From dattuagarwal at gmail.com Sun Apr 1 06:28:05 2007 From: dattuagarwal at gmail.com (Dattu Agarwal Agarwal) Date: Sun, 1 Apr 2007 06:28:05 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] =?utf-8?q?=28no_subject=29?= Message-ID: <9545e7840703311758s35147721jbcbf3dfe5a952cc0@mail.gmail.com> Hi every body, i am in need of an information is there any NGO. by name Economic for health and education growth in Delhi? Are they giving any award such as Bharath sikshana ratna award? please inform. regards Dattu Agarwal. From christina112 at earthlink.net Sun Apr 1 22:15:22 2007 From: christina112 at earthlink.net (Christina McPhee) Date: Sun, 1 Apr 2007 09:45:22 -0700 Subject: [Reader-list] April 2007 on -empyre- : TechnoPanic: Terrors and Technologies Message-ID: <9E0EDF89-82FB-4039-B417-0A3115B591A1@earthlink.net> April 2007 on -empyre- soft-skinned space: TechnoPanic: Terrors and Technologies http://www.subtle.net/empyre with Horit Herman-Peled (IS), Brooke Singer (US), Paul Vanouse (US), and Sean Cubit (AU) moderated by Tim Murray (US) and Renate Ferro (US) From surveillance and mobile technologies to fears and public panic, the ambivalent attraction of technologies of terror shifts registers between post-cold war and post 9-11sensibilities, whether from international or cross-generational zones of engagement. We will discuss how panic, paranoia, critical resistance to, and appropriation of technologies of terror are mediated by the threat and fear of violence in the interlinked networks of mobile media, domestic space, and the public sphere. Please join this discussion -- subscribe at http://www.subtle.net/empyre Guest biographies: -------------------------------------------------------->Horit Herman- Peled (IS) is a media artist, theorist, and feminist activist in Tel Aviv, who teaches art and digital culture at the Art Institute, Oranim College, Israel. http://www.horit.com/ -------------------------------------------------------->Brook Singer US) is a Brooklyn-based digital media artist and arts organizer who lives in Brooklyn. A member of Preemptive Media, her most recent collaborations, both as an artist and curator, utilize wireless (Wi- Fi, mobile phone cameras, RFID) as tools for initiating discussion and positive system failures. She is Assistant Professor of New Media at SUNY Purchase. http://www.bsing.net/blog/ ------------------------------------------------------->Paul Vanouse (US) makes data collection devices that include polling and categorization (for interactive cinema), genetic experiments that undermine scientific constructions of identity, and temporary organizations that performatively critique institutionalization and corporatization. He teaches in the Art Dept. at the University of Buffalo (SUNY). -------------------------------------------------------->Sean Cubitt (AU) teaches media and communications at the University of Melbourne. Among his numerous books on cinema and new media are EcoMedia, The Cinema Effect, and Digital Aesthetics. Sean has curated numerous exhibitions and is Editor in Chief of the Leonardo Book Series for MIT Press. http://www.mediacomm.unimelb.edu.au/aboutus/staff/sean/ seanwriting/index.html moderators: Renate Ferro (US) conceptual artist, visiting Assistant Professor of Art, Cornell University, and Timothy Murray (US), curator, the Rose Golden Archive of New Media Art and Acting Director of the Society for the Humanities, Cornell University. Their most recent collaboration has involved Renate's installation "Panic Hits Home" for the The Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival in Marchl 2007. (FLEFF) is a one-week multimedia inter-arts extravaganza that reboots the environment and sustainability into a larger global conversation, embracing issues ranging from labor, war, health, disease, music, intellectual property, fine art, software, remix culture, economics, archives, AIDS, women’s rights, and human rights. This year’s festival will focus on new content streams: Maps and Memes, Metropoli, Panic Attacks, and Soundscaping. http://fleff2007.blogspot.com Subscribe for participation at: http://www.subtle.net/empyre/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------- From saraf83 at gmail.com Mon Apr 2 10:43:47 2007 From: saraf83 at gmail.com (aditi saraf) Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2007 10:43:47 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Old Dog, New Tricks?: Rethinking Animal Activism in an Urban Context Message-ID: <672990b50704012213o79281c28l3bf9dca657ed386b@mail.gmail.com> Hello all, This is our first posting, spelling out some ideas we have started out with. Comments and suggestions are welcome. Santana Issar and Aditi Saraf Old Dog, New Tricks? Rethinking Animal Activism in an Urban Context With the achievement of the urban-scape as perhaps the zenith of human civilization - conceptualised as the passage from 'nature' to 'culture'- the same processes that have caused the ascendancy of the city have rendered animals virtually invisible in urban spaces. This, despite their overwhelming presence in the same. The curious thing about animals in the city is the perception that they are not really meant to be there… Human-animal relationships have been historically constituted in complex and intimate ways along the economic, the affective, the cultural and ritual, and the metaphoric. As these relationships become increasingly tenuous, it has been suggested that animals have been reconfigured in the urban imagination; as household pets – owned commodities supported by an ever-burgeoning industry - as objects of wonder and display in zoos and circuses, and, to put it rather crudely, as salami sandwich or Kentucky Fried Chicken. Our concerns are primarily twofold. Firstly, does this driving of a wedge between human lives and those of animals inform dominant notions of 'animal welfare'? To what extent does this divide affect the functioning of organizations and institutions that emerge around animal activism? For this purpose, the main unit of our study will be the animal welfare organization (AWO) in the city, whether state-supported, non-government or religious. The structure and function of these organizations, the demographic profile that they target and derive support from, the informal networks and mobilization strategies they adopt, and the normative space that they occupy within the spectrum of urban ideologies will be the main empirical focus of our study. The intention is to delineate a relationship between the theories of human-animal interaction in a post-industrial urban context and the practices of animal rescue and welfare, in the context our own urban jungle – Delhi. Our second concern arises from the ambivalence with which 'animal welfare' is commonly regarded - even by those who do not necessarily dislike animals – as a romanticized indulgence of the urban elite. Moreover, activities undertaken by animal welfare activists are often perceived to be inconsistent with human rights. Is animal welfare the pursuit of a privileged segment of urban society that can afford to gloss over human miseries? Or can the parameters of animal activism transcend the dichotomies of kindness/cruelty, vegetarians/meat-eaters, in order to encompass a more nuanced understanding of human-animal relationships? In the quest for the answer to the latter question, we will study forms of inter-species interaction in the urban environment that lie outside the dominant paradigms of ownership, care-taking and the spectacle of the zoo or the circus. Some of these forms may be manifest, for instance, in relationships between stray animals and homeless children, performing monkeys and their owners, livestock/labouring animals and their keepers, or in the ritual/cultural realm - for example, temple elephants and their mahouts, ghodis and their keepers, pigeon flyers and their birds. How should we perceive these relationships? What roles do such animals play – are they possessions, companions, cohabitants? What are the dynamics of co-dependency in such cases? How do they undercut the dominant notions of 'wild animals', 'pet animals', and animals-as-food that predominate in urban human-animal interactions? Do such forms articulate the notion of 'animal welfare' differently? The above constitutes a (rather loose) theoretical framework around which we hope to undertake research. However, only extensive fieldwork can provide this project focus and direction, as well as the confidence to make claims. Our research methodology and documentation will involve both the textual and visual, conducted through participant observation, interviews and questionnaires, photographic and video recording. Must the interests of animals be antithetical to those of humans? This is the question that has provided the moral impetus for this proposal. In our search for the answer, we have found little that addresses this particular problem, in this particular context. We hope to study and eventually derive innovative strategies of 'welfare' that will address the apparent incompatibilities between animal needs and human interests. We hope that our project will not only add to understanding urban ecology, but also enlarge and enrich the scope of animal activism in Delhi. From turbulence at turbulence.org Mon Apr 2 04:26:06 2007 From: turbulence at turbulence.org (Turbulence) Date: Sun, 1 Apr 2007 18:56:06 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] UPGRADE! BOSTON: Cati Vaucelle + Yasmine Abbas Message-ID: <0306725B46A94F968A4AB6C9A803E11F@joPC> UPGRADE! BOSTON: Cati Vaucelle + Yasmine Abbas http://www.turbulence.org/upgrade/ WHEN: April 12, 7 pm WHERE: Art Interactive, 130 Bishop Allen Drive, at the corner of Prospect Street, Cambridge. Free parking in the lot on the corner or take the T to Central Square and walk 1 block. < Cati Vaucelle > http://www.turbulence.org/upgrade/archives/04_12_07CV.html Cati Vaucelle is a PhD student and research assistant at MIT Media Laboratory's Tangible Media group with Dr Hiroshi Ishii. She has degrees in Philosophy, Fine Arts, Computer Science, Mathematics, and Economics. Her current work examines the interdependencies of the virtual and the physical, and explores the fundamental differences between them. << Yasmine Abbas >> http://www.turbulence.org/upgrade/archives/04_12_07YA.html Yasmine Abbas holds a Master of Science in Architecture Studies (SMArchS 2001) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Doctor of Design (DDes 2006) from Harvard University Graduate School of Design. In 2005 she founded neo-nomad, a digital platform dedicated to design and mobility in the digital world. Abbas teaches at Northeastern University and Wentworth Institute of Technology, Boston. <<< Up Next >>> May 3, 2007 "Technological Frontiers and the Limits of Nature: Networked Interventions" http://www.turbulence.org/upgrade/archives/05_03_07Cyberarts.html A panel discussion with Jane D. Marsching, Cary Peppermint and Brooke Singer; moderated by Shane Brennan. [Part of the 2007 Boston Cyberarts Festival.] Upgrade! Boston (http://www.turbulence.org/upgrade/about.html) is curated by Jo-Anne Green for Turbulence.org (http://turbulence.org) in partnership with Art Interactive (http://artinteractive.org). It is one of 24 nodes currently active in Upgrade! International (http://theupgrade.net), an emerging network of autonomous nodes united by art, technology, and a commitment to bridging cultural divides. If you would like to present your work or get involved, please email jo at turbulence.org. If you no longer wish to receive these notices, please reply to this email with "UNSUBSCRIBE" in the subject line. 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 burtoncleetus at yahoo.co.uk Mon Apr 2 10:48:21 2007 From: burtoncleetus at yahoo.co.uk (burton cleetus) Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2007 06:18:21 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] Protest (on April 1st) SC's stay on OBC reservationand brainstorm about how to furtherr Social Justice! In-Reply-To: <00b501c773a8$98fd1010$6401a8c0@ved6suqbkuh1sf> Message-ID: <20070402051821.51603.qmail@web27115.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Dear Vedprakash One of the most 'serious' objections raised by the SC with regard to the OBC reservation, is the regarding determination of the status of caste, for OBC reservation, based on the 1931 census. Yes the last census that gave any indication to the position of caste and their human development indices in india was the 1931 census. From 1881 to 1931 caste was an important criteria in the tabulation of the social position of the different sections of the sub-continent. However, the outbreak of the second world was in 1939, failed to the creation of an elaborate census in 1941. Hence the 1941 census cannot be used as an indication of any form of serious analysis. After independence, the new political and bureaucratic authorities of the "new" nation decided to do away with the idea of caste on any categorisation in census records. This was because Caste signified some thing derogatory in the new context. This complicated the whole enumeration process and thereby failed to arrive at any meaning ful analysis on the social condition of different caste groups in India. There is no analysis in census records from 1931 onwards does not mean that caste as a social category, and the disadvantages attached to caste dissapeared and an 'egalitarian system was established' after 1931. Are the lower castes to be blamed for not having a caste based enumeration after 1931. For them the idea of the new state to avoid the "category of caste" in census records closed any analysis on their social position. In a sense, for them, after independence, this shift was like from frying pan to fire! Burton Vedprakash Sharma wrote: it looks as if I went through the mail of a political leader. in my humble opinion, the SC has raised some very genuine objections. without a scientific analysis of the problem of reservation, one should not draw conclusions. we may have different views over it but the logic must prevail and the same should decide the criterion of the reservation. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Shivam Vij" To: "sarai list" Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2007 12:30 PM Subject: [Reader-list] Protest (on April 1st) SC's stay on OBC reservationand brainstorm about how to furtherr Social Justice! > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: Satinath Choudhary > > Dear friends from Delhi and close by, > > I am sorry for this late call! However, Emergency situation created > by our upper caste Supreme Court does not give us the luxury of > planning with plenty of time in our hands. Let us meet this Sunday, > April 1st, 2007, at Jantar Mantar, Delhi, between 11 am to 1 pm, and > accomplish a number of objectives in one shot! > > (a) Demo on Sunday, April 1st, 2007, at Jantar Mantar, Delhi, > between 11 am to 1 pm against Supreme Court's stay OBC's reservation > in higher education; > > (b) Brainstorm about declaring the month of April as Social Justice > month. Social Justice month may attract participation and organizing > on the part of STs, OBCs, and minorities, not many of whom have been > organizing Ambedkar's birth anniversary; > > (c) Brainstorm about how to further the cause of social justice; > in particular, how to democratize the court, especially the Supreme > Autocratic Upper Caste. > > (d) Brainstorm about a bigger event by the end of April to further > the cause of social justice > > If you have any suggestion with regard to any of the above > mentioned things, please feel free to call me (at 9350041088) or write > to me at satichou2 at yahoo.com. > > Dalit Voice Silver Jubilee Celebration Committee, Delhi invites you > to join a daylong discussion and debate to mark the occasion of 25 > glorious years of Dalit Voice. Those of us who feel that Dalit Voice > has contributed immensely to develop a new dynamic Ambedkarite > movement would like to take this debate further. > > On April 8th, 2006, from 10 am to 5:30 pm, we all join hand to > facilitate Dalit Voice for its wonderful journey. The daylong > programme is organized at the Gandhi Peace Foundation, Deen Dayal > Upadhyay Marg, Near ITO, New Delhi. > > Dalit Voice Silver Jubilee Celebration Committee: Rajni Tilak, > Vidya Bhushan Rawat, Ashok Bharati, Satinath Choudhary, Abhimook > Nayak, > > Contacts: vbrawat at gmail.com, rajni.nacdor at gmail.com, satichou2 at yahoo.com > Telephone nos: 9871441261, 011-65902846, 22462528 (V.B.Rawat), > 9871514040 ( Rajni Tilak) and 9350041088 (Satinath). > > Regards, > Satinath > _________________________________________ > 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. > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > List archive: _________________________________________ 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. To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list List archive: --------------------------------- New Yahoo! Mail is the ultimate force in competitive emailing. Find out more at the Yahoo! Mail Championships. Plus: play games and win prizes. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070402/8bc2e5ac/attachment.html From burtoncleetus at yahoo.co.uk Mon Apr 2 11:56:00 2007 From: burtoncleetus at yahoo.co.uk (burton cleetus) Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2007 07:26:00 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] Fwd: Re: Protest (on April 1st) SC's stay on OBC reservationand brainstorm about how to furtherr Social Justice! Message-ID: <20070402062600.71109.qmail@web27115.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Dear Vedprakash One of the most serious objections raised by the SC with regard to OBC reservation, is the method of determining the status of caste based on 1931 census. Yes the last census that gave any indication to the position of caste and their human development indices in india was the 1931 census. From 1881 to 1931 caste was the basic criteria in the tabulation and analysis of the social position of the different sections of the sub-continent. The outbreak of the second world in 1939, limited the scope of tabulation of the 1941 census with no serious analysis or interpretation. After independence, the new political and bureaucratic authorities of the "new" nation decided to do away with the idea of caste on any categorisation in census records. This was because Caste seemed for them a derogatory term in the new context. Post independence enumeration details thereby complicated the whole census tables and thereby failed to arrive at any meaning ful analysis on the social condition of different caste groups in India. There is no analysis in census records from 1931 onwards does not mean that caste as a social category, with its accompanying social maladies have dissapeared and an 'egalitarian system was established' after 1931. For the lower castes the idea of the new state to avoid the "category of caste" in census records thereby closed any serious analysis on their social position. In a sense, for them, the new methodology was like being thrown from frying pan to fire! Burton ___________________________________________________________ > Vedprakash Sharma > wrote: > it looks as if I went through the mail of a > political leader. in my humble > opinion, the SC has raised some very genuine > objections. without a > scientific analysis of the problem of reservation, > one should not draw > conclusions. we may have different views over it but > the logic must prevail > and the same should decide the criterion of the > reservation. > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Shivam Vij" > To: "sarai list" > Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2007 12:30 PM > Subject: [Reader-list] Protest (on April 1st) SC's > stay on OBC > reservationand brainstorm about how to furtherr > Social Justice! > > > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > > From: Satinath Choudhary > > > > Dear friends from Delhi and close by, > > > > I am sorry for this late call! However, Emergency > situation created > > by our upper caste Supreme Court does not give us > the luxury of > > planning with plenty of time in our hands. Let us > meet this Sunday, > > April 1st, 2007, at Jantar Mantar, Delhi, between > 11 am to 1 pm, and > > accomplish a number of objectives in one shot! > > > > (a) Demo on Sunday, April 1st, 2007, at Jantar > Mantar, Delhi, > > between 11 am to 1 pm against Supreme Court's stay > OBC's reservation > > in higher education; > > > > (b) Brainstorm about declaring the month of April > as Social Justice > > month. Social Justice month may attract > participation and organizing > > on the part of STs, OBCs, and minorities, not many > of whom have been > > organizing Ambedkar's birth anniversary; > > > > (c) Brainstorm about how to further the cause of > social justice; > > in particular, how to democratize the court, > especially the Supreme > > Autocratic Upper Caste. > > > > (d) Brainstorm about a bigger event by the end of > April to further > > the cause of social justice > > > > If you have any suggestion with regard to any of > the above > > mentioned things, please feel free to call me (at > 9350041088) or write > > to me at satichou2 at yahoo.com. > > > > Dalit Voice Silver Jubilee Celebration Committee, > Delhi invites you > > to join a daylong discussion and debate to mark > the occasion of 25 > > glorious years of Dalit Voice. Those of us who > feel that Dalit Voice > > has contributed immensely to develop a new dynamic > Ambedkarite > > movement would like to take this debate further. > > > > On April 8th, 2006, from 10 am to 5:30 pm, we all > join hand to > > facilitate Dalit Voice for its wonderful journey. > The daylong > > programme is organized at the Gandhi Peace > Foundation, Deen Dayal > > Upadhyay Marg, Near ITO, New Delhi. > > > > Dalit Voice Silver Jubilee Celebration Committee: > Rajni Tilak, > > Vidya Bhushan Rawat, Ashok Bharati, Satinath > Choudhary, Abhimook > > Nayak, > > > > Contacts: vbrawat at gmail.com, > rajni.nacdor at gmail.com, satichou2 at yahoo.com > > Telephone nos: 9871441261, 011-65902846, 22462528 > (V.B.Rawat), > > 9871514040 ( Rajni Tilak) and 9350041088 > (Satinath). > > > > Regards, > > Satinath > > _________________________________________ > > 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. > > To unsubscribe: > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > > List archive: > > > _________________________________________ > 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. > To unsubscribe: > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > List archive: > > > > --------------------------------- > New Yahoo! Mail is the ultimate force in > competitive emailing. Find out more at the Yahoo! > Mail Championships. Plus: play games and win prizes. ___________________________________________________________ All New Yahoo! Mail – Tired of unwanted email come-ons? Let our SpamGuard protect you. http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/nowyoucan.html From nc-agricowi at netcologne.de Mon Apr 2 16:36:37 2007 From: nc-agricowi at netcologne.de (videoCHANNEL) Date: Mon, 02 Apr 2007 13:06:37 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] =?iso-8859-1?q?=5BAnnouncements=5D_Easter_feature?= =?iso-8859-1?q?=3A_Women_Directors_Cut_I?= Message-ID: <20070402130637.DC08D754.3DDC08A9@192.168.0.3> On occasion of Easter 2007, VideoChannel - video art project environments http://videochannel.newmediafest.org launches a series of bi-monthly shows featuring a young generation of female video/film artists/directors participating in VideoChannel, entitled: Women Directors Cut [WDC] --> These series, curated by Agricola de Cologne spotlight in the 1st edition following six film/video artists ---> Beatrice Allegranti (UK), Margerida Paiva (Portugal), Dana Levy (Israel), Elia Alba (Domenican Republic), Nancy Atakan (Turkey), Alla Girik & Oksana Shatalova (Kazakhstan) --> Make your virtual Easter walk and visit "Women Directors Cut - Edition I" on http://videochannel.newmediafest.org/blog/?page_id=108 ---------------------------------------- VideoChannel - video art project environments http://videochannel.newmediafest.org is a corporate part of [NewMediaArtProjectNetwork]:||cologne http://www.nmartproject.net the experimental platform for art and New Media from Cologne/Germany ---------------------------------------- Required: the latest Flash plug-in, broad bandwidth Internet connection _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From info at kitabmahal.org Mon Apr 2 13:43:16 2007 From: info at kitabmahal.org (Kitabmahal, The Fourth Floor) Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2007 10:13:16 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Dr Batra's Photography Exhibition at Kitab Mahal, Fort on 4th April 2007 Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070402/f3125b64/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From mail at shivamvij.com Mon Apr 2 19:50:44 2007 From: mail at shivamvij.com (Shivam Vij) Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2007 19:50:44 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Fwd: Re: Protest (on April 1st) SC's stay on OBC reservationand brainstorm about how to furtherr Social Justice! In-Reply-To: <20070402062600.71109.qmail@web27115.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> References: <20070402062600.71109.qmail@web27115.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <9c06aab30704020720q57e207bbrb8d567a6f1f05edf@mail.gmail.com> The discussion might benefit from a reading of the SC judgement: http://www.shivamvij.com/2007/04/full-text-of-the-judgement-staying-the-implementation-of-obc-reservations.html best s -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070402/53ad0cff/attachment.html From vedprakash.sharma at gmail.com Mon Apr 2 18:05:21 2007 From: vedprakash.sharma at gmail.com (Vedprakash Sharma) Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2007 18:05:21 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] the reservation debate Message-ID: <006c01c77523$63042670$6401a8c0@ved6suqbkuh1sf> here is a posting from another list about the complex situation over the reservation policy of our government. Stoking the reservation fires There would seem to be no end to the reservations debate, with the Supreme Court's halting in its tracks what all the political parties together had crafted as a major social justice measure that struck a fair balance between the interests of different sections. What is surprising is that the court should have stayed the operation of the law so close to admission time, and that when the institutions were preparing to increase the number of seats over three years to provide for reservations. Over the years, a great deal of uncertainty has been introduced into the constitutional law on reservations by differing opinions handed down by different benches and a plethora of year to year stay orders. The strategies of various governments in resorting to constitutionally impermissible quotas and procedures and trying to sneak under the radars of the courts have only worsened the situation. In essence, under the new law, both the identification of the Other Backward Classes and the 27 per cent figure for reservations followed the earlier government order that reserved posts in government services on the basis of the Mandal Commission recommendations. A nine-member bench of the Supreme Court upheld that order. Yet this time round the court chose to question the validity of the use of the 1931 census as the basis and point to the absence of any new survey of backwardness as a major infirmity in the reservations system. It needs to be noted that in the census operations subsequent to 1931 caste-wise data were not gathered. The bench was on stronger ground, however, on the issue of the creamy layer that has not been excluded from the purview of reservations. This non-exclusion goes to the basic question of identification of a class as backward. For unless those who occupy constitutional positions such as Governors or are members of the all-India services or are professionals such as doctors, lawyers, and chartered accountants or are affluent and do not suffer social or educational disadvantages are excluded, a caste cannot be categorised as a backward class. It is also obvious that in a competitive environment if such advanced categories are provided reservations, they will crowd out the really backward among the OBCs. Indeed, no argument based on equity or fairness has been advanced in support of the reluctance of the State governments - and now the Centre - to exclude the creamy layer from reservations. Equally relevant is the issue of keeping out certain areas such as airline pilots, higher specialities in medicine or engineering or research, and the armed forces outside the scheme of reservations. The overall national interest would also require preserving certain institutions such as the Indian Institutes of Technology and the Indian Institutes of Management as islands of excellence uncompromised by any other consideration. ****** Vedprakash Sharma Ph 011-32440078, M 09350158273 skype Id: ved1234 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070402/6a284ea5/attachment.html From ramanchima at gmail.com Mon Apr 2 23:07:11 2007 From: ramanchima at gmail.com (Raman Chima) Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2007 23:07:11 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Internet Censorship and the Indian State - Sarai Independent Fellowship 2007 (First post) In-Reply-To: <9c06aab30703290226g77d0ac74t69a468473cea26bb@mail.gmail.com> References: <2fbb8fe0703280902y7eea070eh627d613d75a8588a@mail.gmail.com> <2fbb8fe0703290146hd70f665l3d47ef04c6142673@mail.gmail.com> <9c06aab30703290226g77d0ac74t69a468473cea26bb@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <2fbb8fe0704021037q32f14761q84686e33899d5701@mail.gmail.com> Dear Shivam, Thanks for the link to the archive of your articles; I had come across several of them earlier but didn't have a comprehensive source for all of them. I've currently been examining the work of a Sarai fellowship report produced in 2004 by Ketan Tanna on Internet Censorhip in India, which has been quite useful in documenting data as to incidents of internet censorship up to that point such as the Kyunhun Yahoogroup blocking, the blocking of the online edition of Dawn and the net telephony related blocks put in place by VSNL before 2000 which were responsible for the case launched by Arun Mehta in the Delhi High Court. I'm also hoping to try and view obtain the video documentary submitted by Rudradeep Bhattacharjee under the 2006 Sarai-CSDS I-Fellowship programme on the subject of "Freedom in Cyberspace in the Context of India". If you'd be willing, I'd really like to view any material/information that you have with respect to the petition to ban Orkut in Maharashtra since that is something that I do want to examine in my project. I wanted to find some clear material on the subject, since press reports aren't too clear on the entire matter. I'm especially keen on getting the cause number for the actual petition. I already have found a comprehensive report prepared by a committee constituted by the Bombay High Court on the issue of Internet regulation with respect to the issue of obscenity thats quite interesting, since its a proper policy document prepared with regards to the subject under the aegis of a judicial authority. I'm still examining it to see how it envisages the role of the State in all of this, as well as whether there are any similar reports prepared by State agencies directly. As for State authorities regulating the Internet under the rationale of preventing cybercrime, I'm aiming to interview some of these individuals directly. I already have had some information on this with respect to the Bangalore Cybercrime Police Station, some of whose personnel I had met earlier with respect to a project that I had done on the issue of Obscenity law in India and the Internet. I'll be visiting them again after I've prepared a comprehensive list of questions and issues that need to be addressed when interviewing them. I'll be trying to interview personnel in the Department of Information Technology, Department of Telecom and the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-IN) in New Delhi in June along with agencies such as the Delhi Police. If any of you have suggestion as to people and/or agencies that I should be focusing on studying in Bangalore or Delhi, I'll be quite happy to have your comments. Sincerely, Raman. On 3/29/07, Shivam Vij wrote: > > I'd be really > > interested in comments and ideas, especially with regards sources of > > information that any of you might think may be useful. > > Dear Raman, > > I have worked on internet censorship off and on. You can find some of > my articles here: http://del.icio.us/goalduniya/censorship > > There have been other Sarai Fellows in the past who have worked on the > subject but your proposal is a relief to me insofar as it seems to > want to go beyond what is already documented. > > A lot of the focus on internet censorship is shifting to Orkut. You > might want to consider Orkut in Maharashtra - Google says it has now > condescended to opening a direct line of communication with the Mumbai > Police. > > The first case against Orkut was filed by a law student like you > against I-Hate-India communities on Orkut, put up by Pakistanis. All > the media reported it, and some had the sense to search Orkut for > anti-Pak communities put up by Indians - and these outnumbered the > ones Pakistanis had put up against India! > > I searched Orkut for the petitioner's name and tracked him down. I > asked him: so what about anti-Pak communities? He said that if > Pakistan had appropriate law, Pakistanis are free to go to their > courts against Orkut. I couldn't believe it: the guy was just playing > with the bare acts. > > A lot of the reaction against this in the blogosphere was the typical > oh-we-are-becoming-China hysteria. Hopefully, the courts will throw > out these cases against Orkut. > > You may also want to consider difficult cases where users demand > censorship or some kind of moderation - identity theft for instance. > At some point cyber crime and internet censorship do come in conflict. > > best > shivam > From burtoncleetus at yahoo.co.uk Tue Apr 3 10:13:02 2007 From: burtoncleetus at yahoo.co.uk (burton cleetus) Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2007 05:43:02 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] Protest (on April 1st) SC's stay on OBC reservationand brainstorm about how to furtherr Social Justice! In-Reply-To: <003401c7751f$4c8c0830$6401a8c0@ved6suqbkuh1sf> Message-ID: <113121.22587.qm@web27114.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Hi Vedprakash First of all i wish to state that i am not Satianath as you wrote, I am Burton . you say that the whole issue of reservation'is very complicated', there is nothing complicated or scientific about it. the only problem was that, the peculiar situation arose by a contigency that was necessitated by the II world war, which led the enumerators to drop a proper caste based census in 1941. This however became a precedent, or rather a reason to conveniently forget the issue of caste in census records from 1951. which ultimately led to a situation of this sort. You point out 'some sort of a contradiction, regarding the absence of caste based enumeration and the caste based politics' that emerged in the post independent india. i never mentioned the emergence of caste based politics, in my previous mail so that it has to contradict with what i said in my mail. After all these dont contradict, nor are they related to each other at all. they are two different issues. The only point that i was trying to raise was, should the mistake of omitting caste based enumeration from 1951 onwards, be a justification for further mistakes and denial of rights of the lower sections of the society? Burton --- Vedprakash Sharma wrote: > dear Satinath, > this is very complicated. on one side, Govt does not > wish to have a caste based survey, as you wrote, > "After independence, the new political and > bureaucratic authorities of the "new" nation decided > to do away with > the idea of caste on any categorization in census > records. This was because Caste signified some thing > derogatory in the new context. This complicated > the whole enumeration process and thereby failed to > arrive at any meaning full analysis on the social > condition of different caste groups in India." > and on the other hand, most of the political parties > play the vote bank politics. don't you think, both > the tendencies contradict each other? > ----- Original Message ----- > From: burton cleetus > To: Vedprakash Sharma ; reader-list at sarai.net > Sent: Monday, April 02, 2007 10:48 AM > Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Protest (on April 1st) > SC's stay on OBC reservationand brainstorm about how > to furtherr Social Justice! > > > Dear Vedprakash > > One of the most 'serious' objections raised by the > SC with regard to the OBC reservation, is the > regarding determination of the status of caste, for > OBC reservation, based on the 1931 census. Yes the > last census that gave any indication to the position > of caste and their human development indices in > india was the 1931 census. From 1881 to 1931 caste > was an important criteria in the tabulation of the > social position of the different sections of the > sub-continent. However, the outbreak of the second > world was in 1939, failed to the creation of an > elaborate census in 1941. Hence the 1941 census > cannot be used as an indication of any form of > serious analysis. After independence, the new > political and bureaucratic authorities of the "new" > nation decided to do away with the idea of caste on > any categorisation in census records. This was > because Caste signified some thing derogatory in the > new context. This complicated the whole enumeration > process and thereby failed to arrive at any meaning > ful analysis on the social condition of different > caste groups in India. > > There is no analysis in census records from 1931 > onwards does not mean that caste as a social > category, and the disadvantages attached to caste > dissapeared and an 'egalitarian system was > established' after 1931. Are the lower castes to be > blamed for not having a caste based enumeration > after 1931. For them the idea of the new state to > avoid the "category of caste" in census records > closed any analysis on their social position. In a > sense, for them, after independence, this shift was > like from frying pan to fire! > > Burton > > Vedprakash Sharma > wrote: > it looks as if I went through the mail of a > political leader. in my humble > opinion, the SC has raised some very genuine > objections. without a > scientific analysis of the problem of > reservation, one should not draw > conclusions. we may have different views over it > but the logic must prevail > and the same should decide the criterion of the > reservation. > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Shivam Vij" > To: "sarai list" > Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2007 12:30 PM > Subject: [Reader-list] Protest (on April 1st) > SC's stay on OBC > reservationand brainstorm about how to furtherr > Social Justice! > > > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > > From: Satinath Choudhary > > > > Dear friends from Delhi and close by, > > > > I am sorry for this late call! However, > Emergency situation created > > by our upper caste Supreme Court does not give > us the luxury of > > planning with plenty of time in our hands. Let > us meet this Sunday, > > April 1st, 2007, at Jantar Mantar, Delhi, > between 11 am to 1 pm, and > > accomplish a number of objectives in one shot! > > > > (a) Demo on Sunday, April 1st, 2007, at Jantar > Mantar, Delhi, > > between 11 am to 1 pm against Supreme Court's > stay OBC's reservation > > in higher education; > > > > (b) Brainstorm about declaring the month of > April as Social Justice > > month. Social Justice month may attract > participation and organizing > > on the part of STs, OBCs, and minorities, not > many of whom have been > > organizing Ambedkar's birth anniversary; > > > > (c) Brainstorm about how to further the cause > of social justice; > > in particular, how to democratize the court, > especially the Supreme > > Autocratic Upper Caste. > > > > (d) Brainstorm about a bigger event by the end > of April to further > > the cause of social justice > > > > If you have any suggestion with regard to any > of the above > > mentioned things, please feel free to call me > (at 9350041088) or write > > to me at satichou2 at yahoo.com. > > > > Dalit Voice Silver Jubilee Celebration > Committee, Delhi invites you > > to join a daylong discussion and debate to > mark the occasion of 25 > > glorious years of Dalit Voice. Those of us who > feel that Dalit Voice > > has contributed immensely to develop a new > dynamic Ambedkarite > > movement would like to take this debate > further. > > > > On April 8th, 2006, from 10 am to 5:30 pm, we > all join hand to > > facilitate Dalit Voice for its wonderful > journey. The daylong > > programme is organized at the Gandhi Peace > Foundation, Deen Dayal > > Upadhyay Marg, Near ITO, New Delhi. > > > > Dalit Voice Silver Jubilee Celebration > Committee: Rajni Tilak, > > Vidya Bhushan Rawat, Ashok Bharati, Satinath > Choudhary, Abhimook > > Nayak, > > > > Contacts: vbrawat at gmail.com, > rajni.nacdor at gmail.com, satichou2 at yahoo.com > > Telephone nos: 9871441261, 011-65902846, > 22462528 (V.B.Rawat), > > 9871514040 ( Rajni Tilak) and 9350041088 > (Satinath). > > > > Regards, > > Satinath > > _________________________________________ > > 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. > > To unsubscribe: > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > > List archive: > > > _________________________________________ > 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. > To unsubscribe: > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > List archive: > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > New Yahoo! Mail is the ultimate force in > competitive emailing. Find out more at the Yahoo! > Mail Championships. Plus: play games and win prizes. ___________________________________________________________ New Yahoo! Mail is the ultimate force in competitive emailing. Find out more at the Yahoo! Mail Championships. Plus: play games and win prizes. http://uk.rd.yahoo.com/evt=44106/*http://mail.yahoo.net/uk From kanouse at siu.edu Tue Apr 3 01:07:46 2007 From: kanouse at siu.edu (Sarah Kanouse) Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2007 14:37:46 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Call for Participation: 2007 Global Fusion Conference Message-ID: <4E2BD12B-FA50-4A29-8AC5-262C310FA6D7@siu.edu> ++++++Please Forward+++++++++ Call for Participation: 2007 Global Fusion Conference: September 7-9, St Louis, USA Theme: Contested Intersections: publics, movements, institutions, the interface between media research, media arts, media industry professions and media activism. ANJALI MONTEIRO will be the Main Keynote Speaker. Dr Monteiro is an award-winning documentary film-maker and university professor of media studies at the Centre for Media and Cultural Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. Her keynote address will be “Spaces for Dialogue - Rethinking Critical Media Praxis in India,” or what it means for 'alternative' media praxis to engage with the new sites of contestation that have emerged in the wake of new media and communication technologies in an India that is neo-liberal, market- oriented and rapidly globalizing. PAUL MILLER, aka DJ Spooky, will be the second Keynote Speaker. His award-winning Rhythm Science (MIT Press) was named among the books of the year by The Guardian (UK). Miller will address how "sound" acts as an invisible theater where the distinctions between sound art, information, and digital production methods are viewed as tools for the creative spirit of the artist. Plenary round-tables will address video/film production, news and journalism, and advertising from these perspectives, all with an eye to how we teach communication. As usual, an international focus will be evident. Proposals for papers are encouraged to focus within this area, but may be on any communication-related topic. Paper proposals are due by April 30 to John Downing at downing.john at gmail.com. Abstracts of up to 250 words; plus name(s), affiliations, email addresses and telephone number(s) of author(s). More information will be posted at intervals on the Southern Illinois University, Global Media Research Center site: www.gmrc.siu.edu _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From iram at sarai.net Tue Apr 3 12:27:29 2007 From: iram at sarai.net (Iram Ghufran) Date: Tue, 03 Apr 2007 12:27:29 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Fwd: Invite for Film Screening on 6 April Message-ID: <4611FAD9.9090305@sarai.net> Subject: Invite for Film Screening on 6 April From: "sheba tejani" Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2007 12:08:04 +0530 To: reader-list at sarai.net =============================== Lesbians and Bisexuals in Action & Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan invite you to The release of the 10th issue of SCRIPTS, the Queer Zine published by LABIA Selected readings from this issue of SCRIPTS followed by discussion Screening of IF THESE WALLS COULD TALK 2 Directed by: Jane Anderson / Martha Coolidge / Anne Heche A film about 3 lesbian couples, 3 different decades, 3 different socio-political climates, all relevant to us today. on 6thApril, 2007 at 06:30 p.m. K. Dubash Marg, Kala Ghoda, Mumbai 400 001 Tel.: +91 (22) 22 02 77 10 _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From ranjanyumnam at gmail.com Tue Apr 3 13:34:14 2007 From: ranjanyumnam at gmail.com (Ranjan Yumnam) Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2007 13:34:14 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] HOW SATYAJIT RAY GOT FLOORED: 2ND IF POSTING Message-ID: There's an account related to me by Mr K. Ibohal Sharma, producer of the Manipuri feature film, Imagee Ningthem that got registered in my mind more than anything else he told me. It concerns the making of the film and how it went straight to international film festivals to a rapt audience and before an incredulous aficionados, critics and filmmakers in India. Among them was Satyajit Ray, who probably was not even aware of the existence of Manipuri cinema. When news about the Manipuri film being critically acclaimed at the Nante International Film Festival (in France) reached India, the reigning kings of the Indian cinema like Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen and others were shell-shocked. They had never heard of Aribam Shyam Sharma, the director of the film nor had they watched any Manipuri film of any consequence in their life. The Bengal Film Society eventually contacted the makers of the Imagee Ningthem to screen the film in Calcutta. "It was an honour for us. We stopped regular shows in Imphal so that we can take the reel to other cities from where requests have also come in for screenings," the octogenarian producer-cinematographer told me. Once in Calcutta, it was the turn of the Manipuri filmmakers to get shocked by the reaction of the audience. It was clear the audience didn't appreciate the film. The Manipuris didn't exactly expect a standing ovation, but they were also not prepared for boos and sneers from the Bengali crowd not used to the alien language and characters on the screen. "People disappeared from the hall faster than the blink of the eye, and those who remained were a handful of foreigners. "MK Binodini, the storywriter, who came with high hopes was literally reduced to tears and requested me to take her home," he recounted. But before they went back to the hotel to retire for the night, they decided to take a walk to the venue of the national film festival being held in the city just for the heck of it and in part to drown away their bitter experience at the theatre (Gorky Sadan). To their surprise they found out that their film was declared the best feature film in the national panorama. Tear of humiliation turned into tears of joy instantaneously. How did the doyens of the Indian cinema size up the film? "They watched through the film without saying anything and left without saying anything. They were clearly speechless," Mr Sharma recalled. The film was invited to participate in major international film festivals at New York and Tokyo. This was in 1982. In the same year, Imagee Ningthem won the Grand Prix at Nante International Film festival. Aribam Shyam Sharma had joined the international mainstream even before making it big in the national stage. His success story mirrors the trajectory of the evolution of the Manipuri Cinema. *************************** Ray's influence on early Manipuri cinema By Satyajit Ray, I don't mean the person and his works only. The New Wave cinema and the realism that was the hallmark of the Bengali cinema also had a deep impact on the form and content of the early Manipuri cinema. In fact, the first attempted Manipuri cinema, Mainu Pemcha, was a collaborative effort between Bengalis and the Manipuris. The film was based on a Manipuri play written by Ayekpam Shyamsunder Singh and translated by Bidal Das Panchotiya into Hindi. For reasons of commercial viability, the film had to be made not in the Manipuri language but in Hindi. This reflected the sad reality that still cripples the Manipuri film industry – which is the lack of a big market. A joint stock company was formed which was christened Shri Govindaji Film production and after raising the funds started shooting from 1948 till April 1949 at the Kali Studio in Calcutta. Directed by Jyoti Das, the cast included both Bengalis and Manipuri actors with the latter in numerical preponderance. After completing a substantial part of the film in Calcutta, they had to come back to Manipur as some scenes required shooting in Meitei Yumjao (traditional Manipuri house). An interesting thing happened in Manipur. The public who were already thrilled with the prospects of seeing their favourite play on the celluloid requested Biman Chatterjee (playing a Manipuri character in the film) to demonstrate his acting skills at the Rupmahal Theatre, which he obliged. Unfortunately the film could not be completed due to financial difficulties. In a last ditch attempt to revive the film, the producer approached the Manipuri Maharaja to support the film. The Maharajah was favourable to the idea but historical circumstances did not allow him to devote attention to the film. 1949 was a chaotic year coinciding with the end of the World War II, and for Manipur, the question of her political existence hanged in uncertainty. The question of whether the Kingdom of Manipur should join the Indian Union generated a lot of public debate with even the institution of monarchy perched precariously in the line of fire. It was a momentous era that triggered the insurgency movement over the issue of the legitimacy of the "annexation" of the Manipuri Kingdom into the Indian Union by Sardar Patel's "clever handling". The seventies assumed great significance in the history of Indian cinema. Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, Mrinal Sen pioneered the New wave cinema and changed the cinematic landscape of the Indian cinema. Mythologies and other formula films began to give way to socials. Shyam Benegal, MS Sathu, Basu Chatterjee, Kumar Sahni and others continued and took forward this tradition of filmmaking to greater heights. The Manipuri filmmakers, meanwhile, were burning with the ambition of carving out a niche for themselves. They were studying the new phenomenon so that they were not left behind. The film society movement took root in Manipur and got itself affiliated to Indian Federation of Film Societies which had its headquarters in Calcutta. After the botched attempt of Mainu Pemcha, K. Monomohan took upon himself the task of making the first Manipuri feature film – Matamgi Manipur (Today's Manipur). Like Mainu Pemcha, it was directed by a Bengali director, Devkumar Bose, son of the celebrated filmmaker Devki Kumar Bose. Adapted from a play Tirth Jatra written by by Arambam Samarendra, the film had an all-Manipuri cast, and it was in this sense a more indigenous venture than Mainu Pemcha. The film began shooting in December 3 1971 and was wrapped up in January 1972. Considering that it was the first experience for the Manipuri actors before the camera, they performed beyond expectations. This was proved when the two leading actors Rabindra Sharma and Y. Roma received the Rashtriya Chalchitra Purashkar, which is better known as the President Award. It must have been a record for any regional film industry for its first film experiment to be getting recognised in such a manner. "The Manipuris are natural artistes; they are gifted with the talent of arts, music and dance," writes RK Bidur, a founder member of the Manipur Cine Club and president of the Manipur's Film Critics Association, referring to the success of the Matamgee Manipur. ****************************** The 90s—the beginning of the end of celluloid era After a glorious history, celluloid era has effectively had its last appearance in 1998. The following is the list of the films that were made including the name of the director and producer during the period 1972-1998. Documentary films and VHS format movies are not included, as are the digital films that are the rage now. These will be dealt with in separate postings. Manipuri celluloid films Year Title Producer Director 1972 Matamgee Manipur, Karam Manmohan, Devkumar Bose 1972 Brojendrogee Luhongba, SN Chand, SN Chand 1974 Lamja Parsuram, G Narayan Sharma, A. Shyam Sharma 1974 Ngak-e-ko Nangse, Wangkhem Basanta, SN Chand 1976 Saphabi G Narayan, Sharma, A. Shyam Sharma 1979 Khuthang Lamjel, Thongam Haridas, GC Tongbra 1979 Olangthagee Wangmadasu, G Narayan Sharma, A. Shyam Sharma 1981 Imagee Ningthem, K Ibohal Sharma, A. Shyam Sharma 1981 Khonjel, M Nilamani, M Nilamani 1981 Wangma Wangma, Durlav, L Banka Sharma 1983 Sana Keithel, Thoudam Doren, MA Singh 1983 Paokhum Ama, Film Div. of India, A. Shyam Sharma 1984 Thaba, Khaidem Sakhi Devi, K Ibohal Sharma 1984 Langlen Thadoi, Khaidem Sakhi Devi, MA Singh 1984 Yairipok Thambalnu, H Gehendra, L Banka Sharma 1986 Iche Sakhi Thoudam Doren, MA Singh 1988 Kombirei, G Narayan Sharma, G Narayan Sharma 1990 Isanou, Gauhati Drsn, A Shyam Sharma 1990 Engallei, M Kumarjit, RK Kripa 1990 Paap, M Nilamani, M Nilamani 1992 Khonthang, Thoungamba, Oken Amakcham 1993 Sambal Wangma, Sobita, K Ibohal Sharma 1993 Thambal, Vishnu/Surjakanta, RK Kripa 1993 Madhavi, K Bhupendra, L Banka 1994 Mayophigee Macha, Thouyangba, Oken Amakcham 1995 Sanabi, NFDI/Drdrsn, A. Shyam Sharma 1995 Khamba Khamnu, Ch Shyamcharan, Ch Shyamcharan 1996 Kanaga Hinghouni, Chand Heisnam, Chand Heisnam/Vishwamitra 1997 Sanamanbi Sanarei, G Narayan Sharma, G Narayan Sharma 1997 Khamba Thoibi, M Nilamani, M Nilamani 1997 Chinglensana, Th. Binapani, Rajen Meitei 1997 Iraal Oirage, Chand Heisnam, Vishwamitra/Kishore Kr 1997 Yenningtha Amada, M Nilamani/Ashwini, M Nilamani/Ashwini Kr 1998 Amambasu Anganbani, Chand Heisnam, Vishwamitra/Kishore Kr 1998 Thawaigi Thawai, Thoungamba, Thoungamba/Thouyangba -- Regards, Ranjan Yumnam From ranjanyumnam at gmail.com Tue Apr 3 13:40:29 2007 From: ranjanyumnam at gmail.com (Ranjan Yumnam) Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2007 13:40:29 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] HOW SATYAJIT RAY GOT FLOORED: 2ND IF POSTING Message-ID: (If you wish to see the pictures accompanying this write-up, the same is also available at http://manipuri-cinema.blogspot.com ) How Satyajit Ray got floored… There's an account related to me by Mr K. Ibohal Sharma, producer of the Manipuri feature film, Imagee Ningthem that got registered in my mind more than anything else he told me. It concerns the making of the film and how it went straight to international film festivals to a rapt audience and before an incredulous aficionados, critics and filmmakers in India. Among them was Satyajit Ray, who probably was not even aware of the existence of Manipuri cinema. When news about the Manipuri film being critically acclaimed at the Nante International Film Festival (in France) reached India, the reigning kings of the Indian cinema like Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen and others were shell-shocked. They had never heard of Aribam Shyam Sharma, the director of the film nor had they watched any Manipuri film of any consequence in their life. The Bengal Film Society eventually contacted the makers of the Imagee Ningthem to screen the film in Calcutta. "It was an honour for us. We stopped regular shows in Imphal so that we can take the reel to other cities from where requests have also come in for screenings," the octogenarian producer-cinematographer told me. Once in Calcutta, it was the turn of the Manipuri filmmakers to get shocked by the reaction of the audience. It was clear the audience didn't appreciate the film. The Manipuris didn't exactly expect a standing ovation, but they were also not prepared for boos and sneers from the Bengali crowd not used to the alien language and characters on the screen. "People disappeared from the hall faster than the blink of the eye, and those who remained were a handful of foreigners. "MK Binodini, the storywriter, who came with high hopes was literally reduced to tears and requested me to take her home," he recounted. But before they went back to the hotel to retire for the night, they decided to take a walk to the venue of the national film festival being held in the city just for the heck of it and in part to drown away their bitter experience at the theatre (Gorky Sadan). To their surprise they found out that their film was declared the best feature film in the national panorama. Tear of humiliation turned into tears of joy instantaneously. How did the doyens of the Indian cinema size up the film? "They watched through the film without saying anything and left without saying anything. They were clearly speechless," Mr Sharma recalled. The film was invited to participate in major international film festivals at New York and Tokyo. This was in 1982. In the same year, Imagee Ningthem won the Grand Prix at Nante International Film festival. Aribam Shyam Sharma had joined the international mainstream even before making it big in the national stage. His success story mirrors the trajectory of the evolution of the Manipuri Cinema. *************************** Ray's influence on early Manipuri cinema By Satyajit Ray, I don't mean the person and his works only. The New Wave cinema and the realism that was the hallmark of the Bengali cinema also had a deep impact on the form and content of the early Manipuri cinema. In fact, the first attempted Manipuri cinema, Mainu Pemcha, was a collaborative effort between Bengalis and the Manipuris. The film was based on a Manipuri play written by Ayekpam Shyamsunder Singh and translated by Bidal Das Panchotiya into Hindi. For reasons of commercial viability, the film had to be made not in the Manipuri language but in Hindi. This reflected the sad reality that still cripples the Manipuri film industry – which is the lack of a big market. A joint stock company was formed which was christened Shri Govindaji Film production and after raising the funds started shooting from 1948 till April 1949 at the Kali Studio in Calcutta. Directed by Jyoti Das, the cast included both Bengalis and Manipuri actors with the latter in numerical preponderance. After completing a substantial part of the film in Calcutta, they had to come back to Manipur as some scenes required shooting in Meitei Yumjao (traditional Manipuri house). An interesting thing happened in Manipur. The public who were already thrilled with the prospects of seeing their favourite play on the celluloid requested Biman Chatterjee (playing a Manipuri character in the film) to demonstrate his acting skills at the Rupmahal Theatre, which he obliged. Unfortunately the film could not be completed due to financial difficulties. In a last ditch attempt to revive the film, the producer approached the Manipuri Maharaja to support the film. The Maharajah was favourable to the idea but historical circumstances did not allow him to devote attention to the film. 1949 was a chaotic year coinciding with the end of the World War II, and for Manipur, the question of her political existence hanged in uncertainty. The question of whether the Kingdom of Manipur should join the Indian Union generated a lot of public debate with even the institution of monarchy perched precariously in the line of fire. It was a momentous era that triggered the insurgency movement over the issue of the legitimacy of the "annexation" of the Manipuri Kingdom into the Indian Union by Sardar Patel's "clever handling". The seventies assumed great significance in the history of Indian cinema. Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, Mrinal Sen pioneered the New wave cinema and changed the cinematic landscape of the Indian cinema. Mythologies and other formula films began to give way to socials. Shyam Benegal, MS Sathu, Basu Chatterjee, Kumar Sahni and others continued and took forward this tradition of filmmaking to greater heights. The Manipuri filmmakers, meanwhile, were burning with the ambition of carving out a niche for themselves. They were studying the new phenomenon so that they were not left behind. The film society movement took root in Manipur and got itself affiliated to Indian Federation of Film Societies which had its headquarters in Calcutta. After the botched attempt of Mainu Pemcha, K. Monomohan took upon himself the task of making the first Manipuri feature film – Matamgi Manipur (Today's Manipur). Like Mainu Pemcha, it was directed by a Bengali director, Devkumar Bose, son of the celebrated filmmaker Devki Kumar Bose. Adapted from a play Tirth Jatra written by by Arambam Samarendra, the film had an all-Manipuri cast, and it was in this sense a more indigenous venture than Mainu Pemcha. The film began shooting in December 3 1971 and was wrapped up in January 1972. Considering that it was the first experience for the Manipuri actors before the camera, they performed beyond expectations. This was proved when the two leading actors Rabindra Sharma and Y. Roma received the Rashtriya Chalchitra Purashkar, which is better known as the President Award. It must have been a record for any regional film industry for its first film experiment to be getting recognised in such a manner. "The Manipuris are natural artistes; they are gifted with the talent of arts, music and dance," writes RK Bidur, a founder member of the Manipur Cine Club and president of the Manipur's Film Critics Association, referring to the success of the Matamgee Manipur. ****************************** The 90s—the beginning of the end of celluloid era After a glorious history, celluloid era has effectively had its last appearance in 1998. The following is the list of the films that were made including the name of the director and producer during the period 1972-1998. Documentary films and VHS format movies are not included, as are the digital films that are the rage now. These will be dealt with in separate postings. Manipuri celluloid films Year Title Producer Director 1972 Matamgee Manipur, Karam Manmohan, Devkumar Bose 1972 Brojendrogee Luhongba, SN Chand, SN Chand 1974 Lamja Parsuram, G Narayan Sharma, A. Shyam Sharma 1974 Ngak-e-ko Nangse, Wangkhem Basanta, SN Chand 1976 Saphabi G Narayan, Sharma, A. Shyam Sharma 1979 Khuthang Lamjel, Thongam Haridas, GC Tongbra 1979 Olangthagee Wangmadasu, G Narayan Sharma, A. Shyam Sharma 1981 Imagee Ningthem, K Ibohal Sharma, A. Shyam Sharma 1981 Khonjel, M Nilamani, M Nilamani 1981 Wangma Wangma, Durlav, L Banka Sharma 1983 Sana Keithel, Thoudam Doren, MA Singh 1983 Paokhum Ama, Film Div. of India, A. Shyam Sharma 1984 Thaba, Khaidem Sakhi Devi, K Ibohal Sharma 1984 Langlen Thadoi, Khaidem Sakhi Devi, MA Singh 1984 Yairipok Thambalnu, H Gehendra, L Banka Sharma 1986 Iche Sakhi Thoudam Doren, MA Singh 1988 Kombirei, G Narayan Sharma, G Narayan Sharma 1990 Isanou, Gauhati Drsn, A Shyam Sharma 1990 Engallei, M Kumarjit, RK Kripa 1990 Paap, M Nilamani, M Nilamani 1992 Khonthang, Thoungamba, Oken Amakcham 1993 Sambal Wangma, Sobita, K Ibohal Sharma 1993 Thambal, Vishnu/Surjakanta, RK Kripa 1993 Madhavi, K Bhupendra, L Banka 1994 Mayophigee Macha, Thouyangba, Oken Amakcham 1995 Sanabi, NFDI/Drdrsn, A. Shyam Sharma 1995 Khamba Khamnu, Ch Shyamcharan, Ch Shyamcharan 1996 Kanaga Hinghouni, Chand Heisnam, Chand Heisnam/Vishwamitra 1997 Sanamanbi Sanarei, G Narayan Sharma, G Narayan Sharma 1997 Khamba Thoibi, M Nilamani, M Nilamani 1997 Chinglensana, Th. Binapani, Rajen Meitei 1997 Iraal Oirage, Chand Heisnam, Vishwamitra/Kishore Kr 1997 Yenningtha Amada, M Nilamani/Ashwini, M Nilamani/Ashwini Kr 1998 Amambasu Anganbani, Chand Heisnam, Vishwamitra/Kishore Kr 1998 Thawaigi Thawai, Thoungamba, Thoungamba/Thouyangba -- Regards, Ranjan Yumnam From avinashcold at gmail.com Tue Apr 3 12:36:13 2007 From: avinashcold at gmail.com (Avinash Kumar) Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2007 12:36:13 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] documentary film " INDIA UNTOUCHED- Stories of a People Apart" Message-ID: NAZARIYA DRISHTI-NATARANI FILM CLUB * * Invites you to the premiere of Stalin K's new documentary film *"* *INDIA* *UNTOUCHED-* Stories of a People Apart*"* * * On 14th April, 2007 at 8:15pm Natarani, Usmanpura, Ahmedabad Please call Gaurang @ 98799-19549 and book your free passes. * * * * *INDIA** UNTOUCHED- **Stories of a People Apart * 110 minutes. Hindi, Bhojpuri, Gujarati, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalm with English sub-titles *Directed by Stalin K., Produced by Drishti, Presented by Navsarjan * "INDIA UNTOUCHED-Stories of a People Apart" is perhaps the most comprehensive look at Untouchability ever undertaken on film. Director Stalin K. spent four years traveling the length and breadth of the country to expose the continued oppression of 'Dalits,' the 'broken people' who suffer under a 4000 year-old religious system. The film introduces leading Benares scholars who interpret Hindu scriptures to mean that Dalits 'have no right' to education, and Rajput farmers who proudly proclaim that no Dalit may sit in their presence, and that the police must seek their permission before pursuing cases of atrocities. The film captures many 'firsts-on-film,' such as Dalits being forced to dismount from their cycles and remove their shoes when in the upper caste part of the village. It exposes the continuation of caste practices and Untouchability in Sikhism, Christianity and Islam, and even amongst the communists in Kerala. Dalits themselves are not let off the hook: within Dalits, sub-castes practice Untouchability on the 'lower' sub-castes, and a Harijan boy refuses to drink water from a Valmiki boy. The viewer hears that Untouchability is an urban phenomenon as well, inflicted upon a leading medical surgeon and in such hallowed institutions as JNU, where a Brahmin boy builds a partition so as not to look upon his Dalit roommate in the early morning. A section on how newspaper matrimonial columns are divided according to caste presents urban Indians with an uncomfortable truth: marriage is the leading perpetuator of caste in India. But the film highlights signs of hope, too: the powerful tradition of Dalit drumming is used to call people to the struggle, and a young Dalit girl holds her head high after pulling water from her village well for the first time in her life. Spanning eight states and four religions, this film will make it impossible for anyone to deny that Untouchability continues to be practiced in India. *Directed by Stalin K:* Stalin K. is a human rights activist and award-winning documentary filmmaker. In recent years, he has become known for his pioneering 'participatory media' work with urban and rural communities, in which local people produce their own videos and radio programs as an empowerment tool. He is the Co-Founder of DRISHTI- Media, Arts and Human Rights, Convener of the Community Radio Forum-India, and the India Director of Video Volunteers. He is a renowned public speaker and has lectured or taught at over 20 institutions ranging from the National Institute of Design and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in India, to New York University and Stanford and Berkeley in the US. 