the shelters. Most of them pick bottles from trains and there is are two very organized ‘Kabadi walas’ at two ends of platform 7. Loyalties are distributed among the children to each ‘Kabadi wala’ and as a result two main gangs have surfaced. So one gang picks bottles for one Kabadi wala and the other for the other. The bring in their bottles and other stuff like glass, metal etc. This is dumped in a huge pile on the outskirts of platform 7 on the backs of an effluent nala. Then its is diligently sorted out by the kids into respective piles. Apart from getting around 50 paisa per plastic bottle the loving ‘Kabadi wala’s wife ‘ gives them some semblance of a bedding for the night and they sleep all huddled together on top of the big bags of ‘kabad’- doped out under the starry sky. Education classes are organized by both the NGOs. There are a string of small restaurants in the lanes behind the station where the children eat. A makeshift cinema hall in some tents which shows films for 5 min- not the whole things- ( I have yet to see this place, I have only heard of it through a child, and hope these are not blue films) is also a much frequented place. My unofficial guide though the station Mangal, a tall, sincere brown eyed boy who was learning how to drive a taxi at a nearby taxi stand, and claimed to have stopped taking solution for quite some time has been sent to Sharan detox center because he had started taking too much solution. ‘Froggy in well ‘syndrome all over again Purani Dilli Railway station does not have so many kids even though the maximum children land up in Delhi at that station because the fancy and luxury trains don’t come there. Nizammudin and New Delhi Stations get all the Rajdhanis and the Sampark Krantis and Shatabdis – more bottles to pick, flowers too sometimes, good and easily available food- (since they stuff you so much that a lot gets wasted); more tourists and rich people, and if luck’s on your side- a bag left behind in all the hustle bustle .. Next time: Chap4: CP ka circle __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From nangla at cm.sarai.net Thu May 4 08:39:31 2006 From: nangla at cm.sarai.net (CM@Nangla) Date: Thu, 04 May 2006 05:09:31 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] "Our City" Message-ID: Dear All, We are a month into the demolition of Nangla, along with the demolition of dwellings all over the city, the fires that have ravaged various settlements, and the fear of both demolition and fire in many more other settlements. What is the view to the city that we are to proceed in, for the coming time? >From extensive conversations in the localities (LNJP, Dakshinpuri and Nangla Maanchi) and bus stands, with our broadsheet on the experience of being in Nangla, a few images of the city emerged. 1- "Simat-ta shehr" - The city is closing in upon itself. Till now, the city has been open to different kinds of people, who have come into it and evolved, over the years, their own ways of living in the city. There have been ways of improvised living that have hosted them till they start giving back to it and making it. But it seems that the city is now no longer open for many kinds of people. They have been made to give way to a new "sajaana" (design/ornamentation/restructuring) of the city. This withdrawing/receding no longer has space for us. This city is not "our city". 2- "Kisi kisi ke liye jagah" (A space for only few) - Anyone could come into the city, at least till today, knowing they can do something or the other in the city. "Kuchh nahin ho to kabaad bech ke bhi jeevan ji lenge." (Life can be made out of anything, even scrap, in the city.) This image of the city stands radically altered today. "Shehr ko khali kiya ja raha hai. Ab hamare liye yahan jagah nahin hai." (The city is being emptied. There is no space for us here any more.) 3- "Dhakelte huwe shehr ke kone bade ho rahe hain" (We are being pushed, and the corners of the city are being made to expand.) - The deep feeling of being thrown away to the edges of the city changes the image of the city. We are aware that the gali (lane) and the basti (settlement) are being ripped apart (“cheera jana”). There is almost a physical experience of being pushed away (“dhakka lagna”), torn apart (“ukhaade ja rahe hain”), thrown to an edge. How far can the city spread? Our conversations are on. We will keep sharing. CM Lab, Nangla Maanchi http://nangla.freeflux.net http://nangla-maachi.freeflux.net ----------------------------------------------- It quenches the thirst of the thirsty, Such is Nangla, It shelters those who come to the city of Delhi, Such is Nangla. ------------------------------------------------ From aditi.thorat at gmail.com Wed May 3 19:02:41 2006 From: aditi.thorat at gmail.com (Aditi thorat) Date: Wed, 3 May 2006 19:02:41 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Experiments with violence in Gujarat In-Reply-To: <39ded03d0605022212i5e4ea83dra85f401ed77e8c43@mail.gmail.com> References: <5c12ba8a0604300009q4b15aa2hf3b779b89a0bba6c@mail.gmail.com> <87955ea30605022159q18c967cco44ea48788e201a39@mail.gmail.com> <39ded03d0605022212i5e4ea83dra85f401ed77e8c43@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <2d42d32e0605030632y20301d8cv9beb45b09e5c84d7@mail.gmail.com> May 3rd, 2006 Dear all, Greetings to those of whom I have been out of touch with. This description (not mine, but by Smita Vasudevan, I think) of Dionne Bunsha's book (see below) really shook me up. Have any of you read it? I am not normally a supporter of highly emotive reporting on issues related to communal violence, but here Bunsha has ventured out of regular press into a narrative form, which allows for more freedom. Again, I find it slightly suspect to see NDTV take on a crusader role (similar to their role in the Jessica Lal etc) case, but I am torn between that feeling and the feeling that the press also do need to take a position. Also, I am not clear in the description given below, why DSP Pande did not respond to the information on violence. After seeing something of how states work from the inside, I am figuring out that these are not necessarily only moral actions of individual bureaucrats/police men, but could be directly related to the way in which the bureaucrat/IPS officer-politician nexus/es operate, something the passage below does capture. Therefore my question is are moral judgements useful with regard to changing these situations? I am also coming around to a feeling that perhaps what we need is more forgiveness, more tolerance, more peace, and less anger, less violent imagery, less hate. And here we all have a role to play, I think. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa was based on this premise and despite its arguably Christian basis, is it not possible to start from that/similar premise of forgiveness? Of course, I am conscious that I was not involved in the Gujarat massacre- I did not lose my life or honour or property and I speak from a position of privilege and wealth and security. Would be good to hear what all of you think, Aditi ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Mirza Meher meher.mirza at gmail.com Last week I read the book 'Scarred – Experiments with violence in Gujarat' by Dionne Bunsha. I read about a pregnant woman whose womb was cut open, the unborn child pulled out and thrown into the fire before her eyes. She was then burnt alive. Her crime? Only that she prayed to a different God (or the same God by another name?). Ahsan Jafri was sitting in his house when the mob entered. They stripped him and cut off his fingers. Half dead, he was paraded around the neighborhood and asked to say 'Jai Shri Ram'. After which his hands and legs were cut off and he was thrown in the fire to roast alive. Jafri had called up the Police Chief Pande, asking for help much before the mob got there. Pande knew what was happening. But he just let innocent people die. Why? Perhaps he believed that they deserved to die because they were Muslims, perhaps it's because the little children being burnt alive were not his own or just maybe it was because he knew he'd be rewarded for this one day. And that day has finally come. On the April 28 2006, Modi promoted Mr. Pande to the position of DSP. The only people fighting this injustice are a bunch of social workers and the families of those killed. In all probability this man will go scot-free. But it doesn't have to be that way. Not if each of us takes a 5 minutes off to write to anyone who can do something. Just pick up your phone and SMS NDTV at 6388. Go to their website www.ndtv.com and pen down a note of protest in the 'Feedback' section. Make them cover the issue in-depth so that more people raise a noise. Take 5 minutes off to pen down a note and send it to letters at thehindu.co.in Please forward this mail to everyone that you know. The more people protest, the more they will be heard. Today it was someone else's mother that was raped, someone else's sister who was burnt alive, and someone else's child that was hacked to pieces. What if it had been your own? Over a 1000 people died in Gujarat. Help their families get justice. - ------------------------------ New Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Call regular phones from your PCand save big. - -- " Oh my god! They killed Kenny" - -- I am Piglet, beware my wrath! - -- Aditi Thorat Officer on Special Duty to Chief Minister Government of Rajasthan 0141-5116629 (Tele/Fax) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060503/8451dc5e/attachment.html From artist.exhibit at gmail.com Wed May 3 21:08:24 2006 From: artist.exhibit at gmail.com (artist art exhibit) Date: Wed, 3 May 2006 08:38:24 -0700 Subject: [Reader-list] Practical Ethics issues in Computing & Technology In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <927d4f630605030838n314bf285k69dc41c56ce1b32c@mail.gmail.com> also see harvard and mit computer sci policies... interesting On 5/3/06, Rob van Kranenburg wrote: > > > > I need to gem up on Practical Ethics issues in Computing Science. > > 1. Privacy is now a deliverable on a coding level, from privacy > compliant applications to privacy compliant technology > http://ec.europa.eu/comm/justice_home/fsj/privacy/docs/wpdocs/2005/ > wp105_en.pdf > 2. Energy, as we move towards a battery operated environment of > sensor networks powerscavenging should be paramount. > 3. EMF, with 'things' online through RFID, and readers everywhere, > the level of EMF will rise drastically. > 4. Databodies, if they do not get transparant, people will drop out, > mess up databases and will not get the realtime benefits that ambient > intelligence is promising. > 5. Animism. Did things ask for this kind of connectivity? > > Greetings from sunny Amsterdam, Rob > _________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with > subscribe in the subject header. > List archive: > -- Eliah Art Levacil Art Exhibit Director, Scout http://www.art-exhibit.org http://art-exhibit.blogspot.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060503/9b3f39e1/attachment.html From tushar_bhor at yahoo.com Wed May 3 18:17:10 2006 From: tushar_bhor at yahoo.com (tushar bhor) Date: Wed, 3 May 2006 05:47:10 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] =?iso-8859-1?q?Isn=92t_water_already_privatized=3F?= =?iso-8859-1?q?=3F=3F=3F=3F=3F?= Message-ID: <20060503124710.21485.qmail@web51901.mail.yahoo.com> 4th Posting: Working Title: WATER LENSES Prelude for new imagination for urban water of Mumbai. Isn’t water already privatized?????? To commemorate world water day, a rally was announced by the citizen’s forum of K-east ward (Andheri- suburban area of Mumbai) on 1st April, 2006. The rally was to be addressed by panel of expert speakers from different discipline and every one had a same say,” we want to have a say over our water and manage it ourselves”. The rally was protest against the BMC’s first step towards privatizing water in the city. Mumbai Municipal Corporation (MMC) has appointed a private agency to study water management in Andheri and recommend a better system for billing and collection of tariff and dues. The intension being outsourcing the collection of bills for the area to private company and if the test project works, then it will be extended to other parts of the Mumbai. The principle argument is based on the violation of basic Human Rights through privatization of natural resource like water. Further to analyze this argument, considering the state as provider through centralized system, the water can be possibly privatized at three levels. One, at the level of collection and process (Reservoirs and Filtrations plants), second at the distribution level (from reservoirs to filtration plants to master balancing tanks to individual buildings) and third for the collection of tariff and dues for providing services. Considering the above case, the quest is at the third level, where government intends to privatize the process of collection tariff. However, if focus is shifted from macro level perception of privatization of the state provided services to more pragmatic micro level applications, then it is evident that privatization has already taken its root in the name of community management. One of the story mentioned in this posting provide a strong reference point for the notions of privatization in the City, where as the second is the case of award winning village in Mumbai Metropolitan Region. A story of Mahila Mandal: In one of the slums pockets of Mumbai called Ganesh Murti Nagar, a Mahila Mandal comprising over 300 women actively work towards management of water distribution within the hamlet. The local corporater in 1997 established this Mahila Mandal (Punya Shlok Ahiliabai Holker Vikas Mandal) to fight against the drug addicts, harassment of women and for acquiring basic facilities like water and electricity. Over the years, the mahila mandal along with the help of local corporater have established an exclusive water distribution system to provide water for about 1200 dwellings in the slums. The Mumbai Municipal Corporation (MMC) water supply, which only pours down between 11 to 1 pm daily, is collected in 10 sintex tanks, each with the capacity of 10,000 liters. 10 networks of pipes are connected to the tanks and are taken to different pockets within the slums, for which electric room with the motor pump is established near the tanks. Each distribution tap is managed by a women coordinator and she is paid by the mandal for providing services for about 3-4 hours daily between 12-3 pm. Each family gets about 5 pots of water every day and in return is charged Rs.50/- per month by the mandal to each family (Rs. 18 was charged in 1999 when the system was established).The monthly charge are justified on account of need of continuous maintenance of pipes, monthly electric bills, salary , etc. Even though the entire system is managed by the community, small shops selling water have found their ways and continue to survive successfully at the higher rate of Rs 4/- per pot or can. It is also true that the same people during excess need of dry spell buy water from the shops in the same vicinity. A story of award winning village: This year 212 villages in Maharashtra received Niraml Gram Puraskar by central government of India. Mahalunga, a small village was also honored by this award. The village is located around 50km from Municipal boundary of Mumbai, but is included within the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). The village is well connected by network of roads and is only 3 km from Vajreshwari, which has famous hot springs and have become famous tourist destination within MMR. Mahalunge being very close to Vajreshwari does not have any similarity, but is uniquely different considering the overall development of the village. Storm water drains, solar street lighting, gobar gas connection (almost 50% coverage), 100% sanitation and self sufficient water system, all of these have found their way in the contributing to the improvement of overall living conditions in the village. All the 87 houses were rehabilitated during the construction of Koyna dam and presently do not have sarpanch, as the region is notified under tribal area and the representation is required from tribal community only. It is only through the local voluntary initiative along with technical advice from experts based in Pune and Mumbai have established the support services required for the village. Out of two wells, pumping station is developed on the wells and from there the water is pumped to overhead tank situated at the higher level. The perennial source of water is ensured through well thought recharge process. Bunds are constructed in a small nalla which passes near by the well and is natural course of surface water during monsoon, which helps in the recharge and ensures the supply during dry spell. A water operator is employed by village committee to mange the entire system and he has been educated for periodically documentation of the level of water in the well. This helps him to operate the pump and decide the outflow from well to the overhead tank. Networks of pipes take the water to individual houses through gravity. Each unit has one connection that is used for drinking, washing, etc. The process for recharging other well is in process and it will not be surprising that an alternative advanced water system may come up in near future as there is willingness among the villagers for continuous upgrading of infrastructure and moreover have funds of about 30 lakhs which they have received over the years through different awards. TUSHAR BHOR ARCHITECT and INDEPENDENT RESEARCHER. Residence Address: 10/60, Madhu Sadan,Sion(w),Mumbai–400022,Maharashtra,India. Tel. No: +91 22 24083828. Mobile: +91 98190 35176. E mail: tushar_bhor at yahoo.com --------------------------------- Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. PC-to-Phone calls for ridiculously low rates. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060503/f6c853e7/attachment.html From daljitami at rediffmail.com Wed May 3 19:52:14 2006 From: daljitami at rediffmail.com (daljit ami) Date: 3 May 2006 14:22:14 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] celluloid and compact disks in Punjab Message-ID: <20060503142214.3970.qmail@webmail32.rediffmail.com>   Role of entertainer and market forces Gurchet Chitarkar started his career as painter and went on to be a filmmaker. During his journey to a filmmaker he worked as theatre artist, orchestra dancer (transvestite), folk dancer, comedian and coordinator. He experimented with the video medium and produced the trendsetter for films on Compact Disks. His theme, language and audience remained, predominantly, from central Malwa. He familiarized the rural audience to the commodity hitherto unknown to them and effectively translated that initiative into consumer base. The crashing prices of Compact Disks and Compact Disk players contributed as they coincided with his audience. His audience was devoid of films so they took whatever came to them. Gurchet Chitarkar used this ignorance or vacuum to his benefited. His content started with glamorized/stylized social issues and went on make mimicry of serious issues. His producer become T-Series as they realized his consumer base and initially purchased his film from local Cassette company then produced his films. The profitable market left him with no space to think. He went for quantity leaving behind rationality, cultural sensibility and human dignity. His film Family-420 is proper representation of this trend. Abusive children trivialized family relations. Septuagenarian grandfather brought a Haryanvi. The woman has agreed to live-in because of her greed for good food. She has left behind a good number of children behind; the reality got exposed in the end. Most of the film is has dialogues, which are either to tease other one or conspire against other one. Every relation (involving male-female) seems to be bondage and they seem to be living together just to demean each other. Grandchildren talk as they are talking to newly wed elder brother. The low caste women are conspiring to make the father and sons separate. After Family-420 Gurchet went on to make Family-421, a desperate attempt to maintain market. His efforts to continue after Family-420 make him leave the meaning of 420 (fraud) irrelevant. This time Grandfather went on to purchase a Bihari woman. Rest of the matter is same; children are more abusive, castist and conspiring. The hollowness of dislodge has increased every character has a personal motive and scores to settle with other. These films are just demeaning women in general and in-migrated women in particular. I kept on thinking by the dialogues given to children should not be charged under legal provisions against child abuse. What are limits of space and time in which these dialogues can be placed? These films provide ample space to discuss the role of entertainer in society and market forces. Is entertainer just a non-thinking supplier to meet the ‘demands’ or they have a role in society? Daljit Ami -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060503/c35bfcb6/attachment.html From bharati at chintan-india.org Wed May 3 20:19:49 2006 From: bharati at chintan-india.org (bharati) Date: Wed, 3 May 2006 20:19:49 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Re: [Urbanstudy] Nangla: Supreme Court stays demolitions References: Message-ID: <005001c66ec0$d627b320$1701a8c0@Bharati> I am looking for 2 research assistants based in Delhi for a period of 2 months, starting ASAP. The work involves digging out information on aspects of the city from diverse sources, such as the Archives, libraries and government files and arranging it. The exciting part for any candidate is that they can access many in-house resources of Chintan, the environmental advocacy group I work with. They will also be able to see and develop a first hand understanding of conflict and its negotiation in the urban setting, possibly helping them to develop a perspective that they may find useful in the future. They will work with me directly and I will guide them. The candidate must not be less than a postgraduate, with an interest in these issues. The Fees and expenses associated with the project will be made according to the candidate's existing experience, knowledge and qualifications. If you are interested, email me at bharati at chintan-india.org with your details and a contact number. Bharati Chaturvedi From aadityadar at gmail.com Thu May 4 18:30:21 2006 From: aadityadar at gmail.com (Aaditya Dar) Date: Thu, 4 May 2006 18:30:21 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Delhi Colleges Students Conference on May 6 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Delhi Colleges Students Conference Meeting of Representatives of All Delhi Colleges on the issue of extending reservations Date : Saturday, 6th May, 2006 Venue : Shankar Lal Auditorium, University Road, North Campus, Delhi University Time : 2 p.m. [ Registrations begin at 1 p.m.] *Attention: *Student Delegations** *from all Delhi Colleges: Please call and confirm names so that your Delegate Cards are printed in advance. *Each delegation must consist of at least 3-5 students . *To Register for the Conference*, pl. contact us at: unitedstudents.india at gmail.com United Students United Students is a youth initiative to federate students all over the city in a cohesive group to fight for issues of governance. For any clarifications, please contact: Aditya Raj on 9873297834; Dhruv Suri on 9818291909; Anchal Dhar on 9899942321; Ambuj on 9313117010; Devahuti on 9810923822; Devika Malik on 9891222630; Honey Arun on 9818562417; Karan on 9871807378; Shikha on 9891333730; Aaditya on 9810215675 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060504/9b999ef8/attachment.html From aditi.thorat at gmail.com Thu May 4 15:08:25 2006 From: aditi.thorat at gmail.com (Aditi thorat) Date: Thu, 4 May 2006 15:08:25 +0530 Subject: Fwd: [Reader-list] Experiments with violence in Gujarat-Aasim's response Message-ID: <2d42d32e0605040238o7725520uf09b5514803598ee@mail.gmail.com> Thanks for your response Aasim. I do hope it is ok to forward your message as I think it does raise some pertinent points (I deleted the personal bits, as I saw fit) to the Reader List, SARAI as well as to my friend, Meher Mirza, who had originally sent me Smita's message. Best, Aditi ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: aasim khan Date: May 4, 2006 12:35 PM Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Experiments with violence in Gujarat To: Aditi thorat Dear Aditi, My response to this is to in agreement with your views to a large extent but i have specific point to make.The politics of this all.why have minority issues failed to throw up political parties.I mean there is an absence of political mobilisation and so it falls in the hands of the NGOs to do all the work but since they lack mass base often it depends on individual (like Teesta Setalvad in Gujarat) to prove it all. YOu know the political question is very pertinent in Rajasthan.Today the BJP and Congress both have started resembling each other so much that there is hardly a debate on the communal question.And it is not surprising that there is not a single minoirty political leader in the state who can challange the communal polarisation today.afterall in South Africa the movement had clear politcal basis to rest on. cheers aasim - --- Aditi thorat wrote: > May 3rd, 2006 > > Dear all, > > Greetings to those of whom I have been out of touch > with. This description > (not mine, but by Smita Vasudevan, I think) of > Dionne Bunsha's book (see > below) really shook me up. Have any of you read it? > I am not normally a > supporter of highly emotive reporting on issues > related to communal > violence, but here Bunsha has ventured out of > regular press into a narrative > form, which allows for more freedom. Again, I find > it slightly suspect to > see NDTV take on a crusader role (similar to their > role in the Jessica Lal > etc) case, but I am torn between that feeling and > the feeling that the press > also do need to take a position. Also, I am not > clear in the description > given below, why DSP Pande did not respond to the > information on violence. > After seeing something of how states work from the > inside, I am figuring out > that these are not necessarily only moral actions of > individual > bureaucrats/police men, but could be directly > related to the way in which > the bureaucrat/IPS officer-politician nexus/es > operate, something the > passage below does capture. > Therefore my question is are moral judgements useful > with regard to changing > these situations? > > I am also coming around to a feeling that perhaps > what we need is more > forgiveness, more tolerance, more peace, and less > anger, less violent > imagery, less hate. And here we all have a role to > play, I think. The Truth > and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa was > based on this premise and > despite its arguably Christian basis, is it not > possible to start from > that/similar premise of forgiveness? Of course, I am > conscious that I was > not involved in the Gujarat massacre- I did not lose > my life or honour or > property and I speak from a position of privilege > and wealth and security. > > Would be good to hear what all of you think, > Aditi > > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: Mirza Meher meher.mirza at gmail.com > > > > Last week I read the book 'Scarred – Experiments > with violence in Gujarat' > by Dionne Bunsha. > I read about a pregnant woman whose womb was cut > open, the unborn child > pulled out and thrown into the fire before her eyes. > She was then burnt > alive. Her crime? Only that she prayed to a > different God (or the same God > by another name?). > Ahsan Jafri was sitting in his house when the mob > entered. They stripped him > and cut off his fingers. Half dead, he was paraded > around the neighborhood > and asked to say 'Jai Shri Ram'. After which his > hands and legs were cut off > and he was thrown in the fire to roast alive. Jafri > had called up the Police > Chief Pande, asking for help much before the mob got > there. > Pande knew what was happening. But he just let > innocent people die. Why? > Perhaps he believed that they deserved to die > because they were Muslims, > perhaps it's because the little children being burnt > alive were not his own > or just maybe it was because he knew he'd be > rewarded for this one day. And > that day has finally come. On the April 28 2006, > Modi promoted Mr. Pande to > the position of DSP. > The only people fighting this injustice are a bunch > of social workers and > the families of those killed. In all probability > this man will go scot-free. > But it doesn't have to be that way. Not if each of > us takes a 5 minutes off > to write to anyone who can do something. Just pick > up your phone and SMS > NDTV at 6388. Go to their website www.ndtv.com and > pen down a note of > protest in the 'Feedback' section. Make them cover > the issue in-depth so > that more people raise a noise. Take 5 minutes off > to pen down a note and > send it to letters at thehindu.co.in > Please forward this mail to everyone that you know. > The more people protest, > the more they will be heard. > Today it was someone else's mother that was raped, > someone else's sister who > was burnt alive, and someone else's child that was > hacked to pieces. What if > it had been your own? > Over a 1000 people died in Gujarat. Help their > families get justice. > > - ------------------------------ > New Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Call regular phones > from your > PC< http://us.rd.yahoo.com/mail_us/taglines/postman5/*http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=39666/*http://messenger.yahoo.com >and > save big. > > > > - -- > " Oh my god! They killed Kenny" > > > - -- > I am Piglet, beware my wrath! > > > - -- > Aditi Thorat > Officer on Special Duty to Chief Minister > Government of Rajasthan > 0141-5116629 (Tele/Fax) > > _________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and > the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to > reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in the > subject header. > List archive: __________________________________________________________ Yahoo! India Answers: Share what you know. Learn something new. http://in.answers.yahoo.com - -- Aditi Thorat Officer on Special Duty to Chief Minister Government of Rajasthan 0141-5116629 (Tele/Fax) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060504/5fc268f6/attachment.html From pukar at pukar.org.in Thu May 4 11:27:12 2006 From: pukar at pukar.org.in (PUKAR) Date: Thu, 4 May 2006 11:27:12 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [announcements] Friday, May 12th: Talk by Patricia Spyer Message-ID: <000301c66f3f$9f8e8c60$07d0c0cb@freeda> PUKAR cordially invites you to a talk by Patricia Spyer on Blind Faith: Painting Christianity in Post-Conflict Ambon (Indonesia) Date: Friday, 12th May 2006 Time: 6:30 PM Venue: Kitab Mahal, 4th Floor, D N Road, Fort, Mumbai - 01 During the war in Ambon and since, popular Christian painters have been plastering the city's main thoroughfares and Christian neighborhood gateways with billboard portraits of Jesus and Christian murals. These artifacts perform in several capacities: as visual emblems of Christian territory, as an alternative urban counterpublic to the political and televisual prominence of Muslims nation-wide and as a mode of intervention in everyday Christian behavior. The paintings' migration from church interiors to urban public space raises questions concerning the transformations post-war of religious sensibility and the role of both mass and alternative media therein. There is a perception among Ambonese Christians that their own desperate plight may have been invisible to God himself. The gigantic Christian portraits and murals rising on the ruins of war across Ambon bear witness and give material form to Christian anxieties about invisibility while also aiming to alleviate the very condition of being unseen. Homing in on blindness as much as varied refractions of the visual, the paper also expands our understanding of what the visual might be. Patricia Spyer obtained her BA in History and Anthropology at Tufts University, and her MA and PhD in Anthropology at the University of Chicago. Thereafter she was a Harper Fellow in the College of the University of Chicago, a Lecturer at the Research Centre of Religion & Society at the University of Amsterdam and, since 2001, holds the Chair of the Anthropology of Indonesia at Leiden University. Her fieldwork in the Aru Islands in eastern Indonesia and archival research in the Netherlands forms the basis of her book The Memory of Trade: Modernity's Entanglements on an Eastern Indonesian Island (Duke 2000). Her current ethnographic project focuses on the role of mass and small, alternative media in the conflict and postconflict situation in Ambon, Indonesia. She also co-directs, with Mary Steedly of Harvard University, a collaborative research project Signs of Crisis: Alternative media and the making of political identities in Southern Asia. She has published, among other topics, on violence, historical consciousness, the media and photography, materiality and religion. Her books include Border Fetishisms: Material Objects in Unstable Spaces (Routledge 1998), and the co-edited Handbook of Material Culture (Sage 2006). PUKAR (Partners for Urban Knowledge Action and Research) Address:: 1-4, 2nd Floor, Kamanwala Chambers, Sir P. M. Road, Fort, Mumbai 400 001 Telephone:: +91 (22) 5574 8152 Fax:: +91 (22) 5664 0561 Email:: pukar at pukar.org.in Website:: www.pukar.org.in -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060504/af6b9493/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From nc-agricowi at netcologne.de Thu May 4 13:09:05 2006 From: nc-agricowi at netcologne.de (Agricola de Cologne) Date: Thu, 04 May 2006 09:39:05 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] [week 1-7 May] - new interviews on JIP - JavaMuseum Interview Project Message-ID: <4459AF99.2000904@netcologne.de> [week 1-7 May 2006] ------------------------------------------------ JIP - JavaMuseum Interview Project http://netex.nmartproject.net/index.php?blog=11 open call/survey---> new deadline 1 June 2006 (see further ahead) ---> JIP is featuring this week following 3 interviews with -->Pat Badani (USA), Calin Man (Romania), Myron Turner (Canada) and the answers on the JIP survey - 10 questions on Internet based art by --> Domenica Quaranta (Italy), Juan Manuel Patino (Argentina), Alison Williams (South Africa), Rahima Begum (India) -----> Pat Badani is an artist working with new media technologies and their current discourses. Her works embrace net.art, performative situations, photography, video, installation and cultural research to examine notions of space, place, cities, communication and global processes. Badani received a B.F.A. from The University of Alberta in Canada and an MFA from the School of The Art Institute of Chicago. Calin Man is a media artist from Arad, Romania., chief-editor and designer of intermedia magazine; member of kinema ikon group. He works on cd-rom, net.art, hypermedia installation, participates on many international digital art exhibitions and festivals all over the world. Myron Turner is a multi-media artist whose work has combined photography, lightboxes, printmaking and computers. He has exhibited in public galleries and artist run centers throughout Canada, as well as in the United States and South America. He has been working with the Internet since 1994 and is coordinator of Manitoba Visual Arts Network. Domenico Quaranta is a doctoral student in Art, Communication and New Technologies at the University of Genova. His work as an art critic and curator is strongly focused on new media, net art, use and abuse of the digital and bio technologies. Juan Manuel Patino is an artist from Buenos Aires working with computer and Internet based art. Alison Williams** a professional South African visual artist, but an amateur in technology based art Rahima Begum is an Indian artist interested in Internet based art ---> About JIP - JavaMuseum Interview Project JavaMuseum - Forum for Internet Technology in Contemporary Art www.javamuseum.org/ is currently preparing a new project, entitled: JIP - JavaMuseum Interview Project http://jip.javamuseum.org to be launched in September 2006 Agricola de Cologne, director of JavaMuseum invited for an interview a number professionals & artists active in the field of Internet based art who participated in the "1st phase", the 18 JavaMuseum showcases 2001-2004, in order to spotlight their professional background, activities and visions. ---> Open call /survey---> new deadline 1 June 2006 ---> JIP - JavaMuseum Interview Project issued further an open call survey including 10 questions on Internet based art addressed to professionals and "amateurs", in order to enable a broader discussion about the still undervalued genre of Internet based art through a variety of different approaches, definitions and opinions. New deadline - 1 June 2006 !!!!! The entry rules and the questions (cut & paste) are available on http://netex.nmartproject.net/index.php?blog=11&cat=80 or as PDF as free download http://downloads.nmartproject.net/JIP_10_questions_on_Internet_based_art.pdf Once completed - JIP - JavaMuseum Interview Project will release the collected interviews and the selection of the most interesting answers a) online on the new project site - http://jip.javamuseum.org , but b) immediately also in form of one interview per week on the new weblog - JIP - JavaMuseum Interview Project http://netex.nmartproject.net/index.php?blog=11 and c) to be published in a printed form at a later stage. ------------------------------------------------------------ Until now interviews /answers by Babel (Canada), Andrea Polli (USA), Jorn Ebner (UK), Roberto Echen (Argentina), Jeremy Hight (USA), Ian Page-Echols (USA), Humberto Ramirez (Chile/USA), Enrico Tomaselli (Italy) Carlos Katastrofsky (Austria), Paivi Hintsanen (Finland) Shankar Barua (India), Luke Duncalfe (New Zealand) FilH (France), Nadja Kutz (Germany), Yvonne Martinsson (Sweden), Avi Rosen (Israel), Letizia Jaccheri (Norway), Tamara Lai (Belgium, tobias c. van Veen (Canada), DLSAN (Italy), Irene Coremberg (Argentina) Carla Della Beffa (Italy), Peter Lind (Denmark), Philippe Langlois (France), Salvatore Iaconesi (Italy) have been issued on http://netex.nmartproject.net/index.php?blog=11 ------------------------------------------------------------ Released by NetEX - networked experience http://netex.nmartproject.net powered by [NewMediaArtProjectNetwork]:||cologne www.nmartproject.net - the experimental platform for art and New Media operating from Cologne/Germany. . info& contact info (at) nmartproject.net _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From brad at nowhere-lab.org Thu May 4 16:04:54 2006 From: brad at nowhere-lab.org (brad at nowhere-lab.org) Date: 4 May 2006 10:34:54 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] international residency opportunity - deadline closing soon Message-ID: <20060504103454.64131.qmail@host186.ipowerweb.com> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060504/cd225b79/attachment.pl From mallica_jnu at yahoo.co.in Fri May 5 20:22:12 2006 From: mallica_jnu at yahoo.co.in (mallica mishra) Date: Fri, 5 May 2006 15:52:12 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] Building of Identity in a Hostel:The Case of the Tibetan Youth Hostel In-Reply-To: <10d6c6990604302357y2582e7e0x2511b19c222b520b@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <20060505145212.60821.qmail@web8908.mail.in.yahoo.com> Thanks , Vibha for finding my posting enjoyable! To answer your queries, No, there are no resident lamas in the hostel to impart religious education to the youth residing there. Like I mentioned in the posting , however, there are prayer sessions held for the students (organised by the students themselves on their own initiative) every wednesday for half an hour.There are , however, lamas and other religious heads, who, I believe, come to the hostel from time to time and hold discussions with the youth there. Secondly, you've wondered if any of the Tibetans in the hostel are mistaken to be Nepalese because their lingua franca in the hostel is Nepalese.While many of the students in the hostel are from the North-eastern region of the country like Darjeeling etc and are fluent in a queer mix of Nepalese and Tibetan language; they are mistaken to be Nepalese by the locals outside, particularly, rickshawpullers who regard them as such solely because of their physical features. Your suggestion to understand what the youth mean by their 'imagined homeland' and the "imagining that is being perpetuated" is also worthwhile . I do agree with you on the point that the Tibetan government-in-exile has sought to deliberately create and perpetuate a unified, homogeneous identity with "Lhasa-centric images". It is also true that this identity does not seem to reflect the ethno-regional identities of the people of Tibet. My discussions with the Tibetan youth in question on this issue, however, reveals the expression of a high degree of awareness and articulation of the same.They understand that this unified, homogeneous identity has been forged in exile to achieve the goal of self-determination for the Tibetan people. This is the Tibetan identity in which His Holiness The Dalai Lama holds a central position and through his global profile and a transnational nationalist political structure, creates images of Tibet (as single and unified rather than divided into the 3 principal regions of U-Tsang, Kham and Amdo as in erstwhile pre-1959 Tibet); fosters and builds community and works for Tibetan self-determination. While they ae aware of their ethno-regional identities (brought alive to them largely through stories recited by their elders in the family ;community and school) and sometimes even cherished by them ; there does not seem to be any necessary contradiction between this regional identity and that of the unified, singular Tibetan identity created by their government in exile.This is because they seem to understand that the latter is important so that a unified front may be presented to the world to fight for and achieve their common goal of Tibetan self-determination. Their idea of an "imagined homeland" on the other hand seems to be that of "free Tibet": an imagined utopia ; an idyllic and pristine Shangri-la (as recited to them by stories told by their elders based on their memories and imagination) of Tibet in the pre-1959 period). These conceptions are based upon imagination and feelings of nostalgia and attachment borne out of stories and years of socialization and training in their families; community and school and also memories of those who were born in Tibet but have come to India to study. The most important component of this "imagined homeland" is autonomy (as rangzen or freedom , though a much preferable alternative , is, they realise an 'impractical demand'). They see it as a single, unified country with His Holiness The Dalai Lama as their supreme spiritual and temporal leader yet also as a place where ethno-religious identities will be recognised and respected. The idea of a 'home' on the other hand, is a different ballgame altogether. It has different meanings to different groups of Tibetan students depending upon their lived experiences. To those who have been brought up in TCV residential schools with foster parents to take care of them and who spend a major portion of their lives with them (after crossing over into India from Tibet at a very young age to study under the patronage of His Holiness), home means these TCV 'homes'. To those who have been born and brought up in Tibetan settlements and schools, with their parents, in India, home is the former . To Tibetan youth who have resided and been brought up in christian missionary convent schools (singing Christian hymns while their counterparts were reciting Tibetan Buddhist mantras in Tibetan schools in the country), the idea of home differs significantly. The "imagined homeland" , however, for all of them , with whom I have come across, seems to be the same : a "Free Tibet". You have also mentioned how "Tibetans have internalized their refugee images" as per your own research on Tibetans in Sikkim and others in Nepal, and how "they have marketed their 'refugee status' successfully to emerge as entrepreneurs and outshined the locals". While I do not dispute this fact, I see it as corroborating this refugee group's spirit of entrepeneurship and capacity for survival (economic as well as religious) in exile, which, to me, seems admirable enough. Lastly, thanks for the reference by Audrey Prost , will definitely look into it! Thanks, once again for your comments on my posting, appreciate it very much! Do keep in touch! Mallica Vibha Arora wrote: Hiya Mallica - i thouroughly enjoyed reading your account. The hostel provides an interesting locus...Are there any lamas resident to impart religious education to these youth? Its interesting to know that the Tibetans are mistakes to be 'Nepalis' - is it because the lingua franca is Nepali in the hostel? I know many Tibetans have shifted base to India due to the political instability in Nepal. Do have a look at an article in Modern Asian Studies 2006 by Audrey Prost on "Rich Refugees" based on her research among Tibetan refugees. A suggestion - it will be worthwhile to understand what these youth mean by their 'magined homeland' and the kind of imagining that is being perpetuated. International scholarship has questioned this 'homogeneization of Tibetan identity' with Lhasa centric images since this identity is an identity framed by exile which does not reflect the ethnic-regional identities of the people of Tibet. It will be interesting to know further, how Tibetans have internalized their 'refugee images' for as my own research on Tibetans in Sikkim and others in Nepal indiacates, they have marketed their 'refugee status' successfully to emerge as entrepreneurs and outshined the locals... Looking forward to your postings and hope to be in touch vibha Dr. Vibha Arora Delhi, India On 4/29/06, mallica mishra wrote: Dear All, Hi! This posting is way behind schedule (a little less than a fortnight) and am very apologetic about the same. Nonetheless, it seeks to explore links between the identities of Tibetan youth in Delhi and the place of their residence (in this case the Tibetan Youth in Rohini, Delhi). I have summed it up in the following paragraphs: Building Identity in a Hostel: The case of the Tibetan Youth Hostel in Delhi Refugeeism & identity For all groups of refugees the world over, the necessity to preserve; to hang onto segments of their original, native identity (which is seen as evolving from their native place of birth or origin) in the country of migration, is seen as essential. The older generations of people are specially loathe to give up their native identity and try to socialize their children through patterns of upbringing and social control to enable them to have within their personalities, elements of their original culture, tradition, language and identity, to the extent possible. Specific strategies are also incorporated and institutionalized by refugee communities for preservation of their cultures; languages and identities in exile through the mechanism of education (schools); religion (church/monasteries etc); political and economic organizations and other committees. Refugees, in this respect, need to be looked as active agents who strategize and negotiate in their place of migration to retain their essential and core identities. Identity is to be seen here as more than the basic idea(s) about the definition of the self and others categorization of the self or 'I; Me and Myself'; it is to be seen as encompassing social; cultural; economic; religious; regional and political identity. Rather than taking identity as something given; it is to be seen as a process, which is socially and politically constructed. Identity, especially in the context of the Tibetan youth in Delhi seems to me to be an ongoing construction of a process taking place within the environs of a building, the Tibetan youth hostel in Rohini, Delhi which houses a substantial number of outstation Tibetan students pursuing graduation in Delhi University. Many of the youth I spoke with agreed that it is because of the stay of three years within its environs that many Tibetans are able to 'retain' their 'Tibetanness' that is seen as in danger of being washed away by the tide of external (Indian and global) cultures and influences of the city of Delhi. It is this essential connection between the identities of Tibetan youth and the place of their residence (in this context the Tibetan Youth Hostel) that I seek to explore in this posting. Setting up of the Tibetan Youth Hostel: Preserving of roots in the city The Tibetan Youth Hostel was set up in the late 1990's (probably 1997) because, alongwith other reasons like expensive stay in rented accommodation etc, it was believed that the Tibetan youth was 'losing touch with Tibetan related studies'. The project proposal (for the setting up of the hostel) states in unequivocal terms that the Tibetan education that children receive in Tibetan schools was getting eroded with the children receiving higher education in Delhi University and other Indian universities after school. The project proposal clearly states this saying that 'In order to preserve the Tibetan identity, the Tibetan children are diligently taught Tibetan language, religion, history and culture as part of their school curriculum. However in Indian colleges, Tibetan related education is not available. Hence during their 3 to 7 years in college, the Tibetan students are totally out of touch with Tibetan related studies. This puts a stop (to the former) and many forget what they had diligently learnt in school. Since preservation and promotion of Tibetan culture amongst the new generation of Tibetans is crucial for the survival of the Tibetan community as a whole, we need to address this problem'. It was believed (by the Department of Education of the Tibetan government in exile, the implementing agency of the project) that the setting up of the hostel in Delhi would solve the above problem and it would be a major step towards preserving and promoting Tibetan language and culture in the city of Delhi, a place with the largest concentration of Tibetan students alongwith Chandigarh and Bangalore. The project proposal envisages the provision of 'Tibetan related education' in the hostel, with classes in Tibetan language and history ; organizing of Tibetan dance and music competition; discussions on latest political developments on Tibetan issues in the hostel etc. In this way, it was believed that the Tibetan students 'can keep in touch with their language, religion, culture and Tibetan way of life while receiving a modern education in the colleges'. The Tibetan Youth Hostel in Rohini(East) It is located in a quiet neighbourhood (even though the main road and metro station is located a little distance from hostel and the local fire station also emits noises of sirens and occasional drills ). The rickshaw-wallas know the hostel as a place where the 'Nepalese' stay. There is a small market nearby which the students have named as 'chota Prashant Vihar' (the 'bada' or the normal Prashant Vihar is a proper shopping complex at a larger distance from the hostel). This is the place where they hang around sometimes in the evenings (girls always in groups) to have tea and snacks or to buy knick-knacks etc. Just outside the hostel, there is a small shop of a chai-wallah who also gets the students as customers in the evenings. Religion & Identity in the hostel The building is huge and impressive to look at and very aesthetically done. The architecture of the building is very 'Tibetan' and one is struck by the sheer visual appeal of it as soon as one steps inside the hostel gates .It is brightly painted with the traditional colors of things denoting 'Tibetanness': red; yellow; blue and green. The religion of Tibetan Buddhism and particularly the institution and persona of His Holiness The Dalai Lama seems to emerge as the most important element, which constitutes the core of Tibetan identity in exile in India. This is also visible in the structure and ambience of the building that seeks to preserve Tibetan identity and to 'protect' the students from outside influences, as a cocoon would do to larvae of a butterfly. In the lawn there is a huge pole with prayer-flags attached to it fluttering in the breeze. These prayer-flags called ' therchock or tarchok' come in various colors and with prayers embossed upon them, are hoisted aloft to drive away evil spirits and to bring plenty and prosperity'. They also "symbolize the undying continuity of the hoary Tibetan tradition"(Saklani,1984:441). The building is spruced up during festivities like losar (Tibetan New Year).There are also huge urns made of concrete in the premises used for burning traditional Tibetan incense during festivities like Losar During my visit to the hostel during Losar ,I saw ceremonial Tibetan scarves called Khartak or Khadar tied around these urns. The Food There is a mess for students that, does not serve lunch (except on weekends). This is because during lunchtime students are expected to be in college and usually eat out in their college canteens. The mess hall has framed pictures of His Holiness The Dalai Lama as well as huge boards with quotations of His Holiness painted on the same displayed for the students benefit. These largely talk about the importance of preserving Tibettanness in exile; of being good human beings; of being good and compassionate towards everyone, especially to Indians. The food is prepared by mostly Indian workers who prepare a combination of Tibetan and Indian food, for instance rice with vegetables cooked with meat. In the evenings tea is served (sometimes with biscuits and post – Losar with a traditional Tibetan snack called Khapse). There is a canteen also inside the premises, with traditional Tibetan food on its menu, like Tibetan momos; Thukpa; Tingmo alongwith fried rice ; fruit juice and also Indian food like rajma-chawal etc. This is the place where students can get their grub at any time of the day (specially the ones who bunk college!) till 9pm in the night. There are also those who cook instant noodles in their rooms if they feel like it. Activities in the hostel Alongwith the physical layout and character of the building which is very Tibetan the activities taking place within its environs also contribute towards keeping the youth informed of political and other events taking place in Tibet and in exile and consciously strive to preserve their identity as Tibetans. There are notice-boards outside the hostel office; in the girls and the boys wing (both are separate) which display circulars issued by the Regional Tibetan Youth Congress (RTYC) about upcoming socio-cultural and political events encouraging students to participate in the same; posters of movies (on the Tibet issue) being shown inside the campus; of upcoming workshops by placement agencies such as YOTA etc. There are also posters of organizations working for the cause of Tibet such as Students for Free Tibet etc on the board exhorting the youth to work for the cause of Tibet. There is a prayer-room also inside the building where every Wednesday prayers are held by the students union of the hostel for the health and well being of His Holiness The Dalai Lama. The students union also organizes other religious activities like releasing into the water live fish caught in fishermen's net with the prayer that these acts of compassion will enhance the health and well being of His Holiness. Alongwith the celebration of important days in the Tibetan calender , the hostel informs and encourages the students to participate in activities organized by the TibetanYouth Congress. Such activities have, however, dwindled off late, with the offices of RTYC being shifted from the hostel to some other area of Delhi ( Budh Vihar,ISBT). On occasions such as March 10th (Tibetan Uprising Day), buses organized by the RTYC take students for protest demonstrations at Jantar-Mantar; outside the Chinese Embassy etc and bring them back. RTYC also encourages the students to volunteer and contribute to collection of funds for the former's activities by participating in cultural programmes and traditional Tibetan dance and song held in Tibetan settlements all over the country. Most of the students, it seems participate enthusiastically in these programmes and demonstrations as they see it as 'doing their bit for the cause of Tibet's freedom'. The Hostel Magazine The hostel also has an editorial board that brings out a monthly magazine called 'The Month'. This journal has articles and poems written by Tibetan students and ex-students and is an important forum that enables the students to voice their opinions and voices on issues of importance and concern to them. A cursory glance at the January 2006 issue of the journal reveals a picture of the Potala palace in Lhasa as the magazine cover with the words "The Month pays its deepest respect and prayers on the glorious 70 th birth anniversary of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama and also for the success of the 2006 Kalachakra in Amravati. May his lotus feet continue to remain for the generations to come leading us from darkness towards freedom'. A look at the cover-page as also some of the articles of the journal give an idea about what constitutes the identity of Tibetan youth, in the city of Delhi. Religion seems to be very important (the issue paying respect and prayers to the persona of His Holiness as well as for the success of the Kalachakra discourse held in Amravati). The pride in being Tibetan and of belonging to a Tibetan nation in exile (borne out of and strongly influenced by the leadership of His Holiness The Dalai Lama and by the re-creation of traditional institutions in exile) is also evident. There is the picture of the Potala Palace on the cover-page as also tid-bits of information, for instance, 'Tibet has a recorded history of 2000 years as an independent nation' (pg:4) There are articles and poems, which speak about the angst of being a refugee while at the same time expressing a sense of pride in the same. One such poem is titled ' I was born in Tibet' by a student called C.D. A few of its lines shed light on the above, "I was born in Tibet. But I don't feel I was. I have been deprived of my union with my country But, I still call myself a Tibetan. For I am a citizen of The Dalai Lama." Many of the articles and poems(for instance, poems titled, 'Mysterious Gal' by Dikyi Wangmu and 'What is love'? by Tsedor), however, also reveal that closely tied to this identity of Tibettanness are also parts of their identity that are similar to youth all over the world, which is brought about by what sociologists' term 'youth culture' which is influenced by forces of globalization and Macdonaldization of the world. Hall(1992) , for instance, suggests three possible consequences of globalization on cultural identities: erosion, strengthening and the emergence of new identities or 'new ethnicities'. Hall has coined the term 'global post-modern' to refer to 'a perceived breakdown of all established cultural identities, the fragmentation of cultural codes, pluralisation of styles, and emphasis on the ephemeral, fleeting, aspects of contemporary culture, coupled with the global ubiquity of such features of youth culture as the jeans and trainers uniform': "the more social life becomes mediated by the global marketing of styles, images and places by globally networked media, the more identities becomes detached-disembedded-from specific times, places, histories and traditions and appear free-floating" (Hall cited in Gillespie,1995:17). In the context of the identities of Tibetan youth in the city of Delhi also, what seems to emerge are lives colored by the 'global post-modern' life (as evident, for instance, in the plurality of music they seem to like: songs from blockbuster Hindi films; western rock and roll; hip-hop and also a new genre of modern Tibetan music) coupled with features of youth culture like the jeans and trainers 'uniform'. There seem to be however, limits to the above and to the extent to which their identities have become 'free-floating' or 'homogenized'. There is also a powerful connection to their ethnicity and to their identity as Tibetan and as refugee that institutions in exile, with the persona of His Holiness The Dalai Lama seek to constantly recreate and forge. A case in point is an article, 'Refugees in a Globalised World' by Tenzin Dechen, a student of Political Science in Hindu College who writes, "Let us be refugees who can hijack a site, rock the dance floor, analyze political systems, speak the American tongue and above all be a true Tibetan with heart which has its virtues and priorities intact. So lets face and accept what globalization has to offer and in return spread our ethics and thus teach the world the Art of Peace preventing a Third World War, after all a well mixed salad is worth tucking in " (Tenzin Dechen,2006:9). The hostel magazine is yet another aspect of life in the hostel and shed light on how different notions of Tibetan-ness are being defined; given meanings to; negotiated and lived out in everyday lives of the students of the hostel. Place as a marker of identity What seems important to me is that these notions of Tibettanness and Tibetan identity are being imagined, forged and lived during these years of pursuing graduation from Delhi University as residents of the Tibetan Youth Hostel. The building, its environs and ambience are important as they were created with the prime purpose of preserving Tibetan identity of the youth in the city and this is largely what life within its walls seems to have brought about for the students who reside in it. This does not, however, mean that the students here are not exposed to and influenced by the sights, smells and sounds of the city and its global culture. The same influences them and also reflects upon their sense of their multiple and plural identity (as visible from their tastes in music and clothes, as stated before; in food; in choice of friends; movies etc). Life within the building, however, also seems to preserve their essential identity as Tibetan by keeping them informed and engaged in activities 'for Tibet' and 'for His Holiness The Dalai Lama'. A 'we-feeling' and a sense of belonging to the same community is also a natural result of staying together and so is preservation of language, with all the students and staff conversing in Tibetan with each other. Space as Massey (1994) argues, 'is not 'empty' but is produced culturally by social relations.That is, the spaces of home, nation, classroom,front room and so on, are constructed in and through social relations and are invested with emotional commitment in order that space becomes place, according to Silverstone(1994) marked by feeling. That is, places are spaces invested with human experiences, memories, intentions and desires which act as important markers of individual and collective identity'(cited in Baker, Chris,1999:116). As Tenzin Tamdin , a resident of the hostel says, "I believe that staying in the Tibetan Youth Hostel has really enabled me to be more aware of my identity as Tibetan and has strengthened my desire to preserve this identity. I had stayed out for a year during this time I had no information about issues regarding Tibet , what was happening there and activities ; festivals etc being celebrated. "Tibettanness is there only if you are in like group". Yet another student states, "I stayed for a year in the college hostel but shifted here because the food we used to get in the former was too spicy and I had stomach problems due to the same. I like staying here as it gives us exposure to events in Tibet and in exile.We also get proper Tibetan food here and the environment is Tibetan. Living outside in rented accommodations has its fair share of problems, like having to cook food. We don't have to do that and it saves lots of time. Definitely the freedom is more outside, but we have a fair share of freedom here. Staying in the hostel has been very good, specially for girls who have studied in convents and have no idea about Tibetan culture. Some of them have improved Tibetan speaking skills and more knowledge about our culture; religion and also have had the opportunity to participate in processions of the TYC". This is of particular help to Tibetan students who have studied in Indian English medium schools and are weak in their knowledge of Tibetan language, history and culture. The three-year stay in the hostel provides them with the necessary exposure to Tibetan language; culture and identity that had been previously lacking with their education in English-medium convent and missionary-run schools in the country. For instance, for Dawa Dolkar, a student of Political Science in Hindu College, Tibet , 'became real' only in the hostel. Before that, as a student of a convent missionary school in Nainital , she had no idea about Tibet. "Tibet was never in my dictionary earlier. Yahan aane par I found out that I am more Tibetan than maybe students from Tibetan schools". What seems to be a common thread running across different stories is a deeply –felt need to preserve their "Tibetan-ness" alongwith a practical need to accommodate and adapt to their host and global cultures. These brightly hued tapestries of identities are woven in–side the hostel and its environs and to that extent the former becomes important as a marker of individual and collective identity. That's all for now! I will be further exploring linkages between identities of Tibetan youth in the city of Delhi and several other aspects of life in the city that influence and shape the former in varied ways Regards! Mallica --------------------------------- Jiyo cricket on Yahoo! India cricket Yahoo! Messenger Mobile Stay in touch with your buddies all the time. _________________________________________ reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. Critiques & Collaborations To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in the subject header. List archive: --------------------------------- Yahoo! India Answers: Share what you know. Learn something new. Click here -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060505/7e2f928a/attachment.html From xavier.cahen at pourinfos.org Fri May 5 20:42:22 2006 From: xavier.cahen at pourinfos.org (xavier cahen pourinfos.org) Date: Fri, 05 May 2006 17:12:22 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] pourinfos Newsletter / 04-28 to 05-04-2006 Message-ID: <445B6B56.3070501@pourinfos.org> pourinfos.org l'actualité du monde de l'art / daily Art news ----------------------------------------------------------------------- infos from April 28, 2006 to May 4, 2006 (included) ------------------------------------------------------------------- (mostly in french) @ 001 (04 05 2006) Workshop : "listening/machine", RAAC, Atelier Expérimental, Clans, France http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=2935 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 002 (04 05 2006) Meetings : "the sound phenomenon in the contemporary art", Thursday May 4, 2006, Musée d'art contemporain de Lyon, Lyon, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=2990 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 003 (04 05 2006) Exhibition : ground zero, Olga, Limoges, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=3030 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 004 (04 05 2006) Exhibition : ORCAILLE, HAPTIC, vestibule de La Maison Rouge, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=3032 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 005 (04 05 2006) Meetings : Conference on the work of Erik SAMAKH, May 4 and May 17, 2006, à Argenteuil et Cergy, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=3010 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 006 (04 05 2006) Meetings : Very is explained, Les entretiens sur l'art avec Laurent Grasso, Espace Paul Ricard , Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=3046 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 007 (04 05 2006) Program : cultural, May 2006, Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33030 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 008 (04 05 2006) Exhibition : SMALL SIZE #1, numeriscausa, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33039 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 009 (04 05 2006) Exhibition : One shot by... Davide Bertocchi, Galerie Nuke, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33041 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 010 (04 05 2006) Various : Contest of Montansier Authors, Theater Montansier, Versailles, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33046 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 011 (04 05 2006) Publication : JHON n°15, two-monthly Portfolio & artbook!, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33048 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 012 (04 05 2006) Publication : n°0 «To give» mai 2006, CHECKPOINT, Editions LAPLATEFORME, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33051 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 013 (04 05 2006) Publication : Stained glasses of Alfred Manessier, Les éditions Complicités, Grignan, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33052 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 014 (04 05 2006) Publication : NiGHT WATCHING by Peter Greenaway, éditions dis voir, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33053 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 015 (04 05 2006) Residences : artist's residence at box _ensa de Bourges, Bourges, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33059 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 016 (04 05 2006) Residences : artist's residence at La Galerie, Centre d’art contemporain, Noisy-le-Sec, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33060 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 017 (04 05 2006) Residences : artist's residence, Friche Belle de Mai, Marseille, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33061 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 018 (04 05 2006) Call : for a curatorial project at la box _ensa de Bourges, Bourges, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33062 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 019 (04 05 2006) Call : competion for digital art and photography, Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, Usa. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33063 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 020 (04 05 2006) Call : Futuresonic 2006 International Festival, Manchester, The United Kingdom. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33064 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 021 (04 05 2006) Call : The Media Art Friesland Festival 2006,Harlingen, Netherlands. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33065 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 022 (04 05 2006) Call : Call for Submission, performances / gestures / actions, The Centre of Attention, London, The United Kingdom. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33066 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 023 (04 05 2006) Call : festival of short film « On the steps of my uncle », ville de Saint-Maur-des-Fossés , France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33068 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 024 (04 05 2006) Call : the sound making art, 12th Contest Phonurgia Nova, Phonurgia Nova price 2006, Arles, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33069 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 025 (05 05 2006) Program : May 2006, Espace Culture Multimédia de la Maison populaire, Montreuil, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=2931 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 026 (05 05 2006) Program : Open Studio Cairo 2006, An international residency programme in Downtown Cairo, Egypt. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33034 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 027 (06 05 2006) Exhibition : Fernand Fernandez, Bureau d'art et de recherche, Roubaix, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=2903 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 028 (06 05 2006) Exhibition : HOMESICK – Act I, Akureyri Art Museum, Reykjavík, Iceland. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=2984 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 029 (06 05 2006) Exhibition : UrbaNet – Tango City, Kër Thiossane, Villa for art and the multi-media, Dakar, Senegal. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=3035 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 030 (06 05 2006) Exhibition : "strange bodies", Vincent Bernard, ARPAC, Fondation du Pioch Pelat, Castelnau le Lez, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33023 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 031 (06 05 2006) Exhibition : White de blanc, Pascal Pinaud, Frac Basse-Normandie, Caen, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33032 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 032 (06 05 2006) Screening : i love art vidéo, musée d'art moderne et contemporain de strasbourg, Strasbourg, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33035 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 033 (06 05 2006) Exhibition : Morgane Tschiember, Olivier Mosset, galerie martinethibaultdelachâtre, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33045 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 034 (07 05 2006) Meetings : "electronic activism in light...", Troisième oeil, Sunday May 7, Centre pompidou, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33054 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 035 (08 05 2006) Exhibition : To reconsider the methods, procedures of the exposure and the meeting of the public, Collectif of artist VOUS ÊTES ICI, Château Bastor-Lamontagne, Preignac , France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=2952 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 036 (09 05 2006) Exhibition : birth of the Mobile Studio, studio of graphic creation itinerant, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33044 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 037 (09 05 2006) Meetings : An introduction to Derrida, by Thierry Vigier, Tuesday May 9, Maison Populaire, Montreuil. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33057 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 038 (10 05 2006) Exhibition : La force de l'art, Grand Palais, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=2926 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 039 (10 05 2006) Screening : "Disassemblings", festival Paysages Electroniques, Lille, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=3000 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 040 (10 05 2006) Exposition : DEMONTAGES - art video, Cave des celestines, Lille, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=3026 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 041 (10 05 2006) Exhibition : Marlene Haring & Jochen Höller, Auto, Vienna, Austria. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33043 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 042 (10 05 2006) Meetings : signature, TROUBLE, avec Gaëlle Chotard,&,Gaël Charbau (author of the text), Wednesday May 10, 2006, Bookstore Florence Loewy, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33056 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 043 (10 05 2006) Meetings : Yves Peillet, Synthesized images and effects visual, Wednesday May 10, 2006, Observatoire des nouveaux médias, Ensad, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33058 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 044 ))))) radiolist.org ((((( Plate-forme sonore des arts visuels ))))) | ))))) visual arts noise platform ((((( 3 http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=4005 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 045 Apostils : The artist and his “models” by Jean-Claude Moineau http://pourinfos.org/encours/item.php?id=3019 ------------------------------------------------------------------- From pukar at pukar.org.in Fri May 5 17:17:44 2006 From: pukar at pukar.org.in (PUKAR) Date: Fri, 5 May 2006 17:17:44 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [announcements] Schedule: PUKAR Monsoon 2006 Message-ID: <003f01c67039$bc1fb840$07d0c0cb@freeda> PUKAR MONSOON 2006 Youth and Urban Identity May 15 - June 3, 2006 PUKAR invites registration for Monsoon 2006, a series of workshops, lectures and film screenings designed for Mumbai youth under the theme "Youth and Urban Identity." Lectures will address a range of topics including urban health, communalism, revolutionary movements and media. Workshops include hands-on exercises using photography, theatre, urban design and mapping, music and writing. Programs will be conducted in English, Hindi and Marathi. Fees are Rs. 150 per workshop and limited to Mumbai youth. Lectures and film screenings are free and open to the public. (It is not mandatory to attend all the programmes. Please indicate your preference based on the descriptions below. You are most welcome to choose all!) To register, send the following information to: monsoon at pukar.org.in or by phone at 5574 8152 Name: Address: Phone: Email: School, College or Affiliation (if applicable): Workshop Interest: (Venues are subject to change) PUKAR Monsoon 2006 Schedule ORIENTATION SESSION Monday, 15th May, 11-1pm, Univ. of Mumbai (Fort) CLOSING SESSION Saturday, 3rd June, 12-5pm, Kitab Mahal WORKSHOPS: Interactive Workshop in Folk Art Tuesday, 16th May, 10-2pm, Kitab Mahal Conducted by Prakash Khandage, folk art practitioner How can folk art be used as a vehicle to understand the soul and ethos of the country? Participants will be guided through various exercises in dance and music to explore the significance of folk art traditions and resistance, amid a climate of extreme globalization, religious fundamentalism and the overtaking by popular culture. Identity at the Crossroads: A Theatre Workshop Tuesday, 16th May, 3-7pm, Kitab Mahal Conducted by Ratnakar Matkari, playwright, theatre director Participants will engage in various theatre techniques to identify tensions which arise in urban life, in addition to how they negotiate multiple identities, those inherited and those acquired. Drawing on comedy, drama, suspense and other forms, participants will witness the power of creative methodologies to explore various possibilities and outcomes. Capturing Mumbai's Changing Face: A Photography Workshop* PART 1: Wednesday, 17th May, 12-5pm, Kitab Mahal PART 2: Wednesday, 24th May, 12-5pm, Univ. of Mumbai (Fort) Conducted by David De Souza, photographer Participants will learn how photography can be used to document changes in public and commercial space which affect the city at large and the youth in particular. This workshop will urge youth to consider how photography can be a medium to understand infrastructure, inform urban planning and tell stories about Mumbai's changing landscape. Please bring your own camera. A mobile phone with photo capacity is sufficient. *(Fees for the photography workshop: Rs. 300/-) Voices of Mumbai: A Workshop in Sound and Music Thursday, 18th May, 10-2pm, Kitab Mahal Neela Bhagwat, Singer and Composer >From car horns to religious chants to protests to vendors to the latest hits blasting from record stores to chatter in one of many languages, the streets of Mumbai are filled with the sounds of music. In this workshop, participants will be asked to draw from the sounds of Mumbai to inspire new songs about their hopes, dreams, and visions for the future. Gender and Public Space Thursday, 18th May, 3-6pm, Kitab Mahal Shilpa Phadke, sociologist; Sameera Khan, journalist Participants will discuss how gender functions in the ordering of public space in Mumbai and particularly among its youth population. Do gendered spaces ensure safety- e.g. the Ladies' compartment on the train? This workshop will ask participants to critically examine the design of public places they frequent, from streets, public toilets and market places to places they socialize and their modes of public transport. Writing our Mumbai Dreams Saturday, 20th May, 2-5pm, Univ. of Mumbai (Fort) Jerry Pinto, writer Does your dream involve working at a call center, joining a political party, becoming an artist? How does your personal dream coincide with your vision for Mumbai's future? Participants will engage in various writing exercises aimed at exploring individual aspiration, youth identity and building community. Mapping our Lives Thursday, 25th May, 1-5 pm, Univ. of Mumbai (Fort) Shilpa Ranade, architect Participants will construct maps reflecting their daily activities- work, college, sports, shopping, meeting friends, commuting, and the communities whom they encounter. Participants will design maps of their "ideal" neighborhood and city- its value systems, use of public space and commercial space, and its constituency. Youth and Our Airwaves- A Workshop on Radio Friday, May 26th, 3-6pm, Univ. of Mumbai (Fort) R J Malishka Participants will engage in a hands-on workshop on some of the technical aspects of radio, in addition to discussing on how radio serves as an important medium for transmitting cultural values, information on popular culture and youth identity. LECTURES: Mobilizing Youth: The Case for a Cohesive Identity Tuesday, 16th May, 6:30-8pm, Univ. of Mumbai (Fort) Ram Puniyani, Professor, Indian Institute of Technology Youth and Urban Health Thursday, 18th May, 6:30-8 pm, Kitab Mahal Anita Patil Deshmukh, Physician and Director of PUKAR Aparna Joshi, Counselor, Bapu Trust Mumbai's Urban Biodiversity and its conservation (Your role)! Friday, 19th May, 6:30-8pm, Univ. of Mumbai (Fort) Anand Pendharkar, Environmentalist, SPROUTS Youth and Educational Institutions Tuesday, 23rd May, 6:30-8pm, Univ. of Mumbai (Fort) Rahul Srivastava, Writer and sociologist Youth, Urban Communities and Revolutions - Premiji to Rang de... Thursday, 25th May, 6:30-8pm, Univ. of Mumbai (Fort) Kaiwan Mehta, Faculty (KRVIA), Architect Mumbai's Changing Face - Economy and Infrastructure Friday, 26th May, 6:30-8pm, Univ. of Mumbai (Fort) Vidyadhar Phatak, Former Chief Planner, MMRDA Youth and Issues of Good Governance Tuesday, 30th May, 6:30-8pm, Univ. of Mumbai (Fort) Surendra Srivastava, Representative of Lok Satta FILM SCREENINGS Aur Irani Chai Wednesday, 17th May, 6:30pm, PUKAR Office A Short Film on Migration, Memory and Mumbai City (20 Minutes) Portraits of a Lane Wednesday, 24th May, 6:30pm, PUKAR Office A Short Film on Homes, Heritage and Mumbai City (20 minutes) Freedom Before 11 Wednesday, 31st May, 6:30pm, PUKAR Office A Short Film on Women and Hostel Life (25 minutes) Venues: Kitab Mahal, 4th floor, D. N. Road, Near Excelsior Cinema, Fort Mumbai - 01 University of Mumbai, Room no. 142, Fort Campus, Near High Court, Mumbai - 01 PUKAR Office, 1-4, Kamanwala Chambers, Sir P. M. Road, Fort, Mumbai - 01 *Venues are subject to change. PUKAR (Partners for Urban Knowledge Action and Research) Address:: 1-4, 2nd Floor, Kamanwala Chambers, Sir P. M. Road, Fort, Mumbai 400 001 Telephone:: +91 (22) 5574 8152 Fax:: +91 (22) 5664 0561 Email:: pukar at pukar.org.in Website:: www.pukar.org.in -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060505/71155e74/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From bawree at yahoo.com Sat May 6 23:35:54 2006 From: bawree at yahoo.com (mamta mantri) Date: Sat, 6 May 2006 11:05:54 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Vadodara riots- my story,,,, mamta Message-ID: <20060506180554.72465.qmail@web33102.mail.mud.yahoo.com> By some wierd coincidence, I was in baroda during the riots, and by some other coincidence visited the affected areas,i.e old city, just the evening-night before the riots broke out. There is a place called 'Nazar Baug', an ancient structure meant for king's residence, but now the outer structure remains, windows and the interiors closed with bricks. However,the place was converted into police camp, in view of the tension in the area. There was a "VAJRA" van which is employed especially for controlling riots.And so the next day the riots broke, and the event has been well covered by the mainstream media, who termed the outbreak communal. TOINS and Gujarat Samachar and media channels called it communal in the first edition of their newpieces. But I wonder if clashes between the Muslims and the law can be called communal. Also, the mob attacked the 'Nyay mandir' and not the Hindu residents in the neighbourhood. It was only in the 10 pm news that the police Commisioner said that these riots were not communal. The next days newspapers prevented from calling the riots 'communal'. Whatever happened to the maxim "with freedom, comes responsibility". Anyways, I was located at Manjalpur, a safe-Hindu dominated-cosmopolitan-outside the city-upper middle class neighbourhood. Apparently, there is only one Muslim in the area, and he owns a laundry and my cousin said, "I must get my clothes back from him, he is a Muslim, I dont want to lose my clothes in all this mess." The constant reiteration in the dialogue was that the city affected by the riots was not a good locale with no good people staying there. So 'good' people stay in 'posh areas' like Alkapuri and Manjalpur. Others in the old city are illiterate and poor and lack culture. It is disturbing to find such views without any scope for any kind of dialogues. Well,I also visited Champaner, a world heritage site,and found it interesting in terms of its architecture, but defintiely not worth the title for "world heritage site" and the kind of money(thousands of crores) it is going to get from UNESCO to promote toursim there. The entire village will be uprooted and of course reimbursed and a tourist village will be constructed, but what will come out of it??? There are only 4 masjids, a huge lake and the begining of the fort wall, nothing else. Defintely meant for the NRIs, who want to grasp their ancient culture(pun intended) here. Talking of NRIs, Baroda is full/ less of them. Every gujju family has an NRI realtive, son, daughter and everyone else. As a result, the demographic patterns here have undergone disturbing changes. The city is now house to a large chunk of elders and old people who cannot shift to other countries, but they do have a lot of money, and yet cannot do anything with that money which in turn affects the economy in a negative sort of manner. Baroda is slowly becoming a city with no employment and no youth/working population and therefore stagnant in terms of economy and service and other industries. And who else but the poor probably feel the pressure there, and it is during events like these riots that they can vent themselves out, not mentioning the political interests. The "riots" still continue in Baroda. But should not we think of a better word than "riot", because the moment we hear this word, it is assumed that it is a Hindu Muslim tussle. Events like these have happened earlier in history, but we havent done much about it, at least epistemically!!!May be we must coin a new and better word!!!ho ho ho!!! Criticism welcome mamta __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From aman.am at gmail.com Sun May 7 03:28:10 2006 From: aman.am at gmail.com (Aman Sethi) Date: Sun, 7 May 2006 03:28:10 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] The News of the World and Other Stories: Post 4.0 by Aman Sethi Message-ID: <995a19920605061458o3167ea92l3cc6b1f12b246ea2@mail.gmail.com> Dear All, This latest post is in four parts, and is an attempt to understand a great vareity of things - principally "time pass", information dissemination, and intersections between the mandi and the state. As usual, its highly abstracted from my conversations with construction labour in paharganj. Best Aman Part I, The News of the World. Welcome to The News of the World: Time pass with Mamu the drunk, Lambu the philosopher and JP the lunatic. Don't miss our pet special with man's best friend "Kutiya the wonder-dog". Also, in "Ask Ashraf", the answer to our weekly poll question – Sarkar Humari Gaand Kyu Marti Hai?" The lunatic came early that day, and with him came the news of the world. Five in the evening, and the working day was winding down, the sun was setting, and the world was slowly healing itself in preparation for a long, bruising tomorrow. Slowly the patchwork of open wounds were closing into scabs, only to be grazed open the next day – shops downed their shutters, mazdoors downed their tools, MCD bulldozers burrowed their way deep into the remains of the settlement they had just destroyed, and the Judge adjourned his Court – granting the courtiers another night of uneasy sleep. "Deviyo, t-tha Sajjanno, bhen ke lowdo, Gundi nalli ke keedon, Jago, Jago, Jago" "Mein hu JP Singh Pagal, aur mein laya huan - Aaj ki taaz khabar". Enter the lunatic – an effervescent bubble in a sea of surliness. Weaving through the crowd of exhausted labourers, the lunatic pulled hard on his chillum, exhaling plumes of bitter sweet marijuana smoke: interrupting conversations, pushing, shoving, joking, bitching, shouting, and wailing out "The News of the World"-complete with analysis from our experts. Undeterred by the lack of welcome, the lunatic plowed on, rattling off events and occurrences in no particular order – taking credit for most stories, placing himself, and his viewer, directly in the line of fire. "Soft drink ke bottle me milla condom – Pepsi ki lagi gaand- ek lakh rupai jurmana. Meerut mein lagi aag – voh toh kher, humne hi lagayi thi, Lakhme India Fashion Week mein kapade gayab - sunna tha badi taliya bajji thi, hum bhi the vahain, kyu? Sheher mein macchi khalbalee – bhai sahib, ek bomb ka dhamaka kafi hai." His audience, by contrast, was a study in stillness- pulling their belongings closer, and then still closer, every time he passed by. Inspired by KBC, JP Singh Pagal was a firm believer in the "fastest finger first" doctrine, picking up anything that caught his fancy. Rumour had it that he prowled the mandi after midnight, walking off the effects of his chillum and stealing slippers, tools and clothes. But for now, he was tolerable as the fearless, intrepid reporter – jumping through rings of fire to bring his uninterested audience their daily bulletin. The lunatic was not picky about his sources – far away, in the nether regions of the hinterland, news was on the move. Stories hitched themselves to the hemlines of sarees, stuck themselves to the rubber soles of countless Hawaii chappals and stealthily made their way across the vast countryside to Bara Tuti – the heart of Delhi and the centre of the universe. Suppressed by Aaj Tak, cast away by the Dainik Jagran, termed irrelevant by the English media, reports wormed their way though the narrow gullies, seeking out the lunatic – the half-mad oracle of half-truths, the Zen master of Chinese Whispers. In his ceaseless quest for the truth, the lunatic gave each story a fair hearing - nothin was too sensational, or boring, to escape the glory of the evening bulletin."Lallo Prasad Yadav has bought a new house in Patna near Anurag Bhavan," "Manmohan Desai, (sic) the new prime minister, studied commerce in college." "Kala Baba has recovered from tuberculosis, he is now in Nanital, cleaning up his act. Sources say he has never looked this good." His audience suffered him as best they could , "Aur kuch nahin, toh sala time toh kat jata hai. But saale se bach ke raho, voh pagal nahin hai, bus lagta hai." And then, as suddenly as he had arrived, he was gone. A puff of ganja laced smoke, a small hand flashed out towards the large plastic bag on the floor, and with without as much as second glance, JP Singh Pagal, "Sadak Chaap, awara, deewana," was off in search of the next breaking story, humming tunelessly to himself, oblivious to hunt for a missing ten rupee note. "Dekh tere sansar ki halat kya ho gayi bhagwaan, kitna badal gaya insaan." Part II: The Philosopher's Stone. The philosopher looked up at the sky, and then at the grinning, clearly stoned, face of his departing co-anchor. He cleared his throat, and waited. Ever courteous, the crowd settled down– allowing him the opportunity to keep them waiting. He lit a beedi, the crowd waited, and waited, and waited, for the first cryptic utterance. His large hyptonic eyes panned across the sweating crowd, his lips pouted ever so slightly, and then he said, "Humme nazar aa raha hai – ek talab phel ke thanda pada ho." The crowd shifted, "ek kankar mar do – ek kankar mar do , toh poora talab hil jayega." Someone in the audience cleared his throat, the philosopher leaned back, watching the metaphor ripple through his audience. "Sheeshe mein dekh lo, safa pani mein dekh lo – chehra toh vahi hai." " Pur sheeshe ko pocket mein dal sakte ho." He added as an afterthought. While the lunatic was clearly not one to be trusted, the philosopher was a mysterious chap: tall, dark and given to macabre allusions. He spoke rarely, but forcefully, and "jab voh mood mein aata tha," he could silence even the most loquacious lunatic. "Kya tume pata hai, ki Dilli toot rahi hai?" The crowd nodded in acquiescence. Indeed, Dilli was coming apart. Not slowly and steadily like an old leather chappal, but with the force and fury of an overloaded plastic bag. A jagging, ripping tear that threatened not just their homes, but struck at the very heart of the mandi's business – construction. A dark force was gathering on the borders of Bara Tuti – heart of Dilli and centre of the universe. An insidious ploy that sought to replace the centuries old, "rule of thumb" by the brutal "rule of law". A shrill, elite-middle class scream, urging the Courts to "Judge Do It", and the Courts had. Almost all construction activity had ceased. No one was building extra rooms anymore, no one was extending boundaries, adding floors, or converting balconies into bedrooms. Many labourers had already started moving homewards, carrying back stories of the great silence, and many more were to follow them. Yes, Dilli toot rahi thi. The great pond had been disturbed, the first stone had been cast, and Bara Tuti was slowly crumbling in the waves. Where will we sleep? Where will we work? How will we eat? What will happen to Bara Tuti chowk? The philosopher's questions brought few answers. His eyes glowed like searchlights, prying deep into the fears of his audience. "They will make it like India Gate, clean... and empty." The crowd grew restive and then repositioned itself. Beedi's were lit, chai was ordered. A small conversation started on the side. The remark about India Gate had triggered off an intriguing chain of thoughts - Dilli mein kitne Gate Hai - Dilli Gate, India Gate, Kashmeri Gate, Turkman Gate, Ajmeri Gate,- pur ek bhi darwaza nahin hai. Gates, but no doors -a remarkable bit of construction. A gate with a door is a barrier with restricted rights of admission, but a simple gateway with neither door, nor barricade is unequivocally a sign of welcome. Dilli - the city of gates and sarais. But, there were no sarais any more. The rich had taken them - just as they had taken India gate. Now there was only Bara Tuti- the resting place of the tired and hungry. And soon, Tuti too, would become like India Gate -Clean ... and empty. The crowd looked worried, they were begining to miss the lunatic's mindless banter. Sensing their waning interest, the philosopher weighed his options and then threw out his trump card; the Bar Tuti crowd was notoriously fickle. "Pur dilli jaise talab mein kankar kaun pheke ga?" Silence. Pin-drop silence. "Dilli jaise talab mein kankar kaun pheke ga?" All of a sudden, the metaphor was crystal clear,and the implications enormous, - who would bell the cat? Now the crowd was furious, philosopher ne mood hi kharab kar diya. They looked about, and turned their backs in unison. The philosopher folded his long limbs and went back to dreaming. Part III. Of Kutiya the Wonder Dog and other animals. Like most stars, Kutiya the Wonder Dog was conscious of her public appearances. Performing before a residential audience that spent most of its waking (and sleeping) hours at the chowk, over-exposure was a very real risk for aspiring celebrities. Before you knew it, you were one of them – vulnerable to the same showers of abuse, affection and insults as any other street mongrel. But Kutiya had a real gift that no-one could take from her, she was the best ratter in the neighbourhood. Sleek, fast, and always lethal, Kutiya could smell out rats in most over-powering of olfactory atmospheres. Muted by the philosopher's prophecies, the chowk came alive when a large burly man walked up to the lithe, beige dog and dangled a rat-trap in front of her nose. Old mistries feigned disinterest – continuing their conversations about the declining quality of work and labour, while keeping one eye fixed firmly on the young men surrounding Kutiya. The man kept shaking the trap, sending the already agitated mouse into paroxysms of terror, as Kutiya arched her back and bared her teeth. A low growl, an open trap, chaos. Men jumped and screamed like school kids as the mouse sped off in the direction of the shops. Labourers pointed frantically, and stepped out of the way as Kutiya sped by. Moment by moment she closed in on her prey, narrowing the distance between life and death, till the mouse, in desperation, took to jumping on labourers, burrowing through their laps, and sliding down their trouser legs. But Kutiya was not to be denied – the last mazdoor shook himself down – the rat broke cover and Kutiya struck with the all the force and majesty of the Law. Shaking off the other dogs with ease, Kutiya sashayed off the stage, the rat pinned firmly in her upturned mouth. Part IV. Sarkar Humari Gaand Kyu Marti Hai? Understanding the Lawaris. This time on "Ask Ashraf", the concluding section of our show, we seek answers to one of life's most vexing issues –"Sarkar humari Gaand kyu marti hai?" The answer is both stark and straight forward. "Sarkar Humari Gaand isliye marti hai, kyuki sarkar rundi hai. Jis ke pass paisa hai, uske paas bethti hai. Sarkar ka kaam hai gaand marna, aur kisi ki nahin, toh humari hi kyu na?" The more interesting question is "Sarkar humari gaand kaise marti hai?" For the Sarkar is both brutally blunt, and insidiously creative. The only way to beat it is to prostrate your self before it, and offer it your ass. Admit to yourself "Hum kissi se kum nahi, khali gaand mein dum nahin". Rub off that war paint, and don the disguise of the Lawaris. The only entity to have successfully infiltrated the fortress of governmentality, the Lawaris is the antidote to the Sarkar's most potent weapon - fixed address. Without a fixed address, you may as well not exist - and the more often that not, the sarkar will make sure you damn well don't. Every free tablet in a government hospital, every subsidised grain of rice, every form you fill, is subject to fulfilling that ultimate criteria - a legitimate,, fixed address in an "authorised residential area." Without the address, the state can't follow you back on the streets to make sure you swallow your tablets in the right sequence, and eat your grain and don't sell it. But when you fight your way from Buland Sheher to Bara Tuti, you learn a cold hard truth on arrival: "Footpath, Bara Tuti Chowk" is not an address. The genius of the Lawaris reveals itself in the recognition that not belonging is also belonging - that every category has its anti-category, and the lawaris is just that. It is option d) - none of the above. As per government regulations, the category of lawaris - synonymous with destitute - entitles you to free treatment, free boarding and free meals at government hospitals. Definitionally, it implies that you have no fixed address, no fixed employment or trade, and so are freed from the clutches of sarkar once you walk out the door - formless, and shapeless, you are free to melt back into the twilight zone. But the lawaris is much, much more. it is the frightening realisation that you are on your own - rootless in a ruthless city. A half-mad teller of half true-tales. "Sadak-Chaap, Awara Deewana" Aman Sethi. www.abjective.blogspot.com From nangla at cm.sarai.net Sun May 7 09:49:17 2006 From: nangla at cm.sarai.net (CM@Nangla) Date: Sun, 07 May 2006 06:19:17 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] Parchee-tent/Nangla/06 May 2006 Message-ID: <361eedf3bb157b528073d02eb6049955@sarai.net> Parchee-tent, by Jaanu 06.05.2006 http://nangla.freeflux.net/blog/archive/2006/05/06/parchee-tent-by-jaanu.html People who live in Nangla used to spend their money and set up tents and decorate them with flowers. This decorating had a special meaning to it – the preparation for a wedding. Two days before the bridegroom's baraat would come, thresholds of doors used to be decorated with glitter. A tent was also set up on the day Nangla was broken. This lone tent, set up for MCD officials, was outside the locality. But inside, there were far more tents. The tent outside indicated the uprooting of thousands of homes; the tents inside had been set up to celebrate the union of lives through marriage. As a guest, I had also entered a tent of celebration the day Nangla was being broken. It had been set up along the wall of a park opposite Nangla. It had a “main door” through which people were entering, smiling, humming to themselves. Different things to eat had been placed, inside the tent, on round tables. There were salads with sliced onions, long pieces of cucumber, carrots and raddish, cabbage leaves, chopped tomatoes and pieces of lemon. Fresh plates sat one on top of the other on one side. Spoons were spread in a fan-like formation. A young woman was going to be married in Nangla, and everyone waited for the arrival of the bridegroom with his guests, in buses and Maruti cars. Chairs covered with white cloths stood waiting in rows. Plastic cups filled with water were kept on one side. Outside, the settlement was breaking, but inside, there wasn't that much fear. Several days after the first round of breaking of the dwelling, another tent was set up outside, in the park. As soon as it was set up, a turbulence arose in peoples' hearts, like a storm arises in an ocean, sending ripples which turn everything upside down. The tent was set up across the road from Nangla. There was a simple difference this tent had from other tents – it was not for general public, but for policemen and the Rapid Action Force. One or two people in white clothes were setting it up. On seeing the tent, Nangla started buzzing. One sound said, “The tent has been set up to give away parchee (slips for land). As soon as the word “parchee” was heard, rumours began to float. Someone said, “Don't get a parchee cut on your name. They are fooling us. There is a Supreme Court order staying further demolition. There will be a hearing on 9th May. If that is the case, then what will be issued out today will be a fake parchee.” Someone said, “The parchee they are issuing has neither the house number, nor the name of the place they are being issued for. Don't take these emaciated, forged parcheez.” Someone said, “There are no plots on the land for which they are giving away the parchee. And that land is barren. They used to be fields to grown lentils, and they are all dug up and rocky. The water is salty. Not even birds drink it. You will have to spend Rs. 50 each time you want to travel from there to the city. It will take you two hours.” Someone said, “How will we live there? There is no one to listen to us.” People left in small groups to go to the tent and see it from close. They would return and say, “They are making fools of us.” Someone said, “I have newspaper cuttings about the Court orders, which have Nangla's name in them.” People began to look more carefully at the newspaper cutting than they were at the tent. All the community workers and local leaders of Nangla were listless. No one knew what was about to happen. Everyone looked at and thought about the tent. No one knew how to proceed. Then a young woman went to the tent and figured out what was going on. The DDA had asked for the tent to be set up. The Police and the RAF were given today's date to be present. The tent had been set up, and the police and force had come. The DDA officials had not made an appearance. There was uncertainty among the police on how to proceed. Residents of Nangla kept returning to the road and looking at the tent till it was removed and the grass on which it was set up was visible again. After some time, the tent disappeared. And with that people abandoned their vigil and went away as well. Maybe if the tent had continued to be there, at least some people would have forgotten their hunger and thirst and continued to sit there, looking out at it. Many more rumours would have spread. Someone would have said, you have to give Rs. 5000 for the parchee, someone would have put the figure at Rs. 7000, and someone would have said the DDA will have to be paid Rs. 2 lakhs in installments for the house they will construct for us. Someone would have said those whose houses were made before 1998 will get 12.5 sq. feet of land, and someone would have placed the figure at 18 sq. feet. But when the tent disappeared, everyone shifted their thoughts to 9th May, the day of the next hearing. Every tent has a different form and appearance. There are feeding-other-tents, welcoming-politician-tents, Ramlila-performace-tents, watching-plays-tents, praying-to-gods-tents, performing-religious-ceremonies-tents, gathering-to-go-on-hunger-strike-tents, miscellaneous-occasion-tents. But happiness or joy any of these tents bring pales in comparison to the fear that can be evoked by a parchee-tent. -------------------------------------- New postings on Nangla's Delhi: "Our City", by CM at Nangla [ The Journey After ] 04.05.2006 We are a month into the demolition of Nangla, along with the demolition of dwellings all over the city, the fires that have ravaged various settlements, and the fear of both demolition and fire in many more other settlements. What is the view to the city that we are to proceed in, for the coming time? >From extensive conversations in the localities (LNJP, Dakshinpuri and Nangla Maanchi) and bus stands, with our broadsheet on the experience of being in Nangla, a few images of the city emerged. [Read whole post] Tent Sighted, Nangla at CM [ Eviction ] 04.05.2006 [See image] On May 03, at 9:00 AM, the tentwala set up a tent for DDA officials, who (it is believed) were to give away parchis (official receipts) allotting land elsewhere, to residents of Nangla. The Delhi Police Force and the RAF (Reserved Armed Force) arrived. Seeing the tent from the other side of the road, Nangla grew restless. Neighbours were informed over phone, and called back with their household items. Plans for the day were stalled, as residents stayed within. The policemen took a quick round through Nangla. Nangla spilled out to the main road, watching the tent from far. As midday approached, it was clear the DDA officials were not coming, and had forgotten to inform the police, and the tentwala. The police returned, save a few policemen who stayed behind, awaiting further instructions. By 2:00 PM, the tent was removed. Stay Order, >From the Newspapers [ Legal Pronouncements ] 03.05.2006 "Stay on the removal of jhuggis near Pragati Maidan" Translation of report from Dainik Jagaran and Navbharat Times, two Hindi dailies, Page 01, May 03, 2006 [Read whole post] Stay Order: Record of Proceedings [ Legal Pronouncements ] 03.05.2006 [See image] The stay order passed by the Supreme Court in Nangla Maachi jhuggi case (2nd May 06), in response to the Special leave Petition filed (on 26th April 06) by Advocate Prashant Bhusan is enclosed. The Supreme Court has stopped the demolition of the homes in Nangla Maachi, by MCD/Slum & JJ department in pursuant to the direction of the Delhi High Court (5th April 06). The case is again coming for hearing on 9th May 2006. Regards, Sharmila Bhagat Ankur Society for Alternatives in Education [Read whole post] Supreme Court Stays Demolitions, by Karim [ Legal Pronouncements ] 03.05.2006 In an order granting interim relief to Nangla Maachi, the Supreme Court has stayed the demolitions of the remaining houses in Nangla until the 9th of May, 2006. [Read whole post] CM Lab, Nangla Maanchi http://nangla.freeflux.net http://nangla-maachi.freeflux.net ----------------------------------------------- It quenches the thirst of the thirsty, Such is Nangla, It shelters those who come to the city of Delhi, Such is Nangla. ------------------------------------------------ From aarti at sarai.net Sun May 7 20:12:13 2006 From: aarti at sarai.net (aarti at sarai.net) Date: Sun, 7 May 2006 16:42:13 +0200 (CEST) Subject: [Reader-list] Seminar @ Sarai: Patricia Spyer: Blind Faith: Painting Christianity in Post-Conflict Ambon (Indonesia) Message-ID: <1044.61.246.29.162.1147012933.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> =============== Seminar @ Sarai =============== Blind Faith: Painting Christianity in Post-Conflict Ambon (Indonesia) A talk by Patricia Spyer Seminar Room Monday, 12 P.M., 8 May 2006 During the war in Ambon and since, popular Christian painters have been plastering the city’s main thoroughfares and Christian neighborhood gateways with billboard portraits of Jesus and Christian murals. These artifacts perform in several capacities: as visual emblems of Christian territory, as an alternative urban counterpublic to the political and televisual prominence of Muslims nation-wide, as a way of presencing and therein a being-seen-by God, and as a mode of intervention in everyday Christian behavior. The paintings’ migration from church interiors to urban public space and their non-institutional base raises questions concerning the transformations post-war of religious sensibility and the specific role of both mass and alternative media therein. During and following the war, different dimensions of the visual have been both explicitly and implicitly thematized in a variety of ways first, in the sense among ordinary Ambonese of not being able to trust appearances, of not seeing or foreseeing what might come, of a radical refiguration of not only subjectivity but, more precisely, sensory subjectivity during the war. Second, the pervasive sense that they themselves were unseen, that their suffering went unnoticed by the Indonesian government, their fellow countrymen, the larger world. Among minority Christians who in the late Suharto period saw their prior privileged social, political, and economic position diminished, the sense of being unseen is even stronger. Implicit in some practices albeit a theological impossibility is the perception among Ambonese Christians that their own desperate plight may have been invisible to God himself. The gigantic Christian portraits and murals rising on the ruins of war across Ambon bear witness and give material form to Christian anxieties about invisibility while also aiming to alleviate the very condition of being unseen. Homing in on blindness as much as varied refractions of the visual, the paper also expands our understanding of what the visual might be. [Patricia Spyer is Professor of Anthropology at Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands. She is the author of is the author of "The Memory of Trade: Modernity's Entanglements on an Eastern Indonesia Island", (Duke, 2000) and editor of "Border Fetishisms: Material Objects in Unstable Spaces", (Routledge, 1998.)] From parismitasingh at yahoo.com Sun May 7 20:19:37 2006 From: parismitasingh at yahoo.com (parismita singh) Date: Sun, 7 May 2006 07:49:37 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] ' Untitled' ( or extract from the longer stories) - I-Fellow Posting Message-ID: <20060507144938.67946.qmail@web52613.mail.yahoo.com> To see I-fellow Parismita's posting with the images ( and I do recommend that!) go to - www.parismitasingh.blogspot.com Hello everyone, I've put up an extract (image) from a story that I finished working on. The other pieces up on the blog are the 2/3 pages long stories .But the longer stories - (15 to 20 pages or longer) work a little differently from the shorter ones. The narrative is more conventional - text and image supporting each other. I'm also a little more disciplined and rein in my arbitrariness to some degree. Working on both the forms does give me more freedom to play ... This story is not based in Delhi unlike some of the earlier work I have up on the blog. I like to think ( or at least thats the plan ) that the story is being told in Delhi, though it is a story of another place and another time. Thanks! Parismita __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From rahul_capri at yahoo.com Mon May 8 03:44:54 2006 From: rahul_capri at yahoo.com (Rahul Asthana) Date: Sun, 7 May 2006 15:14:54 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] The colbert clip Message-ID: <20060507221454.25855.qmail@web53614.mail.yahoo.com> Hi All, Couldnt resist sharing this with you guys. The Colbert clip http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1062761 Thanks Rahul __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From turbulence at turbulence.org Sun May 7 19:39:49 2006 From: turbulence at turbulence.org (Turbulence) Date: Sun, 7 May 2006 10:09:49 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Turbulence Spotlight: "Community of Words" by Silvia Laurentiz and Martha CC Gabriel Message-ID: <003201c671df$eaf617c0$6601a8c0@t5x1c0> May 7, 2006 Turbulence Spotlight: "Community of Words" by Silvia Laurentiz and Martha CC Gabriel http://turbulence.org/spotlight/cm/community-of-words.htm Requirements: Flash plug-in; click on "Set Up" for further instructions. The "Community of Words" is a 3D environment governed by the Theory of Emergence. Users are invited to add their own words to the system thereby becoming part of the community of words; they can interact with and navigate the environment, and observe the actions of other participants. One of the system's main characteristics is the feedback phenomenon that happens while one navigates the 3D environment: the words already present in the space influence other participants, who may interact with them and create new texts in response to them. Participant characteristics such as language, slang, or culture form completely different communities of words and, subsequently, the words that emerge within them. BIOGRAPHIES SILVIA LAURENTIZ: Professor in the department of Fine Arts at the School of Communication and Arts, University of São Paulo, Laurentiz holds a PhD in Communication and Semiotics and a Masters Degree in Multimedia. She is also a graphics and multimedia designer; an artist who works in virtual reality, multimedia and web art; an art and new technologies researcher; and a speaker at art and technology conferences. MARTHA CARRER CRUZ GABRIEL: An engineer with postgraduate studies in Marketing and Graphic Design, Gabriel's Masters Degree in Art & Technology is in progress at the University of São Paulo. Web/MM artist, professor at the Business School and Digital Design Program of the Universidade Anhembi Morumbi, and director of technology at New Media Developers (NMD), Gabriel is the winner of 11 Internet Best Awards from 1998 to 2005 and a highly acclaimed speaker. For more information about Turbulence, please visit http://turbulence.org Jo-Anne Green, Co-Director New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc.: http://new-radio.org New York: 917.548.7780 • Boston: 617.522.3856 Turbulence: http://turbulence.org New American Radio: http://somewhere.org Networked_Performance Blog: http://turbulence.org/blog Upgrade! Boston: http://turbulence.org/upgrade _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From impulsecreatives at gmail.com Mon May 8 10:33:41 2006 From: impulsecreatives at gmail.com (Impulse (workshops) / Kavita Joshi) Date: Mon, 8 May 2006 10:33:41 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Announcement : Workshop in Video/Film making (TXT version) Message-ID: <002101c6725c$cba28020$0201a8c0@hpdab99e23044a> Dear List Modertor My 11th workshop in filmmaking/videomaking is about to start soon. If this announcement is suitable for your list(s), could you please post it? If not, pl ignore. with thanks Kavita Joshi --------------------ANNOUNCEMENT-------------- Impulse announces its 10th Workshop in Video/Film making for Beginners. Conducted by Kavita Joshi. LEARN VIDEO / FILM MAKING HANDS-ON Shoot . Edit . Script your own short film STARTS LATE MAY 2006 | HELD IN DELHI | REGISTRATION OPENS 21ST APRIL THE WORKSHOP IS AIMED AT PEOPLE WHO: . Want to make their own film, but don't quite know how. . Or - are thinking of a career in TV/films, but are not sure if it's right for them. . Or - are doing a mass communication course which doesn't have enough video training. . Or simply want a creative new hobby. Age is not a restriction. We're open to anyone 18 upwards. PARTICIPANTS GET TO: . Learn to make your own films . Shoot. Edit. Script. Go for Field Trips, and more. . Watch great films from all over the world . Use the latest digital equipment LOGISTICS: . Course starts late May 2006 . Its in 2 parts: duration: 3 Weeks + 3 Weeks (full days, on weekdays) . Held in South Delhi. (near Hauz Khas) . Small group of 18 people (max). Individual attention. THE WORKSHOP IS CONDUCTED BY: Principally conducted by Kavita Joshi, independent filmmaker, ertswhile TV Producer and an alumnus of FTII, Pune.Her films include: - Tales from the Margins (under production) - Naani (under production) - Untitled: 3 films on Women & Conflict in Manipur (For NRK Norway) - Some Roots Grow Upwards (for PSBT) Kavita Joshi has been designing and conducting workshops since 2001. For institutions like: IIT Kanpur, Adobe India Ltd, International Association of Women in Radio & Television, Chetana Media Institute (Kerala), and others. She also conducts summer workshops at Impulse every year. To know more about her films and workshops, please visit: http://kavitajoshi.blogspot.com FOR MORE INFORMATION: Email us at: < impulsemail (AT) gmail.com > with your queries AND your contact details. Or Call the Workshop Coordinator: at (011) 26518315 [2 - 6pm, Mon-Fri only] *** _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From nirupama.sekhar at gmail.com Mon May 8 11:10:10 2006 From: nirupama.sekhar at gmail.com (Nirupama Sekhar) Date: Mon, 8 May 2006 11:10:10 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Urban stories/ blog Message-ID: <87927e9c0605072240u1af54ef6y8464b9cebb7b28e@mail.gmail.com> Hello all.. Urban Stories' blog is at now at: http://mumbai-urbanstories.blogspot.com The posting (on blogspot) has details of the current piece we are working on, including pictures and info. More updates soon.. On a personal front, I'm really looking forward to next month.. when work will start full time on the Sarai project. Regards. Nirupama -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060508/dbe8377f/attachment.html From sastry at cs.wisc.edu Mon May 8 12:00:24 2006 From: sastry at cs.wisc.edu (Subramanya Sastry) Date: Mon, 8 May 2006 12:00:24 +0530 (IST) Subject: [Reader-list] NewsRack Updates Message-ID: Hello everyone, Here are several updates about NewsRack. . NewsRack is now multilingualized (as noted in an email earlier last month) . The news display screens have been changed in several ways. - The Browse page feels a little less cluttered than before. - For each news item, any available news description (or summary) is also displayed -- sometimes useful to get a quick flavour of the news article - Most significantly, for every news item, NewsRack also displays all the other categories that it is classified in. This is useful in a couple of ways. It serves as a way to cross-reference the item across different categories (for example, a news item that is classified under nuclear-energy is also classified under cancer; or a news item classified under World-Bank is also classified under hydel-projects). Additionally, it indirectly highlights the "importance" of the news item, so to say. - This category information for a news item is also displayed when the cached news item is displayed. This allows visitors (via search engines like google) to browse more related news items (i.e. it provides a focused entry into NewsRack, or put another way, for "directed browsing" ...) . NewsRack's feeds (or results) are now being used (or linked from) the following websites. - http://www.tsunamiindia.org - http://www.narmada.org/pressclippings.html - http://narmada.aidindia.org - http://www.indiawaterportal.org/news.html - http://www.cacim.net - http://www.asianpeoplesforum.net I either personally know the people involved in running the above sites or I myself happen to administer a couple of them. But, despite that, the use of NewsRack on the above sites should be an indicator of the utilities NewsRack's work can be put to. . In terms of daily visitors, access log statistics show that as of today, about 50 unique visitors access NewsRack every day, about a third of whom are visitors from Google. I do not know the exact number, but a significant number of all total accesses (almost half) are for RSS feeds (those that are generated for NewsRack categories or those that are generated by NewsRack crawlers for newspapers like Deccan Herald, Business Standard, etc.) . The backend of NewsRack is now fairly stable and I have addressed a couple of scalability issues. But, there are still several scalability issues that remain to be addressed. . In the course of the last several months, I have personally set up several profiles on NewsRack (a) to showcase the versatility of NewsRack (b) and to help individuals/organizations to be able to monitor news of their interest. I have done this on a somewhat adhoc basis as and when time is available. I would say that almost 75% of profiles on NewsRack today have been set up by me. . NewsRack has ceased to be a single-person project at this time, and while I have had several offers from people to work on various aspects of the project, none of them have materialized as yet, but I remain hopeful :-) . There is a strong likelihood that an M.Tech student from IIT-Bombay is going to be working on NewsRack-related projects for the M.Tech thesis/project under the guidance of Prof.Om Damani in the CS Dept there. Last year, an undergraduate student from Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad had been directed by Om Damni to me to work on NewsRack. So far, Jai is the only other person who has contributed any code to NewsRack directly. That is all for now. Subbu. From mail at shivamvij.com Mon May 8 18:34:46 2006 From: mail at shivamvij.com (Shivam Vij) Date: Mon, 8 May 2006 18:34:46 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] And it was like this that modernity arrived! Message-ID: Third Division merits a cry By Chandrabhan Prasad http://dailypioneer.com/columnist1.asp?main_variable=Columnist&file_name=PRASAD157%2Etxt&writer=PRASAD&validit=yes While the UPA Government's Mandal-II has once again massacred aspirations of the MBCs (Most Backward Classes), the Dwijas are at their self-condemning best. In suspecting merit of other's, they forget their own past, and the idea of merit they had only a century and a half back. It was around 1856 when the Madras College came into being. But, from the start, it faced a peculiar problem - the college building had come up with all other infrastructural facilities, and professors from England, but not enough students to make the college viable. India has a big pool of historians who know every detail of the modern history, and many have mastered even the world history. What they know not, or don't like to know, is the story of the College, and the history of modern education. They took no pains in explaining as why the College had shortage of students, and how that problem was to be resolved. They would also not tell as to when, why and for whom was Third Class considered as pass. Till the Madras college came into being some where in 1850s, the pass marks required at Intermediate level was a minimum of 40 per cent, and First and Second were the only divisions. On the insistence of the Indians (read Brahmans), the pass percentage requirement was brought down to 33 per cent, and Third Division introduced. The College soon got enough students to justify its existence. By all accounts, this was the first victory the merit lobby had won in the past one millennium. We can understand, and sympathise with them. While I have begun my research in procuring those crucial documents from archives, the Report of the Indian Universities Commission (1902) gives an idea. While discussing the results of the Matriculation examination for the year 1901, the report (page 45) says: "We were told that at Calcutta 1,400 more candidates would have failed had the standard in English been 40 percent of the marks instead of 33 per cent." Many a merit theorists cite failure rate of Dalit/Adivasi students at Medical/Engineering/Management Colleges, which is often less than a percent, as a reason to scrap reservations. The meritorious historians however, would not tell the failure rate of their own people. According to Progress of Education in India (1922-1927), Vol. 1, Page 40, the failure rate of students in MBBS stood at 47 per cent, and in Engineering, at 34 per cent. They would also not tell us as how during 1860s', their ancestors were afraid of taking science and mathematics as subjects of studies, and were in fact, bribed to study sciences and medicine. Despite huge failure rates, the British government continued promoting science education amongst them. Despite being victims of social segregation, and economic deprivation, and as the newest entrant in the world of learning, Dalit/Adivasis never demanded bringing down pass marks to, say, 20 per cent? Did Dalits/Adivasis demand adding a Fourth division? Or, did Dalits/Adivasis demand any reservation in examination for getting degrees? What all Dalits have insisted is reservation during admissions, and many of them do better than those students who had higher percentage of marks at the time of admissions. India's traditional ruling castes have become ridiculously incoherent, and sorrowfully, inarticulate. If there was a third party - UNESCO for instance, to examine the kind of arguments the Merit Lobby has been pushing through, and the arguments put forth by Dalits, the Merit lobby would fail to qualify for a degree course unless a Fourth Class was added. The Dalit Diary would like to throw a humble challenge - what difference it would make between 50 per cent and 70 per cent at plus two level, or similar situation in an entrance test. Can any one say with certainty that the 70 per cent mark sheet holder is superior to the 50 per cent mark sheet holder in intelligence? Can any one say with certainty that those who pass with first class are necessarily better than the second class degree holders at work places? If not, then the Dwijas must stop ridiculing themselves, and abandon their self-defeating Merit illogic. India will remain incomplete without Dalits/Adivasis - MBCs and lower caste Muslims in institutions of learning. From abhishek.hazra at gmail.com Mon May 8 19:48:48 2006 From: abhishek.hazra at gmail.com (Abhishek Hazra) Date: Mon, 8 May 2006 19:48:48 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Urban stories/ blog (pixel art) Message-ID: <6deae8300605080718qaf00c1eta1ccc1e1fb8f49d0@mail.gmail.com> >>I'm trying a style I've always wanted to do: Pixel Art. Pixel art is art drawn pixel by pixel and can be done on most graphics packages. (http://mumbai-urbanstories.blogspot.com) SIM City meets Mumbai Chawl! this is great: i mean your idea to render a mumbai chawl in the isometric pixel art style. i am really looking forward to it. please keep us posted. Isn't there a sequence in Ruchir Joshi's "Last Jet Engine Laugh" where Paro fights a battle over Mumbai's skies? The pixel approach is significant on many counts. Because if you look at it, it is really a strange animal as it confounds the vector/raster binary. Technically it is obviously a raster image, but if you want, you could construct it in a vector program also. So that way it is scale independent. Also, if you look at the classics of this genre like some of the gems by Eboy, the attempts at verisimilitude is really interesting. Because what happens is that while it points to the continuous tonality of say a photograph, it never simulates it totally. So the image literally hovers between this pixellated (quantized?) version and ones memory/extrapolation of the actual object. True, this play across scales has multiple precedents. From Seurat's pointillism to Chuck Close's portraits. But I think the pixel art approach does represent a significant development. The pixel approach in on-screen typography is also quite fascinating. Even if just as a purely formal problem: when you have just so many pixels at your disposal, how do you distinguish between theGalliard and a Garamond? Both these faces have a contrast of thick and thinstrokes, but the way they do it is different. Today, it is quite interesting to see typefaces like verdana being used quite regularly on print. Because verdana initially started its life as an online font so the characters were designed keeping in mind the reduced information set that a pixel font affords. Cheers, Abhishek On 5/8/06, Nirupama Sekhar wrote: > > Hello all.. > > Urban Stories' blog is at now at: > > http://mumbai-urbanstories.blogspot.com > The posting (on blogspot) has details of the current piece we are working on, including pictures and info. More updates soon.. On a personal front, I'm really looking forward to next month.. when work will start full time on the Sarai project. Regards. Nirupama > > > _________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in the subject header. > List archive: > > -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - does the frog know it has a latin name? - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - From aman.am at gmail.com Mon May 8 20:43:32 2006 From: aman.am at gmail.com (Aman Sethi) Date: Mon, 8 May 2006 08:13:32 -0700 Subject: [Reader-list] The News of the World and Other Stories: Post 4.0 by Aman Sethi In-Reply-To: <20060507144229.51560.qmail@web52605.mail.yahoo.com> References: <995a19920605061458o3167ea92l3cc6b1f12b246ea2@mail.gmail.com> <20060507144229.51560.qmail@web52605.mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <995a19920605080813k58337cbfre9c6298b243a1de0@mail.gmail.com> Dear Parismita, Glad u liked the peice. Would be fun to work on a comic seriea together. interestingly, the last post - welcome to nowhere was a text attempt at creating an atmosphere like in frank miller's sin city series. a> On 5/7/06, parismita singh wrote: > Hi Aman, > > Just a note to say I enjoyed reading your piece very > much . I've often felt that one 'misses' out on the > nuances of a political or other situation, when all we > have is 'news'. And travelling through India( and > listening in ) to people , I did wish there was more > 'writing ' like yours. > > And yes, I could almost see some of the characters in > pen and ink - it would make good comic book stuff! > > Regards, > Parismita > > --- Aman Sethi wrote: > > > Dear All, > > This latest post is in four parts, and is an attempt > > to understand a > > great vareity of things - principally "time pass", > > information > > dissemination, and intersections between the mandi > > and the state. As > > usual, its highly abstracted from my conversations > > with construction > > labour in paharganj. > > Best > > Aman > > > > Part I, The News of the World. > > > > Welcome to The News of the World: Time pass with > > Mamu the drunk, Lambu > > the philosopher and JP the lunatic. Don't miss our > > > > pet special with man's best friend "Kutiya the > > wonder-dog". Also, in > > "Ask Ashraf", the answer to our weekly poll question > > – Sarkar Humari > > Gaand Kyu Marti Hai?" > > > > The lunatic came early that day, and with him came > > the news of the > > world. Five in the evening, and the working day was > > winding down, the > > sun was setting, and the world was slowly healing > > itself in > > preparation for a long, bruising tomorrow. Slowly > > the patchwork of > > open wounds were closing into scabs, only to be > > grazed open the next > > day – shops downed their shutters, mazdoors downed > > their tools, MCD > > bulldozers burrowed their way deep into the remains > > of the settlement > > they had just destroyed, and the Judge adjourned his > > Court – granting > > the courtiers another night of uneasy sleep. > > > > "Deviyo, t-tha Sajjanno, bhen ke lowdo, Gundi nalli > > ke keedon, Jago, > > Jago, Jago" "Mein hu JP Singh Pagal, aur mein laya > > huan - Aaj ki taaz > > khabar". Enter the lunatic – an effervescent bubble > > in a sea of > > surliness. Weaving through the crowd of exhausted > > labourers, the > > lunatic pulled hard on his chillum, exhaling plumes > > of bitter sweet > > marijuana smoke: interrupting conversations, > > pushing, shoving, joking, > > bitching, shouting, and wailing out "The News of the > > World"-complete > > with analysis from our experts. > > > > Undeterred by the lack of welcome, the lunatic > > plowed on, rattling off > > events and occurrences in no particular order – > > taking credit for most > > stories, placing himself, and his viewer, directly > > in the line of > > fire. > > > > "Soft drink ke bottle me milla condom – Pepsi ki > > lagi gaand- ek lakh > > rupai jurmana. > > Meerut mein lagi aag – voh toh kher, humne hi lagayi > > thi, Lakhme India > > Fashion Week mein kapade gayab - sunna tha badi > > taliya bajji thi, hum > > bhi the vahain, kyu? Sheher mein macchi khalbalee – > > bhai sahib, ek > > bomb ka dhamaka kafi hai." > > > > His audience, by contrast, was a study in stillness- > > pulling their > > belongings closer, and then still closer, every time > > he passed by. > > Inspired by KBC, JP Singh Pagal was a firm believer > > in the "fastest > > finger first" doctrine, picking up anything that > > caught his fancy. > > Rumour had it that he prowled the mandi after > > midnight, walking off > > the effects of his chillum and stealing slippers, > > tools and clothes. > > But for now, he was tolerable as the fearless, > > intrepid reporter – > > jumping through rings of fire to bring his > > uninterested audience their > > daily bulletin. > > > > The lunatic was not picky about his sources – far > > away, in the nether > > regions of the hinterland, news was on the move. > > Stories hitched > > themselves to the hemlines of sarees, stuck > > themselves to the rubber > > soles of countless Hawaii chappals and stealthily > > made their way > > across the vast countryside to Bara Tuti – the heart > > of Delhi and the > > centre of the universe. Suppressed by Aaj Tak, cast > > away by the > > Dainik Jagran, termed irrelevant by the English > > media, reports wormed > > their way though the narrow gullies, seeking out the > > lunatic – the > > half-mad oracle of half-truths, the Zen master of > > Chinese Whispers. > > In his ceaseless quest for the truth, the lunatic > > gave each story a > > fair hearing - nothin was too sensational, or > > boring, to escape the > > glory of the evening bulletin."Lallo Prasad Yadav > > has bought a new > > house in Patna near Anurag Bhavan," "Manmohan Desai, > > (sic) the new > > prime minister, studied commerce in college." "Kala > > Baba has > > recovered from tuberculosis, he is now in > > Nanital, cleaning up his act. Sources say he has > > never looked this > > good." His audience suffered him as best they could > > , "Aur kuch > > nahin, toh sala time toh kat jata hai. But saale se > > bach ke raho, voh > > pagal nahin hai, bus lagta hai." > > > > And then, as suddenly as he had arrived, he was > > gone. A puff of ganja > > laced smoke, a small hand flashed out towards the > > large plastic bag on > > the floor, and with without as much as second > > glance, JP Singh Pagal, > > "Sadak Chaap, awara, deewana," was off in search of > > the next breaking > > story, humming tunelessly to himself, oblivious to > > hunt for a missing > > ten rupee note. "Dekh tere sansar ki halat kya ho > > gayi bhagwaan, > > kitna badal gaya insaan." > > > > Part II: The Philosopher's Stone. > > > > The philosopher looked up at the sky, and then at > > the grinning, > > clearly stoned, face of his departing co-anchor. He > > cleared his > > throat, and waited. Ever courteous, the crowd > > settled down– allowing > > him the opportunity to keep them waiting. He lit a > > beedi, the crowd > > waited, and waited, and waited, for the first > > cryptic utterance. His > > large hyptonic eyes panned across the sweating > > crowd, his lips pouted > > ever so slightly, and then he said, "Humme nazar aa > > raha hai – ek > > talab phel ke thanda pada ho." The crowd shifted, > > "ek kankar mar do – > > ek kankar mar do , toh poora talab hil jayega." > > Someone in the > > audience cleared > > his throat, the philosopher leaned back, watching > > the metaphor ripple > > through his audience. "Sheeshe mein dekh lo, safa > > pani mein dekh lo – > > chehra toh vahi hai." " Pur sheeshe ko pocket mein > > dal sakte ho." He > > added as an afterthought. > > > > While the lunatic was clearly not one to be trusted, > > the philosopher > > was a mysterious chap: tall, dark and given to > > macabre allusions. He > > spoke rarely, but forcefully, and "jab voh mood mein > > aata tha," he > > could silence even the most loquacious lunatic. > > "Kya tume pata hai, > > ki Dilli toot rahi hai?" The crowd nodded in > > acquiescence. Indeed, > > Dilli was coming apart. Not slowly and steadily > > like an old leather > > chappal, but with the force and fury of an > > overloaded plastic bag. A > > jagging, ripping tear that threatened not just their > > homes, but struck > > at the very heart of the mandi's business – > > construction. A dark > > force was gathering on the borders of Bara Tuti – > > heart of Dilli and > > centre of the universe. An insidious ploy that > > sought to replace the > > centuries old, "rule of thumb" by the brutal "rule > > of law". A shrill, > > elite-middle class scream, urging the Courts to > > "Judge > === message truncated === > > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around > http://mail.yahoo.com > From mahmood.farooqui at gmail.com Mon May 8 22:36:47 2006 From: mahmood.farooqui at gmail.com (mahmood farooqui) Date: Mon, 8 May 2006 22:36:47 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] The News of the World and Other Stories: Post 4.0 by Aman Sethi In-Reply-To: <995a19920605080813k58337cbfre9c6298b243a1de0@mail.gmail.com> References: <995a19920605061458o3167ea92l3cc6b1f12b246ea2@mail.gmail.com> <20060507144229.51560.qmail@web52605.mail.yahoo.com> <995a19920605080813k58337cbfre9c6298b243a1de0@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Oh yes, couldn't agree more with Parismita. An Indian Orwell! What could be more obvious. And more difficult to find. On 08/05/06, Aman Sethi wrote: > Dear Parismita, > > Glad u liked the peice. Would be fun to work on a comic seriea > together. interestingly, the last post - welcome to nowhere was a > text attempt at creating an atmosphere like in frank miller's sin city > series. > a> > On 5/7/06, parismita singh wrote: > > Hi Aman, > > > > Just a note to say I enjoyed reading your piece very > > much . I've often felt that one 'misses' out on the > > nuances of a political or other situation, when all we > > have is 'news'. And travelling through India( and > > listening in ) to people , I did wish there was more > > 'writing ' like yours. > > > > And yes, I could almost see some of the characters in > > pen and ink - it would make good comic book stuff! > > > > Regards, > > Parismita > > > > --- Aman Sethi wrote: > > > > > Dear All, > > > This latest post is in four parts, and is an attempt > > > to understand a > > > great vareity of things - principally "time pass", > > > information > > > dissemination, and intersections between the mandi > > > and the state. As > > > usual, its highly abstracted from my conversations > > > with construction > > > labour in paharganj. > > > Best > > > Aman > > > > > > Part I, The News of the World. > > > > > > Welcome to The News of the World: Time pass with > > > Mamu the drunk, Lambu > > > the philosopher and JP the lunatic. Don't miss our > > > > > > pet special with man's best friend "Kutiya the > > > wonder-dog". Also, in > > > "Ask Ashraf", the answer to our weekly poll question > > > – Sarkar Humari > > > Gaand Kyu Marti Hai?" > > > > > > The lunatic came early that day, and with him came > > > the news of the > > > world. Five in the evening, and the working day was > > > winding down, the > > > sun was setting, and the world was slowly healing > > > itself in > > > preparation for a long, bruising tomorrow. Slowly > > > the patchwork of > > > open wounds were closing into scabs, only to be > > > grazed open the next > > > day – shops downed their shutters, mazdoors downed > > > their tools, MCD > > > bulldozers burrowed their way deep into the remains > > > of the settlement > > > they had just destroyed, and the Judge adjourned his > > > Court – granting > > > the courtiers another night of uneasy sleep. > > > > > > "Deviyo, t-tha Sajjanno, bhen ke lowdo, Gundi nalli > > > ke keedon, Jago, > > > Jago, Jago" "Mein hu JP Singh Pagal, aur mein laya > > > huan - Aaj ki taaz > > > khabar". Enter the lunatic – an effervescent bubble > > > in a sea of > > > surliness. Weaving through the crowd of exhausted > > > labourers, the > > > lunatic pulled hard on his chillum, exhaling plumes > > > of bitter sweet > > > marijuana smoke: interrupting conversations, > > > pushing, shoving, joking, > > > bitching, shouting, and wailing out "The News of the > > > World"-complete > > > with analysis from our experts. > > > > > > Undeterred by the lack of welcome, the lunatic > > > plowed on, rattling off > > > events and occurrences in no particular order – > > > taking credit for most > > > stories, placing himself, and his viewer, directly > > > in the line of > > > fire. > > > > > > "Soft drink ke bottle me milla condom – Pepsi ki > > > lagi gaand- ek lakh > > > rupai jurmana. > > > Meerut mein lagi aag – voh toh kher, humne hi lagayi > > > thi, Lakhme India > > > Fashion Week mein kapade gayab - sunna tha badi > > > taliya bajji thi, hum > > > bhi the vahain, kyu? Sheher mein macchi khalbalee – > > > bhai sahib, ek > > > bomb ka dhamaka kafi hai." > > > > > > His audience, by contrast, was a study in stillness- > > > pulling their > > > belongings closer, and then still closer, every time > > > he passed by. > > > Inspired by KBC, JP Singh Pagal was a firm believer > > > in the "fastest > > > finger first" doctrine, picking up anything that > > > caught his fancy. > > > Rumour had it that he prowled the mandi after > > > midnight, walking off > > > the effects of his chillum and stealing slippers, > > > tools and clothes. > > > But for now, he was tolerable as the fearless, > > > intrepid reporter – > > > jumping through rings of fire to bring his > > > uninterested audience their > > > daily bulletin. > > > > > > The lunatic was not picky about his sources – far > > > away, in the nether > > > regions of the hinterland, news was on the move. > > > Stories hitched > > > themselves to the hemlines of sarees, stuck > > > themselves to the rubber > > > soles of countless Hawaii chappals and stealthily > > > made their way > > > across the vast countryside to Bara Tuti – the heart > > > of Delhi and the > > > centre of the universe. Suppressed by Aaj Tak, cast > > > away by the > > > Dainik Jagran, termed irrelevant by the English > > > media, reports wormed > > > their way though the narrow gullies, seeking out the > > > lunatic – the > > > half-mad oracle of half-truths, the Zen master of > > > Chinese Whispers. > > > In his ceaseless quest for the truth, the lunatic > > > gave each story a > > > fair hearing - nothin was too sensational, or > > > boring, to escape the > > > glory of the evening bulletin."Lallo Prasad Yadav > > > has bought a new > > > house in Patna near Anurag Bhavan," "Manmohan Desai, > > > (sic) the new > > > prime minister, studied commerce in college." "Kala > > > Baba has > > > recovered from tuberculosis, he is now in > > > Nanital, cleaning up his act. Sources say he has > > > never looked this > > > good." His audience suffered him as best they could > > > , "Aur kuch > > > nahin, toh sala time toh kat jata hai. But saale se > > > bach ke raho, voh > > > pagal nahin hai, bus lagta hai." > > > > > > And then, as suddenly as he had arrived, he was > > > gone. A puff of ganja > > > laced smoke, a small hand flashed out towards the > > > large plastic bag on > > > the floor, and with without as much as second > > > glance, JP Singh Pagal, > > > "Sadak Chaap, awara, deewana," was off in search of > > > the next breaking > > > story, humming tunelessly to himself, oblivious to > > > hunt for a missing > > > ten rupee note. "Dekh tere sansar ki halat kya ho > > > gayi bhagwaan, > > > kitna badal gaya insaan." > > > > > > Part II: The Philosopher's Stone. > > > > > > The philosopher looked up at the sky, and then at > > > the grinning, > > > clearly stoned, face of his departing co-anchor. He > > > cleared his > > > throat, and waited. Ever courteous, the crowd > > > settled down– allowing > > > him the opportunity to keep them waiting. He lit a > > > beedi, the crowd > > > waited, and waited, and waited, for the first > > > cryptic utterance. His > > > large hyptonic eyes panned across the sweating > > > crowd, his lips pouted > > > ever so slightly, and then he said, "Humme nazar aa > > > raha hai – ek > > > talab phel ke thanda pada ho." The crowd shifted, > > > "ek kankar mar do – > > > ek kankar mar do , toh poora talab hil jayega." > > > Someone in the > > > audience cleared > > > his throat, the philosopher leaned back, watching > > > the metaphor ripple > > > through his audience. "Sheeshe mein dekh lo, safa > > > pani mein dekh lo – > > > chehra toh vahi hai." " Pur sheeshe ko pocket mein > > > dal sakte ho." He > > > added as an afterthought. > > > > > > While the lunatic was clearly not one to be trusted, > > > the philosopher > > > was a mysterious chap: tall, dark and given to > > > macabre allusions. He > > > spoke rarely, but forcefully, and "jab voh mood mein > > > aata tha," he > > > could silence even the most loquacious lunatic. > > > "Kya tume pata hai, > > > ki Dilli toot rahi hai?" The crowd nodded in > > > acquiescence. Indeed, > > > Dilli was coming apart. Not slowly and steadily > > > like an old leather > > > chappal, but with the force and fury of an > > > overloaded plastic bag. A > > > jagging, ripping tear that threatened not just their > > > homes, but struck > > > at the very heart of the mandi's business – > > > construction. A dark > > > force was gathering on the borders of Bara Tuti – > > > heart of Dilli and > > > centre of the universe. An insidious ploy that > > > sought to replace the > > > centuries old, "rule of thumb" by the brutal "rule > > > of law". A shrill, > > > elite-middle class scream, urging the Courts to > > > "Judge > > === message truncated === > > > > > > __________________________________________________ > > Do You Yahoo!? > > Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around > > http://mail.yahoo.com > > > _________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in the subject header. > List archive: > From s_kavula at yahoo.com Mon May 8 15:39:27 2006 From: s_kavula at yahoo.com (saraswati) Date: Mon, 8 May 2006 03:09:27 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] we the people Message-ID: <20060508100927.64722.qmail@web36610.mail.mud.yahoo.com> ‘WE THE PEOPLE’ We the ones who are the driving force behind the great Indian dream, the New Age India that is seen in flashy malls, funky cars and tabloid Page3 News are also the murderers of the innocent. But we do not realise it. In our consumerist frenzy we are giving power to the Corporate which is even controlling our governments, and the government agencies are wilfully using brutality against the very people who have voted them to power. When we hear such things we shed a tear or two, they make good copy for coffee table political talk, but not once do we bother to step out of our glass houses to lend a hand to the struggling commoner whose homes have been burned down and whose life has been taken, whose hands have been chopped off by the Police in order to stop his peaceful protest and help the large Corporate CAR Manufacturer to set up his steel Mining Company; the shepherd who lost his grazing land due to the expansions of Greater Hyderabad – the real estate frenzy driven by OUR craze to own property, the more the merrier – for we are not satisfied with what we have. The new age mantra is to live life King style – even if it means WE either directly or indirectly take away the livelihoods and lives of the helpless, making them beggars or corpses in the bargain, their women prostituting to feed hungry children. Those of us, who talk about spirituality and the Art of Living, let us understand that spirituality should encompass everything that we do and every aspect of our life. In effect, does it make us any less culpable than murderers and criminals? At least they are brought to book and punished in jails, but WE are safe behind the garb of ECONOMIC REFORMS which are bringing us bigger jobs, fatter salaries, more luxuries to enjoy, but with the cost being paid for by countless millions. If there is anyone out there with a conscience then think if you have this BIRTHRIGHT to make your palaces over the death and destruction of many. We talk about becoming vegetarians, about being kind to animals, but WE are the reason for so many deaths – and WE don’t realise it. Instead the deprived villager who is fighting to keep his home and hearth, to stop the Agents of Corporate sector, the Government Contractors from throwing him out of the only life he knows, to prevent his girls and women from prostituting on the streets, to ensure that he continues to live his life with dignity – he is called an “Obstructer of DEVELOPMENT”. And when he comes to beg on the streets of the Big City – WE call him a menace and wonder why the “Beggar Menace” is increasing in this land, why the “Crime Rate” is increasing. Only WE fail to realise that WE are part of the reason for it, for his distress and for making him hate all of us. But we don’t care, for after all he is just part of statistical Data, and we continue in our quest to acquire more – more gadgets, more cars, more palatial homes. Saraswati Kavula --------------------------------- New Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Call regular phones from your PC and save big. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060508/abdde579/attachment.html From shekhar at MIT.EDU Tue May 9 05:06:36 2006 From: shekhar at MIT.EDU (Shekhar Krishnan) Date: Mon, 08 May 2006 19:36:36 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] Digital Archiving and Courseware in India: MIT Talk on Thursday Message-ID: <445FD604.7040008@mit.edu> Dear All: Try and make it to this talk I am organising if you have the time. Thanks, Shekhar -- Dear All: You are cordially invited to a talk and presentation by Ashish Rajadhyaksha, media historian and archivist from the Centre for the Study of Culture & Society in Bangalore, India on THURSDAY 11 MAY 2006 at 5.00 p.m. at MIT. Ashish will introduce the Comprehensive Online Resource for Education (CORE), a recent initiative of CSCS, and present a short history of changing practices of database management, digital archiving, and curriculum and courseware development at CSCS for teaching cultural studies and social sciences in India. See the detailed description of the talk, and more information about Ashish Rajadhyaksha, please see the text and links below. Please RSVP to Shekhar Krishnan ( shekhar at mit.edu ) if you plan to attend, and please forward this invitation to your friends and colleagues in the Boston-Cambridge area. WHEN: Thursday 11 May 2006 at 5.00 p.m. WHERE: MIT Building 9-253 http://whereis.mit.edu/map-jpg?mapterms=9-253&mapsearch=go WHO: ASHISH RAJADHYAKSHA is Senior Fellow of the Centre for the Study of Culture & Society (CSCS), Bangalore [1], where he coordinates the CSCS Media Archive [2] and the CSCS CORE (Comprehensive Online Resource for Education) [3]. With Paul Willemen, he was co-author and editor of the Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema (1999). He is an active member of the editorial collective of the Journal of Arts and Ideas [4], and is a regular contributor to the journals Framework and Sight & Sound, and an advisor to CRIT (Collective Research Initiatives Trust), Mumbai [5]. He has written Ritwik Ghatak: A Return to the Epic (1983), was Editor, The Sad and Glad of Kishore Kumar (Research Centre for Cinema Studies, 1988); was Editor, with Amrit Gangar, of Ghatak: Arguments/Stories (Screen Unit/Research Centre for Cinema Studies, 1987). He was co-curator, with Geeta Kapur, of the exhibition Bombay/Mumbai 1992-2001, part of the exhibition Century City: Art and Culture in the Modern Metropolis, at the Tate Modern, London, 2001 [6]. Ashish's forthcoming book is called CINEMA IN THE TIME OF CELLULOID: INDIAN EVIDENCE 2005-1925 (New Delhi: Tulika Books, 2007). [1] http://cscsban.org [2] http://cscsarchive.org [3] http://www.mit.edu/~shekhar/official/cscs_core.pdf [4] http://dsal.uchicago.edu/books/artsandideas [5] http://www.crit.org.in [6] http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/centurycity/ccmumbai.htm ABOUT THE TALK: CSCS and the New Academic Domain in India The Centre for the Study of Culture & Society was founded in 1998 in Bangalore, as a ‘new generation’ academic research centre. While CSCS derived its historical legacy from the tradition of institutionalised social science research as supported by the well-known state-run institutes of the ICSSR (Indian Council for Social Science Research), it has also struck out on its own with new models for inter-disciplinary and inter-institutional pedagogy and research in the field of social science and theory. The Digital Resource Since the late 1990s, CSCS has experimented with database formats that could be transformed into teachable instruments. In 1999 CSCS started its Media & Culture Archive, and extended this in 2004 into India’s only M.A. programme in Cultural Studies taught entirely online. In 2005, this was further extended into the Undergraduate Diploma Programme in Cultural Studies. In the future, CSCS seeks to consolidate effective databasing with online pedagogy, by further linking this connection to the larger needs of social science pedagogy in India. The Social Sciences in India Indian social science research has been, since the 1970s and the pioneering work of the Subaltern Studies Collective, perhaps the most significant social science research tradition worldwide for close to two decades. Among its significant aspects has been its interlinking with the priorities of India’s NGO movement together with the needs of academic institutions both inside and outside the University. Furthering this linkage, social science research has mined the resources provided by numerous practices of independent informal archiving. As such archiving encounters the problems of digitization, it has also opened social science practice into three further areas: (1) The linking of the special skills of navigating the archives with new techniques of online pedagogy, (2) The options opened up by online publication, and (3) The need for consolidated structures of data collaboration including academically valid search platforms. The Domain of ‘Informal Archiving’ in India Since roughly the late 1970s (conventionally from the time of the end of the Emergency), non-governmental organisations have attempted a form of archiving, alongside their work on advocacy, research, training and monitoring in their specialised fields of interest. Since the mid-1990s, this movement has also sought to enter the domain of digitization at various levels, and with varying results. The ‘informal archive’ in India could consist of anything between 3-5,000 institutions seeking to work at various levels, from the collection to the catalogue to the archive itself. It is now a sufficiently significant database, with sufficiently significant problems, to merit an independent look, as the phenomenon grows in tandem with the research work of social scientists in India. _________ The Comprehensive Online Resource for Education (CORE) is an attempt to think through a possible strategy for bringing together the diverse resources and research materials available in different locations of new social science research in India, with a possible Asian extension. CORE hopes to bring into focus the the need to convert critical research into teachable, intelligible and easily accessible knowledge bases, the identifying of effective online tools and methods for teaching and learning, and the relocation of education centres, the educators and the students within the digital interfaces of cyberspace – all within the domain of higher education in social sciences in Asia. For more information on CORE, see the full proposal on http://www.mit.edu/~shekhar/official/cscs_core.pdf and contact Ashish Rajadhyaksha on ashish at cscsban.org. -- Shekhar Krishnan Apt.302, Edgerton House 143, Albany Street Cambridge, MA 02139 U.S.A. http://www.crit.org.in/members/shekhar http://www.mit.edu/~shekhar From josie at metamute.org Mon May 8 15:16:02 2006 From: josie at metamute.org (Josephine Berry Slater) Date: Mon, 08 May 2006 10:46:02 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] [Mute-social] thinking in (un)common Message-ID: <6C098066-3165-4387-A526-B7408DA25966@metamute.org> Dear Reader, Dear Writer, You are now one (many) and the same (wildly diverse)! See (act) for yourself as electronic book review www.electronicbookreview.com announces the readiness of a new crop of vigorous essays and eager ripostes for your use (read/write) in the thread: Writing (Past) Feminism One way of describing ebr as it evolves: "The peer review process posted in public." Another way: "Reading and response unbound by printing, displayed at an organic pace." A third way: "An enticing game of thinking in (un)common." In summary: C'mon in, the writing's fu(i)n(e)! www.electronicbookreview.com ---waves--< Elizabeth Joyce introduces the current gathering of ebr essays on Feminisms - Post, Past, and Present www.electronicbookreview.com/thread/writingpostfeminism/reconfigured Ara Wilson, in response to Joyce et al., offers a "global" perspective on the feminist question www.electronicbookreview.com/thread/writingpostfeminism/reconfiguredrip Postfeminism vs. the Third Wave In a second response, Alison Piepmeier offers a way past the "post" www.electronicbookreview.com/thread/writingpostfeminism/contested ---critical ecologies--< Free Culture and Our Public Needs Francis Raven reviews Lawrence Lessig www.electronicbookreview.com/thread/criticalecologies/pervasive Free as in Free Culture Responding to Raven, Benjamin Robertson demonstrates how new technologies obviate many of the protections written into copyright law, and in the process Roberston explains why the Creative Commons license is needed for every essay published in ebr www.electronicbookreview.com/thread/criticalecologies/pervasiverip ---end construction--< Peter Hare weighs in with a third response to Lori Emerson's November 2005 review of Walter Benn Michaels www.electronicbookreview.com/thread/endconstruction/significantrip3 ---electropoetics--< Virtual Realism Luc Herman and Bart Vervaeck write on Marie Laure-Ryan, Narrative as Virtual Reality www.electronicbookreview.com/thread/criticalecologies/immersive the importance of being narratological ebr contributing editor Dave Ciccoricco responds to Herman and Vervaeck www.electronicbookreview.com/thread/criticalecologies/immersiverip ---fictions present--< Of the Cliché and the Everyday Christopher Leise reviews Kenneth Bernard's Man in the Stretcher and Dick Kalich's Charlie P, a work that is as much interested in the idea of the novel as it is a novel of ideas.. www.electronicbookreview.com/thread/criticalecologies/imperillous ! ! ! ^ To Unsubscribe, contact ebr at altx.com !DSPAM:445e68d0659454026575936! _______________________________________________ Mute-social mailing list Mute-social at lists.metamute.org http://lists.metamute.org/mailman/listinfo/mute-social _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From nangla at cm.sarai.net Tue May 9 22:05:14 2006 From: nangla at cm.sarai.net (CM@Nangla) Date: Tue, 09 May 2006 18:35:14 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] Nangla Maachi: Court Proceedings.Note.9th May 2006 Message-ID: Dear All, Today, on May 09, 2006, Hon'ble Justice Ruma Pal and Justice Markhande Katju of the Supreme Court, set a time of three weeks for the demolition of the remainder of Nangla Maanchi. The half an hour hearing was held in Court Number 02 (as item number 16) of the Supreme Court, Barakhamba Road, Delhi, from 11:00 AM to 11:30 AM. The hon'ble bench stated that relocation of all the [remaining] inhabitants of Nangla was "not possible" before the demolition. It stated that all it could grant Nangla Maanchi was a time of three weeks, before demolition, "full stop". The hon'ble bench stated that the power house, whose land had been 'encroached' by the inhabitants of Nangla had given "some date for construction", and that there has to be "balance" - that the land has "uses that cannot be denied", and that the more settlements are removed, the "more they come". On the question of the timeline for this construction, the hon'ble bench stated that whatever the case may be, "occupation of land without legal authority cannot be allowed. Even people whose lands have legal rights have been relocated" for projects. In response to a request on deliberation on the question of cut-off dates for eligibility for relocation, the hon'ble bench stated, "from what was a few tenemants" it has grown to "thousands", and "each tenemant had a family". They have been "growing and growing", that it was becoming difficult to "deal with the problem". It also stated, during the court proceedings, that if public land is occupied, it will "have to be vacated", that the right to shelter did not mean that "everyone be given shelter". On the question of Ghewda being without any infrastructure or facilities (where the inhabitants of Nangla Maanchi will be temporarily relocated), the hon'ble bench stated that in Bawana, a resettlement colony, people had sold off their plots of land. On the question of the difficulty of being on the streets in this intense heat, the hon'ble bench stated that it is "never comfortable to live out", that there will always be intense heat, or cold, or rainfall in the city. The hon'ble bench suggested that people need not come to Delhi, unless they can afford to live in the city. Present at the hearing from Ankur/Cybermohalla: Sharmila Bhagat (Ankur) Shabana (Ankur) Avantika (Ankur) Shveta Sarda (Sarai/Cybermohalla) Note-taking by Shveta Sarda From ravig64 at gmail.com Tue May 9 23:46:41 2006 From: ravig64 at gmail.com (Ravi Agarwal) Date: Tue, 9 May 2006 23:46:41 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Re: [Urbanstudy] Nangla Maachi: Court Proceedings.Note.9th May 2006 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: The pace of all this leaves me speechless...the language being used leaves me dumfounded.....the rationale being provided, the violence being inflicted.....The Bhatti mines people have been in touch with me and they too are unable to explain what is happening to them. What stratergy to employ, what to say which has any meaning, or any possibility... ravi On May 9, 2006, at 10:05 PM, CM at Nangla wrote: > Dear All, > > Today, on May 09, 2006, Hon'ble Justice Ruma Pal and Justice Markhande > Katju of the Supreme Court, set a time of three weeks for the > demolition of > the remainder of Nangla Maanchi. The half an hour hearing was held > in Court > Number 02 (as item number 16) of the Supreme Court, Barakhamba > Road, Delhi, > from 11:00 AM to 11:30 AM. > > The hon'ble bench stated that relocation of all the [remaining] > inhabitants > of Nangla was "not possible" before the demolition. It stated that > all it > could grant Nangla Maanchi was a time of three weeks, before > demolition, > "full stop". > > The hon'ble bench stated that the power house, whose land had been > 'encroached' by the inhabitants of Nangla had given "some date for > construction", and that there has to be "balance" - that the land > has "uses > that cannot be denied", and that the more settlements are removed, the > "more they come". On the question of the timeline for this > construction, > the hon'ble bench stated that whatever the case may be, "occupation > of land > without legal authority cannot be allowed. Even people whose lands > have > legal rights have been relocated" for projects. > > In response to a request on deliberation on the question of cut-off > dates > for eligibility for relocation, the hon'ble bench stated, "from > what was a > few tenemants" it has grown to "thousands", and "each tenemant had a > family". They have been "growing and growing", that it was becoming > difficult to "deal with the problem". It also stated, during the court > proceedings, that if public land is occupied, it will "have to be > vacated", > that the right to shelter did not mean that "everyone be given > shelter". > > On the question of Ghewda being without any infrastructure or > facilities > (where the inhabitants of Nangla Maanchi will be temporarily > relocated), > the hon'ble bench stated that in Bawana, a resettlement colony, > people had > sold off their plots of land. On the question of the difficulty of > being on > the streets in this intense heat, the hon'ble bench stated that it is > "never comfortable to live out", that there will always be intense > heat, or > cold, or rainfall in the city. The hon'ble bench suggested that > people need > not come to Delhi, unless they can afford to live in the city. > > Present at the hearing from Ankur/Cybermohalla: > Sharmila Bhagat (Ankur) > Shabana (Ankur) > Avantika (Ankur) > Shveta Sarda (Sarai/Cybermohalla) > > Note-taking by Shveta Sarda > > _______________________________________________ > Urbanstudygroup mailing list > Urban Study Group: Reading the South Asian City > > To subscribe or browse the Urban Study Group archives, please visit > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup From jkrysa at plymouth.ac.uk Wed May 10 00:02:05 2006 From: jkrysa at plymouth.ac.uk (Joasia) Date: Tue, 09 May 2006 19:32:05 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] CURATING IMMATERIALITY In-Reply-To: Message-ID: The third volume in the DATA browser series is now out - focusing on curating in the context of technological networks (Internet and software). Introduction to the book available for download from the Data browser website at: www.data-browser.net/03 --- DATA browser 03 CURATING IMMATERIALITY THE WORK OF THE CURATOR IN THE AGE OF NETWORK SYSTEMS Edited by Joasia Krysa Publisher: Autonomedia (DATA browser 03) ISBN: 1-57027-170-4 Pages: 288, Paper Perfectbound Price: $15.95 US / £15 in UK The third book in the DATA Browser series of critical texts that explore issues at the intersection of culture and technology. The site of curatorial production has been expanded to include the space of the Internet and the focus of curatorial attention has been extended from the object to processes to dynamic network systems. As a result, curatorial work has become more widely distributed between multiple agents, including technological networks and software. This upgraded 'operating system' of art presents new possibilities of online curating that is collective and distributed - even to the extreme of a self-organising system that curates itself. The curator is part of this entire system but not central to it. This book reflects on these changes and examines the work of the curator in relation to a wider socio-political context articulated through two key issues: immateriality and network systems. It considers how the practice of curating has been transformed by distributed networks beyond the rhetoric of free software and open systems. Contributors: 0100101110101101.ORG & [epidemiC] | Josephine Berry Slater | Geoff Cox | Alexander R. Galloway & Eugene Thacker | Olga Goriunova & Alexei Shulgin | Beryl Graham | Eva Grubinger | Piotr Krajewski | Jacob Lillemose | low-fi | Franziska Nori | Matteo Pasquinelli | Christiane Paul | Trebor Scholz | Grzesiek Sedek | Tiziana Terranova | Marina Vishmidt For more information see All texts released under a Creative Commons License 2006. The DATA browser series presents critical texts that explore issues at the intersection of culture and technology. The editorial group are Geoff Cox, Joasia Krysa, Anya Lewin, Malcolm Miles, Mike Punt & Hugo de Rijke . This volume is produced in association with Arts Council England and University of Plymouth. ------ End of Forwarded Message _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From eye at ranadasgupta.com Wed May 10 10:07:40 2006 From: eye at ranadasgupta.com (Rana Dasgupta) Date: Wed, 10 May 2006 10:07:40 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Fw: Maurice Kanbar Program in Environmental and Transportation Graphics Message-ID: <44616E14.1030003@ranadasgupta.com> Dear Friends and Collegues: The reason for this e-mail is to inform you about an upcoming design competition entitled Moving Forward - an open, international competition to re-envisage highway signage - to be hosted by the Maurice Kanbar Program in Environmental and Transportation Graphics in the Fall of 2006. For more information please refer to the website: http://clients.essl.com/cooper/drivingforward/ The competition seeks to explore the future possibilities of signage for transportation systems. We are inviting professionals working in a broad range of related disciplines to participate, including: a.. Architecture b.. Civil and Roadway Engineering c.. Environmental Design d.. Graphic Arts e.. Industrial Design f.. Urban Design g.. Intelligent Transportation and Wayfinding Systems OBJECTIVES: The past twenty years have witnessed enormous technological advances in the performance of automobiles, way-finding systems and roadway construction. >From state-of-the-art Intelligent Transportation Systems to GPS communications and self-navigating solar, electric or bio-diesel powered cars, we appear to be at the threshold of a new era in automobile mobility, safety and efficiency. Why is it then that Highway Signage in America has lagged behind the rest of the industry? Moving Forward is an open international juried competition that seeks proposals which re-envision automobile wayfinding systems and traffic control devices that improve traffic flow and optimize navigability while reducing congestion. The competition invites candidates to propose traffic signage concepts that promote efficiency, uniformity and safety. Proposals should be able to adapt to future changes in traffic patterns and incorporate technological advances as they develop. Entries should address current innovations in automobile and roadway technology as well as invent new possibilities for the future. Competition entrants are asked to reexamine transportation signage in its entirety, from navigational principals, to new materials, technology, types of vehicles, pictograms, language and communication. Please forward this e-mail to anyone you think may be interested in participating in this anonymous competiton. Thank you for your consideration. Sincerely, Suzan Wines Assistant Professor of Architecture, The Cooper Union Architect & Partner, I-Beam Design I-Beam Design 245 West 29th Street, Suite 501A New York, NY 10001 Phone: 212-244-7596 Fax: 212-244-7597 Mobile: 917-553-7682 E-mail: suzan at i-beamdesign.com _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From shuddha at sarai.net Wed May 10 12:53:22 2006 From: shuddha at sarai.net (Shuddhabrata Sengupta) Date: Wed, 10 May 2006 12:53:22 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Re: Nangla/SC Proceedings/Notes/9th May 2006 In-Reply-To: <4460CB81.60905@sarai.net> References: <4460CB81.60905@sarai.net> Message-ID: <446194EA.2000103@sarai.net> Dear Shveta, Many thanks for the precise and rich note taking from the Supreme Court about the destiny of the special leave petition filed on behalf of the inhabitants of Nangla Machi. I find the remarks made by the honourable bench of Justice Ruma Pal and Justice Markhande Katju extremely illuminating. They have opened doors in my understanding of the Indian Constitution and the rule of law, and flooded by being with insight and clarity. I hope that the government recognizes the sagacity of the hon'ble bench and awards them with the highest civilian honours at the earliest for acting with such alacrity to save our city and protect the spirit if not the letter of our constitution. Three things stand out, which as a lay, legally illiterate person, I think are quite remarkable in the way they elucidate the working of the best intelligences of the judiciary. 