'INDIA UNTOUCHED' is Stalin's second film on the issue of caste—his earlier film 'Lesser Humans,' on manual scavenging, won the Silver Conch at the Mumbai International Film Festival and the Excellence Award at Earth Vision Film Festival, Tokyo, and helped to bring international attention to the issue of caste. *Produced by DRISHTI-Media, Arts and Human Rights: *DRISHTI is a leading media and human rights organization in India, with program areas of community radio, campaign design, documentary filmmaking, street theatre, participatory video, community arts and youth activism. Drishti has produced over 25 films on development issues, designed over a dozen rights-based campaigns, and conducted over 300 training workshops with more than 100 NGOs. Drishti's films are used by more than 1000 groups around the world, and the organization is a leading proponent of community radio, having set up one of the most renowned and successful community radio programs in the country. *Presented by Navsarjan Trust: *Navsarjan Trust, a leading Dalit human rights organization, works in over 3000 villages in Gujarat. Its mission is to eradicate Untouchability through legal remedies and struggles against forced occupations such as manual scavenging, and by ensuring Dalits' access to education and livelihood. Navsarjan's Founder, Martin Macwan, was the recipient of the prestigious Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Award for Human Rights. He has led the Dalit struggle at an international level as the Convener of the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights, when he led a delegation of 200 Dalit activists to the World Conference against Racism in South Africa -- In Peace, Gaurang Drishti Media,Arts & Human Rights 103, Anandhari Towers, Sandeshpress Road, Bodakdev, Ahmedabad. India.38854 www.drishtimedia.org Tel : 91-79-26851235 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070403/b2c328ee/attachment.html From zigzackly at gmail.com Wed Apr 4 02:55:06 2007 From: zigzackly at gmail.com (peter griffin) Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2007 02:55:06 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Host not found - Hari Kunzru on internet censorship Message-ID: <4d145a50704031425x71f7d3feraa77983c7df6fc90@mail.gmail.com> Host not found Dissidents must be protected from internet censorship, argues Hari Kunzru in an essay for a PEN anthology, Another Sky. http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/politicsphilosophyandsociety/story/0,,2046857,00.html An extract: Social panic about terrorism and paedophilia means that there is strong public support in most western democracies for mandatory state access to private communications. In the permanent state of pseudo-war under which we now live, interior ministers constantly remind us that civil liberties must be balanced against the exigencies of security. Technologies such as strong encryption and anonymous remailing must, they tell us, be kept out of the hands of the public. Employment of such technologies must constitute reasonable cause for surveillance. Encryption keys must be handed over on demand. Local ISPs must be forced to surrender data when required, preferably through real-time automated "black box" monitors, connected to their systems. Monitoring of voice and data traffic by the US (and perhaps, one day, by China) must be facilitated. The list goes on. Unfortunately for us complacent beneficiaries of liberal democracy there is a paradox at work here. The technologies that provide anonymity to the paedophile and the terrorist also protect the political dissident and the whistle-blower. The encryption that impedes government surveillance of its citizens is also vital to the global banking system - an interesting area where corporate and state interests are in direct opposition. [via Ethan Zuckerman's bookmarks: http://del.icio.us/ethanz] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070404/8b388b98/attachment.html From info at kitabmahal.org Tue Apr 3 17:10:15 2007 From: info at kitabmahal.org (Kitabmahal, The Fourth Floor) Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2007 13:40:15 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Ganesh Gohain's Temple of the Future painting and sculptures exhibition at Kitab Mahal, Fort Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070403/9650a8cd/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From aasim27 at yahoo.co.in Wed Apr 4 13:48:09 2007 From: aasim27 at yahoo.co.in (aasim khan) Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2007 09:18:09 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] Contact of Mr. Arijit Gupta Message-ID: <116380.99582.qm@web8702.mail.in.yahoo.com> DEare all A friend is trying to find Mr. Arijit Gupta's contact. He made a documentary with PSBT in 2002 , ' The Last Mughals'. Please write back asap if anyone has his contact. Or if anyone has a contact of the last mughal's hyderabad line. Its urgent. Thx Aasim.Here is a brief I got from her. Arijeet Gupta... made a film on the Hyderabad descendents of Zafar in 2002 ... the film was funded by PSBT and Prasar Bharti.... Arijeet is the Executive Producer & Filmmaker of KREATIONS. Formerly he was Senior Business Correspondent Times Of India Group. He was involved in producing business, corporate feature stories for reputed channels including CNBC Business News, NBC Asia. __________________________________________________________ Yahoo! India Answers: Share what you know. Learn something new http://in.answers.yahoo.com/ From mail at shivamvij.com Wed Apr 4 18:22:11 2007 From: mail at shivamvij.com (Shivam Vij) Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2007 18:22:11 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] A critique of the SC stay Message-ID: <9c06aab30704040552s7a1c6df2m7180cff23cec9834@mail.gmail.com> SC's Stay of Mandal II: A Rejoinder By V Venkatesan http://lawandotherthings.blogspot.com/2007/04/scs-stay-of-mandal-ii-rejoinder.html 1. Did the Court decide the case on merits? Ans: My interest in the interim order is on how elaborate the Bench has been on the question of stay. It is pointless to "elaborately consider the contentions of the petitioners and the government" and then conclude in paragraph 18 that "the issues need deeper consideration in the background of their legal and social importance." Now let us consider how the Court considered the stay issue. Their only concern is this: "What may have been relevant in 1931 Census may have some relevance but cannot be the determinative factor." The Central Government's counter-affidavit shows how flawed this concern is. The 1931 Census was not the basis for identification of OBC castes. The GOI's OBC lists include castes which are common to both the Mandal and the States' lists. In other words, Mandal list alone is not sufficient. In effect, it is the states' lists which have been accepted by the Central Govt. The states' lists have undergone the tests of judicial scrutiny in many cases, and have not been struck down for want of uptodate data. The court prima facie assumes that inclusion of castes in the OBC list has been mechanical, and done without adequate relevant data. This is a wrong assumption. The inclusion of castes has been going on for many years in various States, on a variety of criteria. The Mandal Commission followed its own criteria, (not on the basis of 1931 census) including representation from the claimant castes, field visits by the Members, and the States' lists. Now, it is possible that some castes in the lists ceased to be socially and educationally backward, and there could have been mistakes and imperfections while including certain castes, as it could happen in a gigantic exercise like this. Even if there is a caste census, it could happen. That is why the National Commission for Backward Classes Act, 1993 set up in pursuance of the Indra Sawhney judgment, provides a mechanism to rectify such aberrations. Anyone aggrieved with these lists, could approach the Commission stating the facts, and the nature of the complaint, with documentary evidence, if any for inclusion or exclusion. The Commission's advice in this regard is binding on the Government. For this, one need not wait for 10 years. The Act also envisages once in a 10-years revision of the lists. This was complied with in 2003, when the Commission advised the Government after a revision, that there was no scope for excluding any classes from the list as the reservation was only introduced very recently after the implementation in services in 1993. In the case of educational institutions, it had not even started. So the question of revision did not arise. Strangely, the Court did not at all fault the petitioners for not using this grievance redressal mechanism under the NCBC Act. All these are to be found in the counter-argument. But for strange reasons, the Court did not address these issues at all in its judgment. Is it a case of selective consideration "on merits"? I am unable to convince myself that it is a case of the Court hearing it on merits. Even if it had heard it on merits, I am unable to understand why the questions of balance of convenience and presumption of constitutionality are irrelevant. "Elaborate" order, ipso facto, cannot suggest that it was heard on merits. Did the Court seriously go into the merits or non-merits of stay? Instead, it raised extraneous issues like data collection and creamy layer, (on which it was not convinced itself, as it admitted there is need for detailed hearing), and on the basis of their superficial understanding (not even is there any prima facie finding), it proceeds to grant a partial stay. 2. Is there data to back up the OBC reservation? Ans: Instead of asking the Government this question, the Court must have asked the petitioners, to show that specific inclusions of castes in the OBC list were without any data, and this was not seriously examined by the NCBC, when they complained to it. The petitioners are apparently lazy to carry out such an exercise themselves, and therefore, suggested a fresh survey. The Court cites ASG as saying in a different context that there is need for periodical identification of the backward citizens and for this purpose the need for survey of entire population on the basis of an acceptable mechanism. The Court does not want to admit that such an acceptable mechanism already exists in the form of the NCBC, which is entrusted with the task of revision, if necessary. The NCBC only found this revision exercise premature in 2003. If someone is aggrieved with this decision, they can challenge it, rebut it by proving that many castes in the OBC list had ceased to be socially and educationally backward. Again, the court has only come to the aid of the petitioners' lazyness. On the contrary, imagine what could happen if the GOI follows the suggestion, carries out a survey, periodically identifies more backward citizens, only to show that the number of SEBC requiring reservation is much more than what was earlier believed to be. The Court is only opening a Pandora's Box. Here, I would like to correct Mr.Vivek Reddy. The court did not say that the Act is unconstitutional as of today. It is not even sure of this; that is why it has adjourned the case to August for a detailed hearing, clearly showing that its elaborate hearing for the interim stay is not at all sufficient. If the government comes up with fresh evidence, and the Court upholds the Act, will it then compensate the OBCs who lost one academic year, because of its faulty stay of S.6 of the Act? 3. The illogical data logic: My point in raising the issue of governance coming to a standstill is to show how illogical the requirement of data collection is. Will anyone suggest data collection to show that the SCs and STs continue to be deprived or that the castes listed as SCs and STs still fulfil the criteria for their inclusion? After all, if things can change in the case of SCBCs, it could happen in the case of SCs and STs also. I understand SCs and STs suffer from centuries of historical injustice, and therefore, must be treated on a different plane. But the line of argument can be the same, without overlooking this essential difference. Why should we assume that the Govt. did not satisfy any objective social criterion before treating a caste as backward. I agree specific instances of abuse of power can always be exposed and there is a legitimate remedy and a process under the NCBC Act. But why should we throw the baby with the bathwater? To put it differently, can Mr.Vivek Reddy as an example, demonstrate what sort of hard data could be convincing to show that the currently listed OBCs are SEBCs. The very inclusion of these castes in the lists carries with it a history of social and educational backwardness – if not a history of discrimination and deprivation as the SCs and STs – as documented by their representations to the Government, demands etc. I fail to understand how such data could be meaningful and convincing through data collection organized in terms of national surveys or censuses. Considering the backwardness and poverty level, it would not be surprising if the people fudge facts, or make spurious claims about their backwardness. The result would not only be confusing, but disastrous. Just one instance will explain. The reservations were first introduced in 1902 and 1921 respectively in princely states of Kolhapur and Mysore, in response to the local movements against existing caste based monopoly. Those princely states did not go about collecting data, but responded immediately to the demands, in order to prevent social unrest. Similarly, if the modern-day governments instinctively, and by way of impulse and formal and informal studies consider a caste as backward, such consideration can be largely respected, with due regard to a few exceptions, which can be tackled through the NCBC Act. It is naïve to believe that large-scale surveys, which the Court has in mind, would be able to help us have fool-proof OBC lists. Mr.Reddy himself agrees that the question of overall OBC population is not directly relevant when it comes to educational institutions. Does he not agree that the Court is essentially mistaken when it cites different figures of OBC population, as given by different agencies to underline its data-quest? In my view, surveys conducted on a large scale are not the answer to determine whether a caste is SEBC. The answer has to be found in anthropology and sociology, not in statistics. 4. Why I feel the 'stay' is unjustfied? Ans: I would like to draw attention to an important case decided in 2000 by the Supreme Court. It is Bhavesh D. Parish & Others v. Union of India and Another. In this case, the Court makes an important distinction between statutes having a bearing on economic policy and those which do not similarly impinge on economic policy. It cites the Supreme Court's observations in R. K. Garg v. Union of India 1982 (1) SCR 947 at 969 to support this distinction. It says: "When considering an application for staying the operation of a piece of legislation, and that to pertaining to economic reform or change then the courts must bear in mind that unless the provision is manifestly unjust or glaringly unconstitutional, the courts must show judicial restraint in staying the applicability of the same. Merely because a statute comes up for examination and some arguablepoint is raised, which persuades the courts to consider the controversy,the legislative will should not normally be put under suspension pending such consideration. It is now well-settled that there is always apresumption in favour of the constitutional validity of any legislation,unless the same is set-aside after final hearing and, therefore, thetendency to grant stay of legislation relating to economic reform, at the interim stage, cannot be understood. The system of checks and balances has to be utilised in a balanced manner with the primary objective of accelerating economic growth rather than suspending its growth by doubting its constitutional efficacy at the threshold itself. While the courts should not abrogate its duty of granting interim injunctions where necessary, equally important is the need to ensure that the judicial discretion does not abrogate from the function of weighing the overwhelming public interest in favour of the continuing operation ofa fiscal statute or a piece of economic reform legislation, till on amature consideration at the final hearing, it is found to beunconstitutional. It is, therefore, necessary to sound a word of cautionagainst intervening at the interlocutory stage in matters of economicreforms and fiscal statutes." In my view, this special treatment extended to economic legislations by the Supreme Court is not at all convincing. But I would tend to believe that the logic underlying this judgment applies with equal force to the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2007. To sum up, did the SC conclude that S.6 of the C.E.I.(RA) Act, 2007 was manifestly unjust and glaringly unconstitutional? The court was not sure, that was why it has adjourned the case for a detailed hearing. Hence, the stay was apparently unjustified. From jeebesh at sarai.net Thu Apr 5 11:05:17 2007 From: jeebesh at sarai.net (Jeebesh Bagchi) Date: Thu, 5 Apr 2007 11:05:17 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Fwd: workers newsletter from gurgaon, india References: <20070405043208.23584.qmail@web27815.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Message-ID: An excellent newsletter about working lives in the huge production region that surrounds the capital. a must read. best jeebesh Begin forwarded message: > From: gurgaon workers news > Date: 5 April 2007 10:02:08 AM GMT+05:30 > To: gurgaon_workers_news at yahoo.co.uk > Subject: workers newsletter from gurgaon, india > > Gurgaon Workers News - Newsletter 2 (April 2007) > > Dear friends, > > the following newsletter from Gurgaon is also meant as a proposal > to people in the wider NCR area to meet on a regular basis in order > to discuss local workers' struggle related issues. Particularly the > industrial areas in the South of Delhi have turned into a > production location of global capital. We find a similar > composition of capital and work-force, e.g. in the export zones in > southern Vietnam and China or in the maquiladoras at the US-Mexican > border-area. In all these boom patches a new generation of workers > has entered the scene and with them new forms and aspirations of > workers' struggles. The aim of a regular meeting would be to > understand the net of productive units, the circulation of the work- > force, the first signs of antagonism. This would include: to > analyse the production chains and contractor pools and bring the > info back to workers; to re-capitulate some of the recent struggles > in the area and to keep an open eye for (often sub-terrainian) > forms of workers' unrest; to relate the local situation to similar > developments in other regions and to try to form some links. All > this cannot be an academic exercise, final aim would be to develop > a proletarian analysis together with workers in the area, to share > the experiences made at work or in struggle, e.g. by publishing a > regular leaftlet in Hindi and to provide practical support in times > of unrest. If you are interested in such kind of meeting, please > drop us an e-mail... Gurgaon Workers News - Newsletter 2 (April > 2007) > > Gurgaon in Haryana is presented as the shining India, a symbol of > capitalist success promising a better life for everyone behind the > gateway of development. At first glance the office towers and > shopping malls reflect this chimera and even the front facades of > the garment factories look like three star hotels. Behind the > facade, behind the factory walls and in the side streets of the > industrial areas thousands of workers keep the rat-race going, > producing cars and scooters for the middle-classes which end up in > the traffic jam on the new highway between Delhi and Gurgaon. > Thousands of young middle class people lose time, energy and > academic aspirations on night-shifts in call centres, selling > credits to working-class people in the US or pre-paid electricity > schemes to the poor in the UK. Next door thousands of rural-migrant > workers uprooted by the agrarian crisis stitch and sew for export, > competing with their angry brothers and sisters in Bangladesh or > Vietnam. And the rat-race will not stop, at the outskirts of > Gurgaon Indias biggest Special Economic Zone is in the making. The > following newsletter documents some of the developments in and > around this miserable boom region. If you want to get to know more > about working and struggling in Gurgaon, if you want more info > about or even contribute to this project, please have a go at: > > www.gurgaonworkersnews.wordpress.com > gurgaon_workers_news at yahoo.co.uk > > For this and following newsletters we want to introduce four > different categories of texts which should make it easier to trace > back certain developments. > > 1) Proletarian Experiences - > Daily life stories and reports from a workers' perspective > 2) Collective Action - > Reports on proletarian struggles in the area > 3) According to Plan - > General information on the development of the region, certain > company policies > 4) About the Project - > Up-Dates on Gurgaon Workers News > > Most of the texts in this issue display the dark-side of the boom. > A deeper analysis of the more hopeful recent struggles of temp > workers at Hero Honda, Honda Manesar (HMSI), Delphi and the dynamic > work-force composition within the new industrial areas is still to > come. > > 1) Proletarian Experiences > > Death and Development - > Short news on industrial accidents, road deaths, bomb alarms, > serial killings and other achievements of development in Gurgaon > and on its highways. > > Factory and Police Station - > Recent story by metal worker from Faridabad, told to FMS. > > Exploitation and the Law - > Short glimpses of current conditions in various Faridabad > factories, in the shadow of the official labour law (March 2007 > issue of FMS) > > Glossary - > Glossary on welfare policies, wages and prices. > > 2) Collective Action > > Pressline Worker - > Example of small but sucessful industrial action, trying to avoid > the lock-out trap. > > Bicycle-Rikshaws and Strike at Liberty Shoe factory - > Short chat with former Liberty Shoe worker and short news on last > industrial dispute at Liberty Shoe factory, Haryana. > > Commuter Riot - > Fear on the highways, stress on the railways. Proletarian commuters > causing a riot at Faridabad Old Station. From October 2006 issue of > Faridabad Majdoor Samaachar (FMS). > > Techy Wage Increase - > Unsuccessful attempt of wage increase by Gurgaon Call Centre Workers > > 3) According to Plan > > Not yet special enough: Special Economic Zones, Part One - > Economy times two in Gurgaon, short summary of recent newspaper > articles on the planned SEZ. > > Corporate Watch - > Recent news on multi-national companies in Gurgaon. > > 4) About the Project > > Short Presentation of Gurgaon Workers News > > 1) Proletarian Experiences > > Death and Development > > Capitalist development kills in many ways. On 14th of March 2007 > several peasants in Nandigram, West Bengal are shot dead protesting > against being displaced for a SEZ. In Singur people get killed > because they resist the construction of a Tata car factory. Once > the car factory is running, the production creates more victims. > Suzuki Maruti in Gurgaon has outsourced most of the dangerous sheet- > metal work to work-shops and slum production-units in Faridabad. > The blood now flows outside the companies premises, union sources > estimate that daily over a dozen fingers are mutilated in the work- > shops. On 14th of March 2007, while peasants are shot at in > Nandigram, three workers in Gurgaon die and six get injured at > Evergreen Plywood Limited factory when a boiler explodes. Technical > failure. The enforcement of (automobile) industries, the production > and the product are fatal. On 12th of March 2007 a young man dies > on the new Gurgaon-Delhi highway. He is the twelfth, other sources > say the seventeenth person who got killed on this short 15 to 20 km > stretch of the NH8 during the last 50 days. In the period between > 2003 and 2006 over 1,500 people got injured on highway. The highway > and the double lane street beneath it cuts old and new Gurgaon in > half and there is hardly safe way to get from one side to the > other. Foot-crossings are not part of the supply-chain. Main reason > for the construction of the highway: supply of the Gurgaon call > centres with thousands of workers from Delhi, just-in-time supply > of Maruti, Hero Honda and HMSI with parts, easy travelling for the > upper management and high-speed drive-way to Gurgaon's shopping- > malls. Wealth on display attracts people wanting to shine in its > halo and people wanting to shine in its purgatory. The shopping- > malls on the road between Delhi and Gurgaon are packed with tens of > thousands of consumers every day and monthly tens of thousands run > onto the street in panic, scared by bomb alarms, the last time on > 16th of March 2007. Development is brutal and causes brutalisation. > In February 2007 the chapter of a serial killing is legally closed. > During the time between January and April 2006 a group of taxi > drivers killed 20 people travelling between Delhi and Gurgaon, most > of them local workers. They robbed a total of 60,000 Rs, this is > 3,000 Rs for a life. > > The following reports are translated from Hindi, published in > Faridabad Majdoor Samaachaar (FMS). FMS is a monthly independent > workers newspaper, about 5,000 copies are distributed in Faridabad > and beyond. The newspaper exists since the early 1980s, it is free. > Workers are encouraged to contribute with their thoughts and > experiences. If you want to get in touch: > Majdoor Library > Autopin Jhuggi, NIT > Faridabad - 121001 > > Factory and Police Station > (FMS no.225, March 2007) > MG Export Worker > The factory located on plot 108, sector 24 produces steel and > aluminium kitchen utensils and decorative pieces for export. The > factory employs 67 people who receive ESI and PF (see Glossary), > out of which 20 are staff (see Glossary), the rest permanent > (manual) workers. Additionally 235 casual workers (see Glossary) > work inside the plant, currently their number is low compared to > other times. Even after two or two and a half years of constant > employment for the company they remain casual workers, they do not > have ESI and PF. MG Export runs two 12-hours shift, but after one > day of 12-hour shift the next day you have to work during day and > night. The shift would start at 8 am in the morning and end at 4:30 > pm the next day. This is a 36 and a half hours shift. When it comes > to working-times the company makes no difference between permanent > and casual workers. You might be a permanent or a casual, the > payment for overtime is only at the normal rate (although legally > it should be paid double). > On Sundays the factory is made to seem closed, but actually > production is on from 7 am to 3:30 pm. On Sundays workers have to > keep their bicycles inside the plant. In sector 24 there are three > other factories which appear to be closed at night, but MG Export > uses them for night-shift. Workers are sent to night-shift from > factory on plot 108 to plot 305, plot 329... In order to hide > production there are all kind of legal and illegal papers. Finished > products ready for export were first sent to Faridabad sector 59, > now they are sent to Daadri in Uttar Pradesh. > MG Export pays the helpers 1,900 Rs per month, the operators get > 2,300 Rs (see Glossary). On pay day workers and white-collar > workers have to sign unofficial documents. Two or three days after > having received the wage people have to sign the official register > which says that the wage is according to the minimum wage defined > by the Haryana government, which would be 2,485 Rs or more, > according to wage category. The overtime is not even documented on > the unofficial papers. > On the 15th of Febuary 2007 the chairman and managing director of > MG Export were on rounds in the factory from 1 pm to 4 pm. During > this time the sahib started to kick a power press worker for a > minor fault. In front of all workers the sahib slapped-beat-kicked. > The people who started working at 8 am on the 15th of February were > supposed to work till 4:30 pm on the 16th. The press operators left > the factory on the 15th of February at 8 pm. There are twelve power > press machines in the factory and they all stood still from 8 pm to > 9:30 pm. The management called workers from the second shift at > their homes, but in the night of the 15th only three power press > were running. > On the 16th of February the power press operators gathered on a > nearby square instead of coming to the factory. The head foreman > went there and at 9:30 am the workers were brought back in the > factory. The press operators started to work. Three hours later the > company called the police inside the plant. Two police men took > four workers from the press shop to Mujesar police station. Two > workers were sent back to the factory and the other two were told > to be charged with theft... Those two police men who had come to > the factory had taken twelve metal bowls to the station themselves. > One of the workers who was held in the station was the worker who > had been beaten by the sahib, the other one was his friend. The > police threatened and scared these workers untill in the evening > they made them sign their resignation from the company and the > police asked the company to settle the accounts of the workers. > From the final payment the police men took 500 Rs each from the > workers. > > The laws are for exploitation and there is freedom to exploit > beyond the law > (FMS no. 225, March 2007) > The law: wages for a month of work have to be paid by the 7th to > 10th of the subsequent month; the daily working-time is eight > hours, the maximum overtime allowed is 50 hours in three month; > overtime has to be paid by double rate; the minimum monthly wage > defined by the government of Haryana for an unskilled helper-worker > is: 2, 484.28 Rs; this is based on an eight hours day and four days > off per month; the extra dearness allowance DA (see Glossary) for > January 2007 has not been announced yet, this is at the beginning > of March 2007; the labour department declares that they have not > received any information yet about the speech of the Chief Minister > announcing the introduction of a minimum wage of 3,510 Rs. > - Essar Steel Worker: > The factory on plot 10 is located in the Industrial Area, it runs > two shifts of 12 hours each. The overtime is paid at single rate. > The helpers get 1,950 Rs and the operators between 3,500 and 4,000 > Rs. The employer does not give ESI and PF. - CMI Worker: The > factory on plot 71 is in sector 6. Now, on 17th of Febuary workers > might receive the wages for last December. The production is > booming, the permanent workers are forced to work 16 hours. The > workers hired through contractors are driven to work 36 to 40 hours > at a stretch and often fall ill because of that. The overtime > payment is at single rate. - Mahawir Die Casters Worker: > The factory on plot no.153, located in sector 24 runs two 12 hours > shifts, 30 days per month. Overtime is paid at single rate. The > helpers hired through conractors get 2,000 Rs per month. - Galaxsy > Instruments Worker: > On plot no.2, sector 27 C, the helpers hired through contractors > get 2,100 Rs per month. The shift starts at 8 am and finishs at > 5:30 pm. Even the permane nt workers do not receive overtime > payment for the nine and a half hours shift. - Inotech Engineering > Worker: > 12/6 Mathura Road, Gurukul. The wage of the casual workers is 2,400 > Rs, there is neither ESI and PF. The shift starts at 8 am and > finishs at 10:30 pm. Overtime is paid at single rate. - Dalaal Auto > worker: > Plot no.262, sector 25. The factory runs two 12 hours shift, the > overtime is paid at single rate. - JBM Worker: > Plot no.133, sector 24. Less than 10 per cent of the work-force are > permanent workers, more than 90 per cent are hired through three > different contractors. The 50 to 60 permanent workers work two > shifts of 8:30 hours each. In the filing, welding, cleaning, > packing department 200 workers work on one shift, from 7:30 am to 9 > pm, sometimes till 10 pm or even 1 am. In the press shop 300 people > work and in the axle department 150 workers, on two shifts. From > 7:30 am to 7 pm or 8 pm to 6 am. There is work on Sundays, too. > Overtime is paid at single rate. JBM supplies Eicher, Maruti, Hero > Honda. - Sangita Industries Worker: > Plot no.55, Industrial Area. The helpers in the factory get 2,150 > Rs, but no ESI or PF. Daily working time is 12 hours. Overtime is > paid at single rate. Four to five days wages get siphoned off > before wages are paid. If you ask them about it they say that the > wage office is in the companies factory in sector 24, "so what > could we do about it". Threatening takes place, but whoever keeps > on asking again and again will finally receive their money. - Venus > Metal Industries Worker: > Plot 262, sector 24. Out of the 600 workers employed in the factory > ten per cent are permanent, ten per cent are casual and eighty per > cent are hired through contractors. In the press shop, the paint > shop and the tool room they run two shifts. There is only little > overtime. In the welding, assembly and packing department there is > only one shift, from 8:30 in the morning to 9 in the night. During > the twelve and a half hours shift they would not even give you a > cup of tea. Overtime is paid at single rate. There is hardly any > space in the factory. In the paint shop there is no exhaust fan and > there is no space for putting up a fan. The heat of the paint shop > enters the press shop, as well. This condition gets worse during > summer. There is no canteen and there is no space to make meals. > Venus Metal supplies Maruti, Hero Honda and others. - Shivalik > Global Worker: > 12/6 Mathura Road. The workers directly employed by the company > received their January wage on 21st and 22nd of February. The > workers hired through contractors have not received their January > wage, and today is the 24th of February. - High Tech Worker: > 20/6 Mathura Road. Out of the 40 workers directly employed by the > company about four or five have ESI and PF. The workers hired > through six different contractors have no ESI and PF. Whenever an > official comes for inspection to the plant they are pushed outside > the factory. The helpers get 2,000 Rs per month. Working-time is 12 > hours and overtime is paid at single rate. Per month 100 Rs out of > 500 Rs wage is siphoned off. When you leave the job they rarely pay > your outstanding wages. The contractors push and threaten and tend > to delay the wage payment. The January wage has not been given yet, > on 19th of February. - Escorts Worker: > The permanent workers have received the annual statutory bonus > (minimum one month wage) in October on Divali, but after half of > February has already passed, the casual workers did not receive it. > For any little fault casual workers are kicked out the factory. And > in order to get hired the casual workers have to give the company > officers a bribe of 500 Rs. - Vaibav Engineering Worker: > Plot no.63, sector 24. There are eight permanents and 120 casual > workers in the plant. The wage of the casual helpers is 1,650 Rs, > ESI or PF is not covered. There are two shifts, each twelve hours. > Overtime is paid at single rate. - SPL Worker: > Plot no.47-48, sector 6. The workers employed through contractors > get 90 to 115 Rs per twelve hours shift. The wages of January have > not been paid yet, on 22nd of February. - Clutch Auto Worker: > 12/4 Mathura Road. The 500 casual workers have not received their > January wages, on 20th of February 2007. - Orient Fan Worker: > Plot no.59, sector 6. On 14th of February in the tool room and > press shop factory of the company a manager and supervisor together > beat up two casual workers. - Unique Engineering Worker: > 20/3 Mathura Road, Northern Complex, plot no. 5/6. The workers have > neither ESI nor PF. > > Glossary > > Wages and Prices > Exchange Rate > Minimum Wage > ESI > PF > DA > VRS > Staff > Contract Workers > Casual Workers > Workers hired through contractors > > Wages and Prices: > When we hear that a cleaner in a call centre in Gurgaon, an > industrial worker in Faridabad or a Riksha-Driver in Delhi earns > 2,000 Rs for a 70 hours week, which is about the average normal > workers wage, we have to bear in mind that they often came from > West Bengal, Bihar or other remote place in order to get this job. > In order to put 2,000 Rs into a daily context here are some prices > of (daily) goods and services. > - Monthly rent for a small room in Gurgaon (without kitchen), > toilet and bathroom shared by five families: 1,300 Rs > - Monthly rent for a small room in new building in central Gurgaon, > single toilet and bathroom: 4,500 Rs > - Half a kilo red lentils on the local market: 25 Rs > - Kilo rice on local market: 14 Rs > - Bus ticket to nearest bigger bus stop in South Delhi: 14 Rs > - One hour internet in a cafe: 20 Rs > - Starbucks Coffee in Shopping Mall: 30 Rs > - Faulty shirt on Faridabad local market: 40 Rs > - Single gas cooker plus new 2 litre gas cylinder: 720 Rs > - Second-hand bicycle: 600 to 1,000 Rs > - Two simple steel pots: 250 Rs > - One litre Diesel: 30 Rs > - Start package pre-paid mobile phone (without the phone) 300 Rs > - Phone call to other mobile phones: 1 Rs > - One month mobile phone flate rate: 1,500 Rs > - Compaq LapTop: 50,000 Rs > - Flight Delhi to London: 28,000 Rs > - Ford Fiesta: 587,000 Rs > - Two-Bedroom Appartment in Gurgaon: 3,000,000 to 5,000,000 Rs > - The minimum dowry poor worker have to pay for the marriage of > their daughter: 30,000 Rs > > Exchange Rate: > 1 US-Dollar = 43 Rs (March 2007) > 1 Euro = 57 Rs (March 2007) > > Minimum Wage: > Offficial minimum wage in Haryana in March 2007 is about 2,500 Rs > per month for an unskilled worker, based on a 8 hours day and 4 > days off per month. > > ESI (Employee's State Insurance): > Introduced in 1948, meant to secure employee in case of illness, > long-term sickness, industrial accidents and to provide medical > facilities (ESI Hospitals) to insured people. Officially the law is > applicable to Factories employing 10 or more people. Employers > would have to contribute with 4.75 percent of the wage paid to the > worker, the employee 1.75 percent of their wage. Officially casual > workers or workers hired through contractors who work in the > factory (even if it is for construction, maintenance or cleaning > work on the premises) are entitled to ESI, as well. Self-employment > is often used to undermine ESI payment. > > PF (Employee's Provident Fund): > Introduced in 1952, meant to provide a pension to workers. > Officially applicable to all companies employing more than 20 > people. Official retirement age is 58 years. Given that most of the > casual workers belong to the regular work-force of a factory, they > are entitled to the Provident Fund, as well. So are workers > employed by contractors. If workers receive neither PF nor ESI they > also do not show up in the official documents, meaning that > officially they do not exist. > > DA (Dearness Allowance): > An inflation compensation. Each three to six months the state > government checks the general price development and accordingly > pays an allowance on top of wages. > VRS (Voluntary Retirement Scheme): > Often rather unvoluntary scheme to ged rid off permanent workers. > Particularly the VRS at Maruti in Gurgaon made this clear, when 35 > years old were sent in early retirement. Staff > In India staff includes managers, supervisors, security personnell > and white-collar workers. > > Contract Workers > Workers hired for a specific performance, paid for the performance. > > Casual Workers > Workers hired by the company for a limited period of time. > > Workers hired through contractors > Similar to temporary workers, meaning that they work (often for > long periods) in one company, but are officially employed by a > contractor from whom they also receive their wages. Are supposed to > be made permanent after 240 days of continous employment in the > company, according to the law. A lot of companies only have a > licence for employing workers in auxilliary departments, such as > canteen or cleaning. Companies usually find ways to get around > these legal restrictions, e.g. workers services are terminated on > the 239th day to avoid workers reaching eligibility criteria to > become permanent. > > DC > Deputy Commissioner, Head of the District Administration > > SP > Superintendent of Police, Head of the District Police > > 2) Collective Action > > Pressline Worker > > Given that a lot of industrial actions in the Faridabad and Gurgaon > area end up in a lock-out and are often used by the employer to > replace permanent and/or contract workers, the following short > example shows that workers have to develop different kinds of > collective actions. Particularly after the lock-out and repression > at Honda Manesar (HMSI) in July 2005 a lot of workers, mainly those > on contract basis, have learnt their lessons. Most of the struggles > after the HMSI lock-out were short factory occupations (Hero Honda > and Shivam Autotech in May 2006, Honda Manesar HMSI in December 2006). > > (FMS no. 216, June 2006) > Plot no. 262 -D, sector 24. In order to get better wages and > working clothes and so on, us 30 permanent workers neither took a > banner into our hands nor got engaged neither in a tool down strike > nor in a walk out strike. We undertook other steps in order to > effect production. The production level came down to 25 to 30 per > cent. As a reaction the company locked us out on 16th of January > 2006. On our own complaint to the labour department the company > made the excuse that construction work was going on inside the > premises and that for the workers attendance will be marked. After > fifteen days a three-year contract is agreed on: 500 Rs annual wage > increase, shoes, working clothes, soap is provided by the company, > annualy three days tour, and for all who worked for the company for > five - ten years a service award of 1,500 - 3,000 Rs. The full wage > for the fifteen days that we were kept outside the factory was > given. But still the company pays the ten casual workers only 1,800 > to 2,000 Rs and they do not have ESI and PF. > > Liberty Shoes, Strike and Cycle Rikshas > > Silaam is from West Bengal, he came to Gurgaon about two years ago, > in spring 2005. He first worked at Liberty Shoes in Haryana, he did > a lot of overtime, earned about 3,000 Rs per month. He says that he > did not like the work, the control. About a half year ago he bought > a cycle riksha. He now has regular customers, for example two women > from Maruti Vihar who work in Call Centres. He cycles them every > day. His monthly income is 5,000 Rs now, although it is unclear > whether he has to pay back a loan for the riksha. If you want to > lease a riksha, and this is what most of the riksha-valla do, you > have to pay the owner 25 Rs per day. This is the big deal for all > those who think that you can save the world by handing out micro- > credits: give people a 20,000 Rs credit and they can be their own > employer. The riksha then becomes the mill-stone around their self- > empowered necks, while waiting with dozens of other small > entrepreneurs at street corners, fighting over passengers to > transport, not being able to go back to their village, because > invested capital has to be moved. The alternative? Staying at > Liberty Shoes stitching for nothing? The following news item on the > last strike at Liberty Shoes show that conditions there are bad, > but that at least there is a possibility of collective response. > 26th of June 2006 > Over 30 people, including policemen, were injured after the Haryana > Police resorted to lathicharge on hundreds of protesting workers of > Liberty Footwear who had blocked National Highway No 1 near > Gharaunda on Monday afternoon. Police officials said that they had > to resort to lathicharge after the workers pelted stones at them > and refused to lift the blockade. About six policemen sustained > injuries in the stone pelting, they said. Many of the workers, > including women, were detained to clear the highway that had > remained blocked for over three hours, leading to nearly 10- > kilometre-long queues of stranded vehicles on either side of the > industrial town of Gharaunda. > 28th of June 2006 > Nearly 3,500 of Liberty Shoes' 4,000 employees went on a strike on > Tuesday after about 50 of them were injured on Monday in a police > lathi charge near the company's Karnal plant in Haryana while > protesting against low wages. Low salaries and lack of bonus have > been the bone of contention between the two sides for the last nine- > ten months. According to Dilawar Singh, union leader, Liberty > Workers Union, "The company has not paid any bonus in the last one > and a half years after reducing it from 20% to 10%. There hasn't > been any major hike in salary as well for many years. The > management raised the salary from Rs 1,600 to Rs 2,300 over a > period of 10 years. The management also misbehaves with the > employees quite often." > The company has about 4,000 employees working in its three units > based at Kutail, Gharonda and Karnal. Employees of the two units at > Kutail and Gharonda boycotted work on Tuesday and only 15-20 > employees turned out in Karnal plant which has about 500 employees. > Liberty, though, seems confident of meeting its production targets > despite the strike. "The employees at these three units had been > producing very less since the last 6 months and keeping in mind > their lackadaisical attitude we have increased our production in > Uttaranchal unit by 30-40% by adding two more lines to it. We have > about 170 employees there but the target is easily achieved due to > major outsourcing of component part. There will be shortage of the > products but we are hopeful to cover the losses soon," said Bansal. > The company also plans to set up 3 new units in Uttaranchal and Ponta. > The company workers say they will return to work only if their > colleagues are released from jail and all false cases imposed on > them are withdrawn. The Liberty Shoes workers have been in protest > mode for the last three days ever since eight of their leaders were > arrested by the police after a clash with two senior officials of > the company who were reportedly seriously hurt. > > Riot at Old Station, Faridabad > (FMS no.220, October 2006) > > A daily commuter: The 7:55 am Mathura Shuttle towards Delhi, the > 8:15 am Ballabhgarh train and the 8:35 am Palwal Shuttle haven't > reached New Town Station yet, and it is already 8:35 am. The > platform is packed with commuters. The Ballbhagarh train arrives > New Station at 8:40 am, there is a fair bit of pushing and punching > and quite a lot of people miss the train. The train has half > reached platform number one of Old Station when people stop the > train and force the driver to get off. After the front wind screen > and the headlight are smashed people start breaking the windows of > the waggons, the passengers get off the train and join in pelting > stones. At Old Station about 20,000 daily commuters are crammed > together. The front screen window of a freight train engine which > stands in the station gets broken, too. The Capital Express (posh > train conecting state and national capital) from Mumbai towards > Delhi stops at the outer signal. A crowd smashing the signals > arrive at the Capital Express and start to break the windows. A > Minister of Home of the central government is on the Capital > Express, as well. The police is there, but what can ten to twenty > police men do once there is such a crowd? If they would use their > clubs, they would get beaten up themselves. The DC (see Glossary) > and SP (dito) from Faridabad and the Railway SP and a heavy police > force arrives and the situation turns back to normal. > Between 6:30 am and 9:30 am there are nine local trains which carry > 100,000 daily commuters from as far as Agra to the factories, > offices, shops and other work places in Faridabad and Delhi. More > and more people get stuffed into the local trains. The situation is > so bad that there is not even space left to stand.There are between > 500 to 700 people in one waggon! People who hang outside the train > often get hit by signals. Often people get seriously injured while > trying to get on or off the train. And an eight hours working day > easily turns into a twelve to fourteen hours day. The Railway > department often stop local trains while giving green lights to > freight trains and express trains. In consequence a half an hour > local train journey can extend to one or even one and a half hours. > Reprimands for coming late you can get everywhere, factories often > refuse people who arrive late access and send them back. Only > yesterday night the local train which was to reach Okhla at 8:10 pm > had been cancelled. After a long time in limbo the Malwa Express to > Jammu was turned into a local train. In order to clear the way for > the Capital Express the local train stopped for ten minutes in > Tugalkabad and then 20 mintes at Old Station in order to clear the > way for the Southern Express. The local train would have arrived > New Station an 8:45 pm, the Malwa arrived finally at 10 pm. Under > these conditions commuters will always be in a state of tension. > > Techy Wage increase attempt at Convergys in Gurgaon > > Already older news item (August 2005) from major call centre > service provider Covergys in Gurgaon. > "Not satisfied with their earnings, some BPO employees feel they > can outsmart technology and earn bonuses for themselves. Some > employees at Convergys were sacked because they managed to 'create' > fake favourable ratings apparently from customers of SBC Yahoo, a > popular ISP in the USA who have outsourced customer services to > Convergys. The employees created new email IDs in the name of SBC > Yahoo customers they were handling, sent a positive feedback to > their company from this email ID and also updated this email ID > temporarily on the customer's database in their system. > Apparently this was discovered when Convergys noted unusual > patterns of excellent ratings for some employees. On pinging, it > was found that these feedback forms had been originating from an > Indian server (used by Convergys, Gurgaon) rather than from the US > servers from where they actually should have come. Customers were > also asked to verify if they had actually given such feedback. > Possibility is not ruled out that these executives even asked for > passwords from customers under the pretext of solving their > problems. But Raman Roy, the former CEO of Wipro's BPO operations, > says almost no one can access passwords unless customers themselves > disclose the same. "But it's possible if one has a strong > understanding of technology. If these kids could manage that, then > they are wasting their talents in a BPO," he adds. But money seems > to have been the greatest lure for such employees, as an excellent > rating can get them bonuses of up to Rs 4,000 a week". > You can read more about Convergys and the Gurgaon call centre world > in newsletter no.1. > > 3) According to Plan > > Not yet special enough: Special Economic Zones, Part One > > The following is a summary of recent newspaper articles concerning > the planning of a SEZ in Gurgaon area. This can only be a first > step towards a more general understanding of the capital and class > composition in the area and the general process of urbanisation. > The main questions concerning the bigger picture are: > - What kind of industries are concentrated in Gurgaon, how are they > intertwined locally and beyond? > - What is the role of the state and private development companies > in the expansion process? > - In which way is the village economy and agricultural surrounding > important for the expansion and for the local labour market? > - What are the general movements on the labour market? We have to > avoid to get hooked on the different legal forms of exploitation, > e.g. by demonizing Special Economic Zones or the impact of foreign > direct investment and creating illusions about the workers' > friendlyness of the public sector or of 'homegrown capital'. > Nevertheless it makes a difference for the conditions or workers' > struggles whether they are exploited in a (public sector) school or > an (export) textile mill. Recent uprisings in Vietnam, the Southern > China and Bangladesh have shown that particularly in the export > zones a young and uninstitutionalized workers' movement appears on > the stage. This is not because there the working conditions are > particularly bad or exploitation relatively worse, often the > opposite is true when we compare it to the conditions in older or > small scale industries in the respective countries. The erruptions > are more due to the fact that these workers know about their > potential power: they see their generation united by similar > experiences (migration), they know about the importance of their > work (export), there is no incorporated (union) institution which > would have an interest to sell them out and they know that due to > the generalisation of conditions their struggle will very likely > spark off chain reactions of discontent. In Gurgaon area we have > some similar features: spacial concentration of industries, > importance of export and multi-national companies ( e.g. 75 per > cent of all Japanese FDI in India flow to the area), a young > migrant work-force, most of them on contracts, meaning that they > have worked in various factories in the area. The SEZ might > intensify this concentration process. Right after taking over the > Congress-led Haryana government decided in June 2005 to set up the > SEZ in a private-public cooperation. The main developer is the > private company Reliance Industries Ltd., the company also holds 90 > percent of the shares of the project. Reliance Ltd. started as a > company in the chemical sector and became huge by attracting small > share-holders and riding the late 80s stock-market boom. Nowadays > Reliance is in chemicals, communications, energy sector, real > estate and others. In cooperation with the Haryana State Industrial > and Infrastructure Development Corporation they plan to set up a > 25,000 acre SEZ, which would be the largest SEZ in India. It is > supposed to provide a cargo airport and a 2,000-megawatt power > plant. Officially the numbers of created future jobs in the SEZ > vary quite a bit: the Haryana political leaders speak about the > creation of 500,000 jobs, Reliances Industries Ltd. about 200,000. > The actual industrial composition is still unclear. Just from > scanning recent news items it seems that apart from IT, textile and > automobile industries the trend goes towards bio-tech and > pharmaceutical industries and companies manufacturing for the > "green energy sector" (wind turbines, solar-energy, bio-fuels). > Confusingly enough there are two more SEZ announced in the Gurgaon > area, one by Rockman Projects, a multi-service SEZ, and one by > Orient Craft, a textile hub. Rockman Projects anounces that as of > December 2006, the land has been fully acquired in Gurgaon. The SEZ > will be spread over 1,615 hectares and will also be located on > National Highway 8. Orient Craft announced to set up a 750-acre > SEZ, which is supposed to employ 30,000 people once finished. In > the official Masterplan 2021 a total of 4,570 hectar is allocated > to Special Economic Zones. > Clear is the trend to develop industrial land in Manesar, a small > town in the south of Gurgaon, about 20 to 30 km down the highway. > Official term for the outcome is Industrial Model Town-Ship (IMT). > The Haryana government already announced a bulk of tax exemptions > for companies which would settle in the IMT. After Honda HMSI > opened their plant on the green field, also Maruti Suzuki set-up > the new plant there, with various bigger suppliers in tow. > According to the governmental Gurgaon-Manesar Masterplan 2021 about > 700 hectars of land was converted into industrial area. About the > development of the SEZ first critical voices appear, e.g. of the > Sampuran Kranti Manch, stating that Reliance Ltd. is more > interested in the land acquisition for planning golf courses and > Disney theme parks than in creating jobs. Compared to the situation > in Singur or Nandigram the farmers seem to be less resistant to the > selling of their land, which might be due to the fact that Haryana > was one of the states of Green Revolution, meaning that subsistence > or small scale farming has not a chance of survival anyway. Of > course the media portrays the farmers as the winner of the > situation, as people making loads of money by selling their > property. This ignores that according to the magazine Frontline > more than 50 percent of the people who live in the area are > landless, they will be displaced and loose their jobs in > agriculture (the official notification of the government states > that the developer would have to provide alternative housing and > jobs). The farmers say that the land is actually very fertile and > that it is a shame to cover the soil with marble, but that > nevertheless prices for agriculture products are down and cannot > compete with the prices for land offered by companies like > Reliances. That not everyone is happy to leave their land is > obvious. On 28th of March villagers from Gadauli Khurd opposed the > occupation of land by Haryana authorities for a proposed SEZ to be > set up by Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries, chasing away police > and a squad that had gone to the area to demolish some houses and > tube-wells. The local people gathered to oppose the demolition work > and pelted stones at the team, which comprised a HSIIDC official. > The window of a bulldozer was damaged and the team had to retreat > due to the opposition by the villagers. Physical possession of the > land will be taken soon with the help of police force and it would > be handed over to RIL, said Gurgaon's deputy commissioner Mr Rakesh > Gupta. The villagers said they were opposing the demolition as the > land was originally acquired by HSIIDC for the development of an > SEZ by the corporation but was now being handed over to a private > party. Sources said the current dispute related to about 300 acres > of the total of 1,380 acres to be given by the Haryana government > to RIL for its SEZ. So the overall effect on the rural population > has still to be seen. Other voices criticise that the state would > pamper private companies with tax exemptions and other incentives, > while the state explaines, that the income from interests and > general prosperity will more than counter-balance the low taxation. > Fact is that compared to expected profits and attracted capital, > state and companies managed quite cheaply to turn a large amount of > farm land into an industrial area. We still have to see what is > actually behind the SEZ boom. There are already various "parks" in > Gurgaon, IT-City, textile and cyber parks, automobile hubs. If you > have always wondered what a Cyber City is, here the explanation > from the Haryana Government Masterplan 2021: "Cyber City means self > contained intelligent city with (...) high speed communication > access to be developed for nucleating the Information technology > concept and germination of medium and large software companies". > Some hot air with your bits and bytes, sir...? In the notification > from May 2006 the Haryana government declared that it granted > approval for 23 SEZ to be developed in the state. If the actual > legal terms of SEZ will actually apply in all of the announced > projects, is still unclear. Already existing are the impacts on the > real estate and land prices in the area, another topic yet to cover. > > Corporate Watch > On the web-site you can find some news items on following multi- > national companies in Gurgaon area, just click on "List of > Companies". The list is boring in a general sense and it smells > like share-holders oi-stress sweat, but it might possibly be useful > once shit hits the fan or a picket the factory gate. For a longer > list of companies situated in Gurgaon have a look at the web-site, > as well. > > News items this month on: > > Alcatel Lucent > Amdocs > Amtek > Apollo Tyres > Caparo > Carrier > Dell > Donaldson > DRS > HSS, Flextronics > Genpact > INC > Maruti/Suzuki > Metro Tyres > Mitsubishi > Nippon Paint > Orient Craft > Posco > Samsonite > Samsung > Sintel > Su-Kam > UnitedLex > Zentek > > 4) About the Project > > About Gurgaon Workers News > > Gurgaon Workers' News is a project independent from political > parties or unions, trying to support workers' self-organisation in > their struggle for a better life. One of the projects' aim is to > document the development and workers' struggles in and around > Gurgaon, one of the current boom regions of global capital. For > this reason we publish a monthly electronic newsletter on this site. > > GWS is not meant to be a purely documenting project, it is not > supposed to be a one way street. We plan to distribute a regular > newsletter/leaflet amongst workers in the area which, apart from > local news, would contain workers' information of related > industries, companies or boom regions from other places in the > world. If you want to have your information distributed to workers > of a specific company, see list of companies on this site, or if > you would offer to do the same at your place, please get in touch. > > > > > News from the Special Exploitation Zone - > www.gurgaonworkersnews.wordpress.com > > All new Yahoo! Mail "The new Interface is stunning in its > simplicity and ease of use." - PC Magazine From jeebesh at sarai.net Thu Apr 5 11:41:42 2007 From: jeebesh at sarai.net (jeebesh at sarai.net) Date: Thu, 05 Apr 2007 08:11:42 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] Gurgaon Workers News - Newsletter 2 (April 2007) Message-ID: An excellent newsletter about working lives in the expanding production region that surrounds the capital. a must read. best jeebesh Begin forwarded message: From: gurgaon workers news Date: 5 April 2007 10:02:08 AM GMT+05:30 Subject: workers newsletter from gurgaon, india Gurgaon Workers News - Newsletter 2 (April 2007) Dear friends, the following newsletter from Gurgaon is also meant as a proposal to people in the wider NCR area to meet on a regular basis in order to discuss local workers' struggle related issues. Particularly the industrial areas in the South of Delhi have turned into a production location of global capital. We find a similar composition of capital and work-force, e.g. in the export zones in southern Vietnam and China or in the maquiladoras at the US-Mexican border-area. In all these boom patches a new generation of workers has entered the scene and with them new forms and aspirations of workers' struggles. The aim of a regular meeting would be to understand the net of productive units, the circulation of the work-force, the first signs of antagonism. This would include: to analyse the production chains and contractor pools and bring the info back to workers; to re-capitulate some of the recent struggles in the area and to keep an open eye for (often sub-terrainian) forms of workers' unrest; to relate the local situation to similar developments in other regions and to try to form some links. All this cannot be an academic exercise, final aim would be to develop a proletarian analysis together with workers in the area, to share the experiences made at work or in struggle, e.g. by publishing a regular leaftlet in Hindi and to provide practical support in times of unrest. If you are interested in such kind of meeting, please drop us an e-mail... Gurgaon Workers News - Newsletter 2 (April 2007) Gurgaon in Haryana is presented as the shining India, a symbol of capitalist success promising a better life for everyone behind the gateway of development. At first glance the office towers and shopping malls reflect this chimera and even the front facades of the garment factories look like three star hotels. Behind the facade, behind the factory walls and in the side streets of the industrial areas thousands of workers keep the rat-race going, producing cars and scooters for the middle-classes which end up in the traffic jam on the new highway between Delhi and Gurgaon. Thousands of young middle class people lose time, energy and academic aspirations on night-shifts in call centres, selling credits to working-class people in the US or pre-paid electricity schemes to the poor in the UK. Next door thousands of rural-migrant workers uprooted by the agrarian crisis stitch and sew for export, competing with their angry brothers and sisters in Bangladesh or Vietnam. And the rat-race will not stop, at the outskirts of Gurgaon Indias biggest Special Economic Zone is in the making. The following newsletter documents some of the developments in and around this miserable boom region. If you want to get to know more about working and struggling in Gurgaon, if you want more info about or even contribute to this project, please have a go at: www.gurgaonworkersnews.wordpress.com gurgaon_workers_news at yahoo.co.uk For this and following newsletters we want to introduce four different categories of texts which should make it easier to trace back certain developments. 1) Proletarian Experiences - Daily life stories and reports from a workers' perspective 2) Collective Action - Reports on proletarian struggles in the area 3) According to Plan - General information on the development of the region, certain company policies 4) About the Project - Up-Dates on Gurgaon Workers News Most of the texts in this issue display the dark-side of the boom. A deeper analysis of the more hopeful recent struggles of temp workers at Hero Honda, Honda Manesar (HMSI), Delphi and the dynamic work-force composition within the new industrial areas is still to come. 1) Proletarian Experiences Death and Development - Short news on industrial accidents, road deaths, bomb alarms, serial killings and other achievements of development in Gurgaon and on its highways. Factory and Police Station - Recent story by metal worker from Faridabad, told to FMS. Exploitation and the Law - Short glimpses of current conditions in various Faridabad factories, in the shadow of the official labour law (March 2007 issue of FMS) Glossary - Glossary on welfare policies, wages and prices. 2) Collective Action Pressline Worker - Example of small but sucessful industrial action, trying to avoid the lock-out trap. Bicycle-Rikshaws and Strike at Liberty Shoe factory - Short chat with former Liberty Shoe worker and short news on last industrial dispute at Liberty Shoe factory, Haryana. Commuter Riot - Fear on the highways, stress on the railways. Proletarian commuters causing a riot at Faridabad Old Station. From October 2006 issue of Faridabad Majdoor Samaachar (FMS). Techy Wage Increase - Unsuccessful attempt of wage increase by Gurgaon Call Centre Workers 3) According to Plan Not yet special enough: Special Economic Zones, Part One - Economy times two in Gurgaon, short summary of recent newspaper articles on the planned SEZ. Corporate Watch - Recent news on multi-national companies in Gurgaon. 4) About the Project Short Presentation of Gurgaon Workers News 1) Proletarian Experiences Death and Development Capitalist development kills in many ways. On 14th of March 2007 several peasants in Nandigram, West Bengal are shot dead protesting against being displaced for a SEZ. In Singur people get killed because they resist the construction of a Tata car factory. Once the car factory is running, the production creates more victims. Suzuki Maruti in Gurgaon has outsourced most of the dangerous sheet-metal work to work-shops and slum production-units in Faridabad. The blood now flows outside the companies premises, union sources estimate that daily over a dozen fingers are mutilated in the work-shops. On 14th of March 2007, while peasants are shot at in Nandigram, three workers in Gurgaon die and six get injured at Evergreen Plywood Limited factory when a boiler explodes. Technical failure. The enforcement of (automobile) industries, the production and the product are fatal. On 12th of March 2007 a young man dies on the new Gurgaon-Delhi highway. He is the twelfth, other sources say the seventeenth person who got killed on this short 15 to 20 km stretch of the NH8 during the last 50 days. In the period between 2003 and 2006 over 1,500 people got injured on highway. The highway and the double lane street beneath it cuts old and new Gurgaon in half and there is hardly safe way to get from one side to the other. Foot-crossings are not part of the supply-chain. Main reason for the construction of the highway: supply of the Gurgaon call centres with thousands of workers from Delhi, just-in-time supply of Maruti, Hero Honda and HMSI with parts, easy travelling for the upper management and high-speed drive-way to Gurgaon's shopping-malls. Wealth on display attracts people wanting to shine in its halo and people wanting to shine in its purgatory. The shopping-malls on the road between Delhi and Gurgaon are packed with tens of thousands of consumers every day and monthly tens of thousands run onto the street in panic, scared by bomb alarms, the last time on 16th of March 2007. Development is brutal and causes brutalisation. In February 2007 the chapter of a serial killing is legally closed. During the time between January and April 2006 a group of taxi drivers killed 20 people travelling between Delhi and Gurgaon, most of them local workers. They robbed a total of 60,000 Rs, this is 3,000 Rs for a life. The following reports are translated from Hindi, published in Faridabad Majdoor Samaachaar (FMS). FMS is a monthly independent workers newspaper, about 5,000 copies are distributed in Faridabad and beyond. The newspaper exists since the early 1980s, it is free. Workers are encouraged to contribute with their thoughts and experiences. If you want to get in touch: Majdoor Library Autopin Jhuggi, NIT Faridabad - 121001 Factory and Police Station (FMS no.225, March 2007) MG Export Worker The factory located on plot 108, sector 24 produces steel and aluminium kitchen utensils and decorative pieces for export. The factory employs 67 people who receive ESI and PF (see Glossary), out of which 20 are staff (see Glossary), the rest permanent (manual) workers. Additionally 235 casual workers (see Glossary) work inside the plant, currently their number is low compared to other times. Even after two or two and a half years of constant employment for the company they remain casual workers, they do not have ESI and PF. MG Export runs two 12-hours shift, but after one day of 12-hour shift the next day you have to work during day and night. The shift would start at 8 am in the morning and end at 4:30 pm the next day. This is a 36 and a half hours shift. When it comes to working-times the company makes no difference between permanent and casual workers. You might be a permanent or a casual, the payment for overtime is only at the normal rate (although legally it should be paid double). On Sundays the factory is made to seem closed, but actually production is on from 7 am to 3:30 pm. On Sundays workers have to keep their bicycles inside the plant. In sector 24 there are three other factories which appear to be closed at night, but MG Export uses them for night-shift. Workers are sent to night-shift from factory on plot 108 to plot 305, plot 329... In order to hide production there are all kind of legal and illegal papers. Finished products ready for export were first sent to Faridabad sector 59, now they are sent to Daadri in Uttar Pradesh. MG Export pays the helpers 1,900 Rs per month, the operators get 2,300 Rs (see Glossary). On pay day workers and white-collar workers have to sign unofficial documents. Two or three days after having received the wage people have to sign the official register which says that the wage is according to the minimum wage defined by the Haryana government, which would be 2,485 Rs or more, according to wage category. The overtime is not even documented on the unofficial papers. On the 15th of Febuary 2007 the chairman and managing director of MG Export were on rounds in the factory from 1 pm to 4 pm. During this time the sahib started to kick a power press worker for a minor fault. In front of all workers the sahib slapped-beat-kicked. The people who started working at 8 am on the 15th of February were supposed to work till 4:30 pm on the 16th. The press operators left the factory on the 15th of February at 8 pm. There are twelve power press machines in the factory and they all stood still from 8 pm to 9:30 pm. The management called workers from the second shift at their homes, but in the night of the 15th only three power press were running. On the 16th of February the power press operators gathered on a nearby square instead of coming to the factory. The head foreman went there and at 9:30 am the workers were brought back in the factory. The press operators started to work. Three hours later the company called the police inside the plant. Two police men took four workers from the press shop to Mujesar police station. Two workers were sent back to the factory and the other two were told to be charged with theft... Those two police men who had come to the factory had taken twelve metal bowls to the station themselves. One of the workers who was held in the station was the worker who had been beaten by the sahib, the other one was his friend. The police threatened and scared these workers untill in the evening they made them sign their resignation from the company and the police asked the company to settle the accounts of the workers. From the final payment the police men took 500 Rs each from the workers. The laws are for exploitation and there is freedom to exploit beyond the law (FMS no. 225, March 2007) The law: wages for a month of work have to be paid by the 7th to 10th of the subsequent month; the daily working-time is eight hours, the maximum overtime allowed is 50 hours in three month; overtime has to be paid by double rate; the minimum monthly wage defined by the government of Haryana for an unskilled helper-worker is: 2, 484.28 Rs; this is based on an eight hours day and four days off per month; the extra dearness allowance DA (see Glossary) for January 2007 has not been announced yet, this is at the beginning of March 2007; the labour department declares that they have not received any information yet about the speech of the Chief Minister announcing the introduction of a minimum wage of 3,510 Rs. - Essar Steel Worker: The factory on plot 10 is located in the Industrial Area, it runs two shifts of 12 hours each. The overtime is paid at single rate. The helpers get 1,950 Rs and the operators between 3,500 and 4,000 Rs. The employer does not give ESI and PF. - CMI Worker: The factory on plot 71 is in sector 6. Now, on 17th of Febuary workers might receive the wages for last December. The production is booming, the permanent workers are forced to work 16 hours. The workers hired through contractors are driven to work 36 to 40 hours at a stretch and often fall ill because of that. The overtime payment is at single rate. - Mahawir Die Casters Worker: The factory on plot no.153, located in sector 24 runs two 12 hours shifts, 30 days per month. Overtime is paid at single rate. The helpers hired through conractors get 2,000 Rs per month. - Galaxsy Instruments Worker: On plot no.2, sector 27 C, the helpers hired through contractors get 2,100 Rs per month. The shift starts at 8 am and finishs at 5:30 pm. Even the permane nt workers do not receive overtime payment for the nine and a half hours shift. - Inotech Engineering Worker: 12/6 Mathura Road, Gurukul. The wage of the casual workers is 2,400 Rs, there is neither ESI and PF. The shift starts at 8 am and finishs at 10:30 pm. Overtime is paid at single rate. - Dalaal Auto worker: Plot no.262, sector 25. The factory runs two 12 hours shift, the overtime is paid at single rate. - JBM Worker: Plot no.133, sector 24. Less than 10 per cent of the work-force are permanent workers, more than 90 per cent are hired through three different contractors. The 50 to 60 permanent workers work two shifts of 8:30 hours each. In the filing, welding, cleaning, packing department 200 workers work on one shift, from 7:30 am to 9 pm, sometimes till 10 pm or even 1 am. In the press shop 300 people work and in the axle department 150 workers, on two shifts. From 7:30 am to 7 pm or 8 pm to 6 am. There is work on Sundays, too. Overtime is paid at single rate. JBM supplies Eicher, Maruti, Hero Honda. - Sangita Industries Worker: Plot no.55, Industrial Area. The helpers in the factory get 2,150 Rs, but no ESI or PF. Daily working time is 12 hours. Overtime is paid at single rate. Four to five days wages get siphoned off before wages are paid. If you ask them about it they say that the wage office is in the companies factory in sector 24, "so what could we do about it". Threatening takes place, but whoever keeps on asking again and again will finally receive their money. - Venus Metal Industries Worker: Plot 262, sector 24. Out of the 600 workers employed in the factory ten per cent are permanent, ten per cent are casual and eighty per cent are hired through contractors. In the press shop, the paint shop and the tool room they run two shifts. There is only little overtime. In the welding, assembly and packing department there is only one shift, from 8:30 in the morning to 9 in the night. During the twelve and a half hours shift they would not even give you a cup of tea. Overtime is paid at single rate. There is hardly any space in the factory. In the paint shop there is no exhaust fan and there is no space for putting up a fan. The heat of the paint shop enters the press shop, as well. This condition gets worse during summer. There is no canteen and there is no space to make meals. Venus Metal supplies Maruti, Hero Honda and others. - Shivalik Global Worker: 12/6 Mathura Road. The workers directly employed by the company received their January wage on 21st and 22nd of February. The workers hired through contractors have not received their January wage, and today is the 24th of February. - High Tech Worker: 20/6 Mathura Road. Out of the 40 workers directly employed by the company about four or five have ESI and PF. The workers hired through six different contractors have no ESI and PF. Whenever an official comes for inspection to the plant they are pushed outside the factory. The helpers get 2,000 Rs per month. Working-time is 12 hours and overtime is paid at single rate. Per month 100 Rs out of 500 Rs wage is siphoned off. When you leave the job they rarely pay your outstanding wages. The contractors push and threaten and tend to delay the wage payment. The January wage has not been given yet, on 19th of February. - Escorts Worker: The permanent workers have received the annual statutory bonus (minimum one month wage) in October on Divali, but after half of February has already passed, the casual workers did not receive it. For any little fault casual workers are kicked out the factory. And in order to get hired the casual workers have to give the company officers a bribe of 500 Rs. - Vaibav Engineering Worker: Plot no.63, sector 24. There are eight permanents and 120 casual workers in the plant. The wage of the casual helpers is 1,650 Rs, ESI or PF is not covered. There are two shifts, each twelve hours. Overtime is paid at single rate. - SPL Worker: Plot no.47-48, sector 6. The workers employed through contractors get 90 to 115 Rs per twelve hours shift. The wages of January have not been paid yet, on 22nd of February. - Clutch Auto Worker: 12/4 Mathura Road. The 500 casual workers have not received their January wages, on 20th of February 2007. - Orient Fan Worker: Plot no.59, sector 6. On 14th of February in the tool room and press shop factory of the company a manager and supervisor together beat up two casual workers. - Unique Engineering Worker: 20/3 Mathura Road, Northern Complex, plot no. 5/6. The workers have neither ESI nor PF. Glossary Wages and Prices Exchange Rate Minimum Wage ESI PF DA VRS Staff Contract Workers Casual Workers Workers hired through contractors Wages and Prices: When we hear that a cleaner in a call centre in Gurgaon, an industrial worker in Faridabad or a Riksha-Driver in Delhi earns 2,000 Rs for a 70 hours week, which is about the average normal workers wage, we have to bear in mind that they often came from West Bengal, Bihar or other remote place in order to get this job. In order to put 2,000 Rs into a daily context here are some prices of (daily) goods and services. - Monthly rent for a small room in Gurgaon (without kitchen), toilet and bathroom shared by five families: 1,300 Rs - Monthly rent for a small room in new building in central Gurgaon, single toilet and bathroom: 4,500 Rs - Half a kilo red lentils on the local market: 25 Rs - Kilo rice on local market: 14 Rs - Bus ticket to nearest bigger bus stop in South Delhi: 14 Rs - One hour internet in a cafe: 20 Rs - Starbucks Coffee in Shopping Mall: 30 Rs - Faulty shirt on Faridabad local market: 40 Rs - Single gas cooker plus new 2 litre gas cylinder: 720 Rs - Second-hand bicycle: 600 to 1,000 Rs - Two simple steel pots: 250 Rs - One litre Diesel: 30 Rs - Start package pre-paid mobile phone (without the phone) 300 Rs - Phone call to other mobile phones: 1 Rs - One month mobile phone flate rate: 1,500 Rs - Compaq LapTop: 50,000 Rs - Flight Delhi to London: 28,000 Rs - Ford Fiesta: 587,000 Rs - Two-Bedroom Appartment in Gurgaon: 3,000,000 to 5,000,000 Rs - The minimum dowry poor worker have to pay for the marriage of their daughter: 30,000 Rs Exchange Rate: 1 US-Dollar = 43 Rs (March 2007) 1 Euro = 57 Rs (March 2007) Minimum Wage: Offficial minimum wage in Haryana in March 2007 is about 2,500 Rs per month for an unskilled worker, based on a 8 hours day and 4 days off per month. ESI (Employee's State Insurance): Introduced in 1948, meant to secure employee in case of illness, long-term sickness, industrial accidents and to provide medical facilities (ESI Hospitals) to insured people. Officially the law is applicable to Factories employing 10 or more people. Employers would have to contribute with 4.75 percent of the wage paid to the worker, the employee 1.75 percent of their wage. Officially casual workers or workers hired through contractors who work in the factory (even if it is for construction, maintenance or cleaning work on the premises) are entitled to ESI, as well. Self-employment is often used to undermine ESI payment. PF (Employee's Provident Fund): Introduced in 1952, meant to provide a pension to workers. Officially applicable to all companies employing more than 20 people. Official retirement age is 58 years. Given that most of the casual workers belong to the regular work-force of a factory, they are entitled to the Provident Fund, as well. So are workers employed by contractors. If workers receive neither PF nor ESI they also do not show up in the official documents, meaning that officially they do not exist. DA (Dearness Allowance): An inflation compensation. Each three to six months the state government checks the general price development and accordingly pays an allowance on top of wages. VRS (Voluntary Retirement Scheme): Often rather unvoluntary scheme to ged rid off permanent workers. Particularly the VRS at Maruti in Gurgaon made this clear, when 35 years old were sent in early retirement. Staff In India staff includes managers, supervisors, security personnell and white-collar workers. Contract Workers Workers hired for a specific performance, paid for the performance. Casual Workers Workers hired by the company for a limited period of time. Workers hired through contractors Similar to temporary workers, meaning that they work (often for long periods) in one company, but are officially employed by a contractor from whom they also receive their wages. Are supposed to be made permanent after 240 days of continous employment in the company, according to the law. A lot of companies only have a licence for employing workers in auxilliary departments, such as canteen or cleaning. Companies usually find ways to get around these legal restrictions, e.g. workers services are terminated on the 239th day to avoid workers reaching eligibility criteria to become permanent. DC Deputy Commissioner, Head of the District Administration SP Superintendent of Police, Head of the District Police 2) Collective Action Pressline Worker Given that a lot of industrial actions in the Faridabad and Gurgaon area end up in a lock-out and are often used by the employer to replace permanent and/or contract workers, the following short example shows that workers have to develop different kinds of collective actions. Particularly after the lock-out and repression at Honda Manesar (HMSI) in July 2005 a lot of workers, mainly those on contract basis, have learnt their lessons. Most of the struggles after the HMSI lock-out were short factory occupations (Hero Honda and Shivam Autotech in May 2006, Honda Manesar HMSI in December 2006). (FMS no. 216, June 2006) Plot no. 262 -D, sector 24. In order to get better wages and working clothes and so on, us 30 permanent workers neither took a banner into our hands nor got engaged neither in a tool down strike nor in a walk out strike. We undertook other steps in order to effect production. The production level came down to 25 to 30 per cent. As a reaction the company locked us out on 16th of January 2006. On our own complaint to the labour department the company made the excuse that construction work was going on inside the premises and that for the workers attendance will be marked. After fifteen days a three-year contract is agreed on: 500 Rs annual wage increase, shoes, working clothes, soap is provided by the company, annualy three days tour, and for all who worked for the company for five - ten years a service award of 1,500 - 3,000 Rs. The full wage for the fifteen days that we were kept outside the factory was given. But still the company pays the ten casual workers only 1,800 to 2,000 Rs and they do not have ESI and PF. Liberty Shoes, Strike and Cycle Rikshas Silaam is from West Bengal, he came to Gurgaon about two years ago, in spring 2005. He first worked at Liberty Shoes in Haryana, he did a lot of overtime, earned about 3,000 Rs per month. He says that he did not like the work, the control. About a half year ago he bought a cycle riksha. He now has regular customers, for example two women from Maruti Vihar who work in Call Centres. He cycles them every day. His monthly income is 5,000 Rs now, although it is unclear whether he has to pay back a loan for the riksha. If you want to lease a riksha, and this is what most of the riksha-valla do, you have to pay the owner 25 Rs per day. This is the big deal for all those who think that you can save the world by handing out micro-credits: give people a 20,000 Rs credit and they can be their own employer. The riksha then becomes the mill-stone around their self-empowered necks, while waiting with dozens of other small entrepreneurs at street corners, fighting over passengers to transport, not being able to go back to their village, because invested capital has to be moved. The alternative? Staying at Liberty Shoes stitching for nothing? The following news item on the last strike at Liberty Shoes show that conditions there are bad, but that at least there is a possibility of collective response. 26th of June 2006 Over 30 people, including policemen, were injured after the Haryana Police resorted to lathicharge on hundreds of protesting workers of Liberty Footwear who had blocked National Highway No 1 near Gharaunda on Monday afternoon. Police officials said that they had to resort to lathicharge after the workers pelted stones at them and refused to lift the blockade. About six policemen sustained injuries in the stone pelting, they said. Many of the workers, including women, were detained to clear the highway that had remained blocked for over three hours, leading to nearly 10-kilometre-long queues of stranded vehicles on either side of the industrial town of Gharaunda. 28th of June 2006 Nearly 3,500 of Liberty Shoes' 4,000 employees went on a strike on Tuesday after about 50 of them were injured on Monday in a police lathi charge near the company's Karnal plant in Haryana while protesting against low wages. Low salaries and lack of bonus have been the bone of contention between the two sides for the last nine-ten months. According to Dilawar Singh, union leader, Liberty Workers Union, "The company has not paid any bonus in the last one and a half years after reducing it from 20% to 10%. There hasn't been any major hike in salary as well for many years. The management raised the salary from Rs 1,600 to Rs 2,300 over a period of 10 years. The management also misbehaves with the employees quite often." The company has about 4,000 employees working in its three units based at Kutail, Gharonda and Karnal. Employees of the two units at Kutail and Gharonda boycotted work on Tuesday and only 15-20 employees turned out in Karnal plant which has about 500 employees. Liberty, though, seems confident of meeting its production targets despite the strike. "The employees at these three units had been producing very less since the last 6 months and keeping in mind their lackadaisical attitude we have increased our production in Uttaranchal unit by 30-40% by adding two more lines to it. We have about 170 employees there but the target is easily achieved due to major outsourcing of component part. There will be shortage of the products but we are hopeful to cover the losses soon," said Bansal. The company also plans to set up 3 new units in Uttaranchal and Ponta. The company workers say they will return to work only if their colleagues are released from jail and all false cases imposed on them are withdrawn. The Liberty Shoes workers have been in protest mode for the last three days ever since eight of their leaders were arrested by the police after a clash with two senior officials of the company who were reportedly seriously hurt. Riot at Old Station, Faridabad (FMS no.220, October 2006) A daily commuter: The 7:55 am Mathura Shuttle towards Delhi, the 8:15 am Ballabhgarh train and the 8:35 am Palwal Shuttle haven't reached New Town Station yet, and it is already 8:35 am. The platform is packed with commuters. The Ballbhagarh train arrives New Station at 8:40 am, there is a fair bit of pushing and punching and quite a lot of people miss the train. The train has half reached platform number one of Old Station when people stop the train and force the driver to get off. After the front wind screen and the headlight are smashed people start breaking the windows of the waggons, the passengers get off the train and join in pelting stones. At Old Station about 20,000 daily commuters are crammed together. The front screen window of a freight train engine which stands in the station gets broken, too. The Capital Express (posh train conecting state and national capital) from Mumbai towards Delhi stops at the outer signal. A crowd smashing the signals arrive at the Capital Express and start to break the windows. A Minister of Home of the central government is on the Capital Express, as well. The police is there, but what can ten to twenty police men do once there is such a crowd? If they would use their clubs, they would get beaten up themselves. The DC (see Glossary) and SP (dito) from Faridabad and the Railway SP and a heavy police force arrives and the situation turns back to normal. Between 6:30 am and 9:30 am there are nine local trains which carry 100,000 daily commuters from as far as Agra to the factories, offices, shops and other work places in Faridabad and Delhi. More and more people get stuffed into the local trains. The situation is so bad that there is not even space left to stand.There are between 500 to 700 people in one waggon! People who hang outside the train often get hit by signals. Often people get seriously injured while trying to get on or off the train. And an eight hours working day easily turns into a twelve to fourteen hours day. The Railway department often stop local trains while giving green lights to freight trains and express trains. In consequence a half an hour local train journey can extend to one or even one and a half hours. Reprimands for coming late you can get everywhere, factories often refuse people who arrive late access and send them back. Only yesterday night the local train which was to reach Okhla at 8:10 pm had been cancelled. After a long time in limbo the Malwa Express to Jammu was turned into a local train. In order to clear the way for the Capital Express the local train stopped for ten minutes in Tugalkabad and then 20 mintes at Old Station in order to clear the way for the Southern Express. The local train would have arrived New Station an 8:45 pm, the Malwa arrived finally at 10 pm. Under these conditions commuters will always be in a state of tension. Techy Wage increase attempt at Convergys in Gurgaon Already older news item (August 2005) from major call centre service provider Covergys in Gurgaon. "Not satisfied with their earnings, some BPO employees feel they can outsmart technology and earn bonuses for themselves. Some employees at Convergys were sacked because they managed to 'create' fake favourable ratings apparently from customers of SBC Yahoo, a popular ISP in the USA who have outsourced customer services to Convergys. The employees created new email IDs in the name of SBC Yahoo customers they were handling, sent a positive feedback to their company from this email ID and also updated this email ID temporarily on the customer's database in their system. Apparently this was discovered when Convergys noted unusual patterns of excellent ratings for some employees. On pinging, it was found that these feedback forms had been originating from an Indian server (used by Convergys, Gurgaon) rather than from the US servers from where they actually should have come. Customers were also asked to verify if they had actually given such feedback. Possibility is not ruled out that these executives even asked for passwords from customers under the pretext of solving their problems. But Raman Roy, the former CEO of Wipro's BPO operations, says almost no one can access passwords unless customers themselves disclose the same. "But it's possible if one has a strong understanding of technology. If these kids could manage that, then they are wasting their talents in a BPO," he adds. But money seems to have been the greatest lure for such employees, as an excellent rating can get them bonuses of up to Rs 4,000 a week". You can read more about Convergys and the Gurgaon call centre world in newsletter no.1. 3) According to Plan Not yet special enough: Special Economic Zones, Part One The following is a summary of recent newspaper articles concerning the planning of a SEZ in Gurgaon area. This can only be a first step towards a more general understanding of the capital and class composition in the area and the general process of urbanisation. The main questions concerning the bigger picture are: - What kind of industries are concentrated in Gurgaon, how are they intertwined locally and beyond? - What is the role of the state and private development companies in the expansion process? - In which way is the village economy and agricultural surrounding important for the expansion and for the local labour market? - What are the general movements on the labour market? We have to avoid to get hooked on the different legal forms of exploitation, e.g. by demonizing Special Economic Zones or the impact of foreign direct investment and creating illusions about the workers' friendlyness of the public sector or of 'homegrown capital'. Nevertheless it makes a difference for the conditions or workers' struggles whether they are exploited in a (public sector) school or an (export) textile mill. Recent uprisings in Vietnam, the Southern China and Bangladesh have shown that particularly in the export zones a young and uninstitutionalized workers' movement appears on the stage. This is not because there the working conditions are particularly bad or exploitation relatively worse, often the opposite is true when we compare it to the conditions in older or small scale industries in the respective countries. The erruptions are more due to the fact that these workers know about their potential power: they see their generation united by similar experiences (migration), they know about the importance of their work (export), there is no incorporated (union) institution which would have an interest to sell them out and they know that due to the generalisation of conditions their struggle will very likely spark off chain reactions of discontent. In Gurgaon area we have some similar features: spacial concentration of industries, importance of export and multi-national companies ( e.g. 75 per cent of all Japanese FDI in India flow to the area), a young migrant work-force, most of them on contracts, meaning that they have worked in various factories in the area. The SEZ might intensify this concentration process. Right after taking over the Congress-led Haryana government decided in June 2005 to set up the SEZ in a private-public cooperation. The main developer is the private company Reliance Industries Ltd., the company also holds 90 percent of the shares of the project. Reliance Ltd. started as a company in the chemical sector and became huge by attracting small share-holders and riding the late 80s stock-market boom. Nowadays Reliance is in chemicals, communications, energy sector, real estate and others. In cooperation with the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation they plan to set up a 25,000 acre SEZ, which would be the largest SEZ in India. It is supposed to provide a cargo airport and a 2,000-megawatt power plant. Officially the numbers of created future jobs in the SEZ vary quite a bit: the Haryana political leaders speak about the creation of 500,000 jobs, Reliances Industries Ltd. about 200,000. The actual industrial composition is still unclear. Just from scanning recent news items it seems that apart from IT, textile and automobile industries the trend goes towards bio-tech and pharmaceutical industries and companies manufacturing for the "green energy sector" (wind turbines, solar-energy, bio-fuels). Confusingly enough there are two more SEZ announced in the Gurgaon area, one by Rockman Projects, a multi-service SEZ, and one by Orient Craft, a textile hub. Rockman Projects anounces that as of December 2006, the land has been fully acquired in Gurgaon. The SEZ will be spread over 1,615 hectares and will also be located on National Highway 8. Orient Craft announced to set up a 750-acre SEZ, which is supposed to employ 30,000 people once finished. In the official Masterplan 2021 a total of 4,570 hectar is allocated to Special Economic Zones. Clear is the trend to develop industrial land in Manesar, a small town in the south of Gurgaon, about 20 to 30 km down the highway. Official term for the outcome is Industrial Model Town-Ship (IMT). The Haryana government already announced a bulk of tax exemptions for companies which would settle in the IMT. After Honda HMSI opened their plant on the green field, also Maruti Suzuki set-up the new plant there, with various bigger suppliers in tow. According to the governmental Gurgaon-Manesar Masterplan 2021 about 700 hectars of land was converted into industrial area. About the development of the SEZ first critical voices appear, e.g. of the Sampuran Kranti Manch, stating that Reliance Ltd. is more interested in the land acquisition for planning golf courses and Disney theme parks than in creating jobs. Compared to the situation in Singur or Nandigram the farmers seem to be less resistant to the selling of their land, which might be due to the fact that Haryana was one of the states of Green Revolution, meaning that subsistence or small scale farming has not a chance of survival anyway. Of course the media portrays the farmers as the winner of the situation, as people making loads of money by selling their property. This ignores that according to the magazine Frontline more than 50 percent of the people who live in the area are landless, they will be displaced and loose their jobs in agriculture (the official notification of the government states that the developer would have to provide alternative housing and jobs). The farmers say that the land is actually very fertile and that it is a shame to cover the soil with marble, but that nevertheless prices for agriculture products are down and cannot compete with the prices for land offered by companies like Reliances. That not everyone is happy to leave their land is obvious. On 28th of March villagers from Gadauli Khurd opposed the occupation of land by Haryana authorities for a proposed SEZ to be set up by Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries, chasing away police and a squad that had gone to the area to demolish some houses and tube-wells. The local people gathered to oppose the demolition work and pelted stones at the team, which comprised a HSIIDC official. The window of a bulldozer was damaged and the team had to retreat due to the opposition by the villagers. Physical possession of the land will be taken soon with the help of police force and it would be handed over to RIL, said Gurgaon's deputy commissioner Mr Rakesh Gupta. The villagers said they were opposing the demolition as the land was originally acquired by HSIIDC for the development of an SEZ by the corporation but was now being handed over to a private party. Sources said the current dispute related to about 300 acres of the total of 1,380 acres to be given by the Haryana government to RIL for its SEZ. So the overall effect on the rural population has still to be seen. Other voices criticise that the state would pamper private companies with tax exemptions and other incentives, while the state explaines, that the income from interests and general prosperity will more than counter-balance the low taxation. Fact is that compared to expected profits and attracted capital, state and companies managed quite cheaply to turn a large amount of farm land into an industrial area. We still have to see what is actually behind the SEZ boom. There are already various "parks" in Gurgaon, IT-City, textile and cyber parks, automobile hubs. If you have always wondered what a Cyber City is, here the explanation from the Haryana Government Masterplan 2021: "Cyber City means self contained intelligent city with (...) high speed communication access to be developed for nucleating the Information technology concept and germination of medium and large software companies". Some hot air with your bits and bytes, sir...? In the notification from May 2006 the Haryana government declared that it granted approval for 23 SEZ to be developed in the state. If the actual legal terms of SEZ will actually apply in all of the announced projects, is still unclear. Already existing are the impacts on the real estate and land prices in the area, another topic yet to cover. Corporate Watch On the web-site you can find some news items on following multi-national companies in Gurgaon area, just click on "List of Companies". The list is boring in a general sense and it smells like share-holders oi-stress sweat, but it might possibly be useful once shit hits the fan or a picket the factory gate. For a longer list of companies situated in Gurgaon have a look at the web-site, as well. News items this month on: Alcatel Lucent Amdocs Amtek Apollo Tyres Caparo Carrier Dell Donaldson DRS HSS, Flextronics Genpact INC Maruti/Suzuki Metro Tyres Mitsubishi Nippon Paint Orient Craft Posco Samsonite Samsung Sintel Su-Kam UnitedLex Zentek 4) About the Project About Gurgaon Workers News Gurgaon Workers' News is a project independent from political parties or unions, trying to support workers' self-organisation in their struggle for a better life. One of the projects' aim is to document the development and workers' struggles in and around Gurgaon, one of the current boom regions of global capital. For this reason we publish a monthly electronic newsletter on this site. GWS is not meant to be a purely documenting project, it is not supposed to be a one way street. We plan to distribute a regular newsletter/leaflet amongst workers in the area which, apart from local news, would contain workers' information of related industries, companies or boom regions from other places in the world. If you want to have your information distributed to workers of a specific company, see list of companies on this site, or if you would offer to do the same at your place, please get in touch. News from the Special Exploitation Zone - www.gurgaonworkersnews.wordpress.com All new Yahoo! Mail "The new Interface is stunning in its simplicity and ease of use." - PC Magazine From sudeshna.kca at gmail.com Wed Apr 4 19:29:22 2007 From: sudeshna.kca at gmail.com (Sudeshna Chatterjee) Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2007 19:29:22 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Nizamuddin Basti Faces Massive Demolition on April 10 to Create Vistas to the Dargah Message-ID: <3ef603b70704040659g6d3a0f2bx161fed118074df0b@mail.gmail.com> *Nizamuddin Basti Faces Massive Demolition on April 10 to Create Vistas to the Dargah* * * As Delhi adorns herself for the appreciative gazes of visitors to the Commonwealth Games in 2010, several habitats and lifeworlds are being destroyed "in public interest" to make way for beautification projects in place of dense, unseemly residential areas. Nizamuddin Basti, the thriving, bustling, colorful settlement with over of 800 years of recorded history of continuous human habitation, is going to come under the developmental bulldozer next week, on April 10 according to residents. The grand urban revitalization vision for this master plan designated heritage zone does not include anything in the foreground of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya's Dargah. The thriving settlement of Nizam Nagar, a neighborhood populated by migrant labor for the last thirty years, will definitely be flattened to create lush landscaped foreground for beholding the monument from all three roads bounding the Basti—Mathura Road, Lodi Road, and Lala Lajpat Rai Marg. The Dargah however had never been a separate piece within the settlement but an integral part of the residents' lifeworlds. The next layer of colorful pucca houses with many floors will also be demolished as they too block the view of the dargah from all three roads. Several shops on Lodi Road have already been sealed. A major part of the open space on Lala Lajpat Rai Road has been walled up and residents said that it will be made into a parking lot for the Dargah tourist coming from that direction. The pucca house owners will receive deals for resettlement while the majority of the migrant settlers along the periphery will be evicted without rehabilitation. No one has any information as to what exactly has been proposed and by whom. There are rumors of MCD and Aga Khan Trust and ASI working together to create a beautiful tourist paradise with paved walking routes, lush landscapes and showcase remnants of the old village and way of life of people. I visited the basti yesterday and felt people's helplessness. I made several phone calls to everyone I knew to find out about the development plan. No one has a clue. Nothing is discussed in the public domain. But how come all the residents knew? MCD has really been smart about this one to avoid undue attention and therefore resistance to the beautification project with Aga Khan Trust's money. I did the only thing I could. I filed a RTI this afternoon with MCD. But as I am not a directly affected party the information will be made available in a month's time, long after the demolitions had taken place. I got the Hope Project, an NGO that works within the Basti, to mobilize the community to exercise their right to information and get it within 48 hours. But community mobilization is easier said than done. Moreover, this is a long weekend. The governmental machinery will be resting. If anyone has any advice on how to put up a resistance to an uncontested beautification scheme for a contested urban space, please email me. Some of us are working on first assessing what exactly will be demolished and what rehabilitation proposals had been made for displaced people to prepare a case for resisting the demolitions and demanding adequate rehabilitation for all displaced people. In addition I would encourage this forum to engage in a much stronger public debate on the future of the city and its quietly outrageous beautification/revitalization/development plans ahead of the Commonwealth Games. -- Sudeshna Chatterjee, PhD New Delhi, India -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070404/09c3dbf1/attachment.html From theunderscoredhood at gmail.com Thu Apr 5 00:21:56 2007 From: theunderscoredhood at gmail.com (Raheema Begum) Date: Thu, 5 Apr 2007 00:21:56 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Reader-List]IDENTIFY YOURSELF! Message-ID: *Secular, Left, Right, Centrist, Fundamentalist, Progressive, Fascist, Globalised…* *Lost,* * * *Chauvinist Male, Chauvinist Female…* *Hindu ,Muslim ,Sikh, Christian, Dalit, Adivasi, Parsi…* * ** * *In sab ke beech,* * * *Identify **Yourself** * * * *This is a real time and online event in which people are invited to answer the question, * * * *"Who Are You?, Aap kaun Ho?"*** * * *These are some responses I received at an earlier presentation at a university * * * *I am a bundle of perceptions.- Rajan Barett * * * *I am a precious daughter of God.-Meghna Roberts* * * *I am what I am and I am only me. One comprises of the things he/she believes in.-Vinali Doshi.* * * *A lost person seeking for a means, particularly hope.- Anonymous.* * * *Leave YOUR answer here .* * * *ANSWER NOW! * * * *Who Are You? Aap Kaun Ho?* Labels is an art initiative that seeks to deal with identity and the market in a globalising world. www.whosebody.wordpress.com ( best seen with Mozilla Firefox) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070405/26af2f61/attachment.html From paramita_gh at yahoo.com Thu Apr 5 11:47:43 2007 From: paramita_gh at yahoo.com (paramita ghosh) Date: Thu, 5 Apr 2007 07:17:43 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] an unpopular review of mira nair's namesake Message-ID: <544619.13768.qm@web30506.mail.mud.yahoo.com> THE NAMESAKE Cast: Kal Penn, Tabu, Irrfan Khan, Jacinda Barrett, Zuleika Robinson Director: Mira Nair Jhumpa Lahiri’s exceedingly indulgent book on the Bengali immigrant community in the US, is now a film, with less syrup and much less talk on ‘identity’. In the book there is no escaping it. The heroine hangs up a Murshidabad silk sari before delivery. She reads from Desh magazine before labour. A visit to her home in Calcutta has the entire family’s feet pressed into Bata shoes. If it’s biscuits it’s Marie, if it’s body powder, it’s Cuticura. Why tell us things we know? The contrast between bhalo naam (good name) and dak naam (pet name) has of course pride of place with Gogol, the son -- his father named him after his favourite Russian author, Nikolai Gogol, and the boy doesn’t like it -- working himself up into knots over nothing and a name, and passing it off as existential crisis. The Namesake, the film, made from The Namesake the book, is in that sense, a model of understatement. It opens in Calcutta in the 70s with Ashima (Tabu) meeting Ashoke (Irrfan) in their living room, respective parents in tow, with each family congratulating each other for being on the same cultural wavelength. Ashima stands up and recites the ‘Daffodils’ and lo! it’s the in-laws’ favourite poem as well. As a one-off reference to cultural peculiarities, it is cute and populist – trust Mira Nair to pick it out -- though Tabu as 25-year-old Ashima is too much to take. Luckily enough, Mira Nair, whom few can fault on craft and cinematic aesthetics, does not keep her 25 for long. The main setting is the US, where Ashima and Ashoke grow into maturity, have a family and settle somewhat reluctantly into American life. Their circle of friends is resolutely Bengali, their food and dress, is so as well. Kantha sari, shankha and bindi in the book and, to a lesser extent, in the film, are identity markers and show the extent to which the Bengali will be Indian in America. Why are surfaces so intrinsic to the building of identity in mainstream Bollywood films? Is there then too much of a difference between Karan Johar’s evocation of immigrant Punjabis in New York? Mira Nair, a Johar fan, points out a few. Her characters don’t stay in mansions or drive Rolls Royces, they push their laundry carts in the snow. Mira Nair’s film, it has to be said, glances at stereotypes. The screenplay has sucked sentiment out of the book and kept it out of the picture. It reaches for the universal and does well with a parent-and-son theme in foreign land. High marks to long-time Mira associate Sooni Taraporevala and to the director for keeping the drama of Ashoke’s accident and the reason for his son’s naming after the Russian author, right at the beginning. Kal Penn as Gogol plays the youth caught between two heritages. He is competent in his portrayal of this-generation ‘coolness.’ As his father, Irrfan, a superb actor in any circumstance and setting, is reined in, diffident, shy and a more substantial Ashoke Ganguli than the one we find in the book. He shares maximum screen space with Tabu, his wife in the film. Theirs is really a different love story than the kind we are used to from mainstream Bollywood, so there are no songs. Moushumi, Gogol’s wife, is played by Zuleika Robinson who has a penchant for all things French, especially French men. This is brought to the foreground at the first date itself. “How did you become so sexy?” asks Gogol to Moushumi who he had met in a very non-sexy avatar years ago. Paris – she answers in a word, where she had many lovers. Identity in this film means spelling things out. ------------------------------end --------------------------------- Here’s a new way to find what you're looking for - Yahoo! Answers -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070405/aa91edaf/attachment.html From yasir.media at gmail.com Thu Apr 5 14:22:09 2007 From: yasir.media at gmail.com (yasir ~) Date: Thu, 5 Apr 2007 13:52:09 +0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Freedom Fight Message-ID: <5af37bb0704050152g64a74b7ex22a702e646b89380@mail.gmail.com> Media: Freedom Fight Against 'Freedom Champions' Dahr Jamail http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37183 DOHA, Apr 2 (IPS) - The al-Jazeera television network could be emerging as a freedom champion against U.S. pressures on the channel, leading media figures say. From yasir.media at gmail.com Thu Apr 5 14:22:39 2007 From: yasir.media at gmail.com (yasir ~) Date: Thu, 5 Apr 2007 13:52:39 +0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Freedom Fight In-Reply-To: <5af37bb0704050152g64a74b7ex22a702e646b89380@mail.gmail.com> References: <5af37bb0704050152g64a74b7ex22a702e646b89380@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <5af37bb0704050152g2ba06fa2ybb73b2d110a4c996@mail.gmail.com> Media: Freedom Fight Against 'Freedom Champions' Dahr Jamail http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37183 DOHA, Apr 2 (IPS) - The al-Jazeera television network could be emerging as a freedom champion against U.S. pressures on the channel, leading media figures say. From alice at tank.tv Wed Apr 4 15:09:05 2007 From: alice at tank.tv (Alice O'Reilly) Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2007 10:39:05 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Last weeks of John Smith on www.tank.tv - Exhibition Ends April 15th Message-ID: <442eb4460704040239r51db5e88r70729017288ce45@mail.gmail.com> With March drawing to a close there remains only 15 short days to catch the John Smith retrospective on www.tank.tv. This has been an extremely popular show and is a rare opportunity to view the work of one of the most important British film and video artists of his generation, John Smith. tank.tv have a long-standing relationship with the artist and we are very pleased to present work that has so much influenced young and emerging artists. John Smith started making films in 1972 and became associated with the London Film Makers Co-op. At the height of theory led, materialist filmmaking, Smith's work was marked by its humour and accessibility. Playful, idiosyncratic and staunchly rigorous these films (made over a 32 year period) are an absorbing exploration of questions central to both cinema and experience Over the past three decades John Smith has developed a body of work that deftly subverts the perceived boundaries between truth and fiction, representation and abstraction. Drawing on the raw material of everyday life, Smith's meticulously crafted films rework and transform reality, playfully exploring and exposing the power of cinematic language. The show includes one of Smith's key works, Girl Chewing Gum (1976). The film examines many of the themes present throughout Smith's work, despite being made very early in his career, during his masters degree. A voice-over accompanies footage of a busy London street corner, appearing to direct the movement of people, birds and even a clock. This witty meditation on perception, knowledge and language questions the notion of documentary truth and examines the power of text over image. "The films of John Smith conduct a serious investigation into the combination of sound and image, but with a sense of humour that reaches out beyond the traditional avant-garde audience. His films move between narrative and absurdity, constantly undermining the traditional relationship between the visual and the aural. By blurring the perceived boundaries of experimental film, fiction and documentary, Smith never delivers what he has led the spectator to expect." Mark Webber (Leeds International Film Festival catalogue 2000) John Smith lives and works in London. The exhibition includes the full length showing of: 'Om' (1986), 'Gargantuan' (1992), 'The Waste Land' (1999) and 'Pyramids/Skunk' (2006/7). The exhibition will also include excerpts from: 'Associations' (1975), 'The Girl Chewing Gum' (1976), 'Shepherd's Delight' (1984), 'The Black Tower' (1987), 'Slow Glass' (1992), 'Blight' (1996), 'Regression' (1999), 'Lost Sound' (2001) and 'Worst Case Scenario' (2003). John Smith is online at www.tank.tv from 1st March to 15th April 2007. For distribution contact info at lux.org.uk For additional information see http://www.luxonline.org.uk/artists/john_smith/index.html NEXT MONTH: 'Les Guetteurs' New Moving Images From France. Online from the 15th April – 30th May and created for tank.tv by Saison Video this show features some of the brightest talents from over the Channel. Artists include: Cécile Wesolowski, Marie Voignier, Jeanne Susplugas, Marie Reinert, Jean Charles Hue, Virginie Yassef, Armelle Aulestia, Barbara Noiret and Fabien Rigobert. -- - - - - - - - - - - - - Alice O'Reilly tank.tv 5th floor 49-50 Great Marlborough street London W1F 7JR alice at tank.tv T +44 (0)207434 0110 F +44 (0)207434 9232 http://www.tank.tv - - - - - - - - - - - - - - tank.tv is an inspirational showcase for innovative work in film and video / dedicated to exhibiting and promoting emerging and established international artists, www.tank.tv acts as a major online gallery and archive for video art / a platform for contemporary moving images. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070404/6d32fd81/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From crd at fondation-langlois.org Thu Apr 5 02:10:56 2007 From: crd at fondation-langlois.org (CR+D) Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2007 16:40:56 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] News from the Daniel Langlois Foundation Message-ID: <943501e1274871b64c5a630289bb9432@fdl-webmestre> Centro Bartolomé de Las Casas, Amauta Project, (Cusco, Peru) The Amauta project has its roots in the Andean culture. It seeks to develop and support educational, artistic and cultural art-based media projects that will take root and flourish in Andean communities: http://www.fondation-langlois.org/flash/e/index.php?NumPage=318 UNESCO, Digi-Arts, (Dakar, Sénégal) As part of the Dak'Art_Lab, the art and technology laboratory of the Dak'Art Biennale 2006 (May 5 to June 5, 2006), a special program on the creation of digital art in Africa was implemented by UNESCO and its DigiArts program team through the DigiArts Africa network: http://www.fondation-langlois.org/flash/e/index.php?NumPage=1836 _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From billy0602 at yahoo.com Wed Apr 4 16:44:42 2007 From: billy0602 at yahoo.com (kj) Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2007 04:14:42 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] an invitation and update from the ViBGYOR International Film Festival Message-ID: <888220.34905.qm@web55611.mail.re4.yahoo.com> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Vibgyor Film Fest Date: 04-Apr-2007 11:37 Subject: an invitation and update from the ViBGYOR International Film Festival This is an invitation and update from the ViBGYOR International Film Festival, Thrisur, Kerala. If you have already received this info before, please ignore this note. Last Date for entering your films: April 20, 2007 ViBGYOR International Film Festival is a non-competitive festival for Non-Feature cinema. Carrying forward our central theme of last year, ` Celebrating identities and diversities', in 2007 we are planning a much larger event with a variety of packages. ViBGYOR Package has seven themes, underscoring the colours of the rainbow. They are: Indigenous People, Dalit Reality, Gender & Sexuality, Fundamentalism v/s Diversity, Nation State (War & Conflict), Globalization and Region Focus (South Asia). The theme for the Focus of the Year package is Earth. Apart from the above two packages, there will be an `International package' ( Human Rights, Migration and Health & HIV) a `Kerala Spectrum' and as usual the Retrospectives. If you have made a film in 2005-2206, pertaining to any of the above themes/categories, please download the Entry Form (no entry fee) from our website, www.vibgyorfilm.com, fill it up and send it along with your film (DVD/DVCAM/MIniDV) to the Following address. Don't forget to enclose one or two still photographs and any other publicity material. Pass this news on to your friends filmmakers and…also to film-lovers. Mark your calendars and plan to attend our festival. It's May 10-13, Trichur, Kerala, India. Our contact: +91-487-2330830, Cell: 944700830 and vibgyorfest at gmail.com K.P.Sasi Benny Benedict K. C. Santhoshkumar Festival Director Executive Director Joint Director - ------------------------------------------------------------------- Postal Address: VIBGYOR Film Festival Office Chetana Media Institute Kalliyath Royal Square Palace Road Thrissur – Pin: 680020 Kerala - INDIA PH: 0487 2330830 / CELL: 09447000830 ____________________________________________________________________________________ TV dinner still cooling? Check out "Tonight's Picks" on Yahoo! TV. http://tv.yahoo.com/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070404/f54ff334/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070404/f54ff334/attachment-0001.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From iram at sarai.net Thu Apr 5 15:22:30 2007 From: iram at sarai.net (Iram Ghufran) Date: Thu, 05 Apr 2007 15:22:30 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] digital video image masterclass II Message-ID: <4614C6DE.4000404@sarai.net> DIGITAL VIDEO IMAGE MASTERCLASS - II The practitioner as composer and instrumentalist of all of its aspects—shooting, recording and editing. - Kabir Mohanty WHAT IS THE WORKSHOP? Some years ago at the insistence of a dhrupad musician I began to teach video one on one. This was not how I had learnt filmmaking. In film school(I studied at the University of Iowa for 3 1/2 years between 1983 and 1986), an assumption was made that craft needed to be learnt and everything would come along. Iowa was by no means a polytechnic. However, it shied away from a pedagogical attitude. Over these few years I have begun to feel that making something your own is easier when you go slowly, step by step. Means kept simple helps. The technology can overwhelm you and there is no reason for that to happen. Much like Hindustani music, I now feel, your voice is a latent entity and its cultivation and nourishment needs to be an engagement where you are not chasing the means. That is once you feel the necessity of what you are doing, even for a fleeting moment, the other aspects of the medium will come. So if you do begin to feel the need to pan or tilt you will slowly also feel tracks or hand-held movements. These movements are connected to one’s inner content, and rhythms are everything. Without fragmenting or breaking down and thinking and doing in parts filmmaking is one general mush or reduced to verbal contents. The great work with the moving image, film or video, resists, fervently its narrowing, it is fundamentally not illustrative. This workshop will treat each individual as far as possible within the realm of a one on one engagement. The adapting of this to a group assumes that we all learn from each other even if we are doing different things and even if we are more or less experienced. David Horsborough demonstrated that admirably in the village school in Tamil Nadu which had KG to High School in one classroom. We shall try in this workshop to bring together a collection of individuals who are not only interested in video within their own practice but also are keen on the assimilation of its history and its conjunction with other artistic and philosophical practices. Over the history of cinema some of its great thinkers have been philosophers, Andre Bazin and more recently Gilles Deleuze. Figure-ground relationship is both practice and philosophy, just depending on when you ask the question. The error lies in the timing of the question or in illustration. The need that is making the craft your own will necessarily be a time-bound, hands-on engagement. A taste of it early on helps along the way. Video is similar to Hindustani music. One can make the means very strict and simple and say now try and speak. I have seen very strong results from that approach. For example, camera on a tripod with pan and tilt locked and having to shoot like that for a long time. This collapses the distinction between advanced practitioner and beginner and the sense organs and mind come into sharp focus and become the guiding principles. Video resembles a pencil. Can one draw and write and straddle both those realms of perception? I have tried over these years to find ways of creating a palette of certain keys to shooting video. It seems two stages of working with the moving image are important. The first is everything that leads up to the shoot and including the act of shooting. The second is post-shooting. The first workshop I held at Sarai in 2005 dealt with the first stage. This one deals primarily though not exclusively with the second stage. However, this separation of stages is within one person. That is, it is one person’s work. It also means we could go from edited material to how one is shooting. The workshop does not create the context of professional editors or sound designers that work on others’ material, yet attempts to imbibe that rigour, because one has also lived those vocations. We shall look at edited material closely, and treat sound recording in its fundamentals. I imagine acoustics being brought in simply and we shall use Robert Bresson’s “Notes on the cinematographer” and Michel Chion’s “Audio Vision” as keys to thinking about sound. You can expect to spend 4 hours in workshop four times a week. I see each workshop divided into two parts: 1. Participants showing work in the first 3 hours. 2. In the last hour of the session we will look at video’s history from a practitioner’s point of view or a rasika’s point of view. This could be done through a combination of readings, viewings and presentations by the rasikas. I shall use material from both film and video sources and a few come to mind, namely, Bill Viola’s, “Reasons for knocking at an empty house” and some of Gary Hill’s writings and interviews. Screenings of work will be intensive rather than extensive and you will be asked to study a work closely of your choice. You can also expect to spend at least three 6-hour stints editing or recording sound per week. Technical assistance for video editing will be provided in the beginning. It is going to be very time-intensive and you could be working nights at the editing studio. It could be a different bio-rhythm and a spare mattress will be provided and provisions for coffee and tea. DURATION Four weeks, July 2-28, 2007. Final screening July 29th, Sunday. Workshop meetings on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday. All meetings 4-8 pm unless otherwise noted. 9 PARTICIPANTS 7 devoted to the practice with some prior knowledge of the moving image. These 7 will complete at least one short video during the workshop. 2 places reserved for people who reflect on the practice of the moving image and can help us think. A musician and rasika relationship is what I was thinking. In our tradition the rasika saw from a privileged point of view the inception of things, the nascent form forming. These 2 people could be from any discipline with the rider that they immerse themselves in the tradition of thinking about the moving image. Needless to say not only will their practice be different(they are welcome to participate in shoots and edits though) but also their presentations(oral and written), within the context of the workshop. SUBMISSION For the 7 practitioners—30 minutes of solidly shot un-edited video material. Solidly isn’t as subjective as one may think. Often it is just the quantity of labour put in. If someone does not have material ready to edit then I may consider submission of rushes from previously shot material that you may want to re-edit/re-visit. For the 2 rasikas—a long written piece that demonstrates interest in thinking about the moving image. A curriculum vitae. Send to Digital Video Image Masterclass Sarai CSDS 29 Rajpur Road Delhi 110054 All applicants should submit a page on their involvement with the moving image, their backgrounds. Very often this helps in a one-on-one engagement within a small group. Deadline for submission Video material on dvd and written material printed out, in Sarai by May 2nd. Participants will be notified by May 15th. Workshop fees should be paid to Sarai, 100 % in advance by June 1st. Equipment reserved for the workshop One computer with editing software for image and sound. A camera with a microphone. For a period a DAT recorder with a professional microphone. Workshop fees Rs.7,500 per person for the 7 places. The 2 rasikas fee is Rs.2,500. ABOUT KABIR MOHANTY (from the catalogue for “Song for an ancient land”, Solo Show, GallerySKE, Bangalore, October 29-Dec 2, 2006.) I have been working in both film and video for some time now and have made about ten films and videos. Most of my work has been shown in film and video festivals in India and abroad including Oberhausen, Rotterdam, Torino, Hawaii, World Wide Video Festival Amsterdam and Bombay. Sometimes I have been part of art shows like Sidewinder, which was a residency cum exhibition, hosted by CIMA in 2001-02 where I showed a short fiction film, “and now i feel i don’t know anything”. Currently at the Tate Modern is a show on the tradition of experimentation in Indian film and video starting with Dadasaheb Phalke, titled Cinema of Prayoga, which I am a part of. My training was at the University of Iowa where I obtained a masters in filmmaking in 1986. My teachers included the great filmmaker Leighton Pierce and film theorist Dudley Andrew, author of Major Film Theories, both full-time faculty at Iowa. Over the years I have received international grants and production awards in the form of the Hubert Bals Fund, Rotterdam Film Festival, the Fond Sud Award from the Ministry of External Affairs, France, an individual artist grant from the Prince Claus Fund, Netherlands and a collaboration grant with sound designer, Vikram Joglekar from the India Foundation for the Arts, Bangalore. These have enabled more than what got produced as individual projects. From September 2002 till June 2004, I was a Visiting Artist in the Department of Art, UCLA, and in residence for half that period. _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From yasir.media at gmail.com Thu Apr 5 21:47:29 2007 From: yasir.media at gmail.com (yasir ~) Date: Thu, 5 Apr 2007 21:17:29 +0500 Subject: [Reader-list] [thingist] Freedom Fight In-Reply-To: <20070405114508.lohjvtze0ookksk4@imp4.free.fr> References: <5af37bb0704050152g64a74b7ex22a702e646b89380@mail.gmail.com> <20070405114508.lohjvtze0ookksk4@imp4.free.fr> Message-ID: <5af37bb0704050917i7115150dn736c3f481036c4a9@mail.gmail.com> that is news to me. y http://www.jcctv.net/ On 4/5/07, fmadre at free.fr wrote: > ----- Message de yasir.media at gmail.com --------- > > DOHA, Apr 2 (IPS) - The al-Jazeera television network could be > > emerging as a freedom champion against U.S. pressures on the channel, > > leading media figures say. > > yes, I often tune my kid to the "al jazeera children" channel and he > seems to like it... also too small to be able to change channels himself From avinashcold at gmail.com Thu Apr 5 16:30:44 2007 From: avinashcold at gmail.com (Avinash Kumar) Date: Thu, 5 Apr 2007 16:30:44 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] That Faustian bargain with the characterless monster of unfreedom Message-ID: Interesting piece that i thought is worth sharing, adding to the debates around Marxism and freedom, especially as very often they are seen as two antagonistic terms... avinash http://leftwrite.wordpress.com/2007/04/04/that-faustian-bargain-with-the-characterless-monster-of-unfreedom/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070405/e34abe68/attachment.html From swadhinsen at hotmail.com Thu Apr 5 20:59:38 2007 From: swadhinsen at hotmail.com (Swadhin Sen) Date: Thu, 05 Apr 2007 15:29:38 +0000 Subject: [Reader-list] FW: [uttorshuri] Torture to death of a tribal leader, Mr Choles Ritchil of Bangl Message-ID: Swadhin Sen Archaeologist & Assistant Professor Department of Archaeology Jahangirnagar University Savar, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Phone: 880 02 7708774 >From: "Robin Khundkar" >Reply-To: uttorshuri at yahoogroups.com >To: uttorshuri at yahoogroups.com >Subject: [uttorshuri] Torture to death of a tribal leader, Mr Choles >Ritchil of Bangladesh >Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2007 13:21:38 -0400 (EDT) > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >Torture to death of a prominent tribal leader, Mr Choles Ritchil of >Bangladesh: >An Appeal to the Heads of Delegations of the 14th SAARC Summit >Asian Centre for Human Rights > >pdf version >http://www.achrweb.org/urgent_action/UA-BD0207.pdf > >I. An appeal for justice. 