1. One, their wisdom on matters of the weather, (that it is "never comfortable to live out", that there will always be intense heat, or cold, or rainfall in the city). In fact, this is of the utmost importance, because given the nature of our city, those who cannot afford air conditioners, central heaters, generators and uninterrupted power supply should all be asked to leave our fair city. This will leave, all of Lutyens Delhi and some pockets straddling the ring road intact. The rest of the city in fact should be destroyed. Systematically. Something like this was done in 1857, next year is the hundred and fiftieth anniversary of that time, and there is no better way to commemorate the sacrifices of the Indian rebel martyrs and the forward thinking nature of the East India Company's military urban planning division, than to repeat that exercise on a grand scale, so as to ensure that only those who deserve to live in Delhi should do so. 2. Following from the above, we should do the utmost to ensure that the hon'ble benches wise suggestion that, 'If you cannot afford to live in Delhi, you need not come here' be implemented at the earliest. This suggestion needs to be recognized for the great innovation that it represents, implying that the retrograde step of de-linking property from citizenship and civic/civil rights, which all democratic movements and revolutions (even of a thourouhgly formal nature) had sought to advance, has now been finally jettisoned by the Supreme Court of India as a foundational legal principle. Before this, we all suffered under the terrible delusion that regardless of whether you were rich or poor, we all had a human right to make a decent living in the city. Now the matter is clear. And the poor must be put away where they belong, so that the rest of us can be equal before the law. Some of us have been anticipating this for some time now, after all, one applies for a credit card, or a club membership, and one's chances of having one's application accepted do depend on income, ownership of property, vehicle (preferably four wheeler) etc. Now, this ruling suggests that the same convenient and efficient principle be applied to habitation in the city, in fact to citizenship itself. The hundreds of years wasted in Democratic efforts, which have only brought slums and ruination on all good nations, can now be finally reverse, thanks to this epoch making judgement. I am speechless in admiration for the hon'ble benches hon'ble sagacity. 3. The hon'ble bench goes on to observe, as per your report, that 'The right to shelter did not mean that everyone will have to get shelter'. This is yet another stroke of sheer judicial (and judicious) genius. Taken to its logical conclusion, this statement, implies that the right to life does not mean that everyone has to live, the right to liberty and freedom of expression does not mean that everyone has to be at liberty to say what they want, and so on. By one stroke, the honourable bench has emptied the word 'right' of its inconvenient associations, and filled it with the content of the word 'privilege'. This has far reaching implications for our polity, which any right thinking person will welcome. It means for instance, that a campaign should now be undertaken, inspired by the examples set by the Honourable Justices Pal & Katju for amending the Indian constitution such that we have what is only right and proper, meaning, a body of fundamental restrictions, and a few reasonable rights, instead of the other way round. Once this is done, judicial efficiency will increase, the back log of cases will diminish, and all manner of uncouth, poor, dirty, ganda log can be locked away in labour camps to grow organic zuccini, while the true inheritors and custodians of the Indian Republic Raj get down to real business. Rise and Shine India ! All hail our glorious Supreme Court. best Shuddha Shveta wrote: > Dear All, > > Today, on May 09, 2006, Hon'ble Justice Ruma Pal and Justice Markhande > Katju of the Supreme Court, set a time of three weeks for the demolition of > the remainder of Nangla Maanchi. The half an hour hearing was held in Court > Number 02 (as item number 16) of the Supreme Court, Barakhamba Road, Delhi, > from 11:00 AM to 11:30 AM. > > The hon'ble bench stated that relocation of all the [remaining] inhabitants > of Nangla was "not possible" before the demolition. It stated that all it > could grant Nangla Maanchi was a time of three weeks, before demolition, > "full stop". > > The hon'ble bench stated that the power house, whose land had been > 'encroached' by the inhabitants of Nangla had given "some date for > construction", and that there has to be "balance" - that the land has "uses > that cannot be denied", and that the more settlements are removed, the > "more they come". On the question of the timeline for this construction, > the hon'ble bench stated that whatever the case may be, "occupation of land > without legal authority cannot be allowed. Even people whose lands have > legal rights have been relocated" for projects. > > In response to a request on deliberation on the question of cut-off dates > for eligibility for relocation, the hon'ble bench stated, "from what was a > few tenemants" it has grown to "thousands", and "each tenemant had a > family". They have been "growing and growing", that it was becoming > difficult to "deal with the problem". It also stated, during the court > proceedings, that if public land is occupied, it will "have to be vacated", > that the right to shelter did not mean that "everyone be given shelter". > > On the question of Ghewda being without any infrastructure or facilities > (where the inhabitants of Nangla Maanchi will be temporarily relocated), > the hon'ble bench stated that in Bawana, a resettlement colony, people had > sold off their plots of land. On the question of the difficulty of being on > the streets in this intense heat, the hon'ble bench stated that it is > "never comfortable to live out", that there will always be intense heat, or > cold, or rainfall in the city. The hon'ble bench suggested that people need > not come to Delhi, unless they can afford to live in the city. > > Present at the hearing from Ankur/Cybermohalla: > Sharmila Bhagat (Ankur) > Shabana (Ankur) > Avantika (Ankur) > Shveta Sarda (Sarai/Cybermohalla) > > Note-taking by Shveta Sarda > > > _______________________________________________ > commons-law mailing list > commons-law at sarai.net > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/commons-law > From ravig1 at vsnl.com Wed May 10 14:07:04 2006 From: ravig1 at vsnl.com (Ravi Agarwal) Date: Wed, 10 May 2006 14:07:04 +0530 Subject: Fw: [Reader-list] Re: [Urbanstudy] Nangla Maachi:CourtProceedings.Note.9th May 2006 Message-ID: <6B7C9BC8BA334CAA9DB9E66300DF3609@ToxicsLink.local> The pace of all this leaves me speechless...the language being used leaves me dumfounded.....the rationale being provided, the violence being inflicted.....The Bhatti mines people have been in touch with me and they too are unable to explain what is happening to them. What stratergy to employ, what to say which has any meaning, or any possibility... ravi > On May 9, 2006, at 10:05 PM, CM at Nangla wrote: > > > Dear All, > > > > Today, on May 09, 2006, Hon'ble Justice Ruma Pal and Justice Markhande > > Katju of the Supreme Court, set a time of three weeks for the > > demolition of > > the remainder of Nangla Maanchi. The half an hour hearing was held > > in Court > > Number 02 (as item number 16) of the Supreme Court, Barakhamba > > Road, Delhi, > > from 11:00 AM to 11:30 AM. > > > > The hon'ble bench stated that relocation of all the [remaining] > > inhabitants > > of Nangla was "not possible" before the demolition. It stated that > > all it > > could grant Nangla Maanchi was a time of three weeks, before > > demolition, > > "full stop". > > > > The hon'ble bench stated that the power house, whose land had been > > 'encroached' by the inhabitants of Nangla had given "some date for > > construction", and that there has to be "balance" - that the land > > has "uses > > that cannot be denied", and that the more settlements are removed, the > > "more they come". On the question of the timeline for this > > construction, > > the hon'ble bench stated that whatever the case may be, "occupation > > of land > > without legal authority cannot be allowed. Even people whose lands > > have > > legal rights have been relocated" for projects. > > > > In response to a request on deliberation on the question of cut-off > > dates > > for eligibility for relocation, the hon'ble bench stated, "from > > what was a > > few tenemants" it has grown to "thousands", and "each tenemant had a > > family". They have been "growing and growing", that it was becoming > > difficult to "deal with the problem". It also stated, during the court > > proceedings, that if public land is occupied, it will "have to be > > vacated", > > that the right to shelter did not mean that "everyone be given > > shelter". > > > > On the question of Ghewda being without any infrastructure or > > facilities > > (where the inhabitants of Nangla Maanchi will be temporarily > > relocated), > > the hon'ble bench stated that in Bawana, a resettlement colony, > > people had > > sold off their plots of land. On the question of the difficulty of > > being on > > the streets in this intense heat, the hon'ble bench stated that it is > > "never comfortable to live out", that there will always be intense > > heat, or > > cold, or rainfall in the city. The hon'ble bench suggested that > > people need > > not come to Delhi, unless they can afford to live in the city. > > > > Present at the hearing from Ankur/Cybermohalla: > > Sharmila Bhagat (Ankur) > > Shabana (Ankur) > > Avantika (Ankur) > > Shveta Sarda (Sarai/Cybermohalla) > > > > Note-taking by Shveta Sarda > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Urbanstudygroup mailing list > > Urban Study Group: Reading the South Asian City > > > > To subscribe or browse the Urban Study Group archives, please visit > > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > > _________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in the subject header. > List archive: From shuddha at sarai.net Wed May 10 14:28:38 2006 From: shuddha at sarai.net (Shuddhabrata Sengupta) Date: Wed, 10 May 2006 14:28:38 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Thinking about 1857 again Message-ID: <4461AB3E.3050006@sarai.net> Dear all, apropos of the 'zikr' that I had made of urban planning-cum-military maneouvres of 1857 vis-a-vis the Supreme Court's recent deliberations in the Nagla Machi SLP matter, here is another reflection, from our neighbourhood historian in eminence, Professor Shahid Amin, (Delhi University) on the legacy of 1857 in Delhi. This was published today in the Telegraph. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1060510/asp/opinion/story_6156927.asp# Enjoy, cheers, Shuddha -------------------------------- THE FAST-LANE PRESENT Delhi’s monuments to callousness Shahid Amin The author is professor of history, University of Delhi The 150th anniversary next year of the 1857 Uprising and the staging of the Commonwealth Games in Delhi have begun a rethink on what we — living in a fast-lane present — have done to our built heritage. The first will bring us face to face with how to relate to monuments that our colonial masters erected after the suppression of the ‘Mutiny’. The 2010 Commonwealth Games will focus the attention of the erstwhile British Empire on Delhi, an old city, which emerged as the colonial capital of the “brightest jewel in the crown” in the last century. There is already some talk about preserving the past and rescuing the heritage of Delhi from a callous and oppressive present. A recent poll published in a newspaper suggests that while most Delhiites (the word, “Dilliwalas”, is now an anachronism) are unaware of the city’s rich cultural and architectural past, only one-third of parents feel strongly about inculcating a sense of the city’s heritage in their children. Faced with the failure of the Archaeological Survey of India — an organization headed by a bureaucrat for many years and openly susceptible to governmental pressure — some have begun advocating the setting up of a national heritage commission. At the same time, there is no dearth of proposals for a consumerist appropriation of our past in the interests of the present. A few years ago, a Union urban affairs minister had advocated a veritable ‘Gurgaonization’ of Lutyens’s Delhi, while another votary of efficient land-use went on to suggest that the Rashtrapati Bhavan be converted into a luxury hotel. The debate on balancing the voracious demands of the ‘cityjan’ with nurturing Delhi’s culture, habitat and built heritage is bound to get sharper: how near the Qutub Minar can the elevated metro be allowed to run, or need it go underground rather than spoil the view of a world heritage site? How much of the natural flood plain of the Jamuna (including its floating population) need be ceded to a major temple complex, or indeed to the Commonwealth Games village? How many people and working artisans (even butchers) have to be shifted out of the Jama Masjid area to beautify it as a place of daily worship, and simultaneously as a national monument with which all of us (including the non-practising Muslims) can identify? It is common to lament how the majority of Delhi’s monuments — a large number dating back to the 13th to the early 16th century — have been encroached upon by property developers and squatters. This is an important facet of urbanism of post-independent Delhi, and it allows the concerned citizen to blame those who have appropriated its heritage to private ends. What is remarkable is how the city’s empowered citizens and criminal elements have conspired, in very different ways, to foreclose access to a lot of the city’s monuments in the normal course. A few examples of the fate of some of the key ‘Mutiny’ structures would help illustrate how these have become no-go places for the ordinary tax-paying public. Take the Flagstaff, up the ridge from the main gate of the University of Delhi. Driven out of the city in the summer of 1857, it was here and on the adjacent, narrow strip of the ridge that the retreating British were confined in that tumultuous summer; and it was from the Flagstaff and batteries at the Chauburja mosque and beyond that the push for the vengeful recapture of Delhi was calibrated in the autumn of that eventful year. There were ten natives for every European in camp. John Kaye, the demi-official historian of the ‘Sepoy War’, paints a sympathetic picture of the native cooks and water-carriers, who, unmindful of the well-directed artillery fire of the rebel topchis and golandazes from nearby Mori Gate, had played khidmatgars to the besieged sahibs at the Flagstaff and on the northern Ridge. The demands of humanity, implies Kaye, suggested that the English be slightly more considerate towards their native camp-followers, without whom the project of the reconquest of Delhi would have been quite impossible. But it was not just the exhaustion caused by war that had made the life of natives-in- camp of “less value than that of the meanest animals”. For if colonial domination had to be re-established, then insensitive as it may appear to some, that structure could not be dismantled during the very campaign for the re-establishment of British supremacy in India. A contemporary satire in a Dilli akhbar had lampooned the harassed “English Gathering at the Flagstaff”, where the “trousers of Angrezi wisdom had slipped all the way down to their socks-full of worries”. Two years ago, Flagstaff Road lost its name to B.R. Ambedkar Memorial Marg. True, Ambedkar during his Delhi sojourn had lived nearby on Alipur Road. But because of the construction of the Metro, that street had been closed to the previous prime minister when he visited north Delhi for inaugurating the memorial. The adjacent Flagstaff Road was open, and so got divested of its historic name in the despotic flurry that precedes such prime-ministerial visitations. Despite a recent renovation, the historic Flagstaff is in a state of disrepair. This early-19th-century building is now virtually taken over by an open air yoga club. Sundays are reserved for bhandaras, that is, a philanthropic halwa-poori feast, with periodic pulmonary check-ups for the senior citizens who throng the Ridge for their early-morning constitutional. Its circular ground-floor hall is used to house mattresses and dhurries in king-size steel trunks. Through a private arrangement with the city’s archaeology department, it is unlocked only for the duration of the yoga classes — to keep it open at all times would no doubt endanger the property of the Yoga club. For the rest of the day, the Flagstaff is a closed monument. No notice of its past greets the energetic, early-morning walkers: it survives in a non-historical present. A much more serious consideration behind the locking up of Delhi’s many monuments appears to be the growing number of rapists that stalk the city day and night. The Khuni Darwaza, overlooking the stadium where Harbhajan Singh spun India to a famous ODI victory the other day, was where Bahadurshah Zafar’s sons were shot dead after their capture from Humayun’s tomb in September, 1857. And it was here that a college girl was raped not very long ago. This historic gate on one of Delhi’s busiest roads has subsequently been fixed with grills and locked. The early-19th-century magazine — a simple arched structure which the British guards self-destructed to deny the ‘Mutiny’ rebels access to a large amount of gun powder — now stands similarly barricaded, although it sits in the middle of a traffic island, opposite the city’s General Post Office. The city that killed Gandhi seems to prosper only by barricading itself. The Nineties was the decade of private security guards. Policing, the message had gone out, had to be private to be effective. Now, even medieval city- gates and colonial guard-houses — like the one on the northern Ridge — have to be locked-up, so as to protect the women of this megalopolis from its growing number of casual rapists. It has been said that the aim of heritage is to make all of us proud. It is time we realized the cruel, and not just ironic, import of this descriptive truism. From dilip.sarai at gmail.com Wed May 10 17:14:08 2006 From: dilip.sarai at gmail.com (Dilip D'Souza -- Sarai) Date: Wed, 10 May 2006 17:14:08 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Old People's Garden Message-ID: <1a57bfd0605100444x22e7ab05uafec264c07272c32@mail.gmail.com> May 10 2006 Dear All, Here's one more of my articles about getting to know Bombay's villages. This is about Matharpacady, in Mazagon. Again, I'm going to be trying to get this, or a slightly modified version, published. Your thoughts, as always, welcome. cheers, dilip. --- Old People's Garden ------------------- Dilip D'Souza The cliches come easy. The village time forgot. The village that was. Old world air. Time stands still. That sort of thing. When in its life-cycle does a place, a locality, make the transition to cliche? In Matharpacady, it's easy to wonder. Parts of this little village -- well, it's just one street, really -- look like they must have done for generations. Other parts have unfinished towering raw concrete hulks that erupt from the old world surroundings, that will one day contain several flats. When in its life-cycle does a place start selling out to pressures from builders with rupees in their eyes? But let's begin with the etymology thing. The name comes from "mhatara" (old man) and "pakhadi", which may be like "wadi" meaning a small locality. Or it may not. Nobody could tell me why it had been named Matharpacady, but in the village, the accepted translation seems to be "old people's garden". I doubt whoever came up with the name could have predicted just how appropriate "old people's garden" would be by the late 20th and early 21st Centuries. I mean no offence to anyone when I say Matharpacady is now home, largely, to old people. Like other Catholic enclaves in Bombay, nearly every family here has seen its sons and daughters emigrate West, or effectively West, to Australia and New Zealand. So when you visit a home here, you might catch a whiff of longing in the air, for the children lost to opportunity and affluence abroad. 89-year-old St John (pronounced "Sinjin" by one and all) Valladares is lucky. His youngest of four, Julius, did not emigrate like his brother and sisters did. He is a captain in the merchant navy, and thus travels a lot, but home is still their Matharpacady bungalow, "Keep Sake". And Julius has three energetic young sons, whom you are likely to meet riding bicycles about or playing a mean game of football. Not too many other homes here have both a son and grandchildren. When we stroll through, we find St John sitting in a chair on the porch, smiling genially at us. He is so visibly friendly that we can't resist stopping for a chat; it ends up being two long chats, over two different days. The first time, about ten minutes after we meet, St John scurries off inside and emerges minutes later with a file. "Here", he says with a guffaw, "this is what keeps me busy these days!" There are 40 or so pages in the file. They are covered in an ornate, slanted hand with great big "M"s and "A"s. This is something of a labour of love. St John has been putting down his memories of the Matharpacady Club, 100 years old in 2006 and a place that he has patronized, even nurtured, for a good fraction of that time. With a measure of quiet pride, he reads for me the short speech he gave at a function the Club held to thank him for his years of devotion, written out and filed among those pages. There's also minutiae from Club elections, Christmas balls and ... snooker tournaments. >From St John's recounting, snooker has been the main pursuit at the Club since at least 1922. That was when it acquired its "first fullsized billiard table" and put it in an outhouse offered to the Club by a favourite son of the Bombay Catholic community, the freedom fighter Kaka Joseph Baptista. The limited space for this fullsized table, writes St John, "necessitated [the] use of a short cue." The table was disposed of in 1924, when the outhouse reverted to the Baptistas. But another one came their way in 1926, as did the space to house it, and over the years since, the Matharpacady Club became a hub for the game. One of the city's most venerable tournaments -- the Open Handicap Snooker Tournament for the Sushil R Ruia Challenge Cup -- is held here annually (as also billiards tournaments). It has attracted -- and probably been a launchpad for -- "some of the best ever players India produced"; and considering that some of them were world champions, you could say "best ever players the world produced" and not be too far from the truth. And while not quite in that class, St John was no mean player himself. He produces a sheaf of photographs, among which is one of him -- slender, dapper -- leaning over to take a shot, his eyes fixed like lasers on the ball he means to hit: semifinal, 1956. The Club, and Bombay's Catholics going to the Club: how familiar, almost cliched, is that? This is one reason that, for years, Catholics were disproportionately represented among our top sports men and women. Well, at least in hockey which they learned by dodging through narrow lanes, and in billiards and snooker played in the Club. This one, and others. Yet of course, the Catholic Clubs also restricted membership. In Matharpacady, writes St John, membership to the club "was initially open to Catholic residents" of the village. Later, "it became necessary to be more accommodating": "non-residents of Mazagon and ... non-Catholics" were admitted in limited numbers. But they were only "associate" members, meaning they could use the Club, but had no vote and could not serve on the Managing Committee. Had they been more accommodating still right from the start, would we have seen more champion players from more regions and more religions in more sports? Questions, unanswerable imponderable questions. Then again, here are some of those "best ever players" who played and won at the Matharpacady Club snooker and billiards tournaments: Percy Edwards, Kenny Durham, Om Agarwal, Babu Kanti, Thomas Monteiro, Shyam Shroff, Ritesh Shah, Howard Oliver, Ashok Shandilya, Yasin Merchant and Michael Ferreira. Over the years, quite a spectrum. So after reading about, hearing about, this brief Matharpacady snooker history, I knew I wanted to take a look at the Club itself. From St John's house, we squeeze past the chapel, up and then down a few steps, then down a long slope. On the right, at the bottom ... the rambling old building looks like it is about to fall down, and clearly I'm not the only person who thinks so. For the walls and balconies -- through the floor of some of those balconies, we can see rusting, crumbling beams -- are held up by sturdy bamboo poles. It looks like they are the only reason the balconies are still there, that the edifice still stands. The door under the "Matharpacady Club" sign is locked. But somebody emerges from another quarter of the rambling building -- people actually live here -- to tell us the bamboos are preparatory to the repairs the Maharashtra Housing and Development Authority (MHADA) is about to make to the building. We stand before the Club for a few seconds. Not too near the walls, because looking at it, I am actually afraid of getting closer. From St John Valladares's handwritten account, from all he says, I understand how intimate a part of Matharpacady's community this clubhouse has been over the years. Yet looking at it, I cannot help think how appropriate that name -- "old people's garden" -- is to this club as well. They still hold the tournaments here; they still hold a 9-day "Feast of the Cross" ending on May 1 at the Matharpacady chapel. Yet this is a place that time forgot. In an odd, wistful way, it's also a place youth forgot. From nangla at cm.sarai.net Wed May 10 18:48:52 2006 From: nangla at cm.sarai.net (CM@Nangla) Date: Wed, 10 May 2006 15:18:52 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] Nangla's Delhi - 10th May, 2006 Message-ID: <14bec9021098884fa24258cd86909129@sarai.net> New posts on Nangla's Delhi http://nangla.freeflux.net A Place to Dwell, by Shamsher [ The Journey After ] 10.05.2006 Inside all those places, which are termed illegal by the government, is a different story. The government plants the stake of its stamp on a place - "this is government property". And in response, we place our small bundles of receipts and papers gathered from past time till today. But still, we are shunned, because the world moves on the basis of documents. [Read whole post] Here and Elsewhere, by Lakhmi [ The Journey After ] 10.05.2006 In the last few days, things have been made and unmade, there have been doubts about what it is that is being made, what is being unmade, and questions about what the new plan is, after all. A dwelling is broken, and along with it, its time, weave, modes of living, questions about life are ripped apart, and replaced with turbulence, tension, and a realisation that even the eye of law has stopped casting its gaze upon the dwelling. [Read whole post] Nangla Maachi: Court Proceedings.Note.9th May 2006 [ Legal Pronouncements ] 09.05.2006 On May 09, 2006, Hon'ble Justice Ruma Pal and Justice Markhande Katju of the Supreme Court, set a time of three weeks for the demolition of the remainder of Nangla Maanchi. The half an hour hearing was held in Court Number 02 (as item number 16) of the Supreme Court, Barakhamba Road, Delhi, from 11:00 AM to 11:30 AM. [Read whole post] Is Delhi Shrinking? by Azra [ Nangla Elsewhere ] [ The Journey After ] 08.05.2006 "Instead of being constructed, Delhi is shrinking. Inside, it is becoming as constricted as it seems open from the outside, where people think it is their own. In the coming days, Delhi will become a city of uniformed people. This city is what it is because of its crowds, its density. When the number of people reduce, how will this city breathe? Will this city become one where, rather than living in it, people merely spend their lives in it?" [Read whole post] Showpiece, by Neelofar [ The Journey After ] 08.05.2006 Two kind of utensils are bought for a home – one, which are for everyday use, and the other which are decorated as showpieces. The utensils for daily use are used and washed everyday, they bang against one another, clink, jingle, clatter. They make space for themselves, and sounds like “this glass is mine, that plate is his'” show this. The others, that is showpieces, are put away carefully, as decorations, as soon as they are brought into the house. They are not paid attention to on a daily basis. Their relationship with the world is one of exclamation, "Wow! It's so lovely!" [Read whole post] Materials from Nangla, Website [ Nangla Elsewhere ] 07.05.2006 06:42 Stickers, audio files, and other media forms from the Nangla Lab can now also be viewed at: http://www.sarai.net/nm.htm [Read whole post] Parchee-tent, by Jaanu [ Eviction ] 06.05.2006 People who live in Nangla used to spend their money and set up tents and decorate them with flowers. This decorating had a special meaning to it – the preparation for a wedding. Two days before the bridegroom's baraat would come, thresholds of doors used to be decorated with glitter. A tent was also set up on the day Nangla was broken. This lone tent, set up for MCD officials, was outside the locality. But inside, there were far more tents. The tent outside indicated the uprooting of thousands of homes; the tents inside had been set up to celebrate the union of lives through marriage. [Read whole post] "Our City", by CM at Nangla [ The Journey After ] 04.05.2006 We are a month into the demolition of Nangla, along with the demolition of dwellings all over the city, the fires that have ravaged various settlements, and the fear of both demolition and fire in many more other settlements. What is the view to the city that we are to proceed in, for the coming time? >From extensive conversations in the localities (LNJP, Dakshinpuri and Nangla Maanchi) and bus stands, with our broadsheet on the experience of being in Nangla, a few images of the city emerged. [Read whole post] CM Lab, Nangla Maanchi http://nangla.freeflux.net http://nangla-maachi.freeflux.net ----------------------------------------------- It quenches the thirst of the thirsty, Such is Nangla, It shelters those who come to the city of Delhi, Such is Nangla. ------------------------------------------------ From janicepariat at gmail.com Thu May 11 08:48:33 2006 From: janicepariat at gmail.com (Janice Pariat) Date: Thu, 11 May 2006 08:48:33 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] The Castle (The Notion of Home) Message-ID: <72cca7600605102018m63918096j9d0dd974856eb171@mail.gmail.com> Hello everyone! Had a bit of a problem with my third story...but finally kinda happy with it :) wanted to see how description and memory served (or not) as a strong enough basis for calling a place home. Hope you like it. The link is http://thefirstsixstories.blogspot.com/ Best Wishes Janice From lawrence at altlawforum.org Thu May 11 11:39:01 2006 From: lawrence at altlawforum.org (Lawrence Liang) Date: Thu, 11 May 2006 11:39:01 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Re: Nangla/SC Proceedings/Notes/9th May 2006 In-Reply-To: <446194EA.2000103@sarai.net> Message-ID: Hi all A few thought on the notes made by Shveta on the SC proceedings on Nangla Maanchi, in addition to those made by Shuddha and others. Lawrence For far too long the contempt powers of the court have managed to stifle any critique of judicial pronouncements, and in the recent few months we have seen decisions which enable demolitions, whole scale destruction of Narmada Valley, regressive decisions allegedly for the protection of women etc. The new role of the court is one in which the judiciary has truly become the source for the determination of the 'state of exception'. It is perhaps time to rethink the idea of contempt of court, and like many other things a missing word here, a different emphasis of reading there, leads to very different consequences and makes all the difference. It might well be worth our while to think of contempt, not in terms of contempt of court but contempt of the court, because what stands out in the notes of the proceedings on Nangla Maanchi is the sheer contempt with which the judiciary is able to pronounce on the lives of people. The law of contempt attempts to protect the courts from any act that tends to lower its authority. That the court is in need of protection is course highly ironic, but it is perhaps not that ironic when we consider that it is usually the greatest despots who also have the greatest security arrangements. There is therefore a recognition in the law of contempt of the power of words and language, and its ability to cause harm. But what is this power of language to cause harm and is it equally distributed; if a person attempts to critique any action of the court through the "publication (whether by words, spoken or written or by signs, or by visible representation, or otherwise)", the damage to the court is seen to be irreparable. In a decision on contempt by a 'writer who drifted away from the path of literature into political criticism, the courts said that "This is no defense to say that as no actual damage has been done to the judiciary, the proceedings be dropped. The well-known proposition of law is that it punishes the archer as soon as the arrow is shot no matter if it misses to hit the target. The respondent is proved to have shot the arrow, intended to damage the institution of the judiciary and thereby weaken the faith of the public in general and if such an attempt is not prevented, disastrous consequences are likely to follow resulting in the destruction of rule of law, the expected norm of any civilised society". But even as children we learnt that words and stones can break my bones but words cannot hurt me. We know know that this is not true, and words indeed can hurt, but are do all words have the same force to be able to hurt, what are the special characteristics required of words for them to be able to hurt, and who indeed may utter contemptuous words with the ability to hurt? Robert Cover says that "Legal interpretation takes place in a field of pain and death. This is true in several senses. Legal interpretive acts signal and occasion the imposition of violence upon others: A judge articulates her understanding of a text, and as a result, somebody loses his freedom, his property, his children, even his life. Interpretations in law also constitute justifications for violence which has already occurred or which is about to occur. When interpreters have finished their work, they frequently leave behind victims whose lives have been torn apart by these organized, social practices of violence. Neither legal interpretation nor the violence it occasions may be properly understood apart from one another Taken by itself, the word 'interpretation' may be misleading. 'Interpretation' suggests a social construction of an interpersonal reality through language. But pain and death have quite other implications. Indeed, pain and death destroy the world that 'interpretation' calls up. That one's ability to construct interpersonal realities is destroyed by death is obvious, but in this case, what is true of death is true of pain also, for pain destroys, among other things, language itself. For Cover, the power of language also emerges in its sharpest form when backed by sovereign authority so it is not any speech act that has the capacity to hurt, but those which emerge from a relational context of the utterer and the subject of enunciation. A lover¹s words have the capacity to hurt, but this hurt is qualitatively different from the hurt that the words of a court of law causes. My contempt for an individual or for an institution has therefore to be seen very differently from the contempt of the sovereign utterances of the court. If we were to then reconfigure contempt to recognize the question of power, and who has the power to actually practice contempt, then it seems that one of the prime candidates has to be the court. So that The Contempt of The Court emerges from speech acts which speculate on the fact that it will "never comfortable to live out", and that there will always be intense heat, or cold, or rainfall in the city. This attention to the various fragilities of a bare life accompanied the prospect of immediate violence and displacement constitutes an act of contempt that ³scandalises or tends to scandalise, or lowers or tends to lower the authority of people². When it observes that if public land is occupied, it will "have to be vacated", and that the right to shelter did not mean that "everyone be given shelter", it a contemptuous statement that ³interferes or tends to interfere with, or obstructs or tends to obstruct, the administration of justice in any other manner² and on these counts surely it is arguable that the power of contempt lies not only against the court, but equally by the courts. If I act in a manner that is contempt of another person, s/he may retaliate with an equal measure of contempt for me. But what happens when the court acts in contempt of people? Do we have the ability to retaliate with an equal measure of contempt? Ironically since your statement can land you in the dock, it could well be said that you do not actually have any power to retaliate against contempt of the court (atleast not one without unpleasant consequences). An area filled with people, lives and stories is narratively rendered useless in favour of Œuses that cannot be denied¹, the right to shelter does not mean that everyone must be given shelter and a right to free speech must be postponed for the sake of democracy. Welcome to the matrix that we call the constitution, in which rights and entitlements exist only within the matrix and for those who live in the reality of the Matrix. And well for the rest, welcome to the desert of the real. From s_kavula at yahoo.com Thu May 11 11:38:53 2006 From: s_kavula at yahoo.com (saraswati) Date: Wed, 10 May 2006 23:08:53 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Re: reader-list Digest, Vol 34, Issue 20 In-Reply-To: <20060510100006.2BDEF28DFC2@mail.sarai.net> Message-ID: <20060511060853.66897.qmail@web36612.mail.mud.yahoo.com> brilliant piece of writing. very poignant too. i think the same is happening in other cities, while we the people stay mute spectators to the neo-colonial "remote-controlled" operations affecting India. In any case it is a shame that India continues to be a part of the Common Wealth. I cannot say, what is worst, Bootlicking the Bush Lobby, or continuing to condone the British' rule by way of being a part of the Common Wealth. Perhaps, it is true that we were born of slave mentality, which is why we feel we have not civilized if we are not wearing the Angrezi Pantaloons instead of our Dhotis or Pyjamas. saraswati reader-list-request at sarai.net wrote: Send reader-list mailing list submissions to reader-list at sarai.net To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to reader-list-request at sarai.net You can reach the person managing the list at reader-list-owner at sarai.net When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of reader-list digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Thinking about 1857 again (Shuddhabrata Sengupta) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Wed, 10 May 2006 14:28:38 +0530 From: Shuddhabrata Sengupta Subject: [Reader-list] Thinking about 1857 again To: reader-list at sarai.net Message-ID: <4461AB3E.3050006 at sarai.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252"; format=flowed Dear all, apropos of the 'zikr' that I had made of urban planning-cum-military maneouvres of 1857 vis-a-vis the Supreme Court's recent deliberations in the Nagla Machi SLP matter, here is another reflection, from our neighbourhood historian in eminence, Professor Shahid Amin, (Delhi University) on the legacy of 1857 in Delhi. This was published today in the Telegraph. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1060510/asp/opinion/story_6156927.asp# Enjoy, cheers, Shuddha -------------------------------- THE FAST-LANE PRESENT Delhi’s monuments to callousness Shahid Amin The author is professor of history, University of Delhi The 150th anniversary next year of the 1857 Uprising and the staging of the Commonwealth Games in Delhi have begun a rethink on what we — living in a fast-lane present — have done to our built heritage. The first will bring us face to face with how to relate to monuments that our colonial masters erected after the suppression of the ‘Mutiny’. The 2010 Commonwealth Games will focus the attention of the erstwhile British Empire on Delhi, an old city, which emerged as the colonial capital of the “brightest jewel in the crown” in the last century. There is already some talk about preserving the past and rescuing the heritage of Delhi from a callous and oppressive present. A recent poll published in a newspaper suggests that while most Delhiites (the word, “Dilliwalas”, is now an anachronism) are unaware of the city’s rich cultural and architectural past, only one-third of parents feel strongly about inculcating a sense of the city’s heritage in their children. Faced with the failure of the Archaeological Survey of India — an organization headed by a bureaucrat for many years and openly susceptible to governmental pressure — some have begun advocating the setting up of a national heritage commission. At the same time, there is no dearth of proposals for a consumerist appropriation of our past in the interests of the present. A few years ago, a Union urban affairs minister had advocated a veritable ‘Gurgaonization’ of Lutyens’s Delhi, while another votary of efficient land-use went on to suggest that the Rashtrapati Bhavan be converted into a luxury hotel. The debate on balancing the voracious demands of the ‘cityjan’ with nurturing Delhi’s culture, habitat and built heritage is bound to get sharper: how near the Qutub Minar can the elevated metro be allowed to run, or need it go underground rather than spoil the view of a world heritage site? How much of the natural flood plain of the Jamuna (including its floating population) need be ceded to a major temple complex, or indeed to the Commonwealth Games village? How many people and working artisans (even butchers) have to be shifted out of the Jama Masjid area to beautify it as a place of daily worship, and simultaneously as a national monument with which all of us (including the non-practising Muslims) can identify? It is common to lament how the majority of Delhi’s monuments — a large number dating back to the 13th to the early 16th century — have been encroached upon by property developers and squatters. This is an important facet of urbanism of post-independent Delhi, and it allows the concerned citizen to blame those who have appropriated its heritage to private ends. What is remarkable is how the city’s empowered citizens and criminal elements have conspired, in very different ways, to foreclose access to a lot of the city’s monuments in the normal course. A few examples of the fate of some of the key ‘Mutiny’ structures would help illustrate how these have become no-go places for the ordinary tax-paying public. Take the Flagstaff, up the ridge from the main gate of the University of Delhi. Driven out of the city in the summer of 1857, it was here and on the adjacent, narrow strip of the ridge that the retreating British were confined in that tumultuous summer; and it was from the Flagstaff and batteries at the Chauburja mosque and beyond that the push for the vengeful recapture of Delhi was calibrated in the autumn of that eventful year. There were ten natives for every European in camp. John Kaye, the demi-official historian of the ‘Sepoy War’, paints a sympathetic picture of the native cooks and water-carriers, who, unmindful of the well-directed artillery fire of the rebel topchis and golandazes from nearby Mori Gate, had played khidmatgars to the besieged sahibs at the Flagstaff and on the northern Ridge. The demands of humanity, implies Kaye, suggested that the English be slightly more considerate towards their native camp-followers, without whom the project of the reconquest of Delhi would have been quite impossible. But it was not just the exhaustion caused by war that had made the life of natives-in- camp of “less value than that of the meanest animals”. For if colonial domination had to be re-established, then insensitive as it may appear to some, that structure could not be dismantled during the very campaign for the re-establishment of British supremacy in India. A contemporary satire in a Dilli akhbar had lampooned the harassed “English Gathering at the Flagstaff”, where the “trousers of Angrezi wisdom had slipped all the way down to their socks-full of worries”. Two years ago, Flagstaff Road lost its name to B.R. Ambedkar Memorial Marg. True, Ambedkar during his Delhi sojourn had lived nearby on Alipur Road. But because of the construction of the Metro, that street had been closed to the previous prime minister when he visited north Delhi for inaugurating the memorial. The adjacent Flagstaff Road was open, and so got divested of its historic name in the despotic flurry that precedes such prime-ministerial visitations. Despite a recent renovation, the historic Flagstaff is in a state of disrepair. This early-19th-century building is now virtually taken over by an open air yoga club. Sundays are reserved for bhandaras, that is, a philanthropic halwa-poori feast, with periodic pulmonary check-ups for the senior citizens who throng the Ridge for their early-morning constitutional. Its circular ground-floor hall is used to house mattresses and dhurries in king-size steel trunks. Through a private arrangement with the city’s archaeology department, it is unlocked only for the duration of the yoga classes — to keep it open at all times would no doubt endanger the property of the Yoga club. For the rest of the day, the Flagstaff is a closed monument. No notice of its past greets the energetic, early-morning walkers: it survives in a non-historical present. A much more serious consideration behind the locking up of Delhi’s many monuments appears to be the growing number of rapists that stalk the city day and night. The Khuni Darwaza, overlooking the stadium where Harbhajan Singh spun India to a famous ODI victory the other day, was where Bahadurshah Zafar’s sons were shot dead after their capture from Humayun’s tomb in September, 1857. And it was here that a college girl was raped not very long ago. This historic gate on one of Delhi’s busiest roads has subsequently been fixed with grills and locked. The early-19th-century magazine — a simple arched structure which the British guards self-destructed to deny the ‘Mutiny’ rebels access to a large amount of gun powder — now stands similarly barricaded, although it sits in the middle of a traffic island, opposite the city’s General Post Office. The city that killed Gandhi seems to prosper only by barricading itself. The Nineties was the decade of private security guards. Policing, the message had gone out, had to be private to be effective. Now, even medieval city- gates and colonial guard-houses — like the one on the northern Ridge — have to be locked-up, so as to protect the women of this megalopolis from its growing number of casual rapists. It has been said that the aim of heritage is to make all of us proud. It is time we realized the cruel, and not just ironic, import of this descriptive truism. ------------------------------ _______________________________________________ reader-list mailing list reader-list at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list End of reader-list Digest, Vol 34, Issue 20 ******************************************* --------------------------------- Get amazing travel prices for air and hotel in one click on Yahoo! FareChase -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060510/57331abf/attachment.html From pukar at pukar.org.in Wed May 10 11:15:49 2006 From: pukar at pukar.org.in (PUKAR) Date: Wed, 10 May 2006 11:15:49 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [announcements] This friday: Talk by Patricia Spyer Message-ID: <000f01c673f5$00493fa0$10d0c0cb@freeda> PUKAR cordially invites you to a talk by Patricia Spyer on Blind Faith: Painting Christianity in Post-Conflict Ambon (Indonesia) Date: Friday, 12th May 2006 Time: 6:30 PM Venue: Kitab Mahal, 4th Floor, D N Road, Fort, Mumbai - 01 During the war in Ambon and since, popular Christian painters have been plastering the city's main thoroughfares and Christian neighborhood gateways with billboard portraits of Jesus and Christian murals. These artifacts perform in several capacities: as visual emblems of Christian territory, as an alternative urban counterpublic to the political and televisual prominence of Muslims nation-wide and as a mode of intervention in everyday Christian behavior. The paintings' migration from church interiors to urban public space raises questions concerning the transformations post-war of religious sensibility and the role of both mass and alternative media therein. There is a perception among Ambonese Christians that their own desperate plight may have been invisible to God himself. The gigantic Christian portraits and murals rising on the ruins of war across Ambon bear witness and give material form to Christian anxieties about invisibility while also aiming to alleviate the very condition of being unseen. Homing in on blindness as much as varied refractions of the visual, the paper also expands our understanding of what the visual might be. Patricia Spyer obtained her BA in History and Anthropology at Tufts University, and her MA and PhD in Anthropology at the University of Chicago. Thereafter she was a Harper Fellow in the College of the University of Chicago, a Lecturer at the Research Centre of Religion & Society at the University of Amsterdam and, since 2001, holds the Chair of the Anthropology of Indonesia at Leiden University. Her fieldwork in the Aru Islands in eastern Indonesia and archival research in the Netherlands forms the basis of her book The Memory of Trade: Modernity's Entanglements on an Eastern Indonesian Island (Duke 2000). Her current ethnographic project focuses on the role of mass and small, alternative media in the conflict and postconflict situation in Ambon, Indonesia. She also co-directs, with Mary Steedly of Harvard University, a collaborative research project Signs of Crisis: Alternative media and the making of political identities in Southern Asia. She has published, among other topics, on violence, historical consciousness, the media and photography, materiality and religion. Her books include Border Fetishisms: Material Objects in Unstable Spaces (Routledge 1998), and the co-edited Handbook of Material Culture (Sage 2006). PUKAR (Partners for Urban Knowledge Action and Research) Address:: 1-4, 2nd Floor, Kamanwala Chambers, Sir P. M. Road, Fort, Mumbai 400 001 Telephone:: +91 (22) 5574 8152 Fax:: +91 (22) 5664 0561 Email:: pukar at pukar.org.in Website:: www.pukar.org.in -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060510/d5dfe77b/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From shuddha at sarai.net Thu May 11 13:30:17 2006 From: shuddha at sarai.net (Shuddhabrata Sengupta) Date: Thu, 11 May 2006 13:30:17 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Re: [Commons-Law] Re: Nangla/SC Proceedings/Notes/9th May 2006 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <4462EF11.30505@sarai.net> Thank you, Lawrence, for bringing us back into the desert of the real. driving down the ring road yesterday, just before you hit what used to be Nangla Machi on the left, I saw, arrayed on the railway bridge, and the under construction Metro Rail line, two hoardings, illuminated in neon backlit glory. One, advertised DLF, and the other Ansals (the very same who once brought you a raging inferno in technicolour, co-produced with the Delhi Vidyut Board, in a cinema, appropriately titled Uphaar, during the matinee show of a film appropriately titled 'Border). DLF and Ansals are both real estate, property and construction behemoths in Delhi and the National Caputal Region. (I love the term National Capital, because it so neatly dovetails 'National' with 'Capital', as it should). The signs leading up tp Nangla Machi, true signs of our times, promise more malls, luxury condominiums, hotels and other construction endeavours, promising, by implication, yet more of the grand re-fashioning of the National Capital that is underway today. There will in fact be no housing shortage, the signs seemed to suggest, provided you are the kind of person, the honourable Supreme Court has decreed as being fit to live in this city of inclement weather. I love those signs, just as much as I am awestruck in admiration of the Honourable Justices Pal and Katju, and the Supreme Court in general. Even before the dust (and fly ash) from the demolitions has settled, and there is another round to happen in 3 weeks time, the space of what once was the 'unauthorized, informal city' has been symbolically sealed and cordoned, re-claimed, if you like (in a different sense from the way in which the inhabitants of Nangla Machi 'reclaimed' a living neighbourhood out of a heap of fly ash) by these signs, courtesy, DLF and Ansals. I like the way the sings stake their claim, in a manner not unlike the way in which urban canines mark territory on lamp posts and car tyres. It is so befittingly urbane. And, speaking of contempt, I would plead that I have no contempt, only admiration for the institution of our judiciary, and this honorable bench in particular. Their wisdome strikes awe into our hearts, as it should. They have demonstrated, that just as the Indian Railways have many classes of coaches, first AC, first, second AC, three tier Second AC, 'ordinary' three tier, and general, or Janta class, so too, the engine of justice in our hallowed republic, pulls different kinds of coaches, first ac, second ac, all the way to Janta class. It is in the Janta class, in the unreserved category, that what Shahid Amin would call the city-jan (not to be confused with Citizen - see my last posting on 1857 on the Reader List) rides, in fits and starts. 'adjusting' (as one does in trains) to the time table, to the driver, to other passengers, to the ticket checker's contempt, to everyone, patiently, with stoic good humour, hoping for the occasional spell of pleasant weather in an otherwise unforgivingly hot and cold and dry and rainy country. best Shuddha From sollybenj at yahoo.co.in Mon May 15 11:06:40 2006 From: sollybenj at yahoo.co.in (solomon benjamin) Date: Mon, 15 May 2006 06:36:40 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] Re: [Urbanstudy] Nangla Maachi: Court Proceedings.Note.9th May 2006 In-Reply-To: <1598.203.122.39.30.1147631889.squirrel@mail.architexturez.net> Message-ID: <20060515053640.65857.qmail@web8907.mail.in.yahoo.com> Hi, Given the extensive violence across Bombay, Delhi, and now Bangalore perhaps starting, one needs to look far far beyond the narrow frameworks of both Master Planning, and Law. And in reflecting on this, I find the statements below really absurd! "..I think the arrogance that marks undignified remarks of the courts is matched by the arrogance of beggarly petitions that invite them and of their pious condemnations afterwards...". ..and: "..simply because they succeeded in securing some unbecoming utterings from an Apex bench..." The issue is not just this case, but a string of cases since 1995 and before that from 1989-91. Justice Kirpal for example has been particularly consistant in this. the recent issue of Frontline has more, and if some have access to the working papers of the Nat. campign for housing rights, of 1989, there was a very useful compilation of the 'Black laws'. The only thing that now comes to mind, is how much does PLANNING blind -- in the violence imparted in its name? Have we not seen so many examples, Jagmohan here, Robert Moses in NYC, White in Boston? I return to Lawrence important comment as part of this discusion: The matrix versus of being desertified. Being a virulent defender of Master Plans, or being blinded by whats legal is not very different from critiqes of Albert Speer, Haussman, Le Corbu in Candigarh, or than Oscar Nimayer who wanted all squatters and trees cut off in the new Brazian capital of Brazilia. What were created were not just deserts but rather entire landscapes of arrogence and violence. Solly --- AZplan wrote: > A few affected-person thoughts on the Ankur/Sarai/CM > account of > proceedings and comments in subsequent posts: > > Both cases from Nangla Maanchi this year (the one in > High Court in January > and the one decided by Supreme Court on 9 May) were > filed against advice > of others. They sought clemency with reliance on > constitutional provisions > (in my view, there was no scope for referring to > statutory rights from > Nangla Maanchi). The Supreme Court case (with the > one of Sajha Manch, > decided 3 days later by a 4 judge bench) all but > settles, ex-parte, the > cases of all others. Similar happened in Pushta 2004 > (in 2006, in the same > week we have also been presented with a Delhi Laws > (Special Provisions) > Bill). > > I think the arrogance that marks undignified remarks > of the courts is > matched by the arrogance of beggarly petitions that > invite them and of > their pious condemnations afterwards. > > In one of the cases of 2004, the court had remarked > to the effect that > petitioners would do well to lobby elsewhere if they > had no point of law. > I do not recall any discussion on that excellent > advice that would have > greatly benefited others engaging in ordinary ways. > I also did not notice > any discussion on the Nangla Maanchi case of January > that High Court > dismissed (with no dramatic remarks) as withdrawn > subject to liberty to > petition the Monitoring Committee or on the beggarly > petition that was > promptly made also to the Monitoring Committee. > > I think a critique of the court proceedings of 9 May > (or those of 12 May) > needs to include comment on the petitions that were > before the court -- > unless, of course, we are expected to extrapolate > all manners of lessons > from a few news reports and accounts and opinions of > those associated > simply because they succeeded in securing some > unbecoming utterings from > an Apex bench. > > Gita Dewan Verma, Planner > > > > > Dear All, > > > > Today, on May 09, 2006, Hon'ble Justice Ruma Pal > and Justice Markhande > > Katju of the Supreme Court, set a time of three > weeks for the demolition > > of > > the remainder of Nangla Maanchi. The half an hour > hearing was held in > > Court > > Number 02 (as item number 16) of the Supreme > Court, Barakhamba Road, > > Delhi, > > from 11:00 AM to 11:30 AM. > > > > The hon'ble bench stated that relocation of all > the [remaining] > > inhabitants > > of Nangla was "not possible" before the > demolition. It stated that all it > > could grant Nangla Maanchi was a time of three > weeks, before demolition, > > "full stop". > > > > The hon'ble bench stated that the power house, > whose land had been > > 'encroached' by the inhabitants of Nangla had > given "some date for > > construction", and that there has to be "balance" > - that the land has > > "uses > > that cannot be denied", and that the more > settlements are removed, the > > "more they come". On the question of the timeline > for this construction, > > the hon'ble bench stated that whatever the case > may be, "occupation of > > land > > without legal authority cannot be allowed. Even > people whose lands have > > legal rights have been relocated" for projects. > > > > In response to a request on deliberation on the > question of cut-off dates > > for eligibility for relocation, the hon'ble bench > stated, "from what was a > > few tenemants" it has grown to "thousands", and > "each tenemant had a > > family". They have been "growing and growing", > that it was becoming > > difficult to "deal with the problem". It also > stated, during the court > > proceedings, that if public land is occupied, it > will "have to be > > vacated", > > that the right to shelter did not mean that > "everyone be given shelter". > > > > On the question of Ghewda being without any > infrastructure or facilities > > (where the inhabitants of Nangla Maanchi will be > temporarily relocated), > > the hon'ble bench stated that in Bawana, a > resettlement colony, people had > > sold off their plots of land. On the question of > the difficulty of being > > on > > the streets in this intense heat, the hon'ble > bench stated that it is > > "never comfortable to live out", that there will > always be intense heat, > > or > > cold, or rainfall in the city. The hon'ble bench > suggested that people > > need > > not come to Delhi, unless they can afford to live > in the city. > > > > Present at the hearing from Ankur/Cybermohalla: > > Sharmila Bhagat (Ankur) > > Shabana (Ankur) > > Avantika (Ankur) > > Shveta Sarda (Sarai/Cybermohalla) > > > > Note-taking by Shveta Sarda > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Urbanstudygroup mailing list > > Urban Study Group: Reading the South Asian City > > > > To subscribe or browse the Urban Study Group > archives, please visit > > > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > > > > _______________________________________________ > Urbanstudygroup mailing list > Urban Study Group: Reading the South Asian City > > To subscribe or browse the Urban Study Group > archives, please visit > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > __________________________________________________________ Yahoo! India Answers: Share what you know. Learn something new. http://in.answers.yahoo.com From aditi.thorat at gmail.com Mon May 15 12:11:55 2006 From: aditi.thorat at gmail.com (Aditi thorat) Date: Mon, 15 May 2006 12:11:55 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Re: [Urbanstudy] Nangla Maachi: Court Proceedings.Note.9th May 2006 In-Reply-To: <1598.203.122.39.30.1147631889.squirrel@mail.architexturez.net> References: <1598.203.122.39.30.1147631889.squirrel@mail.architexturez.net> Message-ID: <2d42d32e0605142341u5e4d1dd7u409ee9b302e2e06f@mail.gmail.com> Thank you all for an enriching discussion on this very significant issue. Without disrespect to anyone, I think it might be useful to examine the successes/challenges of "rights" based movements in the struggle for shelter for the urban poor. Using an example from the 1980s, where there were similar widespread demolitions of slum/pavement dwellers in Mumbai, (see Anand Patwardhan's powerful film "Hamara Shaher"), to quote Dunu Roy, a "PIL was filed by a journalist to protect the rights of pavement dwellers. In 1986, the court gave a landmark judgement in what came to be known as the Olga Tellis case, holding that the Right to Life included the Right to Livelihood and, hence, the pavement dwellers could not be arbitrarily evicted as their livelihood was dependent on where they lived." (Ref: http://www.india-seminar.com/2004/533/533%20dunu%20roy.htm) However, on the ground, legal thinkers, policy makers, bureaucrats often interpreted this case as the narrow "right of pavement dwellers to live on pavements" , and this position actually became a convenient way for city officials to avoid discussion of sustainable resettlement of pavement dwellers, even where clearly families wanted to move, as they were living in highly precarious conditions, with their children having to use busy roads as their playgrounds and bathrooms. I think this example is useful to illustrate some of the challenges that rights-based activism faces. It would be good to have some more discussion on this. Best, Aditi On 5/15/06, AZplan wrote: > > A few affected-person thoughts on the Ankur/Sarai/CM account of > proceedings and comments in subsequent posts: > > Both cases from Nangla Maanchi this year (the one in High Court in January > and the one decided by Supreme Court on 9 May) were filed against advice > of others. They sought clemency with reliance on constitutional provisions > (in my view, there was no scope for referring to statutory rights from > Nangla Maanchi). The Supreme Court case (with the one of Sajha Manch, > decided 3 days later by a 4 judge bench) all but settles, ex-parte, the > cases of all others. Similar happened in Pushta 2004 (in 2006, in the same > week we have also been presented with a Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) > Bill). > > I think the arrogance that marks undignified remarks of the courts is > matched by the arrogance of beggarly petitions that invite them and of > their pious condemnations afterwards. > > In one of the cases of 2004, the court had remarked to the effect that > petitioners would do well to lobby elsewhere if they had no point of law. > I do not recall any discussion on that excellent advice that would have > greatly benefited others engaging in ordinary ways. I also did not notice > any discussion on the Nangla Maanchi case of January that High Court > dismissed (with no dramatic remarks) as withdrawn subject to liberty to > petition the Monitoring Committee or on the beggarly petition that was > promptly made also to the Monitoring Committee. > > I think a critique of the court proceedings of 9 May (or those of 12 May) > needs to include comment on the petitions that were before the court -- > unless, of course, we are expected to extrapolate all manners of lessons > from a few news reports and accounts and opinions of those associated > simply because they succeeded in securing some unbecoming utterings from > an Apex bench. > > Gita Dewan Verma, Planner > > > > > Dear All, > > > > Today, on May 09, 2006, Hon'ble Justice Ruma Pal and Justice Markhande > > Katju of the Supreme Court, set a time of three weeks for the demolition > > of > > the remainder of Nangla Maanchi. The half an hour hearing was held in > > Court > > Number 02 (as item number 16) of the Supreme Court, Barakhamba Road, > > Delhi, > > from 11:00 AM to 11:30 AM. > > > > The hon'ble bench stated that relocation of all the [remaining] > > inhabitants > > of Nangla was "not possible" before the demolition. It stated that all > it > > could grant Nangla Maanchi was a time of three weeks, before demolition, > > "full stop". > > > > The hon'ble bench stated that the power house, whose land had been > > 'encroached' by the inhabitants of Nangla had given "some date for > > construction", and that there has to be "balance" - that the land has > > "uses > > that cannot be denied", and that the more settlements are removed, the > > "more they come". On the question of the timeline for this construction, > > the hon'ble bench stated that whatever the case may be, "occupation of > > land > > without legal authority cannot be allowed. Even people whose lands have > > legal rights have been relocated" for projects. > > > > In response to a request on deliberation on the question of cut-off > dates > > for eligibility for relocation, the hon'ble bench stated, "from what was > a > > few tenemants" it has grown to "thousands", and "each tenemant had a > > family". They have been "growing and growing", that it was becoming > > difficult to "deal with the problem". It also stated, during the court > > proceedings, that if public land is occupied, it will "have to be > > vacated", > > that the right to shelter did not mean that "everyone be given shelter". > > > > On the question of Ghewda being without any infrastructure or facilities > > (where the inhabitants of Nangla Maanchi will be temporarily relocated), > > the hon'ble bench stated that in Bawana, a resettlement colony, people > had > > sold off their plots of land. On the question of the difficulty of being > > on > > the streets in this intense heat, the hon'ble bench stated that it is > > "never comfortable to live out", that there will always be intense heat, > > or > > cold, or rainfall in the city. The hon'ble bench suggested that people > > need > > not come to Delhi, unless they can afford to live in the city. > > > > Present at the hearing from Ankur/Cybermohalla: > > Sharmila Bhagat (Ankur) > > Shabana (Ankur) > > Avantika (Ankur) > > Shveta Sarda (Sarai/Cybermohalla) > > > > Note-taking by Shveta Sarda > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Urbanstudygroup mailing list > > Urban Study Group: Reading the South Asian City > > > > To subscribe or browse the Urban Study Group archives, please visit > > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > > > > _______________________________________________ > Urbanstudygroup mailing list > Urban Study Group: Reading the South Asian City > > To subscribe or browse the Urban Study Group archives, please visit > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > -- Aditi Thorat Officer on Special Duty to Chief Minister Government of Rajasthan 0141-5116629 (Tele/Fax) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060515/21d29e31/attachment.html From tetranew at sarai.net Mon May 15 18:26:08 2006 From: tetranew at sarai.net (tetranew) Date: Mon, 15 May 2006 18:26:08 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] testing mail Message-ID: <44687A68.8070406@sarai.net> testing mail From penguinhead at linux-delhi.org Tue May 16 20:46:45 2006 From: penguinhead at linux-delhi.org (Pankaj kaushal) Date: Tue, 16 May 2006 20:46:45 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] testing mail In-Reply-To: <44687A68.8070406@sarai.net> References: <44687A68.8070406@sarai.net> Message-ID: <4469ECDD.2050005@linux-delhi.org> tetranew wrote: > testing mail Test failed. P. -- People who drink to drown thier sorrow should be told that sorrow knows how to swim. From gora at sarai.net Wed May 17 00:57:59 2006 From: gora at sarai.net (gora at sarai.net) Date: Tue, 16 May 2006 21:27:59 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] Yet another test mail, please ignore Message-ID: Sorry. Testing to see if the archive problems are fixed. From gora_mohanty at yahoo.co.in Wed May 17 01:42:15 2006 From: gora_mohanty at yahoo.co.in (Gora Mohanty) Date: Tue, 16 May 2006 21:12:15 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] Last test tonight, please ignore Message-ID: <20060516201215.55327.qmail@web8501.mail.in.yahoo.com> I apologize for this. Please ignore this message. This is a test from a non-Sarai address with a proper Content-Type header. Last test today. Send instant messages to your online friends http://in.messenger.yahoo.com From peerzadaarshad at gmail.com Tue May 16 13:04:12 2006 From: peerzadaarshad at gmail.com (arshad hamid) Date: Tue, 16 May 2006 13:04:12 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Voices Unheard Message-ID: <83db55e00605160034h52b910fct79bd59286c16a77c@mail.gmail.com> *Voices Unheard * I was supposed to submit my fourth posting between April 22 and April 28. The reason for the delay is the outright denial of most of the patients visiting Psychiatric hospital in Srinagar to share their grief and let the researcher know the reasons underlying their stress disorders. Kashmir being a closed society, people have inhibitions disclosing their diseases particularly the psychiatric ones, for they fear disclosure of same may result in categorizing them as insane or lunatic. Owing to this assertion of social ostracism, even doctors at Psychiatric hospital say that many people despite knowing that they have psychiatric problems avoid visiting the psychiatric hospital. "we want to live and do not like intrusion in our lives. What bad we have experienced, we don't like it to cast shadows on our future," was the response from most of the patients, this researcher tried to caught up. For weeks together, I kept on interacting with the patients and their families. If sometimes patients were ready to share their experiences and speak about the horrors, family sources showed reluctance. Their argument was that quoting examples from their families will make them 'outcasts' in the society. At times patients themselves were blunt. At one point it appeared that I can not proceed further, then a detailed interview with a youth, Shabir Ahmad generated a fresh hope inside me. His positive approach and understanding of the problem made me to conduct further interviews. *Case Study 5: *Shabir Ahmad, hailing from Anantnag was brought to Government Hospital for Psychiatric Diseases, Srinagar in November 2005 after being diagnosed of post traumatic stress disorder (PSTD).Shabir's family said they witnessed a dramatic change in his behaviour prior to the diagnosis. He was a depressed lot, talking less, doing abnormal acts like pouring water in to rice, while taking the meals. Was complaining about sleeplessness and getting angry. At times he was getting totally unconscious. A stage reached, he was getting violent and trying to beat anyone who try to pacify him. His presence has become the source of inconvenience for the family. His brother Manzoor, relates, "One evening, when Shabir came back to home, he told us that he is not feeling well and complained of fever. We suggested him to lay in the bed. Around 10 pm, he felt unconscious and resorted to intra-personal communication .Everybody at home got puzzled. In the unconsciousness, he at once got up and ran towards the attic of the house raising alarm, save me, save me. . . He whispered that army has zeroed the entire house and that encounter will start soon. We persuaded him that it is his nightmare and he need not to panic. At the second moment, he complained that gunmen (militants) will shoot him. The drama continued for whole night till morning prayers were called form the local mosque," recalls Manzoor. Next day Shabir was taken to the Psychiatric Hospital. Initially Shabir's family use to treat Shabir for evil spirits, for they were convinced that some evil spirits are causing harm to Shabir. Revered waters and clay blessed by the priests (locally know as peers) was given to Shabir as panacea. Communication with Shabir dawned upon the researcher that Shabir had friendship in militant ranks as well as with police and army personnel deputed to tackle militants. His profile of job was such that he could not annoy anyone. Being a cable operator in the locality, keeping acquaintances both with militants and police/army personnel was Shabir's compulsion. Police station and army personnel in the locality were subscribing his service. Militants often used to summon him for according to Shabir, they many a times tried to close down the cable service. They were being told that cable service is likely to bring immorality in the society. "Having a sort of association with both, wild thoughts used to occupy my mind and sensing the prevailing situation, I thought I may become a target," Shabir says. Another reason for Shabir's diseases is the broken love affair. Snapped ties with his fiancee forced him to take drugs in order to get relieved. For seven years Shabir relied on the drugs as an alternative to derive temporary solace. But continued usage of drugs that too with increased dosages each day found Shabir caught in the quagmire of drug addiction. "I myself am responsible for the deterioration of my health but the prevailing conflict situation simply aggravated my stress," Shabir says. Nowadays Shabir is on the Medication under the supervision of Psychiatrist, who not only cured Shabir but ignited spark inside him for further living. "The situation here is bad and needs a serious approach. Hundreds of the people are using drugs as an alternative to over come frustration and depression," informs Shabir. *Case Study 6: *Sarwa Akther (50) is trying hard to forget the incident that made her daughter Yasmeena to breath her last in the courtyard of their house. The sound of bullets and screams of Yaseema are still resonating in her ears. Yasmeena was gunned down by militants in 2003. On the allegation that she was working as SPO (Special police officer) with the local police and providing them information about the movement of militants. The tragedy has left an indelible impressions on her memory. Unable to cope up with the separation of her daughter and the nature of Yaseema's death, Sarwa became a psychiatric patient. In April this year, she was referred to Psychiatric hospital by a doctor after Sarwa didn't show desired results. She was being treated for depression and even double dozes of anti-depressants were not giving desired results. At Psychiatric hospital Srinagar, she has been diagnosed a patient of PSTD, and after taking medicines her family sources say that now they feel a little difference in her attitude. Sarwa's reason for falling prey to Psychiatric diseases is that her daughter Yasmeena was killed by gunmen in cold-blood. According to Sarwa,Yasmeena's father was about to retire from service and to help the family. She choose to work as an SPO on 1500 rupees, which is a dangerous job to do in Kashmir. SPO's are thought to be a cursed people with every apprehensions of facing the wrath of militants. Sarwa argues that her daughter died as a martyr .The entire family is yet to come out of the shock that it suffered during an evening of September 2003 and Sarwa is worst affected. "The two masked gunmen entered our house and asked for Yasmeena. Not feeling well, she was lying in the bed. When we pressed for knowing the reason, Yasmeen cried that they had come to kill her. No sooner the duo heard her cry from inside the room, they fired a volley of bullets killing her on the spot and critically injuring our seven-year-old cousin," relates Tasleema, another daughter of Sarwa. The family abandoned their ancestral home in Bijbehara to help Sarwa recover from the diseases and tragedy. They have not visited their home and have almost snapped all their relationship with the relatives at Bijbehara. Nowadays the family lives in an exile in Anantnag town. Sarwa recalls the indifferent attitude of their neighbours in Bijbehara when Yasmeen was killed. "Nobody among our neighbours came out at the time of incident. Even a limited people joined us to carry her last rites. It was very painful, even more painful than her killing," she says. There is hardly a day when Sarwa does not weep in memory of her daughter. She compels her husband Ghulam Rasool to visit the grave of Yasmeena on every Friday to offer Fateh Khawani. One thing that haunts Sarwa is that Yasmeena's death has brought bad name to the family and that people will not marry any of her other daughters all of whom have attained the marriage age. The daily news broadcast from radio makes Sarwa restless the moment violent incidents are reported. *Case Study 7: *Hajra (50) is a half-widow, meaning she has no whereabouts about her husband who has disappeared. Half-widow is a term coined by media in Kashmir, and refers to women whose husbands disappeared in the conflict. According to Muslim laws a woman whose husband has disappeared has to wait for seven years before she can remarry. Hajra is one of many half widows in Kashmir. Her worries simply increase with every passing day. Unable to trace her husband Mohammed Yosuf Malik, who she says was subjected to enforced disappearance in the custody, Hajra's concern is the growing age of her three daughters. Twelve years ago, to be exact on May 7, 1994, her husband was picked up by the army from her residence at around 2;30 am in the dead of night. The fearful entry of the men in uniform is still fresh in her memories. "The men belonging to Para 9 Commandos broke open our doors and forcibly made their entry inside our bedroom, where we were sleeping along with our daughters. They dragged my husband and took him away," recalls Hajra. Right from that day, Hajra is suffering from abnormal heart beat that even make her unconscious. Relating the incident even today makes her feel uneasy and frightened. After her husband's disappearance, she assumed the status of family head and used to manage everything from managing agricultural land to bear the expenses of daughters. She stood like a rock and is struggling hard for her family. Doctors, whom Hajra approached for treatment of her diseases after seeing no let up in her condition, advised Hajra to go for psychiatric consultation after. "I am not scared of my death but what will happen to my daughters, who will manage their marriage and other things. They have always seen sufferings," says Hajra. Mixing up with patients at psychiatrist hospital made Hajra feel that her worries are smaller compared to others visiting here. She has been put on medication and has been asked to report for counseling session twice in a week. Almost all the people comprising of family members and patients whom this researcher interacted speak about their visits to shrines and consultation with priests in search of solace and end to their diseases. In the next posting, I will be bring the expert opinion on the burgeoning number of psychiatric patients. Ends- - - -- Peerzada Arshad Hamid +91-9419027486 +91-1932-234488 Address Baba mohalla Bijbehara c/o Tak Trading Company Bijbehara Jammu & Kashmir INDIA www.kashmirnewz.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060516/c481a7df/attachment.html From pmravindra at sancharnet.in Mon May 15 06:33:27 2006 From: pmravindra at sancharnet.in (P M Ravindran) Date: Mon, 15 May 2006 06:33:27 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Fw: [Aid-awareness] Nangla Machi and Narmada Message-ID: <001301c67951$a243c4e0$b7fa013d@one> And should we forget the alacrity with which the apex court stayed all demolitions in Gujarat? Regards and best wishes P M Ravindran ----- Original Message ----- From: Ashima Sood To: aid-awareness at aidindia.org Sent: Saturday, May 13, 2006 10:55 AM Subject: [Aid-awareness] Nangla Machi and Narmada Thank you to all those who wrote back in response to this issue. I would like to point out that there is a direct and organic relationship between the demolition of Nangla Machi and the displacement caused by the Sardar Sarovar Project. In both cases, the executive organ of the state reserves the right to take away the shelters and livelihoods of the disadvantaged. And the judiciary holds the right to uphold the executive's powers of coercion. Where do the displaced go? The logic of cash compensation for land leads the "project-affected persons" (PAPs) of the Narmada valley directly into the heart of the urban cash economy. Yet even here, the SC judgment on Nangla Machi tells us, there is no place for them. The slums and jhuggi jhopdi clusters they have built over many years of hard work are deemed eyesores and encroachments on state land. Never mind the encroachments the state and its corporate allies continue to make on ancestral lands. In both cases, the law has ruled against the dispossessed's right to shelter. Shuddhabrata Sengupta of CSDS Sarai posted the following riposte to the judgment on Sarai's Reader List and Common Law List. Amusing and provocative: ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: [Reader-list] Re: Nangla/SC Proceedings/Notes/9th May 2006 To: Shveta Cc: reader-list at sarai.net, commons-law at sarai.net Message-ID: <446194EA.2000103 at sarai.