1 >II. Background on repression against indigenous Garos and the role of >Choles Ritchil 2 >III. Arrest of Mr Choles Ritchil on 18 March 2007. 3 >IV. Torture to death of Mr Choles Ritchil. 3 >V. Evidence of torture. 4 >VI. Failure to register the First Information Report. 4 >VII. Request for action. 5 > > > > >I. An appeal for justice > >Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) urges the heads of the delegations >(members and observers) participating in the 14th Summit of the South Asian >Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) to intervene against torture >to death of prominent tribal leader, Mr Choles Ritchil in the custody of >the joint forces [1] of Bangladesh stationed at Khakraid under Modhupur >Police Station, Tangail District on 18 March 2007. Mr Ritchil was tortured >to death, among others, by Warrant Officer Jamal, 2nd Lt. Minhaj, and >Sergeant Shahadat under the instructions of Major Toufiq Elahi of Khakraid >army camp. > >Mr Ritchil's dead body, which was handed over to the family members on 19 >March 2007, bore torture marks like eyes plucked, testicles removed, anus >mutilated, two hand palms smashed, nails of 3 fingers of the right hand >removed etc. > >Though deceased Ritchil's wife, Sandha Rani Simsang, had filed a complaint >with the Modhupur Police Station on 20 March 2007, no First Information >Report (FIR) has been registered as of 2 April 2007. Many NGOs in >Bangladesh such as Ain o Salis Kendro, Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers >Association (BELA), Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST), >Association for Land Reform and Development (ALRD), Adhikar, Forum of >Environmental Journalists of Bangladesh (FEJB), Centre for Sustainable >Development (CFSD), Action Aid and Nijerakori demanded registration of the >FIR. But, because of the fear of reprisals from the joint forces, no >further action has so far taken to approach the judiciary against the >police for their failure to register the FIR. > >The caretaker government of Bangladesh has failed to take appropriate >actions against the culprits. >II. Background on repression against indigenous Garos and the role of >Choles Ritchil > >Mr Choles Ritchil hails from Beribaid village under Modhupur Upozila under >Tangail District. Beribaid village is one of the oldest villages in the >area established over 300 years ago. It presently has 82 Garo families with >a population of 520 persons. Mr Ritchil was one of the prominent leaders of >the Garo indigenous people in the area. > >In 2003, the government of Bangladesh announced a plan to create an >Eco-Park in Modhupur forest and started erecting a wall around 3,000 acres >of Modhupur forest without seeking the consent of the Garo people living in >the area. About 25,000 indigenous Garo people faced eviction because of the >Eco-Park. On 3 January 2004, thousands of Garo people staged a peaceful >protest against the Eco-Park. At Jalabada village, the police and the >forest guards resorted to indiscriminate firing, killing one Garo, Piren >Snal on the spot and injuring 25 others including women and children. [2] > >After the incident of 3 January 2004, the Forest Department postponed >implementation of the Eco-Park. But the officials subsequently filed more >than 20 false against the indigenous Garos. [3] > >Mr Choles Ritchil, who was one of prominent indigenous leaders to oppose >the Eco-Park, was implicated in all these false cases. > >After the declaration of the state of emergency on 11 January 2007, the >Forest Department officials restarted the construction of the controversial >boundary wall for the Eco-Park. Indigenous Garos under the leadership of Mr >Choles Ritchil again protested. The Forest Department had to suspend the >construction of the wall but this had further enraged the Forest Department >officials. > >On 10 February 2007, the Joint Forces personnel including Warrant Officer >Jamal, 2nd Lt. Minhaj, Sergeant Shahadat raided Beribaid village in search >of Mr Choles Ritchil. Not finding Mr Ritchil, the Joint Forces personnel >detained Mr Protab Jamble, Mr Biswajit Simsang, 10th grade student (son of >Mr Ritchil), Mr. Prem Kumar Sangma, 10th grade student, Mr Nosil Ritchil, a > relative of Mr Ritchil and Nokul Chandra Burman (41) working at Choles >Ritchil's house. All of them were beaten mercilessly and received medical >treatment at Health Complex, Modhupur from 11 to 13 February 2007. >III. Arrest of Mr Choles Ritchil on 18 March 2007 > >At about 1:30 pm on 18 March 2007, Mr Choles Ritchil was arrested by a >group of 6 plainclothes personnel belonging to the Joint Forces at Kalibari >under Muktagacha Upozila. Mr Ritchil was coming from Mymensingh town in a >microbus accompanied by 3 indigenous persons namely Mr Piren Simsang, Mr >Tuhin Hadima and Mr Protab Jamble. > >Following their arrest, the Joint Forces personnel made telephone calls and >about 40 law enforcement personnel in two lorries arrived. The security >forces took them to nearby Khakraid army camp at about 2:00pm. > >In the army camp, while Mr Choles Ritchil and Mr Protab Jamble were in kept >one room, Mr Piren Simsang and Mr Tuhin Hadima were taken to another room. >IV. Torture to death of Mr Choles Ritchil > >According to the eye-witnesses (names withheld for security reasons), Mr >Choles Ritchil was tied to the grill of a window and mercilessly beaten by >nine law enforcement personnel. > >At one stage Major Toufic Elahi entered the room and ordered the junior >officers “to size up Choles” and torture began again. > >The Joint Forces personnel used pliers to press the testicles of Mr Choles >Ritchil and put needle on his fingers. They poured hot water into his >nostrils. He was then was hanged upside down and brutally tortured. He >vomited blood again and again and fainted many times. At one point of time, >one physician in uniform accompanied by Mojor Toufic Elahi came into the >room. Mr Choles Ritchil was taken out of the army camp. > >Some of those who tortured Mr Chales Ritchil were identified as Warrant >Officer Jamal, 2nd Lt. Minhaj, Sergeant Shahadat and Major Toufiq Elahi. > >All other detainees i.e. Mr Protab Jamble, Mr Piren Simsang and Mr Tuhin >Hadima too were tortured. While Mr Piren Simsang and Mr Tuhin Hadima were >released at about 5 pm on 18 March 2007, Mr Protab Jamble was released from >Khakraid army camp at about 10 pm on the same day, as he was given medical >treatment because of severe torture. >V. Evidence of torture > >Mr Ritchil's dead body was handed over by the Superintendent of Police >(officiating) of Tangail District and the Assistant Superintendent of >Police of Gopalpur Circle of Tangail District to Ms. Jita Ritchil (aunt of >Mr Ritchil), and Kholes Ritchil (elder brother of Mr Choles Ritchil) along >with Rev. Father S. Tolentino and other indigenous leaders at about 2:00 pm >at the Jalchatra Corpus Christi Church compound on 19 March 2007. > >Mr Ritchil's burial took place at Beribaid village at about 1 pm on 20 >March 2007. > >Before the burial, as per religious customs, Choles Ritchil's dead body was >given a bath. Those who performed the religious bath (name withheld for >safety reasons) reported the following torture marks: > >“Choles's two eyes plucked, testicles removed, anus mutilated, two hand >palms smashed , nails of 3 fingers of the right hand removed, left hand >thump finger nail removed, two palms had holes, upper right hand had severe >would, several blood stains on the back part of the body, in both thighs >middle part there had been two holes, back part of the body had several >black marks, several deep marks of wounds on both lower legs, there had >been black marks on feet, no nail on thump of right foot, all fingers of >two hands were broken.” VI. Failure to register the First Information >Report > >Mr Choles Ritchil is survived by his wife Sandha Rani Simsang (28), son >Biswajit Simsang (15) and three daughters: Priyanka Simsang (13), Konka >Simsang (10) and Tiromoni Simsang (6). > >On 20 March 2007, Choles Ritchil's wife Sandha Simsang had filed a >complaint at the Modhupur Police Station but as of 2 April 2007, Modhupur >Police station has not registered any case. > >Many prominent NGOs in Bangladesh such as Ain o Salis Kendro (ASK), >Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA), Bangladesh Legal Aid >and Services Trust (BLAST), Association for Land Reform and Development >(ALRD), Adhikar, Forum of Environmental Journalists of Bangladesh (FEJB), >Centre for Sustainable Development (CFSD), Action Aid and Nijerakori >demanded registration of the FIR. However, as of 2 April 2007, no further >action has been taken to approach the judiciary against the police for >their failure to register the FIR. ACHR believes that the atmosphere of >fear created by the security forces who act as law unto themselves prevails >over. >VII. Request for action > >It is unfortunate that an appeal has to be made to the heads of the >delegations participating in the 14th SAARC Summit to request registration >of a First Information Report against the torture to death of a prominent >tribal leader to allow the law to take its own course. The registration of >an FIR is the first step towards ensuring justice. > >If the care-taker government of Bangladesh is serious about respect for >human rights, it must take appropriate actions against such blatant >violations of the right to life. ACHR fervantly appeals to the heads of >delegations of the 14th SAARC Summit to intervene with the delegation of >the government of Bangladesh to: > > >Order a judicial inquiry into the killing of Mr Choles Ritchil; >Order registration of the First Information Report by the Modhupur Police >Station; >Order suspension of the Warrant Officer Jamal, 2nd Lt. Minhaj, Sergeant >Shahadat, Major Toufiq Elahi and other security personnel of Khakraid army >camp to ensure a free and fair inquiry; >Order exhumation of the dead body of Choles Ritchil for autopsy by >independent panel of doctors; >Award compensation of Taka 10 lakhs (one million) to the family of the >victim; >Provide safety and security to Ms Sandha Rani Simsang and her family >members and other witnesses against intimidation by the Joint Forces; and >Cancel the Eco-park project in Modhupur forest. > > >SAARC MEMBERS > >1. H.E. Mr Hamid Karzai >President of Afghanistan >C/o - H.E Mr. Masood KHALILI >Embassy of Afghanistan >50F, Shantipath, Chanakyapuri >New Delhi-110021 > >2. H.E. Fakhruddin Ahmed >Chief Advisor to the Interim Administration of Bangladesh >C/o: H.E. High Commissioner of Bangladesh to India >EP-39, Dr. S. RadhaKrishnan Marg, Chanakyapuri >New Delhi-110021 > >3. H.E. Khandu Wangchuk >Prime Minister of Bhutan >C/o - Embassy of Bhutan >Chandragupta Marg, Chanakyapuri >New Delhi-110021 > >4. H.E. Dr Manmohan Singh >Prime Minister of India >Prime Minister's Office >South Bloc, New Delhi-110011 > >5. H.E. Mr Pranab Mukherjee >Foreign Minister of India >Ministry of External Affairs >South Bloc, New Delhi-110011 > >6. H.E. Maumoon Abdul Gayoom >President of Maldives >C/o - High Commission of Maldives >B-2, Anand Niketan >New Delhi-110021 > >7. H.E. G P Koirala >Prime Minister of Nepal >C/o H.E. Ambassador of Nepal to India >Barakhamba Road, New Delhi - 110001 > >8. H.E.Mr Shaukat Aziz >Prime Minister of Pakistan >C/o- H.E. High Commissioner of Pakistan to India >2/50-G, Shantipath, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi-110 021 > >9. H.E. Mahinda Rajapakse >President of Sri Lanka >C/o: Sri Lankan High Commission >27, Kautilya Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi-110021 > >OBSERVERS > >1. H. E. Taro Aso >Foreign Minister of Japan >C/o- H. E. Mr. Yasukuni Enoki >Ambassador of Japan to India >50-G Shantipath, Chanakyapuri, >New Delhi-110021 > >2. H.E. Song Min-soon >Foreign Minister of Republic of Korea >C/o - H.E. Ambassador of Republic of Korea to India >Chandra Gupta Marg, Chanakyapuri >New Delhi 110021 > >3. H.E. Richard Boucher >US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia >C/o: H.E. Ambassador David C. Mulford >Embassy of the United States of America >Shantipath, Chanakyapuri >New Delhi - 110021 > >4. H.E. Li Zhaoxing >Foreign Minister of China >C/o: H.E. Sun Yuxi >Ambassador of China to India >50-D, Shantipath, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi-110021 > >5. H.E. Mr. Francisco da Câmara Gomes >Ambassdor of European Commission to India >65, Golf Links, New Delhi-110 003 > > > > > > >[1] . Joint forces consist of Bangladesh army, police and other >para-military forces. > > >[2] . Indigenous World 2005, International Work group for Indigenous >Affairs, Copenhagen, Denmark > > >[3] . Indigenous World 2006, International Work group for Indigenous >Affairs, Copenhagen, Denmark. > > > > > __._,_.___ > > > > > Messages in this topic (1) > > > > Reply (via web post) > | > > Start a new topic > > > > > Messages > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > NOTE: This is a moderated group, and not everything can be posted. > The moderators are NOT responsible, however, for whatever opinions are >expressed. > > > > > > > > > > > Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required) > > Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch >format to Traditional > > > > Visit Your Group > | > > Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | > > Unsubscribe > > > > > > > > > > > > Recent Activity > > > 1 > New Members > > > > > > > > > > Visit Your Group > > SPONSORED LINKS > > > Bangladesh > Bangladesh calling card > Bangladesh phone > Bangladesh phone card > Bangladesh flight > > > > > > > Y! Messenger > >PC-to-PC calls > >Call your friends > >worldwide - free! > > Yahoo! Photos > >Upload Now! > >First 20 > >prints are free > > Yahoo! Mail > >Get on board > >You're invited to try > >the all-new Mail Beta. > > > > . > > > >__,_._,___ > > > > > > > > > _________________________________________________________________ Don't just search. Find. Check out the new MSN Search! http://search.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200636ave/direct/01/ From fmadre at free.fr Fri Apr 6 03:11:13 2007 From: fmadre at free.fr (fm) Date: Thu, 05 Apr 2007 23:41:13 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] [thingist] Freedom Fight In-Reply-To: <5af37bb0704050917i7115150dn736c3f481036c4a9@mail.gmail.com> References: <5af37bb0704050152g64a74b7ex22a702e646b89380@mail.gmail.com> <20070405114508.lohjvtze0ookksk4@imp4.free.fr> <5af37bb0704050917i7115150dn736c3f481036c4a9@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <46156CF9.1080204@free.fr> yasir ~ a écrit : > that is news to me. y it's always a pleasure to be of help to a comrade > http://www.jcctv.net/ thank you for the website, now le petit jules is learning to count in arabic http://www.jcctv.net/preschool/numbers.cfm and he loves it f. From harilalms at gmail.com Fri Apr 6 10:46:24 2007 From: harilalms at gmail.com (harilal madhavan) Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2007 10:46:24 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Ayurveda- 'home to factory' Message-ID: <786e9c3e0704052216u348f59d9k8898fb4342b996e3@mail.gmail.com> M S HARILAL/ SARAI INDEPENDENT FELLOW 2007/ SECOND POSTING/APRIL 6TH/ AYURVEDA- HOME TO FACTORY In the first posting, I have given an overview of my proposal to Sarai. In the current posting, I will very briefly stating the periodization of production relations from the literature work on early manufacturing aspects of Ayurvedic sector in India and adding a note on the types of Ayurvedic medicine and product manufacturers. Period of concern here is 1830s onwards, since this is the period where the process for initial efforts for institutionalization kick- started. PERIODIZING THE EARLY PRODUCTION RELATIONS IN AYURVEDA: From the analysis of structure of production and the elements of transformation in production relations, the period of early transformation can perhaps be divided into three breaks, not in strict sense of the term but for convenience of analysis and it may not provide linearity in classification, but more of parallel existence. (1) UNTIL 1830S – SERVICE DOMINATED PRODUCTION: The period before and including the 1830s was dominated by home based system, in which the medicine was never considered as a good to be sold in the market and the use value of the same has been relevant than the exchange value. In short, there were three types of relations: one, distribution of the service and medicine without any remuneration, two; no remuneration for the service that physician render, but only a small price of the medicine and thirdly and finally the home-based production and distribution of the medicines and service exactly at the price equal to cost of production. The inefficiency of the modern system to cater to the health care needs of a large number of villages helped the indigenous systems to remain significant through out the period. But the period was stagnant in a way for traditional medicine because of several reasons like the lack of institutional efforts, adverse policies from the state, self preparation of the medicines by the patients, lack of professionally qualified physicians etc. (2) FROM 1830S TO 1880S- PERIOD OF PETTY COMMODITY PRODUCTION: A number of dispensaries, which sold medicines at a lower price compared to allopathy, were started and the state policy in this period remained hostile to the indigenous system. Though large scale production was still away from its inception, some efforts at regional village levels are visible in the form of home outlets and temple outlets . The ashtavaidyas in Kerala has opened Oushadhasalas (hospitals which supplies medicines) in various parts of the state. E.T.M Oushadhasala is one of the examples . Especially different dispensaries or units, which provide Vishachikitsa (ailment for poison, a preliminary form of toxicology) were common at that time. Most of the units started this period, were serving to the domestic demand. This was a period of drug substitution efforts too. During these periods, the protagonists of indigenous medicine, for instance, funded the Kavirajas of Bengal to manufacture and sell indigenous drugs, which made them wealthy and gave impetus to start the mass production. This was enhanced by the increasing professionalisation in modern medicine and generated an immediate need within the ayurvedic community to catch up in professionalism and mass production. This period might be named as the period of proto industrialization, because the efforts for production at least to cater the domestic demand were active at least in some part of nation side. (3) FROM 1880S TO 1920- PERIOD OF SHIFT FROM SERVICE TO INDUSTRY: This is the period in which capital entered into the production of ayurvedic and other Indian medicinal formularies. As mentioned earlier, mass scale production had been recognized as a potent way of revitalizing the tradition from sulky withdrawal. This had been initiated in both the northern and southern parts of India. The investment made for this purpose was purely voluntary in nature. This development occurred due to many reasons: increasing domestic demand due to the tensions created by First World War, nationalist initiatives of Swadeshi in the beginnings of 20th century and realized inefficiency of the modern medicine to reach out to the hands of all. The supply constraints during this time made many to think about a centralized production. This did not mean that this mass scale production completely replaced the former mode of production. But on the other hand, the household production and distribution remained in most of the villages. But one visible result is that the indigenous physicians started buying their medicines from these large producing companies, and the advertisements made by these factories started appearing in many Ayurvedic journals very frequently at that time. Thus a dual market, one to cater the local demands completely, the other, modernized large scale production to cater the national and international demand has been formed in the beginning of the 20th century. But even these mass manufacturers mainly produced traditional ayurvedic combinations suggested in the accepted texts of ayurveda. The only patent drug, which introduced in the beginning of the 20th century, was Dabur's Pudin Hara. A conversion from a service oriented production to an industrial oriented production had its beginning during the same period. TYPES OF MANUFACTURERS IN THE PRESENT SCENARIO - SELECTION FOR CASE ANALYSIS In the current scenario, from 1920s the growth of Ayurvedic industry, especially of the major vendors is mainly in three different, but mutually complementing, directions: 1. The pure classical traditions as followed by Arya Vaidya Sala Kottakkal (AVS), Arya Vaidya pharmacy, Coimbatore, which revolve around a physician and his/ her prescription. The growth of this sector is very slow but steady. 2. The growth pattern using classical as well as patent and proprietary medicines (PP) and OTC (Over the Counter) products. Probably Dabur is the best example. Their classical side is rather slow in growth and expansion where as their PP products are popular. 3. The growth pattern of PP and OTC alone with a focus on the modern medicine practitioners as well as new ayurvedic generation physicians. Himalaya Drug Company makes such preparations and perhaps its fast growth in the last few decades is an indicative of this trend. My analysis for the study, will form one firm from the first and third category in the organized sector. Unorganized sector will include a few traditional Vaidyas located in Kerala. ------------------------------------------ some notes on the text ---------------------------- 1. Temple was the centre of all beliefs and the knowledge that controlled the social life in south India, especially in Kerala during these periods. Christian and Muslim centres of worship later copied this tradition of Hindu temples (Varier, 2005). In other words, temple outlet formed through a historical process, when the Ashtavaidyas showed some willingness to teach their close dependents and who belonged to the Ambalavasi (those like Variers who served in temples) community, especially under Guru Kula system and later outlets might have formed from this tradition. 2. The ashtavaidya families functioned as traditional institutions for studying, teaching, practicing, popularizing and extending services in ayurveda (Varier, 2005). 3. E.T. Narayanan Mooss established this centre, where the medicines were prepared and given. ETN Mooss was a member of Thaikkattussery ashtavaidya family, situated in Ollur, Thrissur. 4. David Kopf (1970) uses the word revitalization as a practical response from Ajmal khan and Varier that is revitalizing those parts of tradition that is salvageable from the past. Best, Harilal -------------------------------------- alternative email: harims at cds.ac.in From harilalms at gmail.com Fri Apr 6 11:01:42 2007 From: harilalms at gmail.com (harilal madhavan) Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2007 11:01:42 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] =?windows-1252?q?AYURVEDA-_=91Home_to_Factory=92?= Message-ID: <786e9c3e0704052231u35766addp56949cd395144d86@mail.gmail.com> M S HARILAL/ SARAI INDEPENDENT FELLOW 2007/ SECOND POSTING/APRIL 6TH / AYURVEDA- 'Home to Factory' In the first posting, I have given an overview of my proposal to Sarai. In the current posting, I will very briefly stating the periodization of production relations from the literature work on early manufacturing aspects of Ayurvedic sector in India and adding a note on the types of Ayurvedic medicine and product manufacturers. Period of concern here is 1830s onwards, since this is the period where the process for initial efforts for institutionalization kick- started. PERIODIZING THE EARLY PRODUCTION RELATIONS IN AYURVEDA: From the analysis of structure of production and the elements of transformation in production relations, the period of early transformation can perhaps be divided into three breaks, not in strict sense of the term but for convenience of analysis and it may not provide linearity in classification, but more of parallel existence. (1) UNTIL 1830S – SERVICE DOMINATED PRODUCTION: The period before and including the 1830s was dominated by home based system, in which the medicine was never considered as a good to be sold in the market and the use value of the same has been relevant than the exchange value. In short, there were three types of relations: one, distribution of the service and medicine without any remuneration, two; no remuneration for the service that physician render, but only a small price of the medicine and thirdly and finally the home-based production and distribution of the medicines and service exactly at the price equal to cost of production. The inefficiency of the modern system to cater to the health care needs of a large number of villages helped the indigenous systems to remain significant through out the period. But the period was stagnant in a way for traditional medicine because of several reasons like the lack of institutional efforts, adverse policies from the state, self preparation of the medicines by the patients, lack of professionally qualified physicians etc. (2) FROM 1830S TO 1880S- PERIOD OF PETTY COMMODITY PRODUCTION: A number of dispensaries, which sold medicines at a lower price compared to allopathy, were started and the state policy in this period remained hostile to the indigenous system. Though large scale production was still away from its inception, some efforts at regional village levels are visible in the form of home outlets and temple outlets . The ashtavaidyas in Kerala has opened Oushadhasalas (hospitals which supplies medicines) in various parts of the state. E.T.M Oushadhasala is one of the examples . Especially different dispensaries or units, which provide Vishachikitsa (ailment for poison, a preliminary form of toxicology) were common at that time. Most of the units started this period, were serving to the domestic demand. This was a period of drug substitution efforts too. During these periods, the protagonists of indigenous medicine, for instance, funded the Kavirajas of Bengal to manufacture and sell indigenous drugs, which made them wealthy and gave impetus to start the mass production. This was enhanced by the increasing professionalisation in modern medicine and generated an immediate need within the ayurvedic community to catch up in professionalism and mass production. This period might be named as the period of proto industrialization, because the efforts for production at least to cater the domestic demand were active at least in some part of nation side. (3) FROM 1880S TO 1920- PERIOD OF SHIFT FROM SERVICE TO INDUSTRY: This is the period in which capital entered into the production of ayurvedic and other Indian medicinal formularies. As mentioned earlier, mass scale production had been recognized as a potent way of revitalizing the tradition from sulky withdrawal. This had been initiated in both the northern and southern parts of India. The investment made for this purpose was purely voluntary in nature. This development occurred due to many reasons: increasing domestic demand due to the tensions created by First World War, nationalist initiatives of Swadeshi in the beginnings of 20th century and realized inefficiency of the modern medicine to reach out to the hands of all. The supply constraints during this time made many to think about a centralized production. This did not mean that this mass scale production completely replaced the former mode of production. But on the other hand, the household production and distribution remained in most of the villages. But one visible result is that the indigenous physicians started buying their medicines from these large producing companies, and the advertisements made by these factories started appearing in many Ayurvedic journals very frequently at that time. Thus a dual market, one to cater the local demands completely, the other, modernized large scale production to cater the national and international demand has been formed in the beginning of the 20th century. But even these mass manufacturers mainly produced traditional ayurvedic combinations suggested in the accepted texts of ayurveda. The only patent drug, which introduced in the beginning of the 20th century, was Dabur's Pudin Hara. A conversion from a service oriented production to an industrial oriented production had its beginning during the same period. TYPES OF MANUFACTURERS IN THE PRESENT SCENARIO - SELECTION FOR CASE ANALYSIS In the current scenario, from 1920s the growth of Ayurvedic industry, especially of the major vendors is mainly in three different, but mutually complementing, directions: 1. The pure classical traditions as followed by Arya Vaidya Sala Kottakkal (AVS), Arya Vaidya pharmacy, Coimbatore, which revolve around a physician and his/ her prescription. The growth of this sector is very slow but steady. 2. The growth pattern using classical as well as patent and proprietary medicines (PP) and OTC (Over the Counter) products. Probably Dabur is the best example. Their classical side is rather slow in growth and expansion where as their PP products are popular. 3. The growth pattern of PP and OTC alone with a focus on the modern medicine practitioners as well as new ayurvedic generation physicians. Himalaya Drug Company makes such preparations and perhaps its fast growth in the last few decades is an indicative of this trend. My analysis for the study will form one firm from the first and third category in the organized sector. Unorganized sector will include a few traditional Vaidyas located in Kerala. Some notes on the text ----------------------------------------- 1. Temple was the centre of all beliefs and the knowledge that controlled the social life in south India, especially in Kerala during these periods. Christian and Muslim centres of worship later copied this tradition of Hindu temples (Varier, 2005). In other words, temple outlet formed through a historical process, when the Ashtavaidyas showed some willingness to teach their close dependents and who belonged to the Ambalavasi (those like Variers who served in temples) community, especially under Guru Kula system and later outlets might have formed from this tradition. 2. The ashtavaidya families functioned as traditional institutions for studying, teaching, practicing, popularizing and extending services in ayurveda (Varier, 2005). 3. E.T. Narayanan Mooss established this centre, where the medicines were prepared and given. ETN Mooss was a member of Thaikkattussery ashtavaidya family, situated in Ollur, Thrissur. 4. David Kopf (1970) uses the word revitalization as a practical response from Ajmal khan and Varier that is revitalizing those parts of tradition that is salvageable from the past. Best, Harilal alternative email: harims at cds.ac.in From Aeshnar at ndtv.com Fri Apr 6 10:12:41 2007 From: Aeshnar at ndtv.com (Aeshna Roy) Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2007 10:12:41 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] NDTV filmmaking show References: <4614F635.8030901@sarai.net> Message-ID: Air Your Films on NDTV Make your own short films and we'll broadcast them on NDTV through the week. These shorts can be of any genre (artsy, docu, citizen journalist, animation, video blogs). However they must comply with the following regulations: The films must address issues and concerns of Delhi or be relevant to the city in some manner. We encourage personal, first-person perspectives: what matters to you... why it matters to you... and how you feel about it. The film must be the original work of the participant and all copyrights must rest with you Content must be suitable for family viewing All films must be less than 4 minutes in duration Entries must be submitted in DVD or mini DV tape formats Post your entries to: Aeshna Roy (aeshnar at ndtv.com) NDTV Archana Complex, Greater Kailash 1 New Delhi 110048 -- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070406/88cf0da5/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From ysaeed7 at yahoo.com Fri Apr 6 09:17:37 2007 From: ysaeed7 at yahoo.com (Yousuf) Date: Thu, 5 Apr 2007 20:47:37 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Nizamuddin Basti Faces Massive Demolition on April 10 In-Reply-To: <1c53f7ad0704050854k341024dged94e54209e615c1@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <194284.26796.qm@web51406.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Dear Jaya I am unfortunately down with viral fever and not in a position to go around. But something certainly needs to be done. You remember the local residents we met during our heritage walk recce in the basti - maybe we could meet them and mobilize something. But I think in this case there are much bigger forces involved - Agha Khan foundation is pumping lots of money to restore and beautify Nizamuddin dargah area. So, there is very little we would be able to do. But we can certainly visit there and talk to the people. I wonder what the sentiments would be today after the Friday prayers. Yousuf jaya iyer wrote: Dear yousuf, this is so absolutely crazy - gets our fears about fears to be true- can we do something who is sudheshna ?, lets file an RTI through the residents on saturday - can be done even in the police station, bulldozers come with police - get some urgent media and some city organsiations - sanjha manch/ ashray adhikar abhiyan etc. for support - do you have details - asap please jaya On 4/5/07, Yousuf wrote: Nizamuddin Basti Faces Massive Demolition on April 10 to Create Vistas to the Dargah As Delhi adorns herself for the appreciative gazes of visitors to the Commonwealth Games in 2010, several habitats and lifeworlds are being destroyed "in public interest" to make way for beautification projects in place of dense, unseemly residential areas. Nizamuddin Basti, the thriving, bustling, colorful settlement with over of 800 years of recorded history of continuous human habitation, is going to come under the developmental bulldozer next week, on April 10 according to residents. The grand urban revitalization vision for this master plan designated heritage zone does not include anything in the foreground of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya's Dargah. The thriving settlement of Nizam Nagar, a neighborhood populated by migrant labor for the last thirty years, will definitely be flattened to create lush landscaped foreground for beholding the monument from all three roads bounding the Basti—Mathura Road, Lodi Road, and Lala Lajpat Rai Marg. The Dargah however had never been a separate piece within the settlement but an integral part of the residents' lifeworlds. The next layer of colorful pucca houses with many floors will also be demolished as they too block the view of the dargah from all three roads. Several shops on Lodi Road have already been sealed. A major part of the open space on Lala Lajpat Rai Road has been walled up and residents said that it will be made into a parking lot for the Dargah tourist coming from that direction. The pucca house owners will receive deals for resettlement while the majority of the migrant settlers along the periphery will be evicted without rehabilitation. No one has any information as to what exactly has been proposed and by whom. There are rumors of MCD and Aga Khan Trust and ASI working together to create a beautiful tourist paradise with paved walking routes, lush landscapes and showcase remnants of the old village and way of life of people. I visited the basti yesterday and felt people's helplessness. I made several phone calls to everyone I knew to find out about the development plan. No one has a clue. Nothing is discussed in the public domain. But how come all the residents knew? MCD has really been smart about this one to avoid undue attention and therefore resistance to the beautification project with Aga Khan Trust's money. I did the only thing I could. I filed a RTI this afternoon with MCD. But as I am not a directly affected party the information will be made available in a month's time, long after the demolitions had taken place. I got the Hope Project, an NGO that works within the Basti, to mobilize the community to exercise their right to information and get it within 48 hours. But community mobilization is easier said than done. Moreover, this is a long weekend. The governmental machinery will be resting. If anyone has any advice on how to put up a resistance to an uncontested beautification scheme for a contested urban space, please email me. Some of us are working on first assessing what exactly will be demolished and what rehabilitation proposals had been made for displaced people to prepare a case for resisting the demolitions and demanding adequate rehabilitation for all displaced people. In addition I would encourage this forum to engage in a much stronger public debate on the future of the city and its quietly outrageous beautification/revitalization/development plans ahead of the Commonwealth Games. -- Sudeshna Chatterjee, PhD New Delhi, India --------------------------------- It's here! Your new message! Get new email alerts with the free Yahoo! Toolbar. -- shanti shalom peace .... --------------------------------- Looking for earth-friendly autos? Browse Top Cars by "Green Rating" at Yahoo! Autos' Green Center. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070405/c0b53f76/attachment.html From mohaiemen at yahoo.com Fri Apr 6 19:54:45 2007 From: mohaiemen at yahoo.com (NAEEM MOHAIEMEN) Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2007 07:24:45 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] I'm Sorry Choles Richil In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <478341.20920.qm@web50309.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Arendt's "banality of evil" can be extended: any people have the capacity for infinite cruelty/violence. The once meek can also become most cruel. Bangladesh, on the receiving end of violence in many historical moments, repeats that impulse on those who don't fit a Bengali nationalism project. In particular two groups of ethnic minorities (or "non-Bengalis", every term is about what you are not): Paharis & Adivasis. The Paharis because they have been waging a three decade long civil war to gain autonomy in Chittagong Hill Tracts. The Adivasis because they demand land rights and block neoliberal projects such as Modhupur Forest "Eco Park" and Asia Energy coal mining. A non-Bengali's life is worth little. But even our blase psyche was stunned by the brutal torture-murder of Choles Ritchil, Adivasi activist who had been fighting against the infamous "Eco Park" project (supported by Asian Development Bank) which would displace thousands of Adivasis from their ancestral Modhupur forest home. Particularly frightening is the fact that these abuses happened in an army camp, in a country currently under a quasi-military "interim" government. There is a smug, self-congratulatory rhetoric that talks about Ghraib+Gitmo without interrogating other country's equally abysmal record on torture. G/G is of course a failure of ethics+morality in the American body politic. But a capacity for absolute power leading to unthinkable abuses lurks inside all nation states and people. Below is my op-ed from today's Dhaka paper, and related link. ############################################# OP-ED: I'm Sorry, Choles Ritchil http://shobakorg.blogspot.com/2007/04/sorry-choles.html FACT SHEET: Torture of Choles Ritchil http://www.drishtipat.org/blog/2007/04/03/choles-ritchil/ [includes Petition] ############################################# I'm Sorry, Choles Ritchil - Naeem Mohaiemen [Daily Star, April 6, 2007] I'm sorry, Choles Ritchil. I didn't believe the evidence of your body. I kept thinking the torture report was a hysterical invention. So much damage to one corpse, it seemed impossible. No, it is impossible. Isn't it? It must all be lies. Those human rights groups, we know they always exaggerate -- just to get foreign funding and create a bad image for Bangladesh. I'm sorry, because I couldn't find the courage. We're all so invested in getting out of the AL-BNP strangle corridor, we're so euphoric that the godfathers are being arrested, we don't want to upset the process by drawing attention to your case. Must be an aberration, somebody got a little too enthusiastic. Anyway, let's move on. For heaven's sake, don't make a fuss. I'm sorry, because I couldn't find tears. How easy it was to dismiss your face on that poster. You look nothing like me. You have what my classmates so crudely called "chinky eyes". No one in my family has ever married anyone who looks like you, and even if we did we would make sure you converted to our religion. You see, you don't really exist. This is a country for Bengalis, not anyone else. Now you realize that, slowly, surely. I'm sorry, because I read Nirmalendu Goon's poem with a stony heart. Then I busied myself with translating it. E-mailing friends and asking, "What is Chuniya village"? Is Goon being sarcastic about March and "freedom"? Is "elegy" a better translation than "requiem"? Distracting myself with aesthetics, anything to blank out the memory of those pictures. I'm sorry, because when a blogger posted the report, somebody else complained about the gruesome picture. The picture was quietly removed to page 2. A nice disclaimer was added: "Warning: Graphic Photo". Anything to protect our delicate sensibilities. How inconsiderate of you to die with so many wounds. I'm sorry, because I said to a Pahari friend the other day, "Welcome to shadhin Bangla", and she replied, "Ami tho Bangali na, how am I shadhin?" I laughed and dismissed her. Oh these people! They will never be satisfied. What do you want anyway? Land rights? Your Language? Parliament Seats? Ministries? Quotas? Autonomy? Come on, that was for us, that was 1969. It's 2007 now. Don't you remember what Sheikh Mujib said? "From today you are all Bengalis." And some of you are now dead Bengalis, that's equality. I'm sorry, because I know how this will go down. There will be outrage. NGOs will issue memorandum. Bloggers will buzz. Newspapers will write. Thrithio Matra will debate pros and cons. Seminars will be cranked out. And always, some "hero" filmmaker will make a documentary and win awards. Then, just as quickly, we will forget. Amnesia is our gross national product. I'm sorry, Choles Ritchil. You lived and died protecting the Adivasi people and Modhupur land you believed in. You were gentle and nonviolent, and we paid you back in a different coin. I'm sorry, because I'm a citizen of a nation that after 36 years fails to see you as anything more than a nuisance. My class, ethnicity and religious privilege (and army family) gives me insurance to write these words. You don't have any such protection -- naked to the world, to Eco Park, and to our vengeful fury. But don't think you're an agacha on our national boto brikkho. When there are visiting dignitaries or sports events, your people are very useful. You sing, you dance, you wear exotic, colorful clothes. A readymade National Geographic tableau. "Hill People of CHT". "Gentle People of Modhupur Forest". Ah, the permutations are endless. We want to keep all of you in a museum vitrine, and bring you out on special occasions -- when we need a dash of color. But please don't demand your rights. And don't even think of raising your voice. Etho boro shahosh! You see what happened to Choles. Don't make us be sorry again. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Looking for earth-friendly autos? Browse Top Cars by "Green Rating" at Yahoo! Autos' Green Center. http://autos.yahoo.com/green_center/ From taraprakash at gmail.com Fri Apr 6 20:33:23 2007 From: taraprakash at gmail.com (Taraprakash) Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2007 11:03:23 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] I'm Sorry Choles Richil References: <478341.20920.qm@web50309.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <01bf01c7785c$bc8bc770$0201a8c0@IBM61525879EE4> Thanks for this touching post. Reminds me of Tahmima Anam's description of brutalities by pro-Pakistani soldiers "on those who wanted to live with dignity and peace", in her novel, I recently read, "A Golden Age". The title sounds ironical now. ----- Original Message ----- From: "NAEEM MOHAIEMEN" To: Sent: Friday, April 06, 2007 10:24 AM Subject: [Reader-list] I'm Sorry Choles Richil > Arendt's "banality of evil" can be extended: any > people have the capacity for infinite > cruelty/violence. The once meek can also become most > cruel. > > Bangladesh, on the receiving end of violence in many > historical moments, repeats that impulse on those who > don't fit a Bengali nationalism project. In particular > two groups of ethnic minorities (or "non-Bengalis", > every term is about what you are not): Paharis & > Adivasis. The Paharis because they have been waging a > three decade long civil war to gain autonomy in > Chittagong Hill Tracts. The Adivasis because they > demand land rights and block neoliberal projects such > as Modhupur Forest "Eco Park" and Asia Energy coal > mining. > > A non-Bengali's life is worth little. But even our > blase psyche was stunned by the brutal torture-murder > of Choles Ritchil, Adivasi activist who had been > fighting against the infamous "Eco Park" project > (supported by Asian Development Bank) which would > displace thousands of Adivasis from their ancestral > Modhupur forest home. Particularly frightening is the > fact that these abuses happened in an army camp, in a > country currently under a quasi-military "interim" > government. > > There is a smug, self-congratulatory rhetoric that > talks about Ghraib+Gitmo without interrogating other > country's equally abysmal record on torture. G/G is > of course a failure of ethics+morality in the American > body politic. But a capacity for absolute power > leading to unthinkable abuses lurks inside all nation > states and people. > > Below is my op-ed from today's Dhaka paper, and > related link. > > ############################################# > OP-ED: I'm Sorry, Choles Ritchil > http://shobakorg.blogspot.com/2007/04/sorry-choles.html > > FACT SHEET: Torture of Choles Ritchil > http://www.drishtipat.org/blog/2007/04/03/choles-ritchil/ > > [includes Petition] > ############################################# > > I'm Sorry, Choles Ritchil > - Naeem Mohaiemen > [Daily Star, April 6, 2007] > > I'm sorry, Choles Ritchil. I didn't believe the > evidence of your body. I kept thinking the torture > report was a hysterical invention. So much damage to > one corpse, it seemed impossible. No, it is > impossible. Isn't it? It must all be lies. Those human > rights groups, we know they always exaggerate -- just > to get foreign funding and create a bad image for > Bangladesh. > > I'm sorry, because I couldn't find the courage. We're > all so invested in getting out of the AL-BNP strangle > corridor, we're so euphoric that the godfathers are > being arrested, we don't want to upset the process by > drawing attention to your case. Must be an > aberration, somebody got a little too enthusiastic. > Anyway, let's move on. For heaven's sake, don't make a > fuss. > > I'm sorry, because I couldn't find tears. How easy it > was to dismiss your face on that poster. You look > nothing like me. You have what my classmates so > crudely called "chinky eyes". No one in my family has > ever married anyone who looks like you, and even if we > did we would make sure you converted to our religion. > You see, you don't really exist. This is a country for > Bengalis, not anyone else. Now you realize that, > slowly, surely. > > I'm sorry, because I read Nirmalendu Goon's poem with > a stony heart. Then I busied myself with translating > it. E-mailing friends and asking, "What is Chuniya > village"? Is Goon being sarcastic about March and > "freedom"? Is "elegy" a better translation than > "requiem"? Distracting myself with aesthetics, > anything to blank out the memory of those pictures. > > I'm sorry, because when a blogger posted the report, > somebody else complained about the gruesome picture. > The picture was quietly removed to page 2. A nice > disclaimer was added: "Warning: Graphic Photo". > Anything to protect our delicate sensibilities. How > inconsiderate of you to die with so many wounds. > > I'm sorry, because I said to a Pahari friend the other > day, "Welcome to shadhin Bangla", and she replied, > "Ami tho Bangali na, how am I shadhin?" I laughed and > dismissed her. Oh these people! They will never be > satisfied. What do you want anyway? Land rights? Your > Language? Parliament Seats? Ministries? Quotas? > Autonomy? Come on, that was for us, that was 1969. > It's 2007 now. Don't you remember what Sheikh Mujib > said? "From today you are all Bengalis." And some of > you are now dead Bengalis, that's equality. > > I'm sorry, because I know how this will go down. > There will be outrage. NGOs will issue memorandum. > Bloggers will buzz. Newspapers will write. Thrithio > Matra will debate pros and cons. Seminars will be > cranked out. And always, some "hero" filmmaker will > make a documentary and win awards. Then, just as > quickly, we will forget. Amnesia is our gross national > product. > > I'm sorry, Choles Ritchil. You lived and died > protecting the Adivasi people and Modhupur land you > believed in. You were gentle and nonviolent, and we > paid you back in a different coin. > > I'm sorry, because I'm a citizen of a nation that > after 36 years fails to see you as anything more than > a nuisance. My class, ethnicity and religious > privilege (and army family) gives me insurance to > write these words. You don't have any such protection > -- naked to the world, to Eco Park, and to our > vengeful fury. > > But don't think you're an agacha on our national boto > brikkho. When there are visiting dignitaries or sports > events, your people are very useful. You sing, you > dance, you wear exotic, colorful clothes. A readymade > National Geographic tableau. "Hill People of CHT". > "Gentle People of Modhupur Forest". Ah, the > permutations are endless. > > We want to keep all of you in a museum vitrine, and > bring you out on special occasions -- when we need a > dash of color. But please don't demand your rights. > And don't even think of raising your voice. Etho boro > shahosh! You see what happened to Choles. Don't make > us be sorry again. > > > on ethnic minorities (2003 Bangladesh Human Rights > Report) and religious minorities (2006 Bangladesh > Human Rights Report).> > > > > ____________________________________________________________________________________ > Looking for earth-friendly autos? > Browse Top Cars by "Green Rating" at Yahoo! Autos' Green Center. > http://autos.yahoo.com/green_center/ > _________________________________________ > 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. > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> From mail at shivamvij.com Fri Apr 6 21:35:58 2007 From: mail at shivamvij.com (Shivam Vij) Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2007 21:35:58 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Who is a Bairagi? Message-ID: <9c06aab30704060905s73bb43c8kca2cd7b2e9ec7003@mail.gmail.com> And who is a Chak? I know Dhobi, but who is a Ghosi? I can perhaps understand Teli, but who is a Teli-Malik? Perhaps I can understand Luhar, but who is a Saifi? Who is a Kalwar and who is a Khatgune? Bhatiara and Idrishi, Merasi and Ramgarhia, Patwa and Prade - who on earth are these people? Have I met them? Have you met them? Does anyone know what these names mean? Concentrated in ghettos or man on the street? Are they castes or sub-castes, are they 'communities' or 'classes'? Are they 'powerful' or 'powerless', do they like being called not just backward but other backward classes? Other, as in the other, which must always be made into a monolith, talked about but not talked to, debated but not understood. And those are just from the national capital: http://ncbc.nic.in/backward-classes/delhi.html We've had such an overdose of three letters - O, B, C - one would have thought we would by now have known the O, B, Cs. TV cameras should by now have entered the houses of the O, B, Cs and asked them, like they do when the man of the house dies, aapko kaisa lag rahan hain? best s -- http://www.shivamvij.com From lawrence at altlawforum.org Fri Apr 6 21:56:54 2007 From: lawrence at altlawforum.org (Lawrence Liang) Date: Fri, 06 Apr 2007 21:56:54 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Between Law and Justice - A Reader on Law and Society Message-ID: <461674CE.6060504@altlawforum.org> Hi All Any one who has done research on "Law and Society" in India will know how difficult the terrain can be because of the fact that a lot of the material is scattered in various places (defunct journals, musty libraries). A few of us have started a modest attempt at putting together a database of research on law and society in India. This has primarily entailed photocopying and scanning articles from different sources. We have put together Version 1 of this database "Between Law and Justice: A Law and Society Reader". The database is in the form of a DVD and currently has around 400 articles covering the following issues. 1. Legal histories Colonial Postcolonial 2. Constitutional promises and perils 3. Siting struggles: human rights and social justice 4. Roti, kapadda aur makaan: law, livelihood and development 5. Supreme, yet fallible 6. Crime and punishment 7. Access to justice 8. Citizens/denizens 9. Edge of desire: law, gender and sexuality 10. In a minority 11. Green justice 12. Media law & free speech 13. Governance 14. Life of law amidst globalisation 15. Legal education 16. Interdisciplinary challenges 17. International law For more information on the database please see http://www.altlawforum.org/Resources/law_soc/ For a detailed table of contents please see http://www.altlawforum.org/Resources/law_soc/Table%20of%20contents.pdf If anyone is interested in having a copy of the DVD for private use, for research or educational purposes please write to j.nichani at gmail.com Lawrence From fouadbajwa at gmail.com Fri Apr 6 23:54:12 2007 From: fouadbajwa at gmail.com (Fouad Riaz Bajwa) Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2007 23:24:12 +0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Requesting Open Discussion on "What is an Open Information Society?" Message-ID: <4616906a.736fd0c6.4a04.757e@mx.google.com> Dear Sarai Readers Community, I have always benefited from the open discussions being carried out within the Sarai community. In order to identify key issues related to the successful evolution of an Open Information Society, I would like to request the community to engage with me in an open and general discussion on the topic of "What is an Open Information Society"? This would help me in developing a critical insight into the prospects of an "Emerging Open Information Society in South Asia" that it is based on the combined regional acceptance and experiences of "Openness" and "Inclusiveness". Kindly share your thoughts, point of views, references and quotes within a possible discussion framework of: 1. What is an Open Information Society? Kindly identify a possible working definition? 2. Share your thoughts on the evolution of an Open Information Society? 3. What is required to evolve an Open Information Society? Who are its key stakeholders? 4. What are the pillars of an Open Information Society? Identify the significance of each pillar within the overall OIS infrastructure? 5. What are the key features of an Open Information Society, how can we establish indicators to measure the existence and impact of OIS? 6. What is the future of Open Information Society in South Asia? 7. What is required to initiate, manage and sustain participation of stakeholders within the OIS process? 8. How can regional Open Information Society's be developed and composed into a South Asian OIS? 9. How will a regional OIS affect the overall global Information Society from the developing world? 10. Kindly share any general or independent thoughts on the subject. * This is an open and public discussion, all inputs will always remain open and available for everyone to benefit within the public domain. Best Regards ----------------------- Fouad Riaz Bajwa Independent Writer and Researcher Member BytesForAll Network FOSS Advocate International Free and Open Source Software Foundation iFOSSF Website: www.ifossf.org From sayandebmukherjee at yahoo.co.in Sat Apr 7 13:07:23 2007 From: sayandebmukherjee at yahoo.co.in (sayandeb mukherjee) Date: Sat, 7 Apr 2007 08:37:23 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] corridors.. the new pathway/2nd posting Message-ID: <432598.11268.qm@web7714.mail.in.yahoo.com> the second posting is a continuation of the topic - evolution of urban spaces which falls under the heading - THE MAINFRAME. in INTERFACE, this time i have posted one personal experience which may appear refractory to the ruunning project. THE MAINFRAME the evolution of urban spaces..(contd) ...these havelis, palaces, kuthris or mansions were a far cry from the present day houses, even considering the basic lay out. Modern day pillar based consrtuction was not followed in early days. Probably from the early Helenic civilization 'four wall' construction came into vogue and continued till the 19th century. In these type of houses, primarily the four walls used to be constructed and they used to support the beams which were necessary for laying clay-tiles prior to the construction of concrete-roof to keep provision of making another floor. but this structural-technique could not provide any guarantee for further projection in the z-axis, i.e. high-rises. So mostly the space-occupation and expansions will be in a horizontal basis. In the main premises of these old constructions, one can therefore find a row of rooms which were mostly living-cum-bed rooms that respectively belonged to individual subsets in a super-set of a giant family. For this row of so called living-cum-bed rooms, a common space used to run throughout, consequently emerging a vestibular space or a corridor-like-space. These spaces are markedly different from that of present day in terms of structure, utility and characterestics (that would be discussed later). The space was extremely functional used extensively during celebrations, rituals, religious occasions and family get-togethers. There used to be a guest/visitors' room (called 'the baithak' in major portions of early India) which were constructed at a distance from these row of living-cum-bed rooms. This isolation was probably a reflection of the then conservative social structure where a kind of privacy for the women of the household was maintained. One essential feature that deserve mention was the separation of the kitchen, wash area and a store-room. They also used to exist at a distance from the main premises. The entire domestic space were used to be territorized by a boundary or a fence and within this, apart from the mentioned living spaces there were a huge amount of open spaces which are nowadays translated as residual spaces ( will be discussed later ) in front and behind the main building. The large main gateway of these mansions, with a smaller doorway cut into it, led into an interior courteyard ( called 'the mardana' for havelis of Rajasthan ). This was a space that interfaced to the visitors' room and was where men of the household spent much of their day. Beyond this frontal courteyard, sometimes at the rear portion of the living rooms, was the inner courteyard ( called 'the zenana or the 'uthan' ) where women of the household had their privatized access. Depending on the landlord/merhant's wealth there might exist additional courteyards. In few cases, although rare, these so-called residual spaces also included certain barren land kept unutilized uncared and hence used to get exposed to resurgence of nature or bio-degradation. This concept of distantiated kitchen, wash area and store room and the multiple existence of courteyards has become non-existent today for it appears quite irrational/impractical when one considers the space-crises of today's world. With the changing world order these havelis, palaces, kuthris ceased to exist. Nuclear families gradually emerged, as it started disintegrating from the big core family. Also with the establishment of the British Raj in the early to mid-19th century, trade shifted to the coastal ports of Bombay, Calcutta and Madras. That was the time when the merchants/traders majorly drifted to these port cities leaving their hometowns.... (continued) THE INTERFACE The followed text is a personal experience of Sanhita who resides in Mysore. She shares early childhood memories when intersected by the corridor-like-spaces. ... That idea/ image is brilliant that you do not have to worry about your child, that the child would discover its “girlhood” in the corridor; did that mean that the corridor is safe enough for any girl child rather than the “road” where she had to play with her tricycle if there was no corridor?....I have a doubt...a corridor also can be a place to worry...of course for the “girl” child. Anything can happen; anything can come out of a shadowy corner of a corridor. I might be acting like a pessimist; but can not help it. I can share one experience of mine. At our old home there was a long corridor; L- shaped; the long hand of the L was the veranda in front of our room and our jethu’s room; and the short hand, a little shadowy leads to my another uncle’s room; I had a habit of running through the corridor in my childhood; used to run to cross the darken corridor hurriedly; and my big brother used to hide behind the shadow at the beginning of the short hand of the L to frighten me; he used to wear a mask and a long black robe used to hang from his shoulder just as it hanged from Count Dracula’s shoulders; and imagine a little girl, running to shorten the duration of the darkness and confronting the thing which she wanted to avoid so much; but it helped me in a positive way you know!! By confronting this same FEAR every single time I at last succeeded to overcome it; and still now I thank to my brother for this. But I do not know whether every girl child is this much lucky; most of the time some real Count Dracula waits for them. Apart from this, I did not have any experience of corridor(ing!) before I came here; and for the first one or two months I had a difficulty to SHARE myself with others in the corridor; a ventilator is there above every door of the hostel which opens in the corridor; in spite of all my efforts, I could not keep my habit of smoking private any more; its not the question of hiding or anything like that; it was the question of privacy which was hampered; every time I light a cig I used to hear a voice telling “ who is smoking in this lobby?”; and it continued till I “declared” it!! I do not think that we share the corridor; at least not I; even I don’t want to; it the CORRIDOR which shares us. Oh! This is very true; that we “judge” the urbanity with this; after coming here, many a times I told others that Mysore is not a city at all; it does not have a high rise!! THE DATABASE I have gone through the site below sent by Debkamal Ganguly and have found certain rich and relevant references which I would like to share with you all. http://foucault.info/documents/heteroTopia/foucault.heteroTopia.en.html pls visit this site and suggest me whether these newly evolved corridor-like intermediatory spaces falls into the category of HETEROTOPIA. anticipating suggestions and your kind responses sayandeb mukherjee __________________________________________________________ Yahoo! India Answers: Share what you know. Learn something new http://in.answers.yahoo.com/ From abasole at gmail.com Fri Apr 6 18:08:07 2007 From: abasole at gmail.com (Amit Basole) Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2007 08:38:07 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Announcing a Unique Global Peace Congress Message-ID: <8e2bace60704060538y2fba0384o5b2bafffd40c5a49@mail.gmail.com> Dear all Some of us are involved in organizing this Congress (see notice below) that might be of interest to participants of the Sarai list. Thank you, Amit * ***ANNOUNCING A GLOBAL PEACE CONGRESS LIKE NO OTHER**** * Congress of Planetary Initiatives* * Marriot University Park Hotel,** **Salt Lake City** , Utah, USA** * * August 24-26 2007* * www.congress2007.net* The * Purpose* of this unique *Global Gathering* is to foster serious and immediate *Dialog*, in the hope of maintaining it on a continuing basis thereafter, between all the extant *Paradigms/ World-Views/ Interests / Ideologies* that have divided the Human World into disparate, and often feuding, Sectarian Groupings. The Dialog will be, thereby, between the varied Polarities instituted by Geography, Gender, Ideology, Ethnicity, Language, Philosophy, Religion, Culture, and Politics ( e.g. East-West, Men-Women, Tradition-Modernity, Conservative-Radical, North-South, etc.). The * Object* is to locate all possible *Areas of Agreement* that can serve to foster a World-Wide Affiliation of Peoples who can, while maintaining and respecting * Difference*, sincerely find *Common Cause* that will sustain the continued existence of Planetary Life forms under threat today by both Violence and Greed. The Congress will * Adopt appropriate Resolutions*, both collectively and separately, in all spheres, including Plans for instituting Means, Mechanisms, and Modalities to realize them, in a consilient Spirit of Consensus, and establish the basis for future expansion of the Areas of Mutual Agreement in Ideas, Visions, and Possibilities. * CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS* We are currently soliciting * Applications *for *Participants* to enhance the nature of Dialogue at this unique *Global Peace Congress* to be held in * Salt Lake City, Utah from August 24-26, 2007.* We have on board outstanding and distinguished *Panelists*, drawn from all over the world, who will, it is hoped, in a highly * personal, dynamic interactive process* with invited Participants, arrive at *new salves for old global problems*. Whilst *Panelists *will lead discussions, Participants will have a vital role to play as well in debating and challenging Panelists, with *Final Resolutions being a truly Collective Effort* of the gathering as a whole. Full details of the *Program* as well as names of all *Attending Panelists*may be viewed at *www.congress2007.net* ] At this point we are provisioned for * 300 Participants* only, selected from around the world. Applications will be reviewed on a *first come/first processed* basis. The Application form and further details are available on our website. Applicants are asked to indicate their background, their Interest in, and rationale for, participation, and their ability to fund it on their own account. Questions and queries may be addressed to participants2007 at gmail.com . This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for many to be proximate with some amazing people, aside from being able to directly help address major issues confronting the world today. We look forward to your participation in this event. *Congress of Planetary Initiatives * Postal Address: Congress2007, P.O. Box 95184, South Jordan, Utah 84095 Phone: (USA ) 413-665-2463 Email: participants2007 at gmail.com -- Amit Basole Department of Economics Thompson Hall University of Massachusetts Amherst, MA 01003 Phone: 413-665-2463 http://www.people.umass.edu/abasole/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070406/a0351c9f/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From ayushdelhi at yahoo.co.uk Fri Apr 6 11:44:38 2007 From: ayushdelhi at yahoo.co.uk (ayush) Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2007 06:14:38 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Reader-list] Nizamuddin Basti Faces Massive Demolition on April 10 Message-ID: <206642.4229.qm@web25406.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> An RTI as suggested is worth trying. An RTI has to answered with in 48 - 72 hours if it involves life and liberty of people. I think this a a case for that. Let us contact some one from there and file an application ASAP with next day or so thanks ayush ----- Original Message ---- From: Yousuf To: jaya iyer Cc: sarai list Sent: Friday, 6 April, 2007 9:17:37 AM Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Nizamuddin Basti Faces Massive Demolition on April 10 Dear Jaya I am unfortunately down with viral fever and not in a position to go around. But something certainly needs to be done. You remember the local residents we met during our heritage walk recce in the basti - maybe we could meet them and mobilize something. But I think in this case there are much bigger forces involved - Agha Khan foundation is pumping lots of money to restore and beautify Nizamuddin dargah area. So, there is very little we would be able to do. But we can certainly visit there and talk to the people. I wonder what the sentiments would be today after the Friday prayers. Yousuf jaya iyer wrote: Dear yousuf, this is so absolutely crazy - gets our fears about fears to be true- can we do something who is sudheshna ?, lets file an RTI through the residents on saturday - can be done even in the police station, bulldozers come with police - get some urgent media and some city organsiations - sanjha manch/ ashray adhikar abhiyan etc. for support - do you have details - asap please jaya On 4/5/07, Yousuf wrote: Nizamuddin Basti Faces Massive Demolition on April 10 to Create Vistas to the Dargah As Delhi adorns herself for the appreciative gazes of visitors to the Commonwealth Games in 2010, several habitats and lifeworlds are being destroyed "in public interest" to make way for beautification projects in place of dense, unseemly residential areas. Nizamuddin Basti, the thriving, bustling, colorful settlement with over of 800 years of recorded history of continuous human habitation, is going to come under the developmental bulldozer next week, on April 10 according to residents. The grand urban revitalization vision for this master plan designated heritage zone does not include anything in the foreground of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya's Dargah. The thriving settlement of Nizam Nagar, a neighborhood populated by migrant labor for the last thirty years, will definitely be flattened to create lush landscaped foreground for beholding the monument from all three roads bounding the Basti—Mathura Road, Lodi Road, and Lala Lajpat Rai Marg. The Dargah however had never been a separate piece within the settlement but an integral part of the residents' lifeworlds. The next layer of colorful pucca houses with many floors will also be demolished as they too block the view of the dargah from all three roads. Several shops on Lodi Road have already been sealed. A major part of the open space on Lala Lajpat Rai Road has been walled up and residents said that it will be made into a parking lot for the Dargah tourist coming from that direction. The pucca house owners will receive deals for resettlement while the majority of the migrant settlers along the periphery will be evicted without rehabilitation. No one has any information as to what exactly has been proposed and by whom. There are rumors of MCD and Aga Khan Trust and ASI working together to create a beautiful tourist paradise with paved walking routes, lush landscapes and showcase remnants of the old village and way of life of people. I visited the basti yesterday and felt people's helplessness. I made several phone calls to everyone I knew to find out about the development plan. No one has a clue. Nothing is discussed in the public domain. But how come all the residents knew? MCD has really been smart about this one to avoid undue attention and therefore resistance to the beautification project with Aga Khan Trust's money. I did the only thing I could. I filed a RTI this afternoon with MCD. But as I am not a directly affected party the information will be made available in a month's time, long after the demolitions had taken place. I got the Hope Project, an NGO that works within the Basti, to mobilize the community to exercise their right to information and get it within 48 hours. But community mobilization is easier said than done. Moreover, this is a long weekend. The governmental machinery will be resting. If anyone has any advice on how to put up a resistance to an uncontested beautification scheme for a contested urban space, please email me. Some of us are working on first assessing what exactly will be demolished and what rehabilitation proposals had been made for displaced people to prepare a case for resisting the demolitions and demanding adequate rehabilitation for all displaced people. In addition I would encourage this forum to engage in a much stronger public debate on the future of the city and its quietly outrageous beautification/revitalization/development plans ahead of the Commonwealth Games. -- Sudeshna Chatterjee, PhD New Delhi, India It's here! Your new message! Get new email alerts with the free Yahoo! Toolbar. -- shanti shalom peace .... Looking for earth-friendly autos? Browse Top Cars by "Green Rating" at Yahoo! Autos' Green Center. _________________________________________ 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. To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> ___________________________________________________________ What kind of emailer are you? Find out today - get a free analysis of your email personality. Take the quiz at the Yahoo! Mail Championship. http://uk.rd.yahoo.com/evt=44106/*http://mail.yahoo.net/uk -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070406/f15282d6/attachment.html From billy0602 at yahoo.com Fri Apr 6 18:08:17 2007 From: billy0602 at yahoo.com (kj) Date: 06 Apr 2007 05:38:17 -0700 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] [infosouth] Announcement - Summer Workshop in Filmmaking Message-ID: <408215.3115.qm@web55602.mail.re4.yahoo.com> ----- Forwarded Message ---- Dear friends Our annual summer workshop in film-making is starting soon. Its chiefly for people who have little or no prior experience in this field; and will be held in Delhi beginning late May. Some details are below. Please forward this mail to people who may be interested in enrolling, and to suitable e-lists. Interested people may CONTACT us at < impulsemail (AT) gmail.com > for more information. Best Regards, Srishti Lakhera (Workshop co-ordinator) Kavita Joshi (Workshop Director) - ------ANNOUNCEMENT------ SUMMER WORKSHOP IN FILMMAKING 2007 Course starts late May 2007. Registration opens 1st 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 . Or - are doing a media / communication course which doesn't have enough video training. . Or simply want a creative new activity. Age is not a restriction. We're open to anyone 18 upwards. No prior experience in this field needed. PARTICIPANTS GET TO: . Learn to make your own films - Shoot. Edit. Script. Go for Field Trips, and more. . Watch films from all over the world and get to read film books . Use the latest digital equipment LOGISTICS: . Starts late May 2007. Held in (south) Delhi . Its in 2 parts: duration: 4 Weeks + 4 Weeks (full days) . Small group of 18 people (max). Please note that this is a paid workshop. CONDUCTED BY: The workshop is principally conducted by Kavita Joshi, an independent filmmaker based in Delhi. She has been designing and conducting workshops since 2001. To know more about her films and work, please visit: http://kavitajoshi.blogspot.com Read about past workshops here: http://groups.google.com/group/impulseworkshops/web/all-workshops-so-far Visit the e-group for the summer workshops here: http://groups.google.com/group/impulseworkshops EMAIL US HERE FOR FULL DETAILS: < impulsemail (AT) gmail.com >. ***** ____________________________________________________________________________________ Now that's room service! Choose from over 150,000 hotels in 45,000 destinations on Yahoo! Travel to find your fit. http://farechase.yahoo.com/promo-generic-14795097 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070406/848a6eec/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From ratishn at gmail.com Sat Apr 7 07:48:40 2007 From: ratishn at gmail.com (Ratish Nanda) Date: Sat, 7 Apr 2007 07:48:40 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Nizamuddin Basti Message-ID: Dear Dr Sudeshna Chatterjee I write in response to your e mail - which I have been forwarded on another chat group so I suppose it has been forwarded to thousands by the time this gets back to you. I write as one of the consultants to the Aga Khan Trust for Culture on a potential project. I read your e mail with great alarm until I realised you might be writing in response to rumours about what we are hoping to achieve in Nizamuddin together with the MCD. I cannot imagine how you got the impression that anyone was going to be moved? The proposal does not envisage even a single house to be demolished. I wish you had re-confirmed your facts with someone before shooting off an alarmist e mail. In the Nizamuddin Bastri - all components of the project are aimed at focussing on make the monuments - Chaunasth Khambha, Baoli, Atgah Khan's Tomb more integral to the Basti. The programme there envisages upgrading the health, education failities of the MCD; provide micro-finance and training for jobs etc etc. I am presently away from the country but am to return to Delhi in mid May when I shall happily be able to brief you in more detail on the proposal - which it is - only a proposal as we are hopoing to work in the larger area - encompassing Humayun's Tomb etc - with various government agencies and are yet to reach an agreement. We have earlier worked on the Humayun's Tomb garden restoration, which I was responsibl;e for on behaldf of the Trust and I have been here in Kabul for four years to do something very similar to what we propose in Nizamuddin. If you had looked at our website - www.akdn.org or visited our offices on Bhagwan Das Road prior to shooting off the e mail - you would have realised for yourself that vested interests are spreading rumours that will probably ensure nothing ever happens in Nizamuddin and people continue to live in deplorable conditions without access to basic services. May I now request you to kindly help quelling rumours and I assure you that you will not have to mount a 'resistance' ; maybe you could use resistance to save the 800 year old, yet unprotected, Lal Mahal in Nizamuddin to be demolished by developers - if it has not already been! Thanks for your concern. Warm regards Ratish -- Ratish Nanda -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070407/3ed30485/attachment.html From junglejaya at gmail.com Fri Apr 6 23:26:35 2007 From: junglejaya at gmail.com (jaya iyer) Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2007 23:26:35 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Nizamuddin Basti Faces Massive Demolition onApril 10 In-Reply-To: <00e301c77856$7565e0c0$0201a8c0@IBM61525879EE4> References: <194284.26796.qm@web51406.mail.re2.yahoo.com> <00e301c77856$7565e0c0$0201a8c0@IBM61525879EE4> Message-ID: <1c53f7ad0704061056t3902cc08jce5ffa928d7fb216@mail.gmail.com> Dear sudeshna/ yousuf and friends , can i call you tomorrrow for more details, will try to be there or else atleast touch base - am sure we can atleast start something moving- my numbers are- 2652 0750/ 2651 9432 ayush has been filing RTIs left right and centre - and thanks tara for the optimism - jai ho sana is a lawyer -so may be she can help us, but lets get the facts- yes yousuf - these are big forces but what the hell *&^%$***#@!?^* aga khan hai - chegez khan to nahin upar se woh bhi nahin uska ek foundation ... with love jaya On 4/6/07, Taraprakash wrote: > > I hope, rather believe, that these are just rumors and nothing is going > to happen to that basti. > ----- Original Message ----- > > *From:* Yousuf > *To:* jaya iyer > *Cc:* sarai list > *Sent:* Thursday, April 05, 2007 11:47 PM > *Subject:* Re: [Reader-list] Nizamuddin Basti Faces Massive Demolition > onApril 10 > > > Dear Jaya I am unfortunately down with viral fever and not in a position > to go around. But something certainly needs to be done. You remember the > local residents we met during our heritage walk recce in the basti - maybe > we could meet them and mobilize something. But I think in this case there > are much bigger forces involved - Agha Khan foundation is pumping lots of > money to restore and beautify Nizamuddin dargah area. So, there is very > little we would be able to do. But we can certainly visit there and talk to > the people. I wonder what the sentiments would be today after the Friday > prayers. Yousuf > > *jaya iyer * wrote: > > Dear yousuf, this is so absolutely crazy - gets our fears about fears to > be true- can we do something who is sudheshna ?, lets file an RTI through > the residents on saturday - can be done even in the police station, > bulldozers come with police - get some urgent media and some city > organsiations - sanjha manch/ ashray adhikar abhiyan etc. for support - do > you have details - asap please jaya > On 4/5/07, Yousuf wrote: > > > > *Nizamuddin Basti Faces Massive Demolition on April 10 to Create Vistas > > to the Dargah* ** As Delhi adorns herself for the appreciative gazes of > > visitors to the Commonwealth Games in 2010, several habitats and lifeworlds > > are being destroyed "in public interest" to make way for beautification > > projects in place of dense, unseemly residential areas. Nizamuddin > > Basti, the thriving, bustling, colorful settlement with over of 800 years of > > recorded history of continuous human habitation, is going to come under the > > developmental bulldozer next week, on April 10 according to residents. The > > grand urban revitalization vision for this master plan designated heritage > > zone does not include anything in the foreground of Hazrat Nizamuddin > > Auliya's Dargah. The thriving settlement of Nizam Nagar, a > > neighborhood populated by migrant labor for the last thirty years, will > > definitely be flattened to create lush landscaped foreground for beholding > > the monument from all three roads bounding the Basti—Mathura Road, Lodi > > Road, and Lala Lajpat Rai Marg. The Dargah however had never been a separate > > piece within the settlement but an integral part of the residents' > > lifeworlds. The next layer of colorful pucca houses with many floors will > > also be demolished as they too block the view of the dargah from all three > > roads. Several shops on Lodi Road have already been sealed. A major part of > > the open space on Lala Lajpat Rai Road has been walled up and residents said > > that it will be made into a parking lot for the Dargah tourist coming from > > that direction. The pucca house owners will receive deals for > > resettlement while the majority of the migrant settlers along the periphery > > will be evicted without rehabilitation. No one has any information as to > > what exactly has been proposed and by whom. There are rumors of MCD and Aga > > Khan Trust and ASI working together to create a beautiful tourist paradise > > with paved walking routes, lush landscapes and showcase remnants of the old > > village and way of life of people. I visited the basti yesterday and > > felt people's helplessness. I made several phone calls to everyone I knew to > > find out about the development plan. No one has a clue. Nothing is discussed > > in the public domain. But how come all the residents knew? MCD has really > > been smart about this one to avoid undue attention and therefore resistance > > to the beautification project with Aga Khan Trust's money. I did the only > > thing I could. I filed a RTI this afternoon with MCD. But as I am not a > > directly affected party the information will be made available in a month's > > time, long after the demolitions had taken place. I got the Hope Project, an > > NGO that works within the Basti, to mobilize the community to exercise their > > right to information and get it within 48 hours. But community mobilization > > is easier said than done. Moreover, this is a long weekend. The governmental > > machinery will be resting. If anyone has any advice on how to put up a > > resistance to an uncontested beautification scheme for a contested urban > > space, please email me. Some of us are working on first assessing what > > exactly will be demolished and what rehabilitation proposals had been made > > for displaced people to prepare a case for resisting the demolitions and > > demanding adequate rehabilitation for all displaced people. In addition I > > would encourage this forum to engage in a much stronger public debate on the > > future of the city and its quietly outrageous > > beautification/revitalization/development plans ahead of the Commonwealth > > Games. > > > > -- > > Sudeshna Chatterjee, PhD > > New Delhi, India > > ------------------------------ > > It's here! Your new message! > > Get new email alerts > > with > > the free Yahoo! Toolbar. > > > > > -- > shanti shalom peace .... > > > ------------------------------ > Looking for earth-friendly autos? > Browse Top Cars by "Green Rating"at Yahoo! Autos' Green Center. > > ------------------------------ > > _________________________________________ > 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. > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> > > -- shanti shalom peace .... -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070406/fd0c6626/attachment.html From taraprakash at gmail.com Fri Apr 6 19:48:28 2007 From: taraprakash at gmail.com (Taraprakash) Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2007 10:18:28 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] Nizamuddin Basti Faces Massive Demolition onApril 10 References: <194284.26796.qm@web51406.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <00e301c77856$7565e0c0$0201a8c0@IBM61525879EE4> I hope, rather believe, that these are just rumors and nothing is going to happen to that basti. ----- Original Message ----- From: Yousuf To: jaya iyer Cc: sarai list Sent: Thursday, April 05, 2007 11:47 PM Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Nizamuddin Basti Faces Massive Demolition onApril 10 Dear Jaya I am unfortunately down with viral fever and not in a position to go around. But something certainly needs to be done. You remember the local residents we met during our heritage walk recce in the basti - maybe we could meet them and mobilize something. But I think in this case there are much bigger forces involved - Agha Khan foundation is pumping lots of money to restore and beautify Nizamuddin dargah area. So, there is very little we would be able to do. But we can certainly visit there and talk to the people. I wonder what the sentiments would be today after the Friday prayers. Yousuf jaya iyer wrote: Dear yousuf, this is so absolutely crazy - gets our fears about fears to be true- can we do something who is sudheshna ?, lets file an RTI through the residents on saturday - can be done even in the police station, bulldozers come with police - get some urgent media and some city organsiations - sanjha manch/ ashray adhikar abhiyan etc. for support - do you have details - asap please jaya On 4/5/07, Yousuf wrote: Nizamuddin Basti Faces Massive Demolition on April 10 to Create Vistas to the Dargah As Delhi adorns herself for the appreciative gazes of visitors to the Commonwealth Games in 2010, several habitats and lifeworlds are being destroyed "in public interest" to make way for beautification projects in place of dense, unseemly residential areas. Nizamuddin Basti, the thriving, bustling, colorful settlement with over of 800 years of recorded history of continuous human habitation, is going to come under the developmental bulldozer next week, on April 10 according to residents. The grand urban revitalization vision for this master plan designated heritage zone does not include anything in the foreground of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya's Dargah. The thriving settlement of Nizam Nagar, a neighborhood populated by migrant labor for the last thirty years, will definitely be flattened to create lush landscaped foreground for beholding the monument from all three roads bounding the Basti-Mathura Road, Lodi Road, and Lala Lajpat Rai Marg. The Dargah however had never been a separate piece within the settlement but an integral part of the residents' lifeworlds. The next layer of colorful pucca houses with many floors will also be demolished as they too block the view of the dargah from all three roads. Several shops on Lodi Road have already been sealed. A major part of the open space on Lala Lajpat Rai Road has been walled up and residents said that it will be made into a parking lot for the Dargah tourist coming from that direction. The pucca house owners will receive deals for resettlement while the majority of the migrant settlers along the periphery will be evicted without rehabilitation. No one has any information as to what exactly has been proposed and by whom. There are rumors of MCD and Aga Khan Trust and ASI working together to create a beautiful tourist paradise with paved walking routes, lush landscapes and showcase remnants of the old village and way of life of people. I visited the basti yesterday and felt people's helplessness. I made several phone calls to everyone I knew to find out about the development plan. No one has a clue. Nothing is discussed in the public domain. But how come all the residents knew? MCD has really been smart about this one to avoid undue attention and therefore resistance to the beautification project with Aga Khan Trust's money. I did the only thing I could. I filed a RTI this afternoon with MCD. But as I am not a directly affected party the information will be made available in a month's time, long after the demolitions had taken place. I got the Hope Project, an NGO that works within the Basti, to mobilize the community to exercise their right to information and get it within 48 hours. But community mobilization is easier said than done. Moreover, this is a long weekend. The governmental machinery will be resting. If anyone has any advice on how to put up a resistance to an uncontested beautification scheme for a contested urban space, please email me. Some of us are working on first assessing what exactly will be demolished and what rehabilitation proposals had been made for displaced people to prepare a case for resisting the demolitions and demanding adequate rehabilitation for all displaced people. In addition I would encourage this forum to engage in a much stronger public debate on the future of the city and its quietly outrageous beautification/revitalization/development plans ahead of the Commonwealth Games. -- Sudeshna Chatterjee, PhD New Delhi, India -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It's here! Your new message! Get new email alerts with the free Yahoo! Toolbar. -- shanti shalom peace .... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Looking for earth-friendly autos? Browse Top Cars by "Green Rating" at Yahoo! Autos' Green Center. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _________________________________________ 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. To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070406/1d33ee17/attachment.html From ysaeed7 at yahoo.com Sat Apr 7 10:19:52 2007 From: ysaeed7 at yahoo.com (Yousuf) Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2007 21:49:52 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Who is a Bairagi? In-Reply-To: <9c06aab30704060905s73bb43c8kca2cd7b2e9ec7003@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <462750.69826.qm@web51406.mail.re2.yahoo.com> I don't know who decided that which of these were sub-caste and sub-sub-caste, but certainly all these names refer to professions. The best description of these names you can find in the multi-volume work called "The People of India" edited by K.S.Singh, where you can find that each of these "castes" still have their own panchayats and sarpanchs in every city and village. It is a very interesting reference point to study the historical context of where these terms come from. Yousuf Shivam Vij wrote: And who is a Chak? I know Dhobi, but who is a Ghosi? I can perhaps understand Teli, but who is a Teli-Malik? Perhaps I can understand Luhar, but who is a Saifi? Who is a Kalwar and who is a Khatgune? Bhatiara and Idrishi, Merasi and Ramgarhia, Patwa and Prade - who on earth are these people? Have I met them? Have you met them? Does anyone know what these names mean? Concentrated in ghettos or man on the street? Are they castes or sub-castes, are they 'communities' or 'classes'? Are they 'powerful' or 'powerless', do they like being called not just backward but other backward classes? Other, as in the other, which must always be made into a monolith, talked about but not talked to, debated but not understood. And those are just from the national capital: http://ncbc.nic.in/backward-classes/delhi.html We've had such an overdose of three letters - O, B, C - one would have thought we would by now have known the O, B, Cs. TV cameras should by now have entered the houses of the O, B, Cs and asked them, like they do when the man of the house dies, aapko kaisa lag rahan hain? best s -- --------------------------------- Food fight? Enjoy some healthy debate in the Yahoo! Answers Food & Drink Q&A. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070406/604bce25/attachment.html From ysaeed7 at yahoo.com Sat Apr 7 09:31:09 2007 From: ysaeed7 at yahoo.com (Yousuf) Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2007 21:01:09 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Nizamuddin Basti Faces Massive Demolition onApril 10 In-Reply-To: <1c53f7ad0704061056t3902cc08jce5ffa928d7fb216@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <921120.37118.qm@web51404.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Agha Khan, Changez nahin hai, but people say that Agha Khan foundation is a full fledged country without borders. You must look at their site http://www.akdn.org/ Although they are doing some good work too, and appearantly in one news report they said the conservation of Nizamuddin area will not affect the people. And yes, the basti is a kind of place where rumours do more damage than the bulldozers. People are generally paranoid because they have no access to real information. Also, they seldom trust any outsiders - even if you go as their sympathizers. Yousuf jaya iyer wrote: Dear sudeshna/ yousuf and friends , can i call you tomorrrow for more details, will try to be there or else atleast touch base - am sure we can atleast start something moving- my numbers are- 2652 0750/ 2651 9432 ayush has been filing RTIs left right and centre - and thanks tara for the optimism - jai ho sana is a lawyer -so may be she can help us, but lets get the facts- yes yousuf - these are big forces but what the hell *&^%$***#@!?^* aga khan hai - chegez khan to nahin upar se woh bhi nahin uska ek foundation ... with love jaya On 4/6/07, Taraprakash wrote: I hope, rather believe, that these are just rumors and nothing is going to happen to that basti. ----- Original Message ----- From: Yousuf To: jaya iyer Cc: sarai list Sent: Thursday, April 05, 2007 11:47 PM Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Nizamuddin Basti Faces Massive Demolition onApril 10 Dear Jaya I am unfortunately down with viral fever and not in a position to go around. But something certainly needs to be done. You remember the local residents we met during our heritage walk recce in the basti - maybe we could meet them and mobilize something. But I think in this case there are much bigger forces involved - Agha Khan foundation is pumping lots of money to restore and beautify Nizamuddin dargah area. So, there is very little we would be able to do. But we can certainly visit there and talk to the people. I wonder what the sentiments would be today after the Friday prayers. Yousuf jaya iyer wrote: Dear yousuf, this is so absolutely crazy - gets our fears about fears to be true- can we do something who is sudheshna ?, lets file an RTI through the residents on saturday - can be done even in the police station, bulldozers come with police - get some urgent media and some city organsiations - sanjha manch/ ashray adhikar abhiyan etc. for support - do you have details - asap please jaya On 4/5/07, Yousuf wrote: Nizamuddin Basti Faces Massive Demolition on April 10 to Create Vistas to the Dargah As Delhi adorns herself for the appreciative gazes of visitors to the Commonwealth Games in 2010, several habitats and lifeworlds are being destroyed "in public interest" to make way for beautification projects in place of dense, unseemly residential areas. Nizamuddin Basti, the thriving, bustling, colorful settlement with over of 800 years of recorded history of continuous human habitation, is going to come under the developmental bulldozer next week, on April 10 according to residents. The grand urban revitalization vision for this master plan designated heritage zone does not include anything in the foreground of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya's Dargah. The thriving settlement of Nizam Nagar, a neighborhood populated by migrant labor for the last thirty years, will definitely be flattened to create lush landscaped foreground for beholding the monument from all three roads bounding the Basti—Mathura Road, Lodi Road, and Lala Lajpat Rai Marg. The Dargah however had never been a separate piece within the settlement but an integral part of the residents' lifeworlds. The next layer of colorful pucca houses with many floors will also be demolished as they too block the view of the dargah from all three roads. Several shops on Lodi Road have already been sealed. A major part of the open space on Lala Lajpat Rai Road has been walled up and residents said that it will be made into a parking lot for the Dargah tourist coming from that direction. The pucca house owners will receive deals for resettlement while the majority of the migrant settlers along the periphery will be evicted without rehabilitation. No one has any information as to what exactly has been proposed and by whom. There are rumors of MCD and Aga Khan Trust and ASI working together to create a beautiful tourist paradise with paved walking routes, lush landscapes and showcase remnants of the old village and way of life of people. I visited the basti yesterday and felt people's helplessness. I made several phone calls to everyone I knew to find out about the development plan. No one has a clue. Nothing is discussed in the public domain. But how come all the residents knew? MCD has really been smart about this one to avoid undue attention and therefore resistance to the beautification project with Aga Khan Trust's money. I did the only thing I could. I filed a RTI this afternoon with MCD. But as I am not a directly affected party the information will be made available in a month's time, long after the demolitions had taken place. I got the Hope Project, an NGO that works within the Basti, to mobilize the community to exercise their right to information and get it within 48 hours. But community mobilization is easier said than done. Moreover, this is a long weekend. The governmental machinery will be resting. If anyone has any advice on how to put up a resistance to an uncontested beautification scheme for a contested urban space, please email me. Some of us are working on first assessing what exactly will be demolished and what rehabilitation proposals had been made for displaced people to prepare a case for resisting the demolitions and demanding adequate rehabilitation for all displaced people. In addition I would encourage this forum to engage in a much stronger public debate on the future of the city and its quietly outrageous beautification/revitalization/development plans ahead of the Commonwealth Games. -- Sudeshna Chatterjee, PhD New Delhi, India --------------------------------- It's here! Your new message! Get new email alerts with the free Yahoo! Toolbar. -- shanti shalom peace .... --------------------------------- Looking for earth-friendly autos? Browse Top Cars by "Green Rating" at Yahoo! Autos' Green Center. --------------------------------- _________________________________________ 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. To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> -- shanti shalom peace .... --------------------------------- Need Mail bonding? Go to the Yahoo! Mail Q&A for great tips from Yahoo! Answers users. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070406/338c8c36/attachment.html From zainab at mail.xtdnet.nl Sat Apr 7 15:07:17 2007 From: zainab at mail.xtdnet.nl (zainab) Date: Sat, 7 Apr 2007 11:37:17 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] =?utf-8?q?What_if_there_is_no_water=3F?= Message-ID: <83af2dd42f1cf0da849103af91449ff3@mail.xtdnet.nl> I was reading Lisa Peattie’s work on Planning this morning. She says: … every telling represents a way of seeing. We see from where we stand; and why would we look unless we care about how the story comes out? Telling represents a way of seeing; We see from where we stand … I was standing in my window, looking through the grills, squinting as much as my eye could reach. There was a commotion going on. The albino woman from the opposite houses was on the street, shouting loudly, as if making a very clear point, to a main in a safari suit. He could have been a politician or a bureaucrat. The woman was complaining about the lack of water in the street. There were other women standing around her, with their orange and fluorescent yellow and green bhindis. The bhindis were empty. I got scared looking at this, frightened. The sump which stores water and the motor which pumps the water up are located in the storeroom downstairs. I decided that I will lock the storeroom when I leave. PRIVATE PROPERTY - TRESPASSERS NOT ALLOWED Telling represents a way of seeing; We see from where we stand … I was sitting outside Dilli Haat, the crafts bazaar in Delhi. The afternoon was hot and I was tired. The circular seating space outside the Haat is decorated with patches of grass and some trees. There are sprinklers rooted in the ground which then water the grass. It was getting hotter. A boy came from somewhere. He was about 14 or 15. He squatted a bit, then put his mouth close to a sprinkler and turned it on. In about a minute, he quenched his thirst and switched off the sprinkler. Satisfied, he walked along. I was quite amazed to see this. Walking around in Bangalore and exploring people’s access to water, I discovered that the Municipal Corporation of Bangalore (BMP) which has been responsible for providing water to the poor decided that it will no longer pay the Water Board (BWSSB) for supplying water to the public fountains and standpipes. This is now called Non-Revenue Water (NRW). So BWSSB now urges the poor in the slums to take individual water connections and pay according to the meter. Standpipes are being taken off from the slums because we live in an age where ‘UTILITIES MUST ENSURE FULL COST RECOVERY FOR SERVICES’. The stories which my friends and I have collected show that the very category ‘the poor’ is problematic because it does not account for the heterogeneity of incomes and contexts that make up the poor. Some among the poor earn as little as Rs. 1,500 per month and pay a water bill of Rs. 73 (in addition to buying potable water) and this accounts for 4.87% of their monthly incomes. In contrast, I pay about .67% of my present monthly income (and even lesser if I earn more). Telling represents a way of seeing; We see from where we stand … ‘Neeru beka’, Eeshwari said when she came home that day to work. Eeshwari works in my house as a maid. She looked troubled that day, troubled because there was no water. We told her to take water from our house if she needed. Meanwhile, we began worrying at the prospect of water shortage and no water in the sump downstairs. Eeshwari came home as usual next day. ‘Neeru beka’, she said again. We asked her to take water from our house. She happily came over, with her sister-in-law and five empty bhindhis. They filled it to the brim and went off. Meanwhile, we worried at the thought of water shortage. He said to me, “WHAT IF THERE IS NO WATER?” I told him, “I have never thought of a situation when there is no water. I have always had access to water.” BUT THEN, WHAT IF THERE IS NO WATER? From apnawritings at yahoo.co.in Sat Apr 7 20:29:50 2007 From: apnawritings at yahoo.co.in (ARNAB CHATTERJEE) Date: Sat, 7 Apr 2007 15:59:50 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] IFS-2nd Posting BEFORE HISTORY & THEORY : POLITICAL PORNOGRAPHY OF THE PERSON Message-ID: <350844.83387.qm@web8509.mail.in.yahoo.com> Dear List Readers, I've already said my agenda is to resolve the private/public dilemma by introducing the personal as a separatist third not to be subsumed under the private rubric. This specific SARAI project term of mine is organized around how personalist social work vis-à-vis public mediations in the context of Calcutta’s 19th century urban history achieve this aim. For that what I need to do is to historically recover, theoretically establish, culturally debate and politically deploy the personal in order to fix it as a category. And subsequent to my first posting expectations could be rife that I might just begin with the suppressed history of the personal. But in order to be accompanied by the readers in this narrative journey, I’ll take a different route. I’ll start with that part wherefrom I started traveling towards such a thesis. This will be concurrent also with SARAI-CSDS’s archival aim which intends to know—and quite justifiably—the raw materials which went into conceiving the project. But curiously, this proposal had come down to me as a methodological objection and suggestion by one of my very famous teachers. Partha Chatterjee—at least a year ago- had raised an interesting objection to this endeavour; his argument was (synoptically) this, " I agree with the basic thesis of what you are saying but not the way you go about it. It seems you've already made this distinction and then have gone outside to seek support. It is better to show discursively how you've arrived at the distinction and then posit a historical and a theoretical project for the same -that will become more plausible." Now, I disagreed with this to the extent how much of this objection could be generalized. Recall for instance-- there have had been historians and theoreticians of the public/private divide; has it been incumbent upon them to present a narrative of how the dichotomy was real and how they arrived at it? If not then why? One might answer that that is because the public/private divide is real and operative, it is not a matter of simple heuristic construction. Feminists will go further and argue that women live this ( real) divide in their lives and it is also a construction and since the construction is gendered , they need to unpack it. ( They want to have it both ways). But in the same manner it is possible to show that the personal, even though it is mixed up with the private, is delicately real and even in its mistaken contours and make-up, is recognizable. The personal therefore –like statistics is demonstrated by the example of “a bikini: what it shows is suggestive, but what it hides, is vital”. It stands to decry and render redundant a narrative of discovery. ( And after all there are internal realist arguments as well). But to tell you the truth, I could not buy my own argument. My pessimism of the will won. And now—after a year or so--, I’m convinced, it is better to take your audience through your struggle and failings, smelling and hints, and through this detour they come to appreciate your project better than usual. This has now become my standard approach. And I urge you to experiment with this method: show how you teased an idea out of a thought before you go on with your secondary rambling. It was in 1999 when I was asked by Anirban Chattopadhyaya-the edit page editor of Anandabazaar Patrika—to write an article on a bizarre incident which involved the arrest of one Samit Khemka for running a hate site which had heaped severe ‘personal attacks’ on none other than Jyoti Basu—the then chief minister of West Bengal. Subsequent to 15 July, 1999 I pursued this theme for a number of years to come to a significant conclusion : Personal attacks are not always an assault on our privacy; they may be directed to a person—and in this sense –personal but different from an attack on one’s privacy as such. The catch lies in that a semblance is always given as if it is just that.; it is not. But these claims and counter claims gain legibility against a background of more crucial assumptions. The personal has to be purged off in order to emerge in an impersonal, public sphere; instead of personality based politics we need to pursue a principled, issue based politics. Now, having examined these basic premises ( where my inferences are just the reverse) I specifically pick up the question of personal attacks to show that—having settled preliminaries-- it enters a dangerous domain which have been called the ‘politics of dirty hands’, ‘pure politics’, or a kind of political pornography. It brings into visibility more than that is visible; and therefore it is obscene. This is not a matter of justifying invective ridden speech but to show how the personal register runs riot in our everyday life and we are unable often to speak about it. It floods the gates of the private and public and you are kept on as trembling before the real. To simplify and to begin let me refer to a recent interview given by Amit Kumar—the singer who has lost. His interlocutor asked, “what went wrong Amit?” Somewhat ponderously Amit Kumar remarked, “nothing, now I repent, with Music I should have learnt a bit of politics too.” Having had been a victim to attacks and tricks directed against his own person and which has finally won him over to defeat him, Amit repents his ignorance of the techniques to repel them. Alas it is too late. But not for us since we would like to know what is at stake. ( The word real-politick let me tell you is a tabloid rubbish and means nothing.) Amit could have named a few persons. But as I told you giving names to persons or things beyond a threshold is pornography. And this is the reason why Irving Kristol in his REFLECTIONS OF A NEO-CONSERVATIVE called Machiavelli a ‘political pornographer’( the consequences of such a calling I examine in the last part of the text); Derrida called Kant a ‘categorical pornographer’ ( one who had regulated a universal imperative without exceptions—a sadist command as if). I’m sure that such uses would not be addressed and covered by the usual feminist overtures regarding what they understand by pornography, and therefore any complaints ( if any) about my deployment of pornography, as will be understood, would be miserably based on an incompetence to understand the basic categories that are called for. YOUR TEARS ARE NOT POLITICAL, THEY ARE REAL WATER—ADRIENNE REACH ABSTRACT : Previously I’ve charted the personal as an unstable, dangerously indeterminate compared to private or public which are legal-juridical categories and have stable indicators. Here is an instance where a demonstrative proof of this takes place. We know that personal contamination is to be expelled; why? Is it to stabilize behavioral expectations ? How does this take place? Is it at all successful? If not why? This contamination reaches its summit in what has been called personal attacks. The central question in this context is, are personal attacks always an attack upon a person’s privacy? If not then there are grounds to suspect that the personal and the private meet and argue at the site which is also the agency of a person. Secondly, the dangerously indeterminate and unpredictable calculus of a person which plays upon the private and the public through deception, treachery, lies and back stabbing also shows how the person and the personal emerges radically free from the stabilizing constraints of behavioral expectations that emerge out of the generalizing potentials of public or private law: we’ve arrived at the person and his political phenomenology—the way we experience the political: I’ll use a simpler shorthand here—political pornography. How does it implicate the private and the public --now trembling before the personal to generate a conclusion? Below I’ll try to engage with some of these questions. INTRODUCTON By stating the political we stand to approach the question of the personal through the disciplinary deployment of the former. To go on with this I first examine the personally oriented politics as against an impersonal issue based, principled politics followed by that very famous register –and that which is absolutely relevant and rehearsed in eternal negativity -- is the notion of personal attacks condemned in the wake of an impersonal, objective, issue based politics ( the question of civility added to it) which could be found to have been neatly tailored to ground the public or public sphere in terms of public reason and so on. And the temptation is understandable in as much as politics in modernity with its concomitant notion of rights, public opinion and rational will formation imagines to purge the public, in order to refine it only, of all personal investments. Here we have apparently the classical Weberian paradigm to guide us ; further and later it was Habermas who refined these arguments at the level of language by rooting this metaphor in a form of systematically undistorted communicative practice. It is with Habermas that we have the normative turn given to political modernity or in the words of Luhmann what Habermas did was to show that all rational considerations may be shown to have had a normative content. In later chapters I shall show that the undertaking to institute modernity in the colonies exhibit much against their intentions the personal-particular core in the public-universal garb. The present exercise will preface this moment in a significant manner. (I) PERSONAL IN POLITICS : FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF DISCIPLINARY POLITICAL SCIENCE The best description of modernity in terms of politics is available in Max Weber through the paradigmatic ruse of "political activity under Protestantism" (Owen, p.118). With tradition, charisma and affective forms of patrimonial monarchies ( Sultanism for example) receding to the background, what emerged is--to borrow Owen's brilliant capsule, " the impersonal rationalisation of the social organisation [providing] an impetus towards the regulation of all public spheres of life on the basis of formal legal norms" [or "legal rationalism on the basis of a contractarian conception of natural law"], and secondly, "the maximisation of the utility of worldly resources [requiring] the facilitation of rational activity in all the life-spheres which entails a conception of the state as providing the conditions of activity but not interfering in this activity" [ or "liberalism"] . The maintenance of this regime is ensured by a strict separation of the public and private spheres where personal is an obvious symmetry of the private. Even public communicative reason is made up by, theoretically viewed, private persons transcending personal considerations. Now, shifting the burden of this tangle to the domain of discussion, we see how persuasion or political rhetoric is encouraged to become --in this discourse --ostensibly--shorn of all personal benefits and burden, personal mention and personal attacks through our advocacy of principled politics 1.1 PERSONALITY BASED POLITICS VS. PRINCIPLED POLITICS: A HISTORIC-THEORETIC VIEW Before we start to address principled politics, let us try to inquire what do we mean by ‘principles’. A strong and interesting formulation is found in Kant where principles are outlined as ‘the subjective formal condition of judgement in general’ meaning “the laws by which judgement judges itself” and which “ become principles through which it” [i.e. judgement] “discriminates between the conflicting claims of history.” To reckon with this legal metaphor is to consent to Kant seeking “the discovery of a principle through an analysis of the tradition of judgements and the constitution of a system of judgements from a principle” In short, if we adopt Kant for the moment, a principle is that which enables us to judge a judgment and by which the judgment judges itself. Taking cue from this, it may wisely be argued that a principled politics is that kind of politics which denies to compromise or undermine its founding principles which is evidently not compatible with the culture of reaching compromises—thus is absolutely not in harmony with what we call democracy. It may further be argued that an issue based principled politics would be that which considers political wants according to universalizable or widely shared ultimate considerations which - in turn, would cater to public interest rather than personal interests. This would require making large assumptions rather than local or individual ones which in some sense is comical because moral principles in contrast to ethical ones emerge not from individual standpoints and are urged to be universalized. Ethical standpoints suit them to particular life projects but are also susceptible to pragmatic questions. The classic discussion opposed to this speaks about something called mediate political principles which are open and subject to personal adoption and rejection, i.e. they have the capacity of becoming my principles or your principles. (However, principle based politics in a capitalist political culture is but expected to serve in reality privately oriented wants rather than publicly oriented wants— not withstanding the fact that the private individuals are still within the formation of the public. ) But consider this final argument which says that it would not be unjust to ask somebody his political principles. Because “ To ask of someone, ‘‘What are his political principles?” is not to ask for the irreducible, ultimate considerations that weigh with him; but to ask for indications of the line he would take on any of a great number of possible issues. A difference in political principles between two people will normally be open to further argument since each will be willing to justify his political principles in terms of more general considerations. In particular, a difference in political principles may stem from differing estimates of the effects that policies ( nationalization, neutrality) or elements in states of affairs ( inflation, independence of trade unions) would have.” Therefore as a starter it may be judged that principles can be adopted personally and politically can be productive when asked or examined. Therefore the binary that charts principled politics vs. personal interest based politics is rendered empty. And even from within the realm of our political culture, Gandhi, believing in the force of the exemplary would choose to go without principles. --That we shall know does not undermine but transcends principled politics in unforeseen ways. 1.2 ISSUES AS STATES OF AFFAIRS: A PERFORMATIVE VIEW. Having clarified so called ‘principle based politics’, we may now legitimately ask, what are issues? “Issues can be understood as states of affairs where persons are not used as means.” Where persons are a means to promote states of affairs there it can be observed that “promoting one state of affairs for the sake of another, where the second state of affairs is a special one, it importantly involves the person in some way and the value of a person intrinsically involves states of affairs”. But the performativity of this construct would not be as simple as this. It has also to be examined why particular issues have been more useful in personality based representative politics than others. No person can be fully informed and no one can fully inform as well, we lack an absolute informant and therefore s/he would lack the ideal authoritative and normative force of the hypothetical orator who internalizes issues and draws neutrality from the depths of within. This begs the question: would s/he be neutral towards issues also? What would it mean to be personally oriented towards issues or impersonally oriented? To be impersonally oriented towards issues would be to step back from the point of view we occupy as persons and critically reflect upon them (“ reflect on lives and our selves”). But “our attempts to design vantage points outside of us spring from our distinctive capacity as persons for self-reflection and from a desire to move beyond the limitations that come with occupying a particular point of view.” In this sense it could equally be argued that the impersonal is perhaps the second personal of the first person. And with such a self distancing self interest is best pursued. Briefly put, remember that the philosophy of language debates on sense and reference raised the question: do I refer to myself when I sign? Likewise, is it possible for me to go against myself? “We can neither be laid low by our own cutting remarks about ourselves nor be buoyed by the thought that at least we care for ourselves.” Darwall makes the point that one can adopt an impersonal concern to promote one’s own self interest. Self interest maximization is not possible when one is so passionately engaged with one’s own self without a distance that it results in the standpoint being consumed. Therefore the easy dichotomy that posits issues as impersonal concern of the agent and vouches for objectivity as neutrality rarely stands rigorous examination. II 2.1 POLITICAL RHETORIC AND THE PERSONAL : PERSONAL VIRUS AND THE HEALTH OF DIALOGUE IN POLITICS. While inspecting the personal in the discourses of politics, we have addressed ourselves to a personal orientation to politics as against principled politics or issue based, impersonal politics where issues are understood as states of affairs. Subsequent to the completion of examining the objection which prioritizes a principled, “issue based politics” over personal issues and personal attack based politics, we must reckon with the fact that it also invokes and locates the personal at the level of rhetoric and states-- political rhetoric unless healthy and respects the other participant, violates the rules of debate and deliberation. It entails albeit implicitly that democracy being a procedure to peacefully and procedurally disagree, personal attacks imply more than disagreement: by trying to impeach the credibility of a democratic witness, it denigrates democracy itself, because what is democracy if not its culture! Let us see whether this argument stands the test of scrutiny. Also note we are entering, discretely though, the slippery terrain of personal attacks and politics. 2.2 DISAGREEMENT ( DEMOCRACY) AND THE QUESTION OF CULTURE. The question could be rephrased thus: -- in a democracy which intends to be— “ deliberative” in nature i.e. wants to see the major issues that have consequences for the public settled by free and rational deliberation of all concerned, could political invectives at all be productive? This is the question. Let us try in brief to examine the theoretical problems involved. The claim is of course made firstly (and perhaps lastly) from the stand point of civility. And a certain reference to the norms of deliberation in a ripening, “developing” democracy is often made too. But is it possible to sustain such a claim? For this it will suffice to review the position espoused by Gary Shiffman where he forcefully argues and with much justification that consensus seeking and civility in constitutional debate cannot be obtained at the same time. He concludes that “would be-arbiters of public deliberation like Rawls, who simultaneously insist on consensus seeking and civility in constitutional debate, cannot have it both ways. They can-—and should—endorse a norm of consensus to govern constitutional deliberation, but must also not insist that such deliberations be conducted according to norms of civility. Serious public debate of constitutional questions necessarily runs the risk of rhetorical vehemence, of mutual castigation by adversaries. Demanding pursuit of consensus while hewing to civil comportment amounts to insisting on two incompatible norms at once, consensus and dissensus.” And now perhaps we are convinced about the legitimacy of the formulation for nation states with colonial histories-- that civility is the stuff of modernity; disagreement is the stuff of democracy. Given the hiatus and the bastardization of apposite growth of these two entities historically noticeable in postcolonial societies like India, they are not compatible in a foundational sense. Therefore for an Indian case the argument for the difference between modernity and democracy is made at another remove. Here both modernity and democracy are imputed unlike the west European cases. ( Or is it possible to read so much against the grain that democracy can be shown to have been imputed even in the classical modular formations?) However, all along, the colonizing logic or ruse of colonial governance was to bring the native to some kind of deliberative and decisive competence for self ownership. Here therefore the deliberative competence that is often asked for is seen with some justifiable and historically evolved suspicion. This is not unfounded.. The communicative competence to insert civility into political questions would have to undergo perhaps for always a hermeneutics of suspicion. This historically correct caveat would precede any requirement for an impersonal civility to be instituted through impersonation and smuggled to the domain of democracy. That is again enough to give debates particularly among political executives in the Indian democracy on constitutional questions a specific and undecidable turn eternally subject to the contingencies of local party politics and the decisive imagination of professional politicians; same applies for complaints against misbehavior. Incivility can then feature only as a political question and as a kind of original contamination felt by constitutional questions. Byaktigat or personal inscribed within the norms of bhodrotabidhi or norms of civility is very differently political here. And this difference can be historically recovered when the moment we push the question of personal attacks to higher degrees: political pornography where the political and the erotic interrupt each other at the moment when power erupts and corrupts even the absolute. 2.4 PERSONAL ATTACKS TO HATE SPEECH : THE EMERGENT TOPOS OF POLITICAL PORNOGRAPHY IN INDIA Or otherwise how do we reckon with the hatching of a political pornography-the theorization of which is derivatively derived from porno-theorists ? ( Sometimes called low life litterateurs of the French Revolution and excavated by Low Literature Historians like Darnton. ) Researches reveal that intense personal-political attacks based on pornographic ‘scatalogical imagery’ in pamphlets performed a historical and revolutionary role against Marie Antoinette during the late eighteenth century; while the Bourbon Kings--Louis XV was dubbed as sexually promiscuous - libertine, pornographic pictures of Louis XVI were circulated among the population showing him as impotent. These, according to an author, went on to “discredit the monarchy as an institution and to desacralize the King’s body...the aristocracy, and clergy.” To instantiate the emergence of political pornography in India, one such essay by the anthropologist Lawrence Cohen titled ‘Holi in Banaras and the Mahaland of Modernity’. could be considered in which Cohen documents an interesting cartoon among numerous others showing a man labeled as the sikhandin janata (meaning eunuch or helpless people) having in his mouth the member of a man with a politician’s congress cap ( labeled as the ‘gandu neta’) while being sodomised by a man standing behind in police uniform (with the label ‘jhandu police’) The circulation of these thin booklets particularly during the immensely popular holi festival in Benaras exhibits its incorporation within the ritual paradigm of festivity and the element of obscenity, -that is well taken. But what is remarkable about these are – the common motif of condemnation where the victim is the member of the ordinary public, and which overrides all party lines. The assaultive speech debate is taken a step further by this. Should usual feminist condemnations and critiques of pornography be applied on these? And could they be successful? I have grave doubts. Well then the way these have been received in the Indian case tersely is hereby available by the well known political commentator A.G. Noorani. “Foul language is the jargon of fascists who detest free debate. ..True enough that sheer abuse or racial or communal libel is not permissible. The true test is whether the speech is a real provocation to violence. The sensitivities of the listeners are relevant only in this context. As the supreme court of India has ruled, it is the duty of the state to uphold the exercise of the right to free speech and to suppress violence intended to stifle it.” But as we have noticed, abuses at times have been deployed as opinion; but even opinions loose their immunity, if we agree with Noorani, when the circumstances in which they are expressed are such as to constitute their expression a positive instigation to some mischievous act or violence. This as we could see – is totally in agreement with the classical liberal formulation of John Stuart Mill; who outlines a grave example. “An opinion that corn-dealers are starvers of the poor, or that private property is robbery, ought to be unmolested when simply circulated through the Press, but may justly incur punishment when delivered orally to an excited mob, assembled before the house of a corn-dealer”. Only sheer propositional, issue based statements are not enough, they should not be delivered before a corn dealers house: i.e. much will depend on the mediation that will render it objective, harmless without a bite. An aesthetics of reception will matter more than its production. There we have the abusive or assaultive paradigm in some other form (excitable speech: to use the proper word). To answer the contemporary as well as the classical tenet of non-violent speech advanced here as permissible, we could take recourse to another thinker when he was commenting on the impossibility of deriving the right to kill the vanquished from the state of war; there he concedes that “Men living in their primitive conditions of independence have no intercourse regular enough to constitute either a state of peace or a state of war; and men are not naturally enemies. It is conflicts over things, not quarrels between (men) which constitute war, and the state of war cannot arise from mere personal relations, but from property relations”. An extension of this Rousseauistic finding will lay to rest any theory formulating violence as aberration or disturbance as ‘injury by design’, since the state of peace can similarly be construed as imputed from the outside, or having been imposed - resembling an aberration. Even this second is also available in Rousseau, “What do people gain if their very conditions of Civil tranquility is one of their hardships? There is peace in dungeons, but is that enough to make dungeons desirable?” From this we could argue that, in the wake of “personal attacks” being understood as a generic speech figure and articulated as disturber of peace, it urges us to look at the varieties of peace available in the political market. III. “PERSONAL ATTACKS” AS ITEMIZED WITHIN A PURE POLITICAL IMAGINARY Let us have a quick recap before we enter armed by political pornography into the domain of pure politics—which is just another name for the same . Having explored the concrete counter discourse whose registers of complaint are--1) personal attacks push out issue based, public interest related impersonal discourse of ‘principled governance’, development and administration. 2) Byaktigat arowp pollutes a democratic political and a growing, albeit good civic culture. It was revealed among other things that in a moribund capitalist political culture the so called impersonal issues are in the end used to serve grand private interests. And philosophically it was shown that an impersonal or critical self distance is best tailored to serve private self interests. Now in such a context where the personal-political subverts and transcends the public-universal garb, it is often that personal attacks try, with or without success to pierce this silencing, civil veil and address the illegitimate. And for the second objection 2) it was easily concluded that the notion of civility in India today is a matter of political sphere and not at all of civil society, therefore an advice of civility has to be politically negotiated than received as ‘unmediated’ discourse on civic virtues. In short, civility and violent disagreement could never go together. How peace and civility could be seen as being complicitious with an “un”fairly ( I’m remembering Rawls here) unjust system was also examined in the wake of the phenomenon of agreement with approved ways of protest. While we do a lot of lip service against violence, let us not forget to examine peace too. This paper in the wake of so called “personal attacks” proposes a theory ( or theories?) of peace while declaring that vulgar, obscene issues at the level of the personal could not be handled by the disciplinary study of political science. It is the stuff of what some folks in the west have thinly called “the politics of dirty hands” and what we call “pure politics”. While the legal juridical discourse and the bureaucratic-administrative apparatus do administer various applied notions of the person, public or private, the political deployments of such categories –that too with the cultural unconscious in action –would be fluid, strategic and success oriented: The question of distant, objective, impersonal reflection on value-neutral questions and disagreement in both politics and culture are always already delivered to be governed by practical political imperatives—at least in India- whether it entails instances of political deliberation or cultural expectancy. (And normative deliberation can be practiced only when it is freed from empirico-practical and practical-political considerations.) Now, to subject everything to the practical and eternally immediate as well as deferred exigencies of party politics, we approach what I’ll call a pure political imaginary of the person: this cannot be restricted to the mere “publicalization” of private problems. ( I use pure in the sense where an object’s form and content cannot be distinguished and imaginary in its now established usage as “not a set of ideas; rather what enables,, through making sense of, the practices of a society” .) Contextually, a political scientist commenting on violence and its relation to Sadat Hasan Manto notes, “Manto’s uniqueness lies in the fact that he refused to accept the parameters of either ethics or economy in talking about the violence of 1947. He had no recourse to a morality that was given to him either by god or by transcendental reason. Nor would he allow himself to be seduced by the economic calculations of governmental violence. For him, the violence of partition called for a response that was, if I may put it this way, an act of pure politics, where morality and economy had to be created all at once, all by oneself, de novo, from the bare elements of human interaction.” This I think is a Machiavellian moment . The moment has approached all politics—slowly but decisively. And to address this question of the Machiavellian moment where the content of the experience and the experience cannot be distinguished, we need a political phenomenology. To exemplify such a phenomenology, to capture this moment and illustrate what is pure politics, here is an example; better said, here is a narrative and a figuration. I quote parts of the news report which appeared in The Statesman on 4 Feb. 2000. “Bhubaneshwar, Feb.3.