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed ...I find the remarks made by the honourable bench of Justice Ruma Pal and Justice Markhande Katju extremely illuminating. They have opened doors in my understanding of the Indian Constitution and the rule of law, and flooded my being with insight and clarity. I hope that the government recognizes the sagacity of the hon'ble bench and awards them with the highest civilian honours at the earliest for acting with such alacrity to save our city and protect the spirit if not the letter of our constitution. Three things stand out, which as a lay, legally illiterate person, I think are quite remarkable in the way they elucidate the working of the best intelligences of the judiciary. 1. One, their wisdom on matters of the weather, (that it is "never comfortable to live out", that there will always be intense heat, or cold, or rainfall in the city). In fact, this is of the utmost importance, because given the nature of our city, those who cannot afford air conditioners, central heaters, generators and uninterrupted power supply should all be asked to leave our fair city. This will leave all of Lutyens Delhi and some pockets straddling the ring road intact. The rest of the city in fact should be destroyed. Systematically. Something like this was done in 1857, next year is the hundred and fiftieth anniversary of that time, and there is no better way to commemorate the sacrifices of the Indian rebel martyrs and the forward thinking nature of the East India Company's military urban planning division than to repeat that exercise that in demolition on a grand scale, so as to ensure that only those who deserve to live in Delhi may do so. 2. Following from the above, we should do the utmost to ensure that the hon'ble benches wise suggestion that, 'If you cannot afford to live in Delhi, you need not come here' be implemented at the earliest. This suggestion needs to be recognized for the great innovation that it represents, implying that the retrograde step of de-linking property from citizenship and civic/civil rights, which all democratic movements and revolutions (even of a thoroughly formal nature) had sought to advance, has now been finally jettisoned by the Supreme Court of India as a foundational legal principle. Before this, we all suffered under the terrible delusion that regardless of whether you were rich or poor, we all had a human right to make a decent living in the city. Now the matter is clear. And the poor must be put away where they belong, so that the rest of us can be equal before the law. Some of us have been anticipating this for some time now, after all, one applies for a credit card, or a club membership, and one's chances of having one's application accepted do depend on income, ownership of property, vehicle (preferably four wheeler) etc. Now, this ruling suggests that the same convenient and efficient principle be applied to habitation in the city, in fact to citizenship itself. The hundreds of years wasted in democratic efforts, which have only brought slums and ruination on all good nations, can now be finally reverses, thanks to this epoch making judgement. I am speechless in admiration for the hon'ble benches hon'ble sagacity. 3. The hon'ble bench goes on to observe, as per your report, that 'The right to shelter did not mean that everyone will have to get shelter'. This is yet another stroke of sheer judicial (and judicious) genius. Taken to its logical conclusion, this statement, implies that the right to life does not mean that everyone has to live, the right to liberty and freedom of expression does not mean that everyone has to be at liberty to say what they want, and so on. By one stroke, the honourable bench has emptied the word 'right' of its inconvenient associations, and filled it with the content of the word 'privilege'. This has far reaching implications for our polity, which any right thinking person will welcome. It means for instance, that a campaign should now be undertaken, inspired by the examples set by the Honourable Justices Pal & Katju for amending the Indian constitution such that we have what is only right and proper, meaning, a body of fundamental restrictions, and a few reasonable rights, instead of the other way round. This would be more in keeping with the manner in which our society seems to work. Once this is done, judicial efficiency will increase, the back log of cases will diminish, and all manner of uncouth, poor, dirty, ganda log can be locked away in labour camps to grow organic zuccini, while the true inheritors and custodians of the Indian Republic Raj get down to real business. Rise and Shine India ! All hail our glorious Supreme Court. best Shuddha _______________________________________________ Aid-awareness mailing list Aid-awareness at aidindia.org http://lists.aidindia.org/mailman/listinfo/aid-awareness -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060515/da5549bb/attachment.html From daljitami at rediffmail.com Mon May 15 18:57:19 2006 From: daljitami at rediffmail.com (daljit ami) Date: 15 May 2006 13:27:19 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Celluloid and compact disks in Punjab Message-ID: <20060515132719.17733.qmail@webmail29.rediffmail.com>   Historical episode ahistorical names and trivialising history Religious theme is no exception for the new trend of Compact Disk revolution. The exception is not confined to the fact the religious themes have been tried on new medium but the treatment to these themes in also not exception. An hour long film, Saka-a-Sirhind by TPM is one such film. The film directed by Dilawar Sidhu, a theatre artist turned film director, is based on an episode from the life of Guru Gobind Singh’s younger sons. They were killed by the Nawab of Sirhind when their cook, Gangu, handed them over to Nawab along with their mother Gujri better known as Mata Gujri. The film has dialogues on the pattern as described in my previous dispatches. The long one to one dialogues have no sense of historicity or authenticity. The anchor based film has certain notable points. The anchor dressed in the headgear associated with males or a section of religious sikh females is an attempt to make the narrative masculine whereas this episode revolves around Mata Gujri for her courage, affection and conviction of thought. Her character has been further trivialised in the dialogues where her character loose the feminine grace it is suppose to have. Recently a trend has been initiated by a section of sikh fundamentalists where they have appropriated the names of certain historical figures to suit their own ends. The change of Mata Gujri to Gujr Kaur is one such appropriation. The anchor of this film addresses Mata Gujri as Gujr Kaur. Similarly another character is addressed as Anup Kaur. It will be worth writing about the role of Kaur as second name for females. Kaur was similar to Singh for females. It became popular during late seventeenth and early eighteenth century. In this context writing Kaur as second name for those who lived prior to that period is anachronistic and ahistorical. Above all there seems to be fundamentalist design behind such appropriations. The film simply lacks any sense of time. The anchor does not mention about the time and space the whole story is placed in. Over acting by the cast (with no exception) and larger than life gestures trivialise history. Two characters are offering prayer in very uncomfortable situation but sitting very comfortably in a quilt. The whole vocabulary is of contemporary sikh religious preachers rather than of the time this particular episode is supposed to represent. The epithets bestowed to characters posthumously by next generations in lieu of the help they lend to younger sons of Guru Gobind Singh have been offered in the film by contemporaries on the condition of help required. This film has almost all sort of thematic and technical problems. This film can be an example of use of the technology without any justification. The use of crane, track and wide angle lance further vulgarise the content. How the audience receive such film can be an interesting variable to understand their perception of the film. The composition of the audience of this film can enable us to understand how this film can be approached by the audience? Is that audience has other options or not seems to be the most important question at the moment. Daljit Ami -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060515/ac288aab/attachment.html From debjanisgupta at yahoo.com Mon May 15 17:51:59 2006 From: debjanisgupta at yahoo.com (debjani sengupta) Date: Mon, 15 May 2006 05:21:59 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] from kolkata: fifth posting Message-ID: <20060515122159.61639.qmail@web54211.mail.yahoo.com> One of the literary representations of the refugee colonies in post partition Kolkata is seen in Savitri Ray's novel Bwadwip. This novel chronicles the genesis and development of refugee colonies. The process of colony formation, the numerous characters and their inter relationships and wider currents of contemporary politics are the threads of the narrative of Ray's fiction. Savitri Ray lived in Garfa, in Jadavpur and har minute observations of colony life was the foundation of what she wrote. Bwadwip records many dimensions of colony life. The feeling of loss, of a homeland, of homes, of accustomed lifestyles and status rankled in the minds of the refugees. On the other handm they were determined to make good in Kolkata. The new locale, the space of the refugee colony, was to be fashioned as a distinctive community, landscape and identity. Ray complicates this picture by highlighting some of the internal contadictions of class and gender within the space of the colony. The constructive urge to build a new life was often supplemented by ethnic cleansing, unleashing violence against the old Muslim residents in the vicinity of the colonies. Ray's realistic chronicling of the process of colony formation is seen in her foregrounding agencies, both male and female. The epic canvas of the novel highlights the sites where these agencies are at work. The colony market, the colony committee, the cultural association, political party meetings within the colony, the political demonstration where the refugees participated are carefully depicted in the narrative. The activities that mark the public sphere of the colony life is also carefully delienated. Clearing jungles, defending the site from goons, establishing school and market, organizing youth festivals and cultural activities and hosting zonal meetings of the United Central Refugee Council are described with vivid faithfulness to detail in this work. The novel is an interesting entry into a history which cannot otherwise be known except through memories of participants. Maybe some of those can also be unearthed. I am trying to do that, in a small way. Next phase, the interviews...that will come in the nest batch of missives. --------------------------------- Talk is cheap. Use Yahoo! Messenger to make PC-to-Phone calls. Great rates starting at 1¢/min. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060515/9884f881/attachment.html From uddipana at gmail.com Tue May 16 16:43:03 2006 From: uddipana at gmail.com (Uddipana Goswami) Date: Tue, 16 May 2006 16:43:03 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Fwd: [northeastjournos] The Poem IIC Journal & OUP Book Censored In-Reply-To: <20060516111118.55643.qmail@web30511.mail.mud.yahoo.com> References: <20060516111118.55643.qmail@web30511.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: wrote: > To: northeastjournos at yahoogroups.com > From: splitends media co-op > > Date: Tue, 9 May 2006 13:37:10 +0100 (BST) > Subject: [northeastjournos] The Poem IIC Journal & > OUP Book Censored > > I Want to be Killed by an Indian Bullet > > Thangjam > Ibopishak > > > I heard the news long ago that they were looking for > me; in the morning in the afternoon at night. My > children told me; my wife told me. > One morning they entered my drawing room, the five > of > them. Fire, water, air, earth, sky - are the names > of > these five. They can create men; also destroy men at > whim. They do whatever they fancy. The very avatar > of > might. > I ask them: "When will you kill me?" > The leader replied: "Now. We'll kill > you > right now. Today is very auspicious. Say your > prayers. > Have you bathed? Have you had your meal?" > "Why will you kill me? What is my crime? What > evil deed have I done?" I asked them again. > "Are you a poet who pens gobbledygook and > drivel? Or do you consider yourself a seer with > oracular powers? Or are you a madman?" asked > the > leader. > "I know that I'm neither of the first > two > beings. I cannot tell you about the last one. How > can > I myself tell whether I'm unhinged or > not?" > The leader said: "You can be whatever you > would > like to be. We are not concerned about this or that. > We will kill you now. Our mission is to kill > men." > I ask: "In what manner will you kill me? Will > you cut me with a knife? Will you shoot me? Will you > club me to death?" > "We will shoot you." > "With which gun will you shoot me then? Made > in > India, or made in another country?" > "Foreign made. All of them made in Germany, > made in Russia, or made in China. We don't use > guns made in India. Let alone good guns, India > cannot > even make plastic flowers. When asked to make > plastic > flowers India can only produce toothbrushes." > I said: "That's a good thing. Of what > use > are plastic flowers without any fragrance?" > The leader said: "No one keeps toothbrushes > in > vases to do up a room. In life a little > embellishment > has its part." > "Whatever it may be, if you must shoot me > please shoot me with a gun made in India. I > don't want to die from a foreign bullet. You > see, I love India very much." > "That can never be. Your wish cannot be > granted. Don't ever mention Bharat to > us." > Saying this, they left without killing me; as if > they > didn't do anything at all. Being fastidious > about death I escaped with my life. > > > > > > splitENDS media co-op / imaging, documentation & > critique / Shillong > > > > > > > __________________________________________________________ > > Yahoo! India Answers: Share what you know. Learn > something new. > http://in.answers.yahoo.com > > > ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor > --------------------~--> > Home is just a click away.� Make Yahoo! your home > page now. > http://us.click.yahoo.com/DHchtC/3FxNAA/yQLSAA/saOolB/TM > --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/northeastjournos/ > > <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email > to: > northeastjournos-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com > > <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: > http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ > > > > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060516/9d4220db/attachment.html From jai.sen at cacim.net Tue May 16 18:19:18 2006 From: jai.sen at cacim.net (Jai Sen) Date: Tue, 16 May 2006 18:19:18 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [caravan99] CDDB 36 : IS CONVERGENCE TAKING SHAPE ? Message-ID: <049E271F-9489-400E-AE90-7293250B97DD@cacim.net> From Delhi, Tuesday, May 16, 2006 PLEASE SEND ON CACIM DELHI DEMOS BULLETIN / CDDB 36 : IS CONVERGENCE TAKING SHAPE ? The pressure in India – so far perhaps, in certain parts of India - has become unbearable, and some shape to more coordinated resistance to what has been and is happening (massive displacement in rural areas, massive evictions and demolitions in urban areas) seems to be emerging. But there are also sharply different manifestations of what is happening. At least three very important developments are taking shape : First, a crucial first meeting in Mumbai tomorrow (Wednesday, May 17), in formal terms to examine and critique the recent extremely regressive trends in the judgements of the Supreme Court of India, but behind this, almost certainly, to also explore the possibilities of a wider and more coordinated engagement not only with judicial trends but also executive and political trends with respect to the rights and freedoms of labouring and working people in the country. (Item 1.) The range in the coalition of organisations who have called this meeting (for those who cannot ‘read’ this, people concerned with democratic rights, women’s rights, workers’ rights, dwelling rights, and the rights of people being displaced in both urban and rural areas) is also extremely significant. They include the NBA (Narmada Bachao Andolan), the organisation that held the month long strike in Delhi during march-April that was reported in detail here in CDDB (see below for link to all earlier issues) Mumbai has been a crucible for the emergence of new politics and directions for decades now, even over a century. This is a space we should all watch. Second, a call for a National Day of Action in India just ten days later, on May 26, by the NBA (Narmada Bachao Andolan). (Item 2.) Meetings have already started all over the country towards giving this shape. We will try and keep reporting on all this. WE ALSO REQUEST ALL READERS TO PLEASE SEND US news and information on what is happening, so that we can broaden our coverage. ALSO, IN CASE YOU ARE READING A FORWARDED COPY AND WOULD LIKE TO BE PUT ON OUR MAILING LIST SO THAT CDDB REACHES YOU EARLIER, please write back and let us know. The third development is also very interesting and important : The emergence over this past several months (or year) of a very active listserve and, as far as we know, also real-world and -time coalition, of what in Delhi are called ‘residents’ welfare organisations’ (RWAs) – local neighbourhood associations in middle- class areas; named URJA - United Residents' Joint Action. The choice of the name is very significant : ‘Urja’ in Hindi means ‘power’, energy. Starting off looking at distortions in power / energy bills, and protesting this (the latest protest in this area is members of specific RWAs collectively submitting only 50% of bills received, on the argument that consumers will not accept responsibility for electricity theft losses, which the power companies are trying to pass on to them in bills), they have moved to looking at a wide gamut of urban issues – including evictions and demolitions. (See item 3.) But their take on what the Supreme Court is doing through its recent and current orders is radically different from how the Mumbai group is seeing things; they see the Court as the last bulwark against the chaos they see overtaking cities in India, not only through so-called ‘unauthorised settlements’ of the labouring poor but also, for instance, the huge amount of unauthorised construction by commercial interests in the city; and through corruption. So they support the Court’s current moves to put a stop to ALL of this – and in the course of which it is ordering the evictions of hundreds and thousands of households, in Delhi and all over the country. But the reason for including them here in CDDB is that this is also happening parallel to the emergence of ‘we’ might see as more ‘progressive’ coalition against such actions - this emergence of a very vibrant urban coalition in the capital of India, with amazingly rich exchange on its listserve. URJA apparently has some 100 paid-up RWAs as members, and claim to be in touch with (and representing the interests of) lakhs (hundreds of thousands) of households. Significantly, they are widely using blogs and e-groups for communicating. See links and contact details given in item 3 for more details. Completely on another hand, the Bhopal struggle – which made such good ground last month and won such an apparently amazing victory through its dharna in Delhi (see CDDB 22) - has taken a sharp downturn. (Item 5.) Maybe the honeymoon is over ? But their supporters continue to be creatively active : Item 6. Jai Sen, for CACIM IN THIS ISSUE OF CDDB : CONVERGENCE ! [1] PROTEST MEETING AGAINST THE RECENT TREND OF THE SUPREME COURT (India Centre for Human Rights and Law, CEHAT, Forum Against Oppression of Women, Awaz E Niswan, Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights (CPDR), and others, May 11) [2] Letter from the NBA : 26 May as a DAY OF NATIONAL ACTION (NBA Baroda, May 15) [3] On URJA (United Residents' Joint Action) (CACIM, off URJA blogspace, May 9/16) NARMADA ! [3] Maheshwar dam affected farmers and fisherpeople demonstrate at Power Finance Corporation (NBA Khargone, May 12) MUMBAI ! [4] Another Brutal Truth: Immediate response needed (Mukta, nd, circulated May 14) BHOPAL ! [5] Bhopal gas victims demand balanced committee (IndiaTimes, May 13) [6] Dow Shareholder Meeting Protest, May 11, 2006 (Students for Bhopal, May 13) "There Is A Fury Building Up Across India" (Arundhati Roy, April 29 – see CDDB 29) Note : The CDDB (CACIM Delhi Demos Bulletin) is a digest of material on the struggles that have been going on for twenty and more years, and have recently intensified, in Bhopal, the Narmada valley, and Delhi, for a place to live in security and dignity – and everything that goes with that. The CDDB series started during late March and April 2006, when all three movements were holding protests in Delhi, and with the Bhopal and Narmada movements on ‘dharna’ (sit-down strike) simultaneously at a place called ‘Jantar Mantar’ in the city. See CDDB 1 and 2 for more details on Jantar Mantar and the demos. All back issues of this Bulletin (the CACIM Delhi Demos Bulletin), number 0 onwards, are available @ : http://www.cacim.net/ twiki/tiki-view_articles.php?type=article&topic=1 Some sites for more information : Go to www.cacim.net and see ‘Newsclippings’ and ‘Links’. ____________________________ [1] On 16.5.06 11:55am, "Pervin Jehangir" wrote: PROTEST MEETING AGAINST THE RECENT TREND OF THE SUPREME COURT Day: Wednesday Date 17th May, 2006 at 6.00 p.m. Venue: YMCA, Colaba On 10th May, 2006 a news item appeared on the front page of Times of India reporting a Supreme Court judgment concerning the rights of slum dwellers. The Supreme Court categorically ordered that slum dwellers have no rights and they cannot be tolerated. The Court further ordered that poverty cannot be a ground for encroachment. By one stroke of the pen the Supreme Court effectively dishoused millions of poor people across the country. Those who have witnessed the way the Supreme Court has dealt with the marginalized in the recent years will not be surprised by this order. Just a few weeks back the displaced of Narmada were shown the door by the Supreme Court and a few months prior to that the Bombay Mill lands judgment was delivered which was seen by most as a decision heavily in favour of builders and the haves. The last few years have also witnessed the Supreme Court reversing its trends on criminal and labour jurisprudence. The rights of accused have been whittled down and laws such as POTA and Armed Forces Special Powers Act have been upheld. Test identification parades have been rendered meaningless and the power of the police to use force against demonstrators has been enlarged. In Labour matters the Supreme Court has categorically held that in the era of globalization and liberalization, the labour jurisprudence has to be revised and workers rights have to be whittled down. The Court is rapidly moving towards the regime of hire and fire. Similarly in matters pertaining to anti poor economic policies the Supreme Court has refused to interfere, whether it be privatization of profit making public sector units or large projects which cause wide spread devastation. Also, the decisions of the Supreme Court in T.M.A. Pai Foundation and other cases have permitted virtually unregulated privatization of education, making especially education from secondary schools level inaccessible to the poor. In short, while on the one hand the rights of displaced have suffered a set back while on the other hand when they come to the cities out of penury they have no right to stay in the cities. It is in these circumstances that it is important for citizens to come together and protest against the recent trend of the Supreme Court. We need to raise our voice against the Supreme Court which is moving rapidly against the direction which was set in the seventies and eighties by Judges such as Krishna Iyer, Bhagwati, Chinappa Reddy and D.A. Desai. Though we are taking the initiative in holding this meeting we will be happy if as many organizations join as co organisers for this meeting and also join in the mobilization. Justice Kolse Patil, a retired judge of the Bombay High Court has agreed to lead the discussion. Dr. Vivek Monteiro will speak on trends in labour law and Vijay Hiremath will give a brief presentation of recent trend of the Supreme Court in criminal matters. We need to spend some time in the meeting in discussing the strategies in campaigning against these trends. In solidarity, India Centre for Human Rights and Law CEHAT Forum Against Oppression of Women Awaz E Niswan Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights (CPDR) Nirbhay Bano Andolan Trade Union Solidarity Committee Trade Union Centre of India (TUCI) Women's Research and Action Group (WRAG) Zopadi Bachao Parishad Narmada Bachao Andolan National Alliance for People's Movement Committee for Right to Housing Lokshahi Hakk Sangathana ____________________________ [2] 26 May as a DAY OF NATIONAL ACTION On 15.5.06 12:55 pm, "baroda at narmada.org" wrote: 15 May 2006 Dear friend, You have been with us during this critical stage of our struggle to save the Narmada Valley from devastation. We greatly appreciate your concern for and solidarity with the Sardar Sarovar dam affected adivasis and farmers during their dharna and indefinite fast in Delhi. Your support – ideological, strategic and political – has been invaluable for us. During the last 20 years of our struggle, your participation at various points, including in the last year has greatly strengthened the movement. What has been especially significant is how you have worked together with us to make this your movement as well. This is indeed a time for us to form one movement against the forces that promote centralisation and globalisation, that work against democracy, that favour unjust and inhuman development paradigms while displacing people from their homes, lands, and livelihoods, and that spell destruction. These forces have set forth a great challenge before us. In this struggle, it is critical for us to stay together and combine our energies to fight against every form of injustice. The Narmada struggle is a prime example of this, and your participation in the movement has been very significant. From diverse programmes and events in Delhi to local events around the country, such as relay fasts, protests, artistic expressions, writings, and films, every action has been important. From adivasis, dalits, slum dwellers, and farmers, to eminent persons, students, teachers, and politicians, people from across the country have raised their voices against this dominant paradigm of unjust development and begun a historic mission to fight for the truth. Despite a tough month-long struggle and despite enough substantial field evidence (including from the “pol khol yatra”) in support of our claims, we still cannot rest nor can we celebrate. The construction of the Sardar Sarovar dam still continues unabated. The killer dam, which will destroy and drown thousands of families, hundreds of villages, especially adivasi villages, is not just illegal but inhuman. Several agencies, including state and central government bodies have visited the Valley, and the group of three ministers, including the Prime Minister, know that the construction of the dam is against the orders of the Supreme Court, yet neither the Prime Minister (PM) nor the Central government has intervened or taken a firm stand against it. The new committee constituted by the PM with Mr. V.K. Shunglu and two other government bureaucrats has been asked to conduct a survey through the NSSO from 19 May to 19 June. The committee has been assigned the task of surveying the number of displaced people, the land available, and the area to be submerged through a sample survey, and has been asked to aim to complete rehabilitation within 3 months. Can the rehabilitation of 35,000 families be completed in 3 months? When the law and policies clearly call for allocation of land and house plots one year before submergence and for rehabilitation to be completed 6 months before submergence, why is a central government committee that violates these legal provisions being set up? You must understand the political games involved in this, where the BJP government has joined hands with the Congress in Gujarat, and the Central government continues to evade all responsibility. The Supreme Court, after asking for affidavits from all affected parties was to make a decision on the dam in February, which it delayed. Even after the 8 March decision of the Narmada Control Authority to raise the dam height to 121.92 metres, 2 months have lapsed without any order to halt the illegal construction of the dam. At the 1st May hearing, the Court postponed its judgement to 8th May, when again despite glaring evidence of failed rehabilitation, it refused to halt construction on the dam and decided to hear the matter on 7th July after the report of the Shunglu Committee is submitted to the Prime Minister on June 30. This decision reflects a complete denial of justice by the country’s highest judicial institution. Despite evidence that the Court is violating its own orders, the construction on the dam continues incessantly. This will result in the evident submergence of adivasi villages, houses and fields, especially with the monsoons approaching soon. Given the circumstances, the report of the Shunglu Committee seems to have little purpose other than to conduct a post-mortem on the matter. Across the country, the tide is against the rural and urban poor, farmers, and labourers. With large-scale infrastructure, development and city beautification projects displacing more and more people, the challenge before us is enormous. The struggle against the Sardar Sarovar dam is one example of this. Neither you nor us can therefore sit quiet nor bear silent witness to this injustice. Please write to, speak with, lobby, the PM, Sonia Gandhi, the Congress Party, your local political representatives and others about the urgent need to immediately stop this murderous and violent development paradigm that is prevalent across the country. Please put pressure wherever you can to ensure that construction of the Sardar Sarovar dam stops immediately. We have decided to declare 26 May as a DAY OF NATIONAL ACTION against violence, injustice, displacement and forced evictions in the name of development. Wherever you are, please mobilise, strategise, and organise a local action – either outside the court, the Mantralaya, local government offices – wherever you feel that pressure is needed. Suggested actions include signature campaigns (against the Supreme Court decision) outside local courts, demonstrations outside Congress party offices, rallies calling for immediate halt of construction of the dam and an end to displacement, slum demolitions, and forced evictions around the country. We have to speak up against the persistent injustice and question the responsible authorities for inflicting destruction on the people. Let us unite and rally together to raise a strong voice on May 26! NO MORE VIOLENCE AGAINST THE POOR! NO MORE DISPLACEMENT! NO MORE FORCED EVICTIONS! NO MORE STATE-SPONSORED MURDER! We would also like to take this opportunity to invite you to the Convention of the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) that will be held in Bangalore from 30 May to 1 June, 2006. Please attend this meeting to discuss the critical issues facing us all across the country, to build greater solidarity across movements, and to develop more focused and long-term strategies. The need of the hour is for us to unite and take our movement to a stronger yet different level. For more details on the NAPM Convention, please write to: mukta at riseup.net or call (0) 98694 00508 / (0) 98206 36335. We look forward to working together and uniting our struggles. In gratitude, and in solidarity, Medha Patkar, Dipti Bhatnagar, Kamala Yadav, Pinjaribai, Om Prakash, Jankibai, Clifton Rozario, Ashish Mandloi, Yogini Khanolkar, Kailash Awasya, Noorjibhai, Banabhai, Chetan, Mohanbhai ____________________________ [3] ON URJA (UNITED RESIDENTS' JOINT ACTION), in Delhi Taken from : http://urjadelhi.blogspot.com/2006/05/deduction-of-50- from-bijli-bills.html About Us URJA (United Residents' Joint Action) brings together RWA's all over Delhi - also in NCR - facing common problems of Bijli [electricity], Pani [water], Sarak [streets], Traffic, and MCD [Municipal Corporation of Delhi]. [Translations added – CACIM] Takes up common problems, value adds to people's understanding and provides a road map for solutions. Initiates, monitors and participates in direct action towards resolution of issues. Lends a hand to government too in examining and having empathy to people's needs. Coordination Office: B-130 [SFS], Sheikh Sarai-I, New Delhi 110 017. Tel: 91-11-4145 5551 Fax: 91-11-4145 9244 Previous Posts All is not well with water utility. No power to probe powerless state, says HC order. Lease of houses sans garages can be cancelled: HC. Civil disobedience movement starts : Mayur Vihar Phase II RWA starts deposition after deducting 50% of power bills - Phase II. Bijli Samasya now in 2nd Gear. Civil disobedience movement starts : Mayur Vihar Phase II RWA starts. Landmark day in addressing runaway corruption, we are all fed up with. Somebody else in Delhi has been stealing power, but You must pay for it. People’s Action & URJA Power Tariff Campaign. A presentation of the strategy for managing water sustainably in the 21st century. Convenor : Promod Chawla E-group : ____________________________ [4] On 13.5.06 10:28 pm, "Pradyumna S. Singh" wrote: Narmada Bachao Andolan Jail Road, Mandleshwar, District Khargone, M.P. Tel : 07283-233162 , 09425394606 E-mail : nobigdam at sancharnet.in Press Release : 12th May, 2006 -- MAHESHWAR DAM AFFECTED FARMERS AND FISHERPEOPLE DEMONSTRATE AT POWER FINANCE CORPORATION "We will not let this dam be built, even if we have to give up our lives. Hundreds of people affected by the Maheshwar Project being built on the river Narmada in Madhya Pradesh demonstrated today for several hours at the Office of the Power Finance Corporation at Janpath, New Delhi. The affected people challenged the Power Finance Corporation to demonstrate that the power project is in national interest, has a viable tariff, and will produce cheap and affordable power to the people of Madhya Pradesh. The oustees asked the PFC senior management for a meeting with some representatives at a later date but were refused. The oustees and the NBA activists filed a request for file inspection under the Right to Information Act. The women from Maheshwar said that they had not come to Delhi to ask for a better rehabilitation or compensation package. In fact, they were determined not to let the destructive Maheshwar Project be built at any cost, even if it meant that they would have to sacrifice their lives in the process. The oustees had demonstrated on 11th May at the Offices of the Ministry of Environment and Forests and at the Rural Electrification Corporation in Delhi. They questioned the MOEF about the fudged land availability figures on which the Environmental clearance is based, and urged the MOEF to immediately revoke the clearance. They also questioned the MOEF as to why it excluded Dalits, Kewats and Kahars and other landless families who earn by sand quarrying, cultivating river-bed draw down, and fishing in the rich river economy in the Maheshwar area by arbitrarily changing the definition of Project displaced families. When the MOEF was asked to show the files to clarify the above questions, the ministry gave a written reply that none of the Maheshwar dam main files could be located. The oustees and NBA activists also met the senior officers of Rural Electrification Corporation and HUDCO who have been asked by the PFC to put in Rs. 250 crores each into the Project, and apprised them of the issues related to the Project regarding financial, social and technical issues. The officials assured the oustees and the NBA activists that they would look at and respond to all the concerned issues. The senior officials of REC, IFCI and HUDCO also asked the NBA to contact the Power Finance Corporation since it is the lead institution among the lenders to the Maheshwar Project. However the PFC has refused any meeting with the Maheshwar dam oustees and the NBA. Speaking at the protest, Alok Agarwal, senior activist of the NBA said that the secretive behavior of the Power Finance Corporation made it clear that there was more to it than meets the eye. He said that it was incomprehensible that the Power Finance Corporation that has already been censured once by the CAG of India for disbursing Rs. 100 crores to the Maheshwar Project in violation of the necessary conditions, was preparing to put another Rs. 800 crores into the Maheshwar Project along with a guarantee to the Project. The PFC and the Ministry of Power had also asked the other FI's to put their money into the Project. HUDCO had been asked to put Rs. 250 crores into the Project and REC had also been asked to lend Rs. 250 crores to the Project. The Maheshwar dam is one of the 30 large dams being built in the Narmada valley. It will affect nearly 20,000 families or one lakh people. Although the installed capacity of this Project is 400 MW, it will produce firm power of only 49 MW. Most of the power will be produced in the monsoon months when there is surplus power in the state. The power is also likely to be very expensive and the Maheshwar dam threatens to be worthless when built because of its high cost like the Enron Project. The Project promoters S.Kumars have criminal proceedings against them on grounds of criminal conspiracy, cheating, fraud, etc. The Project is encumbered by the liability to return the loans of two other S.Kumars companies and the equity of the Project has been re-pledged to a Govt. financial institution in Madhya Pradesh for the deferred pay-back of those loans. By RBI rules, no public money may be given to such a company. Sushila bai, Sarpanch, Village Mardana, said it is clear that the Financial institutions must stop putting any further money into this disastrous Project and the MOEF must immediately revoke the environmental clearance given to the Project. Chittaroopa Palit Kalabai Radheshyam Patidar ____________________________ [5] On 14.5.06 12:42 pm, "pranjan" wrote: MANDALA IN MUMBAI : ANOTHER BRUTAL TRUTH: IMMEDIATE RESPONSE NEEDED Below is the horror committed by the government in Mandala Basti, Mumbai, where we have been struggling for last two years. Life of marginalised slum dweller in Mandala has been brutalized in the recent worst ever demolition drive in Mandala on the 9th without any proper notice. This was not a scene of a democratic country but worst than a dictatorship. 5,000 families have been victimized... Please go through some details and write to CM, Veranda [sic; Brinda] Karat, P.M. etc. against such brutal act. The demolition scene has been worst of its kind. It is a blot on democracy. On 10th May 2006 (the next day after the demolition) , we entered the area and in fact when I saw about a 1000 armed Police with vans, fire brigade etc. in the area which has been so peaceful , reminded me of a dictatorship country. Things have been so brutal and beyond comprehension. Most of the women who were strong and were in the forefront of agitation on the 9th may when the demolition squad entered the area. They were peacefully sitting on the dharna blocking the entry area, and when police entered the area they were targeted and implicated for nothing. Many of them have been charged with attempt to murder under Section 307. It has been shocking for me to see how police implicated people on false charges. One of the case which happened before my eyes was of Iyashabi- a- 50 year old women activist , who has been struggling along with Medha Patkar and NAPM. When we (Maju, Krishna, Priyanka, Divya, and many more) reached the site on the 10th , the police were not allowing us to enter the area. Some how we managed to survey the area which was converted into a barren land with fire at different places. In the middle of the land were about thousands of armed police. No person from the Basti was seen. Then I went to one of nearby houses which were not under demolition. There I met many of the Basti women and they said Zindabad. Police were far away but looking at us. I went inside one of the huts to talk to people . Meanwhile, first Iysha bi and later Nishrin entered this home they are local leaders struggling for justice with Medha Patkar. Nishrin started weeping badly while Iysha bi was explaining how the things were put o fire by the Police and BMC people and they on the contrary blamed the community people. They described all atrocities by police where about 5-6 police at once were beating the women when they entered the area to save their belongings from fire. They were pushed, pulled by the hair, abused and had to runaway to save themselves. Initially they did fight collectively but when the area caught fire they had no option but to disburse. A lady who was 4 month pregnant was brutally kicked at her stomach and lost the baby then, and she was profusely bleeding and was rushed to the hospital. she is struggling for her life. Another mother and her daughter jumped in the sea creak when police kept beating them and making them run towards the creak. A women lost her barely a 20 day daughter, Kajal, as she fell down when police was chasing every one. Nishrin Bano another women who had collected through loan etc. 20,000 rupees for her sisters weding showed us all the burnt notes of rs 500, 1000 etc. and all her tickets forgoing for the weding, clothes and gift is lost. she does not een has chappal in her feet and no mony to feed her child. I have just given some support. Kutubunnisa's husband came from work at 6 Pm on the 10th May from Vashi and was arrested by Police in a very humiliating manner. His Eyes were closed with black ribbon and the face hidden by cloth and he was hand cuffed and was jailed for attempt to murder. He us a 56 year old man and well respected in the community. POOR WIFE SOLD ALL HER jewelry which she was wearing only to be cheated by a middleman. As if this much of brutality and false cases were as not enough … While Iysha bi was talking to me three lady police and one male police entered the hut forcefully and picked up Ayahs bi thinking she as Nishrin , I hid Nishrin away and asked the Police why they are taking away Iyasha Bi, meanwhile Krishna from Initiative and Priyanka from ICHRL who were outside they also questioned the police but they only said that they wanted to talk to her. Krishna asked the Police to talk to her there itself but they did not listen and told us in a very rude manner not to obstruct their work. They were targeting every activist and also hunting for Simpreet. They took away Iyasha bi to the Shivaji Police station. They told us go away and if we are from the press should get permission from ACP. In the evening when activist lawyer shakil went to findout about all the people who were arrested I came to know that Iasha bi has been charged with sttempt to murder and section 307 has been imposed on her. Her crime was she ws talking to us the truth. Like her many women were jailed and 307 has been imposed on them. About 50 men has been taken away. Police is on the look out for Simpreet and other such activists. Yesterday, Medha tai was here we had dharana in the area and meeting with the SP, Collector and others. Police totally denied any lathi charge. people re going to go back and stay there again . they have no choice. This has been blatant human right violation. they have lost all their belongings except the cloth which they are wearing. Its VERY depressing and at the same time angry atmosphere. Hope you were here. But people have neither lost faith nor the fighting spirit... Please write to Brinda Karat, Sonia Gandhi, PM, CM etc. condemning such brutality. We will need to arrange for some immediate relief to people at they are left with Nothing. Regards and Love Mukta To register your protest : Mr. R.R. Patil, Home Minister of Maharashtra Telephone: +91-22-2202 2401, 2202 5014 Fax: +91-22-2202 4873 Email: DeputyChiefMinister at maharashtra.gov.in ? ____________________________ [6] On 15.5.06 12:39 pm, "Fleachta Phelan" sent in : BHOPAL GAS VICTIMS DEMAND BALANCED COMMITTEE [Saturday, May 13, 2006 04:56:49 pm IANS] http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1528373.cms BHOPAL: The victims of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy, on Saturday, condemned the composition of a coordination committee on Bhopal, which they say is dominated by government officials and a former medical advisor to the Union Carbide Corporation. The committee had been constituted by the Central government after several organisations of the tragedy's survivors set off on a 900 km march in early April from the now-defunct Union Carbide pesticide plant here to Delhi, demanding the prime minister's intervention in ensuring "justice and a life of dignity for themselves and their ilk". The prime minister conceded to their demands, including the formation of the committee, on April 17 after he met the representatives of these organisations. The committee is to plan and implement schemes for medical, economic and social rehabilitation of the people poisoned by the toxic gas that spewed out of the plant on the morning of December 3, 1984, killing 3,000 people instantly and maiming several thousands for life. A total of 15,000 people have died so far. Leaders of the organisations, including Rachna Dhingra and Satinath Shadangi, condemned the failure of the government to include their representatives in the committee. "It is a travesty that none of their representatives have yet been incorporated into the coordination committee," Rachna said at a press conference. She added that they have written to the prime minister requesting his personal intervention to ensure a more balanced committee that includes their representatives. They also protested against the inclusion of N.P. Mishra, former medical advisor to Union Carbide, in the committee. "Dr. Mishra is responsible for thousands of preventable deaths because of his opposition to the administration of sodium thiosulphate to the survivors in the aftermath of the disaster," Rachna stated. According to Shadangi, many lives could have been saved if gas- affected people had received this injection in time. Administration of sodium thiosulphate is considered helpful in detoxifying the body. He also pointed out that contrary to Union Carbide's position that the toxic gases damaged only lungs and eyes, the poison had actually entered the blood stream and caused damage to almost every organ in the body. "One of the nine members of the committee, Madhumita Dutta from New Delhi, has already tendered her resignation to protest against the imbalance in the committee, the inclusion of Dr. Mishra and the exclusion of survivors' representatives," he said. ____________________________ [7] On 13.5.06 6:54 pm, "pranjan" wrote: [Photo removed] See http://www.studentsforbhopal.org/MSU.htm for pictures! DOW SHAREHOLDER MEETING PROTEST, MAY 11, 2006 Today, May 11, 2006, we pissed all over Dow on their special, special day: the Dow Shareholder’s Meeting. About 20 protestors from Michigan State University and the University of Michigan made the journey to Midland, representing chapters of Amnesty International, the Association for India’s Development, Physicians for Human Rights, and Students for Bhopal. We were met there with a cold, driving rain: lashing us, drenching our skin, and making our signs bleed. Despite the nasty weather we put up a strong presence, screaming out our chants with a single voice: What do we want? JUSTICE!! When do we want it? NOW!! Mommy always said! …CLEAN UP YOUR MESS!!! DOW SHALT NOT KILL!! DOW SHALT NOT KILL!! What do we want? CLEAN WATER!! When do we want it? NOW!! Justice for Bhopal! JUSTICE FOR ALL!!! Our chants reverberated against the building and across the broad parking lot, where well-dressed Dow Shareholders – mostly former or current Dow employees – cast furtive glances at us as they slinked into the meeting. However some of them were bold enough to approach the grassy knoll (where we encamped) and pass along the line of signs, reading them carefully before entering the meeting. The media was there too, and both Neil Sardana (a former Michigan State student and Corporate Action Network coordinator for Amnesty in Michigan) and I spoke with a reporter from the Midland Daily News and a television crew from WJRT Channel 12 (ABC affiliate). Their questions (at least of me) were strangely synchronic: “You’ve been coming here for several years,” they said. “Do you really feel like you’re making any progress? Why do you continue to come?” “It’s very simple,” I answered: “because people continue to die.” And I courteously went on to explain that tens of thousands are still wallowing in toxic filth – still today – and drinking poisoned water because Dow refuses to accept their legal and moral responsibilities. Inside the meeting, out of the rain and away from our chants, Neil Sardana formally presented the Bhopal resolution before the CEO Andrew Liveris and the assembled body of Dow Board members. The resolution, which calls on Dow to write a report for the benefit of their shareholders, explaining their initiatives to address the concerns of Bhopal survivors (given the reputational damage the ongoing campaign presents to the company, and shareholder value) was sponsored this year by New York City Fire Department (NYCFD) Pension Fund, the New York State Common Retirement Fund (NYSCRF) and Amnesty International USA along with Boston Common Asset Management and Sisters of Mercy Regional Community of Detroit Charitable Trust. Shareholder proponents hold over 4.5 million shares worth over $190 million. This was the second year the resolution was voted on by shareholders, and it garnered 6.3% of the vote. That may not sound like much at first, but it’s worth keeping two things in mind: The Securities and Exchange Commission rules allow for resolutions to be reintroduced if they attain at least 3% of the vote the first year; 6% the second, and 10% the third. So we’ve passed the threshold for re-introduction next year: an important milestone. Six percent is a very respectable showing for resolutions that, like ours, make mostly moral arguments concerning the responsibilities of the company. Given that the number of shares you own is the number of votes you can cast, major institutional (often conservative) shareholders (such as banks, mutual funds, and the like) have a huge voice on resolutions such as this. Many institutions also often cast their vote as the company management recommends (guess what Dow recommended) and votes that are not cast are automatically counted in favor of the company. So the process is stacked against us. While it obviously would have been nicer if the vote tally was still higher, the vote we received is still an embarrassing slap in the face of the company. Major institutional shareholders backed us, and that’s a humiliating rebuke. Our task is to ensure the humiliation grows next year by pushing the vote tally above the 10% threshold set by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Both prior to Neil’s introduction of the resolution, and in direct response to it, Dow CEO Liveris reiterated the same tired trash they trot out every year: ‘We don’t feel this is our responsibility, which properly belongs to the Indian Government;’ ‘Dow is not liable;’ ‘This is not an issue of concern for Dow Shareholders;’ ‘Any cleanup is the responsibility of the Indian Government;’ etc. Listen: we’ve heard it all before, and sheer repetition cannot turn dirty lies into gleaming truth. But Dow’s very insistence upon these long-overused public relations lines – their feverish, sweaty, desperate insistence upon them – is one of the reasons why they find these protests and visits of ours so nettlesome. During the question and answer session, Neil offered Dow CEO Liveris a sample of poisoned drinking water. ‘This is offered to you from the citizens of Bhopal, who are forced to drink and live with this water everyday,’ he said. Liveris brusquely refused to accept it: ‘I reject your sample of water,’ Neil quoted him as saying. Clearly, the gesture had him rankled. All in all, we did what we came to do. In the face of nasty weather and soulless people, we told the truth, told it loudly, and told it to those who wanted to hear it least: Dow’s CEO and Board of Directors. The fact is, as much as it may confuse the local media reporters, we won’t give up and we won’t give in. We will continue to insist, louder and stronger, that Dow do what it must in Bhopal. Why? It’s very simple: because people continue to die. Dow may not care, but those of us with souls do. DOW ANNUAL MEETING A CELEBRATION OF SUCCESS Kathie Marchlewski , Midland Daily News 05/12/2006 http://www.ourmidland.com/site/news.cfm? newsid=16628986&BRD=2289&PAG=461&dept_id=472542&rfi=6 Andrew N. Liveris' vision is to make Dow the biggest and best -- the largest, the most profitable and the most respected chemical company in the world. At Thursday's 109th annual meeting, he told shareholders that the company is getting there. "We are already close to being the largest, if not there already," he said. "And we are working hard to drive profitability higher." Coming off a record year of sales -- more than $46 billion -- and earnings that skyrocketed 61 percent over the year before, Liveris laid out plans for future growth and future profitability, including strategic expansion in areas such as China, Russia and India, and partnerships in the Middle East that allow access to low- cost feedstocks. Liveris said the company's global reach, the low-cost advantages of integration and a balanced mix of business specialties are strong points that are unmatched by competitors. Along with continued financial success, Liveris talked about good corporate citizenship. "Being the most respected means being the best investment, the best at innovation, the best place to work and the best corporate citizen," he said. He said the company plans to broaden its scope of corporate citizenship on a global basis. Liveris also introduced a new set of 10-year sustainability goals. The 2015 program is "nothing less than improving quality of life for people the world over, even as we improve our company's bottom line," he said. The goals include cutting energy use by 25 percent in the next decade, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2.5 percent per year, and using science and technology to reduce, as Liveris said, "the unsustainable global appetite for fossil fuels." Additionally, the company has set a goal of developing at least three product or technology breakthroughs that will significantly improve quality of life. The bar is set higher than the previous 10-year goals, which ended in 2005, and will not be easy, Liveris said. "I know that, based on past performance, Dow people can and will rise to this challenge, just as they always have," he added. Shareholders who attended the meeting -- attendance was down about 100 with the time changed to 10 a.m. from the traditional afternoon schedule -- were greeted by a group of protesters demanding Dow take responsibility for cleaning up the Bhopal, India, site of the 1980s chemical disaster that killed thousands. The site at that time was under partial ownership of Union Carbide, which Dow acquired in 2001. "Clean up your mess," chanted representatives from Students for Bhopal, many of them students from Michigan State University. "We keep coming because people keep dying," said Ryan Bodanyi, group coordinator, who made his fourth trip to Midland Thursday for the annual meeting. "If it was your family, wouldn't you keep coming?" They brought water samples from Bhopal, one of which was offered to Liveris, who rejected it. Liveris also rejected protesters' suggestion that Dow inherited legal and financial liabilities for the disaster when it acquired Union Carbide. Union Carbide paid $470 million to the Indian government and the people of Bhopal in a settlement reached more than a decade ago. Also at the meeting, shareholders voted against four proposals, one on the topic of Bhopal: * The New York State Common Retirement Fund (NYSCRF) and the New York City Fire Department (NYCFD) Pension Fund co-filed resolutions in November in partnership with Amnesty International USA, Boston Common Asset Management and Sisters of Mercy Regional Community of Detroit Charitable Trust, asking Dow to report new initiatives to address health, environmental and social concerns in Bhopal. Dow's board of directors recommended shareholders vote against the proposal; the company long has held the position that it inherited no responsibility for the tragedy when it acquired Union Carbide. * Trillium Asset Management requested that Dow compile a report on products that might cause asthma and phase out those products. Dow's board of directors replied there is no scientific consensus supporting Trillium's claims, and added dust mites, molds and cockroaches are known links to asthma, but pesticides are not a trigger. * The Adrian Dominican Sisters requested that the company disclose information about genetically engineered seed. As a producer of transgenic corn, soybean alfalfa and cotton seed products, Dow believes its extensively regulated biotech products are providing positive benefits to society and the environment. * Green Century Capital Management Inc. asked that shareholders require Dow officials to report on the security of the company's chemical sites. Dow's board of directors replied in the proxy that while the company agrees it is important to share detailed information about security and operations with local law enforcement and emergency responder teams, the information is sensitive. For the public's safety, it is allowed by law to keep safety assessments private. ©Midland Daily News 2006 Dow sales rise Friday, May 12, 2006 PAUL WYCHE THE SAGINAW NEWS MIDLAND -- Inside: Dow dignitaries and happy shareholders. Outside: Protesters and malcontents. So went the lineup during Dow Chemical Co.'s annual meeting Thursday at the Midland Center for the Arts, as about 600 people gathered to cheer and boo the industry giant. Coming off a record-setting year for sales and profits, company executives exuded the kind of confidence that is rare in these parts as the Delphi Corp. bankruptcy looms large. President and Chief Executive Officer Andrew Liveris beamed over Dow's $46 billion annual sales mark -- a 15 percent increase from 2004. "We a-chieved these results despite the economic turmoil caused by the natural disasters and despite an increase in hydrocarbon and energy costs of a staggering $4 billion," he said. Even so, last month Dow posted a 10 percent drop in first-quarter earnings as the rising cost of raw materials offset a modest uptick in sales. Net income fell to $1.21 billion, or $1.24 per share, from $1.35 billion, or $1.39 per share, in the previous-year period. Dow officials blamed the showing on an $800 million increase in chemical ingredients and energy costs. The company still managed to declare a 37.5 cents per share dividend for shareholders in the first quarter of 2006, which Liveris proudly said is the business' 379th consecutive cash dividend. Development of technology that uses soybeans to create polyurethane is at least one investment Dow executives hope will continue the company's growth. During the meeting, shareholders also considered resolutions related to Dow studying the 1984 toxic gas leak in Bhopal, India, and the potential for adverse impacts from its products. Stockholders overwhelmingly voted against the measures. Lauren Compere, director of shareholder advocacy for Boston Common Asset Management, said it is a "good business decision" for Dow to undertake new initiatives to address the needs of Bhopal survivors. "Boston Common Asset Management has been pushing Dow Chemical for more than three years to address the cleanup and medical concerns of the Bhopal survivors, and Dow has still not stepped up to the plate while the risks to the company's reputation and to its ability to do business in India may be increasing," she said before the meeting. Alan G. Hevesi, sole trustee of the New York State Common Retirement Fund, said the same. "As a fiduciary, I am concerned that if Dow does not put this problem to rest, it could hurt the company's current and future business relationships in India's huge and rapidly expanding market and around the world." Liveris disagreed and said Dow, like the rest of the world, is saddened that thousands lost their lives in the Bhopal incident. But he said Dow is in no way responsible because it didn't own the plant at the time. The gas leak that killed at least 10,000 people happened under Union Carbide Corp.'s watch. Liveris also noted that Union Carbide reached a $470 million settlement with the Indian government to resolve its liability. His denial, however, didn't stop one critic from offering Liveris a literal glass of water from Bhopal. "We reject the water," as well as repeated attempts to link Dow with the tragedy, Liveris said. Paul Wyche covers business for The Saginaw News. You may reach him at 1-776-9674. ________________________________________________ CACIM – India Institute for Critical Action : Centre in Movement A-3 Defence Colony, New Delhi 110 024, India Ph 91-11-4155 1521, 2433 2451 Eml cacim at cacim.net Web www.cacim.net ..................................................................... THINGS TO CHECK OUT : FORTHCOMING in 2006 : Nayi Rajniti (‘New Politics’), Hindi edition of Talking New Politics, Sen and Saini, eds 2005 Nayi Subah Ki Or (‘Towards A New Dawn’), volume 1 of Hindi edition of World Social Forum : Challenging Empires Are Other Worlds Possible ? Books 2 & 3 - ‘Interrogating Empires’ & ‘Imagining Alternatives’ Open Space Webspace : www.openspaceforum.net WSFDiscuss – an open discussion listserve on the World Social Forum and cultures of politics in movements : Send an empty email to worldsocialforum-discuss-subscribe at openspaceforum.net Out in 2005-6 : World Social Forum : Challenging Empires - in German, Japanese, Spanish, and now in Hindi and Urdu ! ........................................................................ ... January 2005 : 'Are Other Worlds Possible ? Talking NEW Politics' Preview : http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/2487.html Publishers : Zubaan / zubaanwbooks at vsnl.net Tel: +91-11-2652 1008, 2686 4497, and 2651 4772 ........................................................................ .... In late 2004 :’Explorations in Open Space : The World Social Forum and Cultures of Politics’ Issue 182 of the International Social Science Journal Editorial advisers : Chloé Keraghel & Jai Sen http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/servlet/useragent? func=showIssues&code=issj&open=2004#C2004 ....................................................................... ...................................................................... 2004 Book : 'World Social Forum : Challenging Empires' Edited by Jai Sen, Anita Anand, Arturo Escobar, and Peter Waterman http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/1557.html India / South Asia distribution : Viveka Foundation, info at vivekafoundation.org, viveka4 at vsnl.com 2005 : NOW OUT also in German, Japanese, Spanish, and forthcoming in Hindi and Urdu ..................................................................... Jai Sen CACIM – India Institute for Critical Action : Centre in Movement A-3 Defence Colony, New Delhi 110 024, India www.cacim.net Em jai.sen at cacim.net - PLEASE NOTE MY NEW EDDRESS ! [+ while travelling, ALSO jai_sen2000 at yahoo.com] M 91-98189 11325 T 91-11-4155 1521 and 2433 2451 – Please note change in one phone no + Italitar, Hattigauda Kathmandu Nepal T 977-1-437 0019 and 437 0112 caravan99 at lists.riseup.net -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060516/e26378d6/attachment.html From parulwadhwa at hotmail.com Wed May 17 16:08:37 2006 From: parulwadhwa at hotmail.com (parul wadhwa) Date: Wed, 17 May 2006 10:38:37 +0000 Subject: [Reader-list] FW: DEADLINE APPROACHING! TALENT CAMPUS INDIA 3 - 2006 Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060517/e1ebf8a8/attachment.html From gitika.talwar at gmail.com Thu May 18 10:10:06 2006 From: gitika.talwar at gmail.com (Gitika Talwar) Date: Thu, 18 May 2006 10:10:06 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Voices Unheard In-Reply-To: <83db55e00605160034h52b910fct79bd59286c16a77c@mail.gmail.com> References: <83db55e00605160034h52b910fct79bd59286c16a77c@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <9949efb0605172140v4b42cc00x8e055a6495c48e04@mail.gmail.com> Dear Arshad Thank you for choosing an extremely interesting topic for research, and also for visibilising the mental health status in Kashmir. It is likely to be extremely beneficial for many people who are concerned about mental health services (both mainstream and otherwise) and their impact in dealing with mental illness. There are a few questions about your study that I MUST ask though: 1) What role does confidentiality play in your study? are the names you provide, real names ? if they are real names, do the subjects know you will be providing these names on a public list ? 2) Is there a way by which you could veil the identities of those you interview? Especially in the context of a society that fiercely guards its mental health and mental illness status, perhaps methods to obtain data and yet assure confidentiality will help you 3) I am curious also about whether volunteering at a hospital could help you. You might learn a lot through observation too, also people might get the chance to trust you because they have seen you around. 4) What do the subjects get from you for telling you their stories? I often wonder, when I do research as well, why anyone must tell me their story unless they have something to gain -- be it catharsis or some other goal such as 'better treatment', anything. Have you had a chance to think about it? 5) How do you go about finding subjects as of now? What method do you follow? I mean how do you decide who to interview and how do you convince people to sit for an interview. In case you have mentioned methodology before, please could you paste just that part again. Hope to hear from you soon, All the best for your project! Warmest Regards, Gitika Talwar Programme Associate Bapu Trust - Center for Mental Health Advocacy and Research www.camhindia.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060518/f307498f/attachment.html From pukar at pukar.org.in Mon May 15 15:36:08 2006 From: pukar at pukar.org.in (PUKAR) Date: Mon, 15 May 2006 15:36:08 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [announcements] Events this week: PUKAR Monsoon 2006 Message-ID: <001901c67807$31d56290$03d0c0cb@freeda> PUKAR Mosoon 2006 Youth and Urban Identiy PUKAR cordially invites you to attend the series of workshops, lectures and film screenings organized under the theme "Youth and Urban Identity". Workshops are intended for youth only and a there will be a registration fee. Lectures and film screenings will be open for all and there will be no entry fee. The programme for this week is as follows: WORKSHOPS* Interactive Workshop in Folk Art Tuesday, 16th May, 10-2pm, Kitab Mahal Prakash Khandage, Folk Art practitioner Capturing Mumbai's Changing Face: A Photography Workshop* PART 1: Wednesday, 17th May, 12-5pm, Kitab Mahal PART 2: Wednesday, 24th May, 12-5pm, Univ. of Mumbai (Fort) David De Souza, Photographer Identity at the Crossroads: A Theatre Workshop Thursday, 18th May, 3-7 pm, P.L.Deshpande Academy Friday, 19th May, 3-7 pm, P.L.Deshpande Academy Ratnakar Matkari, Playwright, Theatre Director Voices of Mumbai: A Workshop in Sound and Music Thursday, 18th May, 10-2pm, Kitab Mahal Neela Bhagwat, Singer and Composer Gender and Public Space Thursday, 18th May, 3-6pm, Kitab Mahal Shilpa Phadke, Sociologist; Sameera Khan, Journalist Writing our Mumbai Dreams Saturday, 20th May, 2-5pm, Univ. of Mumbai (Fort) Jerry Pinto, Writer *Fees: Rs. 150/- for one-day workshops Rs. 300/- for two-day workshops. LECTURES Mobilizing Youth: The Case for a Cohesive Identity Tuesday, 16th May, 6:30-8pm, Kitab Mahal Ram Puniyani, Professor, Indian Institute of Technology Youth and Urban Health Thursday, 18th May, 6:30-8 pm, Kitab Mahal Aparna Joshi, Counselor, Bapu Trust Mumbai's Urban Biodiversity and its Conservation (Your role)! Friday, 19th May, 6:30-8pm, University of Mumbai Anand Pendharkar, Environmentalist, SPROUTS FILM SCREENING & DISCUSSION Aur Irani Chai Wednesday, 17th May, 6:30pm, PUKAR Office A film on Irani Cafes in Mumbai (20 Minutes) Venues: a.. Kitab Mahal, 4th floor, D. N. Road, Near Excelsior Cinema, Fort Mumbai - 01 b.. University of Mumbai, Room no. 142, Fort Campus, Near High Court, Mumbai - 01 c.. PUKAR Office, 1-4, Kamanwala Chambers, Sir P. M. Road, Fort, Mumbai - 01 PUKAR (Partners for Urban Knowledge Action and Research) Address:: 1-4, 2nd Floor, Kamanwala Chambers, Sir P. M. Road, Fort, Mumbai 400 001 Telephone:: +91 (22) 5574 8152 Fax:: +91 (22) 5664 0561 Email:: pukar at pukar.org.in Website:: www.pukar.org.in -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060515/76ca5c6b/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From venu.mathur at gmail.com Thu May 18 12:29:22 2006 From: venu.mathur at gmail.com (venu mathur) Date: Thu, 18 May 2006 12:29:22 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] life goes on at the mathur building Message-ID: We missed a post last month. But here is the update. A lot has happened in these last few weeks as life goes on in the Mathur Building (totally impervious by demolitions, NBA trouble, or any other issue not directly related or obviously so to us here). Including, Total TV shooting an episode of "Mrs. Total TV", our friend Mohit's wedding to a non Mathur girl (!!!), lots of interviews, group discussions, fights over parking, Annual General Body Meeting etc. There are some new pictures on the blog. www.mathurbuilding.blogspot.com. But we haven't got the space and time to articulate, write and reflect upon more critical issues and questions that come out from a project of this nature, in a serious way. So we are still at the 'data collection' stage, so to say. Because of work commitments, Personally, i have not been able to spend much time with the project work. I go on leave soon to work on the project. On May 24th we are organising a walk through Shahar (old delhi) for kids from the building and anyone else who might be interested. Will soon post details here and on the blog. Venu and Abhinandita www.venumathur.blogspot.com www.abhinandita.blogspot.com From stevphen at autonomedia.org Thu May 18 20:02:59 2006 From: stevphen at autonomedia.org (Stevphen Shukaitis) Date: Thu, 18 May 2006 10:32:59 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] CURATING IMMATERIALITY In-Reply-To: <20060512064748.17125B9@resin04.mta.everyone.net> References: <20060512064748.17125B9@resin04.mta.everyone.net> Message-ID: <53145.85.156.168.240.1147962779.squirrel@mail.panix.com> Thanks for your response, Marianna. I’m having a bit of an “oh, why didn’t know that” about meeting you last fall – otherwise I would have been harassing you about how to find a copy of the “De-, Dis-, Ex-, - Immaterial Lobouer : Work, Research, And Art” that you and Melanie edited which I’ve been trying to find. The argument you make here and elsewhere about how these issues relate to changes in forms and regimes of labor, are involved in varying circuits of social (re)production is really interesting. For example the point you make in the Precariat issue of Republicart: “conceptual art heralded the de-materialisation of the art object, focusing instead on the symbolic mediations that instantiate art as an event and mode of communication... it could be argued that the de-materialised object is actually information, as it is subject to the same forms of proprietary relations.“ Or in other words there are ways that avant garde art practices create practices that will later be taken on my marketing and other aspects of capitalism (the advent of interaction design and what not). Making this argument and exploring such issues is different from addressing them only as they apply to art, to the institutionalzied art world. So I guess what I was trying to get at in my admittedly not so well written and thought out message was the gulf between the contents of the book which explore this broader issue – and how that doesn’t seem to be relfected in the announcement ( I slightly fibbed when I said I hadn’t seen the book – I flipped through Matteo Pasquinelli’s copy for a little while a few weeks ago [we’re in the same PhD programm], but I didn’t get a chance to do more than a cursory glance through – which is why I don’t feel that I have read enough of the book to get a grasp on it – but I’m still surprised by what seems to be this gap between content and the way the announcement presents it). As for the process that led to the printing of the book – I have no idea. I’ve only been working with Autonomedia since spring 2004 – and I’m guessing the decision to publish the series was made before then – because it didn’t come up at any meetings. I didn’t hear anything about the books until they came out. Having said that – sorry if my message was put together hastily and not as well thought as it could have been Joasia. I’m not skeptical idea about the idea of radical art – but I am not quite skeptical that gallery spaces in radical art. As for the comments about curation / care – that is true, that word derives from care in the sense of caring for a parish, i.e. caring for one’s religious flock. That seems more like a Foucauldian notion of “pastoral power” rather than the sort of care which is discussed by feminist thinkers, people like Precarias a la Deriva, etc Cheers Stevphen PS – Marina, are you still in NYC? > Hi Stevphen - > > Great to see your post. We met in New York last November (friend of > Marianna's, who's a friend of Erika's), and I'm really annoyed to have > missed the Occupying the Social Factory discussion event in Leicester last > week. > > As a contributing writer to this most recent Data Browser anthology, I'm > glad to see your response on this list and hope some of the other > contributors are motivated to take up some of your points. > > I completely agree that a reconsideration of curation instigated through > posited changes in the technological and social infrastructure of cultural > production isn't worth the paper, or plasma, it's printed on unless there > is that skepticism and interrogation of the function of curating in such a > system(s) and in general artworld/market terms. I think it also ties in > to questions around value production, and the double-bind of 'curating > immateriality' would seem to be that curation ipso facto adheres to a > certain model of value, inscribed in the production of symbolic capital, > which is then translated into actual capital, etc. so it can't > dematerialise, only become more pervasive, (like value) if it holds on to > the administration of taste as a founding principle of curation which is > associated with institutions, display and property, while 'immateriality' > seems to evoke a re-consideration of those regimes of value (one of > negri's most contentious theses of course). Sorry this is so garbled, but > I have to write fast! > > Anyway, this is some of the terrain I try to maneuver around in my text, > but have to shamefacedly admit that haven't had a chance to read the other > pieces yet. > > Also, out of interest, as you're an editor at Autonomedia, and this book > has been published by Autonomedia, how does it fit into the Autonomedia > programme ( know it's not that unitary) and what was your role in the > decision to publish it? > > Best, > Marina > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 3 > Date: Thu, 11 May 2006 13:09:34 -0400 (EDT) > From: "Stevphen Shukaitis" > Subject: Re: [Reader-list] [Announcements] CURATING IMMATERIALITY > To: reader-list at sarai.net > Message-ID: <49709.85.156.168.240.1147367374.squirrel at mail.panix.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > pleae forgive for the rudness of this question - but, curating, who > cares? > > maybe this is just some sort of knee jerk pseudo-situationist response, > but to me there seems something deeply unsettling and bothersome about > the > notion of curating itself. the very word seems inseperable from the > process of capital-A Art as an appartus of capture. The idea of > distributed forms of curating existing in an almost self-perpetuating > system strikes me as deeply distutbing. > > I would hope that considering the new possibilities and dynamics of > curating through digital and distributed means would explore the > profoundly ambivalent nature of curating and Art itself. one can have an > open source networked participatory media pantopicon - and that wouldn't > make it a good idea. > > but then again I haven't seen the book so maybe I'm just reading this is > some funky manner or something . . . > > just wondering . . . > > cheers > stevphen > > > >> >> The third volume in the DATA browser series is now out - focusing on >> curating in the context of technological networks (Internet and >> software). >> Introduction to the book available for download from the Data browser >> website at: www.data-browser.net/03 >> >> >> --- >> >> DATA browser 03 >> CURATING IMMATERIALITY >> THE WORK OF THE CURATOR IN THE AGE OF NETWORK SYSTEMS >> >> Edited by Joasia Krysa >> >> Publisher: Autonomedia (DATA browser 03) >> ISBN: 1-57027-170-4 >> Pages: 288, Paper Perfectbound >> Price: $15.95 US / �15 in UK >> >> The third book in the DATA Browser series of critical texts that >> explore >> issues at the intersection of culture and technology. The site of >> curatorial >> production has been expanded to include the space of the Internet and >> the >> focus of curatorial attention has been extended from the object to >> processes >> to dynamic network systems. As a result, curatorial work has become >> more >> widely distributed between multiple agents, including technological >> networks >> and software. This upgraded 'operating system' of art presents new >> possibilities of online curating that is collective and distributed - >> even >> to the extreme of a self-organising system that curates itself. The >> curator >> is part of this entire system but not central to it. This book reflects >> on >> these changes and examines the work of the curator in relation to a >> wider >> socio-political context articulated through two key issues: >> immateriality >> and network systems. It considers how the practice of curating has been >> transformed by distributed networks beyond the rhetoric of free >> software >> and >> open systems. >> >> Contributors: >> 0100101110101101.ORG & [epidemiC] | Josephine Berry Slater | Geoff Cox >> | >> Alexander R. Galloway & Eugene Thacker | Olga Goriunova & Alexei Shulgin >> | >> Beryl Graham | Eva Grubinger | Piotr Krajewski | Jacob Lillemose | >> low-fi >> | >> Franziska Nori | Matteo Pasquinelli | Christiane Paul | Trebor Scholz | >> Grzesiek Sedek | Tiziana Terranova | Marina Vishmidt >> >> For more information see >> >> All texts released under a Creative Commons License 2006. >> >> The DATA browser series presents critical texts that explore issues at >> the >> intersection of culture and technology. The editorial group are Geoff >> Cox, >> Joasia Krysa, Anya Lewin, Malcolm Miles, Mike Punt & Hugo de Rijke >> . This volume is produced in association >> with >> Arts Council England and University of Plymouth. >> >> >> ------ End of Forwarded Message >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> > > _____________________________________________________________ > More contemporary art at > http://www.art-online.org_________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with > subscribe in the subject header. > List archive: -- Stevphen Shukaitis Autonomedia Editorial Collective http://www.autonomedia.org http://slash.interactivist.net "Autonomy is not a fixed, essential state. Like gender, autonomy is created through its performance, by doing/becoming; it is a political practice. To become autonomous is to refuse authoritarian and compulsory cultures of separation and hierarchy through embodied practices of welcoming difference . . . Becoming autonomous is a political position for it thwarts the exclusions of proprietary knowledge and jealous hoarding of resources, and replaces the social and economic hierarchies on which these depend with a politics of skill exchange, welcome, and collaboration. Freely sharing these with others creates a common wealth of knowledge and power that subverts the domination and hegemony of the master’s rule." -subRosa Collective From jumpshark at gmail.com Thu May 18 12:34:28 2006 From: jumpshark at gmail.com (Prashant Pandey) Date: Thu, 18 May 2006 12:34:28 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Kalyanji-Anandji get US award, Prashant Pandey Message-ID: Do you remember my post regarding the song "Dont Phunk with my Heart". I wrote about its instrumentation and how it uses a particular groove of 70s Hindi film music. It has a sound that we associate with a gaudy bar, gold smugglers,a Helen(ic) figure dancing to a live western orchestra.Ok. if you still cant figure out what exactly it is, think about RD Burmans' Dum Maro Dum (Hare Rama Hare Krishna,Navketan,1971) ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067183/ & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hare_Rama_Hare_Krishna ) The song has a starting music. Like RD the same groove was perfected by Kalyanji-Anandji in films like Don.