- Mr Navin Patnaik today expelled BJD political affairs committee chairman, Mr Bijoy Mohapatra from the party. He also snatched Mr Mohapatra’s Assembly nomination and gave the ticket to a local journalist instead. Mr Mohapatra was left too stunned to react. All he could say was he had been back stabbed. BJD leaders and workers were outraged. Mr Patnaik’s completely unexpected move was described state wide as “treacherous”. The move that removed the ground from under Mr Mohapatra’s feet was obviously planned meticulously and timed brilliantly by Mr Patnaik. The rebel leader with whom Mr Patnaik had ostensibly signed a truce, was sacked and debarred from the polls at the eleventh hour .too late for Mr Mohapatra to file papers as an Independent, and the outwitted rebel had no choice but to watch helplessly... No one could read the BJD chief’s mind. Mr Mohapatra had been the party’s key negotiator during the tortuous seat sharing talks with the BJP. He had had a major role in selecting candidates for various seats. Even Congress and BJP circles who consider Mr Mohapatra as the lone political leader of mettle and strategist in the BJP, were taken aback”. With all italics mine, what kind of political science, political sociology would explain this enchantment? All such disciplinary categories as civil society, political society, family and the State just vanish into thin air before this. Because we all have had such moments in our lives but rarely have felt that those narratives would be included in political science textbooks. Those losses were ours and they will remain ours, those secrets will die with us lest mentioning them would amount to “personally attacking” some nice people. ‘Too stunned to react’ is an adequate description because reaction could be a meditation on a prior act. Here is an action without a reaction. In the disciplinary study of politics and criminal offence stabbing being a metonymy of murder and violence has often been mentioned or studied; where do we get to know what is ‘back stabbing’? The third phrase in italics is ‘timed brilliantly.’ What does this mean? Is this football or cricket? It is more dangerous than both. Punctuality is to go according to other’s time. Passive timing. Timing in politics is the dominative monitoring of others according to one’s own time where he himself is the frame of reference. Active timing. I’m waiting for the right moment to teach you a lesson, I know it, you don’t, I’m waiting for you to enter my duration. Here time is a trap and emerging as a “means of orientation” is destructive of other’s time: the space in which the victim thrived and swam along his moments. So I ‘ostensibly sign.. a truce’, give him a show of importance to mislead him and then ‘remove the ground from under’ his ‘feet’. Notice the word truce: a signifier of peace and how it has been deployed. When we were dealing with speech generating violence, this is the point we wanted to argue: let us look at the varieties of peace and how they are being used for what purposes. Truce used to back stab? -Here is the moment. Where do we end then? What is the use of studying this phenomenon called personal attacks? ( Someday with the liberal noose tightening around our necks, we may be able to invent separate names for them.)We shall be stunned when we are cheated, betrayed, fired, suppressed, deprived, raped or murdered. ( and be ‘too stunned to react’) Those are the moments when we shall feel the hand of politics on our back, but nothing will save us, no category; they will be moments of pure experience. The politics of dirty hands will cleanse everything, remaining residually and strictly alive on the borderlines of our everyday being. We might feel exploited but that will remain only as a moral feeling, because the apparatus required to structure the feeling has been slowly but evenly de-contextualised: the state socialist project was criticized as being one of the most ruthless regime of techno-scientific, objective, impersonal, instrumental rationality where human beings without a personal touch were simply lost in loveless ness. The grand narrative of only liberal capitalism ought to be alive; the death of the revolutionary grand narrative thereby has been conveniently announced: fine! The theoretician of pure politics will argue, with the death of grand narratives, let us start talking about each other’s sexual lives then! No? Why? Embarrassed? How? Because to pure politics - the fragment or the micro-local is not a metaphor of place; for him, the fragment is that what you resist from being publicized, that what you want to repress and hide. Then - abandoning grand investigations we need to undertake studies of the micro politics of dirty hands: office politics, the politics within a feminist group, or how does the cunning mediocre rule? How do we read the narrative of manipulation between two singer sisters in the film Saz? Why before a one month ( extendable) contract, all laws of sexual harassment fail? Why nobody in Bollywood talk about the casting couch? “Power thus relies on an obscene supplement – that is to say, the obscene nightly law (superego) necessarily accompanies, as its shadowy double, the ‘public law’. Obscene unwritten rules sustain Power as long as they remain in the shadows; the moment they are publicly recognized, the edifice of Power is thrown into disarray.” Pure politics deals with this obscene underside of public law and for it personal attacks are the primary raw materials. We need to have then narratives of manipulations, machinations, intrigues and malice---more sinister, more ghostly than violence causing speech: here is Kant, “He who openly declares himself an enemy can be relied upon, but the treachery of secret malice, if it became universal, would mean the end of all confidence. This type of wickedness is more detestable than violence;” In this context, it would be interesting to investigate in future the role of excitable speech in legitimate forms of violence including the declaration of war or torture in police custody. Have they been products of violent Speech? And for those idiots who are in the habit of repeating ‘personal is political’ let me remind them we need to repeat it with caution—since I believe - everything that is personal is not always political. A genuinely personal, in the absence of a private language, cannot be communicated. But still this experience could be narrated. And that is the stuff of pure politics. CONCLUSION: If you’ve been this far with me; what does it seem? Now please do not be mistaken about the fact that I’m engaged in that childish tryst to justify the personal through personal attacks. Not really! They can be feigned, they can be staged and they might just be deployed to override the propositional form of public reasoning. It can be used as a convenient form of silencing. My argument is not at all this. I was just trying to show personal attacks did reveal to me the overriding nature of the personal over the public and the private. It helped me arrive at the examination of the public nature of political modernity itself. And the moment I ventured into so called ‘political pornography’ dangerous vistas appeared. How do we conclude then? The personal to impersonal transit in modernity proposed by Weber undergoes an abortion because of an illegitimate marriage between Nietzsche and Machiavelli ? Or to put more sharply, Weber destroyed by Nietzsche? Does the text comment on the theory of modernity which harps again and again on the private/public division wanting to forget that a person and his personal is capable of playing with both? But Weber was not so naïve; in the wake of the scienticization of the public sphere, he did see a withering away of the value- ideals with rational scientific activity failing to fill the lack of what it has destroyed. What Nietzsche showed was that these values, considered genealogically, could be shown to have been inconsistent: altruism for weakness, honeyed words for wickedness. What Machiavelli did was to re-state these facts as values: destroy them who have helped you; wear a mask and people being always impressed by the superficial appearance of things will rarely know what you really are and such others. This was unnecessary since we already live in the world of those facts. People misunderstand Machiavelli by alleging that he had documented anti-values wanting to regulate them as ‘virtues’; but this is mistaken: he was involved in an impossible project where facts and values suffer a reversal. But this is unnecessary and excessive, in brief—giving names to things and persons beyond the empirical threshold and thus pornographic. Irving Kristol sensed it quite well but touched the wrong places when he called him a political pornographer.( And Machiavelli having not had access to our modernity addressed himself to the person of the sovereign— this should be remembered well and all the time. The deeply debated distinction between facticity and validity or between facts and norms was not available to Machiavelli in the contemporary sense. Nevertheless one finds Althusser in his book on Machiavelli rightly celebrating him for reasons that are our own. ) Finally, back to Weber again. While he was charting the disenchantment of the personal world of informal communities in modernity, couldn’t he sense this? He did but he offered no solution. Through the structure of ‘probity’ the person in an act of self-legislation has to choose or abandon value-ideals within a particular ;life-sphere: virtue or sin nothing comes with a guarantee any more; that means---the person will tell Aristotle to end preaching his catalogue of virtues; s/he will tell Machiavelli or De Sade not to display their table of brute “facts” to be adopted as a value-ideal. No general option can be regulated because and this what is interesting in Weber in as much what he tried to show was that modernity has entailed the differentiation of life-spheres into irreconcilable compartments : political, aesthetic, religious, economic etc. Irreconcilable because as Weber and Habermas have reminded us they have their own criteria of validity. But there is a twist here : Weber has an interesting item to add here : the erotic. ( Habermas a list too –science, morality and art but as far as I remember—the erotic is missing and when he addresses Bataille ( in the PHILOSOPHICAL DISCOURSE .) as far as I remember he does not refer to the self criteria of the erotic. Now this is interesting. The erotic is then not reconcilable with the political.( Hannah Arendt and Habermas would insist much against feminist fury that ‘take the private to the public’ for redressal is finally meaningless in the face of their own distinctive validity claims.) what happens to the political pornography, pure politics etc etc. of which I’ve talked a lot? I’ll end today just by posing this question so that I can help bring my own text to a crisis but as a resolution promise how this will be dealt with in the future. It was Gandhi who made an experiment in reconciling the private and the public at the level of the personal ( and not what numerous cultural historians or what Rudolph and Rudolph and Rudolph have claimed that he wanted to make private and public meet—since by their own distinctive validity claims they are irreconcilable). But while doing this we should not be surprised to know why he excelled in the politics of malice, back stabbing and the more conclusive symptom of such an experiment is his engagement with the boundaries of the erotic and the rude confessions of the flesh. Having fully outlined the elements of the discourse of the personal thus, infact this was my route to have arrived at it, we shall begin with the history and theory of the personal vis-à-vis the public and personalist social work in 19th century Calcutta. Thank you. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Parts of this text were used in “‘Personal Attacks”, Assaultive Speech and Indian Politics: Towards a pure political imaginary’” paper read at the Participatory Democracy conference at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi organized by the Centre for studies in Social Systems, JNU on 22 Feb, 04. and ‘From consent to permission: Towards a post -conventional moral semiotics of assaultive intimacy’ –paper read at ‘Reorienting Orientalism’ seminar at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, on 14 August, 2004. __________________________________________________________ Yahoo! India Answers: Share what you know. Learn something new http://in.answers.yahoo.com/ From arshad.mcrc at gmail.com Sun Apr 8 10:38:13 2007 From: arshad.mcrc at gmail.com (arshad amanullah) Date: Sat, 7 Apr 2007 22:08:13 -0700 Subject: [Reader-list] Jan sJunwai on Dalit Atrocities and Corruption Message-ID: <2076f31d0704072208m1f3e508dp1c39cc4d196c8b47@mail.gmail.com> Friends, Numerous cases of atrocities against dalits have surfaced in the past few months across Bhilwara district, Rajasthan. To protest against such growing discrimination and to strengthen the struggle for justice, the Dalit Adivasi Evum Ghumanthu Adhikar Abhiyan, Rajasthan and the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) are organizing a jan sunwai (public hearing) on "Dalit Atyachar Evum Brashtachar (Dalit Atrocities and Corruption)" on the 16th of April 2007, in front of the Bhilwara Collectorate, Bhilwara from 11.a.m onwards. Hundreds of people from Bhilwara and neighbouring districts as well as from all over the country are expected to attend the jan sunwai and speak out against the injustices meted out with them. You are kindly invited to attend the public hearing and express your solidarity. For further details about the programme, please contact Bhanwar Megwanshi, State Convenor, Dalit Adivasi Evum Ghumanthu Adhikar Abhiyan Rajasthan on 9352110451 or 9460325948 or Shankar Singh (MKSS) on 9414003247. Sd/-Shankar Singh (MKSS) Bhanwar Megwanshi (Dalit Adivasi Evum Ghumanthu Adhikar Abhiyan) From smitamitr at gmail.com Sun Apr 8 14:23:27 2007 From: smitamitr at gmail.com (smita mitra) Date: Sun, 8 Apr 2007 14:23:27 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Cinematic City:Kolkata, Modernity, Middle Class, &the Urban Woman-- 1950s &60s Popular Bangla Cinema. Message-ID: Dear All, Thre's been a problem in my server connection. The 2nd posting that i did is not showing the full text. trying to fix the error. will get back to the list asap. Sorry for the inconvenience to all. Smita From jo at turbulence.org Sat Apr 7 23:32:10 2007 From: jo at turbulence.org (Jo) Date: Sat, 7 Apr 2007 14:02:10 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Turbulence Commission: "Ars Virtua Artist-in-Residence (AVAIR): Brad Kligerman" Message-ID: April 7, 2007 Turbulence Commission: "Ars Virtua Artist-in-Residence (AVAIR): Brad Kligerman" Opening on April 20 at midnight (SLT), and April 21 at noon (SLT) http://turbulence.org/AVAIR "AVAIR"--a project of James Morgan, Amy Wilson and Jay van Buren--is an extended performance whose purpose is to investigate the nature of art making in the 3D synthetic environment of Second Life (http://secondlife.com). It is an examination of policy and institution, as well as a reflection on place and art. Artists are given a stipend and technical support. They are expected to have an open studio, produce an exhibition, and make a public presentation. Their methodologies are documented at http://turbulence.org/AVAIR. Orchestrated through the classic structure of the gallery, the performances run at any time of the day or night, and create a platform for exchange between artist and audience. Brad Kligerman, Ars Virtua's (http://arsvirtua.com/) first AIR, is winding down his 11 week tenure. He is fabricating three machines capable of extracting in-world data pertinent to discovering the rules of materiality inherent to Second Life: (1) the Calibration Machine for reading the world; (2) the Analogy Machine for learning about it; and, (3) the Mutation Machine for writing, inventing and transforming it. His exhibition will consist of interactive hyper-spaces made of images, ideograms and holograms. Join us for the opening on April 20 at midnight (SLT), and April 21 at noon (SLT). If you do not have an avatar, go to Second Life (http://secondlife.com/) and register for a free account; download the client and launch it. Teleport to http://slurl.com/secondlife/Dowden/42/60/52 "Ars Virtua Artist-in-Residence (AVAIR)" is a 2007 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. BIOGRAPHY Brad Kligerman is an architect, artist and teacher. Previous projects include the design of astronaut work and habitation spaces that address the body's physical and psychological adaptation to the temporal and spatial environment of low orbit space for the NASA space station, Grumann Corp; and the design of large scale architectural projects, for instance The Bibliotheque de France (Dominique Perrault Architects); and 544 Park Avenue (SOM). Kligerman also produces gallery installations and multi-media projects. For more Turbulence Commissions, 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 manzilechar at yahoo.com Sat Apr 7 20:29:16 2007 From: manzilechar at yahoo.com (tangella Madhavi) Date: Sat, 7 Apr 2007 07:59:16 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Film Workshop at PIFF, Korea Message-ID: <528027.33238.qm@web43132.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Pusan International Film Festival in Korea holds its 3rd Asian Film Academy(AFA2007) this year. We would much appreciate it if you could help us to reach many future filmmakers in your country so that they can enjoy a unique learning experience that AFA offers. AFA is an education program launched 2005 by Pusan International Film Festival(PIFF), Dongseo University and Korean Academy of Film Art(KAFA) to prepare for the future of Asian Cinema. Fellows of AFA will share the vision of Asian cinema with professional filmmakers through its 17 days program. AFA 2007 meets from September 27 to October 13, 2007 and we are inviting applications from young filmmakers and students of cinema from all regions of Asia . We will accept applications till May 31, 2007. We pay for travel, accommodation, meals and tuition. Please refer to AFA's website as below for details of application and AFA programs. Website http://afa.piff.org Or contact Sun Young Park Asian Film Academy Manager Pusan International Film Festival 1-143 Shinmunno 2-Ga, Jongno-Gu, Seoul 110-062, Korea E-mail afa at piff.org Website http://afa.piff.org Tel 82-2-3675-5097 Fax 82-2-3675-5098 --------------------------------- Bored stiff? Loosen up... Download and play hundreds of games for free on Yahoo! Games. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070407/c552e9f7/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From nalaka at tveap.org Sun Apr 8 11:19:37 2007 From: nalaka at tveap.org (Nalaka Gunawardene, TVE Asia Pacific) Date: 07 Apr 2007 22:49:37 -0700 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] [infosouth] Internship to work on Asian Film Professional Database Message-ID: <6.0.0.22.2.20070407184714.01df1628@mail.tveap.org> [Apologies for cross-posting] We are looking for: An Intern to work on Asian Film Professional Database TVE Asia Pacific, www.tveap.org, is developing a Database of Asian Film Professionals with a solid track record and credentials in producing factual TV content (documentary, news and current affairs) on any topic, whether or not related to development. To be placed online by end 2007 for free public access, the database will collate information on TV and video professionals from across Asia. It will cover both developed and developing countries in all sub-regions of the Asia Pacific region: Central Asia, East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia and the South Pacific. Our plan is to list not just directors and producers, but also those skilled in tasks such as editing, sound, lighting, scripting and production management. The idea is to promote the use of competent Asian professionals in regional and international productions made in Asia, minimizing the current reliance on those from outside the region. We are looking for an intern who could work with us on this database for six months, from July to December 2007, at TVEAP head office in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where administrative, programmatic and IT support will be provided. This position is open to any Asian national, or a non-Asian currently living in Asia. For more details, see: http://www.tveap.org/vacancy/TVEAP%20Asian%20Intern.pdf Deadline for applications is 30 April 2007. Thank you for spreading the word! ................................................................... Nalaka Gunawardene Director and CEO Television for Education - Asia Pacific (TVE Asia Pacific) 9/3, Gemunu Mawatha, Nawala Road, Nugegoda, Sri Lanka. Phone: +94 11 4412 195; Fax: +94 11 4403 443 Email: nalaka at tveap.org www.tveap.org | www.digits4change.net | www.childrenoftsunami.info | www.savingtheplanet.tv Blog: http://movingimages.wordpress.com/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070407/dfe83559/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From nalin.mathur at gmail.com Sun Apr 8 01:23:14 2007 From: nalin.mathur at gmail.com (Nalin Mathur) Date: Sun, 8 Apr 2007 01:23:14 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] B Grade Engineering College Culture Message-ID: <7c0063460704071253k2287ea1ah169423459673f6ab@mail.gmail.com> Sarai / Independent Fellow 2007/ Nalin N. Mathur/ Second Posting Confession Time Now nobody calls his or her *Alma Mater* a B – Grade institute, definitely not in public. It remains a universal fact that one tends to relate with ones institute, irrespective of its social or educational ranking. Even though I agreed with this theory, I had to experience it first hand when I broke the news of receiving a fellowship to study B – Grade Engineering college culture to my friends. Let me share with you upfront that I was expecting words of praise and encouragement, which I eventually got, but not before being subjected to ridicule. Most of my friends were dejected at the adjective I had used to describe our college. Almost all showered obscenities. Those few with a sense of history reminded me of Arthur Wellesley's epic tribute to his *Alma Mater* mentioning the famous "*The battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton *" quote (forgetting that the play ground at our college resembled an over sized cow shed for the better part of our graduation). Nevertheless, what hit me the most with this quote was our uncanny resemblance to Wellesley's educational and professional life. Like Wellesley, I or my friends never scored well at school. Later in life he was a highly successful and decorated soldier, something which we wish to accomplish in our respective field of expertise. As a whole, I observed two points, which have become the basis of my study for this fellowship. One – the utter disregard of ones academic credentials in view of gaining success in life. The zeal to accomplish and beat the odds has absolutely nothing to do with ones *Alma Mater.* The aspiration and attitude to go for the kill are as independent features from the place of graduating as rocket science is from the excavations at Harappa. In short, just like a shrewd Wellesley defeated the mighty Napoleon, graduates from B – Grade engineering colleges are all pumped up to take on the world. Two – all said and done, Wellesley was from Eton, among the best schools in the world with a culture and legacy as enriching as it can get. No matter how he fared in classes, he must have gained something, the credit for which can go to his school as well. A similar scene shapes up for my study. B – Grade Engineering colleges have a lot to catch up on when compared with the top tier institutions, engineers from which, irrefutably, have a major edge, in terms of level of education, exposure and environment. So here I am, trying to get over this fascination from Duke of Wellington and his times, and the contradictory notions cropping up in my mind. And try to study and document as to what goes inside those worn out walls of a second tier engineering college. What happens to half a million engineers passing out from such colleges every year in India? What role do they play in building on a society? What aspirations do they carry? What is it that makes them believe that they can excel when they would be competing with peers who are far better equipped? And importantly what kind of dynamics do they create and live through? To be honest I am skeptical if I would be able to present the answers in the manner they deserve. Or, in the first place, if I would be able to find them at all. If I do, my Orkut profile would read – I am done! Regards, Nalin N. Mathur -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070408/5597ba8a/attachment.html From smitamitr at gmail.com Sun Apr 8 14:14:30 2007 From: smitamitr at gmail.com (smita mitra) Date: Sun, 8 Apr 2007 14:14:30 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Cinematic City:Kolkata, Modernity, MiddleClass&the Urban Woman--1950s &60s Popular Bangla cinema. Message-ID: Dear All, Sorry for missing my deadline for the second posting for IFS--2007 ON *Cinematic City :Kolkata,Modernity,Middle class and the Urban Woman-A study of 1950s and 60s Popular Cinema.* ** To remind all the list of Films that I propose to look at include: *Saptapadi (*1961-Ajay Kar),*Harano Sur*(1957-Ajay Kar),*Saat Pake Bandha*(1963-Ajay Kar),*Sagarik*a(1956-Agragami),* Uttar Phalguni*(1966),*Bipasha(* 1962-Agradoot),*Pothey Holo Deri*(1957-Agradoot),*Chaowa Paowoa* (1959-Yatrik)*Trizama(*1956-Agradoot),*Teen Bhuvoner Paare*(1969-Ashutosh Banerjee)* Abhoyar Biye*(1957-S.Dasgupto),*Bicharok*(1959-Prabhat Mukherjee). Can anyone suggest some more Popular Films from the same period that I can add to or see while working out my ideas on the cinematic negotiations of the 'self' that are being located within a particular kind of urban experience?Briefly I am interested in unpacking The nature of the individual self that is dislocated or decentered from the familial space -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070408/4fe4cd83/attachment.html From ysaeed7 at yahoo.com Sat Apr 7 20:35:16 2007 From: ysaeed7 at yahoo.com (Yousuf) Date: Sat, 7 Apr 2007 08:05:16 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Nizamuddin Basti In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <366126.56237.qm@web51411.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Dear Ratish This mail comes as a relief - although some of us were looking at the news of the "demolition" with some suspicion of the rumours. But I would also like to point out that even a minor interaction with the residents of the basti Nizamuddin would show you how ill-informed and frustrated they are. A couple of months ago some of us were doing a recce before starting a heritage walk in the basti and we were almost mobbed by the local residents who wanted to know what our real motives were. They thought we are the respresentatives of the Agha Khan foundation, listing in our notebooks which house will go first. We tried to clarify our position, but they were simply not convinced. One question they all kept asking us (assuming we were either AKDN or MCD!) that WHY ARE THEY KEPT IN THE DARK? Why doesn't someone come to talk to THEM and tell them what the real intentions of this development project are? Who is going to gain what? how will they be affected, and so on. And I think this is the real crux of all development-displacement projects today (whether it is Nizamuddin or Nandigram) that the local people are never taken into confidence - always kept in the dark. I don't know if AKDN has made any communications already, but I think it is their responsibility to kill these rumours. The concerned people WILL make a hue-and-cry if they have not been given the right information. Yousuf Ratish Nanda wrote: Dear Dr Sudeshna Chatterjee I write in response to your e mail - which I have been forwarded on another chat group so I suppose it has been forwarded to thousands by the time this gets back to you. I write as one of the consultants to the Aga Khan Trust for Culture on a potential project. I read your e mail with great alarm until I realised you might be writing in response to rumours about what we are hoping to achieve in Nizamuddin together with the MCD. I cannot imagine how you got the impression that anyone was going to be moved? The proposal does not envisage even a single house to be demolished. I wish you had re-confirmed your facts with someone before shooting off an alarmist e mail. In the Nizamuddin Bastri - all components of the project are aimed at focussing on make the monuments - Chaunasth Khambha, Baoli, Atgah Khan's Tomb more integral to the Basti. The programme there envisages upgrading the health, education failities of the MCD; provide micro-finance and training for jobs etc etc. I am presently away from the country but am to return to Delhi in mid May when I shall happily be able to brief you in more detail on the proposal - which it is - only a proposal as we are hopoing to work in the larger area - encompassing Humayun's Tomb etc - with various government agencies and are yet to reach an agreement. We have earlier worked on the Humayun's Tomb garden restoration, which I was responsibl;e for on behaldf of the Trust and I have been here in Kabul for four years to do something very similar to what we propose in Nizamuddin. If you had looked at our website - www.akdn.org or visited our offices on Bhagwan Das Road prior to shooting off the e mail - you would have realised for yourself that vested interests are spreading rumours that will probably ensure nothing ever happens in Nizamuddin and people continue to live in deplorable conditions without access to basic services. May I now request you to kindly help quelling rumours and I assure you that you will not have to mount a 'resistance' ; maybe you could use resistance to save the 800 year old, yet unprotected, Lal Mahal in Nizamuddin to be demolished by developers - if it has not already been! Thanks for your concern. Warm regards Ratish -- Ratish Nanda _________________________________________ --------------------------------- Never miss an email again! Yahoo! Toolbar alerts you the instant new Mail arrives. Check it out. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070407/ef74519a/attachment.html From sudeshna.kca at gmail.com Sun Apr 8 12:30:19 2007 From: sudeshna.kca at gmail.com (Sudeshna Chatterjee) Date: Sun, 8 Apr 2007 12:30:19 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Response to Ratish re: Nizamuddin Basti Message-ID: <3ef603b70704080000t6dfaa196jbcb58fa97c852040@mail.gmail.com> Dear Ratish, It was great to get a reply from you from far off Kabul. I appreciate your speaking up on behalf of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture on the "potential project" in Nizamuddin. This potential project has caused much widespread fear among residents. Indeed anyone, as Yousuf suggested, visiting Nizamuddin truly feels the heat of resident discontent and fear. Some of my students were stopped from doing fieldwork because they too were accused of being Aga Khan Trust or MCD people taking stock for demolition! You ask how I got the impression that anyone was going to be moved. Well, I was approached by a group of 6/7 women and later men, as I walked down Nizam Nagar on April 3, who came up to me on their own accord and shared their deep fear of being demolished on April 10. I am a familiar stranger in these parts as I had done my dissertation fieldwork in the Basti for nearly a year in 2005. I know rather too well that it is not only the city, but also many within the Basti who want Nizam Nagar demolished because of the negative stereotypes associated with the residents of this precinct of Nizamuddin. I don't know what MCD and its allies are hoping to achieve in the Basti. It certainly does not appear to be a people-friendly plan. For example, two vital open spaces have been taken away from the people this year. One open space on Lala Lajpat Rai Road had been walled off by DJB. This was a fantastically vibrant space for the community, and the only open space where young boys were allowed to play sports. The other is the raised dumpyard playground/scrap-sorting yard/space for community functions. This has been leveled and proposed as a parking lot for the Inayat Khan Dargah. Nothing wrong with either an empty, locked up, walled off open space or a parking lot in the midst of a dense, congested settlement except that instead of rumors (as you suggest) these are the real reasons for ensuring that nothing good ever happens for the residents of Nizamuddin and that the people are further marginalized in their habitat. I am all for quelling rumors. I sincerely believe that without information, and sharing that with stakeholders no decision about urban space should be made. That is why I filed the RTI to get access to the potential project. For again, you see, the web url you write about has no information about the proposal even after running a search. I will visit your office in Bhagwan Das Road in the coming week. I could not do so over the extended weekend before sending my "alarmist" email because alarm bells did indeed buzz loudly in my head. I am relieved to hear from you that your proposal does not propose any demolition. But I am disappointed that you never mentioned anything about making the plan public. I would deeply appreciate you sharing the proposal with us all and more importantly with the people of the Basti for none of them has a clue or access to information, not even through their councilor who incidentally has won the election. So your theory of vested interests working against him (the supporter of the plan) spreading rumors about demolitions does not seem accurate. You may have wonderful visions for upgrading health, education facilities, providing micro finance etc. but unless you have the affected people endorsing that vision after having understood it, the project will only remain a potential proposal. For frightened people on the ground the most pressing issue is whether they will be able to save their habitat and not the commendable idea of better integrating monuments to the fabric of the Basti. I do not write this email in an adversarial manner, but as a concerned citizen who has too often witnessed what happens to poor people in the margins of society when well-conceived design/planning/conservation decisions about contested urban places are made. I would encourage you to play a leading role in allaying the fears of the people in the Basti by involving them in the making of the proposal as well as in putting rumors to rest that right now suggest that the proposed project is yet another expensive development project, which puts the interests of environment/heritage etc. ahead of life and liberty of directly affected citizens. I have no doubt that with your stellar credentials you are the best person for the job. If you need any help to better understand the people's perspective and if I am able, you can count on that too. But do not think that I am engaging with the issue because I am swayed by rumor-mongering vested interest groups. I am doing this because I have indepth grounded knowledge about the place, its people, culture, heritage and its problems. I am asking questions about the potential project because the Basti means Soni, Abida, Zoheb, Zuher, Rashid, Firozina and several other feisty pre-adolescents who spent upto a year with me, and I am concerned about their future. Finally I am inviting a larger dialogue on the complex human-environment issues in low-income settlements such as Nizamuddin Basti in a vibrant public forum such as the reader-list. I am doing so because it is my democratic right to express my views, and contribute to discourses. In the meantime, please do make the "potential project" and its implications for people public if you want to get people to endorse it out of choice and not out of fear. I welcome your suggestion of taking the dialogue forward when you return in May. Best regards, * * -- Sudeshna Chatterjee, PhD New Delhi, India On 4/7/07, Rajat Ray wrote: > > FYI > Forwarding as under > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: Ratish Nanda > Date: 07-Apr-2007 08:21 > Subject: RE: [2004cam] Fwd: [Reader-list] Nizamuddin Basti Faces Massive > Demolition on April 10 to Create Vistas to the Dargah > To: shalgram at gmail.com > > Dear Rajat - could you please forward the following response to the sarai > reader list - many thanks, Ratish > > Dear Dr Sudeshna Chatterjee > > I write in response to your e mail - which I have been forwarded on > another > chat group so I suppose it has been forwarded to thousands by the time > this > gets back to you. I write as one of the consultants to the Aga Khan Trust > for Culture on a potential project - nowhere near finalisation! > > I read your e mail with great alarm until I realised you might be writing > in > response to rumours about what we are hoping to achieve in Nizamuddin > together with the MCD. I cannot imagine how you got the impression that > anyone was going to be moved? The proposal does not envisage even a single > house to be demolished. I wish you had re-confirmed your facts with > someone > before shooting off an alarmist e mail. > > In the Nizamuddin Bastri - all components of the project are aimed at > focussing on make the monuments - Chaunasth Khambha, Baoli, Atgah Khan's > Tomb more integral to the Basti. The programme there envisages upgrading > the > health, education failities of the MCD; provide micro-finance and training > > for jobs etc etc. Since the Basti is a close-knit community and since they > have had threats of eviction in the past - rumours are being fuelled by > worried residents; though we have spoken of intention to a handful of > residents - including the Pirzadas and the RWA - clearly rumours have not > subsided. > > > I am presently away from the country but am to return to Delhi in mid May > when I shall happily be able to brief you in more detail on the proposal - > > which it is - only a proposal as we are hopoing to work in the larger area > - > encompassing Humayun's Tomb etc - with various government agencies and are > yet to reach an agreement. > > We have earlier worked on the Humayun's Tomb garden restoration, which I > was > responsibl;e for on behaldf of the Trust and I have been here in Kabul for > four years to do something very similar to what we propose in Nizamuddin. > If > you had looked at our website - www.akdn.org or visited our offices on > Bhagwan Das Road prior to shooting off the e mail - you would have > realised > for yourself that vested interests are spreading rumours that will > probably > ensure nothing ever happens in Nizamuddin and people continue to live in > deplorable conditions without access to basic services. > > May I now request you to kindly help quelling rumours and I assure you > that > you will not have to mount a 'resistance' ; maybe you could use resistance > > to save the 800 year old, yet unprotected, Lal Mahal in Nizamuddin to be > demolished by developers - if it has not already been! > > Thanks for your concern. > > Warm regards > > Ratish > > > > > > > > > > >From: "Rajat Ray" > >Reply-To: 2004cam at yahoogroups.com > >To: 2004cam at yahoogroups.com > >Subject: [2004cam] Fwd: [Reader-list] Nizamuddin Basti Faces Massive > >Demolition on April 10 to Create Vistas to the Dargah > >Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2007 14:48:21 +0530 > > > >CHECK IT OUT ! ! ! > > > >---------- Forwarded message ---------- > >From: Sudeshna Chatterjee > >Date: 04-Apr-2007 19:29 > >Subject: [Reader-list] Nizamuddin Basti Faces Massive Demolition on April > > >10 > >to Create Vistas to the Dargah > >To: reader-list at sarai.net > > > >*Nizamuddin Basti Faces Massive Demolition on April 10 to Create Vistas > to > >the Dargah* > > > >* * > > > >As Delhi adorns herself for the appreciative gazes of visitors to the > >Commonwealth Games in 2010, several habitats and lifeworlds are being > >destroyed "in public interest" to make way for beautification projects in > > >place of dense, unseemly residential areas. > > > > > > > >Nizamuddin Basti, the thriving, bustling, colorful settlement with over > of > >800 years of recorded history of continuous human habitation, is going to > > >come under the developmental bulldozer next week, on April 10 according > to > >residents. The grand urban revitalization vision for this master plan > >designated heritage zone does not include anything in the foreground of > >Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya's Dargah. > > > > > > > >The thriving settlement of Nizam Nagar, a neighborhood populated by > migrant > >labor for the last thirty years, will definitely be flattened to create > >lush > >landscaped foreground for beholding the monument from all three roads > >bounding the Basti—Mathura Road, Lodi Road, and Lala Lajpat Rai Marg. The > >Dargah however had never been a separate piece within the settlement but > an > >integral part of the residents' lifeworlds. The next layer of colorful > >pucca > >houses with many floors will also be demolished as they too block the > view > >of the dargah from all three roads. Several shops on Lodi Road have > already > >been sealed. A major part of the open space on Lala Lajpat Rai Road has > >been > >walled up and residents said that it will be made into a parking lot for > >the > >Dargah tourist coming from that direction. > > > > > > > >The pucca house owners will receive deals for resettlement while the > >majority of the migrant settlers along the periphery will be evicted > >without > >rehabilitation. No one has any information as to what exactly has been > >proposed and by whom. There are rumors of MCD and Aga Khan Trust and ASI > >working together to create a beautiful tourist paradise with paved > walking > >routes, lush landscapes and showcase remnants of the old village and way > of > >life of people. > > > > > > > >I visited the basti yesterday and felt people's helplessness. I made > >several > >phone calls to everyone I knew to find out about the development plan. No > > >one has a clue. Nothing is discussed in the public domain. But how come > all > >the residents knew? MCD has really been smart about this one to avoid > undue > >attention and therefore resistance to the beautification project with Aga > > >Khan Trust's money. I did the only thing I could. I filed a RTI this > >afternoon with MCD. But as I am not a directly affected party the > >information will be made available in a month's time, long after the > >demolitions had taken place. I got the Hope Project, an NGO that works > >within the Basti, to mobilize the community to exercise their right to > >information and get it within 48 hours. But community mobilization is > >easier > >said than done. Moreover, this is a long weekend. The governmental > >machinery > >will be resting. > > > > > > > >If anyone has any advice on how to put up a resistance to an uncontested > >beautification scheme for a contested urban space, please email me. Some > of > >us are working on first assessing what exactly will be demolished and > what > >rehabilitation proposals had been made for displaced people to prepare a > >case for resisting the demolitions and demanding adequate rehabilitation > >for > >all displaced people. In addition I would encourage this forum to engage > in > >a much stronger public debate on the future of the city and its quietly > >outrageous beautification/revitalization/development plans ahead of the > >Commonwealth Games. > > > > > >-- > >Sudeshna Chatterjee, PhD > >New Delhi, India > >_________________________________________ > >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. > >To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > >List archive: < https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> > > _________________________________________________________________ > Catch the complete World Cup coverage with MSN > http://content.msn.co.in/Sports/Cricket/Default.aspx > > -- Sudeshna Chatterjee, PhD Partner, Kaimal Chatterjee & Associates New Delhi, India -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070408/8615b1d3/attachment.html From mail at shivamvij.com Mon Apr 9 15:27:43 2007 From: mail at shivamvij.com (Shivam Vij) Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2007 15:27:43 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] /India Untouched/ in Delhi, 19 April Message-ID: <9c06aab30704090257p4c7d0040m714cd597eac0e50@mail.gmail.com> DALIT FOUNDATION, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF DALIT STUDIES, NATIONAL CAMPAIGN ON DALIT HUMAN RIGHTS, NAVSARJAN and DRISHTI invite you to the premiere of Stalin K's new documentary INDIA UNTOUCHED - Stories of a People Apart 110 minutes/Hindi, Tamil, Bhojpuri, Telugu, English, Punjabi, Malayalam and Gujarati with English sub-titles/2007 Produced by DRISHTI Media, Arts & Human Rights. Presented by Navsarjan On 19th April, 2007, 5:00pm At the School Arts & Aesthetics (Auditorium) Jawaharlal Nehru University New Mehrauli Road, New Delhi Please RSVP to Anisha Chug at 011-4164 0929 and stalink123 at gmail.com INDIA UNTOUCHED will make it impossible for anyone in India to deny that Untouchability is still practiced today. Director Stalin K. and his team spent four years traveling the length and breadth of India to bear witness to the continued exclusion and segregation of those considered as 'Untouchables'. The film introduces leading Benares scholars who interpret Hindu scriptures to mean that Dalits 'have no right' to education, and Rajput farmers who proudly proclaim that the police must seek their permission before pursuing cases of atrocities on Dalits. The film captures many 'firsts-on-film,' such as Dalits being forced to dismount from their cycles and remove their shoes when in the upper caste part of the village. It exposes the continuation of caste practices and Untouchability in Sikhism, Christianity and Islam, amongst the Communists in Kerala and within some of India's most revered academic and professional institutions. In an age where the media projects only one image of a 'rising' or 'poised' India, this film reminds us how far the country is from being an equal society. Traveling through eight states and four religions, this film is perhaps the deepest exploration of caste oppression ever undertaken on film. Stalin K is a human rights activist and award-winning documentary filmmaker. He is the Co-Founder of DRISHTI- Media, Arts and Human Rights, Convener of the Community Radio Forum-India, and the India Director of Video Volunteers. He is a renowned public speaker and has lectured or taught at over 20 institutions ranging from the National Institute of Design and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in India, to New York University and Stanford and Berkeley in the US. INDIA UNTOUCHED is Stalin's second film on the issue of caste—his earlier film Lesser Humans, on manual scavenging, won the Silver Conch at the Mumbai International Film Festival and the Excellence Award at Earth Vision Film Festival, Tokyo, and helped to bring international attention to the issue of caste. stalink123 at gmail.com Drishti is a media and human rights organization with program areas in community radio, community video, documentary film, campaign design, theatre, community arts and youth activism. Drishti has produced over 25 films on development issues, designed over a dozen rights-based campaigns, and conducted over 300 training workshops with more than 100 NGOs. More than 1000 groups around the world are using Drishti's films, and the organization is a leading proponent of community media. www.drishtimedia.org www.videovolunteers.org Navsarjan is one of the largest Dalit rights organizations in India, working in over 3000 villages in Gujarat. Its mission is to eradicate Untouchability and caste oppressions through legal remedies and struggles against forced occupations such as manual scavenging, and by ensuring Dalits' access to education and livelihood. www.navsarjan.org Dalit Foundation supports small community based organizations, individuals and networks working for the empowerment of Dalit communities all over India. It promotes Dalit leadership, especially among youth and women, by providing small grants, fellowships and capacity building programmes. www.dalitfoundation.org Indian Institute of Dalit Studies is the first national research institute focused on issues of caste. Its objective is to bring the impact of caste into policy planning. It also bridges gaps between activists and academics. www.dalitstudies.org.in National Campaign of Dalit Human Rights is a secular coalition of Dalit Human Rights activists who challenge 'Casteism' and Untouchability'. Its mission is to wipe out caste based discrimination with a call to "Cast out Caste". www.dalits.org DVDs of this film are available from Drishti: 103, Anand Hari Tower, Sandesh Press Road, Bodakdev, Ahmedabad 380054, India. +91-79-2685 1235 and 6661 4235. drishtiad1 at gmail.com From aman.am at gmail.com Mon Apr 9 21:42:04 2007 From: aman.am at gmail.com (Aman Sethi) Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2007 21:42:04 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Response to Ratish re: Nizamuddin Basti In-Reply-To: <3ef603b70704080000t6dfaa196jbcb58fa97c852040@mail.gmail.com> References: <3ef603b70704080000t6dfaa196jbcb58fa97c852040@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <995a19920704090912h2fd80f4cn8883e3559364e47e@mail.gmail.com> As someone who has, as a reporter, covered demolitions in Delhi for the last two years, i can completely understand the suspicion with which the residents of Nizamuddin ( and people like Sudheshna and others on the list) treat "conservation" restoration and beautification drives. i also did some work on post-tsunami rehabilitation - and found that relocation of coastal villages - ostensibly for safety purposes - was nothing more than a ploy to remove them and hand the land over to developers under the marina beachfront beautification project. Else where a 50 year old settlement in bhatti mines and indira nagar was demolished to protect the delhi ridge while the vasant kunj malls were finally sanctioned inspite of protests. While it comes as a relief to hear that no demolition is planned, i would urge the Aga khan people to commit in writing that no demolition would be carried out, and as sudheshna suggests, carry out an outreach programme that clearly lays out the extent of the plan. Regards A. On 4/8/07, Sudeshna Chatterjee wrote: > > > Dear Ratish, > It was great to get a reply from you from far off Kabul. I appreciate your speaking up on behalf of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture on the "potential project" in Nizamuddin. This potential project has caused much widespread fear among residents. Indeed anyone, as Yousuf suggested, visiting Nizamuddin truly feels the heat of resident discontent and fear. Some of my students were stopped from doing fieldwork because they too were accused of being Aga Khan Trust or MCD people taking stock for demolition! > > You ask how I got the impression that anyone was going to be moved. Well, I was approached by a group of 6/7 women and later men, as I walked down Nizam Nagar on April 3, who came up to me on their own accord and shared their deep fear of being demolished on April 10. I am a familiar stranger in these parts as I had done my dissertation fieldwork in the Basti for nearly a year in 2005. I know rather too well that it is not only the city, but also many within the Basti who want Nizam Nagar demolished because of the negative stereotypes associated with the residents of this precinct of Nizamuddin. > > I don't know what MCD and its allies are hoping to achieve in the Basti. It certainly does not appear to be a people-friendly plan. For example, two vital open spaces have been taken away from the people this year. One open space on Lala Lajpat Rai Road had been walled off by DJB. This was a fantastically vibrant space for the community, and the only open space where young boys were allowed to play sports. The other is the raised dumpyard playground/scrap-sorting yard/space for community functions. This has been leveled and proposed as a parking lot for the Inayat Khan Dargah. Nothing wrong with either an empty, locked up, walled off open space or a parking lot in the midst of a dense, congested settlement except that instead of rumors (as you suggest) these are the real reasons for ensuring that nothing good ever happens for the residents of Nizamuddin and that the people are further marginalized in their habitat. > > I am all for quelling rumors. I sincerely believe that without information, and sharing that with stakeholders no decision about urban space should be made. That is why I filed the RTI to get access to the potential project. For again, you see, the web url you write about has no information about the proposal even after running a search. I will visit your office in Bhagwan Das Road in the coming week. I could not do so over the extended weekend before sending my "alarmist" email because alarm bells did indeed buzz loudly in my head. I am relieved to hear from you that your proposal does not propose any demolition. But I am disappointed that you never mentioned anything about making the plan public. I would deeply appreciate you sharing the proposal with us all and more importantly with the people of the Basti for none of them has a clue or access to information, not even through their councilor who incidentally has won the election. So your theory of vested interests working against him (the supporter of the plan) spreading rumors about demolitions does not seem accurate. > > You may have wonderful visions for upgrading health, education facilities, providing micro finance etc. but unless you have the affected people endorsing that vision after having understood it, the project will only remain a potential proposal. For frightened people on the ground the most pressing issue is whether they will be able to save their habitat and not the commendable idea of better integrating monuments to the fabric of the Basti. > > I do not write this email in an adversarial manner, but as a concerned citizen who has too often witnessed what happens to poor people in the margins of society when well-conceived design/planning/conservation decisions about contested urban places are made. I would encourage you to play a leading role in allaying the fears of the people in the Basti by involving them in the making of the proposal as well as in putting rumors to rest that right now suggest that the proposed project is yet another expensive development project, which puts the interests of environment/heritage etc. ahead of life and liberty of directly affected citizens. I have no doubt that with your stellar credentials you are the best person for the job. If you need any help to better understand the people's perspective and if I am able, you can count on that too. But do not think that I am engaging with the issue because I am swayed by rumor-mongering vested interest groups. I am doing this because I have indepth grounded knowledge about the place, its people, culture, heritage and its problems. I am asking questions about the potential project because the Basti means Soni, Abida, Zoheb, Zuher, Rashid, Firozina and several other feisty pre-adolescents who spent upto a year with me, and I am concerned about their future. Finally I am inviting a larger dialogue on the complex human-environment issues in low-income settlements such as Nizamuddin Basti in a vibrant public forum such as the reader-list. I am doing so because it is my democratic right to express my views, and contribute to discourses. In the meantime, please do make the "potential project" and its implications for people public if you want to get people to endorse it out of choice and not out of fear. I welcome your suggestion of taking the dialogue forward when you return in May. Best regards, > > > > -- > Sudeshna Chatterjee, PhD > New Delhi, India > > On 4/7/07, Rajat Ray wrote: > > FYI > > Forwarding as under > > > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > > From: Ratish Nanda > > Date: 07-Apr-2007 08:21 > > Subject: RE: [2004cam] Fwd: [Reader-list] Nizamuddin Basti Faces Massive Demolition on April 10 to Create Vistas to the Dargah > > To: shalgram at gmail.com > > > > Dear Rajat - could you please forward the following response to the sarai > > reader list - many thanks, Ratish > > > > Dear Dr Sudeshna Chatterjee > > > > I write in response to your e mail - which I have been forwarded on another > > chat group so I suppose it has been forwarded to thousands by the time this > > gets back to you. I write as one of the consultants to the Aga Khan Trust > > for Culture on a potential project - nowhere near finalisation! > > > > I read your e mail with great alarm until I realised you might be writing in > > response to rumours about what we are hoping to achieve in Nizamuddin > > together with the MCD. I cannot imagine how you got the impression that > > anyone was going to be moved? The proposal does not envisage even a single > > house to be demolished. I wish you had re-confirmed your facts with someone > > before shooting off an alarmist e mail. > > > > In the Nizamuddin Bastri - all components of the project are aimed at > > focussing on make the monuments - Chaunasth Khambha, Baoli, Atgah Khan's > > Tomb more integral to the Basti. The programme there envisages upgrading the > > health, education failities of the MCD; provide micro-finance and training > > for jobs etc etc. Since the Basti is a close-knit community and since they > > have had threats of eviction in the past - rumours are being fuelled by > > worried residents; though we have spoken of intention to a handful of > > residents - including the Pirzadas and the RWA - clearly rumours have not > > subsided. > > > > > > I am presently away from the country but am to return to Delhi in mid May > > when I shall happily be able to brief you in more detail on the proposal - > > which it is - only a proposal as we are hopoing to work in the larger area - > > encompassing Humayun's Tomb etc - with various government agencies and are > > yet to reach an agreement. > > > > We have earlier worked on the Humayun's Tomb garden restoration, which I was > > responsibl;e for on behaldf of the Trust and I have been here in Kabul for > > four years to do something very similar to what we propose in Nizamuddin. If > > you had looked at our website - www.akdn.org or visited our offices on > > Bhagwan Das Road prior to shooting off the e mail - you would have realised > > for yourself that vested interests are spreading rumours that will probably > > ensure nothing ever happens in Nizamuddin and people continue to live in > > deplorable conditions without access to basic services. > > > > May I now request you to kindly help quelling rumours and I assure you that > > you will not have to mount a 'resistance' ; maybe you could use resistance > > to save the 800 year old, yet unprotected, Lal Mahal in Nizamuddin to be > > demolished by developers - if it has not already been! > > > > Thanks for your concern. > > > > Warm regards > > > > Ratish > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >From: "Rajat Ray" > > >Reply-To: 2004cam at yahoogroups.com > > >To: 2004cam at yahoogroups.com > > >Subject: [2004cam] Fwd: [Reader-list] Nizamuddin Basti Faces Massive > > >Demolition on April 10 to Create Vistas to the Dargah > > >Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2007 14:48:21 +0530 > > > > > >CHECK IT OUT ! ! ! > > > > > >---------- Forwarded message ---------- > > >From: Sudeshna Chatterjee < sudeshna.kca at gmail.com> > > >Date: 04-Apr-2007 19:29 > > >Subject: [Reader-list] Nizamuddin Basti Faces Massive Demolition on April > > >10 > > >to Create Vistas to the Dargah > > >To: reader-list at sarai.net > > > > > >*Nizamuddin Basti Faces Massive Demolition on April 10 to Create Vistas to > > >the Dargah* > > > > > >* * > > > > > >As Delhi adorns herself for the appreciative gazes of visitors to the > > >Commonwealth Games in 2010, several habitats and lifeworlds are being > > >destroyed "in public interest" to make way for beautification projects in > > >place of dense, unseemly residential areas. > > > > > > > > > > > >Nizamuddin Basti, the thriving, bustling, colorful settlement with over of > > >800 years of recorded history of continuous human habitation, is going to > > >come under the developmental bulldozer next week, on April 10 according to > > >residents. The grand urban revitalization vision for this master plan > > >designated heritage zone does not include anything in the foreground of > > >Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya's Dargah. > > > > > > > > > > > >The thriving settlement of Nizam Nagar, a neighborhood populated by migrant > > >labor for the last thirty years, will definitely be flattened to create > > >lush > > >landscaped foreground for beholding the monument from all three roads > > >bounding the Basti—Mathura Road, Lodi Road, and Lala Lajpat Rai Marg. The > > >Dargah however had never been a separate piece within the settlement but an > > >integral part of the residents' lifeworlds. The next layer of colorful > > >pucca > > >houses with many floors will also be demolished as they too block the view > > >of the dargah from all three roads. Several shops on Lodi Road have already > > >been sealed. A major part of the open space on Lala Lajpat Rai Road has > > >been > > >walled up and residents said that it will be made into a parking lot for > > >the > > >Dargah tourist coming from that direction. > > > > > > > > > > > >The pucca house owners will receive deals for resettlement while the > > >majority of the migrant settlers along the periphery will be evicted > > >without > > >rehabilitation. No one has any information as to what exactly has been > > >proposed and by whom. There are rumors of MCD and Aga Khan Trust and ASI > > >working together to create a beautiful tourist paradise with paved walking > > >routes, lush landscapes and showcase remnants of the old village and way of > > >life of people. > > > > > > > > > > > >I visited the basti yesterday and felt people's helplessness. I made > > >several > > >phone calls to everyone I knew to find out about the development plan. No > > >one has a clue. Nothing is discussed in the public domain. But how come all > > >the residents knew? MCD has really been smart about this one to avoid undue > > >attention and therefore resistance to the beautification project with Aga > > >Khan Trust's money. I did the only thing I could. I filed a RTI this > > >afternoon with MCD. But as I am not a directly affected party the > > >information will be made available in a month's time, long after the > > >demolitions had taken place. I got the Hope Project, an NGO that works > > >within the Basti, to mobilize the community to exercise their right to > > >information and get it within 48 hours. But community mobilization is > > >easier > > >said than done. Moreover, this is a long weekend. The governmental > > >machinery > > >will be resting. > > > > > > > > > > > >If anyone has any advice on how to put up a resistance to an uncontested > > >beautification scheme for a contested urban space, please email me. Some of > > >us are working on first assessing what exactly will be demolished and what > > >rehabilitation proposals had been made for displaced people to prepare a > > >case for resisting the demolitions and demanding adequate rehabilitation > > >for > > >all displaced people. In addition I would encourage this forum to engage in > > >a much stronger public debate on the future of the city and its quietly > > >outrageous beautification/revitalization/development plans ahead of the > > >Commonwealth Games. > > > > > > > > >-- > > >Sudeshna Chatterjee, PhD > > >New Delhi, India > > >_________________________________________ > > >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. > > >To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > > >List archive: < https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/ > > > > > _________________________________________________________________ > > Catch the complete World Cup coverage with MSN > > http://content.msn.co.in/Sports/Cricket/Default.aspx > > > > > > > > -- > Sudeshna Chatterjee, PhD > Partner, Kaimal Chatterjee & Associates > New Delhi, India > _________________________________________ > 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. > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> > From mail at shivamvij.com Tue Apr 10 16:29:43 2007 From: mail at shivamvij.com (Shivam Vij) Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2007 16:29:43 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] /India Untouched/ in Delhi, 19 April In-Reply-To: <013401c77b47$e8740300$6401a8c0@ved6suqbkuh1sf> References: <9c06aab30704090257p4c7d0040m714cd597eac0e50@mail.gmail.com> <013401c77b47$e8740300$6401a8c0@ved6suqbkuh1sf> Message-ID: <9c06aab30704100359x26b8b0fcgce115aaaf087b38@mail.gmail.com> Interesting, Ved! On 4/10/07, Vedprakash Sharma wrote: > don't know, who is bothered about nondalits! atrosities are atrosities. be > it dalits or otherwise. atrosities are inflicted on all those who are weak > economically as well as politically. as far as the social backwardness is > concerned, it is also decided on economical basis. > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Shivam Vij" > To: "sarai list" > Sent: Monday, April 09, 2007 3:27 PM > Subject: [Reader-list] /India Untouched/ in Delhi, 19 April > > > > DALIT FOUNDATION, > > INDIAN INSTITUTE OF DALIT STUDIES, > > NATIONAL CAMPAIGN ON DALIT HUMAN RIGHTS, > > NAVSARJAN and DRISHTI > > > > invite you to the premiere of Stalin K's new documentary > > > > INDIA UNTOUCHED - Stories of a People Apart > > 110 minutes/Hindi, Tamil, Bhojpuri, Telugu, English, Punjabi, > > Malayalam and Gujarati with English sub-titles/2007 > > Produced by DRISHTI Media, Arts & Human Rights. Presented by Navsarjan > > > > > > On 19th April, 2007, 5:00pm > > > > At the School Arts & Aesthetics (Auditorium) > > Jawaharlal Nehru University > > New Mehrauli Road, New Delhi > > > > Please RSVP to Anisha Chug at 011-4164 0929 > > > > and stalink123 at gmail.com > > > > INDIA UNTOUCHED will make it impossible for anyone in India to deny > > that Untouchability is still practiced today. Director Stalin K. and > > his team spent four years traveling the length and breadth of India to > > bear witness to the continued exclusion and segregation of those > > considered as 'Untouchables'. The film introduces leading Benares > > scholars who interpret Hindu scriptures to mean that Dalits 'have no > > right' to education, and Rajput farmers who proudly proclaim that the > > police must seek their permission before pursuing cases of atrocities > > on Dalits. The film captures many 'firsts-on-film,' such as Dalits > > being forced to dismount from their cycles and remove their shoes when > > in the upper caste part of the village. It exposes the continuation > > of caste practices and Untouchability in Sikhism, Christianity and > > Islam, amongst the Communists in Kerala and within some of India's > > most revered academic and professional institutions. > > > > In an age where the media projects only one image of a 'rising' or > > 'poised' India, this film reminds us how far the country is from being > > an equal society. Traveling through eight states and four religions, > > this film is perhaps the deepest exploration of caste oppression ever > > undertaken on film. > > > > > > Stalin K is a human rights activist and award-winning documentary > > filmmaker. He is the Co-Founder of DRISHTI- Media, Arts and Human > > Rights, Convener of the Community Radio Forum-India, and the India > > Director of Video Volunteers. He is a renowned public speaker and has > > lectured or taught at over 20 institutions ranging from the National > > Institute of Design and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in > > India, to New York University and Stanford and Berkeley in the US. > > > > INDIA UNTOUCHED is Stalin's second film on the issue of caste—his > > earlier film Lesser Humans, on manual scavenging, won the Silver Conch > > at the Mumbai International Film Festival and the Excellence Award at > > Earth Vision Film Festival, Tokyo, and helped to bring international > > attention to the issue of caste. > > stalink123 at gmail.com > > > > Drishti is a media and human rights organization with program areas in > > community radio, community video, documentary film, campaign design, > > theatre, community arts and youth activism. Drishti has produced over > > 25 films on development issues, designed over a dozen rights-based > > campaigns, and conducted over 300 training workshops with more than > > 100 NGOs. More than 1000 groups around the world are using Drishti's > > films, and the organization is a leading proponent of community media. > > www.drishtimedia.org www.videovolunteers.org > > > > Navsarjan is one of the largest Dalit rights organizations in India, > > working in over 3000 villages in Gujarat. Its mission is to eradicate > > Untouchability and caste oppressions through legal remedies and > > struggles against forced occupations such as manual scavenging, and by > > ensuring Dalits' access to education and livelihood. > > www.navsarjan.org > > > > Dalit Foundation supports small community based organizations, > > individuals and networks working for the empowerment of Dalit > > communities all over India. It promotes Dalit leadership, especially > > among youth and women, by providing small grants, fellowships and > > capacity building programmes. > > www.dalitfoundation.org > > > > Indian Institute of Dalit Studies is the first national research > > institute focused on issues of caste. Its objective is to bring the > > impact of caste into policy planning. It also bridges gaps between > > activists and academics. > > www.dalitstudies.org.in > > > > National Campaign of Dalit Human Rights is a secular coalition of > > Dalit Human Rights activists who challenge 'Casteism' and > > Untouchability'. Its mission is to wipe out caste based discrimination > > with a call to "Cast out Caste". > > www.dalits.org > > > > > > DVDs of this film are available from Drishti: > > 103, Anand Hari Tower, Sandesh Press Road, Bodakdev, Ahmedabad 380054, > > India. +91-79-2685 1235 and 6661 4235. drishtiad1 at gmail.com From sumit at tarshi.net Mon Apr 9 11:20:35 2007 From: sumit at tarshi.net (Sumit Baudh) Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2007 11:20:35 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Invitation /12 Apr 07 (Thur) 3-4:30pm, Prostitutes and Politics: the Tolerated Brothels Debate in Colonial India Message-ID: <20070409054926.3D91528DA52@mail.sarai.net> Reminder announcement. _____ The South and Southeast Asia Resource Centre on Sexuality is hosting a discussion on Prostitutes and Politics: the Tolerated Brothels Debate in Colonial India 12 April 2007 (Thursday), 3:00 - 4:30 pm TARSHI, 11, Mathura Road, First Floor, Jangpura B, New Delhi In 19th century colonial India the reaction to the threat (both social and biological) of the prostitute was to forcibly confine infected women in "lock hospitals". An international backlash against these measures left the government in need of a method of regulating prostitutes without seeming to impinge upon their liberty. Steve Legg, PhD will make a presentation for 45 minutes, tracing the 20th century evolution of the legislative machinery that allowed the state to exert some authority over female prostitutes. This involved a shift from initial policies of segregating women into certain quarters of a town, to the later targeting of brothels under the Suppression of Immoral Traffic Acts, both of which the prostitutes resisted and challenged in various ways. Steve attained BA and PhD from the University of Cambridge and spent three following years as a Research Fellow. He is now a Lecturer in cultural and historical geography at the University of Nottingham and has a book out in March/April entitled Spaces of Colonialism: Delhi's Urban Governmentalities to be published by Blackwells (in the UK, America and Australia) and Rawat Publishers (in India). He is currently expanding this work on urban politics to look at the regulatory policies applied to prostitutes in 20th century colonial India. This entails situating the local history of Delhi's prostitutes in the national politics of the Suppression of Immoral Traffic Acts and the international politics of social hygiene campaigners and the League of Nations. The presentation will be followed by an open discussion. Please stay for tea /coffee and biscuits from 4:30 - 5:00pm. RSVP: Sumit Baudh Senior Programme Associate The South and Southeast Asia Resource Centre on Sexuality TARSHI, 11 Mathura Road, 1st Floor, Jangpura B, New Delhi-110014 tel: +91 11 2437 9070, +91 11 2437 9071 fax: +91 11 2437 4022 eml: sumit at tarshi.net web: www.asiasrc.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070409/b0fe1ea8/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From pkray11 at gmail.com Mon Apr 9 12:49:33 2007 From: pkray11 at gmail.com (prakash ray) Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2007 12:49:33 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] film festival in delhi In-Reply-To: <98f331e00704070851q3cb21b77u52fa454b73fcc4a0@mail.gmail.com> References: <98f331e00704070851q3cb21b77u52fa454b73fcc4a0@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <98f331e00704090019v64312390o7e01f2f8784d4790@mail.gmail.com> *Cinemela Collectives* & *JNU Students Union* *School of Arts & Aesthetics * in collaboration with *Max Mueller Bhavan* * * invite you to * * *2nd CINEMELA* *a festival of short films & documentaries* *by young filmmakers* * * *Dates: * Thursday, 12 April, 2007 at 5.00 pm Friday, 13 April 2007 at 2.30 pm onwards & Saturday 14 - Sunday 15 April 2007 at 10.30 am onwards *Venue: * School of Arts and Aesthetics Auditorium, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi The first Cinemela festival in 2006 received an overwhelming response from viewers and filmmakers and was recognized by the Limca Book of Records. The festival aims at presenting films created by young filmmakers to young audiences and is an effort to create a space for new creative voices from across countries. Cinemela believes that the works deserve attention for their ability to go beyond local issues and provincial tastes while simultaneously opening up a window into diverse cultures. The festival aspires to provide an ideal opportunity to enjoy regional distinctiveness through films in their universal appeal. It also provides a platform for interactions and exchange among veteran film persons, young filmmakers and audiences. With this aim in view Cinemela is working on taking these films to many more schools, colleges and institutions. All young filmmakers and those who consider themselves young in the field are encouraged to send in their films to the festival. Max Mueller Bhavan, Goethe-Institut, as part of the 2nd Cinemela, presents a series of prize winning short films by young film makers, titled 'Gestures of Reconciliation'. This series is the result of a short film competition jointly organized by the "Remembrance and Future" Fund and the Goethe-Institut in Belarus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, the Ukraine and the United States. The films portray gestures of reconciliation between nations and people affected by WWII, made at political levels, social and religious initiatives, in the realms of academia and the arts, and between individuals. * * *Schedule * * * *Thursday 12 April – * *Inauguration 5.30 pm* GADI LOHARDAGA MAIL Dir: Meghnath & Bijju Toppo/ 27 Min / Jharkhand A musical with popular Jharkhandi songs…the only visual documentation of the historical train…. * * BERLIN DIARY Dir: Ester Amrami / 2005 / DV colour/ 15 min / Germany & Israel This short semi-documentary film portrays the life of a young Israeli woman in Berlin. It takes the form of a video letter to her grandparents in Israel who had to emigrate from Germany during the 1930s. Ester Amrami, born in Israel in 1979, has lived in Berlin since 2003. Friday 13 April 2.30-6.00pm BILORI Dir: Sandeip Modi /12.30 min/ Marathi An innocent child grows up one night… *SARA LOHA UNKA/ BABU NANDAN KI KEWAL DHAR * Dir : Sunil Umarao & Ajita Singh/ 40 Min/ Hindi/Bhojpuri A Dhobia folk artist expressing his world through singing and dancing… *2800 KM FROM HOME * Dir: Daniel Erb/ 2005/HDV/ 19min/ GERMANY/RUSSIA Somewhere in the Russian tundra Hans from Thuringia is driving along in his jeep. Then, after several hours he stops and begins to dig ... Daniel Erb was born in Karlsruhe ,Germany, in 1976. Specializations: time-Iapse photography, long-term exposure, in-camera effects. *DEUS EX MACHINA* Dir: Moonika Siimets/ 2005/ 6mm/ 11:48 Min/ Estonia Former KGB spy Wilhelm tries to find his place in a newborn Estonian Republic, but it seems that his past has not forgotten him. One day strange things start to happen. A story about fate and conscience. Moonika Siimets was born in Estonia in 1980 and is a final year student at the Film and Video Department of the University of Tallinn . *FREQUENCIES * Dir: Priit Pääsuke/ 2005/DV/16:22 min/ Estonia Oliver, a yuppie, lives with his disabled grandfather. The old man's reality is constantly encroached upon by his past and Word War II. He also smells and talks to his radio and Oliver is embarrassed by him. When he starts an argument with his girlfriend Liina, tragic events ensue Priit Pääsuke was born in 1975 in Tallinn, Estonia. He is a film student at Tallinn University. *CALL OF THE HEART * Dir: ]aanis Valk/2005/ Betacam SP/ 9:35 min/ Estonia It has been decades since the occupation of the Estonian Republic by the Soviet Union. The country is free again but nevertheless, many Estonians are still not capable of forgiving those whose only guilt was to believe in the wrong ideology. ]aanis Valk was born in 1979 in southern Estonia. He has directed two start fiction films and a feature length documentary film as his diploma film. He has appeared in several Estonian fiction films as an actor and has worked as assistant director on the production of a feature film. *RANDOM VOICES FROM KASHMIR * Dir. Dr Parvez Imam / 11 min / Hindi …the people still speak of love, peace, brotherhood, fond memories.. will they remain unheard for ever? * * *ANANT KALAKAR* Dir: Sudheer Gupta/ 34 min / Hindi/ Rajasthani A saga of the folk artists from Rajasthan… Saturday 14 April 10.15am-6.00pm *POORVAGRAH * Dir: Surender Kumar/ 20 min/ Hindi A film portraying discrimination on the basis of caste… * * *LANDMARKS - A JOURNEY IN JERUSALEM * Dir: Carmit Shlomi/ 2005/ DV/ 8:23min A very personal tour of Jerusalem portraying the city as an abandoned zone. Carmit Shlomi was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, in 1975 and graduated from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem in 2005. *WITHOUT A WORD * Dir: Alex Kreindlln /2005/ DV/ 10:30 min/ Israel A black and white silent comedy that makes everything just confusing enough to make the situation perfectly clear. Alex Kreindin was born in Russia in 1981. *DIM* Dir: Anil Sadarangani /3.30min/ English Two women from a minority community discuss the housing problem in Mumbai… *IN INDIA * Dir: V V Maheshwar Rao – 6 Min – English A young foreigner studying in India talks about his experiences… *AGAURAV * Dir: Nakul Sawhney/ 13 Min/ Hindi A young villager faces the city…. *JALLAH EUROPE * Dir: Edit Sieradzky/ 2005/ DV/ 21:00 min/ Israel Jean travels to Israel for a series of meetings concerning Israel's EU affiliation. As he arrives with his wife Marie, he finds out that the meetings were cancelled due to a terrorist attack in Israel. Instead they let Hezi, an Israeli taxi driver, take them on a journey full of discoveries about themselves. Edit Sieradzky was born in Israel in 1976. She lives in Tel Aviv. *2 * Dir: Tal Kfir/ 2005/ DV/ 14:00 min/ Israel The story of Tal and Shirin These two young women take part in a self help group called "Bereaved Families Supporting Peace, Reconciliation and Tolerance". Shirin has lost a brother and Tal a sister in the long Israeli- Palestinian conflict. The film shows the power of words and deeds that arise from silence and almost paralyzing pain. Tal Kfir war born in Ashkelon, Israel, in 1977. *BREAKING THE WALL OF IGNORANCE* Dir: Ashish Bhatiya/ 6.34 min/ Hindi/ About children and young people suffering from Down Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, Autism, Hearing Impairment, Mental Illnesses… *HUMAN STORY * Dir: Mukesh Kabir Kapoor/ 5 Min/ English How one human can torture the other without any hesitation or remorse… *CELL DIVISION* Dir: Liene Milgrave/ 2005/ mini DV/ 15:00 min/ Latria A Russian prison in the 1980s. An old German prisoner meets a young Russian criminal. The film deals with the problematic situation when an ideology is confronted with reality and the past has to be re-evaluated. Liene Milgrave was born in 1984 in Riga, Latvia. *WAR GAMEZ* Dir: Rafal Samusik/ 2005/ mini DV/ 15:00 min/ Poland The small personal war of a little boy spending his summer vacation at his grandfather's house in the country. A perverse symbiosis takes shape between the child, who is fascinated by the German army and the old Polish war veteran. Is it even possible in peacetime to comprehend the reality of war? Is it not true that the war is still going on? Rafal Samusik was born in 1978. He holds a degree in Architecture and is currently studying Film Directing (second year) at the Silesian University, Faculty of Radio and Television. *THE QUEST* Dir: Khanjan Kishore Nath/ 12.54 Min/ Assamese A rotten gourd, hardly sprouted, spotted in the backyard of the house of a poor childless couple…. *LIVING UNDER BONDAGE * Dir: Venkat/Veeramani/ 21 Min/ Hindi/English The workers in a prestigious institute like JNU… Sunday 15 April 10.15am-6.00pm *LOHA GARAM HAI * Dir: Meghnath & Bijju Toppo/ 47 Min/ Hindi They live along with an Iron Sponge factory.. Do they live at all? *GESTURES. RECONCILlATION ...* Dir: Tschingiz F. Rasulzade / 2005/ Betacam SP/ 9:40 min/ Russia Alexander Nikolayevich is very old The war rolled through his life like a steamroller. He does not remember the war or the suffering He remembers something else the gestures, the movements of hands his hands He has long since forgiven everyone. He is willing to take the hand of the former enemy But he cannot… Tschingiz F. Rasulzade was born in 1972 in Baku, Azerbaijan , into a family of engineers. *THE BIRTHDAY* Dir: Georgij Bagdasarov/ 2005/mini DV/14:59 min/ Russia On his last birthday, Adolf Hitler decides he doesn't want to die after all and orders his adjutant to kidnap Charlie Chaplin, kill him and place his corpse in the Führer's bunker. That war, he was able to take Chaplin's place and finally fulfil his dream of becoming an artist. Born in 1978 in Kzil-Orda, Kazachstan. *SANGATI * Dir: Vikram V Labhe/ 3.30 Min She runs through the narrow lanes of the slum… she has to reach school on time… *BETWEEN THE LINES* Dir: Dr Parvez Imam/11 Min/ Hindi These lives are disowned by the both sides of the borders… we call them 'Bangladeshis'… *CLAY PIGEON* Dir: Milos Tomic/ 2005/ mini DV/ 6:45 min/ Czech Republic A couple's romance and love games come to an abrupt end when the man is drafted into the army. A long farewell, a sad farewell, which, still remains a game Milos Tomic has shot numerous short documentaries as well as experimental,futuristic and avant-garde works and is active as a passionate and patient collector/observer. *PREJUDICE EXCHANGE* Dir: Ivo Bystrican, Katerina Kacerovska, Radovan Sibrt / 2005/ DV/ 15:00 min/ Czech Republic Czech and German historians come to a museum to design an exhibition on Czech-German relations However, an embarrassing quarrel ends the endeavor. A pseudo-documentary film about Czechs and Germans, about antagonistic versions of their history, about prejudices stereotypes and the microcosms of coexistence. *OLD AGE * Dir: Chetan Kumar/1 Min They are not a burden… *STOP CHILD LABOUR* Dir: Chetan Kumar/ 1 Min Nurture these little petals… *UNDECIDED* Dir: Nakul Sawhney /17 Min/ Hindi A young journalist finds himself confronting a plethora of choices and questions… *YESTERDAY * Dir: Sunali Aggarwal/ 9.50 Min/ English We see what we want to see and hence get disappointed when reality reveals something we never imagined….. *THE GERMAN LESSON* Dir: Igor Strembltskyy/ 2005/ mini DV/ 11:00 min/ Ukraine In autumn 1942 Kalyna Bourkun was taken to Germany for forced labour. In 1945 she gave birth to her daughter Hanna in Berlin. For more than 38 years, Hanna Bourkun has been teaching German in a Ukrainian vIllage school. Igor Strembitsky was born in 1973 in the village of Paryshche , Nadvirna district, Ivano.Frankivsk region, Ukraine. *UTA * Dir: Kim Spurlock/ 2005/ mini DV/ 13:00 min/ USA An elderly German woman faces her troubled past in order to prevent a young boy from repeating her mistakes. Kim Spurlock was born in 1969 in Oregon, USA. She traces her roots to Vietnam and Appalachia. *FINAL LAP * Dir: J. J. Adler/ 2005/ mini DV/ 12:15 min/ USA Tom, 15, spends his days committing petty crimes with friend Lindsay. At night he smokes alone on the roof, watching a mysterious car roar around the block. On one night, when Lindsay joins Tom on the roof, the mysterious car stops in front of the hause and reveals a painful reality in Tom's life. J. J. Adler was born in New York,USA, in 1981. *NEMESIS OF MOTHERHOOD * Dir: Snehasis Das/ 28 Min/ Orriya Women of Karijhola unknowingly essay the nation's highest maternal mortality rate… also the world's highest….. *AAP JAISA KOI NAHIN * Dir: Samina Aslam (Pakistan)/ 20 Min/ English A tribute to Nazia Hasan, a very popular singer in the Indian sub-continent who died young…. * * NEW DELHI PRIVATE LIMITED Dir: Ravinder S Randhawa/ 20 Min/ Hindi/English Delhi is being transformed… but at what cost…. * * * * * * * * * * * * For more information contact : Prakash K Ray, Convenor. 9811450214 cinemela at gmail.com cinemela.blogspot.com ** -- Prakash K Ray 254, Sutlej, JNU, New Delhi-67 www.cinemela.org (available soon) cinemela.blogspot.com (0) 9811450214 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070409/45fc73e5/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From alice at tank.tv Tue Apr 10 18:06:27 2007 From: alice at tank.tv (Alice O'Reilly) Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2007 13:36:27 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Les Guetteurs on www.tank.tv 15.04.07 - 30.05.07 Message-ID: <442eb4460704100536r520790d7pab16a01f6244744b@mail.gmail.com> tank.tv www.tank.tv / Saison Video 15th April – 30th May 2007 Les Guetteurs New Moving Images from France This month's exhibition has been produced by Saison Video for www.tank.tv. It examines film and video emerging from France. Saturated in rich artistic tradition, France's star in the contemporary art world is once again rising and from the plethora of work coming out of the country Saison Video have made a selection based around the common theme of the body. Cécile Wesolowski's video is part of a work (composed of videos and digital images) which shows a young girl in her everyday life. Her disappointment in reality has pushed her to recreate a virtual life where her social relations are purely imaginary and mimed. Girl of my dreams represents the image that the young girl has of herself as a dancer. She thinks she is talented, but as her choreography and her flexibility are relatively bad, her dance lesson ends badly since she injures her foot and abandons her lesson crying. There are protagonists from different social backgrounds, household staff or personnel, visibly in a public waiting area in Fabien Rigobert's South Flower 2. They all seem affected or shaken by an event 'off camera' that we have no way of interpreting. The characters are in a state of physical interaction but the poses of the actors are structured around an inner withdrawal. Les Guetteurs by Virginie Yassef was made during the football World Cup in 1998 in Paris – Hôtel de Ville. Whilst the final was being transmitted on to a giant screen positioned too low, a great number of spectators decided little by little to get higher in order to attend the retransmission of the match between Brazil and France. The increasing excitement is linked to the physical ascent of the spectators on the improvised watchtowers and urban dungeons surrounding the screen all around. No direct image of the match but the absurd and incredible situation around it and the hunt for a viewpoint. Each piece features bodies struggling and haunted as they negotiate others, society, everyday tasks and their own physical reality. Bodies floating, immersed, hanging, erotic and elusive. Artists include : Cécile Wesolowski, Marie Voignier, Jeanne Susplugas, Marie Reinert, Jean Charles Hue, Virginie Yassef, Armelle Aulestia, Barbara Noiret and Fabien Rigobert. Les Guetters is on www.tank.tv from 15th April – 30th May 2007. With thanks to Eric Deneuville and Mo Gourmelon at L'Espace Croise : www.espacecroise.com - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - For press enquiries please contact: Alice O'Reilly alice at tank.tv tank.tv / Tank Magazine 49-50 Great Marlborough Street London - W1F 7JR - UK - Tel: +44 (0) 207 434 0110 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - Alice O'Reilly tank.tv 5th floor 49-50 Great Marlborough street London W1F 7JR alice at tank.tv T +44 (0)207434 0110 F +44 (0)207434 9232 http://www.tank.tv - - - - - - - - - - - - - - tank.tv is an inspirational showcase for innovative work in film and video / dedicated to exhibiting and promoting emerging and established international artists, www.tank.tv acts as a major online gallery and archive for video art / a platform for contemporary moving images. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070410/4b0a5d2d/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From suchisen1 at rediffmail.com Mon Apr 9 12:31:42 2007 From: suchisen1 at rediffmail.com (Sucharita Sengupta) Date: 9 Apr 2007 07:01:42 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] For Nalin/B grade Engineering College Message-ID: <20070409070142.21025.qmail@webmail89.rediffmail.com>   Dear Nalin, I am very enthused by your idea of studying B Grade Enginnering Colleges. I shall proceed to give you my observations.Please note that i am not an engineer by profession, but most of my friends have studied in such colleges. You could possibly study the Punjab Technical University. Several colleges under the university often have poor infrastructure, from building to faculty. The qualifications of the faculty may not be suspect, but is by no standard world class. There is faulty marking and poor syllabi. A friend who studied at one such college got the shock of her life when she chose to work on a topic called Data Mining. While on a visit to Vancouver, she spoke to a professor who was a leader in the field. When he asked her to tell him what she knew, she confidently rattled off all that she had studied. The Professor then gently broke the news to her that this knowledge was ancient, and she had a lot of reading and research to catch up on. Predictably, she returned very disappointed. Several of these colleges seem to have very relaxed cut-off percentage. There is also something called 'Capitation Fee', which basically means that one can pay an exorbitant amount to buy seats if they cannot gain admission purely on the basis of merit. I was thinking, during the anti-reservation campaign, much was made of the concept of 'merit', but cannot really spot true merit coming out in rushes from several of the colleges.However, one thing i have noticed, everyone gets a job. Before the entrance exams, yet another scam takes place. Previosuly, students aspiring to gain admission used to the IITs would pay huge amounts for coaching. Now, anyone who wishes to become an engineer, even from a B grade college, does the same. So in line with the actual colleges, several coaching centres have come up, all of which charge crazy money. One such college in Chandigarh, has an entrance exam to qualify for admission into the coaching institute! Again, where is the 'merit' part? I haven't really made up my mind on the reservations issue.But having seen what i have in B Grade Engineering Colleges, the merit argument does not hold much water. Readers are free to disagree and provide counterarguments. Somehow,one cannot stop this niggling feeling that we're churning out mediocrity. Again, counterarguments are welcome. Good luck with your study, and keep posting what you discover. Warm Regards Sucharita Sengupta On Mon, 09 Apr 2007 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. B Grade Engineering College Culture (Nalin Mathur) > 2. Cinematic City:Kolkata, Modernity, MiddleClass&the Urban > Woman--1950s &60s Popular Bangla cinema. (smita mitra) > 3. Re: Nizamuddin Basti (Yousuf) > 4. Response to Ratish re: Nizamuddin Basti (Sudeshna Chatterjee) > > >---------------------------------------------------------------------- > >Message: 1 >Date: Sun, 8 Apr 2007 01:23:14 +0530 > From: "Nalin Mathur" >Subject: [Reader-list] B Grade Engineering College Culture >To: reader-list at sarai.net >Message-ID: > <7c0063460704071253k2287ea1ah169423459673f6ab at mail.gmail.com> >Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > >Sarai / Independent Fellow 2007/ Nalin N. Mathur/ Second Posting > >Confession Time > >Now nobody calls his or her *Alma Mater* a B – Grade institute, definitely >not in public. It remains a universal fact that one tends to relate with >ones institute, irrespective of its social or educational ranking. Even >though I agreed with this theory, I had to experience it first hand when I >broke the news of receiving a fellowship to study B – Grade Engineering >college culture to my friends. Let me share with you upfront that I was >expecting words of praise and encouragement, which I eventually got, but not >before being subjected to ridicule. Most of my friends were dejected at the >adjective I had used to describe our college. Almost all showered >obscenities. Those few with a sense of history reminded me of Arthur >Wellesley's epic tribute to his *Alma Mater* mentioning the famous "*The >battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton *" quote >(forgetting that the play ground at our college resembled an over sized cow >shed for the better part of our graduation). Nevertheless, what hit me the >most with this quote was our uncanny resemblance to Wellesley's educational >and professional life. Like Wellesley, I or my friends never scored well at >school. Later in life he was a highly successful and decorated soldier, >something which we wish to accomplish in our respective field of expertise. > >As a whole, I observed two points, which have become the basis of my study >for this fellowship. One – the utter disregard of ones academic credentials >in view of gaining success in life. The zeal to accomplish and beat the odds >has absolutely nothing to do with ones *Alma Mater.* The aspiration and >attitude to go for the kill are as independent features from the place of >graduating as rocket science is from the excavations at Harappa. In short, >just like a shrewd Wellesley defeated the mighty Napoleon, graduates from B >– Grade engineering colleges are all pumped up to take on the world. > >Two – all said and done, Wellesley was from Eton, among the best schools in >the world with a culture and legacy as enriching as it can get. No matter >how he fared in classes, he must have gained something, the credit for which >can go to his school as well. A similar scene shapes up for my study. B – >Grade Engineering colleges have a lot to catch up on when compared with the >top tier institutions, engineers from which, irrefutably, have a major edge, >in terms of level of education, exposure and environment. > >So here I am, trying to get over this fascination from Duke of Wellington >and his times, and the contradictory notions cropping up in my mind. And try >to study and document as to what goes inside those worn out walls of a >second tier engineering college. What happens to half a million engineers >passing out from such colleges every year in India? What role do they play >in building on a society? What aspirations do they carry? What is it that >makes them believe that they can excel when they would be competing with >peers who are far better equipped? And importantly what kind of dynamics do >they create and live through? > >To be honest I am skeptical if I would be able to present the answers in the >manner they deserve. Or, in the first place, if I would be able to find them >at all. > >If I do, my Orkut profile would read – I am done! > >Regards, > >Nalin N. >Mathur -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070409/9fbc30bf/attachment.html From faiz.outsider at gmail.com Mon Apr 9 17:57:37 2007 From: faiz.outsider at gmail.com (faiz ullah) Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2007 17:57:37 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] BJP goes Radio Ga Ga Message-ID: <96c0bb200704090527sf955551te8b1fec976f13f3f@mail.gmail.com> *Radio ga ga for Uttar Pradesh polls* * TIMES NEWS NETWORK**[ WEDNESDAY, APRIL 04, 2007 04:27:52 AM*] After the India Shining Campaign Backfired, BJP seems to have got their basics right this time for the Delhi Municipal Corporation elections. Moving away from their 'broad strokes and sweeping statements' style BJP this time around had a very specific message and went for the kill. It'll be of great interest to see them repeating the same feat (if at all they do)... in the ongoing UP Polls and elsewhere later, especially when towns like Aligarh, Bareilly, hisar, bikaner, karnal, etc (the list of coming up stations is very long) have got their own FM stations... Regards, Faiz http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/PoliticsNation/Radio_ga_ga_for_Uttar_Pradesh_polls/articleshow/1853532.cms NEW DELHI: In the tussle to attract voters' attention in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, it is the good old radio which has staged a comeback as the main medium of publicity for political players. Buoyed by the positive feedback to its Dilli gul ya Congress gul campaign, conducted through the radio and the print medium, to lure the Delhi municipal corporation voters, the BJP on Tuesday unveiled a similar publicity blitz for Uttar Pradesh. The focus of this project too is the radio, and to some extent, the newspapers. The visual medium figures very low in the party's scheme of things. The BJP's strategy was honed out on the basis of the report of an extensive survey conducted at its behest on the effectiveness of the means of communication used by the political parties in battleground UP. ``It was discovered that while 32% of the people surveyed did not read newspapers, almost every family in the stated owned a radio. And 40% of the people did not have access to TVs,'' pointed out former BJP president M Venkaiah Naidu, who's in charge of the state for the coming elections. The party has, accordingly, devised its publicity plans with the focus on radio. It has prepared a series of short 24 second/30 second advertisements to captivate the voters across the state. The main themes of this publicity drive are the rampant corruption in the state, collapse of law and order machinery and the reign of terror, criminalisation and the galloping prices. While the Samajwadi Party, BSP and the Congress have been treated at par (Panja, Cycle aur haathi, yeh teenon hain barabar ke saathi), the ads depict the BJP and its chief ministerial candidate Kalyan Singh as the best option for the electorate. The voice-over in these ads, christened Saavdhan, Nithari and Janata Past, have been provided by film actor Mukesh Khanna. ``Each spot will be relayed at least 10 times every day through all the AIR and FM stations dotting the state till the end of the campaigning period,'' observed Mr Naidu. While radio occupies the pride of place in its publicity roadmap, the BJP has chosen the print media and the TV channels too to get its message across. A spoof on the now-famous Kyonki UP mein jurm hai kam catchline mouthed on behalf the ruling Samajwadi Party by superstar Amitabh Bachchan will go on air shortly through the TV channels. While the party refuses to part with details of the kind of expenditure it'll have to incur in the process, it is expected that it'll have to fork out an estimated Rs 30 lakh on its radio blitz (including the FM channels and the state-owned Vividh Bharati). The party is also relying on short plays, mounted on mobile raths, to gets its views across to the people. The plays, lampooning the Mulayam Singh Yadav government and the Samajwadi Party, as well as the BSP and the Congress in the local languages, will be staged at as many as 1400 venues across the state. Five such roaming theatres will criss-cross the state in the next 29 days of campaigning. The actors, who have been drawn from Rajasthan and Gujarat, besides UP, will be travelling aboard these raths, which have been equipped with the latest audio-visual systems. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070409/6eddea1c/attachment.html From shahzulf at yahoo.com Mon Apr 9 18:28:45 2007 From: shahzulf at yahoo.com (Zulfiqar Shah) Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2007 05:58:45 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Harri Conference, Bhitt Shah Message-ID: <513676.92622.qm@web38808.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Harri Conference, Bhitt Shah Thousands of male and female peasants and agriculture workers participated the Harri Conference on April 8, 2007 at Bhitt Shah organized by South Asia Partnership Pakistan - Sindh Office & Bhitt Shah Deceleration Coordination Council, Sindh. Tableaus, stage theatre, folk and cultural music, sharing by peasants from various crop pattern areas, talk by civil society actors on Sindh Tenancy Act and a walk for wachan from conference hall to the tomb of Bhitt Dhani were the contents of the congregation. The civil society representatives who participated the conference include Mr. Mohammad Tahseen, SAP – PK, Mr. Rochi Ram, veteran lawyer, Mr. Salman G. Abro, SWAFCO, Avocate Ayaz Lateef Palejo, Ms. Sassui Palejo, MPA, PPP, Zulfiqar Shah, SAP – PK, Sindh Office, Lala Arshad Khaskhelly, BDCC, Mr. Nazeer Memon, Mr. Mustafa Baloch, SPO, Mr. Adam Malik, Action Aid, Mr. Punhal Saryo, SNC, Mr. Mohammad Yaqoob, Takhleeq Foundation, Mr. Ghaffar Malik, SDS, Mr. Zain Daudpotto, IDO / JAC, Mr. Ramzan Memon, BHS, Dr. Haider Malookani, Mr. Ashique Solangi, writer, Mr. Badar Soomro, HRCP, Mr. Illyas Khokhar and others. Following resolution were passed by the participants of conference: Resolutions of the Harri Conference This conference demands the constitution of new Sindh Tenancy Act, according to the contemporary socio-economic situation and scenario of agriculture in Sindh. Through, hitherto, process of consultation by civil society organizations with peasants, lawyers and other stakeholders, bellow suggestion have developed for new tenancy act: [However, the consultation needs to processed out further]: - The Consent of the landlord should not be necessary for transferring the right of tenancy at some other piece or parcel pf land of the same landlord - In case of death of tenant, the tenancy rights should be devolved to his heir, irrespectively of his religion. - The nomination of family member by Tribunal for managing the tenancy in case of mental incapacity of the tenant should be valid even after the lifetime of the tenant as laid down in Chapter 2, Para 10 (1) and (2) of the act. Besides, the nomination of family member for managing the tenancy due to mental incapacity of the tenant should be made first of all by the family of the tenant. I case of dispute on nomination among the family members, than the matter should be taken to the Tribunal. - In case of tenant’s absence from cultivation for over 1 year under appropriate arrangement, his right to cultivation shall remain effective. The consent of landlord for selecting any person to work in place of the tenant during his absence should not be necessary. - If the government acquires or requisites such land for the said reason, than the effected tenant should be compensated with alternate land for cultivation employment or cash amount. - In case of landlord taking his land back from for the reason of personal mechanized cultivation or gardening he shall give the compensation to tenant in form of alternate land cultivation or cash amount. - The Landlord should pay either as compensation against eviction Rs. 10000 per acre to the evicted tenant or the value of the share of tenant in the most production crop value of the land from which he has been evicted or any one of these which has the highest value. - The Hari should b represented for hearing of the case either by himself or by some other harri of the same Deh or by some hari rights worker or activist. If legal practitioner is necessary, than the government should arrange it free of cost for the harri. - The fine money as punishment should be abolished however, the court must grant the effected party with compensation in kind of cash or redress the loss. - Some clause of existing tenancy act [Chapter II, Para 13 – f, g, i, and Section II 1-d] should not be included in the new draft. · The role and responsibilities of Kamdar / Munshi should also be defined in the act, keeping in views hid influence as a representative of landlord on the tenant. · Tenant should be provided social security, old age benefits, education and health facilities as they area provided to industrial / urban labor. Zakat fund and land tax should be utilized, if necessary, to implement the provision of said facilities to tenants. · In areas of Kacho, Kohistan and Thar, the situation of tenants is different from other parts of Sindh province Therefore, many clauses should particularly be explained also in accordance with these areas. · Millions of acres of Land in Kacho area are un-surveyed. These lands should be surveyed and distributed among haris of the area. · In case of wage cropper, the industrial Relation Ordinance should be applicable with minimum wage rule. · Corporate farming should be stopped · Harri Courts should be established /opened · Provision of fertilizer, seed, fuel on low process to peasants · Bonded labor should be stopped --- Zulfiqar Shah Provincial Coordinator South Asia Partnership Pakistan - Sindh Office Hyderabad Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070409/0a508d1a/attachment.html From paramita_gh at yahoo.com Mon Apr 9 19:30:14 2007 From: paramita_gh at yahoo.com (paramita ghosh) Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2007 15:00:14 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] Cinematic City:Kolkata, Modernity, MiddleClass&the Urban Woman--1950s &60s Popular Bangla cinema. In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <523156.54184.qm@web30501.mail.mud.yahoo.com> i think u cd consider meghe dhaka tara (1960, ritwik ghatak) as a case study of women, as seen through the character of Nita, being treated as 'mother figures' and the implicit expectation of sacrifice and hence exploitation, by the family. it might not be a 'popular' film but highly identifiable as an example of what u plan to do. smita mitra wrote: Dear All, Sorry for missing my deadline for the second posting for IFS--2007 ON Cinematic City :Kolkata,Modernity,Middle class and the Urban Woman-A study of 1950s and 60s Popular Cinema. To remind all the list of Films that I propose to look at include: Saptapadi (1961-Ajay Kar),Harano Sur(1957-Ajay Kar),Saat Pake Bandha(1963-Ajay Kar),Sagarika(1956-Agragami), Uttar Phalguni(1966),Bipasha(1962-Agradoot),Pothey Holo Deri(1957-Agradoot),Chaowa Paowoa(1959-Yatrik)Trizama(1956-Agradoot),Teen Bhuvoner Paare(1969-Ashutosh Banerjee) Abhoyar Biye(1957-S.Dasgupto),Bicharok(1959-Prabhat Mukherjee). Can anyone suggest some more Popular Films from the same period that I can add to or see while working out my ideas on the cinematic negotiations of the 'self' that are being located within a particular kind of urban experience?Briefly I am interested in unpacking The nature of the individual self that is dislocated or decentered from the familial space _________________________________________ 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. To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list List archive: --------------------------------- Here’s a new way to find what you're looking for - Yahoo! Answers -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070409/acb653fd/attachment.html From nalin.mathur at gmail.com Mon Apr 9 15:00:21 2007 From: nalin.mathur at gmail.com (Nalin Mathur) Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2007 15:00:21 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] B Grade Engineering College Culture Message-ID: <7c0063460704090230n4f699ef1r35285effaece0dcf@mail.gmail.com> Sarai / Independent Fellow 2007/ Nalin N. Mathur/ Second Posting Confession Time Now nobody calls his or her Alma Mater a B – Grade institute, definitely not in public. It remains a universal fact that one tends to relate with ones institute, irrespective of its social or educational ranking. Even though I agreed with this theory, I had to experience it first hand when I broke the news of receiving a fellowship to study B – Grade Engineering college culture to my friends. Let me share with you upfront that I was expecting words of praise and encouragement, which I eventually got, but not before being subjected to ridicule. Most of my friends were dejected at the adjective I had used to describe our college. Almost all showered obscenities. Those few with a sense of history reminded me of Arthur Wellesley's epic tribute to his Alma Mater mentioning the famous "The battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton " quote (forgetting that the play ground at our college resembled an over sized cow shed for the better part of our graduation). Nevertheless, what hit me the most with this quote was our uncanny resemblance to Wellesley educational and professional life. Like Wellesley me or my friends never scored well at school. Later in life he was a highly successful and decorated soldier, something which we wish to accomplish in our respective field of expertise. I observed two points, which have become the basis of my study for this fellowship. One – the utter disregard of ones academic credentials in view of gaining success in life. The zeal to accomplish and beat the odds has absolutely nothing to do with ones Alma Mater. The aspiration and attitude to go for the kill are as independent features from the place of graduating as rocket science is from the excavations at Harappa. In short, just like a shrewd Wellesley defeated the mighty Napoleon, graduates from B – Grade engineering colleges are all pumped up to take on the world. Two – all said and done, Wellesley was from Eton, among the best schools in the world with a culture and legacy as enriching as it can get. No matter how he fared in classes, he must have gained something, the credit for which can go absolutely and only to his school. A similar scene shapes up for my study. B – Grade Engineering colleges have a lot to catch up on when compared with the top tier institutions, engineers from which, irrefutably, have a major edge, in terms of level of education, exposure and environment. So here I am, trying to get over this fascination from Duke of Wellington and his times. And try to study and document as to what goes inside those worn out walls of a second tier engineering college. What happens to half a million engineers passing out from such colleges every year in India? What role do they play in building on a society? What aspirations do they carry? What is it that makes them believe that they can excel when they would be competing with peers who are far better equipped? And importantly what kind of dynamics do they create and live through? To be honest (and candid) I am skeptical if I would be able to present the answers in the manner they deserve. Or, in the first place, if I would be able to find them at all. If I do, my Orkut profile would read – I am done! Regards, Nalin N. Mathur -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070409/7f546d71/attachment.html From priyababu_sudar at yahoo.co.in Mon Apr 9 12:27:46 2007 From: priyababu_sudar at yahoo.co.in (priya babu) Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2007 07:57:46 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] aravani community in madurai Message-ID: <788263.80980.qm@web94106.mail.in2.yahoo.com> Documentation of Aravaani Community in Madurai District Priyababu The presence of Draupadi temples around Madurai, Paramakudi, Kumbakonam, Palayamkottai and Veeravanallur in Thirunelvelli came into existence during the reign of Thirumallai Nayakar and Krishnadeva Raayar. In Madurai itself the temple was established as a full-fledged place of worship in 1884. Within the Saurashtra Ghetto in Madurai there are three temples for Draupadi and each of these has a sanctum for Aravan. All these temples are administered by the community trusts. On the Aravan of Vaikasi month the festival is inaugurated and Villi Baratham is recited. The demographic count of this community, according to them, is about a third of the population of Madurai. As per their belief they claim that Aravaan has promised to stay with the losing party so that they may recover victory. Therefore during the Kurushetra war to keep Aravaan from join the Kauravas, Krishna plans his killing in the name of sacrifice. But the aravaani community does not patronize these temples as much as those existing in the Vanniyar belts. Aravan in these temples are worshipped on an everyday as any other deity. Aravaanis seem to frequent Aravaan temples around the areas like Pandikoyil, Madappuram Kalli Koyil, and Thaayamangalam. Members of this community reside in Munichchaalai, Avaniyapuram, Usilampatti, Thirubuvanam, Kalluppatti, Karmaathur, Therkkuvaasal, Bibikullam, and Thiruparamkundram in Madurai district. Most of them are involved in performing traditional folk art forms like Karakaattam, Oyil Attam, Oppari and Therukuttu. Some of them are chefs. Techniques that are exclusive to this community are breaking coconut on the head, chopping raw banana, swirling flaming torches while doing Karakaattam [dancing with a pot [karagam] on the head]. The Jamad system is very similar to the one in Hyderabad, which is referred to as Bade Haveli and Chotte Haveli. Jamad is almost like a regulatory body for the community, but frequented by members of the community and those adopted from the 'normal' society as pseudo-family members. --------------------------------- Here’s a new way to find what you're looking for - Yahoo! Answers -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070409/0dae0d5c/attachment.html From jeebesh at sarai.net Tue Apr 10 21:47:33 2007 From: jeebesh at sarai.net (Jeebesh Bagchi) Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2007 21:47:33 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Speculation and Acquisition Message-ID: <70509397-0BE2-44F6-AFDC-755C64B2EF99@sarai.net> Dear All, Here are some fragmentary notes that may gather some life in circulation! ---------------------- Over the last few years two processes have got sharply delineated and visible. Speculation and Acquisition I) Speculation (dreams of wealth and mobility with displacement) Speculation is crucial to how we inhabit the world of property. The thought of "how long to hold on" ; "when to buy"; "when to sell" occupies a fair degree of brain power and conversational time in people with property or plans of property or resentment about property. The dreams of unimagined gains swing many a robust mind to confusion and grandeur. Speculation acts on mobility of capital. But, its relationship to acquisition is less explored. How does it effect the "acreage" of acquisition? II)Acquisition The dramatic visibility of capture of land for fast-track projects - infrastructural, production enterprises and ancillary structures (service and real estate) has brought the politics of acquisition into sharp focus . Here state intervenes with speed to produce space for deployment of technologies and architectures to mobilize and intensify production. The capture of large tracts of land is crucial for this. (Relative measures of speed of different nation-states are sources of ruminations of edit pages of newspapers). Obstacles to this process are: a) If the process of buying and selling is kept "as usual" then there is a huge problem of aggregation, assembling of land. b) Crucially, various property owners who, anticipating better future bargains through differential and escalating rent, prefer not to sell outright within the given acquisition rates. c) The refusal by so-called obdurate and non-progressive sensibilities that do not want to sell land and thus come in the way of land being transformed into a commodity which can then be transactable through global financial networks. d) The millions of "non-owner" users of land who do not have "titles" but have long duree embedded material life committed around land. These are the people who come into the way of enforced selling and buying of land in a very forceful way. This is a nightmare situation for hungry large investments. Political society, however efficient, will take years to get land cleared for any project if they are to move with persuasion and intricate time consuming individual bargains. This enormous quagmire is sought to be overcome by the legal seizure of the "public", in whose name land will be acquired. Thus the weight of "public purpose" is critical in any acquisition act. Without a discourse of "public purpose" we would be face to face with naked apparatus of violence of state and capital. State mediates this violence discursively by constantly creating a field of to-be- negotiated "growth/development path". It is around this negotiation that media and political parties debate the pros and cons of the violence and ensuing displacement. In the present, Acquisition Narratives seem to follow a pattern. (outside earshot) A notice Restlessness Persuasion Conflicts (peripheral vision) Confrontations Violence unleashed by state apparatus (lists and blogs) Condemnation (loud big fights) Opining around pros and cons, a pathetic debate on what is best for National Interest, Pride and Glory. A fear of falling sensed all around. Capitalism's sustained production of despair (which occasionally gets submerged by euphoria) best manifests during these debates. What gets left behind? Crucially, after the heat, what are the ways of thinking.? Forced acquisitions will accelerate. It will confront deeper sediments of social and material life. There will be temporary halts and jerks but the juggernaut is on. It will attempt to suspend all forms of coalitions and mobilizations. Violence will accelerate and so will rallying cries. We seem to be trapped in a spiral that takes in its wake higher and higher human costs. But imagination of today is so locked into power and wealth as the motor of history, that it is impossible to move aside the "national" and see a larger canvas, drawing other spaces and times. (Police records in China record for 80,000 protest, rioting and disturbances last year). In peace time all national units are to compete with each other and learn to produce faster and cheaper. In war time all national units will compete to annihilate each other with speed and efficiency. warmly jeebesh From paulo.hartmann at mobilefest.com.br Tue Apr 10 22:36:09 2007 From: paulo.hartmann at mobilefest.com.br (Paulo Hartmann) Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2007 14:06:09 -0300 Subject: [Reader-list] mobilefest 2007 - call for papers and projects Message-ID: <4b4002edcae2c1e303176f0c80ad4e52@127.0.0.1> *MOBILEFEST 2007 SEMINAR – CALL FOR PAPERS AND PROJETCS* International Seminar: 21st, 22nd and 23rd November, 2007 Sesc Paulista, São Paulo, Brazil International Exhibition: 21st November ato 23rd December, 2007 Sesc Paulista Gallery, São Paulo, Brazil Mobilefest – International Festival of Mobile Arts and Creativity is an event that aims to question and discuss the advent of the new mobile technologies in their relationships with the various segments of society, being the first International Festival of the kind. The main objective is to provide and multifaceted and heterogenic environment of discussions, actions and creations that seek for intelligent solutions, through the virtualities of the new mobile technologies, to solve or even discuss the issues that trouble contemporary societies. The effort of the event about the new communication technologies is based on the perception of its potential growth – there are nearly 3 billion active mobiles in the nowadays[1] - and the increase of its use not only for communication between people but, also in activities of education, social inclusion, varied artistic productions, entertainment, security, content production and distribution, sociability nets configuration, activism actions, health, commerce, advertising, etc. *History* The I Mobilefest was launched in November 2006, with an international seminar that took place in São Paulo, at Sesc Paulista, with live and free transmission via the Internet. In its first edition, it broached the social, cultural and aesthetic implications that the mobile ands mobile technologies have been promoting in global scale. The festival discussed the main outlining of the relationships between mobile technologies (like mobile, handhelds, etc.) and the many segments of the society listed above. Besides the discussion, the event is made of technical and cultural activities and also includes expositive exhibition and the launch of recognition award of the best mobile jobs and applications, the I Mobilefest Awards. The seminar gathered 14 foreign artists and researchers and Brazilian 20 artists and specialists. *Objectives* Popularise the mobile technology as to contribute to social inclusion though the generalisation of knowledge, its use and possibilities of interaction promoted by these new communication media. Offer the audience the first awarding specialised in recognising works that use mobile technology. Promote cultural interchange among national and international researchers and producers of this area. Incentive the creative thought and production about the new technologies aiming to expand the possible hardware e software functions in the technology mobile sector. Stimulate the production of content in the mobile technology segment in Brazil in terms of production in the industrial segment as well as from the point of view of the independent creator, thus intending to seek for balanced ways of relationships between these two players which will not mean mutual negation. Enable the participation of all interested in producing and distributing content through the mobile communication networks. *II Mobilefest - International Festival of Mobile Arts and Creativity / 2007* The use of the mobile phone, the main development feature of mobile technology, starts in Brazil in 1990, when we had around 667 units. Since then, and added to all changes linked to globalisation, opening of market shares, more and more accelerated development of new technologies, all that already announced since the 80s in the core countries, the amount of mobiles has increased exponentially reaching 6700 no in the following year, 30 thousand in 1992, nearly 50 millions in 2004 and, nowadays according to Anatel, Brazil has already almost 100 million active mobile units (what means 53 mobile/ 100 inhabitants)[2]. It was also during the 1990s that the environmental issue started being present in the daily guidelines not only of the mass communication media but, as well in the civil associations as a rather relevant topic of the main social movements all over the world, and as core subject in several universities and specialised research institutes. Among the numerous points and dimensions involved in the planet’s environmental problem, the climate issue directed everyone’s attention due to uncountable environmental disasters caused by weather alterations. While the technological development takes wide steps, considering the a mobile technology as one of the main protagonists of lately, environmental issue also grow disputing the news with the high-tech market good news. Many times it seems like a battle in fact, since the productive and technological development is takne as one of the main causes of environmental problems. Specially about mobiles, one of the shocking points between technological development and environmental issue regards the garbage generated by disused units and discarded batteries that grows as fast as the new technological developments. However , if less than 150 years ago we only had a telegraphic signal to generate an S.O.S, now we have the latest generation networks mobile phones with photo and video cameras, GPS and LBS, linked to wireless, viral and instant internet that challenging us to find new technological solutions and collective actions in favour of the environment. How can Mobile Technology contribute to democracy, culture, art, ECOLOGY, peace, education, health and third-sector? Considering that, II Mobilefest 2007 intends to dedicate part of its activities and reflections upon environmental issue. *Festival Mobilefest 2007 Theme* In 2007, besides the more general proposal which leads to the question - How can Mobile Technology contribute to democracy, culture, art, ecology, peace, education, health and third- sector?– Mobilefest has in view special emphasis in ecology, with the theme Environment, trying to explore the potentialities of the mobile technologies through the proposal “Protecting the environment using mobile technologies”. The choice of the theme Environment intends to mobilise the civil society before numerous environmental tragedies already under course and, because we see this as a very rich experimentation space through the use of mobile technologies. [1] According to forecast by research company Informa Telecoms an Media (cf. < http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/bbc/ult272u59649.shtml >). [2] According to Anatel: http://www.atarde.com.br/especiais/telefoniamovel/mat_histbrasil.php ++ *MOBILEFEST 2007 – CALL FOR PAPERS* II MOBILEFEST 2007 is open to receive project and paper proposals to be selected to participate in the II Mobilefest International Seminar and Exhibition that will take place in the second semester 2007, in São Paulo, Brazil. It is intended that papers and projects presented reflect upon Mobilefest theme: How can Mobile Technology contribute to democracy, culture, art, ecology, peace, education, health and third- sector? REGISTRATION PROCEDURE: Registrations are open until 31st July 2007 via email sent to 2007(at)mobilefest.com.br with the following information: Full name: Age: Country: City: Land line: Mobile: University (not compulsory): Graduation level (not compulsory): Category: ( ) democracy ( ) culture ( ) arts ( ) ECOLOGY ( ) peace ( ) education ( ) health ( ) third-sector Presentations sent should last no longer than 30 minutes. Projects sent will be selected by categories, marked in the registration form. Registration should include a brief description of the presentation proposed (up to 200 words), technical information and participants involved, in .rtf, doc or pdf. Send your work to: 2007(at)mobilefest.com.br All selected presentations will be broadcasted live via internet and will be available on podcast soon after. DEADLINES – IMPORTANT DATES: Project sending: 31st July 2007 Notification: 1st September 2007 In case of doubt, please write to 2007(at)mobilefest.com.br Related links: http://www.mobilefest.com.br/blog/participe/seminario-mobilefest/call-for-papers/ http://www.mobilefest.com.br/blog/participe/seminario-mobilefest/chamada-de-trabalhos/ http://www.mobilefest.com.br/blog/participe/seminario-mobilefest/llamada-de-trabajos/ From fouadbajwa at gmail.com Wed Apr 11 05:55:57 2007 From: fouadbajwa at gmail.com (Fouad Riaz Bajwa) Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2007 05:25:57 +0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Press Release: FOSS infrastructure for Open Digital Villages Development Message-ID: <461c2b3d.3c6c806a.08e8.6271@mx.google.com> Press Release: http://www.ifossf.org/news/foss_infrastructure_for_open_digital_villages_dev elopment FOSS infrastructure for Open Digital Villages (ODiVs): iFOSSF and oneVillage Foundation Partner to Create a Difference April 10, 2007 San Jose CA USA - oneVillage Foundation has partnered with the International Free and Open Source Software Foundation (iFOSSF) on efforts to develop "Telecenter Portals and Applications." OVF believes that iFOSSF's knowledge and vision is vital to the development of its Open Digital Villages (ODiVs), the first of which will be in Winneba, Ghana (WODiV). Background: OVF staff helped organized and participated in the AirJaldi Summit in Dharamsala, India in Oct. 06, which showcased one of the largest wireless networks in the world - The Dharamsala Wireless Mesh. At the event, low-cost wireless mesh network technology including cantennas (about antennas made out of cans) was tested. The Wireless Roadshow Workshop also enabled participants to discuss plans for organizing events to promote wireless connectivity around the WODiV including the WSFIIAfrica2007 Summit, planned for later this year in Winneba. The local Linux User Group (Winneba Linux User Group - WiLUG) is playing a key role in the development of the WODiV. In December of last year, WiLUG volunteers received their first Drupal open source training as well as a series of other trainings increasing awareness of Linux and FOSS. oneVillage Ghana, in collaboration with the University of Education Winneba Ghana (UEW), Wireless Ghana and other institutions has been developing a plan for a WiMax backbone and WiFi mesh local distribution system to serve a region with two other towns and a population of 105,000. Converging the Networks: - Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) offers benefits for people in developing countries including facilitating access to and increasing ownership of ICT for Human Development; - Community Wireless Networks is changing the way we see and share information by promoting the development of economically sustainable local wireless networks; - Sustainable technology "Bioneers" are developing new appropriate technologies to empower local people economically and socially without degrading and destroying the environment. WODiV Goals: - Develop portal infrastructure that can be replicated to other communities; - Promote access and develop confidence in FOSS applications by identifying and integrating applicable - ICT4SD FOSS tools for each region; - Provide FOSS training and job skill development, training students on how to use for their own and their community's empowerment; - Operate as model for rapidly replicating booming multimedia ICT training facility/social enterprises; - Provide center for youth & people all ages to learn basic & advanced ICT skills; - Promote sustainable human habitats and production systems; What is an Open Digital Village? The (WODiV) is being designed to be a practical example and best practice of what FOSS can do as part of a Holistic ICT for Sustainable Development (ICT4SD) strategy. ODiVs Provide educational training in both business and technical aspects and information technology services to government, health centers, and private enterprise, and include the following main components: - Local Portal to enable access throughout the network and the development of local support services to facilitate rapid ICT development; - Local wireless network to enable low cost connectivity in the region; - Community center for trainings, ICT services and community meetings. The WODiV will use UEW as a focused leverage point for coordinating the efforts of graduating student teachers participating in program. Once the Winneba facility is fully established, this program will be replicated throughout Ghana as the teachers graduate and are deployed to outlying rural regions. In terms of scalability, WODiV is the first step in a more comprehensive Multipurpose Community & Unity Center (UCs) Development Model that will be put in place in Winneba. UCs such as the one planned in Winneba, will offer educational and research services, eventually expanding to incubate ICT & green technologies to promote sustainable economic development in each region where the centers are located. Areas of Collaboration: On business and partnership network development, iFOSSF will serve as the Research & Development arm for OVF on technology development, while OVF will focus on marketing, business opportunity and end user requirements identification, including: - Research on issues & technologies related to ICT4SD; - Develop human capacity to use, customize, localize, develop and service FOSS applications; - Develop assets-based approach as a practical model of improving collective human intelligence to effectively address world urgent issues; - Improve quality of life in the communities of focus through the implementation of ICT best practices that most directly impact and improve people's lives on a practical level; The Methodology: A Complete Ecosystem Approach to Sustainable Development: Centers will operate as connection points/portals to connect both online and offline activities into one seamless global network for sustainability development. Key to this process is facilitating local/global exchanges of information and collection that are relevant to local needs. This methodology for WODiV will be a assets-based approach called the oneVillage Foundation Initiative and will eventually be replicated in other areas as relevant to OVF and iFOSSF's mission and focus. Field agents will collect, analyze and then post refined content on the web suitable for distribution in our networks both locally and globally. They will be backed up by a global network of innovators in the sustainability and IT fields as well as other appropriate sectors and fields. ODiVs will stimulate culturally and socially appropriate knowledge exchanges between participating communities and networks. The following practices will enhance the capacity of communities and networks to cope and creatively address challenging issues, fulfilling both organizations' missions to implement collective intelligence: - Promote ICT and sustainable development research in the field; - Collect network content to develop local knowledge portal - Collect local content relevant to global network Desired Outcome of Partnership: Demonstrate on a practical level through the WODiV that many disciplines and fields play a vital role in stimulating the movement towards sustainability. These often disparate approaches will be converged to facilitate a larger collective effort of people collaborating and working together to harness their own talent and capacities while serving and reinforcing the collective good of humanity. Download: OVF-iFOSSF Partnership Press Release 04/06/07 For More Information: - About iFOSSF contact Jenny Huang Hsueh: jenny {at} ifossfoundation.org - About OVF and the WODiV contact Jeff Buderer Program Development Manager: mailto: jeff {at} onevillagefoundation.org From jo at turbulence.org Wed Apr 11 02:12:06 2007 From: jo at turbulence.org (Jo) Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2007 16:42:06 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Launch of Networked_Music_Review Message-ID: <0D91A6D70B6D4294BB68DCFF94DE6947@joPC> New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc./Turbulence.org is pleased to announce the launch of Networked_Music_Review (N_M_R): http://turbulence.org/networked_music_review N_M_R is a research blog focused on emerging networked musical explorations made possible by computers, the Internet, and mobile technologies. N_M_R gathers data about projects, performances, composers, musicians, software and hardware. It includes interviews, articles, papers and reviews. N_M_R also provides up-to-date information on conferences, workshops, competitions, and festivals. Readers may comment on each of the blog entries and converse with interviewees. N_M_R Features: LIVE STAGE: Online and offline events are spotlighted in real-time. INTERVIEWS: Interviewees are available for discussion via the comments. We begin with Jason Freeman (http://turbulence.org/networked_music_review/2007/03/11/interview-jason-fre eman/). Please join the conversation beginning right now and ending on May 20. NETWORKED_MUSIC_WEEKLY (N_M_W): selected projects, artists, or events sent to subscribers weekly. NETWORKED_MUSIC_NEWSLETTER (N_M_N): a monthly newsletter sent to subscribers. GUEST BLOGGERS: Ryan Sciano is our first Guest Blogger (http://turbulence.org/networked_music_review/author/Ryan). If you would like to be a guest blogger, please contact us at: newradio at turbulence dot org RSS Feeds are available for: Main page - all the posts; Live Stage; Interviews; and Net_Music_Weekly. Subscribe now: http://turbulence.org/networked_music_review/subscribe/ N_M_R is supported by the New York State Music Fund established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. It was designed by Shual (http://www.shual.com/) and built by Dan Phiffer (http://phiffer.org/). We look forward to your comments and suggestions. Helen and Jo 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 Networked_Performance Blog: http://turbulence.org/blog Networked_Music_Review: http://turbulence.org/networked_music_review Upgrade! Boston: http://turbulence.org/upgrade New American Radio: http://somewhere.org _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From nityajacob at yahoo.com Tue Apr 10 19:44:33 2007 From: nityajacob at yahoo.com (Nitya Jacob) Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2007 07:14:33 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] /India Untouched/ in Delhi, 19 April In-Reply-To: <9c06aab30704100359x26b8b0fcgce115aaaf087b38@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <916529.7454.qm@web30807.