(Chandra Barot, 1978) In a recent interview Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy the music director trio working on the music of Farhan Akhtars' remake of Don admitted that it would be very difficult for them to maintain the "cool" sound that Kalyanji-Anandji created for the original classic. This "Cool" sound runs like the spine in the song "Dont Phunk with my Heart". Please read this article that I recently found. Kalyanji-Anandji get US award Faheem Ruhani Friday, May 12, 2006 20:50 IST DNA Music director Kalyanji-Anandji will become the first Indian duo to be awarded by the Broadcasting Media Inc (BMI), a body associated with copyrights in the US. The music director duo's song parts from 'Don' ('Ye Mera Dil') and another from 'Apradh' ('Ae Naujavan') had been incorporated by the Black Eyed Peas in their number 'Don't Phunk With My Heart'. Music director Anandji, who survives the late Kalyanji, will be present in LA on May 16 to receive the award. Strangely, the band never got in touch with the music director for acquiring the song. They directly obtained it from the label Sa Re Ga Ma. Recently, Black Eyed Peas had been awarded Best Rapper at the 2005 Grammy Awards. Says Anandji, "Of course I am happy and anybody in my place would have also been happy. The award is important because it recognises and gives due credit to the original creators of the song. I hope this award creates an awareness about copyright issues in India, because so often songs in India are used without giving the original composer any credit or royalty for it." So, has he received any royalty for his compositions? "Not yet, but I am sure it will come through soon. Since it is the first time, things might take time initially." Anandji adds that it is impossible to not miss his brother Kalyanji on the occasion. "He was older than me and I used to feel safe under his guidance." r_faheem at dnaindia.net ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prashant Pandey PPHP, Sarai -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060518/b8e0a5c1/attachment.html From daljitami at rediffmail.com Thu May 18 21:13:34 2006 From: daljitami at rediffmail.com (daljit ami) Date: 18 May 2006 15:43:34 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Celluloid and compact disks in Punjab Message-ID: <20060518154334.4994.qmail@webmail47.rediffmail.com>   ANACHRONISTIC COMEDY; WHO THE AUDIENCE ARE The film named Fauji Di Family (Soldier’s family) is claimed (on wrapper) to be a family comedy film. The film could have been a comedy on Punjabi society during fifties or sixties. This sort of comedy used to be part of All India Radio broadcasts during those times. During these times the society has been more literate and with the passage of time many words of English and Hindi have become part of Punjabi language. These reach of these words is not confined to literates as it used to be. When the literacy used to very thin any word from other language used to create confusion and laughter. With the increase of literacy, larger service sector, better means of transportation and influx of migrant labour the scenario is not same again. It is not going to be same again. The comedy that AIR used to broadcast was not only comedy but awareness also. The film under discussion relies on those days comedy although it is no way period film. A soldier posts a letter to his parents to send his family. The whole village is unaware of the word FAMILY and search every nook and corner of the surrounding. Similar situations are there when the soldier goes to his in-laws’ house and ask for SALAD, when he complains about the loose CHARPAI (Hindi word for cot), use of words like LATIRINE, LOOSE MOTION and PATLOON (trousers) create comedy situations. These words are everyday use in Punjab irrespective of the literacy levels. These words have entered in the social milieu through social practice and intra cultural interactions. Punjab has large number of migrant labour that made many words part of Punjabi language. It is beyond imagination to find an audience which is unfamiliar of these words like. The large number of English and Semi English medium school definitely add English words to the social interaction without any distinction whether you go to those schools or not. Large number of students are coming out of those schools and interacting in the society. Now marriage is no more a function which involves voluntary community labour for cooking and other arrangement. The function involves large number of cooking, serving and arrangement professionals. The vocabulary of these professionals caters to urban-rural, rich-poor and literate-illetrate masses, irrespectively. How can this society laugh at confusion crated by words like SALAD? How can these commonly used words create confusions? This film is one of the successful ones in the market. It is really interesting to imagine the constituency of its audience. The film maker, Gurcharan Virk, claims that common people are like this and they want this. This is the logic behind most of the masala Bollywood films and music videos shown on television channels. When we look for that common person like this and wants this, search became endless. Every person talks that this is for common person. This comment is always by an outsider, be it maker or critic. From the surface this perception sounds shallow and gross underestimation of rural illiterate people. It seems that the audience of this film is choice less as rest of the means of entertainment are out of reach. This type of film shows characters which are of lower status than their own. This imagery lower status person and thoughtless vacuum created by these films makes them successful at whatever small scale they are. The production of such films for imaginary common person sounds superiority complex of middle class which lower class share as audience as they have someone (inferior to them) even if as characters of the film. Regards Daljit Ami -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060518/d91e8d2c/attachment.html From venu.mathur at gmail.com Thu May 18 12:16:08 2006 From: venu.mathur at gmail.com (venu mathur) Date: Thu, 18 May 2006 12:16:08 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] and life goes on at the Mathur building...Update: My Building and the Shahar Message-ID: We missed a post last month. But here is the update. A lot has happened in these last few weeks as life goes on in the Mathur Building (totally impervious by demolitions, NBA trouble, or any other issue not directly related or obviously so to us here). Including, Total TV shooting an episode of "Mrs. Total TV", our friend Mohit's wedding to a non Mathur girl (!!!), lots of interviews, group discussions, fights over parking, Annual General Body Meeting etc. There are some new pictures on the blog. www.mathurbuilding.blogspot.com. But we haven't got the space and time to articulate, write and reflect upon more critical issues and questions that come out from a project of this nature, in a serious way. So we are still at the 'data collection' stage, so to say. Because of work commitments, Personally, i have not been able to spend much time with the project work. I go on leave soon to work on the project. On May 24th we are organising a walk through *Shahar* (old delhi) for kids from the building and anyone else who might be interested. Will soon post details here and on the blog. Venu and Abhinandita www.venumathur.blogspot.com www.abhinandita.blogspot.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060518/652995d5/attachment.html From nc-agricowi at netcologne.de Thu May 18 12:08:25 2006 From: nc-agricowi at netcologne.de (JavaMuseum) Date: Thu, 18 May 2006 08:38:25 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] JIP - JavaMuseum Interview Project - new features! Message-ID: <20060518083825.CE14ECC9.86D0C7F2@127.0.0.1> * [week 15 -21 May 2006] ------------------------------------------------ JIP - JavaMuseum Interview Project http://netex.nmartproject.net/index.php?blog=11 open call/survey--->deadline 1 June 2006 (see further ahead) ---> JIP is featuring this week following 3 interviews with -->Jody Zellen (USA), Reiner Strasser (Germany) Caterina Davinio (Italy) -----> Jody Zellen is an artist living in Los Angeles, California. She works in many media simultaneously making photographs, installations, net art, public art, as well as artists' books that explore the subject of the urban environment. She employs media-generated representations of contemporary and historic cities as raw material for aesthetic and social investigations She had numerous solo shows in USA and abroad and is represented on all relevant media art festivals around the globe. Reiner Strasser is living and working in Wiesbaden, Germany, was born 1954 in Antwerpen, Belgium. He studied art, art history and philosophy at the University of Mainz, Germany in the 1970's. His Web works, international collaborations, and Web art projects date from 1996. Strasser's Web work has appeared in several exhibitions/publications all over the world since 1997. Caterina Davinio is multitalented and active as Italian techno-artist, writer and poet, experiments in computer art, net-art, video, digital visual poetry, Internet-performance, video-performance. She realized also computer, printings exhibitions, painting, and artist books, using together writing, traditional and digital techniques. Pioneer of Italian digital art, she has done curatorial and consultant activity in international festivals. Her work has been featured in more than 100 exhibitions world wide Caterina Davinio has published articles, poems, and digital works, in international magazines and journals of the avant-garde. ---> About JIP - JavaMuseum Interview Project JavaMuseum - Forum for Internet Technology in Contemporary Art www.javamuseum.org/ is currently preparing a new project, entitled: JIP - JavaMuseum Interview Project http://jip.javamuseum.org to be launched in September 2006 Agricola de Cologne, director of JavaMuseum invited for an interview a number professionals & artists active in the field of Internet based art who participated in the "1st phase", the 18 JavaMuseum showcases 2001-2004, in order to spotlight their professional background, activities and visions. ---> Open call /survey---> new deadline 1 June 2006 ---> JIP - JavaMuseum Interview Project issued further an open call survey including 10 questions on Internet based art addressed to professionals and "amateurs", in order to enable a broader discussion about the still undervalued genre of Internet based art through a variety of different approaches, definitions and opinions. New deadline - 1 June 2006 !!!!! The entry rules and the questions (cut & paste) are available on http://netex.nmartproject.net/index.php?blog=11&cat=80 or as PDF as free download http://downloads.nmartproject.net/JIP_10_questions_on_Internet_based_art.pdf JIP - JavaMuseum Interview Project will be released on an ongoing basis, whereby the selection of the most interesting answers can be found a) online on the new project site - http://jip.javamuseum.org , but b) immediately also in form of one interview per week on the new weblog - JIP - JavaMuseum Interview Project http://netex.nmartproject.net/index.php?blog=11 and c) to be published in a printed form at a later stage. ------------------------------------------------------------ Until now interviews /answers by ---> Babel (Canada), Andrea Polli (USA), Jorn Ebner (UK), Roberto Echen (Argentina), Jeremy Hight (USA), Ian Page-Echols (USA), Humberto Ramirez (Chile/USA), Enrico Tomaselli (Italy) Carlos Katastrofsky (Austria), Paivi Hintsanen (Finland) Shankar Barua (India), Luke Duncalfe (New Zealand) FilH (France), Nadja Kutz (Germany), Yvonne Martinsson (Sweden), Avi Rosen (Israel), Letizia Jaccheri (Norway), Tamara Lai (Belgium, tobias c. van Veen (Canada), DLSAN (Italy), Irene Coremberg (Argentina) Carla Della Beffa (Italy), Peter Lind (Denmark), Philippe Langlois (France), Salvatore Iaconesi (Italy), Pat Badani (USA), Calin Man (Romania), Myron Turner (Canada) Domenica Quaranta (Italy), Juan Manuel Patino (Argentina), Alison Williams (South Africa), Rahima Begum (India), Anahi Caceres (Argentina), Raivo Kelomees (Estonia), santo_file (Spain), Sachiko Hayashi (Sweden) ---> have been issued on http://netex.nmartproject.net/index.php?blog=11 ------------------------------------------------------------ Released by NetEX - networked experience http://netex.nmartproject.net powered by [NewMediaArtProjectNetwork]:||cologne www.nmartproject.net - the experimental platform for art and New Media operating from Cologne/Germany. . info& contact info (at) nmartproject.net _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From dilip.sarai at gmail.com Fri May 19 23:41:13 2006 From: dilip.sarai at gmail.com (Dilip D'Souza -- Sarai) Date: Fri, 19 May 2006 23:41:13 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Bang the Drum Slowly Message-ID: <1a57bfd0605191111j20057186w5cb8b2c0870f8955@mail.gmail.com> Dear All, Here's one more essay in my Sarai theme, Villages in the City. cheers, dilip d'souza. ---- Bang the Drum Slowly -------------------- Dilip D'Souza Standing on a corner near Charni Road Station one April morning, I'm chewing on a bit of bubble gum and trying not to feel the heat. Hanging from a nail on the large tree to my right is one of those small but colourful portraits of gods. Another nail has a sign advertising Star Pest Control. Behind me are the stairs to the foot overbridge that leads to the station. On one of the pillars supporting the stairs is a sign that says: "Required Urgently Smart Female Computer Operator, Work Time 10 am to 8 pm." Under the tree is an old woman, squatting on the pavement. She is obviously suffering from a serious case of leucoderma, but that's not really why I notice her. No, I notice her when she pours a few mugs of water over a small area of the pavement. Then she reaches into a bag behind her and pulls out a cake of soap. She uses it to scrub the wet pavement. Then she reaches into the bag for a rag, with which she wipes the soapy pavement dry. Then she pulls towards her a small pile of dirty clothes that I hadn't noticed before. Squatting there, she washes them, scrubbing them one by one on her patch of pavement that is now soaped clean. Very clean. My introduction to Thakurdwar. Walking in from there, the lanes generally go off at right angles, so you'd think it would be easy to keep track of them. But they wind about, and we take so many, that I soon have no idea where we are. I mean, we're in Thakurdwar -- or is it now Girgaum, or CP Tank perhaps? -- but standing on one street looking up at the building opposite, I realize slowly that I cannot retrace in my mind the route we've taken over the last half hour or so, to get here. It surprises me, because I pride myself on my sense of direction. But not here. Not that I'm worried, and in fact it turns out that where we are is only a turn or two away from a major street through the area. No, my temporary befuddlement is just a confirmation of how close and intricate is the web of lanes in this part of Bombay. The building opposite is not particularly interesting. (Perhaps I am expecting one like the great edifice at a junction nearby that says, across its top, "Kamalabai N Brahmandkar Hall"). But behind me is a small open doorway that I would not have looked at twice, except now I catch a hint of movement in the darkened space inside. I do look twice, and the movement is from a man working on a tabla. Have to go in. He's sitting cross-legged in the long narrow room, a wiry man in his 50s. He's applying a black paste on the sound surface of the tabla, to produce the large round black spot that all tablas have. The paste is made from a black powder he has in a bottle. "It's called tabla-ka-shai, and it comes from Bhavnagar", he says. "Here," and he hands me the bottle, "feel how heavy it is." And it is. The little bottle is less than half-full, but it's unexpectedly heavy. He applies the powder, then uses a large black stone in a sort of massaging motion on the flat surface, again and again, smoothening and polishing the black spot. Something about his diligence reminds me of the woman, scrubbing the pavement and her clothes. The skin itself once belonged to a goat. The strips that hold it in place, that must be moved about to tune the instrument, are from a cow's hide. This is Ravindra V Patankar, third-generation tabla maker. The room is filled with tablas and dholaks and pakhwajs (the two-sided drum known in the south as a mridangam). There are so many that I get the uncanny impression that the room is also filled with drumming: is that a sawal-jawab I hear? The one he's working on is made from a bright silver-plated pot, and ones like that are the most common in the shop. Others are made from gleaming brass, duller copper, there are even a couple of wood instruments. Some look new, but many have clearly been heavily used, the best evidence for that coming from the fading, sometimes crumbling black spots. Those have been left for Ravindra to restore. "It's a lot of hard work," Ravindra tells us. "For example, this one" -- he points to the tabla he's working on -- "will take me four hours!" He smiles wryly, looking faintly surprised himself that he will be that long attending to this one instrument. Four hours, only to put the black Bhavnagar powder on, stick it there with a paste made from maida, and use this stone to smoothen it. "It's a special stone," says Ravindra, showing me the gleaming black thing in his hand. "You don't get it everywhere." Oh? And where did it come from? "I don't know," he says. "I have two from my father's time. They don't wear out easily, but if I do need a new one, I'll have to pay Rs 250 or 300." And the skins? "Kolhapur or Solapur. We don't buy skins from Gujarat, they are often fakes." A smooth stone, real skins and black powder from Bhavnagar: if you want to set up a tabla business, these are the essentials. It was Ravindra's grandfather, Yashwant Mahadeo Patankar, who first set up shop here, over a hundred years ago. Business was good for a long time, because there was an abiding interest in classical music -- in the arts, generally -- in this particularly Marathi neighbourhood. On Yashwant's death, the shop passed to Ravindra's father, Vasant, and later to Ravindra. In fact, it is named after his father -- "Vasant Yashwant Patankar & Sons". As he tells me with some pride: "we have a name in this business." Today, Ravindra runs the shop with his wife Sugandha. But in there is the first sign that things are changing. Tucked amidst the cornucopia of percussion instruments is a stately old ... sewing machine. Sugandha Patankar supplements the family income -- the shop's income -- with tailoring jobs. "It's no longer possible," explains Ravindra, "to make enough money just on the tabla work. After me, the shop will close down." Why? Three reasons. One, Sugandha and Ravindra have only one child, a daughter about twenty, and she is not remotely interested in his tabla business. Not even in classical music? His wry smile back, Ravindra responds almost apologetically: "She likes film music." Two, what he calls "readymade" tablas are ruining his business ("barbaad" or "destruction" is the word he uses). Few want to pay for the careful handmade quality of his tablas. "My father taught us never to spoil our name by caring about money," says Ravindra, "but these days people only look at money, they don't care about our name!" Three, there's been a serious dwindling of interest in music and the arts over the last couple of decades, particularly in this Marathi heartland. Many Marathi speakers have moved out of here, but is that the whole explanation? I don't know, but I'm reminded of so many others who mourn the fading away of Marathi literature, theatre, film ... and now this. "Yeh kala hai," Ravindra says about his work. "It's an art. And after I'm gone, there will be nobody to do it." On my way out of Thakurdwar a few hours later -- oh yes, I found my way out -- I climb the stairs to Charni Road station. Smart Female Computer Operators are still Required Urgently, I note irrelevantly. The old woman is still there too. Clothes done, she sits on the patch of pavement she had scrubbed clean. In the blur of commuters who rush past, she's almost lost. From biswajit at tetrain.com Sat May 20 01:18:25 2006 From: biswajit at tetrain.com (Biswajit Banerjee) Date: Sat, 20 May 2006 01:18:25 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Please ignore --sorry for inconvenience Message-ID: <1148068106.5416.10.camel@biswajit.tetrain.com> -- Warm Regards Biswajit Banerjee Director Tetra Information Services Pvt. Ltd. 136 Lower Ground Floor, Sant Nagar, East of Kailash, New Delhi - 110065, India. Email : biswajit at tetrain.com Website : www.tetrain.com, www.linux4e.com Phone : 91-11-55604033, 91-11-55604034, 91-11-55604035 Mobile : 91-9810030018 Fax : 91-11-26225293 We Create And Manage Comprehensive Technology Solutions Scalable to your needs From biswajit at tetrain.com Sat May 20 01:39:28 2006 From: biswajit at tetrain.com (Biswajit Banerjee) Date: Sat, 20 May 2006 01:39:28 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Please ignore --sorry for inconvenience In-Reply-To: <20060519195107.2CCFC2DC2A@p15122045.pureserver.info> References: <20060519195107.2CCFC2DC2A@p15122045.pureserver.info> Message-ID: <1148069368.5416.12.camel@biswajit.tetrain.com> -- Biswajit Banerjee Tetra Information Services P Limited From biswajit at tetrain.com Sat May 20 02:57:38 2006 From: biswajit at tetrain.com (Biswajit Banerjee) Date: Sat, 20 May 2006 02:57:38 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Re: Please ignore --sorry for inconvenience In-Reply-To: <1148069368.5416.12.camel@biswajit.tetrain.com> References: <20060519195107.2CCFC2DC2A@p15122045.pureserver.info> <1148069368.5416.12.camel@biswajit.tetrain.com> Message-ID: <1148074058.5416.14.camel@biswajit.tetrain.com> On Sat, 2006-05-20 at 01:39 +0530, Biswajit Banerjee wrote: -- Biswajit Banerjee Tetra Information Services P Limited From xavier.cahen at pourinfos.org Fri May 19 13:46:20 2006 From: xavier.cahen at pourinfos.org (xavier cahen pourinfos.org) Date: Fri, 19 May 2006 10:16:20 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] pourinfos Newsletter / 05-18 to 05-24-2006 Message-ID: <446D7ED4.90308@pourinfos.org> pourinfos.org l'actualité du monde de l'art / daily Art news ----------------------------------------------------------------------- From Thursday May 18, 2006 to Wednesday May 24, 2006 (included) ------------------------------------------------------------------- (mostly in french) @ 001 Today is Shanghai time #2, Shanghai, China. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33187 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 002 Call : Series : Series: the detail, Incident.net, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33186 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 003 Call : International Video,and Short Film Festival, Pescara, Italiy. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33185 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 004 Call : State of Exception ,recent short videos and films, Studio 27, San Francisco, Usa. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33184 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 005 Call : Festival of short film, on the topic of “the Man machine”, Association Fais Des Bulles, MJC Pichon, Nancy, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33183 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 006 Various : FESTIVAL RADIOPHONIQUE EPSILONIA. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33182 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 007 Various : "June Events 06" / Dance festival : "June Events 06", Atelier de Paris-Carolyn Carlson, Cartoucherie, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33181 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 008 Publication : Presentation of the artistic duet Art Orienté objet and their monographic catalogue, Wednesday May 24, 2006, editions CQFD, place du Carrousel, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33180 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 009 Publication : Influence, Nuke Magazine #3, Nuke, at colette, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33179 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 010 Formation : Professional licence (L3) Trades of the edition, speciality Design graphic and multi-media, Université Rennes 2 - Haute Bretagne, Rennes, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33178 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 011 Exhibition : ETERNITY A NOT TIME TO SIT DOWN, Jean-Louis Accettone, Saturday May 20, 2006, L.A.A.C., Dunkerque, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33177 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 012 Screening : videos artists in Beauvais, est-ce une bonne nouvelle, Conseil Général de l'Oise, Beauvais, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33176 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 013 Screening : experimental films, on June 8, 2006, WINDOW, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33175 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 014 Screening : Films of Russian artists in Barbizon, on Monday June 5, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33174 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 015 Meetings : "désir d'imprévu", studiometis avec VJ Selector et DJ Tube, MJC centre gérard Blotnikas,Thursday May 18, 2006, Chilly-Mazarin, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33173 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 016 Meetings : Do you love Brahms? / Dopebase , 26 and di May 27, 2006, laB-o sonore - Musée d'Art Contemporain de Lyon, Lyon, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33172 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 017 Meetings : Allez, maintenant on rigole HA HA ! HA HA ! HA HA, Yvan Le Bozec , Saturday May 20, 2006, Semiose éditions, librairie Florence Lœwy , Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33171 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 018 Meetings : An introduction to Derrida, Thierry Vigier, Which force to think, Tuesday May 23, 2006, Maison populaire, Montreuil, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33170 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 019 Meetings : Nathalie Quintane et Stéphane Bérard, Tuesday May 23, 2006, Librairie l'Histoire de l'Oeil, Marseille, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33169 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 020 Meetings : The French cultural policy: end of cycle and/or new stakes?, Wednesday June 7, 2006, théâtre du rond point, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33168 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 021 Meetings : FORUM OF DISCUSSION _ACTIONS COLLECTIVE, on May 23, 2006, Ecole nationale supérieure des beaux-arts, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33167 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 022 Meetings : e-comedie 2006, panoplie.org, espace rabelais, Montpellier, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33166 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 023 Meetings : GUILLAUME DESANGES TO the FRAC PACA, Saturday May 20, Marseille, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33165 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 024 Meetings : Meetings: conference, the friends invite…, Christophe Kihm, Thursday May 18, 2006, Auditorium du LAAC, Jardin de Sculptures, Dunkerque, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33164 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 025 Meetings : White chart with Incident.net 2nd part, Thursday May 18, Centre Pompidou, Paris, france. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33163 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 026 Exhibition, Matthieu Jacquemin, APONIA, Villiers-sur-Marne, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33162 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 027 Exhibition : A song of loves, Abbaye Royale de Fontevraud, Fontevraud l'Abbaye, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33161 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 028 Exhibition : Protokolle, Muntadas, StuttgartWürttembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart - WKV, Stuttgart, Germany. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33160 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 029 Exhibition : Opening of a new space, Anthony McCall,You and I, Horizontal, LIA Lieu d’Images et d’Art, Site sommital de la Bastille, Fort de la Bastille, Grenoble, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33159 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 030 Exhibition : Appearance and the Abyss, Ina Bierstedt, Bettina Carl, Jörgen Erkius, Sofia Hulten, Alena Meier et,Wladimir Winter, Immanence, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33158 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 031 Exhibition : Gian Paolo Minelli, Marie Velardi, Hoio, attitudes - espace d'arts contemporains, Geneva, Switzerland. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33157 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 032 Exhibition : Diario/8, Maison des Artistes, Cagnes, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33156 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 033 Exhibition : Two words and Fourteen Words at Cargo 21, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33155 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 034 Exhibition : Denis Hérault, LENDROIT, editions d'artistes, Rennes, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33154 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 035 Exhibition : Chapiter 3, Abbaye de Maubuisson, Saint-Ouen-l'Aumône, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33153 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 036 Exhibition : Bit.flow, Julius Popp, Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33152 ------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 037 The artist and his “models”. Jean-Claude Moineau http://pourinfos.org/encours/item.php?id=3019 L’artiste et ses "modèles". Jean-Claude Moineau http://pourinfos.org/encours/item.php?id=3020 From shuddha at sarai.net Fri May 19 21:25:01 2006 From: shuddha at sarai.net (Shuddhabrata Sengupta) Date: Fri, 19 May 2006 21:25:01 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Sensor-Census-Censor : Call for Abstracts Message-ID: <446DEA55.1040702@sarai.net> SENSOR-CENSUS-CENSOR : Investigating Circuits of Information, Registering Changes of State An International Colloquium on Information, Society, History and Politics New Delhi, 27, 28 & 29 November 2006 (Apologies for Cross Posting) SENSOR-CENSUS-CENSOR : Investigating Circuits of Information, Registering Changes of State is an International Colloquium on Information, Society. Politics and History that will critically examine and investigate regimes and technologies of information harvesting, management, circulation and deployment as they have developed in India and Europe from early modernity till today. The colloquium, organized by the Sarai Programme at CSDS, Delhi, in collaboration with the Waag Society, Amsterdam, under the rubric of the network titled 'Towards a Culture of Open Networks', invites scholars, theorists, researchers and practitioners working in the areas of history, political economy, political theory, philosophy, culture and technology studies as well as artists, writers and media practitioners based in India and/or Europe to submit proposals for papers and presentations that they would like to make at the colloquium. SENSOR-CENSUS-CENSOR will take place in the last week of November 2006 in Delhi. Please see below for a concept outline describing the themes and concerns animating the colloquium. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Information, Society, Politics, History Information is a crucial axis of political, economic and social life. The nature of information practices in contemporary societies are marked by a radical dispersal. This dispersal does not replace, earlier centralizing modes of gathering information, but stands alongside it. The basis of governance, in all its capillary forms and at all levels, from the level of the neighbourhood or the workplace to that of city, district, province, and the nation, and continuing even at the level of the relationship between persons (as citizens and non citizens) and different nations, and between nations themselves, can continue to be analysed in terms of the management of information. In fact, we can locate the analysis of information in society, history and politics along the lines of tension between centralization and dispersal. At the core of this axial reality lies a conceptual and a categorical distinction between what is seen to be a member of a population - an entity that needs to be governed, and the far more valuable category of the citizen - a subject (with sentience and volition) who participates in that governance. The recognition of subjectivity (a sensory operation, involving an awareness of the change of state that involves the transition from a silent, or incoherent statistic to a speaking, sentient being) is what can be seen to lie at the heart of politics. It can be seen as a pre-condition of the political. The harnessing and treatment of information creates the conditions by which persons and citizens, a population and a citizenry, a person and a consumer, a network of needs and a market, an identity and a demographic can be invoked in varied and complex ways by the state, quasi state agencies of social governance, as well as by local and global economic forces. This activity seems to be lever for mechanisms that have to do with the identification, policing, mechanisms of appeal and redress, moral order, taxation, the disbursement of welfare, the discrimination between citizens and others, and between different kinds of citizens. Such information gathering, in order to be rendered useful, has to be activated through territorial surveys and census forms, public and private archives, documents and databases, reports and records, surveillance cameras and electronic filters, informers and informants, fingerprints and biometrics, photographs and recordings and a host of other technologies, methods and practices register the changes of state that occur in societies. These instruments and processes are so general in modern societies as to be part of the banal fabric of everyday life, especially in urban spaces. Inspite of their generality, the circuits that solder information to power and established ways of doing things are constantly being hacked into. These quotidian episodes of information disruption, of unauthorised circulation and reproduction of information and a range of other transgressive information practices, can be seen to punctuate a chronicle of progress and order at crucial junctures. There is persistent trouble in the archives. This colloquium is an attempt to inaugurate a body of reflection and research on information, society, history and politics within the ambit of the Sarai Programme at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, and raise the profile of questions about information in discourse in South Asia. The key questions that the colloquium will address are as follows : Key Questions and Themes Does the nature and purpose of information gathering undergo a transformation as we move away from relatively stable social and political formations to more contingent situations and domains globally? How does the role of the 'expert' stand in relation to new kinds of politics, based on contingent alliances? Is there an excess of information - in markets, in politics, in society? What is the relationship between discourses of information and discourses of risk, security and safety? What does information lose or gain in translation across languages and contexts? What for instance happens when databases generated for one purpose is linked to another. What happens when information crosses borders? What happens when information is deployed at a scale very different from the scale of the context in which it was generated? How were methods of identification and information gathering experimented with and developed in India and other colonies and then perfected and deployed in Europe in the context of colonialism? Can we build maps of the traffic in the knowledge of power across the circuits of empire, which takes in the work of archivists and historians, museum curators and judges, the testimonies of informants and approvers, as much as it includes the activities of administrators, surveyors, anthropologists and policemen, requires to be elaborated and detailed.? How have the introduction of new information technologies, such as the telegraph, photography, telephones, sound recording, video, computers and the internet changed the course of information gathering, control and circulation? What implications have they had politically, how have they impacted on the political economy of information? How have these technologies been used to subvert, challenge or erode the operations of power? How does the unauthorised circulation and reproduction of information resources, piracy, copy culture, samizdat and other forms of transgressive information practice, affect the balance of power of information in any society? How do different political systems deal with the management of information? What for instance is the relationship between the parallel histories of computing in the former Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc and the demands of state action in these societies? How can historians re-think silences and absences in the archives? Can we construct alternative histories of archives and archiving? What status do archives of popular and social movements, personal collections and other attempts at restoring the memory of events and processes that have been deliberately obscured have in relation to the knowledge gathering activities of the state, and of power generally? How can political theorists examine the relationships between populations, citizens, information and utterance to yield different models of complex political realities? What implications do the contemporary (and projected) operations of biometric technologies, internet filtering systems, networked surveillance and data retrieval and outsourcing systems have for social and political life today and in the near future? The rhetoric of 'Information society' with its ideological commitment to notions of 'e-governance' and 'e-citizenship' and 'ICT in development' conveniently obscures both older continuities and inequities as well as recent parallels between the politics of different kinds of information regimes as they stretch between India /Asia and Europe. What kinds of correspondences and crossovers between new and old practices of information can we locate and identify? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Abstract Submission Details and Requirements We invite scholars, researchers and practitioners to respond to this call by sending in abstracts (not more than 500 words) of presentations that they would like to make, along with a brief profile about themselves, including details of institutional affiliation (where relevant). Limited support for travel and accommodation for presenters (only from Europe and the South Asian subcontinent) is available. Please indicate whether you would like to avail of this support, or can raise your own resources to participate in the colloquium. Applicants from the United States, Canada, Africa, Australia, Asia (barring South Asia) are advised to generate their own resources (travel and accommodation) for participating in the colloquium. Last date for the submission of abstracts : 20th July, 2006 Contributors will be informed about abstracts selected for presentation by August 15, 2006 send in your abstracts to : infosoc at sarai.net ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The 'SENSOR - CENSUS - CENSOR' colloquium will be produced with the financial assistance of the European Union's EU-India Cross Cultural Project,, under the ambit of 'Towards a Cutlture of Open Networks' . The contents of this announcement are the sole responsibility of Sarai/CSDS and its Partners in this network, and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union. _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From isast at leonardo.info Sat May 20 00:17:29 2006 From: isast at leonardo.info (Leonardo/ISAST) Date: Fri, 19 May 2006 11:47:29 -0700 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] The Pacific Rim New Media Summit + Special Issue of Leonardo Message-ID: <446E12C1.40703@leonardo.info> ANNOUNCING The Pacific Rim New Media Summit A Pre-Symposium to ISEA2006 7--8 August 2006, San Jose, California Co-sponsored by CADRE Laboratory for New Media and Leonardo/ISAST Plus Special Issue of Leonardo Leonardo Vol. 39, No. 4 (August 2006) Pacific Rim New Media Summit Companion The Pacific Rim New Media Summit How are information technology and creativity shaping new directions in the arts and sciences around the Pacific Rim? What challenges face organizations and individuals in the region who are working in the fields of architecture, design, literature, theater, music? How do the puzzle pieces of academic research and information technology-based industry fit into this picture? The political and economic space of the Pacific Rim represents a dynamic context for innovation and creativity. Experimentation in the many disciplines that encompass art, science, and technology is resulting in the emergence of new forms of cultural production and experience unique to the region. The complex relations and diversity of Pacific Rim nations are exemplified as well throughout the hybridized communities that comprise Silicon Valley. The Pacific Rim New Media Summit will be a gathering of organizations and representatives from the Pacific Rim and Asia to look at the complex relations and diversity of Pacific Rim nations and to focus on the development of partnerships in order to address the multiple challenges faced throughout the region as it develops its arts and sciences networks in tandem with its increasing economic influence. This trans-disciplinary event will have a specific focus on educational methodologies and practices. The summit is organized into seven working groups according to the following topic areas: * Distributed Curatorial (Chair: Steve Dietz) * Education (Co-Chairs: Rob van Kranenburg, Gustaff H. Iskandar and Fatima Lasay) * Place, Ground and Practice (Chair: Danny Butt) * Urbanity and Locative Media (Chair: Soh-Yeong Roh) * Latin America/Pacific-Asia New Media Initiatives (Chair: Jose-Carlos Mariategui) * Piracy and the Pacific (Chair: Steve Cisler) * The Invisible Dynamics of the Pacific Rim and the Bay Area (Co-Chairs: Susan Schwartzenberg and Peter Richards) Summit objectives include exploration of innovative models for cooperation among institutions, development of interaction strategies with technology corporations, investigation of radical responses to emergent cultural issues and conditions, engagement with Diaspora communities, and the establishment of an on-going Pacific Rim Network of New Media Educational Institutions. Special issue of Leonardo (Vol. 39, No. 4) A special issue of Leonardo will be devoted to the work of the seven Pacific Rim working groups, featuring new media educational programs and artists from the Pacific-Asia region. The print issue of the journal, due to be released in conjunction with the symposium, will include statements by artists as well as articles by cultural theorists looking at issues germane to the seven working group topics, plus introductory texts by the working group chairs. Some of the topics covered in the issue include: - Surfing the Outernet: Where net art presented the medium of the Internet, locative art brings to the fore those of mobile and wireless systems. Drew Hemment unfolds a taxonomy of locative-art approaches to the gap between the perfect grid and the reality of the mapped world. - Cyber-Mythologies and Portraits of Dispossession: Rachel O'Reilly examines how Asian and Pacific understandings of place in recent work by Vernon Ah Kee, Lisa Reihana and Qiu Zhijie expand the frames of contemporary locative art. - Cartographies of the future: Annie Lambla discusses the San Francisco Exploratorium's Invisible Dynamics project, which considers the museum's relocation from a perspective integrating art, science and geographic context. - Culture, uncontained: Commerce, communication and technology intertwine in the works of the Pacific Rim New Media Summit exhibition Container Culture. Artists from Mumbai to Vancouver use the medium and metaphor of shipping containers to explore regional and global complexities. For more information about the summit and special issue of Leonardo, please visit: http://leonardo.info/isast/isast_activities/pacificrim_newmedia.html ISEA 2006 and ZeroOne San Jose The 13th International Symposium on Electronic Arts will be held in San Jose, CA, August 7-13, 2006 in conjunction with the inaugural biennial ZeroOne San Jose: A Global Festival of Art on the Edge. Three summits will be held Monday August 7th and Tuesday August 8th prior to the main ISEA 2006 Symposium: the Global Forum on Economic and Cultural Development, the Pacific Rim New Media Summit and the Interactive City Summit. Information about all of the events and symposiums can be found on the official ISEA 2006 website: http://01sj.org. FREE COPY of Leonardo 39:4 will be distributed to every Early Bird registrant of the ISEA conference (through June 15th). Visit http://01sj.org to register. _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From mail at shivamvij.com Sat May 20 18:11:30 2006 From: mail at shivamvij.com (Shivam Vij) Date: Sat, 20 May 2006 18:11:30 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Please JOIN pro-reservation agitation in Delhi Message-ID: Join them at Jantar Mantar... ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: anoop kumar Date: May 20, 2006 2:45 AM Subject: Starting our Agitation Dear Friends, Jaibheem Students Campaign for claim on Nation has decided to start its campaign on 21st May evening by holding a public meeting in favour of reservation in JNU.From 22nd morning we will start our Dharna in front of Jantar Mantar in New Delhi. Some of us will go on hunger strike. We will start with relay hunger strike with more students joining in. The aim of our hunger strike and dharna is to mobilise more students, youths as well as other professionals to come out in support of Reservation policy and to oppose the castist biases of Media, Academia and black mail of castist medical students and doctors and also to force government to fulfill its constitutional obligation effectively. We are in contact with pro-reservation students from different parts of the country. Many of them have assured their participation in our protest in Delhi. Within a week we are hoping to have students from each universities and professional institutions sitting on hunger strike and dharna in Delhi. Right now our plan is to focus our protest in Delhi only. Given our limited means it will be appropriate for us to focus our agitation at one place. With the time period gradually we can coordinate with students from other part of the country and bring all of us under one Umbrella and make concerted efforts. We call students from various part of the country to flood Delhi in coming days. We are small group of students without any financial means so it is must that those students who can afford traveling and staying in Delhi should come. The only thing we can do is to provide them the space in our rooms for their stay. It is most important that our intellectuals and scholars should join us. We appeal to them to come to Delhi and at least stay with us for one day. This will boost our confidence and help us to mobilise more support from student community. We also appeal our professionals to come to Delhi, if possible, or support us in what ever way they feel they can. TOGETHER ALL OF US CAN REALLY BRING DESIRED CHANGES IN INDIAN SOCIETY The main rationale behind our agitation are 1. Anti-reservationist has provided us a golden opportunity to bring caste discourse in mainstream. As we all are aware of the fact that media, accademia and civil society always maintain conspiratory silence on horrors of caste system and always try to hide caste based discrimination and inequality in the name of merit. In fact they have till now successfully denied us the space to speak, raise our concerns since independence. Now they only, by default, have provided us an opportunity to organise and fight caste based discrimination; 2. This is also an historic opportunity for us to pressurise Indian government to take stock of its measures for empowerment of underprivileged and demand effective implementation of such government policies; 3. To oppose elitist and castist biases in educational system of the country and to bust the myth of 'upper' caste merit 4. And the most important point is to claim our share in National resources that has been monopolised by 15-20% of the Indian Population based on caste system. It is high time that we demand effective land reforms for landless people which constitute mostly SC/ST/OBCs. OUR DEMANDS 1. Government must fulfill its constitutional obligations by implementing reservations for SC/ST/OBCs in all government jobs, private or government educational institutions,army,judiciary and super speciality courses. 2. Government should also make legal provisions for reservation in private sector for underprivileged. 3. Government must bring out a White Paper on reservation policy. It is must so as to know how far it has been implemented. It is fact that not even 50 % of reservation is being fulfilled by ruling brahminical class of the county. They have denied us the maximum benefits of reservation policy till now. 4. Effective land reforms are must for empowerment of SC/ST/OBCs.So we demand government to carry land reforms in every part of the country. 5. We also demand to amend castist & elitist biases in our education system by a. redesigning the syllabuses to generate awareness about caste based discrimination and inequality; b. providing non-brahminical, anti-caste icons prominent space and to remove completely brahminical myths and misconceptions, taught to us, in the name of National History and Culture. c. Ban all coaching classes for IAS, IIMs, Engineering, medical and such other courses d. Restructuring competitive exams to remove biases that favours elite class/caste students e. compulsory couses of history, political science, sociology for students from technical and professional institutes. f. More recruitment of faculties in premier institutions from underprivileged background to correct the caste imbalance and to break the monopoly of brahmanical people over such institutions and to provide opportunity for blossoming of real merit, efficiency and excellence. g. Higher education must be provided in regional languages or all primary schools must be in English medium h. Government must spend 10% of GDP on Education focusing on quality primary education for underprivileged 6. We demand punishment for anti-reservation protesters for hurting sentiments and showing their castist nature by sweeping roads, cleaning shoes and raising castist slogans. 7. We condemn castist Indian media for instigating the protest against reservations and providing space to biased. one-sided, castist coverage. We also demand for punishment of journalists, cartoonist, editors for making fun of SC/ST/OBCs and casting aspersion on the merit of SC/ST/OBCs without any concrete proof or datas and thus showing its true castist nature. JAI BHEEM signed/- STUDENTS' CAMPAIGN FOR CLAIM ON NATION Contact Anoop- 0-9313432410 Vikash-011-20026832 visit our blog www.claimonnation.blogspot.com for our latest update on our agitation From penguinhead at linux-delhi.org Sat May 20 18:23:25 2006 From: penguinhead at linux-delhi.org (Pankaj kaushal) Date: Sat, 20 May 2006 18:23:25 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Please JOIN pro-reservation agitation in Delhi In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <446F1145.3040702@linux-delhi.org> Shivam Vij wrote: > Join them at Jantar Mantar... Are you for real? Hello? > Reservation policy and to oppose the castist biases of Media, Academia > and black mail of castist medical students and doctors and also to What's a 'castist'? > Within a week we are hoping to have students from Having students? Dinner or Lunch? P. -- Wir wollen dass ihr uns alles glaubt. From geert at desk.nl Sat May 20 21:34:50 2006 From: geert at desk.nl (geert lovink) Date: Sat, 20 May 2006 18:04:50 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] Microsoft's view on India Message-ID: <70a8bd70d588a67b27d204cb3cbb530a@desk.nl> http://www.alwayson-network.com/comments.php?id=15024_0_38_0_C Is India at the Tipping Point? The move India must make—from renting IQ to creating its own IP, and servicing clients overseas to leveraging technology to improve its own large-scale societal problems. Dan'l Lewin [Microsoft] | POSTED: 05.17.06 @03:39 Mention India and most people think of outsourcing or offshoring. But it is much more than that today. In sector after sector, from business processes and models to technology, Indian entrepreneurs and companies are delivering breakthroughs in cost-performance. And it's not just about labor cost arbitrage anymore; it is about disruptive innovation in technology and business models. Examples include the ability to develop drugs and vaccines at one-tenth the cost; the world's lowest rates for mobile phone calls; and offshore product development companies, or OPDs, creating not just features but whole products for their clients at about one-third the cost. Ravi Venkatesan, chairman of Microsoft India, said with his characteristic clarity: "There is no doubt that the Indian IT industry has put India on the world map. It has created wealth and jobs on a scale we couldn't even imagine a decade ago. It has given us the self-confidence to dream of India as a developed nation and to see ourselves as a knowledge society—and our population as an asset, not a liability." Ravi made this comment at the Microsoft Innovation Summit I just returned from in Bangalore, India's silicon hub. He went on to talk about how the country needs to make the transition to Indian IT 2.0, with IT 1.0 reaching its limit. India must move from renting IQ to creating its own intellectual property, and move from serving clients overseas to thinking about how it will leverage technology to improve its own large-scale societal problems. India must go beyond labor arbitrage to creating a real, sustainable innovation-based economy. It must move from innovation from India to innovating for India. Will India become the third-largest economy in the world (behind the United States and China), as the now famous Goldman Sachs report predicts? Will it happen within 25 years, according to Keystone India? I personally believe that entrepreneurs and investors have some extraordinary opportunities in India today, because the key elements for an innovation ecosystem are gradually falling into place. India is at a tipping point, but make no mistake, challenges remain. India—Almost Always On, or Off? As any India traveler knows, to get to the technology parks you share pockmarked roads with sacred cows, horse-drawn carts, and motorized rickshaws, along with vans and modern cars that congest roadways. Power outages are taken for granted during meetings. The real infrastructure woes in India, however, are about airports, educational systems, Internet penetration, job creation, and GDP dependence on services. India says it is addressing the problem, but the numbers tell a different story. India spends just $35 billion a year on infrastructure (with its population of more than 1 billion, about 230 million less than China); whereas China spends $260 billion annually. It's also alarming that IT investment in India is only 3.5% of total capital investment. The flip side of that underinvestment points to a huge opportunity for Indian entrepreneurs—and there are many positive signs underway. In fact, when I visited India in late April, I was surprised how much progress had been made since I was there 18 months ago. For one thing, India now has a large and growing middle class, nearly 300 million strong, surpassing the size of the entire U.S. population. It also boasts a huge installed base of mobile phones and 30 percent CAGR in everything from PCs, cars, and credit cards to appliances. India certainly does not want for growth: GDP increased 8.2% last year with 7% is expected this year. India Bound—Going Where the Talent Is There are also huge numbers of Fortune 500 and Global 1000 companies setting up development centers in India—both small companies and mega ones such as Microsoft, Intel, and IBM. Large retailers like Wal-Mart are desperately trying to get a foothold in the market. Despite reservations about power and manpower in India, several large German companies are investing in the country, specifically BMW (600 million euro) Bosch (500 million euro), and Siemens (600 million euro) over the next few years. What's the draw? A huge pool of talent, and talent to be. More than half of the population is under the age of 25, making India the youngest labor force in the world. And of that middle class I mentioned, many are highly educated. India and China, the new global tech powerhouses, are fueled by 900,000 engineering graduates of all types each year, more than triple the number of U.S. grads. Despite these advances, there are still 750 million largely rural poor. We know that huge numbers of Indians will not participate in India's growth without access to information. Last year, through Project Shiksa, we made a commitment to provide every Indian with access to a connected computer by 2010 through a rural kiosk model that we are now piloting. Our goal is to set up PC kiosks in at least 200,000 villages. To reach people their native language, we started, Project Bhasha—making Windows and Office interfaces available in 14 local Indian languages. We're learning about how to approach this emerging market, but believe that ideas will be monetized only when an economically viable ecosystem is in place. And that requires capital. Lack of Capital? Why Seeding the Market is So Important Similar to most other regions of the world, investment capital fuels growth. After meeting with VCs there, I see India becoming a strong destination for them, especially those with investments in the Internet, consumer, and mobile/telephony areas. Norwest's Promod Haque thinks that once penetration of broadband and wireless increases, the Indian market will mimic China. I met with Westbridge Capital Partners, India's largest venture capital fund with approximately $350 million under management, which has now joined forces with Sequoia Capital to become Sequoia Capital India. Other VCs doing some interesting deals include Draper Fisher Jurvetson, KPCB, Battery Ventures, and Artiman Ventures. In addition, InvestusCap and Seedfund are about to invest their funds in early-stage companies, a boon for Indian startups. And Norwest Venture Partners just raised a $650-milllion fund, with the primary focus on investment-worthy companies in India. Clearly, Indian startups are maturing—most focusing on serving the local Indian market, not cross-border relationships. While the largest scale they have reached is about $20 million, it's an encouraging sign. It's also interesting to note that many Indians from the Valley are returning to India to set up their startup companies as well as to leverage the engineering/labor-cost advantages. While many startups we talked with have big ideas, they will need coaching to pitch ideas for funding and must be willing to accept possible failure, a normal part of the entrepreneurial culture. Deal-flow quality is improving, but more has to be done before any substantial investments will be made early in startups. Some VCs still won't go to India simply because the exit strategies are unclear and infrastructure unpredictable. For those VCs who do want to leverage the India advantage, OPDs play a crucial role. Why Is Off-Shore Product Development So Disruptive? What's capturing the market's attention about OPDs in India? First, software is built to quality standard CMMI three or better—making it much higher than U.S. companies have built to in the past. Second, production costs are from 30 to 50% lower than the U.S. equivalent. And third, time-to-market for new software is 40 to 50% faster than it was just five years ago. Until now, India has been considered a cost-arbitrage nation where only low-end services were performed. OPDs are changing this notion in a big way by building "whole software products" out of India. This means that India's talent is targeting things higher up the value chain and developing IP-centric skills. This in turn lays the foundation for future product and service creation. I believe that OPDs are the breeding ground of future software entrepreneurs and will impact the local software ecosystem. They are working closely with global VCs who want to leverage the India advantage for their startups. There are many instances where once a startup in the U.S. gets funded, the development work for the products is quickly outsourced to an OPD. Interesting OPDs include Symphony Systems, NESS India, Persistent, and Aditi Technologies. Ness, for example, has established 30 labs where R&D and product development are being done for many of the world's top software companies such as Business Objects and Chordiant. Aditi helped a startup build a successful online retail music product and a Fortune 100 company create home and entertainment software. Persistent Systems, a world class OPD company based in Pune—growing some 60% a year—received a $13.8 million investment last year from Norwest. Microsoft's Involvement in the Ecosystems—from Bangalore to New Delhi to Mumbai We believe that innovation and intellectual property are the areas that will unleash the next wave of growth for India, and Microsoft is committed to fostering an ecosystem that will help fuel this growth. From our Microsoft India headquarters in New Delhi, to our development center in Hyderabad, to the most recent Microsoft Executive Summit with more than 253 CIOs from Indian enterprises in attendance in Mumbai, a lot is happening. At our "India Is Innovation" Summit in Bangalore—a continuation of the strategy set in place with the launch of the Microsoft Innovation Centers during Bill Gates's visit in December 2005, we met with more than 150 Indian companies, as well as venture capitalists, incubators, academia, and analysts. We talked with entrepreneurs about how they could be a part of the global product opportunity, and talked with venture capitalists and academic incubators about their role in catalyzing the local software economy. The summit also included a Microsoft startup showcase, where companies pitched their ideas to a panel of VCs. Startups that showcased interesting technologies include SQA Technologies, Pacsoft, Infozech, TutorVista, Pine Labs, e-Caliber, and CoOptions. TutorVista (a Sequoia investment), for example, leverages Internet technology and global resources to make personalized education affordable to students globally. It was started by Indians (serial entrepreneurs) from Silicon Valley. We also launched an innovation book with 27 case studies of successful products developed by Indian startups over the last few years. Some of featured products include InSite 2005 from Aurigo Software, Wasp3D from Beehive Systems (for the global broadcast industry), Whizible EPM from Compulink, Skelta Workflow Accelerator from Skelta Software and OAT Systems, a complete RFID framework solution. What all of this points to is this: India is transforming itself in a fundamental way with all the elements of the innovation ecosystem coming together. Disruptive innovation is taking hold in India. It's no longer a question of if, just when and how fast. At Microsoft, we passionately believe in India's potential and are investing in the right direction to make this a reality. For more, go to http://www.MicrosoftStartupZone.com From samit.basu at gmail.com Sun May 21 16:34:23 2006 From: samit.basu at gmail.com (samit basu) Date: Sun, 21 May 2006 16:34:23 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] IWE, genre and the New Weird Message-ID: <2fa79cb60605210404w546e0a02hb3fc8e18cde8c8a0@mail.gmail.com> IWE, genre and the New Weird "Civilisational or religious partitioning of the world population yields a 'solitarist' approach to human identity, which sees human beings as members of exactly one group…This can be a good way of misunderstanding nearly everyone in the world. In our normal lives, we see ourselves as members of a variety of groups – we belong to all of them… Each of these collectivities, to all of which this person simultaneously belongs, gives her a particular identity. None of them can be taken to be the person's only identity or singular membership category." – Amartya Sen, from the prologue to Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny Remember, books are people too. It's fairly clear that questions related to literary taxonomy are primarily questions for booksellers and critics, not readers or writers. On the other hand, these are questions writers at least might consider being aware of, because they play a very real role in determining their means of earning a livelihood – which, while obviously not the objective of writing in itself, is something a lot of writers would enjoy being able to do. While struggling to get my own work published, I've learnt that writing, while remaining the only meaningful experience in the entire publishing process, is merely a stage of the entire quest, and in that light, it's been rewarding discussing some rather non-writerly questions with other writers as well as publishers and critics. Some of this project springs from personal frustration; the division of books into categories that aren't immediately obvious (non-fiction, for example, is completely inoffensive) has always disappointed me as a reader, and as a writer, simply because nearly all my favourite books, like my favourite people, are multi-dimensional; they defy definition, they grumble greatly when categorized. My own work is found in shelves marked, depending on the speculations of bookstore managers, Indian writing, SF/fantasy, children's literature and once, memorably, cookery. Literary borders are as difficult to draw as political ones, though their creation fortunately involves less bloodshed. That said, the social sciences of the literary world are both fascinating and relevant, and their flaws, such as artificial segmentation and aggregation, are the same as those of any process that seeks to study heterogeneous objects as a mass. This set of essays, however, is fundamentally flawed on many levels - it is about a nascent, hard-to-define sub-section of literature, the as-yet-mostly-nonexistent sub-genre of Indian speculative fiction in English, which is itself a bastard child of two parents who, not being dead, are difficult to analyze as they are not only infinitely complex at any point, but, to complicate things further, change all the time as well. However, since we're dealing mostly with science fiction and fantasy here, I'll hope I can be forgiven for looking into the future, and for making what might turn out to be wild, fantastical claims. What is Indian/South Asian literature in English? Even if we get past the tricky question of origin, which has obsessed scholars since the term came into being, and include the non-resident and the genetically partially South Asian, in recent years the growing diversity in South Asian English literature should lead to more questions – having overcome the 'South Asian' part of the question by being all-inclusive, how do we now define 'literature'? Do we include comics and graphic novels, speculative fiction, thrillers, chick-lit, campus novels and crime fiction, all of which have reared their heads in India over the last decade? This should prove a lot more difficult for the sagacious and scholarly to do, given that literary snobbery is far more acceptable than racism – and that Indian-origin writers abroad might have very thin connections with India, but large advances and literary awards add a great deal of density to the study of the field – build its brand, in other words, however gut-shrinking that might sound, while diversity in the form of new, not necessarily mainstream writing increases the number of spices in the curry, but, in the eyes of many not-so-neutral observers, does not necessarily add to its taste. The term 'speculative fiction' is another puzzler. It's a beast that's known by many names – weird fiction, SFF, literature of the imagination – literature that in some way transcends the real, though it's nearly always a mirror image of the real, with certain upgrades. Speculative fiction, spec-fic to friends, is essentially an umbrella, a bar where a number of disgruntled genres come to hang out, its leading patrons being fantasy, science fiction, horror and alternative history. It's claimed by the bartenders that magic realism is also a customer, though one suspects magic realism, a frequent invitee at literary wine-and-cheese soirees, would deny this if asked. The term is often attributed to Robert A Heinlein, who used it as a synonym for science fiction in an essay in 1948. Whatever the genre includes, the reason for the term's existence is simply that books within the genre are difficult to classify, and terms like spec-fic sound vaguely impressive, are easier to explain than more bizarre concoctions like magic realism, and also convey that these books aren't Literature, silence disgruntled writers complaining that their work isn't 'just' SF or fantasy, and bring together a great many fascinating writers who write about mind-bogglingly diverse things in mind-bogglingly divergent styles, and allow everyone concerned to ignore these facts: all (good) fiction is inherently speculative, all fiction involves imagination, and escapism in literature depends on content, not classification or theme. In contemporary speculative fiction, one of the most frequently discussed sub-genres is one that is in the process of being created – the New Weird, a genre starring speculative fiction writers like Neil Gaiman, M. John Harrison and China Mieville, who all work under the speculative umbrella, but blend their tales with other literary genres as well. This is something science fiction has in common with science – the most exciting work takes place in the overlaps between fields, when boundaries are diffused and maps are redrawn. "Something is happening in the literature of the fantastic. A slippage. A freeing-up. The quality is astounding. Notions are sputtering and bleeding across internal and external boundaries. Particularly in Britain, where we are being reviewed in the papers, of all things, and selling copies, and being read and riffed off by yer actual proper literary writers. We are writing books which cheerfully ignore the boundaries between SF, fantasy and horror. Justina Robson, M John Harrison, Steve Cockayne, Al Reynolds, Steph Swainston and too many others to mention, despite all our differences, share something. And our furniture has invaded their headspace. From outside the field, writers like Toby Litt and David Mitchell use the trappings of SF with a respect and facility that has long been missing in the clodhopping condescension of the literati." -China Mieville, author of Perdido Street Station, The Scar, etc., in a guest editorial in The Third Alternative 35 Of course, spec-fic and mainstream literature have often had cross-border talks – think of the magic realism of Murakami, or Rushdie, or Marquez, or the not-SF SF of Margaret Atwood. Some of the most iconic writers of contemporary speculative fiction blend genres frequently and with ease – consider the exuberant book-peopled universe that is Terry Pratchett's Discworld, or Stephen King's Dark Tower series – in the last few years, Susannah Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell was a successful marriage between speculative fiction and the 19th-century English novel. And then, of course, there's the most successful writer in the world, J.K. Rowling, whose blend of spec-fic and school stories have changed the world. Philip Roth does alternative history; Bret Easton Ellis does horror. In a sense, the term New Weird examines a phenomenon that's not new at all, in a literary world of which the most outstandingly weird aspect is its compulsive need to segregate stories into categories in the first place. Given that the term isn't very old, most New Weird writers probably aren't even aware that they could be so described, because, fortunately, no one wakes up in the morning and says, 'Today I will start a New Weird novel.' Jeff Vandermeer, one of the New Weird's leading lights, describes it as " an affliction visited upon many of us involuntarily. Labels like that one are at this point simply a marketing tool." "I always tell wannabe writers not to read too much in the field where they work. Obviously you need to keep in touch, but a deep knowledge of the Old West or world history stands you in better stead than a shelf of other people's fantasy books. Import, don't recycle. That's actually wisdom, that is." – Terry Pratchett, author of the Discworld books, in an interview at www.scifi.com This is something Indian/South Asian writers of spec-fic would do well to absorb. While it is, of course, necessary to keep in touch with contemporary spec-fic (for practical reasons, to make sure you're not reinventing the wheel, as well as for sheer reading pleasure) there's no particular reason to feel disheartened by the fact that the first glimmering of a body of work that could be called Indian spec-fic in English began to be available in India about seven decades after pulp SF magazines became wildly popular in the US, not to mention about a century after Bengali SF became popular and a few millenia after the Indian epics spoke of flying chariots, amazing weaponry and other worlds – there's still a lot that Indian spec-fic could give the genre, though there is also a lot of catching up to do. The sheer richness of India as a spec-fic source material resource – not just in terms of myth and folklore and history, but in contemporary politics, the arts, entertainment and social trends, and in the completely absorbing story of India as a growing, rapidly evolving nation – calls out for imaginative speculative treatment. And typically, this resource has already been mined by Western writers in search of something exotic to offer saturated Western SF markets. This is not to suggest even for a moment, of course, that Indian writers should see themselves in anyway constrained to write only About India, since that might be damaging for their own writing, and might only reinforce stereotypes already present in the publishing world - the last thing Indian writers like being reduced to is writers whose only possible role could be Explaining India. At the same time, there's obviously nothing wrong with Indians writing about India and things Indian if that's the space in which the writing is naturally, organically set, and there are several Indian stories that survive, indeed, thrive on, constant retelling. And there are still a number of brilliant spec-fic novels just waiting to be written that are, in various senses, Indian, and if Indian writers don't write them, others will. The process has already begun. Even if we set aside the existence of India's wealth in natural resources as far as spec-fic is concerned, the sparsity of finished Indian spec-fic is all the more remarkable given the abundance and immense popularity of Indian writing in English. Of course, the absence of Indian spec-fic books on bookshelves worldwide does not mean these books aren't being written – it just means they aren't being distributed even if they are being published. Spec-fic and literary publishing are mostly segregated (another reason for genre/mainstream borders) and the remarkable success of Indians in one field is in no sense a source of increased attention for Indian writers in the other. Besides, the literati aren't the only with silly prejudices in the publishing world; the SFF publishing space has its own problems, the most blinding one being that readers of spec-fic, especially in the US, are presumed to be looking for the familiar unfamiliar – identikit aliens, even more Tolkienspawn, more simplistic George Lucas clones – that spec-fic, far from being literature that explores new territory, boldly going where no books have gone before, is as much literary comfort food as, say, most mass-produced contemporary chick-lit. As publishers search for the familiar, much of what is new and exciting but unfamiliar fails to break through the crystal ceiling. Familiar plots, familiar characters, familiar tropes gain strength through repeated cloning, making sure that the spec-fic market remains white-male dominated, both in terms of protagonists and writers. This is clearly something Indian writers will have to struggle against, but they will certainly not be the first to join battle – pioneers like Samuel R. Delany and Octavia Butler have already made huge steps to make the spec-fic world aware of these prejudices, and they haven't been the only ones. Thanks to a variety of factors, such as a real tiredness among readers of repetitive plots and the phenomenonal information/culture bomb that is the Internet, even American publishers are slowly opening their minds and their coffers to spec-fic material from across the world – consider the success of manga, the fastest growing phenomenon in world publishing today. Spec-fic is certainly less inward-looking than it used to be, and the New Weird, however questionable its definition, is a very real symptom of this. And it's a better time now, than ever before, to be an Indian spec-fic writer. The initial forays into Western markets have been made; Indian spec-fic writing is increasing, albeit slowly, over various media as the global popularity and increasing mainstream acceptability of spec-fic trickle across to India; perhaps most importantly, the Indian readership of spec-fic is growing and diversifying, as more cutting-edge spec-fic, again, in various media, begins to be available in ever-expanding bookstore chains. If good spec-fic is written now, there's more chance of it reaching Indian readers, and readers worldwide, than ever before. To achieve that, here's one possible future; Indian writers bring their home-grown skills into the world of spec-fic, blurring and reinventing genres, adding themes, experiences and visions as yet unseen in the spec-fic world. In other words, they colonize the New Weird, making it truly new. And truly weird. ________________________________________________________________________ Rana Dasgupta, author of Tokyo Cancelled, on putting books into boxes: Q: In publishing terms, you're seen as a 'literary' writer. But in your first novel, you've used themes that relate fairly extensively to the domain of speculative fiction - the memory database, the woman who turns into a store, the relationship with a doll, and so forth. but since your writing style puts you under 'literature', these influences would then fall in the realm of 'magic realism', another imposed classification to distinguish speculative-in-literary from straightforward genre fiction, putting you into yet another artificial pocket with writers like Margaret Atwood, Toby Litt and David Mitchell. What are your thoughts on literary/publishing classifications like 'mainstream' and 'genre'? If, under threat of torture, you had to classify your own work, where would you place it on the speculative/literary spectrum? A: Frankly I find the game of categorization very boring, whether it is by nation or "genre". It may have some function for people in marketing, but it's of no interest to me in my own writing. I write something only because it seems to have a particular force to me, not because it will satisfy the requirements of a particular genre, or appeal to a certain kind of person. In my personal view, books categorized as "science fiction" often meet the standards of "literature" better than books categorized as "literature" do. This is because i have a particular idea of literature. for me, literature is philosophy: its purpose is not to describe what we already know to be the case, but to create an experiment with the imagination. Science fiction has always done this, of course. Moreover, "reality" now seems to be an entirely science fiction-style project, and to eschew science fiction totally is often to retreat into some kind of improbable, and uninteresting, refuge. I don't think serious writers have any business internalizing the slogans and generalizations of industry. To me it is entirely destructive to their work. It can only result in the censorship of the imagination - because something does not fit easily within a genre, or will be too complex for the imagined audience, etc. It is precisely in the moments when one is surprised by one's own writing, or fearful of its implications, that one reaches into spaces that are interesting and enduring. ____________________________________________________________________________ …soon to be cross-posted, with hyperlinks, on http://samitbasu.blogspot.com From samit.basu at gmail.com Sun May 21 20:05:38 2006 From: samit.basu at gmail.com (samit basu) Date: Sun, 21 May 2006 20:05:38 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] IWE, genre and the New Weird - ii Message-ID: <2fa79cb60605210735l7eec4935h2f2162efee9d5314@mail.gmail.com> Rana Dasgupta, author of Tokyo Cancelled, on putting books into boxes: Q: In publishing terms, you're seen as a 'literary' writer. But in your first novel, you've used themes that relate fairly extensively to the domain of speculative fiction - the memory database, the woman who turns into a store, the relationship with a doll, and so forth. but since your writing style puts you under 'literature', these influences would then fall in the realm of 'magic realism', another imposed classification to distinguish speculative-in-literary from straightforward genre fiction, putting you into yet another artificial pocket with writers like Margaret Atwood, Toby Litt and David Mitchell. What are your thoughts on literary/publishing classifications like 'mainstream' and 'genre'? If, under threat of torture, you had to classify your own work, where would you place it on the speculative/literary spectrum? A: Frankly I find the game of categorization very boring, whether it is by nation or "genre". It may have some function for people in marketing, but it's of no interest to me in my own writing. I write something only because it seems to have a particular force to me, not because it will satisfy the requirements of a particular genre, or appeal to a certain kind of person. In my personal view, books categorized as "science fiction" often meet the standards of "literature" better than books categorized as "literature" do. This is because i have a particular idea of literature. for me, literature is philosophy: its purpose is not to describe what we already know to be the case, but to create an experiment with the imagination. Science fiction has always done this, of course. Moreover, "reality" now seems to be an entirely science fiction-style project, and to eschew science fiction totally is often to retreat into some kind of improbable, and uninteresting, refuge. I don't think serious writers have any business internalizing the slogans and generalizations of industry. To me it is entirely destructive to their work. It can only result in the censorship of the imagination - because something does not fit easily within a genre, or will be too complex for the imagined audience, etc. It is precisely in the moments when one is surprised by one's own writing, or fearful of its implications, that one reaches into spaces that are interesting and enduring. ____________________________________________________________________________ …soon to be cross-posted, with hyperlinks, on http://samitbasu.blogspot.com From lawrence at altlawforum.org Sun May 21 22:52:23 2006 From: lawrence at altlawforum.org (lawrence at altlawforum.org) Date: Sun, 21 May 2006 13:22:23 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] Kalyanji-Anandji get US award, Prashant Pandey Message-ID: <380-220065021172223906@M2W010.mail2web.com> Hi Prahsant Thanks for the interesting information, i would be interested in figuring out the specefic reasons for holding this to be infringement of any sort. Whatevere happened to sampling ot the idea of ispirations, since in the case of the BEP's they even credited their source. If we start this rather ridiculous practice of suing for royalty for everytime someone sampled, then it is the end of sampling as we know it. And of course if Kalyanji Anandji are indeed so perturbed by the practise, it might make sense for them to check their own records on the matter. As always www.itwofs.com, a great source of information Lawrence >From www.itwofs.com Kalyanji Anandji [Hindi] 1 Ye sama [Film: Jab Jab Phool Khile] >From the Italian song 'Besame Mucho'. The version added here is by Louis Miguel! Listen to Yeh sama | Besame mucho Kalyanji Anandji supposedly have told this to some journo, themselves. The hindi version has been very tastefully done. A masterpiece by Kalyanji Anandji! 2 Baje payal chun chun [Film: Chhalia (1960)] >From the song 'Desert Hero' (Qalbi Nazil Daqq), from the collection 'Music for an Arabian Night' (1959) by Ron Goodwin. Listen to Baaje paayal chun chun (Chalia) - Desert Hero (Qalbi Nazil Daqq) The composer of the original (Qalbi Nazil Daqq) was Philemon Wehbe. 3 Ae dil ab kahin na jaa [Film: Bluff Master (1963)] >From Sidney Bechet's 'Petite Fleur' (1952). Listen to Aye dil ab kahin na jaa | Petite Fleur Inspired. I'm including a version of petite fleur by acclaimed Saxophonist Fausto Papetti that sounded really beautiful. Trivia: Sidney Bechet was the first person to play jazz on a soprano saxophone and his 'Petite Fleur', released in 1952 became a world-wide hit. -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ . From gabyvargasc at prodigy.net.mx Sun May 21 23:10:18 2006 From: gabyvargasc at prodigy.net.mx (Gabriela Vargas-Cetina) Date: Sun, 21 May 2006 12:40:18 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Kalyanji-Anandji get US award, Prashant Pandey In-Reply-To: <380-220065021172223906@M2W010.mail2web.com> Message-ID: One observation: the song Besame Mucho is not Italian, but Mexican. It is an old bolero composed by poet and song writer Consuelo Velázquez in 1940, that was later translated and sung in English by many artists and groups, including the Beatles. Luis Miguel sings it in Spanish in one of his Bolero albums, where he takes old boleros and adapts them into ballads. Gabriela Vargas-Cetina On 5/21/06 12:22 PM, "lawrence at altlawforum.org" wrote: > Hi Prahsant > > Thanks for the interesting information, i would be interested in figuring > out the specefic reasons for holding this to be infringement of any sort. > Whatevere happened to sampling ot the idea of ispirations, since in the > case of the BEP's they even credited their source. If we start this rather > ridiculous practice of suing for royalty for everytime someone sampled, > then it is the end of sampling as we know it. And of course if Kalyanji > Anandji are indeed so perturbed by the practise, it might make sense for > them to check their own records on the matter. As always www.itwofs.com, a > great source of information > > > Lawrence > >> From www.itwofs.com > > Kalyanji Anandji [Hindi] > > 1 > Ye sama [Film: Jab Jab Phool Khile] >> From the Italian song 'Besame Mucho'. The version added here is by Louis > Miguel! > Listen to Yeh sama | Besame mucho > Kalyanji Anandji supposedly have told this to some journo, themselves. The > hindi version has been very tastefully done. A masterpiece by Kalyanji > Anandji! > 2 > Baje payal chun chun [Film: Chhalia (1960)] >> From the song 'Desert Hero' (Qalbi Nazil Daqq), from the collection 'Music > for an Arabian Night' (1959) by Ron Goodwin. > Listen to Baaje paayal chun chun (Chalia) - Desert Hero (Qalbi Nazil Daqq) > The composer of the original (Qalbi Nazil Daqq) was Philemon Wehbe. > 3 > Ae dil ab kahin na jaa [Film: Bluff Master (1963)] >> From Sidney Bechet's 'Petite Fleur' (1952). > Listen to Aye dil ab kahin na jaa | Petite Fleur > Inspired. I'm including a version of petite fleur by acclaimed Saxophonist > Fausto Papetti that sounded really beautiful. Trivia: Sidney Bechet was the > first person to play jazz on a soprano saxophone and his 'Petite Fleur', > released in 1952 became a world-wide hit. > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------- > mail2web - Check your email from the web at > http://mail2web.com/ . > > > _________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in > the subject header. > List archive: From vasundhara.prakash at gmail.com Mon May 22 00:06:14 2006 From: vasundhara.prakash at gmail.com (Vasundhara Prakash) Date: Mon, 22 May 2006 00:06:14 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Can I borrow your term 'Reflected Appraisal'? Message-ID: <489e03b80605211136v245e13bbxd8568998812556f7@mail.gmail.com> Reflected Appraisal is the perception of how others perceive us and evaluate us. This theory suggests that we see ourselves as others see us, or as we think they do. It is perceived reactions. The operative word here is "perceived" because research has demonstrated that a person's interpretation of others' opinion is conditioned by self analysis and may not necessarily be accurate. The research also suggests that the extent, to which this perception of external appraisal shapes our judgment of ourselves, depends on the importance to us of the people providing it. Particularly influential are the reactions of "significant others," people whose opinions make a difference to us. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- January 23rd, St. Carmel School, Bandra, Mumbai. This was the first time I was going to meet junior artistes shooting for the film, 'Marathon'. The first person I met was Kitty, an English-speaking, well-dressed, Catholic girl in her early 20s. After having struggled to explain what a fellowship meant, in the course of proving that I wasn't a journalist, Kitty told me how they all hated journalists. "Many of the people have families in villages, but we live with our families here who read the kind of stories that journalists write about us, that spoils our reputations." They fear being misrepresented. XYZ told me about an article that had been written about dance bar girls which featured photographs of junior artistes. They felt cheated, betrayed and completely misrepresented. >From day one when a person comes to either the Junior Artistes' Association/Mahila Kalakar Sangh office s/he is judged on the basis of looks and age ie; their exterior selves and classified into grades. The Junior Artistes Association (men's wing) has the following grades: Grade A: This class comprising of both young and old are required usually for hotel scenes, airport scenes. Grade B: men are used for playing villagers, constables etc. The Mahila Kalakar Sangh (women's wing) has the following grades: Super Class: Class members are required for parties, wedding scenes, airports etc, Grade A: members for a regular crowd in hospitals, market places etc, Grade B: members are those who can pass off as villagers, beggars etc. Members are to be classified at least every five years if not annually. All the members are called in the office one by one and two producers, two Federation officer-bearers; two cine agents/suppliers classify them into different grades. When one does become a member a lot depends on your relationship/rapport with the Junior Artiste supplier/Cine Agent. If you're in his (almost always) good books, you are bound to get more work. Therefore a supplier's opinion about you gets you all the work. So in a junior artistes' life others' opinions, judgments, classification, appearance, grading, reputation are crucial. While a group of psychology students engage in finding answers to "Where do judgments come from? Are they based on human instincts or are they influenced by outside variables? If they are influenced, what is most likely to have an impact on judgments and what had the strongest impact? What are the patterns of judgment of others based on their own gender and other personal traits? Do people think they have the right to judge others more in one field if they believe themselves to be superior in that field?" I will share with you what the "significant others" really think about junior artistes. The following is based on meetings, interviews, chats, arguments and counter arguments with various people from the Hindi film industry on their experiences, treatments, grouses, perceptions and opinions of Junior Artistes. "The irony of being recognized" Anurag Kashyap is one of those directors who casts junior artistes in major roles. Junior artiste and Assistant Supplier, Deva was cast as a police official in Black Friday. Anurag refuses to work with the top classes of the Association members because eventually it is the same people who are sent for work. And a recognizable junior artiste makes a film look unreal and unauthentic. There are many who get stuck in this sort of a phase when they are relatively recognized but precisely because of their recognition nobody wants to give them work. Anurag feels a huge difference in the way junior artistes are treated in India and in the treatment abroad. "Gai bhains ki tarah haankte hain" He adds that it is more difficult for women because they are assumed to be prostitutes. One often hears of such incidents concerning female junior artistes and production people, even big time stars at times. He adds that a lot of female junior artistes even get opt for C-grade films. Anurag narrating his own experience of working as an extra in ad films and a feature called Chirantan for pocket money says that there are many people who eventually become members of the Association because it is difficult to go back to your homes with the humiliation of not being able to make it. Anurag Kashyap Writer: Love Story 2050 (2006) (announced) (dialogue), Fool and Final (2006) (pre-production) (dialogue), Guru (2006) (filming) (dialogue), Water (2005) (Hindi dialogue and script consultant), Main Aisa Hi Hoon (2005) (dialogue), Yuva (2004) (dialogue), Black Friday (2004) (screenplay), Paisa Vasool (2004), Paanch(2003), Nayak: The Real Hero(2001) (dialogue), Jung (2000), Shool (1999) (dialogue), Kaun (1999), Satya (1998), Kabhie Kabhie (1997) (TV series) Director: Gulal (under-production) Black Friday (2004), Paanch (2003) Actor: The Maharaja's Daughter (1994) (mini TV series) as Lt. Sayed, Chirantan() "Lower Depths" Debu calls the junior artistes the underbelly of the Hindi film industry, drawing a parallel to Maxim Gorky's Lower Depths. Because of their backgrounds, many being slum-dwellers, junior artistes are looked down upon. He says that it's not about the profession that much as is it about the class they come from- exploitation of this class is rampant, anywhere and everywhere. One hears of female junior artistes being taken advantage of, especially on outdoor shoots, some women are specially brought for this. When I ask him if it is forced, he says money is an indirect force. Other people on the sets have notions about junior artistes that they dirty the toilets, make a mess of everything. Debu believes that an orientation of junior artistes as well as about them is extremely necessary for promoting professionalism in the industry. Bombay film industry is all about the money, there is no dignity of either art or the artistes. "Jo sabse zyada paisa leta hai, woh Boss hai, Junior Artiste sabse kam paisa leta hai, to woh naukar hai". There are many directors who don't even bother to find out the actor's name. And Debu should know since he has himself risen from the ranks. "Yahan Art nahi hai, yahan pet hai" Debuyandu Bhattacharya NSD Graduate, Actor: The Rising (2005) as Krupashankar Singh, Black Friday(2004) as Yeda Yakub, Ab Tak Chhappan(2004) as Zameer's Gang member, Aetbaar(2004), Maqbool(2003) as Chinna's killer, Monsoon Wedding(2001), Divya Drishti(2001) as Hawaldaar "I felt humilated…." Richa was auditioned and signed for the original Munnabhai MBBS, when Shah Rukh Khan was supposed to play the main lead and the setting was supposed to be of a chawl (dhobi ghaat later). Ultimately her role was reduced to that of a Junior Artiste. She started being treated like one on the sets. She confessed to have felt extremely humiliated. Soon she walked out of the film. Richa also told me that to know more about their lives it would be interesting to talk her TV actor friend's driver, because the junior artiste interact mostly with drivers. In the Indo-french film Hawa Aane De, Richa plays a bar dancer. She wonders why on one hand she was very proud to get the opportunity to portray a different kind of role, the junior artiste in the background would hide their faces. Richa Bhattacharya NSD Graduate, Actor: TV serials,The Rising(2005), Hava Aane De(2004), Dhoop(2003) "Gender Stereotypes and expectations" There is a stereotype about the women junior artistes. They are expected to "compromise". Since everything eventually comes down your rapport with the hand that feeds you, in the case of a supplier, he always tries to please the production by offering women to the assistant directors and production managers. Apu recalls instances on the sets when women were thrown at him, so that the supplier could get a better cut or the Mahila Kalakar herself would be able to stand in the centre, near the main leads. Apartiem Khare Associate Director, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam(1999), Devdas(2001/2), Black(2005) "The problem is with us" Devang says that we can't blame the junior artistes who are anyway extremely underpaid and ill-treated, for not being involved and responsible on the sets. Instead he takes the blame saying that there is a need for better planning and organization at the higher level. He suggests that the supplier should be involved in the pre-production stage and then it should be the responsibility of the supplier to make sure that the environment/ambience is created appropriately by the junior artistes as per the requirement. He proposes an orientation of the junior artistes about their work. Devang Desai Assistant Director: Bhoot(2003), White Noise(2005), Kaal(2005), Salaam-e-Ishq(under production) "Many experienced veterans" Talking from experience Rakesh thinks that if one treats junior artistes as humans, they are fine. Unfortunately they are not usually treated as human beings. On the sets mostly their identity is from the colour of their clothes, "Oye! Red shirt!", "Green pant, tum idhar se idhar passing dega!" Rakesh also narrates incidents when some of the veteran junior artistes have displayed a far more informed technical knowledge of camera angles, lenses and frames than the technicians themselves. Rakesh Sain, Assitant Director, "Tragic Comedy" Most junior artistes come to the industry to become stars but unfortunately nobody tells them that they can't, ultimately it's a gradual acceptance. According to Vikramaditya junior artistes are an extremely important part of the film but sadly they don't get the respect in return. They are treated badly, yelled at, many a times not provided with basic facilities such as toilets. The junior artiste group is an extremely close-knit group, actually the only group that doesn't interact with anybody else on the sets. Vikramaditya points out that the older women especially can be quite grumpy and uninvolved in their work probably because they are the most affected by trend of non members being roped in for their work. When asked if he thought women were treated any differently he said "they're all one". Though what interests him about junior artistes is the relationship they have with the suppliers; suggesting obvious sexual undercurrents. Vikramaditya's favourite junior artiste moment was when he shot the rock song in Paanch. The song was shot in very long takes and therefore the crowd (junior artistes) got quite involved and started reacting to the performance (by actor KayKay) and the song like they were actually in a rock concert. "It looked right, it felt right". He thinks the more involved they are, the better they work. He considers junior artistes to be both insiders in terms of their importance and outsiders in terms of their treatment and involvement. As we step out of the coffee shop, Vikramaditya says he always wonders why 'extras' is a derogatory term just for Indians who are doing "extra" work while everywhere else in the world it is an accepted term? Vikramaditya Motwane Executive Assistant: Deepa Mehta, Water (2005), Director, songs and Sound Designer: Paanch (2003), Associate Director and Sound Designer: Devdas (2002/I) "I don't find anything to romanticize about" Prawaal thinks that there is nothing to romanticize about junior artistes, they are well-paid and well-treated. Everybody is here to do their job; a film set is not a family, it's not supposed to be. "You do your work, you get paid, and you go home." According to Prawaal junior artistes are not supposed to be creatively involved in the film, they are merely moving props but are just as much a part of the film as anybody else is. A director/writer/actor is committed to or belongs to a film at least till the film is released but a junior artiste has no-sense of belonging to any film that is because they work in different films every shift, it would be ridiculous to expect them to be involved. Prawaal Raman Director, Zabardast (underproduction), Darna Zaroori Hai(2006), Loot (Stuck/On Hold) Gayab, Darna Mana Hai (also the story writer) "Baithe Hain Rahguzar Pe Hum, Koi Hume Uthaye Kyon?" It is probably because of the fact that Imtiaz is so fond of junior artistes that he had so much to say about them. As a director, he compares junior artistes to props, they are numbers that one uses to dress a frame. Their treatment as mere objects that can be quantified causes further angst to their misery of shattered dreams. He says one has to be careful when it comes to junior artistes, you have to understand why they are the most seemingly desentisized people in the industry. The primary cause of their bitterness is probably because almost all junior artistes have higher aspirations which with time get crushed. The journey to become a hero and the feeling of self gets trampled along the way. Imtiaz believes that they are always wearing their armours, ready for combat, almost fortifying themselves against any possibility of being hurt. You can't expect them to enthusiastically participate in your collective dream of the film because for them their biggest dreams have already been shattered. They put their guards down only when you make them trust you that you acknowledge the fact that they human beings too. Little things like who gets a chair, how many times does one can get chai and who can talk to the director are the kind of things junior artistes are sensitive about. He points out that interestingly the different grades determine their treatment and the demands they can make. Imtiaz argues that one can understand that the main actors are important but that doesn't give anybody the authority to defile anybody's sensitivity. Though it is difficult to be friends with junior artistes especially girls because they always think one expects something in return. As far as the girls are concerned, he hasn't had any direct experience but he has reasons to believe that there are many "informal prostitutes". He explains that he understands why a woman junior artiste would be attracted to prostitution that is because she shares the misfortune that a film heroine has. Her film career span is very short and at the time when she is at the prime of her look, she tries to make the most of it. They have to be content with the fact that as the years go by the money be less. One often hears of women junior artistes being full-fledged prostitutes and 'kepts'. Then Imtiaz fondly remembers Saira, a junior artiste who turned out be a talented actress. After having given her a character in the TV serial, Imtihaan, he would encourage her to take the leap and try to become an actress. Since a board consists of only numbers of the requirement, you cannot ask for a specific junior artiste. "When I would insist on her the word got around that I wanted to sleep with her." When Imtiaz met her after a few years, he realized that Saira was already on her journey down. Imtiaz realizes that there is a certain comfort in not having to go from one director to another with your photographs and resume to be an actor but being a junior artiste. He says that it is almost like prostitutes where there are no pretensions; their worth is on their faces (different grades). "Main 600 wali hoon!" "Main 400 wala hoon!" "Jo hain yehi hai" He quotes Ghalib saying, "I am already at the lowest point, who is going to put me down further" Imtiaz Ali Director and Editor, Television for 7yrs, Socha Na Tha (2005) Actor, Black Friday as Yakub Menon "The obsession with the stars: a vicious circle" Earlier there used to be three kinds of junior artistes: 1.In the crowd, 2. near the Hero/Heroine 3. saying dialogues. Now one usually finds crowd scenes being given to Association members while the better looking models are placed near the main leads and the talking roles are given to either struggling actors. One also finds a trend of special appearances by stars becoming a favourite. It is an extremely sad story that film journalism is completely centred around the stars because that is what the masses are interested in while the other aspects of cinema are of academic interest only. Popular writing comprises of rumours, gossip and trivia about the stars. ~Legendary gossip columnist Liz Smith of the New York Post, author of Dishing, argues that gossip builds fame and legends: "I always say to people when they object to the things that are written about them, 'Accept it as part of your myth.'"~ According to Ajayji every junior artiste comes to Bombay to become a star. Though many people from Bombay who become members are slum-dwellers and for them this is a job opportunity that pays like any other B-grade C-grade job. There is no aspiration or a higher goal for stardom. Ajay Brahmatmaj Film journalist, Dainik Jagran "Models do exist" Navdeep after having admitted that he knew very little about junior artistes agrees that especially in ad films because of their glossy and glamorous look they usually require better looking junior artistes (Super Class and Grade A) and models. It is not a social judgment but just a requirement. Navdeep AD filmmaker, Red Ice "The Model Game" Jordyn dedicates a chapter on models in his book, Backside Bollywood. "This chapter details an informal system of how in-front-of-the-camera talent operates, displaying the internal dynamics of a huge chunk of the film world which receives scant attention." He rejects the popular belief that almost all junior artistes come to become stars, his observation is that serious and able aspirants choose the model route instead. Going through model coordinators models get better work, better treatment, better exposure and also better money. Jordyn Steig Author, Backside of Bollywood: Hindi Films Up Close and Personal In Mumbai (unpublished) Actor, Mitti(2001), Page 3(2005) "Most helpful…." Shubhankar narrates various incidents when the junior artistes have stood out to be the most helpful and giving people in the industry. During a Sanjay Leela Bhansali film shoot, the producer Bharat Shah had been jailed, Bhansali informed everybody that he would not be able to pay everybody right away. Inspite of the fact that junior artistes are paid daily, they were the first ones to come forward to cooperate with Bhansali, and worked for months without money. According to Shubhankar they're an extremely close-knit community and he thinks them to be complete insiders of the industry. Shubhankar Assitant Director, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam(1999), Haasil(2003), Devdas(2001/2) "Parallel narrative" In Nikhil's 8-year experience as an assistant, while the director concentrated on the foreground with the main leads, he enjoyed constructing his own stories in the background. He believes that the foreground and the background should blend smoothly without either of them sticking out as a sore thumb. He doesn't believe in unimaginative passings from one side of the frame to the other like zombies. He says he always encourages his assistants to develop corresponding stories in the background. A good example of this is the scene from Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, where the actress Neelam, playing a TV host, asks the crowd for love messages to be aired live on television. This is right before Kajol's character Anjali finds out that the little girl, Anjali in the summer camp is her college friend's (Shah Rukh Khan's character) daughter. Interestingly, it is Nikhil Advani(assistant in KKHH) who comes out of the crowd and gives a nasty message to his wife saying he's dumping her because he has found somebody else. Another thing that he encourages his assistants to do is to find out the names of the junior artistes. In long schedules he would always make it a point to either find out their names or give them names lovingly. He realized that by doing so the junior artistes felt as if they were part of the film not just notionally but substantially. Unfortunately junior artistes are usually treated like cattle in this industry. Comparing them to extras abroad, Nikhil jokingly says that if they were to be treated the way the junior artistes are treated here, they would shut us down immediately. He says that the disparity is ofcourse because of the difference between a developed country and a developing country. He adds that though there is no excuse for it, most of the production is treated like that. Finally Nikhil shares his major grouse against the Junior Artiste Association. He argues that for a cinematographer to get work, s/he needs a degree from a recognized institute say the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), work under an established director of photography, who writes a recommendation and it is only then that s/he can become a member of their Association. The same goes for dancers, make-up artists, set designers etc. "So how is it that a junior artiste is not expected to act? How is that everybody behind the camera is supposed to have a certain skill but the people who are going to be seen on camera require no qualifications?" Besides, becoming a member of the junior artiste Association is a mere fulfillment of the Bombay dream of becoming a star. Therefore there are 800 members out of which only a small percentage know how to act. He agrees with his assistant, Devang's suggestion that there should be an orientation for the junior artistes that would equip them to understand the basics of the work better. Nikhil Advani Director, Kal Ho Na Ho, Salaam-e-Ishq(under-production) Assistant Director, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai(1998), Mohabbatein(2000) Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham(2001) "Those who get desperate, join the Junior Artistes Association" Interestingly, Asha K. Chandra aspired to become a star herself but now she runs an acting school that trains aspirants in film acting, dance and fighting. Ashaji tells me that there are people who after having struggled for sometime give up and become members of the Junior Artistes Association as a way to sustain themselves. Asha Chandra FTII Graduate, runs a film acting school in Juhu, features in Lalit Vachani's Star Maker "Bas Ek Parivar Jaise Hain" Deva insists that nobody becomes a junior artiste in order get a break into acting. Earlier only Muslim girls used to join this line but gradually people realized that it is a decent way to earn a living, now there girls and boys from all kinds of backgrounds and families that come. According to Deva, the struggling actors and even the assistant directors should become members and work for atleast six months, he believes the kind of exposure and access one get to the industry and the people would be useful for them. For him, it is a perfect platform for learning and experience. Coming back to the question of how many junior artistes think this line to be an entry into the industry, he insists that our junior artistes have no such ambitions. Many times junior artistes don't want to be in the centre, be seen or given lines that is because once a junior artiste is seen in a scene, s/he will not get more work in that production. How things work here is that a particular supplier has his set of junior artistes that he sends to X,Y,Z production. If a film is being shot with junior artistes for 100 days, a junior artiste normally is used for various scenes say, railway station, market place, airport etc, so consistent work for 100 days is assured. But once a junior artiste gets a line say as a ticket collector, he is seen and therefore cannot be used again. When I tell Deva that one thing that everybody says about junior artistes is that they have an extremely strong Association, he immediately corrects me saying that is us who are strong and always looking out for each other, the Association does its work in pulling out non-members from film sets. Deva Junior Artiste and Assistant Supplier, Guddu Suri, Suri & Co. Actor, Police official in Black Friday "Better facilities" It was in the office of the Federation of Western Indian Cine Employees that I met Ms. Nones. She had been called by Mr. Ranjan, the Secretary of the Federation to meet me. Thinking that I am a journalist (as usual!) they'd already prepared a list of problems that needed media attention. Unfortunately only 10% of the members and that too of only the Super Class get consistent work, others get only 5-10 days work in a month. Another trouble they face is lack of basic facilities like toilets and changing rooms. Having said that, Delphin says that there are both people who are suffering because of lack of work as well as people who are quite well-off. The media tends to always focus on their plight, completely ignoring people who are earning a decent living out of this profession. She gives me a list of old people who did substantial work as junior artistes in their time and supported their families. Delphin Nones Vice-President, Mahila Kalakar Sangh "Roz Kuan Khodna, Roz Paani Peena" Aziz Khan says it is not an easy life. What usually happens is that the higher grades are connected with the suppliers on a daily basis through mobile phones, but the rest of the grade members have to go to the Association office everyday and wait for that one phone call from the production that will get them work that day. Therefore, it's an everyday struggle. Aziz Khan Ex- Junior Artiste Association council member From karim at sarai.net Mon May 22 01:25:16 2006 From: karim at sarai.net (Aniruddha Shankar) Date: Mon, 22 May 2006 01:25:16 +0530 (IST) Subject: [Reader-list] Please JOIN pro-reservation agitation in Delhi In-Reply-To: <446F1145.3040702@linux-delhi.org> References: <446F1145.3040702@linux-delhi.org> Message-ID: <40483.203.101.2.247.1148241316.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> > Pankaj Kaushal wrote: >> Join them at Jantar Mantar... > Are you for real? Hello? Yes, he's for real. >> Reservation policy and to oppose the castist biases of Media, Academia >> and black mail of castist medical students and doctors and also to > What's a 'castist'? Are you for real? Hello? >> Within a week we are hoping to have students from > Having students? Dinner or Lunch? *sigh* If I told you to have a heart, that would mean, by your definition, that you would have to Eat your heart out. K. From geert at xs4all.nl Sat May 20 21:22:20 2006 From: geert at xs4all.nl (Geert Lovink) Date: Sat, 20 May 2006 17:52:20 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] Microsoft's view on India (Modified by Geert Lovink) Message-ID: http://www.alwayson-network.com/comments.php?id=15024_0_38_0_C Is India at the Tipping Point? The move India must make—from renting IQ to creating its own IP, and servicing clients overseas to leveraging technology to improve its own large-scale societal problems. Dan'l Lewin [Microsoft] | POSTED: 05.17.06 @03:39 Mention India and most people think of outsourcing or offshoring. But it is much more than that today. In sector after sector, from business processes and models to technology, Indian entrepreneurs and companies are delivering breakthroughs in cost-performance. And it's not just about labor cost arbitrage anymore; it is about disruptive innovation in technology and business models. Examples include the ability to develop drugs and vaccines at one-tenth the cost; the world's lowest rates for mobile phone calls; and offshore product development companies, or OPDs, creating not just features but whole products for their clients at about one-third the cost. Ravi Venkatesan, chairman of Microsoft India, said with his characteristic clarity: "There is no doubt that the Indian IT industry has put India on the world map. It has created wealth and jobs on a scale we couldn't even imagine a decade ago. It has given us the self-confidence to dream of India as a developed nation and to see ourselves as a knowledge society—and our population as an asset, not a liability." Ravi made this comment at the Microsoft Innovation Summit I just returned from in Bangalore, India's silicon hub. He went on to talk about how the country needs to make the transition to Indian IT 2.0, with IT 1.0 reaching its limit. India must move from renting IQ to creating its own intellectual property, and move from serving clients overseas to thinking about how it will leverage technology to improve its own large-scale societal problems. India must go beyond labor arbitrage to creating a real, sustainable innovation-based economy. It must move from innovation from India to innovating for India. Will India become the third-largest economy in the world (behind the United States and China), as the now famous Goldman Sachs report predicts? Will it happen within 25 years, according to Keystone India? I personally believe that entrepreneurs and investors have some extraordinary opportunities in India today, because the key elements for an innovation ecosystem are gradually falling into place. India is at a tipping point, but make no mistake, challenges remain. India—Almost Always On, or Off? As any India traveler knows, to get to the technology parks you share pockmarked roads with sacred cows, horse-drawn carts, and motorized rickshaws, along with vans and modern cars that congest roadways. Power outages are taken for granted during meetings. The real infrastructure woes in India, however, are about airports, educational systems, Internet penetration, job creation, and GDP dependence on services. India says it is addressing the problem, but the numbers tell a different story. India spends just $35 billion a year on infrastructure (with its population of more than 1 billion, about 230 million less than China); whereas China spends $260 billion annually. It's also alarming that IT investment in India is only 3.5% of total capital investment. The flip side of that underinvestment points to a huge opportunity for Indian entrepreneurs—and there are many positive signs underway. In fact, when I visited India in late April, I was surprised how much progress had been made since I was there 18 months ago. For one thing, India now has a large and growing middle class, nearly 300 million strong, surpassing the size of the entire U.S. population. It also boasts a huge installed base of mobile phones and 30 percent CAGR in everything from PCs, cars, and credit cards to appliances. India certainly does not want for growth: GDP increased 8.2% last year with 7% is expected this year. India Bound—Going Where the Talent Is There are also huge numbers of Fortune 500 and Global 1000 companies setting up development centers in India—both small companies and mega ones such as Microsoft, Intel, and IBM. Large retailers like Wal-Mart are desperately trying to get a foothold in the market. Despite reservations about power and manpower in India, several large German companies are investing in the country, specifically BMW (600 million euro) Bosch (500 million euro), and Siemens (600 million euro) over the next few years. What's the draw? A huge pool of talent, and talent to be. More than half of the population is under the age of 25, making India the youngest labor force in the world. And of that middle class I mentioned, many are highly educated. India and China, the new global tech powerhouses, are fueled by 900,000 engineering graduates of all types each year, more than triple the number of U.S. grads. Despite these advances, there are still 750 million largely rural poor. We know that huge numbers of Indians will not participate in India's growth without access to information. Last year, through Project Shiksa, we made a commitment to provide every Indian with access to a connected computer by 2010 through a rural kiosk model that we are now piloting. Our goal is to set up PC kiosks in at least 200,000 villages. To reach people their native language, we started, Project Bhasha—making Windows and Office interfaces available in 14 local Indian languages. We're learning about how to approach this emerging market, but believe that ideas will be monetized only when an economically viable ecosystem is in place. And that requires capital. Lack of Capital? Why Seeding the Market is So Important Similar to most other regions of the world, investment capital fuels growth. After meeting with VCs there, I see India becoming a strong destination for them, especially those with investments in the Internet, consumer, and mobile/telephony areas. Norwest's Promod Haque thinks that once penetration of broadband and wireless increases, the Indian market will mimic China. I met with Westbridge Capital Partners, India's largest venture capital fund with approximately $350 million under management, which has now joined forces with Sequoia Capital to become Sequoia Capital India. Other VCs doing some interesting deals include Draper Fisher Jurvetson, KPCB, Battery Ventures, and Artiman Ventures. In addition, InvestusCap and Seedfund are about to invest their funds in early-stage companies, a boon for Indian startups. And Norwest Venture Partners just raised a $650-milllion fund, with the primary focus on investment-worthy companies in India. Clearly, Indian startups are maturing—most focusing on serving the local Indian market, not cross-border relationships. While the largest scale they have reached is about $20 million, it's an encouraging sign. It's also interesting to note that many Indians from the Valley are returning to India to set up their startup companies as well as to leverage the engineering/labor-cost advantages. While many startups we talked with have big ideas, they will need coaching to pitch ideas for funding and must be willing to accept possible failure, a normal part of the entrepreneurial culture. Deal-flow quality is improving, but more has to be done before any substantial investments will be made early in startups. Some VCs still won't go to India simply because the exit strategies are unclear and infrastructure unpredictable. For those VCs who do want to leverage the India advantage, OPDs play a crucial role. Why Is Off-Shore Product Development So Disruptive? What's capturing the market's attention about OPDs in India? First, software is built to quality standard CMMI three or better—making it much higher than U.S. companies have built to in the past. Second, production costs are from 30 to 50% lower than the U.S. equivalent. And third, time-to-market for new software is 40 to 50% faster than it was just five years ago. Until now, India has been considered a cost-arbitrage nation where only low-end services were performed. OPDs are changing this notion in a big way by building "whole software products" out of India. This means that India's talent is targeting things higher up the value chain and developing IP-centric skills. This in turn lays the foundation for future product and service creation. I believe that OPDs are the breeding ground of future software entrepreneurs and will impact the local software ecosystem. They are working closely with global VCs who want to leverage the India advantage for their startups. There are many instances where once a startup in the U.S. gets funded, the development work for the products is quickly outsourced to an OPD. Interesting OPDs include Symphony Systems, NESS India, Persistent, and Aditi Technologies. Ness, for example, has established 30 labs where R&D and product development are being done for many of the world's top software companies such as Business Objects and Chordiant. Aditi helped a startup build a successful online retail music product and a Fortune 100 company create home and entertainment software. Persistent Systems, a world class OPD company based in Pune—growing some 60% a year—received a $13.8 million investment last year from Norwest. Microsoft's Involvement in the Ecosystems—from Bangalore to New Delhi to Mumbai We believe that innovation and intellectual property are the areas that will unleash the next wave of growth for India, and Microsoft is committed to fostering an ecosystem that will help fuel this growth. From our Microsoft India headquarters in New Delhi, to our development center in Hyderabad, to the most recent Microsoft Executive Summit with more than 253 CIOs from Indian enterprises in attendance in Mumbai, a lot is happening. At our "India Is Innovation" Summit in Bangalore—a continuation of the strategy set in place with the launch of the Microsoft Innovation Centers during Bill Gates's visit in December 2005, we met with more than 150 Indian companies, as well as venture capitalists, incubators, academia, and analysts. We talked with entrepreneurs about how they could be a part of the global product opportunity, and talked with venture capitalists and academic incubators about their role in catalyzing the local software economy. The summit also included a Microsoft startup showcase, where companies pitched their ideas to a panel of VCs. Startups that showcased interesting technologies include SQA Technologies, Pacsoft, Infozech, TutorVista, Pine Labs, e-Caliber, and CoOptions. TutorVista (a Sequoia investment), for example, leverages Internet technology and global resources to make personalized education affordable to students globally. It was started by Indians (serial entrepreneurs) from Silicon Valley. We also launched an innovation book with 27 case studies of successful products developed by Indian startups over the last few years. Some of featured products include InSite 2005 from Aurigo Software, Wasp3D from Beehive Systems (for the global broadcast industry), Whizible EPM from Compulink, Skelta Workflow Accelerator from Skelta Software and OAT Systems, a complete RFID framework solution. What all of this points to is this: India is transforming itself in a fundamental way with all the elements of the innovation ecosystem coming together. Disruptive innovation is taking hold in India. It's no longer a question of if, just when and how fast. At Microsoft, we passionately believe in India's potential and are investing in the right direction to make this a reality. For more, go to http://www.MicrosoftStartupZone.com From turbulence at turbulence.org Mon May 22 00:03:18 2006 From: turbulence at turbulence.org (Turbulence) Date: Sun, 21 May 2006 14:33:18 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Turbulence Spotlight: "Logozoa" by Robert Kendal Message-ID: <000801c67d05$0c2270d0$6601a8c0@t5x1c0> May 21, 2006 Turbulence Spotlight: "Logozoa" by Robert Kendall http://turbulence.org/spotlight/kendall/index.htm Words change everything. We create poems and stories to free the world from itself, to reveal the many feral faces of life. But ironically these liberating words are usually imprisoned on the page or computer screen. Out in the "real" world of day-to-day activity, we use words more crassly. We put labels and signs on things to tame them-identify, categorize, explain, instruct, proclaim ownership. What if instead the labels could liberate the everyday world from the literal, proclaim rather than cover up the mysteries? What if they could become Logozoa-textual organisms that infest the literal with metaphor and give impetuous life and breath to meaning? Lo.go.zo.a n [fr. Gk logos word + zoia animals] (2005) 1 : word animals: textual organisms 2 : a phylum or subkingdom of linguistic entities that are represented in almost every kind of habitat and include aphorisms, anti-aphorisms, maxims, minims, neokoans, sayings, left-unsaids, proverbialisms, poemlets, microtales, instant fables, and other varieties of conceptual riffs Find out what happens when you let word animals roam your daily life. Download Logozoa, print them onto your own stickers, and let them loose in your home or neighborhood. Visit the Logozoo to see photos of Logozoa in their natural habitat. To help ensure that these unique creatures do not go the way of so many once-endangered, now-extinct species, photograph your Logozoa and send them to the Logozoo. Explore the Soothcircuit, a unique colony of Logozoa that responds to your questions with insights and prognostications. BIOGRAPHY Robert Kendall has been writing electronic poetry since 1990. He is the author of the book-length hypertext poem "A Life Set for Two" (Eastgate Systems) and other electronic works published at BBC Online, Iowa Review Web, Cortland Review, Eastgate Hypertext Reading Room, Cauldron & Net, and other Web sites. His electronic poetry has been exhibited at many venues in the United States, Europe, South America, Asia, and Australia, and he has given interactive readings of his work in many cities. Kendal's printed book of poetry, "A Wandering City," was awarded the Cleveland State University Poetry Center Prize, and he has received a New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowship, a New Forms Regional Grant, and other awards. He has taught electronic poetry and fiction for the New School University's online program since 1995. Kendall runs the literary Web site "Word Circuits" and the ELO's "Electronic Literature Directory," and is co-developer of "Word Circuits Connection Muse," a hypertext tool for poets and fiction writers. He has written many articles about electronic literature for national publications, such as Poets & Writers Magazine, and he lectures frequently on the topic. For more Turbulence Spotlights, please visit http://turbulence.org/spotlight Jo-Anne Green, Co-Director New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc.: http://new-radio.org New York: 917.548.7780 . Boston: 617.522.3856 Turbulence: http://turbulence.org New American Radio: http://somewhere.org Networked_Performance Blog: http://turbulence.org/blog Upgrade! Boston: http://turbulence.org/upgrade _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From s_kavula at yahoo.com Mon May 22 12:25:47 2006 From: s_kavula at yahoo.com (saraswati) Date: Sun, 21 May 2006 23:55:47 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Content of reader-list Digest, Vol 34, Issue 38 Message-ID: <20060522065547.40907.qmail@web36601.mail.mud.yahoo.com> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: anoop kumar Date: May 20, 2006 2:45 AM Subject: Starting our Agitation With reference to the mail on pro-reservation agitations: sent by anoop kumar (Starting our Agitation - May 20 2006) Here is something I wish to share: the first demand - 1. As we all are aware of the fact that media, accademia and civil society always maintain conspiratory silence on horrors of caste system and always try to hide caste based discrimination and inequality in the name of merit. In fact they have till now successfully denied us the space to speak, raise our concerns since independence. This is very much true, something which the mainstream media has not portrayed was the caste discrimination that goes on in the country, especially in the rural areas. Even the so-called, egalitarian Christian community (which normally converts people saying that they have no segregation) - the upper caste converts sit away from the lower caste converts inside a Church congregation. Now they only, by default, have provided us an opportunity to organise and fight caste based discrimination; This I fail to understand - why did those who were subjected to caste based discrimination 55 years after Indian Independence and being given a constitutional right, not take up this issue seriously during other times? Why do they only rally and agitate when ever there is an issue concerning reservation policy? why not at other times. I wish to give you an example, there many people from the SC/ ST/ BC communities, who are in big positions today - there are lawyers / doctors and judges etc...what have they done to their own communities? The issue of the marine fisherfolk in AP...for example, the grassroot people are suffering due to the mechanised trawlers, and today many are facing displacement due to the declaration of Special Economic Zones. There are lawyers in Hyderabad courts who come from Fishing Community, why have they not taken up the case to fight for their communities? There are numerous examples of the usurping of reservations by those belonging to the well-to-do in the underprivilaged castes, who after having benifited from the reservations in the first generation, do not allow the facility to be utilised by their own brethren who might need the reservations more than them. I know of people who come from the SC/ ST/BC communities, who are IAS, IPS officers, who still send their own children to the Medical and other Higher educational institutions using Reservations, which would have been more needed by persons coming from poor families. The most important question is ? Have we been able to remove caste system by this method? Or, have we become pawns in the hands of the politicians who are using this to divide us? Laws may give some sort of empowerment, but it is social change that can remove the differences between communities and people. And that social change happens through real education and awareness. Yes, our history books must be changed, yes, it is important for technical people to know politics, sociology, history and geography. Yes, there should be free and quality education until the 10+2 level for all students coming from poor families - cutting across the lines of caste and religion - there are many among muslims, among the physically challenged and other smaller communities too who need these facilities. Let those who are well-heeled in the society pay more for these services, so that a cross-subsidy happens. And even the Higher education must be completely free for the students who are underprivilaged monetarily and physically. But let us not compromise on the output required at least in higher education. It is true that marks do not certainly denote the quality of expertise of a person. Let there be some other kind of marking system in Universities. But by saying students in Medical and Engineering colleges do not need a certain level of merit, simply because they are from underprivilaged societies, would mean to accept the theory, that "students coming from underprivilaged castes are not meritorious, they are incapable of competing in the mainstream" If a doctor or engineer is not good, you know what people say, "he/ she must be a reservation candidate!' Is this the tag that people wish to live with? That they are forever second rate professionals? There have been and still are grave misdeeds done in the name of caste and in the name of religion and more importantly cutting across lines, in the name of gender - we cannot remove these differences by taking to streets...we can only remove them by real awareness and by acceptance of the TRUTH - by the upper castes, who have usurped people's rights all these days. And a coming together of the people. If we say we can solve the problems of India-Pakistan by dialogue, then why is there no dialogue between the various communities in this land? Why are we all tearing each other apart? Let us remember that our politicians have continued what the British started - Divide and Rule... and that is what is happening now. Being a woman, i never asked for a special privilage, because I know men will say, oh you had those reservations etc, that is why you are able to stand with us on the same platform. I did not wish to degrade myself - so, i had always stood in the main queues, never asked men to get up from a ladies seat, and always competed with them on their ground and have won and become successful in a male-dominated field. There are reservations and special privilages for women too. But while my cousins have never been allowed to even study upto the class 10 by my Uncle who himself was a school headmaster, my father worked hard to see that all his three daughters received the same level of education as his only son. It was not because there were special reservations that encouraged him, it surely would have helped, but because he was a more aware person than his brother was, who despite being in the field of education, was according to me, unaware and hence, uneducated. That is all I have to say. Saraswati Kavula --------------------------------- Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. PC-to-Phone calls for ridiculously low rates. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060521/8e1c5ac8/attachment.html From fls at kein.org Mon May 22 15:55:17 2006 From: fls at kein.org (florian schneider) Date: Mon, 22 May 2006 12:25:17 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] dictionary of war Message-ID: [apologies for crossposting... /fls] DICTIONARY OF WAR June 2006 - January 2007 Frankfurt/Munich/Graz/Berlin http://dictionaryofwar.org “AT LEAST, WHEN WE CREATE CONCEPTS, WE ARE DOING SOMETHING.” DICTIONARY OF WAR starts on June 2 and 3, in Frankfurt/Main. The new war, post-modern war, permanent war -- almost every major military operation over the past 15 years has evoked a new debate about the new character of war. After 9-11 state of war has turned into a normality. Five years of global war have turned the world upside down, in a way that the extent of the ongoing changes cannot be fully conceived yet. On June 2 and 3 the first edition of DICTIONARY OF WAR will take place as a collaborative platform for creating concepts on the issue of war. At four public, two-day events in Frankfurt, Munich, Graz and Berlin 100 concepts will be invented, arranged and presented by scientists, artists, theorists and activists. The aim is to create key concepts that either play a significant role in current discussions of war, have so far been neglected, or have yet to be created. DICTIONARY OF WAR tries to make the creation or revaluation of concepts transparent into more or less open processes in which one can and need to intervene in various ways. “At least, when we create concepts, we are doing something.” The idea of DICTIONARY OF WAR refers to the theory of creating concepts proposed by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari: Concepts do not fall from heaven but must be invented, created, produced; concepts refer to problems without which they would be meaningless. It is not about definitions, anecdotes, original opinions or entertainment, but rather about finding out about the tools with which to attain new ideas. The Frankfurt edition of DICTIONARY OF WAR features contributions by: The artist group "Apsolutno" from Novi Sad; the sound artists "Battery Operated from Montreal; the artist Shu Lea Cheang; the London based architect Celine Condorelli; writer Dietmar Dath from "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung"; choreographers Kattrin Deufert & Thomas Plischke aka "Frankfurter Küche"; filmmaker Azza El-Hassan from Ramallah; Berlin based curator Anselm Franke; the swedish artist duo Carl Michael von Hausswolff and Thomas Nordanstad; the artist group "International Festival" from Brussels and Stockholm; Beirut based media activist Manse Jacobi; the austrian musician Christof Kurzmann; filmmaker Angela Melitopolous from Cologne; military researcher Simon Naveh from Tel Aviv; DJ Hans Nieswandt from Cologne; John Palmesino, co-founder of the "Multiplicity" group; romanian artist Dan Perjovschi; dutch theater director Jan Ritsema; art theorist Irit Rogoff, professor at Goldsmith College London; sociologist Saskia Sassen, professor in Chicago; author Nicolas Siepen from Berlin; Paris based filmmaker Eyal Sivan; Rob Stone, London based therorist; the Frankfurt based philosopher Matthias Vogel; New York based architect Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss; London based architect Eyal Weizman; architect Ines Weizman from London; Berlin based writer Raul Zelik; filmmaker Zelimir Zilnik from Novi Sad. The concepts are introduced in alphabetical order by their concept persons in half-hour long presentations or performances. The event starts on Friday, June 2 at 4 pm in Staedelschule Frankfurt am Main, Dürerstrasse 10 and will be continued on Saturday from 2 pm on. Video recordings of the presented concepts will be available near on real time at: http://www.dictionaryofwar.org DICTIONARY OF WAR is a project by Multitude e.V. and Unfriendly Takeover, in collaboration with international academy Staedelschule. DICTIONARY OF WAR is supported by the Federal Culture Foundation, Germany. From shivamvij at gmail.com Mon May 22 20:15:13 2006 From: shivamvij at gmail.com (Shivam) Date: Mon, 22 May 2006 20:15:13 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Please JOIN pro-reservation agitation in Delhi In-Reply-To: <446F1145.3040702@linux-delhi.org> References: <446F1145.3040702@linux-delhi.org> Message-ID: I am the ghost of myself, Pankaj, and I am neither castist nor casteist. I do think, however, that unlike the (Dalit) student who wrote that email that I forwarded, I was born in relative privilege - not in a small town but a state capital, and went to elite missionary schools and an elite missionary college and am working in what the email's author would call, and rightly so, "Brahmin Baniya media" (see http://www.hindu.com/mag/2006/05/21/stories/2006052100290300.htm ). The student who wrote that email started a youth magazine on caste issues but his father developed cancer and a lot of money was spent on his treatment. His father has passed away recently; the magazine shut down as he had to go to his town for months to be with his father for treatment; and he is now in debt of about Rs. 30,000. For these reasons he has had to give up his MPhil and has taken up a job with an organisation working on caste issues. He is part of a community of of caste activists trying every day to convince you about the reality of caste and social stratification. Yes, his English isn't as good as yours. Yes, I support reservations. Best, My ghost From venu.mathur at gmail.com Tue May 23 17:50:55 2006 From: venu.mathur at gmail.com (venu mathur) Date: Tue, 23 May 2006 17:50:55 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Walk through Purani Dilli Message-ID: A walk through the Gallis of Purani Dilli. Walk through galis, from the raunak and hustle bustle of Ballimaran and Nai Sarak to the McDonalds near cycle market; and all other realities in between. A group of children from the Mathur building go to Shahar for a visit tomorrow!! To understand and engage with the mundane and ordinary lives of people living here and at the same time explore its connections with their family history and the city's. You are welcome to join us! Date: 24/05/06 Meeting Point: Out Side Indraprastha Girls School near Jama Masjid Time: 11 AM sharp!! To 4 pm. Contact: abhinandita at gmail.com 9811689431 www.mathurbuilding.blogspot.com From bhatt_rudra at yahoo.com Tue May 23 18:31:32 2006 From: bhatt_rudra at yahoo.com (Rudradep Bhattacharjee) Date: Tue, 23 May 2006 06:01:32 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] NEW DEVELOPMENTS Message-ID: <20060523130132.24692.qmail@web34207.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Greetings, fellow Fellows... Month five into the research. While I try to structure my research material, new developments make sure I am always on my toes. Well, read on... In a letter addressed to all employees in the IT sector earlier this year, Kiran Karnik (President, NASSCOM) wrote: We have just completed a joint NASSCOM-McKinsey study and this indicates strong growth in the years ahead. In fact, we expect that exports would reach US$ 60 billion in 2010, from just over US$ 17.8 billion in 2004 - 05. However, reaching this ambitious goal is contingent on certain actions and steps. A vital one amongst these is related to ensuring the security of data; an allied issue is protecting ourselves and our systems from criminal elements. These issues, if not properly handled, could derail our growth and our hopes. In recognition of these, NASSCOM – working closely with industry colleagues – has taken a number of pro-active steps. Many of you would be aware that most companies are already taking a few steps to make our industry a more secure environment for ourselves and our clients. I have personally communicated to many CEOs the need to continuously raise the standards for the safety of the employees and the clients. These issues are being taken extremely seriously, not only by NASSCOM, but also the government, the legal authorities and the police. Together, we will leave no stone unturned and we aim to make India the “Fort Knox” of security, positioning ourselves as the gold standard for security as we are today for quality. One of the steps taken was the setting up of the National Skills Registry (NSR). Hit by allegations of data theft last year and led by subsequent fear of losing out on the outsourcing pie, the NSR was set up in January 2006 to keep an eye on employees in India's IT and BPO industry. Last week, the Indian IT industry declared that all employees will have to register on its biometric database so it can assure its Western clients that their customers' personal data will be protected. The decree is one of the first instructions of the Self Regulatory Organisation (SRO), which would be set up to oversee the data security measures. The SRO would subscribe that all members would have all their employees registered in the registry. The SRO will be created out of Nasscom after a year. The employee database will be operated outside the industry, by National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL), which manages India's stock exchange transactions. In an article, Mark Ballard writes: Nasscom vice president Sunil Mehta said, "The SRO will prescribe a whole set of best practices, which will include our adherence to global privacy laws in relation to our data processing and outsourcing." Mehta said the rules governing the use of employee data had been drawn up in a joint effort by Nasscom, NSDL and the industry. He said it was likely the guidelines would not be published. Employees' considerations had been taken into account by consulting lawyers, he said. "They don't have a union, but we did focus group discussions to attain their views. Nasscom said employees get to control the use of their data. "All information is governed by the employee and nothing can be done with it without the employee's consent." The National Skills Registry is intended to guarantee that employees are who they say they are. But employers have open access to the data and, as well as proving identity, the registry also includes career history, background checks and "verification comments". Employers will also be able to link to the NSR from their HR databases. Incidentally, another web article quotes a government official, who did not wish to be named, saying that companies would now be able to track the career backgrounds of employees and help law enforcement agencies tackle data theft. While this happens, a new IT Act is on the anvil. In fact, the Bill might even be tabled in the Monsoon Session of parliament. Remember the arrest of Avnish Bajaj, the CEO of Bazee.com, in December 2004 for allegedly abetting in the sale of pornographic material? The incident raised a lot of hue and cry and rightly so. Well, following all that, as the new IT Bill stands, the government has decided to totally remove the burden of proof from the head of the intermediary. But the problem, as Pavan Duggal, Supreme Court advocate and arguably India’s most famous cyber lawyer, told me is that the new law is vague as to who an intermediary is and hence the term could be applied to an ISP as well as to a BPO. The results of totally removing the burden of proof from the latter, he believes, can be extremely dangerous and will undermine India’s national interests. The Bill, incidentally, also promises to introduce privacy laws in India. But I really wonder what that will entail. Will be in Delhi end of May. Till the next posting... Cheers, Deep __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From tg2028 at columbia.edu Tue May 23 21:51:12 2006 From: tg2028 at columbia.edu (Trisha Gupta) Date: Tue, 23 May 2006 12:21:12 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] Meeting the challenge of Mandal II - first part Message-ID: <1148401272.447336782ae23@cubmail.cc.columbia.edu> This is the first of a two-part article, published in the Hindu. Please click on the link to see the tables, which are crucial to the argument. The sanest, most thoughtful, most thoroughly-substantiated argument I've read on the topic so far... Trisha http://www.hindu.com/2006/05/22/stories/2006052202261100.htm Meeting the challenge of Mandal II Satish Deshpande & Yogendra Yadav Is there a way forward where both merit and social justice can be given their due? This two-part series attempts to find one. THE CENTRAL Government's move to introduce reservations for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in elite institutions of higher and professional education — popularly known as Mandal II — seems to be heading towards a stalemate. In this article, we propose a possible solution that might take us beyond the debilitating standoff between `merit' and `social justice'. This is clearly an ambitious and optimistic agenda, especially because Mandal II proves that some mistakes are destined to be repeated. Once again the Government appears set to do the right thing in the wrong way, without the prior preparation, careful study, and opinion priming that such an important move obviously demands. It is even more shocking that students from our very best institutions are willing to re-enact the horribly inappropriate forms of protest from the original anti-Mandal agitation of 1990-91. As symbolic acts, street-sweeping or shoe-shining send the callous and arrogant message that some people — castes? — are indeed fit only for menial jobs, while others are `naturally' suited to respectable professions such as engineering and medicine. However, the media do seem to have learnt something from their dishonourable role in Mandal I. By and large, both the print and electronic media have not been incendiary in their coverage, and some have even presented alternative views. Nevertheless, far too much remains unchanged across 16 years. Perhaps the most crucial constant is the absence of a favourable climate of opinion. Outside the robust contestations of politics proper, our public life continues to be disproportionately dominated by the upper castes. It is therefore unsurprising, but still a matter of concern, that the dominant view denies the very validity of affirmative action. Indeed the antipathy towards reservations may have grown in recent years. The main problem is that the dominant view sees quotas and the like as benefits being handed out to particular caste groups. This leads logically to the conclusion that power-hungry politicians and vote bank politics are the root causes of this problem. But to think thus is to put the cart before the horse. A rational and dispassionate analysis of this issue must begin with the one crucial fact that is undisputed by either side — the overwhelming dominance of upper castes in higher and especially professional education. Although undisputed, this fact is not easy to establish, especially in the case of our elite institutions, which have always been adamant about refusing to reveal information on the caste composition of their students and faculty. But the more general information that is available through the National Sample Survey Organisation clearly shows the caste-patterning of educational inequality. Some of the relevant data are shown in Tables 1 and 2. Table 1 shows the percentage of graduates in the population aged 20 years or above in different castes and communities in rural and urban India. Only a little more than 1 per cent of Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes, and Muslims are graduates in rural India, while the figure for Hindu upper castes is four to five times higher at over 5 per cent. The real inequalities are in urban India, where the SCs in particular, but also Muslims, OBCs, and STs are way behind the forward communities and castes with a quarter or more of their population being graduates. Another way of looking at it is that STs, SCs, Muslims, and OBCs are always below the national average while the other communities and especially Hindu upper castes are well above this average in both rural and urban India. Table 2 shows the share of different castes and communities in the national pool of graduates as compared to their share of the total population aged 20 years or more. In other words, the table tells us which groups have a higher than proportionate (or lower than proportionate) share of graduates. Once again, with the exception of rural Hindu OBCs and urban STs, the same groups are severely under-represented while the Hindu upper castes, Other Religions (Jains, Parsis, Buddhists, etc.), and Christians are significantly over-represented among graduates. Thus the Hindu upper castes' share of graduates is twice their share in the population aged 20 or above in rural India, and one-and-a-half times their share in the population aged 20 or above in urban India. Compare this, for example, to urban SCs and Muslims, whose share of graduates is only 30 per cent and 39 per cent respectively of their share in the 20 and above population. It should be emphasised that these data refer to all graduates from all kinds of institutions countrywide — if we were to look at the elite professional institutions, the relative dominance of the upper castes and forward communities is likely to be much stronger, although such institutions refuse to publish the data that could prove or disprove such claims. Although it is implicitly conceded by both sides, upper caste dominance is explained in opposite ways. The upper castes claim that their preponderance is due solely to their superior merit, and that there is nothing to be done about this situation since merit should indeed be the sole criterion in determining access to higher education. In fact, they may go further to assert that any attempt to change the status quo can only result in "the murder of merit." Those who are for affirmative action argue that the traditional route to caste dominance — namely, an upper caste monopoly over higher education — still remains effective despite the apparent abolition of caste. From this perspective, the status quo is an unjust one requiring state intervention on behalf of disadvantaged sections who are unable to force entry under the current rules of the game. More extreme views of this kind may go on to assert that merit is merely an upper caste conjuring trick designed to keep out the lower castes. What is wrong with this picture? Nothing, except that it is only part of a much larger frame. For if we understand merit as sheer innate ability, it is difficult to explain why it should seem to be an upper caste monopoly. Whatever people may believe privately, it is now beyond doubt that arguments for the genetic or natural inferiority of social groups are unacceptable. If so, how is it that, roughly speaking, one quarter of our population supplies three quarters of our elite professionals? The explanation has to lie in the social mechanisms through which innate ability is translated into certifiable skill and encashable competence. This points to intended or unintended systemic exclusions in the educational system, and to inequalities in the background resources that education presupposes. It is their confidence in having monopolised the educational system and its prerequisites that sustains the upper caste demand to consider only merit and not caste. If educational opportunities were truly equalised, the upper castes' share in professional education would be roughly in proportion to their population share, that is, between one fourth and one third. This would not only be roughly one third of their present strength in higher education; it would also be much less than the 50 per cent share they are assured of even after implementation of OBC reservations! If the upper caste view needs an unexamined notion of merit that ignores the social mechanisms that bring it into existence, the lower caste or pro-reservation view appears to require that merit be emptied of all its content. While this is indeed true of some militant positions, the peculiar circumstances of Indian higher education also allow alternative interpretations. In a situation marked by absurd levels of "hyper-selectivity" — 300,000 aspirants competing for 4000 IIT seats, for example — merit gets reduced to rank in an examination. As educationists know only too well, the examination is a blunt instrument. It is good only for making broad distinctions in levels of ability; it cannot tell us whether a person scoring 85 per cent would definitely make a better engineer or doctor than somebody scoring 80 per cent or 75 per cent or even 70 per cent. In short, it is only a combination of social compulsion and pure myth that sustains the crazy world of cut-off points and second decimal place differences that dominate the admission season. Such fetishised notions of merit have nothing to do with any genuine differences in ability. The caste composition of higher education could well be changed without any sacrifice of merit simply by instituting a lottery among all candidates of broadly similar levels of ability — say, the top 15 or 25 per cent of a large applicant pool. But the inequities of our educational system are so deeply entrenched that caste inequalities might persist despite some change. We would then be back where we started — with the apparent dichotomy between merit and social justice in higher education. How do we transcend this dilemma? Is there a way forward where both merit and social justice can be given their due? (Satish Deshpande is Professor of Sociology at Delhi University; Yogendra Yadav is Senior Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi.) From tg2028 at columbia.edu Tue May 23 21:55:32 2006 From: tg2028 at columbia.edu (Trisha Gupta) Date: Tue, 23 May 2006 12:25:32 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] Meeting the challenge of Mandal II - second part (Reservation - an alternative proposal) Message-ID: <1148401532.4473377cc22be@cubmail.cc.columbia.edu> Second part of a two-part article in the Hindu. Again, please click on the link below to see the tables accompanying the text, which are integral to understanding the alternative proposal being put forward. Trisha http://www.hindu.com/2006/05/23/stories/2006052305841100.htm Reservation — an alternative proposal Satish Deshpande & Yogendra Yadav In this second and concluding part of their series, the authors offer a method to ensure both merit and social justice are taken into account. THE ALTERNATIVE proposed here is rooted in the recognition that we need to go beyond a simple-minded reduction of `merit' and `social justice' to singular and mutually exclusive categories. In reality, both merit and social justice are multi-dimensional, and the pursuit of one does not require us to abandon the other. The proposal seeks to identify the viable common ground that permits simultaneous commitment to both social justice and excellence. It seeks to operationalise a policy that is morally justified, intellectually sound, politically defensible, and administratively viable. Let us present the basic principles that underlie this proposal before getting into operational details. First of all, this proposal is based on a firm commitment to policies of affirmative action flowing both from the constitutional obligation to realise social justice and also from the overall success of the experience of reservations in the last 50 years. Secondly, we recognise the moral imperative to extend affirmative action to educational opportunities, for a lack of these opportunities results in the inter-generational reproduction of inequalities and severely restricts the positive effects of job reservations. Thirdly, it needs to be remembered that the end of affirmative action can be served by various means including reservation. The state's basic commitment is to the end, not any particular means. Finally, flowing from the experience of reservations for socially and educationally backward classes (SEBCs), we need to recognise that there are multiple, cross-cutting, and overlapping sources of inequality of educational opportunities, all of which need redress. This is what our proposal seeks to do. The proposal involves computing scores for `academic merit' and for `social disadvantage' and then combining the two for admission to higher educational institutions. Since the academic evaluation is less controversial, we concentrate here on the evaluation of comparative social disadvantage. We suggest that the social disadvantage score should be divided into its group and individual components. For the group component, we consider disadvantages based on caste and community, gender, and region. These scores must not be decided arbitrarily or merely on the basis of impressions. We suggest that these disadvantages should be calibrated on the basis of available statistics on representation in higher education of different castes/communities and regions, each of these being considered separately for males and females. The required data could come from the National Sample Survey or other available sources. It would be best, of course, if a special national survey were commissioned for this purpose. Besides group disadvantages, this scheme also takes individual disadvantages into consideration. While a large number of factors determine individual disadvantages (family history, generational depth of literacy, sibling education, economic resources, etc.), we believe there are two robust indicators of individual disadvantage that can be operationally used in the system of admission to public institutions: parental occupation and the type of school where a person passed the high school examination. These two variables allow us to capture the effect of most of the individual disadvantages, including the family's educational history and economic circumstances. In the accompanying tables, we illustrate how this scheme could be operationalised. It needs to be underlined that the weightages proposed here are tentative, based on our limited information, and meant only to illustrate the scheme. The exact weights could be decided after examining more evidence. We suggest that weightage for academic merit and social disadvantage be distributed in the ratio of 80:20. The academic score could be converted to a standardised score on a scale of 0-80, while the social disadvantage score would range from 0 to a maximum of 20. Awarding social disadvantage points Table A shows how the group disadvantage points can be awarded. There are three axes of group disadvantage considered here: the relative backwardness of the region one comes from; one's caste and community (only non-SC-ST groups are considered here); and one's gender. The zones in the top row refer to a classification of regions — this can be at State or even sub-State region level — based on indicators of backwardness that are commonly used and can be agreed upon. Thus Zone I is the most backward region while Zone IV is the most developed region. The disadvantage points would thus decrease from left to right for each caste group and gender. The castes and communities identified here are clubbed according to broadly similar levels of poverty and education indicators (once again the details of this can be agreed upon). The lower OBCs and Most Backward Castes along with OBC Muslims are considered most disadvantaged or least-represented among the educated, affluent, etc., while upper caste Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Jains, Parsis, etc., are considered to be the most `forward' communities. Disadvantage points thus decrease from top to bottom. Gender is built into this matrix, with women being given disadvantage points depending on their other attributes, that is, caste and region. Thus the hypothetical numbers in this table indicate different degrees of relative disadvantage based on all three criteria, and most importantly, also on the interaction effects among the three. Thus, a woman from the most backward region who belongs to the lower OBC, MBC, or Muslim OBC groups gets the maximum score of 12, while a male from the forward communities from the most developed region gets no disadvantage points at all. Tables B and C work in a similar manner for determining individual disadvantage. For these tables, all group variables are excluded. Table B looks at the type of school the person passed his or her secondary examination from, and the size of the village, town, or city where this school was located. Anyone going to an ordinary government school in a village or small town gets the maximum of 5 points in this matrix. The gradation of schools is done according to observed quality of education and implied family resources, and this could also be refined. A student from an exclusive English medium public school in a large metro gets no disadvantage points. Table C looks at parental occupation as a proxy for family resources (that is, income wealth, etc., which are notoriously difficult to ascertain directly). Since this variable is vulnerable to falsification and would need some efforts at verification, we have limited the maximum points awarded here to three. Children of parents who are outside the organised sector and are below the taxable level of income get the maximum points, and the occupation of both parents is considered. Those with either parent in Class I or II jobs of the government, or in managerial or professional jobs get no points at all. Intermediate jobs in the organised sector, including Class III and IV jobs in the government, are reckoned to be better placed than those in the unorganised, low pay sector. Combining the scores in the three matrices will give the total disadvantage score, which can then be added to the standardised academic merit score to give each candidate's final score. Admissions for all non-SC-ST candidates, that is, for 77.5 per cent of all seats, can then be based on this total score. Differences and advantages While our proposal shares with the proposal mooted by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) the commitment to affirmative action and the desire to extend it to educational opportunities, the scheme we propose differs from the Ministry's proposal in many ways. The Ministry's proposal seeks to create a bloc of `reserved' seats. Our proposal applies to all the seats not covered by the existing reservation for the SC, ST, and other categories. The MHRD proposal recognises only group disadvantages and uses caste as the sole criterion of group disadvantage in educational inequalities. We too acknowledge the significance of group disadvantages and that of caste as the single most important predictor of educational inequalities. But our scheme seeks to fine-tune the identification by recognising other group disadvantages such as region and gender. Moreover, our scheme is also able to address the interaction effects between different axes of disadvantage (such as region, caste, and gender, or type of school and type of location, etc.). While recognising group disadvantages, our scheme provides some weightage to individual disadvantages relating to family background and type of schooling. Our scheme also recognises that people of all castes may suffer from individual disadvantages, and offers redress for such disadvantages to the upper castes as well. While the MHRD proposal is based on an all-or-nothing approach to recognising disadvantages (either you are an OBC or you are not), our proposal allows for flexibility in dealing with variations in degrees of disadvantage. The scheme we propose here is a modified version of one that was designed for the selection process of a well-known international fellowship programme for higher education, where it was successful for some years. Thousands of applications have already been screened using this scheme. A similar scheme has been used for admissions to Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. The working of this scheme does not seem to offer any insurmountable operational difficulties, despite the vast expansion in scale that some contexts might involve. In the final analysis, the most critical advantage of a scheme such as the one we are proposing is that it helps to push thinking on social justice along constructive and rational lines. One of the inescapable dilemmas of caste-based affirmative action policies is that they cannot help intensifying caste identities. The debate then gets vitiated because it concentrates on the identities rather than on the valid social reasons why those identities are used as indicators of disadvantage. Our scheme clearly links caste identities to measurable empirical indicators of disadvantage. It thus helps to de-essentialise caste and to focus attention on the relative progress made by these communities. Thus groups such as Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, etc., occupy particular positions in this scheme purely by virtue of the levels of educational advantage or disadvantage. The scheme allows policies to be calibrated according to the changing relative positions of different groups, and takes care of such issues as poor upper castes, `creamy layer,' etc. It reminds us, in short, that caste or community matter not in themselves, but because they continue to be important indicators of tangible disadvantages in our unequal and unjust society. (This proposal has been developed in consultation with many social scientists.) From penguinhead at linux-delhi.org Wed May 24 11:09:17 2006 From: penguinhead at linux-delhi.org (Pankaj kaushal) Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 11:09:17 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Please JOIN pro-reservation agitation in Delhi In-Reply-To: References: <446F1145.3040702@linux-delhi.org> <4471D9C3.10205@linux-delhi.org> Message-ID: <4473F185.9040900@linux-delhi.org> Shivam wrote: > Pankaj, > > I didn't cite his life history as an argument for reservations. I was > just responding to your making fun of the grammatical errors in his > email. Do not take a side pro/anti reservation, it is a complex issue and without explaining it -- one should not forward any sentiments to a group of people. If there were any substance in the mail, I could have dissected it. There was none. I was not trying to trivialize the matter any more than you were by asking us to go to jantar mantar. Let me introduce you to a new un-word, sarchasm (särc'kz'am) 1. (n.) The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the recipient who doesn't get it. P. -- Gentlemen! You can't fight in here; this is the war room! From rahulpandita at yahoo.com Wed May 24 12:18:39 2006 From: rahulpandita at yahoo.com (rahul pandita) Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 07:48:39 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] His shoulders and Dodee Message-ID: <20060524064839.96246.qmail@web31708.mail.mud.yahoo.com> The clouds of war loomed large as Editors and CEOs fought over the control of the TV channel. It resembled the mythological battle between the Gods and the Demons though here it was impossible to differentiate between the two. The hemlock that rose from this ‘manthan’ went down the throats of few hapless reporters. To safeguard their interests, a reporter was forced to be a part of one camp or the other. But it was like playing the game of snake and ladder. Today one camp was powerful and the next day the leader of that camp would find himself sidelined. Amidst all this hullabaloo, Sanjeev Tiwari joined the organization as the Channel CEO. He had been a senior Manager with the Indian Press Newspaper. Sources confided that Lala Ji had brought him in as he wanted to permanently cure the channel ailments. Tiwari had experience in handling the newspaper union. Sources added in hushed tone that he had been roped in to handle the channel affairs with an iron fist. On the first day, Sanjeev Tiwari called up a meeting of reporters. As they sat around a round table, Tiwari began his address which almost felt like a hiss. He said that whatever has happened so far has happened. Now in future things would move as he wishes. While he said this, he began to shrug his shoulders and something appeared on his lips which the reporters thought was a smile. Thinking that he had eased down, they returned his gesture with deep smiles. Some of them even grinned. Later on they realized that when Tiwari shrugged his shoulders, he was in his serious-most mood. But it was too late by then. They would have to pay the price. Tiwari issued a summon that from that day onwards, each reporter would compulsorily file two stories per day. A deadening silence prevailed among reporters. Only after eroding their shoe soles would they get enough sound bytes for one story. From where would they procure a second story? It was only because of angel investors, who put in their money in dotcoms, that jobs of many reporters were saved. The poor reporters would come back to office after completing one story from the field and then sit in the canteen of Hansaram to eat his lousy food. Hansaram belonged to Lala Ji’s village only and his food contained a liberal quantity of cockroaches. Whenever someone complained to him, he would fill air in his chest and reply: Koi baat nahi, mein Lala Ji se baat kar loonga. (No problem, I will speak to Lala Ji). After their lunch, almost every reporter would open up a new site on the computer and shoot it with a camera. It would ultimately lead to as many as half-a-dozen stories in the Prime-time bulletin on new websites being launched. A website which contains information about all Indian spices. A new site which gives you tips on car repair. A site on which you can book hotel rooms in many tourist spots. Then one day, there was an incident of fire in the Bharatpur ordinance factory. The explosives and other ammunition kept in the factory began raining on the neighbouring villages. Many people died and houses of many got destroyed in the process. Ashok Stinger was sent to cover the incident. Two days later, he found Ashok Stinger in an editing bay. There were a couple of other reporters also there and all of them were laughing over some matter. He went inside and found them watching the footage from Bharatpur. Why are you laughing, he asked. Rewind the footage and let him also have fun, Ashok Stinger told the VT editor. He saw Ashok asking the name of an old man on the camera. The old man was crying as his house had been blown off by a missile. He could not say his name properly, probably because of emotional distress. Mera naam Dodee hai. (My name is Dodee) Kya naam hai? (What is your name?) Dodee, Sahab (Dodee, Sir) It became evident that the reporter was enjoying this now, the way Dodee uttered his name. Eik baar phir se batao (Say it again) Dodee, Sahab, Dodee (Dodee, Sir, Dodee) Kya naam bataya (What is your name, say again?) He said his name again, his cheeks stained with tears. The gang laughed again. Ashok Stinger was laughing while he held his belly. He silently came out. Outside, he lit a cigarette at Gupta Ji’s shop. Their laughter still echoed in his ears. He could not bear it. He felt a sudden nausea engulfing him. He went in a corner and vomited. Rahul Pandita www.sanitysucks.blogspot.com Mobile: 9818088664 ___________________________________________________________ All new Yahoo! Mail "The new Interface is stunning in its simplicity and ease of use." - PC Magazine http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/nowyoucan.html From gitika.talwar at gmail.com Tue May 23 20:49:26 2006 From: gitika.talwar at gmail.com (Gitika Talwar) Date: Tue, 23 May 2006 20:49:26 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Please JOIN pro-reservation agitation in Delhi In-Reply-To: References: <446F1145.3040702@linux-delhi.org> Message-ID: <9949efb0605230819k70285c8eq81b534d76440fe9d@mail.gmail.com> Dear Shivam I am glad you wrote the email you did, especially since Pankaj seemed to have trivialised the email you had forwarded earlier - trivialised by poking fun at the language and not reading the message. Pankaj Jaaneman -- shoot the message next time -- not the messenger. Now coming to your point about the issue of caste based reservations. I am wondering -- do they work? I am really really keen to know, have caste based reservations done anything to really propel us towards ensuring education for all. I am keen to know what the research shows. I worry also that caste based reservations are the easy way out for a government that does not want to really make changes in the education system at the grassroots level. I remember studying at the University with students who had did their graduation in Hindi and now got into the university on reservations, but were expected to study in English all of a sudden. I wondered how reservations would help such bright candidates (they were fantastic at their job - but they could not write their Masters exams, which were in English). I am curious also - do caste based reservations ensure financial scholarships? If not, then do only economically empowered candidates benefit from being SC/ ST as well. Still lost and wondering. Gitika -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060523/657ff4fc/attachment.html From monica at sarai.net Wed May 24 12:29:51 2006 From: monica at sarai.net (Monica Narula) Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 12:29:51 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] housekeeping Message-ID: <1C3B571C-1203-41BC-B388-F6E2F6225E57@sarai.net> dear all on the list We request some patience from all of you. We have been running many lists (including of course this one) on a software called mailman, and it has behaved excellently indeed. However, there comes a time when things need to be upgraded, cleaned up, etc - specific housekeeping - and mailman on Sarai servers is going through that right now. Sometimes, some mail might disappear, or not show up properly. Can I request you all to post again, if that is the case, and to inform me, if you have the time and inclination. Will be very grateful. best M Monica Narula Raqs Media Collective Sarai-CSDS 29 Rajpur Road Delhi 110054 www.raqsmediacollective.net www.sarai.net From mahmood.farooqui at gmail.com Wed May 24 18:50:37 2006 From: mahmood.farooqui at gmail.com (mahmood farooqui) Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 18:50:37 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] RESERVATION APPEASEMENT Message-ID: Following today's Indian Express, I would like to add my two penny bit in the general trading of ignorance... __________________ Those opposing reservations in IITs and higher education institutes do not easily fit the bill of privileged, exploitative classes. Many of them come from homes with modest incomes; have spent precious family resources in coaching or other forms of training, and embody, sometimes, generations of struggles to reach the institutes of higher learning. In a scenario where the annual budget of IIT coaching institutes far surpasses the budget of IITs itself, investing in a coaching institute for a professional course is not an easy choice for a middling income urban family. Yet, the increasing lucrativeness of a place at the IITs or IIMs hides a longer term trend-the retreat of the state from higher education. The state now spends less than half percent of the National income on higher education and privately run professional institutes outnumber the government ones by at least three to one. Merely reserving seats in select institutes will not make a dent in the broader inequality of access to higher education. However, arguments opposing reservation in the name of merit and openness overlook the fact that the restricted seats are in proportion to the population. Keeping 27% seats for roughly 27% of the population, there seems no injustice in it prima facie. Like everyone else they too will have to compete, at least among themselves, will have to pass exams and perform at their jobs if they are to succeed. The backward caste, however, is a segment with more internal differentiation than perhaps any other in our caste conglomeration. Jats, Yadavs, Kurmis, Lodhs, the prominent upper backwards form the backbone of the ruling parties in most states of Northern India. They are also the greatest beneficiaries of Zamindari abolition and of the green revolution and are among the most prosperous agricultural castes. In many places they have replaced the erstwhile upper castes as the dominant section in our rural landscape. There is already a de-facto political reservation, if you are not a backward you would find it very difficult to achieve political success in these states. The question then is that if the backward castes already control the levers of power, already have reservation in government jobs, why are they demanding reservations in higher education? The answer is a paradox. They have not, in this instance, made any demands, the decision was taken more or less unilaterally, perhaps by Arjun Singh alone. Yet, reservations are an important political strategy, because there is a continuous, persistent demand for reservations in all kinds of places, by all sorts of people. While they dominate the political parties, the backward classes are not yet the ruling class of this country. The ruling classes which consist of the professional elite, the media, the bureaucracy, banks and academia are still dominated, to an astoundingly disproportionate degree, by the upper castes. One would be hard put to find backward caste representation in the IIT faculty, for instance, or among editors of Hindi newspapers. The demand for reservations in the cream of our professional institutes is a demand, then, for a share of social and economic prestige, an attempt by a politically dominant class to convert its political power into social capital. Someone belonging to the Yadav caste today does have the economic and social resources to compete in the open exam, but the educational backwardness that she starts with will ensure that it would take many generations for the caste to find proportionate representation in the IITs and the IIMs. On the other hand the backward castes are not synonymous with backward classes and there is some merit in the argument, as put forward among others by Dalit ideologue Chandrabhan Prasad, that reservation for backward castes detracts from the agenda of providing succor to the Dalits and Adivasis, those without any capital or power. Whether for Dalits or OBCs, reservation in itself is more an eyewash than an effective intervention in redressing the disparities of power and of social and economic wealth. Real affirmative action would combine reservation for jobs with equal access for education. But are those who suggest real affirmative action willing to allow OBC and Dalit reservation in our public schools? Can we have affirmative action at the school level without a universal and uniform system of primary and secondary education? Is this realistic in a country where the state has not yet been able to ensure universal literacy? We live in a society with scarce resources and a large number of claimants. Should the disadvantaged be asked to wait for a time when we have enough resources for everyone or should we ensure a more equitable share for everyone out of whatever meager riches we have right now? Can reservation appeasement be de-linked from other actions of a polity which has only ever been capable of providing merely symbolic palliatives? Once we accept that we live in a polity which delivers in symbols and gestures, which is not about to change overnight, we have to accept the potency of symbolic actions. Identity politics may not be a substitute for material progress but in the absence of material improvement symbolic gestures are welcome. Besides who goes into the IITs is not as important as the fact that there are only a handful of IITs and IIMs in a country with several crore graduates. I would be delighted if students begin to protest against the anomaly of a system which produces crores of unemployed graduates and where some 40% of the population still remains illiterate. As for whether protests in this country can be anything other than symbolic, I will save that issue for another day. From penguinhead at linux-delhi.org Wed May 24 20:57:20 2006 From: penguinhead at linux-delhi.org (Pankaj kaushal) Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 20:57:20 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Please JOIN pro-reservation agitation in Delhi In-Reply-To: References: <446F1145.3040702@linux-delhi.org> <4471D9C3.10205@linux-delhi.org> <4473F733.1060508@linux-delhi.org> Message-ID: <44747B58.1040100@linux-delhi.org> Shivam wrote: > whatever That's cool. P. -- Wir wollen dass ihr uns alles glaubt. From ysaeed7 at yahoo.com Wed May 24 21:54:01 2006 From: ysaeed7 at yahoo.com (Yousuf) Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 09:24:01 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] reservation on the moon Message-ID: <20060524162402.80268.qmail@web51410.mail.yahoo.com> Manmohan Singh said to George Bush - We are sending Indians to the moon next year. Bush - "Wow! How Many?" Manmohan Singh - "about 100 - and in the following order: 25 - OBC 25 - SC 20 - ST 5 - Handicapped 5 - Sports Persons 5 - Terrorist Affected 5 - Kashmiri Migrants 9 - Politicians and if possible 1 - Astronaut __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From mckenziewark at hotmail.com Thu May 25 00:16:11 2006 From: mckenziewark at hotmail.com (McKenzie Wark) Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 14:46:11 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] GAM3R 7H30RY Message-ID: <529D78C4-1B6C-4DE7-8268-E96249F4AEC8@hotmail.com> Together with the Institute for the Future of the Book, I created a new kind of book/web interface to present a draft of my new book GAM3R 7H30RY, free to the public, open for comment and discussion. GAM3R 7H30RY is about two questions: * can we explore games as allegories for the world we live in? * can there be a critical theory of games? I thought it would be interesting to share the book in its draft state to see if these questions are something other people might have ideas on or might want to pursue. So I invite you to come on by and take a look at the site, browse or read the book, join the discussion if you feel like it: http://www.futureofthebook.org/gamertheory/ thanks -- Ken -- and sorry for the mass mail out. I don't do them often so i hope you'll forgive me. ____________________________________ McKenzie Wark http://www.ludiccrew.org From shohini at vsnl.com Wed May 24 07:04:39 2006 From: shohini at vsnl.com (Shohini Ghosh) Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 07:04:39 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [CACDelhi] Gulabi Aina is refused a CensorCertificate Message-ID: <4A24EA1D-D9CC-42DE-BF0F-1E2C4EF4807F@vsnl.com> This was posted by Nitin Karani on the lGBT list. This was the film DFA screebed at Ramjas College. Shohini Myopic Censor Board: Banned, Banned, Banned! By Nitin Karani on Media Like Jesus Christ is said to have told Peter, 'Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice', the Indian Censor Board in Delhi has banned Sridhar Rangayan's film on drag queens thrice over. While in April 2003 the censor board refused 'Gulabi Aaina' (The Pink Mirror) a certificate because it is "full of obscenity and vulgarity", recently in April 2006, the board has done a complete change of tack to keep the film in the closet! The revising committee and the second revising committee refused it a certificate because in their opinion "the film Gulabi Aaina deals with an extremely complex issue of alternate sexuality in a peripheral manner". Further, the board's order states, "The problems and isolation faced by transvestites has not been dealt with in a holistic manner. Thus the film is refused certification as per relevant provisions of Cinematograph Act 1952". No, there's no need to be happy or shocked that our esteemed State- appointed gatekeepers of art have discovered that most Indian filmmakers, when they are not invisibilizing homosexuality, are making fun of it. Theirs is neither a response to the 'Girlfriend' shock or to the 'My Brother Nikhil' balm. At worst it is an insidious, invidious game plan to keep a movie that makes no bones about same-sex desire and its natural ness with loads of humor hidden from the public gaze. At best, it is the sheer arrogance of an ignorant lot with no idea about the medium or the subject giving short shrift to the intelligence of both the audience and the filmmaker. Sridhar is justifiably enraged and ready to join battle. He is planning to fight it out by taking the issue to the tribunal. (Also, see his comments below on the guidelines under which the committee reviewed the film and rejected it.) Fighting a battle for three years to get his film reviewed by the Board, Sridhar says he came across several skeletons in the censor board's cupboard: "From those who write censor scripts, but actually offer their services as touts to get the film passed by censors to filmmakers who add six scenes of violence so that the censors can cut three and pass it. I even found out from reliable sources that a recent, acclaimed gay film was passed by the Censor Board on payment of certain monies." While Sridhar does praise the Board's chairperson Sharmila Tagore and the regional officer at Delhi who "at least gave the film a fair chance by putting it up for review", he is critical of the revising committee: "It was ridiculous sitting in front of six people and having to explain why I made the film and what I have tried to say in the film. If I could say it all verbally, then why did I have to use a visual medium like film! "Peripheral and not holistic?! What do they expect me to say in 40 minutes, which is the length of my film. Moreover, 'Gulabi Aaina' is not a documentary. I wanted it to be an entertainer, but layered with subtext. When you do a film about gays, everyone expects a preachy message or a downright maudlin tearjerker. I wanted the audience to laugh with the characters instead of at them. Isn't that good enough reason to make the film and have it reach viewers? It's a different way of sensitizing." The Board really takes the cake and the pudding for implying that Sridhar's film is insensitive to the problems faced by what it calls "transvestites". In fact, that requires a vast stretch of imagination considering that Sridhar has been one of the forbearers of the gay rights movement in Bombay, being deeply involved with 'Bombay Dost' and The Humsafar Trust. The feckless, hypocrites in the committee after all the 'tamasha' of interrogating Sridhar about the film didn't have the balls to pass the film. Says he, "They pretend they are broadminded, but when it comes to films with an alternate take, they cowards. Basically, I have realized they wanted my characters to cry over their fate. They didn't take too kindly to the fact that I showed gays and drag queens happy with their lives and being unapologetic. They wanted a daily soap with buckets of tears!" If Ekta Kapoor was looking for 'chamchas', she would have found them there. Meanwhile, Sridhar is looking for your support, especially if you are from the film fraternity and/or the gay community: "My fight is about freedom of expression as a filmmaker, and I damn well know how to use it sensitively and sensibly." Thankfully, Sridhar's latest film 'Yours Emotionally!' has been produced by a UK based production house so no going through the sicko censors this time! Crafty Censors Instead of protecting the citizens, more often the State uses the law to terrorize them and curb their rights. Our censorship guidelines have also been similarly twisted to restrict free speech and discussion of homosexuality. While an in-depth look at the guidelines is needed, Sridhar gave his responses to some of the guidelines under which the committee reviewed 'Gulabi Aaina' and rejected it: - The medium of film remains responsible and sensitive to the values and standards of society. "Nowhere is it mentioned what are these great values and standards of the society that they talk about. It is all a thick cloud in the air that the moral policemen comfortably hide under." - Artistic expression and creative freedom are not unduly curbed. "But that's exactly what they are doing by banning my film. It's utterly ridiculous!" - Certification is responsive to social change. "If they keep refusing certificate to films that are away from the mainstream and attempt to discuss alternate issues, how do they expect any social change to happen? All they want is to maintain a status quo so that none of them will be blamed for taking an issue forward. It's the who-wants-to-bell-the-cat syndrome." - The medium of film provides clean and healthy entertainment. "Just look at all the masala films and skin flicks that get the Censor's nod. Calling it clean and healthy entertainment is a big joke. Take a reality check folks!" - As far as possible, the film is of aesthetic value and cinematically of good standard. "My film has been screened at 57 international film festivals and won Jury Awards for Best Film of the Festival in New York and France. Most of the reviews talk about the sensitive handling of the subject and it has been rated as 'fabulous', 'compelling', 'unique' and even 'an excellent example of Indian cinema' by a Spanish critic. An art historian at Ohio State University compared it to Shyam Benegal's 'Mandi', saying it bridged the gap between 'Fire' and 'Bombay Boys' by "adding that breath of reality". How much more aesthetic and cinematic value can I pump into the film to please the censors? Maybe I should include 5 grisly murders, 3 item numbers and a bevy of half- naked women!" posted by Nitin Karani @ 5:32 AM [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://in.groups.yahoo.com/group/CACDelhi/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: CACDelhi-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.co.in <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://in.docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ From karim at sarai.net Thu May 25 22:46:06 2006 From: karim at sarai.net (Aniruddha Shankar) Date: Thu, 25 May 2006 22:46:06 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] reservations on wikipedia Message-ID: <4475E656.1040702@sarai.net> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 hey all, went to http://en.wikipedia.org and saw that this article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_anti-reservation_protests%2C_2006 is on the front page. Please do visit it and make any edits that you think are necessary. If you have any difficulty making an edit, I would be glad to help you with it. Please also do forward this to other lists that you think might be interested. thanks, Aniruddha Shankar -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.2.2 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFEdeZWhJkrd6A3rSsRAsu8AJwP90Qf+35L7cqwtPZeiAYi/dkyoQCgoBXT 3srVyA+A6XU5BZNYFhgZcR4= =i/IA -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- From uddipana at gmail.com Fri May 26 10:34:47 2006 From: uddipana at gmail.com (Uddipana Goswami) Date: Fri, 26 May 2006 10:34:47 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] apologies for late posting Message-ID: from introspecting after a discussion with vivek at sarai: www.my-guwahati.blogspot.com more to follow on the same subject... From shivamvij at gmail.com Wed May 24 18:42:15 2006 From: shivamvij at gmail.com (Shivam) Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 18:42:15 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] OBC Voice Message-ID: Amidst the din, have a look at these for arguments in favour of reservations on the basis of caste: http://anticaste.blogspot.com/ http://obcvoice.blogspot.com http://nanopolitan.blogspot.com http://claimonnation.blogspot.com/ Thanks, Shivam's ghost From mallroad at gmail.com Thu May 25 16:07:32 2006 From: mallroad at gmail.com (Shivam Vij) Date: Thu, 25 May 2006 16:07:32 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Please JOIN pro-reservation agitation in Delhi In-Reply-To: <9949efb0605230819k70285c8eq81b534d76440fe9d@mail.gmail.com> References: <446F1145.3040702@linux-delhi.org> <9949efb0605230819k70285c8eq81b534d76440fe9d@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <210498250605250337q59b344b3odde97aba0d5e6fe4@mail.gmail.com> Hi Gitika: > Now coming to your point about the issue of caste based reservations. > I am wondering -- do they work? Yes they do! > I am really really keen to know, have caste based > reservations done anything to really propel us towards ensuring education for all. Cate-based reservations do not claim to do that. The idea is to increase the representation of deprived castes and communities in the mainstream. As far as OBCs are concerned, reservations are not purely caste-based, but take into account a lot of other factors: http://www.theotherindia.org/caste/who-decides-who-is-an-obc.html > I remember studying at the University with students > who had did their graduation in Hindi and now got into > the university on reservations, but were expected to study in English all of a sudden. Yes, there needs to be more than just admission-level reservation. There has to be extra training: http://www.theotherindia.org/caste/catchin-up.html > I wondered how reservations would help such bright candidates > (they were fantastic at their job - but they could not write their Masters exams, > which were in English). That does not fault reservations per se. That only means something else is required: English as the medium of instruction in govt schools and /or the freedom to write answers in Hindi and /or extra English training. > I am curious also - do caste based reservations ensure financial scholarships? Often they do, but the presence of these in places like IIT has led to the 'identification' of quota students within the student community and thus caste prejudice. > If not, then do only economically empowered candidates benefit from being SC/ ST as well. Which is not such a great problem as far as I am concerned, because the idea is representation. But there's a contradiction in the argument: if they are economically empowered why aren't they doing as well as the general category students in academics? Surely, there's something else that's inhibiting them? Best, Shivam From mallroad at gmail.com Thu May 25 16:13:49 2006 From: mallroad at gmail.com (Shivam Vij) Date: Thu, 25 May 2006 16:13:49 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Please JOIN pro-reservation agitation in Delhi In-Reply-To: <9949efb0605230819k70285c8eq81b534d76440fe9d@mail.gmail.com> References: <446F1145.3040702@linux-delhi.org> <9949efb0605230819k70285c8eq81b534d76440fe9d@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <210498250605250343q574e5bceg7030cbc4cbc722b6@mail.gmail.com> Hi Gitika: > Now coming to your point about the issue of caste based reservations. > I am wondering -- do they work? Yes they do! > I am really really keen to know, have caste based > reservations done anything to really propel us towards ensuring education for all. Cate-based reservations do not claim to do that. The idea is to increase the representation of deprived castes and communities in the mainstream. As far as OBCs are concerned, reservations are not purely caste-based, but take into account a lot of other factors: http://www.theotherindia.org/caste/who-decides-who-is-an-obc.html > I remember studying at the University with students > who had did their graduation in Hindi and now got into > the university on reservations, but were expected to study in English all of a sudden. Yes, there needs to be more than just admission-level reservation. There has to be extra training: http://www.theotherindia.org/caste/catchin-up.html > I wondered how reservations would help such bright candidates > (they were fantastic at their job - but they could not write their Masters exams, > which were in English). That does not fault reservations per se. That only means something else is required: English as the medium of instruction in govt schools and /or the freedom to write answers in Hindi and /or extra English training. > I am curious also - do caste based reservations ensure financial scholarships? Often they do, but the presence of these in places like IIT has led to the 'identification' of quota students within the student community and thus caste prejudice. > If not, then do only economically empowered candidates benefit from being SC/ ST as well. Which is not such a great problem as far as I am concerned, because the idea is representation. But there's a contradiction in the argument: if they are economically empowered why aren't they doing as well as the general category students in academics? Surely, there's something else that's inhibiting them? Best, Shivam From nc-agricowi at netcologne.de Thu May 25 12:11:18 2006 From: nc-agricowi at netcologne.de (JavaMuseum) Date: Thu, 25 May 2006 08:41:18 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] new interviews and final call Message-ID: <20060525084118.182C1B56.C9AD64B3@127.0.0.1> * [week 12 -28 May 2006] ------------------------------------------------ JIP - JavaMuseum Interview Project http://netex.nmartproject.net/index.php?blog=11 final call/survey--->deadline 1 June 2006 (see further ahead) ---> JIP is featuring this week following 3 interviews with -->Glorious Ninth (UK), Tomasz Konart (Canada) Alvarado Ardevol (Spain) -----> Glorious Ninth is a collaboration between Kate Southworth and Patrick Simons, they produce networked art which is shown nationally and internationally. Tomasz Konart is an inter-media artist interested in the mechanics and function of memory. He applies photography, text, video, film and interactive setups to recreate, simulate or initiate elementary mnemonic processes. As artist, writer, educator and curator he has been active since the seventies in conceptual and experimental art circles across Europe and in North America. Tomasz lives and works in Toronto. Alvarado Ardevol was born in 1958 in Barcelona, where he studied Architecture and Fine Arts. As painter, he made few exhibitions in the eighties and also won some award. He also worked as theatrical designer and collaborated in few short films as actor and writer. Since 1993 he works in Education and devotes himself to the study and experimentation of the new multimedia languages. ---> About JIP - JavaMuseum Interview Project JavaMuseum - Forum for Internet Technology in Contemporary Art www.javamuseum.org/ is currently preparing a new project, entitled: JIP - JavaMuseum Interview Project http://jip.javamuseum.org to be launched in September 2006 Agricola de Cologne, director of JavaMuseum invited for an interview a number professionals & artists active in the field of Internet based art who participated in the "1st phase", the 18 JavaMuseum showcases 2001-2004, in order to spotlight their professional background, activities and visions. ---> Open call /survey---> new deadline 1 June 2006 ---> JIP - JavaMuseum Interview Project issued further an open call survey including 10 questions on Internet based art addressed to professionals and "amateurs", in order to enable a broader discussion about the still undervalued genre of Internet based art through a variety of different approaches, definitions and opinions. New deadline - 1 June 2006 !!!!! The entry rules and the questions (cut & paste) are available on http://netex.nmartproject.net/index.php?blog=11&cat=80 or as PDF as free download http://downloads.nmartproject.net/JIP_10_questions_on_Internet_based_art.pdf JIP - JavaMuseum Interview Project will be released on an ongoing basis, whereby the selection of the most interesting answers can be found a) online on the new project site - http://jip.javamuseum.org , but b) immediately also in form of one interview per week on the new weblog - JIP - JavaMuseum Interview Project http://netex.nmartproject.net/index.php?blog=11 and c) to be published in a printed form at a later stage. ------------------------------------------------------------ Until now interviews /answers by ---> Babel (Canada), Andrea Polli (USA), Jorn Ebner (UK), Roberto Echen (Argentina), Jeremy Hight (USA), Ian Page-Echols (USA), Humberto Ramirez (Chile/USA), Enrico Tomaselli (Italy) Carlos Katastrofsky (Austria), Paivi Hintsanen (Finland) Shankar Barua (India), Luke Duncalfe (New Zealand) FilH (France), Nadja Kutz (Germany), Yvonne Martinsson (Sweden), Avi Rosen (Israel), Letizia Jaccheri (Norway), Tamara Lai (Belgium, tobias c. van Veen (Canada), DLSAN (Italy), Irene Coremberg (Argentina) Carla Della Beffa (Italy), Peter Lind (Denmark), Philippe Langlois (France), Salvatore Iaconesi (Italy), Pat Badani (USA), Calin Man (Romania), Myron Turner (Canada) Domenica Quaranta (Italy), Juan Manuel Patino (Argentina), Alison Williams (South Africa), Rahima Begum (India), Anahi Caceres (Argentina), Raivo Kelomees (Estonia), santo_file (Spain), Sachiko Hayashi (Sweden), Jody Zellen (USA), Caterina Davinio (Italy), Reiner Strasser (Germany) ---> have been issued on http://netex.nmartproject.net/index.php?blog=11 ------------------------------------------------------------ Released by NetEX - networked experience http://netex.nmartproject.net powered by [NewMediaArtProjectNetwork]:||cologne www.nmartproject.net - the experimental platform for art and New Media operating from Cologne/Germany. . info& contact info (at) nmartproject.net _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From cahen.x at levels9.com Fri May 26 14:14:11 2006 From: cahen.x at levels9.com (xavier cahen) Date: Fri, 26 May 2006 10:44:11 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] pourinfos Newsletter / 05-25 to 05-31-2006 Message-ID: <4476BFDB.6030202@levels9.com> pourinfos.org l'actualité du monde de l'art / daily Art news ----------------------------------------------------------------------- From Thursday May 25, 2006 to Wednesday May 31, 2006 (included) ------------------------------------------------------------------- (mostly in french) @ 001 (25/05/2006) Various : the letter of d'ECOUTE_QUE_COÛTE, Radiophonic Workshop, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33215 -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 002 (25/05/2006) Exhibition : Absurdos Paralelos, Ana Patricia Palacios, Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotà, Bogotà, Colombia. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33220 -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 003 (25/05/2006) Publication : runway issue seven :copy , independent artist-run magazine , Strawberry Hills, Australia. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33231 -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 004 (25/05/2006) Call : circulations 2006, Caravan café, Antibes, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33237 -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 005 (25/05/2006) Call : “Arts in the city”, Direction of the Cultural Action of the town of Pontault-Combault , Pontault-Combault, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33238 -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 006 (25/05/2006) Call : Experimenta New Visions Commissions 2006, Melbourne, Australia. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33239 -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 007 (25/05/2006) Call : INPORT - IV International Video-Performance Art Festival, Tallinn, Estonia. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33241 -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 008 (25/05/2006) Call : new performance and video work, Cine Capellini, New York, Usa. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33242 -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 009 (26/05/2006) Meetings : AREAS OF the CONTEMPORARY ART, 26 and May 27, MIX ART MYRYS, Toulouse, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=3043 -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 010 (26/05/2006) Meetings : Low Lights #02, May 26, 2006, Association Basses Lumières, Mains d'oeuvres, Saint-Ouen, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33142 -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 011 (26/05/2006) Meetings : Contemporary English poetry, Friday May 26, 2006, international center of Marseilles poetry, Marseille, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33145 -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 012 (26/05/2006) Meetings: Do you love Brahms? /Dopebase, 26 and di May 27, 2006, laB-o sonore - Musée d'Art Contemporain de Lyon, Lyon, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33172 -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 013 (26/05/2006) Exhibition : The place of utopia, Frederica Marangoni, ISTITUTO ITALIANO DI CULTURA, Madrid, Spain. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33194 -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 014 (27/05/2006) Program : LA MACHINANTE FACTORY, La Machinante MOntreuil, Montreuil, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33141 -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 015 (27/05/2006) Various : Pierre Malphettes, Radiogram, monthly program of radiophonic meetings, Frac Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, Marseille, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33217 -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 016 (28/05/2006) Performance : Les OPA, VINCENT+FERIA, exposition Ambulantes Musée de l'Ouest, Catia, Caracas, Venezuela. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33200 -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 017 (28/05/2006) Screening : William Kentridge, Zelimir Zilnik, le 28 mai 2006, Public Space With A Roof, Amsterdam, Netherlands. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33225 -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 018 (29/05/2006) Publication : Influence, Nuke Magazine #3, Nuke, chez colette, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33179 -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 019 (30/05/2006) Meetings : “The woman does not miss anything”, Lucile Charliac, seminars 2006 cycles psychoanalysis, Tuesday May 30, 2006, Maison Populaire, Montreuil, France. http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=33234 -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 020 The artist and his “models”. Jean-Claude Moineau http://pourinfos.org/encours/item.php?id=3019 L’artiste et ses "modèles". Jean-Claude Moineau http://pourinfos.org/encours/item.php?id=3020 From nitbhag at gmail.com Fri May 26 21:53:39 2006 From: nitbhag at gmail.com (Nitesh Bhatnagar) Date: Fri, 26 May 2006 21:53:39 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Please JOIN pro-reservation agitation in Delhi In-Reply-To: <4473F185.9040900@linux-delhi.org> References: <446F1145.3040702@linux-delhi.org> <4471D9C3.10205@linux-delhi.org> <4473F185.9040900@linux-delhi.org> Message-ID: > Let me introduce you to a new un-word, > sarchasm (särc'kz'am) > 1. (n.) The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the recipient > who doesn't get it. Dear Pankaj, Many thanks for your sarchasm. Let me return the favour by introducing a few phrases to you that are even newer: Firstly, and most importantly, look up 'caste'. Thereafter look up 'social stratification', 'social mobility' and 'endogamy'. The dictionary won't do, certainly not dictionary.com. Look it up on the Wikipedia and other places on the net. I can send you some links if you so wish as I have been spending quality time reading up on them. No more sarchasm please, My own ghost From penguinhead at linux-delhi.org Sat May 27 15:24:00 2006 From: penguinhead at linux-delhi.org (Pankaj kaushal) Date: Sat, 27 May 2006 15:24:00 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Please JOIN pro-reservation agitation in Delhi In-Reply-To: References: <446F1145.3040702@linux-delhi.org> <4471D9C3.10205@linux-delhi.org> <4473F185.9040900@linux-delhi.org> Message-ID: <447821B8.1000504@linux-delhi.org> Nitesh Bhatnagar wrote: > Many thanks for your sarchasm. Let me return the favour by introducing > a few phrases to you that are even newer: Thanks, but no thanks. > Firstly, and most importantly, look up 'caste'. Thereafter look up > 'social stratification', 'social mobility' and 'endogamy'. The > dictionary won't do, certainly not dictionary.com. Look it up on the What if I asked you to search for "macroformats" and "multivalued class attributes?" Look it up the wikipedia and there you go, you're a leet web monkey. If you want me to understand the matter from your viewpoint, please put in a little more effort than pointing me to wikipedia. > Wikipedia and other places on the net. I can send you some links if Just remember, It must be true because I read it on the Internet. P. -- Wir wollen dass ihr uns alles glaubt. From subbaghosh at hotmail.com Sat May 27 20:56:07 2006 From: subbaghosh at hotmail.com (subba ghosh) Date: Sat, 27 May 2006 20:56:07 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Banish religion Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060527/d0aec76b/attachment.html From ysaeed7 at yahoo.com Sun May 28 00:46:25 2006 From: ysaeed7 at yahoo.com (Yousuf) Date: Sat, 27 May 2006 12:16:25 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Banish religion In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <20060527191626.68130.qmail@web51403.mail.yahoo.com> Are castism and racism a product of religion or of the competition for survival? Will competition die if we banish the religions and god? --- subba ghosh wrote: --------------------------------- Dalits vs OBCs vs Upper castes; Hindus vs Islam vs Christianity vs Sikhism; Shias vs Sunnis; Christianity vs Islam; Jews vs the muslim world, Catholics vs protestants .. The root cause of this anomaly is the over-subscription to organized religion. The morass of political correctness and religion- centric debates, rhetoric, policies and politics is one of the primary reasons for the increasing suffering and deaths all over the world. It is ridiculous that thousands of innocents are being slaughtered (from Gujarat to middle east) on the basis of imagined beings (gods) their so called messages and superstitious practices being proclaimed by hordes of self seeking representatives. The aberration of casteism is the product of this. Banish religion and its advocacy from the public domain and return its (religion) practice to the private fold Let the rule of law prevail. Maybe affirmative action and social justice will be better served if it is based on class rather than caste. SUBBA GHOSH> _________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and > the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to > reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in the > subject header. > List archive: __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From shivamvij at gmail.com Sun May 28 19:43:18 2006 From: shivamvij at gmail.com (Shivam) Date: Sun, 28 May 2006 19:43:18 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] reservation on the moon In-Reply-To: References: <20060524162402.80268.qmail@web51410.mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: Yousuf, I've got this message from 4 different people by now. My reply is below, but I wonder if this 'forward' was also a creation of Genesis PR, the company allegedly hired by Youth for Equality, and which allegedly circulated fake sms-es about 96 students collapsing at AIIMS and a gag on the media to cover this. Anyway, here's my response: Manmohan Singh said to George Bush - We are sending Indians to the moon next year. Bush - "Wow! How Many?" Manmohan Singh - "about 100 - and in the following order: 35 - Brahmins (all sub-castest and communities) 30 - Baniyas (all sub-castest and communities) 20 - Kshatria (all sub-castest and communities) 11 - all other upper castes 2 - OBCs 1 - SCs 1 - STs 0 - Astronauts Best, Shivam On 5/24/06, Yousuf wrote: > Manmohan Singh said to George Bush - We are sending > Indians to the moon next year. > > Bush - "Wow! How Many?" > > Manmohan Singh - "about 100 - and in the following > order: > > 25 - OBC > > 25 - SC > > 20 - ST > > 5 - Handicapped > > 5 - Sports Persons > > 5 - Terrorist Affected > > 5 - Kashmiri Migrants > > 9 - Politicians > > and if possible > > 1 - Astronaut From shivamvij at gmail.com Sun May 28 19:41:13 2006 From: shivamvij at gmail.com (Shivam) Date: Sun, 28 May 2006 19:41:13 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Spin doctors? Message-ID: Nothing's wrong with 'Youth for Equality' having hired Genesis ( http://indiapr.blogspot.com/2006/05/pr-and-medical-students-strike.html ) or whatever PR agency they hired. In the interest of transperancy, they indeed may want to clarify this, and also where they got the money from. But what is wrong here is that the PR company allegedly sent fake SMS-es ( http://www.ibnlive.com/news/got-an-antiquota-sms-its-a-hoax/11079-3.html ) that 96 students had collapsed in the hunger strike at AIIMS and another message that one had died, and that the media was not being allowed to cover such news ( http://www.ibnlive.com/news/sms-claims-media-gag-on-quota-stir/10851-3.html ). Now that's wrong. There are of course those ( http://www.theotherindia.org/media/mamma-will-give-you-a-kit-kat.html ) who don't have the funds to hire PR agencies to get their message across. That does not mean they should not be heard. Best, Shivam Cause & EFFECT There are suggestions that a PR firm has a role in the reservation drama The issue has left ugly scars as students from reserved category say they are looked down upon by others By Anupam Thapa It can't get any queerer. The latest on the reservation hullabaloo is that a Gurgaon-based public relations company has been hired to spruce up the cause of the striking doctors. This, apparently, happened just a couple of days ago, before the government announced the implementation of reservation for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) from 2007. While it sure sounds stunning, the details of who is funding the PR operation are still unknown. It's a tight-lipped affair handled by that division of the company, which interacts with the government. Vested interest While the doctors' tussle with the government gets dramatic by the day — with Rang De Basanti flavour, and support coming in from across the country, one wonders if some vested group is adding fuel to the fire in the minds of the agitating doctors and using them for its own benefit? Is the work of the PR firm to lobby and gain support for the cause in the government and get some policy changes done, to help its clients? Ugly scars Meanwhile, the reservation issue has left ugly scars in the campus as well as in the hospitals. According to a PG student of Lady Hardinge Medical College, "Everybody looks down upon you if you are a reserved category student. We have problems in vivas, thesis, everywhere. There is competition even within the reserved category. With the kind of marks I scored in my PG entrance, I could have easily got admission to a PG course even if I was competing as a general category doctor." He adds that after entry into the medical college, reservation doesn't help much "as a student has to pass all the exams to become a doctor and passing marks are same for all. So, you cannot question the merit of a doctor from a reserved category" We've all been keenly following the reservation drama. Is it really stage managed? From shivamvij at gmail.com Sun May 28 20:53:16 2006 From: shivamvij at gmail.com (Shivam) Date: Sun, 28 May 2006 20:53:16 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] The middle class and the welfare state Message-ID: Some more on reservations. * I wish I could agree with the conclusions that Vir Sanghvi draws to in this essay: "Could it be that the middle class has matured? That we have realised that most of India is not like us? That the vast majority of Indians have not benefited from India Shining and that it is only fair that the government redirects some of the country's new-found prosperity towards those whom the boom has left untouched? My guess is yes; the middle class has finally come of age. We are less selfish and more mature than we have ever been. And we have come to terms with the paradoxes and contradictions of India." [Link: http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1702508,00300001.htm] * Everyone's read and heard Pratap Bhanu Mehta and others of the Knowledge Commission. However, two of the Commission's six members, Jayati Ghose and Dr PM Bhargava, supported the government's proposal. Dr Bharagav tells Rediff: "Today, the middle class is not concerned about anything; they are bothered only about themselves. They are not concerned about public social welfare. They always think how our children can make money and live happily. They fight for their rights, but when it comes to the upliftment of depressed classes like the OBCs, STs and SCs, the middle class turn away and say that looking after the poor and downtrodden is the government's business." [Link: http://www.rediff.com/news/2006/may/23inter1.htm] * Outlook editor Vinod Mehta makes a similar point: "[…] the passion-charged street power and the virulent rhetoric against reservations should be seen as part of a larger, disturbing pattern. India's smug, selfish, self-centred, satiated middle class, fattened on the fruits of the booming economy, is positively hostile to any policy which sets out to empower the poor. Over 900 million of our citizens live on less than Rs 90 a day. Of this, 300 million live on less than Rs 45 a day. Meanwhile, 200 million privileged have decided that these citizens must remain roughly where they are—or wait till the enormous wealth the rich, the ultra rich and the nouveau rich are accumulating trickles down. This is an obscenity. No fancy economic formulation can hide this appalling reality of India 2006. [Read the complete essay: http://outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20060605&fname=Col+Vinod+%28F%29&sid=1] * "Merit" is conditional to opprtunities. Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar writes: "The canteen boy who brings me tea may be more intelligent than me, and so too may be the man shining shoes on the roadside. But they were born in the wrong family, and never had access to good education or economic opportunities. So they remain on the fringes of society. "Meanwhile, lesser beings like me dominate society, on the spurious claim that we are the most meritorious. What gall! We got good marks because we had the most educated parents, the best books, and went to the best schools and colleges. "But others far more meritorious are rotting without education or opportunity in the slums and villages of India. In a fair and just society, the top two million or so positions would be occupied by people with an IQ of over 135. Lesser folk like me (and most striking doctors) would be just clerks or labourers." [Link: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1581082,curpg-2.cms] * The answer is to give them opportunities, not reservations, say the anti-reservationists. Aiyar tries to make the same point. I don't dispute that. But while that takes its time, reservations lowers the entry bar a bit to ensure that some of those who didn't have the means to acquire "merit" are given a chance. Such a special measure becomes indispensable when you are looking at addressing an insurmountable as caste: [1] http://www.theotherindia.org/caste/caste-social-mobility-and-the-progressive-indian.html [2] http://www.theotherindia.org/general/the-superposition-of-endogamy-on-exogamy-means-the-creation-of-caste.html From shivamvij at gmail.com Sun May 28 21:17:21 2006 From: shivamvij at gmail.com (Shivam) Date: Sun, 28 May 2006 21:17:21 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] More on the spin doctors Message-ID: An email I got from someone called Partha Sarathi: 13 reasons why the medico inspired equality is failing License to Kill: Doctors have blatantly violated their fundamental principles of medical service: the Hippocratic code. They have repeatedly called for strikes putting innocent patients in danger. The strike has led to seven confirmed deaths in the first phase itself. Media support has ensured that no more deaths are reported although on 25th they had a total pan-India strike – anyone can imagine how many seeking treatment would have died. Gimmicks: Cheap antics like asking people to come to AIIMS because a medico had died due to the hunger strike and that the media was not reporting it are a sure sign of desperation. Apart from being a flat lie. Obfuscation: To offset criticism of their dereliction of duty, they have been clever to concurrently start a hunger strike – by rotation, ensuring none of their mates ever faces the dangers they are making patients face. The moment one doctor on hunger strike faints, they rush them to the ICU. While the ICU is unavailable for the people who genuinely need ICU attention. Hunger Strike: A hunger strike, with coolers, continuous supply of water, an unending line of friends, comrades to cheer you up, where you can read 'You Can Win' by Shiv Khera and where you can enjoy unadulterated media attention is difficult to buy. Ask Medha Patkar. Police brutality: It is one thing to be silently in meditative pose and be attacked and quite another for 500 people to insist on seeing Arjun Singh all together in a Section 144 limited area. Similarly, if we accept the Maharashtra police attack as brutal, be honest and tell us you didn't want just that. Additional seats, no additional logic: Even though the number of seats have been increased to dent the campaign, there is insistence on continuing the strike for no logical reason now. Even the PM had to say: there is no issue now. Caste campaign: To justify the continuation, what started off as a clamour for safeguarding precious seats has now become a childish filmy campaign for social justice – for the upper castes! Now apparently the Brahamin Samaj is also holding rallies! Want your cake and eat it too: Doctors will not give up their jobs; won't do their job and won't let anyone else do it. This can never succeed. Delhi delight: In spite of total support in the metros, Doctors do not choose to go into the heartland and convince the backwards to join them. They are hanging around in Delhi trying to convince the convinced. What's stopping them from campaigning where it matters? The inconvenience of running this campaign in Gonda, obviously. And no media to watch! Political backers: The IMA (Indian Medical Association) is known to have a politburo of graying Doctors who harbour ambitions for public life. What could be better than a little muscle flexing to show political party leaders that you have weight. Cannon fodder: The Docs don't need a job; they are safe. It's the poor medical students that the IMA is using as cannon fodder to keep this movement going. Hey! did you see anybody from the IMA and the DMA in the firing line of the police lathis? Or the hunger strike? No chance. Doctors or Event managers: The effort of trying to keep this movement going is telling on the kids to the extent they have become consummate Event managers thinking of one dramatic sequence after another. Navjot Sidhu, Shiv Khera even a Ram Lila with Ravan et all. This does not go down well with the public after a time. Shifting stands: What started out as a clamour to save the 36 seats in say AIIMS, changed to anti-caste campaigning to save India and has today changed once again: the latest email from the group for the 27th rally says in bold capitals in the third line, " We don't say no to reservations, but…". Well then, what's fight about? From bastos.marcus at gmail.com Fri May 26 18:45:52 2006 From: bastos.marcus at gmail.com (marcus bastos) Date: Fri, 26 May 2006 10:15:52 -0300 Subject: [Reader-list] liquid narratives @ - empyre - in JUNE Message-ID: Liquid Narratives @ - empyre - the topic of June at the - empyre - mailing list will be Liquid Narratives. The concept of 'liquid narrative' is interesting in that it allows to think about the unfoldings of contemporary languages beyond tech achievements, by relating user controlled applications with formats such as the essay (as described by Adorno in "Der Essay als Form", The essay as a form) and procedures related to the figure of the narrator (as described by Benjamin in his writings about Nikolai Leskov), among others. How does the concept of narrative is related to comtemporary culture? Can we really describe nowadays fragmentary and user related procedures of organizing data as narratives? Should they be considered liquid, since they are fluid, reshapable, pliable? How does devices such as the GPS and mobile phones change narrative? How technologies broadband internet and DVD allow other modes of organizing them? To debate this topic, this month, we welcome Dene Grigar, Lúcia Santaella, James Barret and Sérgio Basbaum. They will discuss how their projects and ideas can be related to the notion of 'liquid narratives', or explain how they have been thinking about connected concepts. + subscribe https://mail.cofa.unsw.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/empyre + guests Dene Grigar (http://www.nouspace.net/dene/) is an Associate Professor of English at Texas Woman's University and specializes in new media, interactive arts and electronic literature. Her book "New Worlds, New Words: Exploring Pathways In and About Electronic Environments" (with John Barber, Hampton Press, 2001) speculates about the ways in which writing and thinking change when moved to electronic environments. She is Associate Editor of Leonardo Reviews and International Editor for Computers and Composition. Her second book, "Defiance and Decorum: Women, Public Rhetoric, and Activism" (with Laura Gray and Kay Robinson) looks at the way women have used Rhetoric to achieve social and political goals. James Barret (http://soulsphincter.blogspot.com/) is PhD at Umeå University (Sweden). He works between the Department of Modern Languages and HUMlab, an interdisciplinary digital lab and studio. He researches narrative and textuality, focusing on stories using new media, their interpretation by peoples and cultures. Lucia Santaella is full professor at São Paulo Catholic University (PUCSP), PhD in Literary Theory (1973-PUCSP) and Livre-docente in Communication Studies (1993-ECA/USP). She is the director of CIMID, Center of Research in Digital Media, PUCSP, and also the director of the Center for Peircean Studies. She directed the Brazilian side of a PROBRAL research project (Brasil-Germany/Capes-DAAD) on word and image relations in the media, from 2000 to 2003. She was also the director of other collective research projects: "Technical Images: from the industrial mechanical to the electronic post industrial world", PUC/SP-FINEP, 1989-1991; a thematic research project on "The advent of new technologies and the new sound grammars", financed by FAPESP, 1992-1995; the collective project, "Production and diffusion of scientific research in the digital era", financed by FAPESP, 1999-2002. Sergio Roclaw Basbaum (http://www.globalstrike.net) is PhD in Communication and Semiotics and professor at São Paulo Catholic University (PUCSP). He is author of the book "Syneathesia, art and technology - the foundations of Chromossonics" (Annablume, 2002). His PhD thesis, "The primacy of perception and its consequences to the media environment" , discusses topics such as perception, art and the relation of technology and contemporary culture. As a musician, he has released the brazilian jazz album "Captain Nemo in the All Saint's Forro" (1999). --------------------------------------------------- Marcus Bastos http://pfebril.net http://www.pucsp.br/~marcusbastos From daljitami at rediffmail.com Sun May 28 14:33:03 2006 From: daljitami at rediffmail.com (daljit ami) Date: 28 May 2006 09:03:03 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Celluloid and Compact Disks in Punjab Message-ID: <20060528090303.25254.qmail@webmail18.rediffmail.com> Hello every body Meeting Amarjot Bhasin, Executive Producer, Choice turn out to be very god interaction in order to understand the Compact Disk trend in Punjab. Choice is a Ludhiana based company which deals with production and whole sale distribution of Audio and Videos. Amarjot has the experience of marketing and production. He was able to comment on the over all trend, its audience and production stakes. With the introduction of Compact Disk in market films became assessable for those who don’t afford to go to theatre and who don’t have their own Video Cassette players. In the beginning when manufacturing was foreign based, Malaysia and Singapore the manufacturing cost of Compact Disk used to sixty to seventy rupees with additions of transportation, commissions and profit the MRP used to be between 400 to 500 rupees. When the manufacturing started in India the whole cost and prices collapsed like any thing, Delhi based production costs 20-25 rupees and MRP happens to be 100 to 150. The local manufacturing contributed to further reduction in prices. With manufacturing costs decreased to 15-16 the MRP became 55 to 65 per compact disk. Now the manufacturing cost is Rs. 8/- which gives lower MRP i.e. Rs. 35/-. The phenomenon of media (CD) prices is not isolated from the prices of VCD Player. Branded VCD Player by any company used to cost above six thousand rupees. Local made VCD players made the prices crash down to fifteen to twenty hundred. Now the prices of VCD players are 1000 to 1200 rupees. This crash in prices created new buyers for the unfamiliar item. Those who were fed up with monotonous television programming and do not have the option of multi channel television network or theatre became the automatic buyer. This enable buyer and experiment in short film were perfect in timing with each other. Earlier VCD of films made on celluloid was available in the market, video music was there but local made film to be circulated on new medium turn out to be new entry. Amarjot told that with the successful experiment of two short films the market become glutted within no time. Many people tried their hand on the film as the lower production costs enabled them to produce. Amarjot watched this phenomenon very closely and he feels that these films were of comprehensively low quality but they utilised the vacuum in the market. He found that it was really difficult to connect with the silly characters. The sudden demand made available saleable and give the impression of desirability. Every company produced or purchased from the producers to meet the demand. The companies purchased the films in the range of one lakh to seven lakhs. This trend was short lived and crashed VCD player’s way. Amarjot made it a point that many producer invested money for profit but very soon they found no buyer. He shares that some producers very ready to give films without any money they just wanted companies to release these films under their banners and pay according to sale. This phenomenon was mainly rural based and buyer got fed up with monotony very soon. Market reached the saturation point. Poorly made ‘social’ films were no more in demand, comedy replaced. Market enabled producers were no more in demand. Now it was time for established comedians to try their hand. Amarjot produced four comedy films with established comedians, Jaspal Bhatti as one of them. The production cost of these films in high due to star cast. These cost six lakh to sixteen lakh depending upon the cast. The comedy trend is not rural or area specific it is pan Punjab trend reaching rural and urban audience. Amarjot support his argument about the poor quality of films with whom the trend started by the fact that many company were not ready to produce this sub standard stuff under their ‘prestigious banners’ so they floated new companies for such productions. Choice as mother company floated ‘Ting Ling’, ‘Desi Tunes’ and ‘Amrit Sagar’ for different kind of productions. Plasma started Grind music, Velocity Records started Music Velocity, Speed started B-line and Music waves started 4sure Music. These new companies were floated to release region or genre specific productions but very soon it turn out to be division of work and tax saving exercise. Regards, Daljit Ami -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060528/56d4f778/attachment.html From kamal_bhu at rediffmail.com Mon May 29 05:21:53 2006 From: kamal_bhu at rediffmail.com (Kamal Kumar Mishra) Date: 28 May 2006 23:51:53 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] 5th post : the career of an ealy ... Message-ID: <20060528235153.8003.qmail@webmail62.rediffmail.com>   The Career of an early Hindi Jasoosi / Detective fiction writer; GOPAL RAM GAHMARI (1866-1946). Famous Hindi Jasoosi fiction writer Gopal Ram Gahmari was born in Bara, distt. Gazipur in 1866. He was the only son of Ram Narayan. Both, his grandfather and great grandfather were textile merchants. After passing Middle from Gahmar (Gazipur) in 1879, Gopal Ram Gahmari started teaching in Gahmar School. Due to his young age and poor financial situation he could not go for further studies. Gahmari tried to master Urdu and English during the next four years of his teaching in that school. He took admission in Patna Normal School later on, but left the three- year course half way to join as head pundit in Betiya Maharaj School. For some time he looked after Bandobast in Balia as well. In 1888 he passed Normal exam with first division. In 1889 he was appointed head pundit in Rohtasgarh Middle School. After one year he went to Bombay to work as a writer for Seth Khemraj Shreekrishna Das where he worked until 1899. Gopal Ram Gahmari had reported the famous Tilak trial also. Gahmari went to Calcutta as an editor of Bharat Mitra.In 1900 he came back to Gahmar to start monthly‘Jasoos’(Detective). For the next forty years,through“jasoos”,Gahmari made tremendous contribution to the genre. Gahmari wrote and translated more than 150 detective fictions in Hindi. His writings included plays, poetry n a few texts on spirituality. Through his writings Gahmari always tried to propagate a simple and easy Hindi. He never liked to write in a Sanskritized language. When it comes to the question of using Khari Boli or Braj Bhasha, Gahmari sided with Sridhar Pathak and supported Khari Boli. Gahmari even tried to convince Pratap Narayan Mishra,the supporter of Braj Bhasha, on that issue and succeeded. In his later days Gahmari started living in Benaras where he kept on writing interesting memoirs for newspapers n magazines. Gahmari died on 20th june 1946 in Benaras. Here are the titles of some of Gahmari’s original jasoosi/ detective novels written between 1890 n 1940 - 1)ajib laash 2) gupt bhed 3) guptchar 4) dabal jasoos 5)khooni kaun hai 6) gaadi men khoon 7) jasoos ki bhool 8)andhe ki ankh 9)jasoos ki chori 10) kile men khoon 11) jasoos par jasoos 12) bhayankar chori 13) roop sanyasi 14) latakti laash 15) kotwal ka khoon 16) hum hawalat men 17) khooni 18) thagon ka thath 19) laash kiski hai 20) ankhon dekhi ghatna 21) khooni ka bhed 22) matopato 23) hatya Krishna 24) apradhi ki chalaki 25) sundar veni 26) apni ram kahani 27) vikat bhed 28) jasoos ki vijay 29) murde ki janch 30) mem ki laash 31) jasoos ki jawanmardi 32) jasoosi par 33)jaisa munh vaisa thappar 34) sarvar ki suragarsani 35) khooni ki chalaki 36) chandi ka chakkar 37) ghusan lal daroga 38) bhitar ka bhed 39) dhurandhar jasoos 40) hamari diary 41) Khooni ki khoj 42) jasoos ki diary 43)jasoos ki budhhi 44) kaidi ki karamat 45) devi nahin danvi 46) ladki ki chori 47) sohni gayab 48) doctor ki kahani 49) keshbai 50) ketaki ki shadi 51) ghar ka bhedi 52) nema 53) yog mahima 54)arth ka anarth 55) mare hue ki maut 56) bhayankar chori 57) dekhi hui ghatna 58) jasoos jagannath 59) nagad narayan 60) dakait kaluram 61) bhyankar bhed 62) swyambara 63) bhandaphor 64)rahasya viplav 65) holi ka harjhog 66) jamindaron ka julm. There is a whole list of his translated and adapted works as well. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060528/27fd3c17/attachment.html From peerzadaarshad at yahoo.com Fri May 26 13:19:37 2006 From: peerzadaarshad at yahoo.com (peerzada arshad) Date: Fri, 26 May 2006 00:49:37 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Voices Unheard In-Reply-To: <9949efb0605172140v4b42cc00x8e055a6495c48e04@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <20060526074937.60914.qmail@web54603.mail.yahoo.com> Thankyou Gitika for your interest in my research. Being a reporter i have tried my level best to do the research objectively. i have not used the real names as it would have a negative impact on the future of subjects. i have mentioned the incidents when few people were reluctant. But some people (read psychiatric patients) were eager to share their experiences. They were of the view that it would help others to come forward to seek medical advice. i have spend my five years in the field of reporting. In the conflict zone , one gets enough time to report sufferings and tragedies, so that way it was esay for me to identify the cases. i follow the method of interviewing and that is the only effective tool when one has to work on ground. for further queries mail me at peerzadaarshad at gmail.com -- Peerzada Arshad Hamid +91-9419027486 +91-1932-234488 Address Baba mohalla Bijbehara c/o Tak Trading Company Bijbehara Jammu & Kashmir INDIA www.kashmirnewz.com Gitika Talwar wrote: Dear Arshad Thank you for choosing an extremely interesting topic for research, and also for visibilising the mental health status in Kashmir. It is likely to be extremely beneficial for many people who are concerned about mental health services (both mainstream and otherwise) and their impact in dealing with mental illness. There are a few questions about your study that I MUST ask though: 1) What role does confidentiality play in your study? are the names you provide, real names ? if they are real names, do the subjects know you will be providing these names on a public list ? 2) Is there a way by which you could veil the identities of those you interview? Especially in the context of a society that fiercely guards its mental health and mental illness status, perhaps methods to obtain data and yet assure confidentiality will help you 3) I am curious also about whether volunteering at a hospital could help you. You might learn a lot through observation too, also people might get the chance to trust you because they have seen you around. 4) What do the subjects get from you for telling you their stories? I often wonder, when I do research as well, why anyone must tell me their story unless they have something to gain -- be it catharsis or some other goal such as 'better treatment', anything. Have you had a chance to think about it? 5) How do you go about finding subjects as of now? What method do you follow? I mean how do you decide who to interview and how do you convince people to sit for an interview. In case you have mentioned methodology before, please could you paste just that part again. Hope to hear from you soon, All the best for your project! Warmest Regards, Gitika Talwar Programme Associate Bapu Trust - Center for Mental Health Advocacy and Research www.camhindia.org _________________________________________ reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. Critiques & Collaborations To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in the subject header. List archive: --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Next-gen email? Have it all with the all-new Yahoo! Mail Beta. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060526/c8e9f59b/attachment.html From kubers at gmail.com Fri May 26 23:44:57 2006 From: kubers at gmail.com (Kuber Sharma) Date: Fri, 26 May 2006 23:44:57 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Please JOIN pro-reservation agitation in London Message-ID: Join them at Picadilly Square... ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Kuber Sharma Date: May 26, 2006 2:45 AM Subject: Starting our Agitation Dear Friends, Jaibheem Indians Campaign for claim on all Nations has decided to start its campaign on 29th May evening by holding a public meeting in favour of reservation in LSE. From 30th morning we will start our Dharna in front of Picadilly Square in London. Some of us will go on hunger strike. We will start with relay hunger strike with more students joining in. The aim of our hunger strike and dharna is to mobilise more indians, youths as well as other professionals to come out in support of Reservation policy and to oppose the nationalist biases of Media, Academia and black mail of nationalist Britishers and also to force Blair government to fulfill its obligation effectively. We are in contact with pro-reservation students from different parts of the old empire. Many of them have assured their participation in our protest in London. Within a week we are hoping to have students from each one of the ex colonies of Great Britain sitting on hunger strike and dharna in London. Right now our plan is to focus our protest in London only. Given our limited means it will be appropriate for us to focus our agitation at one place. With the time period gradually we can coordinate with students from other part of the world and bring all of us under one Umbrella and make concerted efforts. We call students from various part of the old empire to flood London in coming days. We are small group of students without any financial means so it is must that those students who can afford traveling and staying in London should come. The only thing we can do is to provide them the space in our rooms for their stay. It is most important that our intellectuals and scholars should join us. We appeal to them to come to London and at least stay with us for one day. This will boost our confidence and help us to mobilise more support from Indian community. We also appeal our professionals to come to London, if possible, or support us in what ever way they feel they can. TOGETHER ALL OF US CAN REALLY BRING DESIRED CHANGES IN THE SOCIETY The main rationale behind our agitation are 1. Stupid Indian reservationists has provided us a golden opportunity to bring caste and national discourse in mainstream. As we all are aware of the fact that British media, accademia and civil society always maintain conspiratory silence on horrors of colonial period and always try to hide nation based discrimination and inequality in the name of merit. In fact they have till now successfully denied us the space to speak, raise our concernssince independence. Now they only, by default, have provided us an opportunity to organise and fight discrimination; 2. This is also an historic opportunity for us to pressurise British government to take stock of its measures for empowerment of underprivileged Indians and demand effective implementation of such government policies; 3. To oppose elitist and castist biases in educational system of UK and to bust the myth of British merit. Just because we our PCI is so much lesser, we should not pay full fee at any British Acdemic Institution. 4. And the most important point is to take revenge for over two centuries of British exploitation of our fine nation. It is high time that we demand effective reforms for Indians. OUR DEMANDS 1. The British Government must fulfill its constitutional obligations by implementing reservations for all Indians in all government jobs, private or government educational institutions,army,judiciary and super speciality courses. 2. The British Government should also make legal provisions for reservation in private sector for underprivileged Indians. 3. The British Government must bring out a White Paper on reservation policy. It is must so as to know how far it has been implemented. It is fact that not even 50 % of reservation is being fulfilled by ruling white class of UK. They have denied us the maximum benefits of reservation policy till now. 4. Effective land reforms are must for empowerment of Indians. So we demand government to carry land reforms in every part of the UK and not just southall. 5. We also demand to amend nationalist & elitist biases in their education system by a. redesigning the syllabuses to generate awareness about colonisation of India; b. providing non-british, anti-caste icons prominent space and to remove completely britishl myths and misconceptions, taught to us, in the name of International History and Culture. c. Ban all classes at Oxford and Cambridge. d. Restructuring competitive exams to remove biases that favours elite class/caste students e. compulsory couses of history, political science, sociology for students from technical and professional institutes. f. More recruitment of faculties in premier institutions from Indian background to correct the caste imbalance and to break the monopoly of british people over such institutions and to provide opportunity for blossoming of real merit, efficiency and excellence. g. Higher education must be provided in Hindi and Punjabi or all primary schools must be in Telugu medium h. Government must spend 10% of GDP on Education focusing on quality primary education for underprivileged 6. We demand punishment for anti-reservation protesters for hurting sentiments and showing their castist nature by sweeping roads, cleaning shoes and raising castist slogans. 7. We condemn castist Indian media for instigating the protest against reservations and providing space to biased. one-sided, castist coverage. We also demand for punishment of journalists, cartoonist, editors for making fun of Indians and casting aspersion on the merit of Indians without any concrete proof or datas and thus showing its true castist nature. JAI BHEEM signed/- STUDENTS' CAMPAIGN FOR CLAIM ON BRITISH NATION Contact Kuber - 9818304469 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060526/2cb7f414/attachment.html From indlinux at gmail.com Mon May 29 08:40:53 2006 From: indlinux at gmail.com (G Karunakar) Date: Mon, 29 May 2006 08:40:53 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] reservation on the moon In-Reply-To: References: <20060524162402.80268.qmail@web51410.mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <773e2c260605282010x7a58ef3o9b4c37b494e86698@mail.gmail.com> On 5/28/06, Shivam wrote: > > Yousuf, > > I've got this message from 4 different people by now. My reply is > below, but I wonder if this 'forward' was also a creation of Genesis > PR, the company allegedly hired by Youth for Equality, and which > allegedly circulated fake sms-es about 96 students collapsing at AIIMS > and a gag on the media to cover this. > > Anyway, here's my response: > > Manmohan Singh said to George Bush - We are sending Indians to the > moon next year. > > Bush - "Wow! How Many?" > > Manmohan Singh - "about 100 - and in the following order: > > 35 - Brahmins (all sub-castest and communities) if going by pot bellied, then none will clear the fitness tests! 30 - Baniyas (all sub-castest and communities) they will never want to, since they know their arent any returns from there! 20 - Kshatria (all sub-castest and communities) they wont have anyone on moon to show their strength upon, apart from fighting among themselves. 11 - all other upper castes > 2 - OBCs > 1 - SCs > 1 - STs > 0 - Astronauts i dont think there are any trained astronauts in india! IIRC, the mission is supposed to be a unmanned one, where ISRO will be experimenting putting a satellite around the moon instead of the earth, they are already experts on putting them in orbit around earth, now they have learnt to give it a small kick so it goes to the moon!. (just a small sarcastic seriousness to the sarcastic humour going!) K -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060529/016263a2/attachment.html From rakshat at gmail.com Fri May 26 18:22:35 2006 From: rakshat at gmail.com (rakshat hooja) Date: Fri, 26 May 2006 18:22:35 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] long overdue post on Resident Welfare Associations Message-ID: <69a2e4550605260552n9482efel5b8b27ede8a4c215@mail.gmail.com> This is a long long overdue post. Its been a while since I posted any update on my I-Fellow Project on Resident Welfare Association & Urban Stakeholder Activism, but in this post I will try to discuss one specific issue, that I find very interesting and has cropped up during my initial surveys, meetings and discussions. This issue is – Role of Women in RWA's -> One of my reasons for choosing the issue of RWA activism for further investigation was that whenever I visited any of my friends or relatives and had a chance to talk to the parents/ older generation (i.e. aunts and uncles) the working of the RWA used to invariably become a topic of conversation. The interesting part was that it was the women (mothers and aunts) who were more vocal and talked about the facilities being made available/ not being made available in great detail. Based on the above, I had assumed that women would be playing a very important role in the functioning of the RWA and would also be holding a lot of the office bearer posts. (I also assumed that some of them being home makers would have more time). I was initially surprised when I, for the first time, carefully looked at the list of RWA main office bearers of the colony where I am living in a rented accommodation (C9 Vasant Kunj) and found no women members. But I was even more surprised by my findings when I conducted informal interviews in the Kalkaji Extension area (Pocket A 14). My initial contact in Kalkaji was a lady (Flat No 58) and through her I got to meet a few other ladies in the colony. Through them I was hoping to learn quite a bit about RWA functioning in the area, and I did, but what I found unusual were their views on attending RWA meetings and the decision making process of the RWA. Though they did attend some of the RWA meetings, they felt that most of the main decisions were taken by the men in the colony. (And they seemed ok with it). "Male dominated" and "the men decide" were some of the phrases used by the women. The women were satisfied with the working of the RWA though not thrilled but did have some minor grievances. For example, the RWA had set up a uniform system of garbage collection from the houses. This did not suit many of the women /residents. But when they tried to make private arrangements the RWA did not allow it. The women also felt that because the RWA was male-dominated they were not very comfortable about raising issues that only they felt strongly about. After the interviews in Kalkaji Extension, I went through the newspaper/ web articles about RWA that I am collecting and realized that though there are some comments by women RWA members in the newspapers, the men do seem to be taking the lead in most of the activities / government interactions / agitations organized by the RWAs. (For example, Water Harvesting initiatives, agitations on house tax, highlighting water problems etc.[I have gone through the newspaper and web articles in a cursory manner at present, and will look at them in detail in due course]). I feel that the role of women in RWAs is an issue that needs to be explored further (as there may be other RWAs where women are much more active), and I will do so as my work progresses. I had used the 'stakeholder activism' concept based on my earlier work on rural development (in Rajasthan) where, on being provided a multi-stake holder platform, the rural women had become much more vocal and started to actively participate in the development activities. I had assumed that in urban areas women will be participating anyway in any kind of stake holder activism (as I have visualized RWAs activities to be). But my initial findings have left me quite surprised. -- -------------- Please use Firefox as your web browser. Its protects you from spyware and is also a very feature rich browser. www.firefox.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060526/025793d6/attachment.html From shivamvij at gmail.com Sat May 27 02:10:48 2006 From: shivamvij at gmail.com (Shivam) Date: Sat, 27 May 2006 02:10:48 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Mamma will give you a Kit Kat! Message-ID: ( Apologies for cross posting this from http://www.theotherindia.org/media/mamma-will-give-you-a-kit-kat.html ) The mainstream media never told you that over 200 doctors protest in favour of reservations at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences every day between 1 to 2 pm. visited AIIMS today, unfortunately after 2 pm. The pro-reservation doctors have organised themselves into group called "Medicos Forum for Equal Opportunity". They are not on strike as they do not want to inconvenience patients. They have been distributing pamphlets and sending press releases. I went to the tent where the anti-reservation campaign is situated - Ground Zero as it were. It will write longer reports and posts on this (I am going again tomorrow with some friends) but I want to urgently tell you about my interaction with journalists at Ground Zero. I asked them why they weren't covering the Medicos for Equal Opportunities. CNN-IBN's camera person: "I don't know of any pro-quota protests. Where are they?" CNN-IBN correspondent Neha Seth: "I have covered them but it is up to our editors how much airtime they want to give them." Two photojournalists replied together: "I know about them but our bosses have said they want anti-quota pictures." One was from the Press trust of India, the other from Sahara. In short, if there's a gag on the media ( http://www.ibnlive.com/news/sms-claims-media-gag-on-quota-stir/10851-3.html ), it's for the pro-quota protesters. And it's a self-imposed gag. "Even by mistake they don't their cameras this side," said Dr Aroop Saraya, one of the leaders of the 'Medicos for Equal Opportunities'. He is upper caste, by the way, and so is the campaign's convener Dr Vikas Bajpai. Just in case anyone presumes this campaign is from SC/ST quota MBBS students - though some of them are a part of it too. The English media had patted its back for its coverage of the VHP's pogrom in Gujarat in 2002, and rightly so, it was indeed their hour of pride. But the biased reportage ( http://www.hindu.com/mag/2006/05/21/stories/2006052100290300.htm ) of "Mandal II", as they are calling it, is their hour of shame. Then a lady with two kids walked in. One was 2 years old and the other was three. The lady had in her had a fancy basket with flowers. The kids were taken to the dais and someone announced that two little kids had come to support the doctors on strike. The kids had a piece of paper stuck on their shirts; "Say No to Reservations," it read. Then came a man on the dais and announced their names and ages. They were then given the microphone and asked to say, "Youth for Equality" (the name of the anti-reservations campaign, as anyone who's been watching any of India's dozens of news channels). The boy looked left and right and gave up the mike. The girl wasn't interested either. Then they went to another location where three cameras from different news channels focused on the kids as they were made to give the flowers to the doctors. They were then asked by the mother to say "Youth for Equality!" before the cameras. One cameraperson took the camera in both his palms and made it run left and right, following the kids' tantrums. The movement of the camera in the hands was akin to a snakecharmer's pipe. Just that in this case the subject was calling the shots. Literally. "Loudly say 'Youth for Equality'! Loudly! Loudly! Come on, Mamma will give you a Kit Kat!" The kids were more fascinated by cameras than with the prospect of a chocolate. The two-year-old girl looked deep into the lens and laughed. Best, My liberal alter-ego From shivamvij at gmail.com Sun May 28 18:56:22 2006 From: shivamvij at gmail.com (Shivam) Date: Sun, 28 May 2006 18:56:22 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] reservation on the moon In-Reply-To: <20060524162402.80268.qmail@web51410.mail.yahoo.com> References: <20060524162402.80268.qmail@web51410.mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: Yousuf, I've got this message from 4 different people by now. My reply is below, but I wonder if this 'forward' was also a creation of Genesis PR, the company allegedly hired by Youth for Equality, and which allegedly circulated fake sms-es about 96 students collapsing at AIIMS and a gag on the media to cover this. Anyway, here's my response: Manmohan Singh said to George Bush - We are sending Indians to the moon next year. Bush - "Wow! How Many?" Manmohan Singh - "about 100 - and in the following order: 35 - Brahmins (all sub-castest and communities) 30 - Baniyas (all sub-castest and communities) 20 - Kshatria (all sub-castest and communities) 11 - all other upper castes 2 - OBCs 1 - SCs 1 - STs 0 - Astronauts Best, Shivam On 5/24/06, Yousuf wrote: > Manmohan Singh said to George Bush - We are sending > Indians to the moon next year. > > Bush - "Wow! How Many?" > > Manmohan Singh - "about 100 - and in the following > order: > > 25 - OBC > > 25 - SC > > 20 - ST > > 5 - Handicapped > > 5 - Sports Persons > > 5 - Terrorist Affected > > 5 - Kashmiri Migrants > > 9 - Politicians > > and if possible > > 1 - Astronaut From rammurthi at rediffmail.com Sun May 28 14:27:40 2006 From: rammurthi at rediffmail.com (ram murthi) Date: 28 May 2006 08:57:40 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Content Analysis of Braille Magazine Message-ID: <20060528085740.29965.qmail@webmail57.rediffmail.com> Fourth Posting (Content Analysis of Braille Magazine) Dear Friend wish you a relief form tiring heat of May 16, 2006 In my last posting I tried to have a classification of contents of Sparshsetu in different category. In this posting I will try to analysis the content of the topic which are related to quality. The nothing is free from politics any idea, though fact or assumption have direct or indirect political wearing. We need to point them or along with there proper context. However I have categoriesed on the those topic in the category of politics which are directly related to expedient polity and Generally followed by media or people as political issues. Here is the lift of the topic. Issue Name of the topic Author Source of Article 120 Jan. 2004 Rehearsal of Legislature assembly election. Not Mentioned Not Mentioned 120 Jan. 2004 Bihari’s are targeted in Asam Not Mentioned Not Mentioned 120 Jan. 2004 Police Officer & Politician helped telgi in stamp scan Not Mentioned Not Mentioned 120 Jan. 2004 Amidst the trivial Not Mentioned Not Mentioned 120 Jan. 2004 Women power, a decisive wave. Not Mentioned Not Mentioned 121 Feb. 2004 Sikhs are threating to stop the study of their children in the school of France Not Mentioned Out Look 121 Feb. 2004 Struggle for control on Prime Institution of Education Not Mentioned Out Look 121 Feb. 2004 Warior are at front Not Mentioned India Today 122/123 (Combined Issue Mar./April 2004) Popularity is not like earlier Ajit Kumar Jha India Today 122/123 (Combined Issue Mar./April 2004) Obstinacy of General Indranhi Bagchi India Today 122/123 (Combined Issue Mar./April 2004) Star of Crown Shankar Ayyar & Frajand Ahmad India Today 124 May 2004 Indo Genius/Foreigner Not Mentioned Sarita 124 May 2004 Wind of change from small wholes in Saudi Arabia Romyshiraj, Muddraraqks Sarita 124 May 2004 Youth caught in Syndrome of Election Vireandar Briyarjayoti Sarita 124 May 2004 But is the job of starts in the courtyard of Politics Pratinidhi Sarita 125 June 2004 Who is responsible for dynistialsim in India. Not Mentioned Griha Shobha 126 July 2004 A profit of piece Harivarana Sarita 126 July 2004 The sardar of Sonia Prabhu Chawla India Today 127 August 2004 America falls desert of Iraq Arun Wajhpeye Sarita 127 August 2004 The Ill-fated world of Ishart Udaay Mahoorkar & Shila Ravla India Today 128 Sept. 2004 The consistent growth, legacy corrupt politician & Video operates Jagdish Pawar Sarita 128 Sept. 2004 Anarchy in Iraq Not Mentioned Sarita 128 Sept. 2004 Tiered Drill by tired leadership Priya Sehgal India Today 129 Oct. 2004 Designation of Governor, Internal conflict of Legislative & constitutional sanities Dr. Ashok Kumar Avasthi Sarita 129 Oct. 2004 Again the game of duplicity Raj Cengappa India Today 129 Oct. 2004 100 Days of Tug of war completed Bhavdeep Kang & Priya Sehgal India Today 130 Nov. 2004 People are disturbed form Atrocities of Paks Army in occupied Kashmir Usha S. Duggar Sarita 130 Nov. 2004 Some Pertinent question arose on presidential power of grant pardon Dr. Ashok Kumar Avasthi Sariata 131 Dec. 2004 Welcome by roses in the ways Raj Cengappa & Anil Padamnamm India Today 131 Dec. 2004 Happiness on the victory of Bush Rohit Saran & Ramesh Vinayak India Today 131 Dec. 2004 Way is not easy for Urhi – Mujaffarabad Usha S. Duggar Sarita 131 Dec. 2004 Me And my Family Bhavdeep Kang India Today Above table reveal that in the whole year related of our study total 32 articles were published in this magazine directly on polity out of which two were taken form outlook, one was borrowed from GrihShobha, 12 from India today and 17 were borrowed from Sarita. The source of original material suggest that generally material has been selected from those magazine which are read generally by middle class people and these magazine have very little concern with rural folk. Above table indicates that most of the articles are related to main stream politics which is often not followed by common people particularly in rural areas. That’s why this analysis in a way is comment upon above magazine themselves. Question arises in the context of Sparshsetu that why the editorial board of this magazine selected material from these magazine only where as lot of other magazine were available to serve this purpose such as EPW, Frontline, Seminar, Main Stream etc. The problem with the magazine like Sarita or GrihShobha is that they just try to catch up the popular feelings of middle class people specially youth & Women and they don’t bother about real concerns of people. There were so many crucial political events or occurrence which should have been covered by these magazines. Submergence of historical town Harsood in Khandwa Distt. Of M.P., people struggle of land rights in various states in India, suicide by farmers etc. are an illustration of those issues which should have been covered. Sparshsetu is any how deserved to be credited to provide some basic information about Indian polity to visually impure people, otherwise many of them might have been deprived even from this kind of information. However the label and standard to analysis of these article invites certain question which can be addressed after knowing the policy and criterion of selection of material by the editorial board of this magazine. This will be done later on in the next Posting. Date: 16-5-06 Ram Murti Fifth Posting (Content Analysis of Braille Magazine) Dear Friends have a good time. In last posting I did analysis the contents related to polity of this magazine. Which suggested that before analysing content further we need to investigate the policy of magazine from its editorial board & owner. In addition to its study design also required to have interviews of reader of this magazine. Therefore in this posting I am sending Questionere editorial Board or owner of the magazine & questionere for readers to whom I shall interview little later. Questionere for Editorial Board or owner of the magazine :- 1. Why did you keep this very name (sprashsetu To this magazine) what it signifies? 2. What are the aims & objective of this magazine? 3. What is the target readership of this magazine? 4. Do you aim to follow any particular Ideology? 5. Do you want to cover some particular area by this magazine? 6. How do you select the content? 7. How do you received the contents? 8. How do you approach to author? 9. Do you need to follow any specific norms to borrow material from various magazine? 10. What is the process of editing the article or other write up? 11. Do you give any honorarium to author? 12. Do you have any specific circulation drive? 13. What shortcomings do you see in this magazine? 1. 2. 3. 14. What do you see the most strongest point of this magazine? 1 2 3 15. Are you satisfied with standard of article if yes why and if not why? 16. Which kind of initiative do you plan to take to improve the standard of magazine ? 17. What plans do you have to increase its readership? 18. What are your ideal to achieve for this publication? 19. What kind of problem do you face while publishing this magazine? 20. What contribution do you want to get from your reader? 21. Do you have any plan to increase your resource pool of author if yes what is that? 22. How do you visualize support from NFB readership? 23. Do you have sufficient working autonomy? 24. What if the process of the decision making specifically in regard to contents selection? Questioner for Reader:- Particulars of Reader Name of the reader : Correspondence Address : Age : Sex : Occupation : 1. How did you come to know about this magazine (Sparshsetu)? 2. Are you subscriber or borrower of this magazine, if borrower where from where do you borrow? 3. Why did you began to subscribe this magazine? 4. From What time you are subscribing this magazine? 5. Can you afford to pay the subscription, if not how do you manage the subscription? 6. What do you like most in this magazine? 1. 2. 3. 7. What do you dislike most in this magazine? 1. 2. 3. 8. What improvement do you want to see in this magazine? 1. 2. 3. 9. What can you contribute for enrichment of this magazine? 10. Are you able to follow the language and structure of this magazine? If no, why? 11. How does it help you in your occupation? 12. Do you have any thing to learn from this magazine? 13. What are the shortcomings in this magazine in general? 14. Is there any area which is not been covered by this magazine? 15. Does it reach at time to you? 16. Any comments to offer? Date: 16-5-06 Ram Murti -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060528/bf09551d/attachment.html From padmalatha.ravi at gmail.com Mon May 29 13:53:16 2006 From: padmalatha.ravi at gmail.com (Padmalatha Ravi) Date: Mon, 29 May 2006 13:53:16 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] long overdue post on Resident Welfare Associations In-Reply-To: <69a2e4550605260552n9482efel5b8b27ede8a4c215@mail.gmail.com> References: <69a2e4550605260552n9482efel5b8b27ede8a4c215@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Hello Rakshath, Looks like women have very little role in RWAs across the country. I have seen it happen in smaller cities like Madurai and so called cosmo city like Bangalore. All decisions are taken by men and women even if they are not they just go along. The women just don't feel comfortable raising issues. When elections are announced the women either don't volunteer or if at all nominated they are not elected. In fact in one of the associations it was unanimously decided by the men that women should not be part of administrative team but should take form an association that takes care of social responsibilities. That being arranging tea and snacks for the administrative meetings and organising cultural programmes for Independence day and deepavali celebrations! Padma On 5/26/06, rakshat hooja wrote: > > This is a long long overdue post. Its been a while since I posted any > update on my I-Fellow Project on Resident Welfare Association & Urban > Stakeholder Activism, but in this post I will try to discuss one specific > issue, that I find very interesting and has cropped up during my initial > surveys, meetings and discussions. > > This issue is – Role of Women in RWA's -> One of my reasons for > choosing the issue of RWA activism for further investigation was that > whenever I visited any of my friends or relatives and had a chance to talk > to the parents/ older generation (i.e. aunts and uncles) the working of > the RWA used to invariably become a topic of conversation. The interesting > part was that it was the women (mothers and aunts) who were more vocal and > talked about the facilities being made available/ not being made available > in great detail. > > Based on the above, I had assumed that women would be playing a very > important role in the functioning of the RWA and would also be holding a lot > of the office bearer posts. (I also assumed that some of them being home > makers would have more time). > > I was initially surprised when I, for the first time, carefully looked at > the list of RWA main office bearers of the colony where I am living in a > rented accommodation (C9 Vasant Kunj) and found no women members. But I was > even more surprised by my findings when I conducted informal interviews in > the Kalkaji Extension area (Pocket A 14). > > My initial contact in Kalkaji was a lady (Flat No 58) and through her I > got to meet a few other ladies in the colony. Through them I was hoping to > learn quite a bit about RWA functioning in the area, and I did, but what I > found unusual were their views on attending RWA meetings and the decision > making process of the RWA. Though they did attend some of the RWA meetings, > they felt that most of the main decisions were taken by the men in the > colony. (And they seemed ok with it). "Male dominated" and "the men decide" > were some of the phrases used by the women. The women were satisfied with > the working of the RWA though not thrilled but did have some minor > grievances. For example, the RWA had set up a uniform system of garbage > collection from the houses. This did not suit many of the women /residents. > But when they tried to make private arrangements the RWA did not allow it. > The women also felt that because the RWA was male-dominated they were not > very comfortable about raising issues that only they felt strongly about. > > After the interviews in Kalkaji Extension, I went through the newspaper/ > web articles about RWA that I am collecting and realized that though there > are some comments by women RWA members in the newspapers, the men do seem to > be taking the lead in most of the activities / government interactions / > agitations organized by the RWAs. (For example, Water Harvesting > initiatives, agitations on house tax, highlighting water problems etc.[I > have gone through the newspaper and web articles in a cursory manner at > present, and will look at them in detail in due course]). > > I feel that the role of women in RWAs is an issue that needs to be > explored further (as there may be other RWAs where women are much more > active), and I will do so as my work progresses. > > I had used the 'stakeholder activism' concept based on my earlier work on > rural development (in Rajasthan) where, on being provided a multi-stake > holder platform, the rural women had become much more vocal and started to > actively participate in the development activities. I had assumed that in > urban areas women will be participating anyway in any kind of stake holder > activism (as I have visualized RWAs activities to be). But my initial > findings have left me quite surprised. > > > -- > -------------- > Please use Firefox as your web browser. Its protects you from spyware and > is also a very feature rich browser. > www.firefox.com > > _________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with > subscribe in the subject header. > List archive: > > -- Cheers Padma -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060529/45877f46/attachment.html From nc-agricowi at netcologne.de Fri May 26 17:48:22 2006 From: nc-agricowi at netcologne.de (netEX) Date: Fri, 26 May 2006 14:18:22 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] private: Agricola de Cologne in May/June Message-ID: <20060526141822.7C3B3050.FC99B595@127.0.0.1> private: Agricola de Cologne May/June 2006 --->May ------------------------------------------------------------- The experimental videos Distortion Projected 4’.50 House of tomorrow 3’ Truth - Paradise Found 3’ Inability of Being Nude 2’ were presented on Pixeldance Festival Thessaloniki/Greece http://www.pixeldance.gr/micro-site/view_site.php?mode=artist&id=146 12-15 May 2006 3 short films were presented in the framework of the Streaming Festival The Hague www.streamingfestival.com 12-14 May interesting interview!! on http://www.streamingfestival.com/artists.php?id=50 The short film Truth - Paradise Found was shown on Confluencias 2006 Art and Technology Festival Huelva/Spain www.confluencias.org 9-12 May 2006 Selection 1 by VideoChannel curated by Agricola de Cologne was screened on MAF'06 - Media Art Festival Bangkok/Thailand http://www.thailand-maf.org/MAF06 2-4 May 2006 including the shortflm "Predator" --->June ----------------------------------------------------------- D-NEFF - experimental video festival Vitoria-Gasteiz/Spain 12-13 June 2006 - www.neffestival.com "Distortion Projected" - experimental video Into Out - Digital Art Festival Thessaloniki/Greece digital videos - 1-8 June 2006 http://www.kazandb.com/intro_out/intro_out.html Camargo Cibernetico - Electronic Art Festival Camargo/Spain 29 May - 02 June 2006 "Distortion Projected" - experimental video www.camargocibernetico.org VIII SALON Y COLOQUIO INTERNACIONAL DE ARTE DIGITAL - digital art festival in Havanna/Cuba 19 June - 16 July http://www.artedigitalcuba.cult.cu Colloquium on 20-23 June subject of lecture: [R][R][F]2006--->XP - gloabl networking project http://rrf2006.newmediafest.org Agricola de Cologne will be in Havanna between 10 and 24 June More info on http://bio.agricola-de-cologne.de ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Released by NetEX - networked experience http://netex.nmartproject.net powered by [NewMediaArtProjectNetwork]:||cologne www.nmartproject.net - the experimental platform for art and New Media operating from Cologne/Germany. . info& contact info (at) nmartproject.net _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From machine at zerosofzeta.com Mon May 29 14:45:59 2006 From: machine at zerosofzeta.com (Yogi) Date: Mon, 29 May 2006 14:45:59 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Mamma will give you a Kit Kat! In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <1d804b40605290215p19681182ud89ce824ea8c4006@mail.gmail.com> Shivam I want to thank you for keeping us all informed about the alternate side of the pop/superficial media reality. -yogi On 5/27/06, Shivam wrote: > ( Apologies for cross posting this from > http://www.theotherindia.org/media/mamma-will-give-you-a-kit-kat.html > ) > > > The mainstream media never told you that over 200 doctors protest in > favour of reservations at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences > every day between 1 to 2 pm. visited AIIMS today, unfortunately after > 2 pm. The pro-reservation doctors have organised themselves into group > called "Medicos Forum for Equal Opportunity". They are not on strike > as they do not want to inconvenience patients. They have been > distributing pamphlets and sending press releases. > > I went to the tent where the anti-reservation campaign is situated - > Ground Zero as it were. It will write longer reports and posts on this > (I am going again tomorrow with some friends) but I want to urgently > tell you about my interaction with journalists at Ground Zero. I asked > them why they weren't covering the Medicos for Equal Opportunities. > > CNN-IBN's camera person: "I don't know of any pro-quota protests. > Where are they?" > > CNN-IBN correspondent Neha Seth: "I have covered them but it is up to > our editors how much airtime they want to give them." > > Two photojournalists replied together: "I know about them but our > bosses have said they want anti-quota pictures." One was from the > Press trust of India, the other from Sahara. > > In short, if there's a gag on the media ( > http://www.ibnlive.com/news/sms-claims-media-gag-on-quota-stir/10851-3.html > ), it's for the pro-quota protesters. And it's a self-imposed gag. > > "Even by mistake they don't their cameras this side," said Dr Aroop > Saraya, one of the leaders of the 'Medicos for Equal Opportunities'. > He is upper caste, by the way, and so is the campaign's convener Dr > Vikas Bajpai. Just in case anyone presumes this campaign is from SC/ST > quota MBBS students - though some of them are a part of it too. > > The English media had patted its back for its coverage of the VHP's > pogrom in Gujarat in 2002, and rightly so, it was indeed their hour of > pride. But the biased reportage ( > http://www.hindu.com/mag/2006/05/21/stories/2006052100290300.htm ) of > "Mandal II", as they are calling it, is their hour of shame. > > Then a lady with two kids walked in. One was 2 years old and the other > was three. The lady had in her had a fancy basket with flowers. The > kids were taken to the dais and someone announced that two little kids > had come to support the doctors on strike. The kids had a piece of > paper stuck on their shirts; "Say No to Reservations," it read. Then > came a man on the dais and announced their names and ages. They were > then given the microphone and asked to say, "Youth for Equality" (the > name of the anti-reservations campaign, as anyone who's been watching > any of India's dozens of news channels). The boy looked left and right > and gave up the mike. The girl wasn't interested either. > > Then they went to another location where three cameras from different > news channels focused on the kids as they were made to give the > flowers to the doctors. They were then asked by the mother to say > "Youth for Equality!" before the cameras. One cameraperson took the > camera in both his palms and made it run left and right, following the > kids' tantrums. The movement of the camera in the hands was akin to a > snakecharmer's pipe. Just that in this case the subject was calling > the shots. Literally. > > "Loudly say 'Youth for Equality'! Loudly! Loudly! Come on, Mamma will > give you a Kit Kat!" > > The kids were more fascinated by cameras than with the prospect of a > chocolate. The two-year-old girl looked deep into the lens and > laughed. > > Best, > My liberal alter-ego > _________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in the subject header. > List archive: > From ravik_rk at hotmail.com Mon May 29 14:50:57 2006 From: ravik_rk at hotmail.com (Ravi Kumar) Date: Mon, 29 May 2006 14:50:57 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Lecture tour of Prof. Dave Hill Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060529/b2c3c331/attachment.html From ravik_rk at hotmail.com Mon May 29 17:07:28 2006 From: ravik_rk at hotmail.com (Ravi Kumar) Date: Mon, 29 May 2006 17:07:28 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Seminar on Education at CSD Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060529/d1df7d4a/attachment.html From arisen.silently at gmail.com Mon May 29 20:41:40 2006 From: arisen.silently at gmail.com (arisen silently) Date: Mon, 29 May 2006 15:11:40 +0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Re: Please JOIN pro-reservation agitation in London In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <1925b33d0605290811l5035248t48ea10ed4c69e804@mail.gmail.com> This sounds like an RSS invasion. On 5/26/06, Kuber Sharma wrote: > Join them at Picadilly Square... > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: Kuber Sharma > Date: May 26, 2006 2:45 AM > Subject: Starting our Agitation > > Dear Friends, > Jaibheem > > Indians Campaign for claim on all Nations has decided to start its > campaign on 29th May evening by holding a public meeting in favour of > reservation in LSE. From 30th morning we will start our Dharna in front > of Picadilly Square in London. Some of us will go on hunger strike. We > will start with relay hunger strike with more students joining in. The > aim of our hunger strike and dharna is to mobilise more indians, > youths as well as other professionals to come out in support of > Reservation policy and to oppose the nationalist biases of Media, Academia > and black mail of nationalist Britishers and also to > force Blair government to fulfill its obligation effectively. > > We are in contact with pro-reservation students from different parts > of the old empire. Many of them have assured their participation in our > protest in London. Within a week we are hoping to have students from > each one of the ex colonies of Great Britain sitting on hunger > strike and dharna in London. Right now our plan is to focus our protest > in London only. Given our limited means it will be appropriate for us > to focus our agitation at one place. With the time period gradually we > can coordinate with students from other part of the world and bring > all of us under one Umbrella and make concerted efforts. > > We call students from various part of the old empire to flood London in > coming days. We are small group of students without any financial > means so it is must that those students who can afford traveling and > staying in London should come. The only thing we can do is to provide > them the space in our rooms for their stay. > > It is most important that our intellectuals and scholars should join > us. We appeal to them to come to London and at least stay with us for > one day. This will boost our confidence and help us to mobilise more > support from Indian community. > > We also appeal our professionals to come to London, if possible, or > support us in what ever way they feel they can. > > TOGETHER ALL OF US CAN REALLY BRING DESIRED CHANGES IN THE SOCIETY > > The main rationale behind our agitation are > > 1. Stupid Indian reservationists has provided us a golden opportunity to > bring caste and national discourse in mainstream. As we all are aware of the > fact that British media, accademia and civil society always maintain > conspiratory silence on horrors of colonial period and always try to hide > nation based discrimination and inequality in the name of merit. In fact > they have till now successfully denied us the space to speak, raise our > concernssince independence. Now they only, by default, have provided us an > opportunity to organise and fight discrimination; > > 2. This is also an historic opportunity for us to pressurise British > government to take stock of its measures for empowerment of > underprivileged Indians and demand effective implementation of such > government policies; > > 3. To oppose elitist and castist biases in educational system of UK and to > bust the myth of British merit. Just because we our PCI is so much lesser, > we should not pay full fee at any British Acdemic Institution. > > 4. And the most important point is to take revenge for over two centuries of > British exploitation of our fine nation. It is high time that we demand > effective reforms for Indians. > > OUR DEMANDS > > 1. The British Government must fulfill its constitutional obligations by > implementing reservations for all Indians in all government jobs, > private or government educational institutions,army,judiciary and > super speciality courses. > > 2. The British Government should also make legal provisions for reservation > in private sector for underprivileged Indians. > > 3. The British Government must bring out a White Paper on reservation > policy. It is must so as to know how far it has been implemented. It is fact > that not even 50 % of reservation is being fulfilled by ruling white > class of UK. They have denied us the maximum benefits of > reservation policy till now. > > 4. Effective land reforms are must for empowerment of Indians. So we > demand government to carry land reforms in every part of the UK and not just > southall. > > 5. We also demand to amend nationalist & elitist biases in their education > system by > a. redesigning the syllabuses to generate awareness about colonisation > of India; > b. providing non-british, anti-caste icons prominent space and > to remove completely britishl myths and misconceptions, taught to > us, in the name of International History and Culture. > c. Ban all classes at Oxford and Cambridge. > d. Restructuring competitive exams to remove biases that favours > elite class/caste students > e. compulsory couses of history, political science, sociology for > students from technical and professional institutes. > f. More recruitment of faculties in premier institutions from > Indian background to correct the caste imbalance and to break the monopoly > of british people over such institutions and to > provide opportunity for blossoming of real merit, efficiency and > excellence. > g. Higher education must be provided in Hindi and Punjabi or all > primary schools must be in Telugu medium > h. Government must spend 10% of GDP on Education focusing on > quality primary education for underprivileged > > 6. We demand punishment for anti-reservation protesters for hurting > sentiments and showing their castist nature by sweeping roads, > cleaning shoes and raising castist slogans. > > 7. We condemn castist Indian media for instigating the protest against > reservations and providing space to biased. one-sided, castist > coverage. We also demand for punishment of journalists, cartoonist, > editors for making fun of Indians and casting aspersion on the > merit of Indians without any concrete proof or datas and thus > showing its true castist nature. > > JAI BHEEM > > signed/- > STUDENTS' CAMPAIGN FOR CLAIM ON BRITISH NATION > > Contact > Kuber - 9818304469 > > From mohaiemen at yahoo.com Mon May 29 22:55:00 2006 From: mohaiemen at yahoo.com (NAEEM MOHAIEMEN) Date: Mon, 29 May 2006 10:25:00 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Praful Bidwai Defends Reservations in Dhaka Paper Message-ID: <20060529172500.44429.qmail@web50309.mail.yahoo.com> http://www.thedailystar.net/2006/05/29/d60529020531.htm DAILY STAR (Bangladesh) Committed to PEOPLE'S RIGHT TO KNOW Vol. 5 Num 711 Mon. May 29, 2006 Editorial Anti-quota stir is misguided: In defence of affirmative action Praful Bidwai writes from New Delhi As students from India's privileged educational institutions continue their protests against reservations for the lower castes (OBCs), it becomes clear that the agitation is an organised affair. Three groups have played a critical role in it: upper caste-dominated guilds like the Indian Medical Association; industrialists and owners of private colleges, who oppose any extension of reservations even for the Scheduled Castes and Tribes; and Bharatiya Janata Party politicians. Among those who joined the agitation were Information Technology executives, and "event management" specialists, who charge hefty fees. Industrial tycoons tried to kill AA in collegesso it can't be extended to private business. A year's delay in quota implementation means that capitation-fee colleges and private institutions, with an intake of over 534,000 students, make landfall profits of Rs 1,000-2,500 crores by selling seats meant for OBCs. Regrettably, even the National Knowledge Commission played a partisan role in the whole business. First, it publicly opposed OBC reservation. Then, two of its members quit, adding grist to the anti-AA mill. The agitation's rationale had nothing to do with the public interest. Rather, it was a highly individualistic urge to defend privilege. The bulk of the agitators are children of the new middle class which has burgeoned under post-1991skewed, inequality-enhancing, economic policies. Many of them don't see their own unprecedented prosperity and rising incomes as the result of larger economic processes, such as higher rates of savings, macroeconomic policies, or globalisation, which has generated new divisions of labour, creating opportunities, for instance, in IT and related services. Even less are they aware that their own prosperity is the obverse of the squalor of the majority and the further squeezing of India's most backward regions. Rather, they attribute it to their own "merit" and initiative, thus perpetuating the status quo. The agitation targeted the fundamental principle of AA itself. Had it succeeded, India would have lost the hard-earned gains of the social reform movement and turned its back on the imperative of correcting the distortions and inequalities caused by unbalanced growth. The agitation's supporters take refuge behind many specious (or half-valid) arguments: that AA will kill "merit"; that OBCs are already fairly well-represented in many professions, according to a 1999 National Sample Survey Organisation estimate; and the benefits of quotas will inevitably be cornered by the OBCs' affluent, influential "creamy layer". The "merit" argument is bogus in a society based on inheritance of property, and privilege related to birth. This means that the affluent are at a vastly different starting-point from the disadvantaged. Merit makes sense only when it measures the distance between the starting-point and the end-point. Most upper-caste people enjoy unfair advantage because of their higher starting-point. Merit is only one, small, component of achievement. It isn't easy to measure, quantify or compare. In public recruitment or admissions, other criteria are equally relevant: for instance, gender, ethnic, and regional balance, and diversity. The fundamental point is that a person born in an educated upper-crust family will have a totally different universe of knowledge and social contactsand wholly different access to information about the availability of colleges and courses, career options, professional advice, etc. S/he can always call "Uncle" so-and-so in the civil service or the medical profession to get tips. Typically, such advantage outweighs differences of wealth. Past discrimination continues to produce inequality of opportunity even when there is no discrimination at present. The critical issue is how to level the playing field so as to give genuinely equal opportunity to the disadvantaged. Affirmative action offers the best solution. It can take many forms, including voluntary targets for recruitment of disadvantaged groups, special counselling, diversity promotion programmes, etc. Reservations, admittedly, are a rather blunt instrument. It can be validly argued that India has used reservations as the sole form of AA. But we should not make the best an enemy of the good. As for the argument that OBCs have nearly the same representation as their population share in numerous professions, the evidence from NSSO is dubious. NSSO is simply not equipped to identify local caste groups. That's is the job of specialised anthropologists, sociologists and historians familiar with caste configurations which vary from district to district. The "creamy layer" argument is certainly valid. Social and educational backwardness is a changing phenomenon. There is upward mobility among the OBCs. But their upper layers need not automatically corner quotas. They should be excluded from doing so along the criteria specified by the Supreme Court in the Mandal judgment. After all, at maximum, only half of India's OBCs (52 percent of total population) can get accommodated under the 27 percent quota. This must be the lower half. It would be ideal in the long term if different institutions could devise varying AA formulas based upon different criteria besides casteincluding gender, economic status of family, quality of parents' schooling, backwardness of region of origin, etc. Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University has a decade-old admissions policy which gives extra points to OBCs, women and regional backwardness over and above a candidate's entrance examination score. This has significantly raised JNU's OBC intake. Some social scientists have proposed AA formulas assigning different weights to these factors. Despite their drawbackse.g. wantonly opening up the settled SC/SC quota issue, or providing at best a marginal boost to OBCsthese proposals should be seriously debated. However, the topmost priority last fortnight was to beat back the challenge posed by the anti-quota agitation, which opposed the very principle of affirmative action. The UPA government did well to uphold the principle. Wisely, it didn't resort to the undesirable device of phased implementation. But it will have to increase the total number of seats in Central educational institutions by 54 percent within a year, at estimated expense of Rs 8,000 crores. This is a formidable, but worthwhile, task. One can only hope that the upper castes accept reservations in the spirit of a caring-and-sharing society. Praful Bidwai is an eminent Indian columnist. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From yogesh at girdhar.net Mon May 29 14:36:42 2006 From: yogesh at girdhar.net (Yogesh Girdhar) Date: Mon, 29 May 2006 14:36:42 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Mamma will give you a Kit Kat! In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <80ACD070-8B1D-4E12-BCD2-95BFBAE44972@girdhar.net> Shivam Thank you for letting us know about all these eye opening and unknown side of the current events. -Yogesh On May 27, 2006, at 2:10 AM, Shivam wrote: > ( Apologies for cross posting this from > http://www.theotherindia.org/media/mamma-will-give-you-a-kit-kat.html > ) > > > The mainstream media never told you that over 200 doctors protest in > favour of reservations at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences > every day between 1 to 2 pm. visited AIIMS today, unfortunately after > 2 pm. The pro-reservation doctors have organised themselves into group > called "Medicos Forum for Equal Opportunity". They are not on strike > as they do not want to inconvenience patients. They have been > distributing pamphlets and sending press releases. > > I went to the tent where the anti-reservation campaign is situated - > Ground Zero as it were. It will write longer reports and posts on this > (I am going again tomorrow with some friends) but I want to urgently > tell you about my interaction with journalists at Ground Zero. I asked > them why they weren't covering the Medicos for Equal Opportunities. > > CNN-IBN's camera person: "I don't know of any pro-quota protests. > Where are they?" > > CNN-IBN correspondent Neha Seth: "I have covered them but it is up to > our editors how much airtime they want to give them." > > Two photojournalists replied together: "I know about them but our > bosses have said they want anti-quota pictures." One was from the > Press trust of India, the other from Sahara. > > In short, if there's a gag on the media ( > http://www.ibnlive.com/news/sms-claims-media-gag-on-quota-stir/ > 10851-3.html > ), it's for the pro-quota protesters. And it's a self-imposed gag. > > "Even by mistake they don't their cameras this side," said Dr Aroop > Saraya, one of the leaders of the 'Medicos for Equal Opportunities'. > He is upper caste, by the way, and so is the campaign's convener Dr > Vikas Bajpai. Just in case anyone presumes this campaign is from SC/ST > quota MBBS students - though some of them are a part of it too. > > The English media had patted its back for its coverage of the VHP's > pogrom in Gujarat in 2002, and rightly so, it was indeed their hour of > pride. But the biased reportage ( > http://www.hindu.com/mag/2006/05/21/stories/2006052100290300.htm ) of > "Mandal II", as they are calling it, is their hour of shame. > > Then a lady with two kids walked in. One was 2 years old and the other > was three. The lady had in her had a fancy basket with flowers. The > kids were taken to the dais and someone announced that two little kids > had come to support the doctors on strike. The kids had a piece of > paper stuck on their shirts; "Say No to Reservations," it read. Then > came a man on the dais and announced their names and ages. They were > then given the microphone and asked to say, "Youth for Equality" (the > name of the anti-reservations campaign, as anyone who's been watching > any of India's dozens of news channels). The boy looked left and right > and gave up the mike. The girl wasn't interested either. > > Then they went to another location where three cameras from different > news channels focused on the kids as they were made to give the > flowers to the doctors. They were then asked by the mother to say > "Youth for Equality!" before the cameras. One cameraperson took the > camera in both his palms and made it run left and right, following the > kids' tantrums. The movement of the camera in the hands was akin to a > snakecharmer's pipe. Just that in this case the subject was calling > the shots. Literally. > > "Loudly say 'Youth for Equality'! Loudly! Loudly! Come on, Mamma will > give you a Kit Kat!" > > The kids were more fascinated by cameras than with the prospect of a > chocolate. The two-year-old girl looked deep into the lens and > laughed. > > Best, > My liberal alter-ego > _________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with > subscribe in the subject header. > List archive: From divya.manian at gmail.com Mon May 29 15:19:03 2006 From: divya.manian at gmail.com (divya manian) Date: Mon, 29 May 2006 17:49:03 +0800 Subject: [Reader-list] Re: reader-list Digest, Vol 34, Issue 51 In-Reply-To: <20060529081219.6BAD528DEC3@mail.sarai.net> References: <20060529081219.6BAD528DEC3@mail.sarai.net> Message-ID: <40fb5ba20605290249m21c8bbb9o46e7640fb7280d08@mail.gmail.com> > > Message: 1 > Date: Fri, 26 May 2006 18:22:35 +0530 > From: "rakshat hooja" > > I was initially surprised when I, for the first time, carefully looked at > the list of RWA main office bearers of the colony where I am living in a > rented accommodation (C9 Vasant Kunj) and found no women members. But I > was > even more surprised by my findings when I conducted informal interviews in > the Kalkaji Extension area (Pocket A 14). It is true in Chennai as well. I grew up in a "flat" that was a part of the Flat Owners Association. The people with maximum complaints were the ladies but none of them were even on the board. It seems they would rather influence the decisions by their husbands rather than be vocal on a formal association. My mother hesitantly stepped in but gave up after she was confronted by the "men". Regards, Divya http://nimbupani.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060529/47202b77/attachment.html From gabyvargasc at prodigy.net.mx Mon May 29 19:06:41 2006 From: gabyvargasc at prodigy.net.mx (Gabriela Vargas-Cetina) Date: Mon, 29 May 2006 08:36:41 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] long overdue post on Resident Welfare Associations In-Reply-To: Message-ID: This is very interesting to me, since in Latin America women are the most active participants in neighborhood associations and anything having to do with housing and family support. Gabriela Vargas-Cetina On 5/29/06 3:23 AM, "Padmalatha Ravi" wrote: > Hello Rakshath, Looks like women have very little role in RWAs across the > country. I have seen it happen in smaller cities like Madurai and so called > cosmo city like Bangalore. All decisions are taken by men and women even if > they are not they just go along. The women just don't feel comfortable > raising issues. When elections are announced the women either don't volunteer > or if at all nominated they are not elected. In fact in one of the > associations it was unanimously decided by the men that women should not be > part of administrative team but should take form an association that takes > care of social responsibilities. That being arranging tea and snacks for the > administrative meetings and organising cultural programmes for Independence > day and deepavali celebrations! Padma > > On 5/26/06, rakshat hooja wrote: >> This is a long long overdue post. Its been a while since I posted any update >> on my I-Fellow Project on Resident Welfare Association & Urban Stakeholder >> Activism, but in this post I will try to discuss one specific issue, that I >> find very interesting and has cropped up during my initial surveys, meetings >> and discussions. >> >> This issue is ­ Role of Women in RWA's -> One of my reasons for choosing >> the issue of RWA activism for further investigation was that whenever I >> visited any of my friends or relatives and had a chance to talk to the >> parents/ older generation ( i.e. aunts and uncles) the working of the RWA >> used to invariably become a topic of conversation. The interesting part was >> that it was the women (mothers and aunts) who were more vocal and talked >> about the facilities being made available/ not being made available in great >> detail. >> >> Based on the above, I had assumed that women would be playing a very >> important role in the functioning of the RWA and would also be holding a lot >> of the office bearer posts. (I also assumed that some of them being home >> makers would have more time). >> >> I was initially surprised when I, for the first time, carefully looked at >> the list of RWA main office bearers of the colony where I am living in a >> rented accommodation (C9 Vasant Kunj) and found no women members. But I was >> even more surprised by my findings when I conducted informal interviews in >> the Kalkaji Extension area (Pocket A 14). >> >> My initial contact in Kalkaji was a lady (Flat No 58) and through her I got >> to meet a few other ladies in the colony. Through them I was hoping to learn >> quite a bit about RWA functioning in the area, and I did, but what I found >> unusual were their views on attending RWA meetings and the decision making >> process of the RWA. Though they did attend some of the RWA meetings, they >> felt that most of the main decisions were taken by the men in the colony. >> (And they seemed ok with it). "Male dominated" and "the men decide" were some >> of the phrases used by the women. The women were satisfied with the working >> of the RWA though not thrilled but did have some minor grievances. For >> example, the RWA had set up a uniform system of garbage collection from the >> houses. This did not suit many of the women /residents. But when they tried >> to make private arrangements the RWA did not allow it. The women also felt >> that because the RWA was male-dominated they were not very comfortable about >> raising issues that only they felt strongly about. >> >> After the interviews in Kalkaji Extension, I went through the newspaper/ web >> articles about RWA that I am collecting and realized that though there are >> some comments by women RWA members in the newspapers, the men do seem to be >> taking the lead in most of the activities / government interactions / >> agitations organized by the RWAs. (For example, Water Harvesting initiatives, >> agitations on house tax, highlighting water problems etc.[I have gone through >> the newspaper and web articles in a cursory manner at present, and will look >> at them in detail in due course]). >> >> I feel that the role of women in RWAs is an issue that needs to be explored >> further (as there may be other RWAs where women are much more active), and I >> will do so as my work progresses. >> >> I had used the 'stakeholder activism' concept based on my earlier work on >> rural development (in Rajasthan) where, on being provided a multi-stake >> holder platform, the rural women had become much more vocal and started to >> actively participate in the development activities. I had assumed that in >> urban areas women will be participating anyway in any kind of stake holder >> activism (as I have visualized RWAs activities to be). But my initial >> findings have left me quite surprised. >> -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060529/586eb918/attachment.html From muro_kj at rediffmail.com Mon May 29 22:18:24 2006 From: muro_kj at rediffmail.com (murari kumar jha) Date: 29 May 2006 16:48:24 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Re: Please JOIN pro-reservation agitation in London Message-ID: <20060529164824.6405.qmail@webmail47.rediffmail.com> Comrades, We have already waged a struggle in favour of reservation at JNU on the banner of ALL INDIA STUDENTS' ASSOCIATION (AISA). The JNUSU President who is from this organisation has brought out leaflet supporting the cause of social justice. From today onwards we going on a relay hunger strike to extend our support to reservation for the OBCs. Lal Salaam. On Mon, 29 May 2006 arisen silently wrote : >This sounds like an RSS invasion. > > > >On 5/26/06, Kuber Sharma wrote: >>Join them at Picadilly Square... >> >>---------- Forwarded message ---------- >> From: Kuber Sharma >>Date: May 26, 2006 2:45 AM >>Subject: Starting our Agitation >> >>Dear Friends, >> Jaibheem >> >>Indians Campaign for claim on all Nations has decided to start its >>campaign on 29th May evening by holding a public meeting in favour of >>reservation in LSE. From 30th morning we will start our Dharna in front >>of Picadilly Square in London. Some of us will go on hunger strike. We >>will start with relay hunger strike with more students joining in. The >>aim of our hunger strike and dharna is to mobilise more indians, >>youths as well as other professionals to come out in support of >>Reservation policy and to oppose the nationalist biases of Media, Academia >>and black mail of nationalist Britishers and also to >>force Blair government to fulfill its obligation effectively. >> >>We are in contact with pro-reservation students from different parts >>of the old empire. Many of them have assured their participation in our >>protest in London. Within a week we are hoping to have students from >>each one of the ex colonies of Great Britain sitting on hunger >>strike and dharna in London. Right now our plan is to focus our protest >>in London only. Given our limited means it will be appropriate for us >>to focus our agitation at one place. With the time period gradually we >>can coordinate with students from other part of the world and bring >>all of us under one Umbrella and make concerted efforts. >> >>We call students from various part of the old empire to flood London in >>coming days. We are small group of students without any financial >>means so it is must that those students who can afford traveling and >>staying in London should come. The only thing we can do is to provide >>them the space in our rooms for their stay. >> >>It is most important that our intellectuals and scholars should join >>us. We appeal to them to come to London and at least stay with us for >>one day. This will boost our confidence and help us to mobilise more >>support from Indian community. >> >>We also appeal our professionals to come to London, if possible, or >>support us in what ever way they feel they can. >> >>TOGETHER ALL OF US CAN REALLY BRING DESIRED CHANGES IN THE SOCIETY >> >>The main rationale behind our agitation are >> >>1. Stupid Indian reservationists has provided us a golden opportunity to >>bring caste and national discourse in mainstream. As we all are aware of the >>fact that British media, accademia and civil society always maintain >>conspiratory silence on horrors of colonial period and always try to hide >>nation based discrimination and inequality in the name of merit. In fact >>they have till now successfully denied us the space to speak, raise our >>concernssince independence. Now they only, by default, have provided us an >>opportunity to organise and fight discrimination; >> >>2. This is also an historic opportunity for us to pressurise British >>government to take stock of its measures for empowerment of >>underprivileged Indians and demand effective implementation of such >>government policies; >> >>3. To oppose elitist and castist biases in educational system of UK and to >>bust the myth of British merit. Just because we our PCI is so much lesser, >>we should not pay full fee at any British Acdemic Institution. >> >>4. And the most important point is to take revenge for over two centuries of >>British exploitation of our fine nation. It is high time that we demand >>effective reforms for Indians. >> >>OUR DEMANDS >> >>1. The British Government must fulfill its constitutional obligations by >>implementing reservations for all Indians in all government jobs, >>private or government educational institutions,army,judiciary and >>super speciality courses. >> >>2. The British Government should also make legal provisions for reservation >>in private sector for underprivileged Indians. >> >>3. The British Government must bring out a White Paper on reservation >>policy. It is must so as to know how far it has been implemented. It is fact >>that not even 50 % of reservation is being fulfilled by ruling white >>class of UK. They have denied us the maximum benefits of >>reservation policy till now. >> >>4. Effective land reforms are must for empowerment of Indians. So we >>demand government to carry land reforms in every part of the UK and not just >>southall. >> >>5. We also demand to amend nationalist & elitist biases in their education >>system by >> a. redesigning the syllabuses to generate awareness about colonisation >>of India; >> b. providing non-british, anti-caste icons prominent space and >>to remove completely britishl myths and misconceptions, taught to >>us, in the name of International History and Culture. >> c. Ban all classes at Oxford and Cambridge. >> d. Restructuring competitive exams to remove biases that favours >>elite class/caste students >> e. compulsory couses of history, political science, sociology for >>students from technical and professional institutes. >> f. More recruitment of faculties in premier institutions from >>Indian background to correct the caste imbalance and to break the monopoly >>of british people over such institutions and to >>provide opportunity for blossoming of real merit, efficiency and >>excellence. >> g. Higher education must be provided in Hindi and Punjabi or all >>primary schools must be in Telugu medium >> h. Government must spend 10% of GDP on Education focusing on >>quality primary education for underprivileged >> >>6. We demand punishment for anti-reservation protesters for hurting >>sentiments and showing their castist nature by sweeping roads, >>cleaning shoes and raising castist slogans. >> >>7. We condemn castist Indian media for instigating the protest against >>reservations and providing space to biased. one-sided, castist >>coverage. We also demand for punishment of journalists, cartoonist, >>editors for making fun of Indians and casting aspersion on the >>merit of Indians without any concrete proof or datas and thus >>showing its true castist nature. >> >>JAI BHEEM >> >>signed/- >>STUDENTS' CAMPAIGN FOR CLAIM ON BRITISH NATION >> >>Contact >>Kuber - 9818304469 >> >> >_________________________________________ >reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. >Critiques & Collaborations >To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in the subject header. >List archive: -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060529/9fc44271/attachment.html From newsletter at flashartonline.com Mon May 29 21:08:01 2006 From: newsletter at flashartonline.com (Flash Art International) Date: Mon, 29 May 2006 17:38:01 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Flash Art Newsletter Message-ID: <20060529-17380186-1bb4@mailupsrv1.mailup.info> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060529/08e65b10/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From pukar at pukar.org.in Mon May 29 15:42:15 2006 From: pukar at pukar.org.in (PUKAR) Date: Mon, 29 May 2006 15:42:15 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [announcements] Lecture and film screening this week Message-ID: <003501c68308$5ea77e50$0fd0c0cb@freeda> PUKAR MONSOON 2006 Youth and Urban Identity May 15 - June 3, 2006 LECTURES: Youth and Issues of Good Governance Tuesday, May 30, 6:30 - 8 PM, University of Mumbai Surendra Srivastava, Representative of Lok Satta Whose role is it to ensure that Mumabi city is run efficiently and consciously? In this talk, Surendra Srivastava will speak about his role with Lok Satta, a citizen's action group committed to democratic reforms and ending corruption. This discussion will focus on various opportunities for youth to take an active role in local government and thus, Mumbai's future. FILM SCREENINGS: Freedom Before 11 Wednesday, 31st May, 6:30pm, PUKAR Office A Film on Women's Hostels in Mumbai (25 minutes) CLOSING SESSION: Kindly note that the Closing Session which was scheduled on June 3rd, has been postponed. The revised date and venue will be circulated later. VENUES: · University of Mumbai, Room no. 142, Fort Campus, Near High Court · PUKAR Office, 1-4, Kamanwala Chambers, Sir P. M. Road, Fort PUKAR (Partners for Urban Knowledge Action and Research) Address:: 1-4, 2nd Floor, Kamanwala Chambers, Sir P. M. Road, Fort, Mumbai 400 001 Telephone:: +91 (22) 5574 8152 Fax:: +91 (22) 6664 0561 Email:: pukar at pukar.org.in Website:: www.pukar.org.in -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060529/b8c71996/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From amc at autonomous.org Tue May 30 02:12:51 2006 From: amc at autonomous.org (amanda mcdonald crowley) Date: Mon, 29 May 2006 16:42:51 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Electrohype 2006 Message-ID: <6B73A770-045C-42A1-8C19-05A0AAB939FA@autonomous.org> Call for entries. Electrohype 2006 – the fourth Nordic biennial for computer based art Deadline July 3rd 2006 – material via ordinary mail should be postmarked by this date. Electrohype is pleased to announce this call for entries for the exhibition that will be a follow up to the previous large Electrohype exhibitions in 2000, 2002 and 2004. The exhibition will take place in Lunds Konsthall from December 9th to January 7th. This year the exhibition will be in both a new venue and a new city. Lunds Konsthall is located in the central part of Lund, in the south of Sweden. Lund is approximately 20 km north of Malmo where previous Electrohype exhibitions has been presented. Lunds Konsthall, built in 1957, is a beautiful exhibition spaces in late functionalist architecture style. The exhibition space has a flexible semi-open layout with a total exhibition surface of approximately 600 - 800 square meters. The annual number of visitors in Lunds Konsthall is 95 000. The exhibition will present works by 8 – 10 artists or artist groups. The concept of the Electrohype biennial is that it shall be a Nordic exhibition but this does not exclude works by artists from outside the Nordic region. To give the exhibition a broad perspective we are usually working with a 50/50model, 50 percent from the Nordic region and 50 percent from the rest of the world. Since the decision to realize the exhibition was made just recently we have not yet decided on a theme or topic for this exhibition. This also explains the short deadline. In addition to the main exhibition there will also be an exhibition with the topic “electronic art in public space” at the Museum of Sketches in Lund, a museum dedicated to public art. Most of the artworks in the museum are in the form of models, visualizations and sketches. This exhibition will be presented during the same period as the main exhibition. This call, and the application form, does not include this exhibition, however if you have knowledge of, or have realized a project you think we should know of feel free to send us a short description (maximum 1/2 page) and link to a project page. Please write “public” in the subject line. Important dates Deadline for this call for entries July 3rd 2006 Exhibition opening December 9th 2006 Exhibition closing January 7th 2007 Please feel free to re-distribute this call. What kind of art are we looking for? Electrohype has since the start in 1999 focused on what we choose to call computer based art. Art that runs of computers and utilizes the capacity of the computer to mix various media, allow interaction with the audience, or machines interacting with each others etc. in other words art that can not be transferred to “traditional” linear media. This might seem as a narrow approach but we have discovered that it gives us a better focus on a genre that in no way is narrow. We are not looking for “straight” video art (even if it is edited on a computer) or still images rendered on computers and other material that refers to more “traditional” media forms. Forms were the traditional tools have been replaced with computers and software. Practical An online application form and a PDF form can be found on this address: www.electrohype.org/2006 NOTE: Please do NOT send documentation material as attachments to e- mail and do NOT send 8 pages CVs. Put your material online and send us the url or ftp address or send us a CD in the mail. Please read the form and follow the guidelines. We receive a large amount of proposals and all of them are reviewed closely. To be able to do this we ask you to follow the structure in the application form and the topics mentioned above. Financial We are still working on the fundraising for the exhibition. We will hopefully have final numbers sometime during this summer. We will have to adjust the final selection of works for exhibition according to the financial situation. This is unfortunate but it is also necessary, art is beautiful but financial reality is harsh. We will encourage everyone submitting material to look for possibilities for local funding to help cover costs for transport, travel and rent of technical equipment. In previous exhibitions we have managed to keep a high level both in artistic content and exhibition design, even on a modest budget. It is therefore very important for us to avoid unpleasant surprises, so please keep this in mind when filling out the various posts in the form, especially when it comes to technical requirements, transport weight etc. We are looking forward to see new and interesting works of art. Best regards from the Electrohype team Anna Kindvall and Lars Gustav Midboe For additional info please visit our web site at: http://www.electrohype.org/2006 :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::::::::::::: ELECTROHYPE Drottninggatan 6A 212 11 Malmö SWEDEN +46 40 18 26 90 http://www.electrohype.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060529/c6f82f34/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From sirfirf at yahoo.com Tue May 30 17:55:54 2006 From: sirfirf at yahoo.com (irfan) Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 05:25:54 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Re: aaj sharat In-Reply-To: <20060529155906.1868.qmail@web36809.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <20060530122554.53769.qmail@web36813.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Ravindranath Tagore kaa ek geet hindi mein. -Irfan > > > Aaj is sharat kaal mein, > Prabhat mein dekhe gaye swapn mein > pata nahin mere praanon ko kiski chaah hai? > Aaj shefali phoolon kee gadrai shakhaon par > Panchhiyon ka joda, kaun saa Gaan gaa raha hai? > > Aaj is meethee bahti bayar mein bhi- > Hriday udaas pada hai- > Yah ghar mein man maarkar baitha nahin rahna > chaahta. > Kis suman kee aashaa mein, > Kis phool kee surabhi ke peechhe-peechhe > Yah man nirabhra aakash mein daudna chaahta hai. > > Aaj koi hai-jo sammukh nahin hai- > Aur is prabhat vela mein, > Aisa jaan padta hai > Maano jeevan viphal ho gayaa. > Yah chaaron ore dekhta rahta hai- > Man andar hi andar rota-kalapta aur gaata rahta hai- > Yah nahin, Aesa nahin, Vaisa nahin, Kahin nahin- > Kahkar khud ko samjhaata rahta hai. > > Sapnon ke is desh mein,kaun hai woh chhalnamayi > Jo apne lambe keshon kee > chhayadar amrai mein Chhipi baithi hai. > Aaj pata nahin kis upwan mein > Virah kee vedna sanjoey, > Mere hee kaaran roti phir rahi hai. > > Agar main apne asthir pranon ke saath gaan ki > Panktiyaan bhi goonth.ta chalaa jaaun to- > Main yeh gaan aakhir sunaaunga kise? > Agar main phoolon ki daali lekar > Unkee maala goonth.ta jaaoon- > To apna yeh pushphaar kiske gale mein daaloonga? > aur agar main apne praan > Kisi par nyochhavar karna chhahoon- > To unhein kiske pairon par > nyochhavar kar paaoonga bhala! > Mera hriday saham uthta hai ki meri bhool chook > kahin > Kisi ka dil na dukha jaaye... > Use akaran kasht na ho. > --------------------------- > <<>>> > > > > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam > protection around > http://mail.yahoo.com > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From iwasthere2000 at yahoo.com Tue May 30 18:03:29 2006 From: iwasthere2000 at yahoo.com (shashidhar sabnavis) Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 05:33:29 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Re: Please JOIN pro-reservation agitation in London In-Reply-To: <20060529164824.6405.qmail@webmail47.rediffmail.com> Message-ID: <20060530123329.69814.qmail@web32409.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Dear Mr. Murari, God alone must be in the know, we are all humans born equal but there are a few like you who want to divide the society, Mr. Murari calls us comrades and does not quite understand the most basic of all comunist equations, the equation of equality. Mr. Murari firmly believes that people from the lower castes should be given an opportunity, will he equally support it if the same doctor tomorrow gives him a bad pill, or should an OBC be exempt from fradualent practice , if good needs to be promoted, should bad also be discouraged, should an OBC be given more punishment if he does something bad. I have worked a life time in Slums in Pune the mother land for all caste movements, one of the slums we work in is divided on the lines of caste, people who follow Ambedkar and people who follow athavle, they do not inter marry they do not cross each others lines, If such great luminaries could not chages them what can people like us do... Do not fall for the trap, do not take any concessions, there is no free lunch in this world and only ability and instent stand good.. I am sure all OBC's were also given the same lessons by their parents. Jai Hind shashi --- murari kumar jha wrote: > Comrades, > We have already waged a struggle in favour of > reservation at JNU on the banner of ALL INDIA > STUDENTS' ASSOCIATION (AISA). The JNUSU President > who is from this organisation has brought out > leaflet supporting the cause of social justice. From > today onwards we going on a relay hunger strike to > extend our support to reservation for the OBCs. > Lal Salaam. > > On Mon, 29 May 2006 arisen silently wrote : > >This sounds like an RSS invasion. > > > > > > > >On 5/26/06, Kuber Sharma wrote: > >>Join them at Picadilly Square... > >> > >>---------- Forwarded message ---------- > >> From: Kuber Sharma > >>Date: May 26, 2006 2:45 AM > >>Subject: Starting our Agitation > >> > >>Dear Friends, > >> Jaibheem > >> > >>Indians Campaign for claim on all Nations has > decided to start its > >>campaign on 29th May evening by holding a public > meeting in favour of > >>reservation in LSE. From 30th morning we will > start our Dharna in front > >>of Picadilly Square in London. Some of us will go > on hunger strike. We > >>will start with relay hunger strike with more > students joining in. The > >>aim of our hunger strike and dharna is to mobilise > more indians, > >>youths as well as other professionals to come out > in support of > >>Reservation policy and to oppose the nationalist > biases of Media, Academia > >>and black mail of nationalist Britishers and also > to > >>force Blair government to fulfill its obligation > effectively. > >> > >>We are in contact with pro-reservation students > from different parts > >>of the old empire. Many of them have assured their > participation in our > >>protest in London. Within a week we are hoping to > have students from > >>each one of the ex colonies of Great Britain > sitting on hunger > >>strike and dharna in London. Right now our plan is > to focus our protest > >>in London only. Given our limited means it will be > appropriate for us > >>to focus our agitation at one place. With the time > period gradually we > >>can coordinate with students from other part of > the world and bring > >>all of us under one Umbrella and make concerted > efforts. > >> > >>We call students from various part of the old > empire to flood London in > >>coming days. We are small group of students > without any financial > >>means so it is must that those students who can > afford traveling and > >>staying in London should come. The only thing we > can do is to provide > >>them the space in our rooms for their stay. > >> > >>It is most important that our intellectuals and > scholars should join > >>us. We appeal to them to come to London and at > least stay with us for > >>one day. This will boost our confidence and help > us to mobilise more > >>support from Indian community. > >> > >>We also appeal our professionals to come to > London, if possible, or > >>support us in what ever way they feel they can. > >> > >>TOGETHER ALL OF US CAN REALLY BRING DESIRED > CHANGES IN THE SOCIETY > >> > >>The main rationale behind our agitation are > >> > >>1. Stupid Indian reservationists has provided us a > golden opportunity to > >>bring caste and national discourse in mainstream. > As we all are aware of the > >>fact that British media, accademia and civil > society always maintain > >>conspiratory silence on horrors of colonial period > and always try to hide > >>nation based discrimination and inequality in the > name of merit. In fact > >>they have till now successfully denied us the > space to speak, raise our > >>concernssince independence. Now they only, by > default, have provided us an > >>opportunity to organise and fight discrimination; > >> > >>2. This is also an historic opportunity for us to > pressurise British > >>government to take stock of its measures for > empowerment of > >>underprivileged Indians and demand effective > implementation of such > >>government policies; > >> > >>3. To oppose elitist and castist biases in > educational system of UK and to > >>bust the myth of British merit. Just because we > our PCI is so much lesser, > >>we should not pay full fee at any British Acdemic > Institution. > >> > >>4. And the most important point is to take revenge > for over two centuries of > >>British exploitation of our fine nation. It is > high time that we demand > >>effective reforms for Indians. > >> > >>OUR DEMANDS > >> > >>1. The British Government must fulfill its > constitutional obligations by > >>implementing reservations for all Indians in all > government jobs, > >>private or government educational > institutions,army,judiciary and > >>super speciality courses. > >> > >>2. The British Government should also make legal > provisions for reservation > >>in private sector for underprivileged Indians. > >> > >>3. The British Government must bring out a White > Paper on reservation > >>policy. It is must so as to know how far it has > been implemented. It is fact > >>that not even 50 % of reservation is being > fulfilled by ruling white > >>class of UK. They have denied us the maximum > benefits of > >>reservation policy till now. > >> > >>4. Effective land reforms are must for empowerment > of Indians. So we > >>demand government to carry land reforms in every > part of the UK and not just > >>southall. > >> > >>5. We also demand to amend nationalist & elitist > biases in their education > >>system by > >> a. redesigning the syllabuses to generate > awareness about colonisation > >>of India; > >> b. providing non-british, anti-caste icons > prominent space and > >>to remove completely britishl myths and > misconceptions, taught to > >>us, in the name of International History and > Culture. > >> c. Ban all classes at Oxford and Cambridge. > >> d. Restructuring competitive exams to remove > biases that favours > >>elite class/caste students > >> e. compulsory couses of history, political > science, sociology for > >>students from technical and professional > institutes. > >> f. More recruitment of faculties in premier > institutions from > >>Indian background to correct the caste imbalance > and to break the monopoly > >>of british people over such institutions and to > >>provide opportunity for blossoming of real merit, > efficiency and > >>excellence. > >> g. Higher education must be provided in Hindi > and Punjabi or all > >>primary schools must be in Telugu medium > >> h. Government must spend 10% of GDP on > Education focusing on > >>quality primary education for underprivileged > >> > >>6. We demand punishment for anti-reservation > protesters for hurting > >>sentiments and showing their castist nature by > sweeping roads, > >>cleaning shoes and raising castist slogans. > >> > === message truncated ===> _________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and > the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to > reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in the > subject header. > List archive: __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From shivamvij at gmail.com Tue May 30 18:19:44 2006 From: shivamvij at gmail.com (Shivam) Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 18:19:44 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Mamma will give you a Kit Kat! In-Reply-To: <80ACD070-8B1D-4E12-BCD2-95BFBAE44972@girdhar.net> References: <80ACD070-8B1D-4E12-BCD2-95BFBAE44972@girdhar.net> Message-ID: Thanks! Wait for a lot more masala that I'm gathering for you at AIIMS! On 5/29/06, Yogesh Girdhar wrote: > Shivam > Thank you for letting us know about all these eye opening and unknown > side of the current events. > -Yogesh From shivamvij at gmail.com Tue May 30 22:22:08 2006 From: shivamvij at gmail.com (Shivam) Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 22:22:08 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] 'Striking AIIMS docs live in a glass house' Message-ID: Someone told me that one of the leaders of the anti-reservation campaign back in '91 was himself a doctor through "management quota". I am convinced beyond doubt that the real reason why most people are protesting against reservations is because their own seats are hurt, their own prospects are hurt (or may be they are not, especially since the government is increasing seats, but perception can be as devastating as reality when it comes to middle class insecurity). "Merit" and "votebank politics" are fake excuses - the same middle class does not mind overlooking merit when it comes to itself; the same middle class doesn't mind having reservations based on economic status by overlooking merit, the same middle class does not mind "votebank politics" is the votebank is the middle class. Shame on them. Best, Shivam o o o o o Striking AIIMS docs live in a glass house Akshaya Mukul [ Tuesday, May 23, 2006 01:55:32 amTIMES NEWS NETWORK ] http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1543278.cms RSS Feeds| SMS NEWS to 8888 for latest updates NEW DELHI: The main grouse of AIIMS students - at the forefront of the stir against 27% reservation for OBCs - is that merit is being sacrificed at the altar of votebank politics. But they forget two things: 25% reservation that AIIMS graduates get in PG admission and the Supreme Court judgment of 2001 that declares the earlier system of 33% reservation for them bad in law. In fact, the SC, while stating that 33% institutional reservation is "unconstitutional", agreed with the findings of the Delhi High Court, which had earlier set aside the reservation. The HC had found that "AIIMS students, who had secured as low as 14% or 19% or 22% in the (all-India) entrance examination got admission to PG courses while SC or ST candidates could not secure admission in their 15% or 7% quota in PG courses, in spite of having obtained marks far higher than the in-house candidates of the institute." HC had analysed admission data over five years. The apex court also agreed with the HC that the "figure of 33% reservation for in-house candidates was statistically so arrived at as to secure 100% reservation for AIIMS students. There were about 40 AIIMS candidates. The PG seats being 120, 33% thereof worked out to be 40." That meant all 40 AIIMS graduates were assured of PG seats. Merit here was clearly being sacrificed, the study showed. For instance, in the January 1996 session, an AIIMS student with 46.167% marks - lowest for an AIIMS student that year - got PG admission. However, an SC student with the same grades was admitted but denied coveted course such as obstetrics and gynaecology. The SC student got shunted to community while AIIMS students easily won berths in prestigious disciplines. Twelve AIIMS candidates were selected even though they got less marks than the SC candidate who secured 60.33% marks. Similarly, 16 AIIMS students got admission to PG courses even though they got less marks than another ST student who got 62.16%. Basing itself on this study, SC said, "Institutional reservation is not supported by the Constitution or constitutional principles." "A certain degree of preference for students of the same institution intended to prosecute further studies therein is permissible on grounds of convenience, suitability and familiarity with an educational environment," it added. Preferences, the court said, had to be "reasonable and not excessive...Minimum standards cannot be so diluted as to become practically non-existent." In the similar vein, SC said, "It cannot be forgotten that the medical graduates of AIIMS are not 'sons of soil'. They are drawn from all over the country." The court reasoned that these students had "no moorings in Delhi. They are neither backward nor weaker sections of society. Their achieving an all-India merit and entry in the premier institution of national importance should not bring in a brooding sense of complacence in them". Extending the damning logic, the court said in preserving quotas for its own students, "the zeal for preserving excellence is lost. The students lose craving for learning." From avereec at hotmail.com Wed May 31 17:07:54 2006 From: avereec at hotmail.com (Averee Chaurey) Date: Wed, 31 May 2006 17:07:54 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] song of the baul part V Message-ID: The Song of the Baul: Part V Friends, as I sit down to write the script of my play, I realise that I am going deeper and deeper into the lives of these wandering minstrels. For a Baul/Baulani, �Nishkam Sadhana�, or removal of passion is very essential. To regulate one�s own inner intents, self-discipline and will power is a must to be exercised. According to them, � Where lust dwells, love is not attained�. This reminds me of a poem by Rabindranath Tagore, who spun the same thought round many of his poems. �Not for me is the love that knows no restraint, but like the foaming wine that having burst its vessel in a moment would run to waste. Send me the love, which is cool and pure like your rain that blesses the thirsty earth and fills the homely earthen jars. Send me the love that would soak down into the centre of being, And from there would spread like the unseen sap through the branching tree of life, giving birth to fruits and flowers. Send me the love, that keeps the heart still with the fullness of peace� (Geetanjali) The Bauls often differentiate between Kam (desire) and Prem (love). Love (Prem) for a Baul implies retention of semenand therefore no procreation. For an ordinary human being desire (Kam) is associated with continuity (of the lineage). Accordingly, �While the love which is Kam (desire) leads to separation, the love which is Prem binds�. (�Kamer priti hay chirachiri, premer priti hay jorajori). Desire for the Baul means separating one from oneself, splitting off and creating children. There is also the notion of a lack of unity and intimacy with one�s partner. �Love (Prem) does not disrupt the self (Atma), it unites the male and female who separate.� Having children for a staunch Baul is a mistake. According to Sanatan Baul, �due to a fundamental mistake I had children and spend time other than in joy� (anand)�. The chapter on �Women� or �Nari� by Satis ( a handwritten text) contains a host of rebuttals: � woman is the creator of all. Without her and if used her, nothing would exist. Because of man�s lust she suffers the pain and dangers of childbirth. Sometimes he even abandons her when she is pregnant. She takes enormous trouble to rear her child, feeding and cleaning him. That very son whom she tended with such loving care grows up and proclaims-�woman is the gateway to hell�. Men wrote the scriptures opportunistically which is why men have all the freedom and women all the bondage. They dominate women and make them subordinate. If women had written the scriptures, they would similarly have framed the rules for their own convenience. (Translated by Jean Openshaw in her book, �Seeking the Bauls of Bengal�). �Women are not tigresses but giver of joy�. These lines and other references show that women have been held in high esteem in Baul philosophy are found in �The History of Bengali Literature� by Asit Kumar Bandyopadhyay. Large number of old manuscripts, especially in the signature of the songs, both Baul and Baulani existed, which definitely shows that men and women worked at par. Raj-Rajeshwari, Yadu-Bindu (composer Yadav and his partner Bindu) to name a few. The present generation of Bauls does not use the name of the Baulani along with theirs. But of course woman is �shakti� power for them. They worship women in the form of �Madhurya Bhav� (as a lover), unlike Ramkrishna Paramhansa who worshipped in the state of �Vatsalya� (reversion to childhood). Here we should not misunderstand a Baul. His worship does not express lust (Kam) but love (Prem). A Baulani does not have a caste. �I am a woman. And woman has no jat. Only men have jat�. It is interesting to note in most of the Bhakti poetry, which includes Baul songs, somewhere Sufi poetry too merges. The longing of the devotee for a total identity with god. This mysticism of identity gave rise to an image of total union between the lover and the beloved. �Where lust dwells love is not attained�. This philosophy bears a universal appeal. This is when one ponders why there is so much of hatred and bloodshed all around. Can�t a Baul or a Sufi saint spread this message around through their music? I always feel music reaches the heart quicker than any other form of message. But when Sanatan Baul says that he made a mistake by having children this makes me think. Children are a source of love and if the Baul philosophy is love then why not have children. Can�t they attain their goal then? Is the Baul not interested to further their community? I do not have an answer. Are children only born out of lust? Isn�t love a part of it? A woman is held in high esteem in the Baul community, yet the woman yearns within herself to hear the word �mother� from her child. Are women only companions to see that the Baul reaches his ultimate goal and therefore has to give up her own wishes? I get a strange feeling that the Baul philosophy is male centred. But when I talk to them I do not sense that. There may be something deeper, which I cannot fathom. Averee Chaurey