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Atrosities (sic!) are atrosities, and the upper castes could not care less about the outcastes. there goes ved Shivam Vij wrote: Interesting, Ved! On 4/10/07, Vedprakash Sharma wrote: > don't know, who is bothered about nondalits! atrosities are atrosities. be > it dalits or otherwise. atrosities are inflicted on all those who are weak > economically as well as politically. as far as the social backwardness is > concerned, it is also decided on economical basis. > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Shivam Vij" > To: "sarai list" > Sent: Monday, April 09, 2007 3:27 PM > Subject: [Reader-list] /India Untouched/ in Delhi, 19 April > > > > DALIT FOUNDATION, > > INDIAN INSTITUTE OF DALIT STUDIES, > > NATIONAL CAMPAIGN ON DALIT HUMAN RIGHTS, > > NAVSARJAN and DRISHTI > > > > invite you to the premiere of Stalin K's new documentary > > > > INDIA UNTOUCHED - Stories of a People Apart > > 110 minutes/Hindi, Tamil, Bhojpuri, Telugu, English, Punjabi, > > Malayalam and Gujarati with English sub-titles/2007 > > Produced by DRISHTI Media, Arts & Human Rights. Presented by Navsarjan > > > > > > On 19th April, 2007, 5:00pm > > > > At the School Arts & Aesthetics (Auditorium) > > Jawaharlal Nehru University > > New Mehrauli Road, New Delhi > > > > Please RSVP to Anisha Chug at 011-4164 0929 > > > > and stalink123 at gmail.com > > > > INDIA UNTOUCHED will make it impossible for anyone in India to deny > > that Untouchability is still practiced today. Director Stalin K. and > > his team spent four years traveling the length and breadth of India to > > bear witness to the continued exclusion and segregation of those > > considered as 'Untouchables'. The film introduces leading Benares > > scholars who interpret Hindu scriptures to mean that Dalits 'have no > > right' to education, and Rajput farmers who proudly proclaim that the > > police must seek their permission before pursuing cases of atrocities > > on Dalits. The film captures many 'firsts-on-film,' such as Dalits > > being forced to dismount from their cycles and remove their shoes when > > in the upper caste part of the village. It exposes the continuation > > of caste practices and Untouchability in Sikhism, Christianity and > > Islam, amongst the Communists in Kerala and within some of India's > > most revered academic and professional institutions. > > > > In an age where the media projects only one image of a 'rising' or > > 'poised' India, this film reminds us how far the country is from being > > an equal society. Traveling through eight states and four religions, > > this film is perhaps the deepest exploration of caste oppression ever > > undertaken on film. > > > > > > Stalin K is a human rights activist and award-winning documentary > > filmmaker. He is the Co-Founder of DRISHTI- Media, Arts and Human > > Rights, Convener of the Community Radio Forum-India, and the India > > Director of Video Volunteers. He is a renowned public speaker and has > > lectured or taught at over 20 institutions ranging from the National > > Institute of Design and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in > > India, to New York University and Stanford and Berkeley in the US. > > > > INDIA UNTOUCHED is Stalin's second film on the issue of caste—his > > earlier film Lesser Humans, on manual scavenging, won the Silver Conch > > at the Mumbai International Film Festival and the Excellence Award at > > Earth Vision Film Festival, Tokyo, and helped to bring international > > attention to the issue of caste. > > stalink123 at gmail.com > > > > Drishti is a media and human rights organization with program areas in > > community radio, community video, documentary film, campaign design, > > theatre, community arts and youth activism. Drishti has produced over > > 25 films on development issues, designed over a dozen rights-based > > campaigns, and conducted over 300 training workshops with more than > > 100 NGOs. More than 1000 groups around the world are using Drishti's > > films, and the organization is a leading proponent of community media. > > www.drishtimedia.org www.videovolunteers.org > > > > Navsarjan is one of the largest Dalit rights organizations in India, > > working in over 3000 villages in Gujarat. Its mission is to eradicate > > Untouchability and caste oppressions through legal remedies and > > struggles against forced occupations such as manual scavenging, and by > > ensuring Dalits' access to education and livelihood. > > www.navsarjan.org > > > > Dalit Foundation supports small community based organizations, > > individuals and networks working for the empowerment of Dalit > > communities all over India. It promotes Dalit leadership, especially > > among youth and women, by providing small grants, fellowships and > > capacity building programmes. > > www.dalitfoundation.org > > > > Indian Institute of Dalit Studies is the first national research > > institute focused on issues of caste. Its objective is to bring the > > impact of caste into policy planning. It also bridges gaps between > > activists and academics. > > www.dalitstudies.org.in > > > > National Campaign of Dalit Human Rights is a secular coalition of > > Dalit Human Rights activists who challenge 'Casteism' and > > Untouchability'. Its mission is to wipe out caste based discrimination > > with a call to "Cast out Caste". > > www.dalits.org > > > > > > DVDs of this film are available from Drishti: > > 103, Anand Hari Tower, Sandesh Press Road, Bodakdev, Ahmedabad 380054, > > India. +91-79-2685 1235 and 6661 4235. drishtiad1 at gmail.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. To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list List archive: --------------------------------- TV dinner still cooling? Check out "Tonight's Picks" on Yahoo! TV. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070410/3883e973/attachment.html From sagnik_chakravartty at yahoo.com Wed Apr 11 01:18:35 2007 From: sagnik_chakravartty at yahoo.com (Sagnik Chakravartty) Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2007 20:48:35 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] Future of Prasar Bharati Message-ID: <228821.25535.qm@web34213.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Dear friends, We, the BECIL contractual employees attached to DD News wish to share our plight with all of you (intellectuals, writers, professionals and creative people) who are engaged in an online culture of debate and discussion to please read the letter we have addressed to Chief Executive Officer of Prasar Bharati, highlighting our problems. After going through the letter, you are free to comment and suggest remedies. If possible do something for Prasar Bharati and all of us. Anyway, go through the letter that follows below this. Bye and Cheers Sagnik Chakravartty Copy Writer DD News (on BECIL contract)(on bahalf of BECIL contractual employees) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To Chief Executive Officer Prasar Bharati, New Delhi. Sub: Problems of contractual news staff (BECIL contract) attached to DD News Dear Sir, We are working in DD News as contractual copy writers/packaging assistants, since the last two-three years on a BECIL contract. We wish to state that DD News is under Prasar Bharati, an autonomous body created by the Parliament of India. But provisions of Prasar Bharati are not followed with regard to recruitment. Most of the contractual staff, like us, working here, have been given contract by BECIL, which is a PSU under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. BECIL, by entering into the area of human resource recruitment is reaping profits. But this is precisely against the spirit of Prasar Bharati. All the casual staff working in DD News under BECIL Contract, must be transferred to Prasar Bharati. The Prasar Bharati Act talked about a recruitment board. We wish to state that this recruitment board must be formed at the earliest by the Prasar Bharati and all the BECIL contractual employees must be transferred to this recruitment Board which will have the power to reassess the contract and extend the contract to the deserving casual employees. BECIL contract should immediately be scrapped and the Prasar Bharati Recruitment Board should be set up. Clause 10 of Prasar Bharati Act talks about such a provision. The service conditions of Prasar Bharati should be framed immediately so that employees do not feel frustrated. Our salary has not been revised since the past two years. Constitution of this recruitment board at the earliest will definitely go a long way in taking up issues faced by contractual employees like salary rationalization for deserving employees. All these measures will help in realizing the dream of Prasar Bharati to be an organization modeled on the lines of BBC in true sense of the term. We hope you will do the needful and if possible discuss this matter in the next meeting of the Prasar Bharati Board. Thanking you in anticipation - Yours sincerely, BECIL employees (attached to DD News) --------------------------------- Check out what you're missing if you're not on Yahoo! Messenger -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070410/29199be5/attachment.html From jeebesh at sarai.net Wed Apr 11 10:33:23 2007 From: jeebesh at sarai.net (Jeebesh Bagchi) Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2007 10:33:23 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Self Publishing Site Message-ID: dear all, Recently a dear friend of mine (umashankar) published a volume of his poetry (1967 to 1997) in a self publishing site www.lulu.com He has named his collection "From a Previous Century". http://www.lulu.com/content/769330 This self-publishing site is incredible in terms of the number of titles and range of areas. People from various backgrounds have written full manuscripts and you can read the entire manuscript online (preview) or download it (at a cost) or buy a print version (at a higher cost). This print version is made by lulu on demand and there is a royalty sharing arrangement with the authors. There are three broad licenses. In "find me works I can use for commercial purpose" one can find the title "Agamemnon" by Aeschylus. Pages after pages of recipe books in works with license "Copy and distribute" "Best Computers Ever Customer Guide" can be modified, adapted, or built upon. There are also reviews of books and you can rate a book. have a look. best jeebesh From yasir.media at gmail.com Wed Apr 11 12:24:10 2007 From: yasir.media at gmail.com (yasir ~) Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2007 11:54:10 +0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Lecture by Prof Jan Breman on 13 April In-Reply-To: <29af91120704102154p44e373ean122a950b704c394e@mail.gmail.com> References: <29af91120704102154p44e373ean122a950b704c394e@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <5af37bb0704102354h650a39bar10369213c44ef72b@mail.gmail.com> [fwd] PILER Silver Jubilee Distinguished Lectures Professor Emeritus Jan Breman Amsterdam School of Social Science Research Wishing away Poverty, or the Poor? Friday, 13 April, 2007 Regent Plaza Hotel & Convention Centre, Shahrah-e-Faisal, Karachi Tea: 5:30 PM Lecture: 6:30 PM Regrets to: Abbas Haider Tel: 635-1145 & 46-47 Email: piler at cyber.net.pk Jan Breman (1936) majored in the Social Sciences at the University of Amsterdam and specialized in South and Southeast Asian Studies. In 1962 he became a staff member, later Professor at Erasmus University (the former Netherlands Economic School) in Rotterdam, where he held a chair in the sociology of development. His transfer in 1987 to Amsterdam University, where he taught comparative sociology, coincided with the establishment of the Centre for Asian Studies Amsterdam, where he became Scientific Director. From 1992 to 1998 he was vice-dean of the Amsterdam School of Social Science Research. Jan Breman has been a visiting professor in India (Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi) and in Indonesia (Agricultural University, Bogor), and has traveled widely on short-term academic visits to other Asian countries including Pakistan. Spread over a period of forty-five years, Breman has conducted anthropological research in India (South Gujarat) and Indonesia (West Java) focusing on rural and urban labor relations. Some of his publications: Of Patronage and Exploitation (1974), Control of Land and Labour in Colonial Java (1983), Of Peasants, Migrants and Workers (1985), Taming the Coolie Beast (1989), Rural transformations in Colonial Asia (1991), Beyond Patronage and Exploitation (1993), Wage Hunters and Gatherers in the Landscape of Labour in India (1994) and Footloose Labour. Working in India's Informal Economy (1996). Recent publications include: The World View of Industrial Labor in India (2000); Down and Out, Labouring under Colonial Capitalism (2000); The Labouring Poor in India: Patterns of Exploitation and Exclusion, 2003; Making and Unmaking of an Industrial Working Class: Sliding Down the Labour Hierarchy in Ahmedabad, India (2004). Publications honouring Jan Breman�s intellectual contributions include Evading the Dilemmas, Development and Deprivation in Gujarat (2002), and Work and Social Change in Asia (2003). Professor Breman has guided PILER over several years, most recently in research on bonded labour in South Asia for Anti-Slavery International. ________________________________ From yasir.media at gmail.com Wed Apr 11 13:18:27 2007 From: yasir.media at gmail.com (yasir ~) Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2007 12:48:27 +0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Fwd: Take back the beach from real estate profiteers In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <5af37bb0704110048h2cfaaed1kc63b8b57e508fdc5@mail.gmail.com> fwd >Sunday, April 15th - 5 pm > >Sahil Bachao!! > >Take back the beach from real estate profiteers > >Join us for a Protest at Clifton Beach >(Meet at the Parking Lot of McDonalds) Clifton Beach >The DHA has plans to construct theme parks, marinas, expo centres, >expensive hotels, and condominiums on the 14 km of beach area between >McDonalds and the Golf club. This area is currently enjoyed by Pakistanis >of all backgrounds. This development threatens to shut out the common >person's free and unobstructed access to most of the beach area. It is >against the law and will destroy the environment. It will only serve the >interests of real estate developers and other profiteers. It will end >Karachi's one multi-class open recreational space and will become a place >for the affluent few. Come raise your voice with us. Wear blue! >Saahil Bachao! more info http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006%5C08%5C17%5Cstory_17-8-2006_pg12_1 http://www.urckarachi.org/Clifton%20Beach.htm#Former%20CJ%20voices%20doubts%20over%20beachfront%20privatisation From aman.am at gmail.com Wed Apr 11 13:52:36 2007 From: aman.am at gmail.com (Aman Sethi) Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2007 13:52:36 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Speculation and Acquisition In-Reply-To: <70509397-0BE2-44F6-AFDC-755C64B2EF99@sarai.net> References: <70509397-0BE2-44F6-AFDC-755C64B2EF99@sarai.net> Message-ID: <995a19920704110122s16ceb606x5232fbca82918c0c@mail.gmail.com> Dear Jeebesh, Read your post with great interest. It covers a massive range of processes, and i would like to just think abt a few - particularly on speculation. The idea of speculation is particularly interesting because, over the last two years have seen three of my closest friends join financial service providers like banks and other companies like J.P Morgan etc, and have spent many hours engaged in conversations such as you have described under the "acquisition" section. Crucial to the dreams of small investors - such as myself - is the "mutual fund". A name that automatically brings to mind pictures of all groups f people "mutually" making large amounts of money. And such conversations produce in us a collective idea of a dream of wealth way beyond our present situations. Mutual funds also produce around them sandstorm of data - quarterly performance results, day by day "Net Asset Value" figures, or NAVs, and of course predictions on further gains. There is also the mythology of oppurtunities missed - a friend once told me that if i had invested just one lakh in infosys in the early 1990s, i would worth abt 10 crores today. (i may have exaggerated the figures - but the essence remains the same). The lesson the listener is expected to draw is the need to start investing today. Over the last two years, i have also had the privilege of being privy to another type of conversation on speculations and acquisition. While conversations with bankers involve travels into rarefied realms of notional gains, hedge funds and other seemingly unreal transactions (that produce very very real money), conversations at bara tooti - where i did a Sarai fellowship tend to employ very similar imagery, and produce very similar "sensations" -for lack of a better word. In one of my posts - titled job oppurtunities for LLPPs - looks at the idea of the "paisa vasool scheme"; where the tag line is, that "If you buy a jamuna-paari long eared bakari on the day your daughter is born, at 18 you will have enough money to pay for her wedding."- which is not that different from the kind of schemes offered by companies like HDFC etc - who offer "young-star" policies that are supposed to secure your child's future. Here speculation no longer works on the mobility of capital - it works on a more old-school idea of investment in "assets", that don't have the kind of interchangeability or mobility of capital. The long -eared bakari cannot be converted into a sugar-cane eating pig for instance (another way of making lots of money), with the ease in which ure mutual fund can be converted into shares, or another mutual fund or other such financial vehicles. Your pig is your pig - and cannot be converted into your goat until a certain gestation period. The animal-farm dream seems to be to create some sort of an eternal motion machine - where the pig grows up on farm waste, and produces manure that produces more farm-produce which gives more waste - and more pigs and fresh capital which moves growth that creates some sort of a phase-shift in an already exponential growth curve .- or in other words - works on the powers of compounding. What is interesting is that both models seems to have a sort of inevitability about them - almost like the water cycle. Money shall move from point A to Point B, where upon it shall shall rise - at a certain cut off point, the gains shall be siphoned off to a tertiary point C - resulting in further gains; at some point the seed capital is removed and placed back at Point A, and so the cycle continues, only this time it is larger and longer and possibly even more productive. Both systems also require the expert to pick out the right asset - the right fund or the healthiest animal. I realise now that i have wandered rather far from the jeebesh's conversation, but would like to end with one last question. Every time i left either Bara tooti or 4S, i found myself wondering why everyone just didnt do this - buy a mutual fund or a goat or a pig and make it big? the answers i got usually pinned it down to the inability of people to understand and exploit the system to its fullest - the "nach na jane aangan teda" sort of argument - or the inability of people to simply enter the space where they can begin speculating in right earnest ... maybe it is this link between speculation - in its purest sense - the dream of making it big - and the acquisition of a tool of wealth , that the schism between the two becomes most apparent. Best A. On 4/10/07, Jeebesh Bagchi wrote: > > Dear All, > > Here are some fragmentary notes that may gather some life in > circulation! > > ---------------------- > > Over the last few years two processes have got sharply delineated and > visible. > > Speculation and Acquisition > > I) Speculation (dreams of wealth and mobility with displacement) > > Speculation is crucial to how we inhabit the world of property. The > thought of "how long to hold on" ; "when to buy"; "when to sell" > occupies a fair degree of brain power and conversational time in > people with property or plans of property or resentment about > property. The dreams of unimagined gains swing many a robust mind to > confusion and grandeur. > > Speculation acts on mobility of capital. But, its relationship to > acquisition is less explored. How does it effect the "acreage" of > acquisition? > > II)Acquisition > > The dramatic visibility of capture of land for fast-track projects - > infrastructural, production enterprises and ancillary structures > (service and real estate) has brought the politics of acquisition > into sharp focus . Here state intervenes with speed to produce space > for deployment of technologies and architectures to mobilize and > intensify production. The capture of large tracts of land is crucial > for this. (Relative measures of speed of different nation-states are > sources of ruminations of edit pages of newspapers). > > Obstacles to this process are: > > a) If the process of buying and selling is kept "as usual" then there > is a huge problem of aggregation, assembling of land. > > b) Crucially, various property owners who, anticipating better future > bargains through differential and escalating rent, prefer not to sell > outright within the given acquisition rates. > > c) The refusal by so-called obdurate and non-progressive > sensibilities that do not want to sell land and thus come in the way > of land being transformed into a commodity which can then be > transactable through global financial networks. > > d) The millions of "non-owner" users of land who do not have "titles" > but have long duree embedded material life committed around land. > These are the people who come into the way of enforced selling and > buying of land in a very forceful way. > > This is a nightmare situation for hungry large investments. Political > society, however efficient, will take years to get land cleared for > any project if they are to move with persuasion and intricate time > consuming individual bargains. > > This enormous quagmire is sought to be overcome by the legal seizure > of the "public", in whose name land will be acquired. Thus the weight > of "public purpose" is critical in any acquisition act. Without a > discourse of "public purpose" we would be face to face with naked > apparatus of violence of state and capital. State mediates this > violence discursively by constantly creating a field of to-be- > negotiated "growth/development path". It is around this negotiation > that media and political parties debate the pros and cons of the > violence and ensuing displacement. > > In the present, Acquisition Narratives seem to follow a pattern. > > (outside earshot) > A notice > Restlessness > Persuasion > Conflicts > > (peripheral vision) > Confrontations > Violence unleashed by state apparatus > > (lists and blogs) > Condemnation > > (loud big fights) > Opining around pros and cons, a pathetic debate on what is best for > National Interest, Pride and Glory. > > A fear of falling sensed all around. > > Capitalism's sustained production of despair (which occasionally gets > submerged by euphoria) best manifests during these debates. > > What gets left behind? Crucially, after the heat, what are the ways > of thinking.? > > Forced acquisitions will accelerate. It will confront deeper > sediments of social and material life. There will be temporary halts > and jerks but the juggernaut is on. It will attempt to suspend all > forms of coalitions and mobilizations. Violence will accelerate and > so will rallying cries. We seem to be trapped in a spiral that takes > in its wake higher and higher human costs. But imagination of today > is so locked into power and wealth as the motor of history, that it > is impossible to move aside the "national" and see a larger canvas, > drawing other spaces and times. (Police records in China record for > 80,000 protest, rioting and disturbances last year). > > In peace time all national units are to compete with each other and > learn to produce faster and cheaper. > > In war time all national units will compete to annihilate each other > with speed and efficiency. > > warmly > jeebesh > _________________________________________ > 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. > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> From bhagwati at sarai.net Wed Apr 11 14:29:30 2007 From: bhagwati at sarai.net (bhagwati at sarai.net) Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2007 10:59:30 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] Fwd: Nandigram meet with WBengal activists Message-ID: SCHOLARS FOR CRITICAL PRACTICE (Delhi University) Invites you to a discussion on "Left Politics After Nandigram" Speakers: Vaskar Nandy (trade unionist) Sumit Chowdhury (film-maker and journalist) Chair: Tanika Sarkar The speakers are West Bengal-based activists who have been involved in the struggle in Singur and Nandigram and are in Delhi briefly. Date: April 14, 2007 Time: 11 am Venue: Department of Political Science (2nd floor, New Arts Faculty Building, Delhi University) Apoorvanand, Madhulika Banerjee, Satish Deshpande, Dilip Menon, Nivedita Menon, Prabhu Mohapatra, Ujjwal Kumar Singh, Nandini Sundar, Achin Vanaik Aditya Nigam XB-7 Sah-Vikas Apts, 68 Patparganj, Delhi-110092 Tel: 2223 1855 (R), 3942199, 3951190 (O) From yasir.media at gmail.com Wed Apr 11 17:25:17 2007 From: yasir.media at gmail.com (yasir ~) Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2007 16:55:17 +0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Speculation and Acquisition In-Reply-To: <70509397-0BE2-44F6-AFDC-755C64B2EF99@sarai.net> References: <70509397-0BE2-44F6-AFDC-755C64B2EF99@sarai.net> Message-ID: <5af37bb0704110455g567585b7s9ec150588b557770@mail.gmail.com> 1 \\ For the Sugar Land City project details check out you tube film "karachi Waterfront" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n1mN2lpahA 2 \\ http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\02\26\story_26-2-2007_pg12_10 On 4/10/07, Jeebesh Bagchi wrote: > > Dear All, > > Here are some fragmentary notes that may gather some life in > circulation! From nalin.mathur at gmail.com Wed Apr 11 20:39:46 2007 From: nalin.mathur at gmail.com (Nalin Mathur) Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2007 20:39:46 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] For Nalin/B grade Engineering College In-Reply-To: <20070409070142.21025.qmail@webmail89.rediffmail.com> References: <20070409070142.21025.qmail@webmail89.rediffmail.com> Message-ID: <7c0063460704110809j23f42c1bl699f19d73678c2b7@mail.gmail.com> Hi Sucharita, Let me begin by a very sincere thanks for giving your feedback for this study. It was great to go through an "outsider's" take on such colleges, believe me, your insight has been enriching and will go a long way to help me for this study. Though I have not planned to study a specific university and its ways as whole and I am more keen to be college centric. I aim to study what goes behind the scenes, and that amid poor infrastructure and faculty, the students still come up trumps and secure a decent job. Actually this occurrence of getting jobs can be attributed to the simple funda of demand - supply. Such colleges mushroomed post liberalization, say around '97 - '98, primarily to cater the huge demand of skilled resources, to which the Indian industry was subjected. And even with sloppy course modules, as experienced by your friend, I can say that the students have done a great job for themselves. Indian IT techies being glare examples, a large chunk of which hail from such colleges. Let me also add that despite everything, such B Grade Engineering Colleges are repositories of a huge 'brain bank' and slowly but steadily are inching their way up the ladder. With many Corporate tie ups, better placement facilities and considerable improvement in infrastructure things are looking up. Again, these self contradictory statements baffle me at times, but guess thats what makes this project so exciting for me. Looking to hear more from you. Warmly, Nalin On 9 Apr 2007 07:01:42 -0000, Sucharita Sengupta wrote: > > > Dear Nalin, > I am very enthused by your idea of studying B Grade Enginnering Colleges. > I shall proceed to give you my observations.Please note that i am not an > engineer by profession, but most of my friends have studied in such > colleges. > > You could possibly study the Punjab Technical University. Several colleges > under the university often have poor infrastructure, from building to > faculty. The qualifications of the faculty may not be suspect, but is by no > standard world class. There is faulty marking and poor syllabi. > > A friend who studied at one such college got the shock of her life when > she chose to work on a topic called Data Mining. While on a visit to > Vancouver, she spoke to a professor who was a leader in the field. When he > asked her to tell him what she knew, she confidently rattled off all that > she had studied. The Professor then gently broke the news to her that this > knowledge was ancient, and she had a lot of reading and research to catch up > on. Predictably, she returned very disappointed. > > Several of these colleges seem to have very relaxed cut-off percentage. > There is also something called 'Capitation Fee', which basically means that > one can pay an exorbitant amount to buy seats if they cannot gain admission > purely on the basis of merit. > > I was thinking, during the anti-reservation campaign, much was made of the > concept of 'merit', but cannot really spot true merit coming out in rushes > from several of the colleges.However, one thing i have noticed, everyone > gets a job. > > Before the entrance exams, yet another scam takes place. Previosuly, > students aspiring to gain admission used to the IITs would pay huge amounts > for coaching. Now, anyone who wishes to become an engineer, even from a B > grade college, does the same. So in line with the actual colleges, several > coaching centres have come up, all of which charge crazy money. One such > college in Chandigarh, has an entrance exam to qualify for admission into > the coaching institute! > > Again, where is the 'merit' part? I haven't really made up my mind on the > reservations issue.But having seen what i have in B Grade Engineering > Colleges, the merit argument does not hold much water. Readers are free to > disagree and provide counterarguments. > > Somehow,one cannot stop this niggling feeling that we're churning out > mediocrity. Again, counterarguments are welcome. > > Good luck with your study, and keep posting what you discover. > > Warm Regards > Sucharita Sengupta > > > > On Mon, 09 Apr 2007 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. B Grade Engineering College Culture (Nalin Mathur) > > 2. Cinematic City:Kolkata, Modernity, MiddleClass&the Urban > > Woman--1950s &60s Popular Bangla cinema. (smita mitra) > > 3. Re: Nizamuddin Basti (Yousuf) > > 4. Response to Ratish re: Nizamuddin Basti (Sudeshna Chatterjee) > > > > > >---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > >Message: 1 > >Date: Sun, 8 Apr 2007 01:23:14 +0530 > > From: "Nalin Mathur" > >Subject: [Reader-list] B Grade Engineering College Culture > >To: reader-list at sarai.net > >Message-ID: > > <7c0063460704071253k2287ea1ah169423459673f6ab at mail.gmail.com> > >Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > > >Sarai / Independent Fellow 2007/ Nalin N. Mathur/ Second Posting > > > >Confession Time > > > >Now nobody calls his or her *Alma Mater* a B – Grade institute, > definitely > >not in public. It remains a universal fact that one tends to relate with > >ones institute, irrespective of its social or educational ranking. Even > >though I agreed with this theory, I had to experience it first hand when > I > >broke the news of receiving a fellowship to study B – Grade Engineering > >college culture to my friends. Let me share with you upfront that I was > >expecting words of praise and encouragement, which I eventually got, but > not > >before being subjected to ridicule. Most of my friends were dejected at > the > >adjective I had used to describe our college. Almost all showered > >obscenities. Those few with a sense of history reminded me of Arthur > >Wellesley's epic tribute to his *Alma Mater* mentioning the famous "*The > >battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton *" quote > >(forgetting that the play ground at our college resembled an over sized > cow > >shed for the better part of our graduation). Nevertheless, what hit me > the > >most with this quote was our uncanny resemblance to Wellesley's > educational > >and professional life. Like Wellesley, I or my friends never scored well > at > >school. Later in life he was a highly successful and decorated soldier, > >something which we wish to accomplish in our respective field of > expertise. > > > >As a whole, I observed two points, which have become the basis of my > study > >for this fellowship. One – the utter disregard of ones academic > credentials > >in view of gaining success in life. The zeal to accomplish and beat the > odds > >has absolutely nothing to do with ones *Alma Mater.* The aspiration and > >attitude to go for the kill are as independent features from the place of > >graduating as rocket science is from the excavations at Harappa. In > short, > >just like a shrewd Wellesley defeated the mighty Napoleon, graduates from > B > >– Grade engineering colleges are all pumped up to take on the world. > > > >Two – all said and done, Wellesley was from Eton, among the best schools > in > >the world with a culture and legacy as enriching as it can get. No matter > >how he fared in classes, he must have gained something, the credit for > which > >can go to his school as well. A similar scene shapes up for my study. B – > >Grade Engineering colleges have a lot to catch up on when compared with > the > >top tier institutions, engineers from which, irrefutably, have a major > edge, > >in terms of level of education, exposure and environment. > > > >So here I am, trying to get over this fascination from Duke of Wellington > >and his times, and the contradictory notions cropping up in my mind. And > try > >to study and document as to what goes inside those worn out walls of a > >second tier engineering college. What happens to half a million engineers > >passing out from such colleges every year in India? What role do they > play > >in building on a society? What aspirations do they carry? What is it that > >makes them believe that they can excel when they would be competing with > >peers who are far better equipped? And importantly what kind of dynamics > do > >they create and live through? > > > >To be honest I am skeptical if I would be able to present the answers in > the > >manner they deserve. Or, in the first place, if I would be able to find > them > >at all. > > > >If I do, my Orkut profile would read – I am done! > > > >Regards, > > > >Nalin N. > >Mathur > > > [image: samsunge250] > _________________________________________ > 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. > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070411/86647bf5/attachment.html From sadiafwahidi at yahoo.co.in Thu Apr 12 12:47:21 2007 From: sadiafwahidi at yahoo.co.in (S Fatima) Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 08:17:21 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] Kurt Vonnegut In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <561592.67689.qm@web8403.mail.in.yahoo.com> Novelist Kurt Vonnegut dies at age 84 By CRISTIAN SALAZAR, Associated Press Writer NEW YORK - Kurt Vonnegut, the satirical novelist who captured the absurdity of war and questioned the advances of science in darkly humorous works such as "Slaughterhouse-Five" and "Cat's Cradle," died Wednesday. He was 84. Vonnegut, who often marveled that he had lived so long despite his lifelong smoking habit, had suffered brain injuries after a fall at his Manhattan home weeks ago, said his wife, photographer Jill Krementz. The author of at least 19 novels, many of them best-sellers, as well as dozens of short stories, essays and plays, Vonnegut relished the role of a social critic. He lectured regularly, exhorting audiences to think for themselves and delighting in barbed commentary against the institutions he felt were dehumanizing people. "I will say anything to be funny, often in the most horrible situations," Vonnegut, whose watery, heavy-lidded eyes and unruly hair made him seem to be in existential pain, once told a gathering of psychiatrists. A self-described religious skeptic and freethinking humanist, Vonnegut used protagonists such as Billy Pilgrim and Eliot Rosewater as transparent vehicles for his points of view. He also filled his novels with satirical commentary and even drawings that were only loosely connected to the plot. In "Slaughterhouse-Five," he drew a headstone with the epitaph: "Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt." But much in his life was traumatic, and left him in pain. Despite his commercial success, Vonnegut battled depression throughout his life, and in 1984, he attempted suicide with pills and alcohol, joking later about how he botched the job. "I think he was a man who combined a wicked sense of humor and sort of steady moral compass, who was always sort of looking at the big picture of the things that were most important," said Joel Bleifuss, editor of In These Times, a liberal magazine based in Chicago that featured Vonnegut articles. He always said he was a humanist and a socialist. That's how he described himself." His mother had succeeded in killing herself just before he left for Germany during World War II, where he was quickly taken prisoner during the Battle of the Bulge. He was being held in Dresden when Allied bombs created a firestorm that killed an estimated tens of thousands of people in the city. "The firebombing of Dresden explains absolutely nothing about why I write what I write and am what I am," Vonnegut wrote in "Fates Worse Than Death," his 1991 autobiography of sorts. But he spent 23 years struggling to write about the ordeal, which he survived by huddling with other POW's inside an underground meat locker labeled slaughterhouse-five. The novel, in which Pvt. Pilgrim is transported from Dresden by time-traveling aliens from the planet Tralfamadore, was published at the height of the Vietnam War, and solidified his reputation as an iconoclast. "He was sort of like nobody else," said Gore Vidal, who noted that he, Vonnegut and Norman Mailer were among the last writers around who served in World War II. "He was imaginative; our generation of writers didn't go in for imagination very much. Literary realism was the general style. Those of us who came out of the war in the 1940s made it sort of the official American prose, and it was often a bit on the dull side. Kurt was never dull." Vonnegut was born on Nov. 11, 1922, in Indianapolis, a "fourth-generation German-American religious skeptic Freethinker," and studied chemistry at Cornell University before joining the Army. When he returned, he reported for Chicago's City News Bureau, then did public relations for General Electric, a job he loathed. He wrote his first novel, "Player Piano," in 1951, followed by "The Sirens of Titan," "Canary in a Cat House" and "Mother Night," making ends meet by selling Saabs on Cape Cod. Critics ignored him at first, then denigrated his deliberately bizarre stories and disjointed plots as haphazardly written science fiction. But his novels became cult classics, especially "Cat's Cradle" in 1963, in which scientists create "ice-nine," a crystal that turns water solid and destroys the earth. Many of his novels were best-sellers. Some also were banned and burned for suspected obscenity. Vonnegut took on censorship as an active member of the PEN writers' aid group and the American Civil Liberties Union. The American Humanist Association, which promotes individual freedom, rational thought and scientific skepticism, made him its honorary president. His characters tended to be miserable anti-heros with little control over their fate. Vonnegut said the villains in his books were never individuals, but culture, society and history, which he said were making a mess of the planet. "We probably could have saved ourselves, but we were too damned lazy to try very hard ... and too damn cheap," he once suggested carving into a wall on the Grand Canyon, as a message for flying-saucer creatures. He retired from novel writing in his later years, but continued to publish short articles. He had a best-seller in 2005 with "A Man Without a Country," a collection of his nonfiction, including jabs at the Bush administration ("upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography") and the uncertain future of the planet. He called the book's success "a nice glass of champagne at the end of a life." In recent years, Vonnegut worked as a senior editor and columnist at In These Times. Bleifuss said he had been trying recently to get Vonnegut to write something more for the magazine, but was unsuccessful. "He would just say he's too old and that he had nothing more to say. He realized, I think, he was at the end of his life," Bleifuss said. Vonnegut, who had homes in Manhattan and the Hamptons in New York, adopted his sister's three young children after she died. He also had three children of his own with his first wife, Ann Cox, and later adopted a daughter, Lily, with his second wife, the noted photographer Jill Krementz. Vonnegut once said that of all the ways to die, he'd prefer to go out in an airplane crash on the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro. He often joked about the difficulties of old age. "When Hemingway killed himself he put a period at the end of his life; old age is more like a semicolon," Vonnegut told The Associated Press in 2005. "My father, like Hemingway, was a gun nut and was very unhappy late in life. But he was proud of not committing suicide. And I'll do the same, so as not to set a bad example for my children." ___ Associated Press writers Michael Warren, Hillel Italie and Chelsea Carter contributed to this report. Send a FREE SMS to your friend's mobile from Yahoo! Messenger. Get it now at http://in.messenger.yahoo.com/ From vikash.sen at gmail.com Thu Apr 12 10:19:18 2007 From: vikash.sen at gmail.com (Bikash Ballabh Singh) Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 10:19:18 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Women empowerment in India, still a distant dream Message-ID: <25c340bd0704112149q18f6b0ffn9bf3da2123aea302@mail.gmail.com> Though India is developing economically and technologically by leaps and bounds, women here still continue to be discriminated. With illegal female infanticide on the rise, authorities need to check the growing imbalance in the society. Jawaharlal Nehru had said "You can tell the condition of the nation by looking at the status of women." And the following phrase of Manusmriti, "*Na Stree Swathantryam Arhati*" (woman is undeserving for independence), reflects our whole attitude towards women in our country. Woman suffers discrimination and injustice in all stages of her life. Declining sex ratio portrays our discrimination shown towards her even at the stage of birth. Often the lame excuse is women are the 'weaker sex'! But biological evidence proves, due to the presence of two X hormones women are more resistant to diseases compared to men. Life expectancy is a proof of this (In our country life expectancy of women is 65 whereas for men it's only 60 years). Census 2001 shows our national sex ratio as 921:1000 (921 females for 1000 males), and this will lead to detrimental social problems if not corrected. The main reason for this is female infanticide. Gender wise abortions are on the rise. In economically developed states such as Haryana and Punjab the tendency is found to be more. Abortion though legal in our country, gender based abortion is a crime here. Strict measures should be taken for the implementation of Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation & Prevention of Misuse) Act 1994, which prohibits any prenatal diagnostic techniques and sex selective abortions. A shocking study reveals that half of the world's malnourished children live in India owing primarily to the lack of nutritious food available to the mother. In all the critical stages, be it infancy, childhood, adolescence or the reproductive phase many women suffer malnutrition purely due to the discrimination and the narrow mindsets of the society. According to Mahatma Gandhi, "If you educate a man you educate an individual, but if you educate a woman you educate an entire family." Our predominant patriarchal system doesn't provide enough chances for women to have higher education even if they wish. Girls should be motivated to take up higher education. Universal education for all below 14 years should be strictly implemented. There is an urgent necessity of framing gender sensitive curricula at all stages of primary education to address sex-stereotyping menace. Women should be allowed to work and should be provided enough safety and support to work. Legislatures such as Equal Remuneration Act, Factories Act: Constitutional safeguards such as maternity relief, and other provisions should be strictly followed. Poverty eradication policies need to be implemented. Macro economic policies would help in this drive. Through economic empowerment women's emancipation could be realized. Dowry still remains the major reason for all the discrimination and injustice shown to women. Dowry has always been an important part of Hindu marriages. Not only among Hindus, its evil tentacles are now spreading to other religions also. Although dowry was legally prohibited in 1961(Dowry Prohibition Act), it continues to be highly institutionalized. It is ridiculous to see that even among highly educated sections, the articles of dowry are proudly exhibited in the marriage as a status symbol. The practice of dowry abuse is rising in India. The most severe is "bride burning", the burning of women whose dowries were not considered sufficient by their husband or in-laws. Most of these incidents are reported as accidental burns in the kitchen or are disguised as suicide. It is evident that there exist deep-rooted prejudices against women in India. Cultural practices such as these tend to subordinate women in our society. Dowry is one of those social evils that no educated woman will own up with pride; still many are adhering to it, why? Women should be more economically empowered and should be educated properly regarding the various legal provisions such as Section 498ACrPC, protection from domestic violence etc. only then only this evil menace could possibly be eradicated from Indian social system. True empowerment will only be reached when women take part actively in the decision making process of our country. Women Reservation Bill that entitles to provide 33 per cent reservation in Parliament is a bill of utmost importance. The success of 73rd & 74th amendment which reserves certain number of seats for women in the local bodies should be an encouragement for the Bill to be passed at least in this current session. Mainstreaming and women's empowerment is central to human development. Empowerment of women could only be achieved if their economic and social status is improved. This could be possible only by adopting definite social and economic policies with a view of total development of women and to make them realize that they have the potential to be strong human beings. The various articles of our constitution enshrine principle of gender equality. We started giving special attention to the causes of women by the fifth five-year plan. For considering the grievances and preventing the atrocities against women a National Commission for Women (NCW) was set up in 1990. But despite all these measures there should be a strong determination among every man that every woman in this country should be honoured. Only then empowerment in its true meaning will be realized. Swami Vivekananda had said "That country and that nation which doesn't respect women will never become great now and nor will ever in future" and in pursuit of making India a great nation, let us work towards giving women their much deserved status. .............................................................................................. A good discussion is going on at the source of article... http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=124708 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070412/58dab376/attachment.html From mahmood.farooqui at gmail.com Thu Apr 12 11:35:38 2007 From: mahmood.farooqui at gmail.com (mahmood farooqui) Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 11:35:38 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] aravani community in madurai In-Reply-To: <788263.80980.qm@web94106.mail.in2.yahoo.com> References: <788263.80980.qm@web94106.mail.in2.yahoo.com> Message-ID: Is it possible that the word jamad, since its a Hyderabadi usage, could emerge from the word jamat, which means a group, especially an organised group...hence the jamat-e islami, tableeghi jamat etc...interesting in that case that the word jamat in the Indo-Muslim circles is restricted to modern forms of political organisations whereas here in this case it refers to the self organisation of a particular sect of caste/professionals implying that its local, small and apolitical... On 09/04/07, priya babu wrote: > > Documentation of Aravaani Community in Madurai District Priyababu The > presence of Draupadi temples around Madurai, Paramakudi, Kumbakonam, > Palayamkottai and Veeravanallur in Thirunelvelli came into existence during > the reign of Thirumallai Nayakar and Krishnadeva Raayar. In Madurai itself > the temple was established as a full-fledged place of worship in 1884. > Within the Saurashtra Ghetto in Madurai there are three temples for Draupadi > and each of these has a sanctum for Aravan. All these temples are > administered by the community trusts. On the Aravan of Vaikasi month the > festival is inaugurated and Villi Baratham is recited. The demographic count > of this community, according to them, is about a third of the population of > Madurai. As per their belief they claim that Aravaan has promised to stay > with the losing party so that they may recover victory. Therefore during the > Kurushetra war to keep Aravaan from join the Kauravas, Krishna plans his > killing in the name of sacrifice. But the aravaani community does not > patronize these temples as much as those existing in the Vanniyar belts. > Aravan in these temples are worshipped on an everyday as any other deity. > Aravaanis seem to frequent Aravaan temples around the areas like Pandikoyil, > Madappuram Kalli Koyil, and Thaayamangalam. Members of this community reside > in Munichchaalai, Avaniyapuram, Usilampatti, Thirubuvanam, Kalluppatti, > Karmaathur, Therkkuvaasal, Bibikullam, and Thiruparamkundram in Madurai > district. Most of them are involved in performing traditional folk art forms > like Karakaattam, Oyil Attam, Oppari and Therukuttu. Some of them are chefs. > Techniques that are exclusive to this community are breaking coconut on the > head, chopping raw banana, swirling flaming torches while doing Karakaattam > [dancing with a pot [karagam] on the head]. The Jamad system is very similar > to the one in Hyderabad, which is referred to as Bade Haveli and Chotte > Haveli. Jamad is almost like a regulatory body for the community, but > frequented by members of the community and those adopted from the 'normal' > society as pseudo-family members. > > ------------------------------ > Here's a new way to find what you're looking for - Yahoo! Answers > > > _________________________________________ > 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. > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > List archive: > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070412/f18cf7bb/attachment.html From prithu7 at hotmail.com Thu Apr 12 17:04:05 2007 From: prithu7 at hotmail.com (pritham k chakravarthy) Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 17:04:05 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] aravani community in madurai In-Reply-To: Message-ID: The jamad that Priya refers to in her piece is about a regulatory body existing among the aravaanis both in Tamilnau and Hyderabad. Pritham >From: "mahmood farooqui" >To: "priya babu" >CC: SARAI >Subject: Re: [Reader-list] aravani community in madurai >Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 11:35:38 +0530 > >Is it possible that the word jamad, since its a Hyderabadi usage, could >emerge from the word jamat, which means a group, especially an organised >group...hence the jamat-e islami, tableeghi jamat etc...interesting in that >case that the word jamat in the Indo-Muslim circles is restricted to modern >forms of political organisations whereas here in this case it refers to the >self organisation of a particular sect of caste/professionals implying that >its local, small and apolitical... > >On 09/04/07, priya babu wrote: >> >>Documentation of Aravaani Community in Madurai District Priyababu The >>presence of Draupadi temples around Madurai, Paramakudi, Kumbakonam, >>Palayamkottai and Veeravanallur in Thirunelvelli came into existence >>during >>the reign of Thirumallai Nayakar and Krishnadeva Raayar. In Madurai itself >>the temple was established as a full-fledged place of worship in 1884. >>Within the Saurashtra Ghetto in Madurai there are three temples for >>Draupadi >>and each of these has a sanctum for Aravan. All these temples are >>administered by the community trusts. On the Aravan of Vaikasi month the >>festival is inaugurated and Villi Baratham is recited. The demographic >>count >>of this community, according to them, is about a third of the population >>of >>Madurai. As per their belief they claim that Aravaan has promised to stay >>with the losing party so that they may recover victory. Therefore during >>the >>Kurushetra war to keep Aravaan from join the Kauravas, Krishna plans his >>killing in the name of sacrifice. But the aravaani community does not >>patronize these temples as much as those existing in the Vanniyar belts. >>Aravan in these temples are worshipped on an everyday as any other deity. >>Aravaanis seem to frequent Aravaan temples around the areas like >>Pandikoyil, >>Madappuram Kalli Koyil, and Thaayamangalam. Members of this community >>reside >>in Munichchaalai, Avaniyapuram, Usilampatti, Thirubuvanam, Kalluppatti, >>Karmaathur, Therkkuvaasal, Bibikullam, and Thiruparamkundram in Madurai >>district. Most of them are involved in performing traditional folk art >>forms >>like Karakaattam, Oyil Attam, Oppari and Therukuttu. Some of them are >>chefs. >>Techniques that are exclusive to this community are breaking coconut on >>the >>head, chopping raw banana, swirling flaming torches while doing >>Karakaattam >>[dancing with a pot [karagam] on the head]. The Jamad system is very >>similar >>to the one in Hyderabad, which is referred to as Bade Haveli and Chotte >>Haveli. Jamad is almost like a regulatory body for the community, but >>frequented by members of the community and those adopted from the 'normal' >>society as pseudo-family members. >> >>------------------------------ >>Here's a new way to find what you're looking for - Yahoo! >>Answers >> >> >>_________________________________________ >>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. >>To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list >>List archive: >> >_________________________________________ >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. >To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list >List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> _________________________________________________________________ Palate teasers: Straight from Master Chef Sanjeev Kapoor http://content.msn.co.in/Lifestyle/Moreonlifestyle/LifestylePT_101106_1530.htm From amitabh at sarai.net Thu Apr 12 14:55:27 2007 From: amitabh at sarai.net (Amitabh Kumar) Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 14:55:27 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Speculation and Acquisition In-Reply-To: <5af37bb0704110455g567585b7s9ec150588b557770@mail.gmail.com> References: <70509397-0BE2-44F6-AFDC-755C64B2EF99@sarai.net> <5af37bb0704110455g567585b7s9ec150588b557770@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Dear Yasir, The Karachi waterfront was a perfect example of what is happening. A reality which is controlled by the politics of production and consumption. Currency that is tied to it. When the resources for that which is being produced turn to exhaustion, what does one do? turn your attention to that which cannot be produced and see possibilities in that. Land and property. The control over land is the calling card of the future. What was interesting was how the voice-over establishes the waterfront project as an act that has already happened. From the future it brings it to our immediate reality . The impersonal tone one of the narrator that seems to be an echo of news reporter's tone.The pauses and breaks that emphasize the 'progress' that would be achieved. The background music highlights the glory of the reclaimed waterfront and the wonders that lies in store for the people inhabiting it. Beautiful tools for the politics of land acquisition. (Add to that creation.) best, amitabh On 4/11/07, yasir ~ wrote: > > 1 \\ > For the Sugar Land City project details check out you tube film > "karachi Waterfront" > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n1mN2lpahA > > 2 \\ > > http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\02\26\story_26-2-2007_pg12_10 > > > > On 4/10/07, Jeebesh Bagchi wrote: > > > > Dear All, > > > > Here are some fragmentary notes that may gather some life in > > circulation! > _________________________________________ > 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. > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> -- www.amitabhkumar.blogspot.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070412/de3a911c/attachment.html From yasir.media at gmail.com Fri Apr 13 00:19:53 2007 From: yasir.media at gmail.com (yasir ~) Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 23:49:53 +0500 Subject: [Reader-list] art without a hand :: and code Message-ID: <5af37bb0704121149y9f641b3s9c831c6f89381792@mail.gmail.com> http://post.thing.net/node/1448#comment art without a hand :: and code From rana at ranadasgupta.com Fri Apr 13 11:03:52 2007 From: rana at ranadasgupta.com (Rana Dasgupta) Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2007 11:03:52 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] NYT: A Plan to Tame the Architectural Chaos of India's Capital Message-ID: <461F1640.407@ranadasgupta.com> New Delhi Journal A Plan to Tame the Architectural Chaos of India’s Capital By AMELIA GENTLEMAN Published: April 13, 2007 NEW DELHI, April 12 — It is late morning in the Pahar Ganj neighborhood, a stone’s throw from the New Delhi railway station at the heart of the capital, and the narrow lanes are alive with commerce. But the city authorities view this thronging, vibrant stretch of land as the embodiment of everything that is wrong with the city. A new government vision for the capital, the Delhi Master Plan, proposes that the area be demolished and replaced by high-rise apartments to deal with the city’s spiraling and out-of-control growth. By 2021 the city’s population is expected to rise to 23 million from 15 million today. If Baron Haussmann’s plan for transforming Paris lay in replacing crowded lanes with wide, unbarricadable boulevards, India’s minister of state for urban development, Ajay Maken, dreams of creating space to house the exploding population by growing vertically. His Master Plan 2021, which took effect in February, is a brave attempt to tackle an urgent problem: how do you transform a chaotic, traffic-choked, churning city into a “global metropolis” worthy of representing India’s ambitions to become the next Asian superpower? The answer boils down to three guiding principles: obliterating the slums, taming the traffic and importing a Manhattan-like skyline. As it is, Delhi is a planner’s nightmare. Go beyond the carefully laid-out, green showpiece terrain of New Delhi — an area within the metropolis of Delhi that is home to the nation’s government, the city’s elite and the best hotels — and there is architectural anarchy. The government estimates that 60 percent of the city’s inhabitants live in homes that are illegal — in slums, in unauthorized developments or in unplanned and unsafe buildings. Because these areas do not officially exist, they have no safe water supply, no legal electricity system and no proper sewers. Resourceful residents have made do: artfully siphoning water from the mains, risking their lives to sling wires onto electricity pylons to steal power. The city’s central water and power supplies are barely able to cope with this extra, invisible demand; most areas receive water for just a couple of hours a day, forcing residents to stock up with buckets when they can, while power failures occur daily. Since these were unplanned settlements, no good roads were ever built for them. Now their inhabitants, who are growing richer with India’s economic boom, are trading in their bicycles for motorbikes, or upgrading their motorbikes for cars. Last year, car sales rose across India by 24 percent. Traffic in the capital is growing thicker and more perilous. The new plan legalizes the houses of around three and a half million people, who have until now lived in fear of seeing their homes knocked down. Areas deemed dangerous will be redeveloped, and the city’s roughly two million slum dwellers will be rehoused, many of them in the new, tall, developments. Since the 1950s, successive governments have restricted housing construction to one state body, the Delhi Development Authority. Mr. Maken has said that the state-backed system has proved disastrous, and the new plan (the third drawn up since 1962) allows private developers into the housing market for the first time. To give these developers an incentive, the plan abolishes restrictions on tall construction, in all but a few historic areas. Building upward is a radical solution for a city where height restrictions keep most buildings at tree level. But since the government has been unable to stop the annual arrival of half a million migrants driven by rural poverty, it now says radical action is necessary. Under the new plan, developers will be able to approach residents, who mostly live in three-story buildings, with a plan to provide them with an equal-size apartment in a 15-story block and a cash bonus of, say, 2.5 million rupees, or $56,500. The plan stipulates that 35 percent of the housing be developed for poor residents, and that green space be left between the tall buildings. Unsurprisingly, the plan is highly controversial. K. T. Ravindran, dean of the Delhi School of Planning and Architecture, has warned that the slum demolition scheme risks following the discredited Paris model of urban planning, where poor communities were relocated into areas that fast became ghettoes. The author of Delhi’s first Master Plan, Jagmohan, a retired politician who uses only one name, was also scathing, remarking that the proposal would turn Delhi into a world-class city only if one equated high-rise apartment blocks with sophistication. “And what message are you giving by legalizing illegal settlements?” he asked. “You’re saying that anyone who has infringed the law will now stand to gain.” But Mr. Maken shrugs off these criticisms. “To be a world-class city we need to have good quality housing,” he said in an interview in his office in an upscale part of Delhi where power failures are rare and the water supply is good (although wild monkeys dance on the cars of officials outside, resistant to all campaigns to banish them). Besides, he said, Delhi has no alternative. “There’s no way that we can remove these millions of people, living in illegal constructions, from Delhi,” he said. “And we shouldn’t do it. They are the people who are working as maids, building the metros, driving the rickshaws. They are essential service providers for the community.” Serving tea from his pavement tea stall, Surjit Singh Bedi, 60, said he had no sentimental attachment to the streets of Pahar Ganj that had been his home for the past 55 years. “What’s to like?” he asked, gesturing toward the tilting buildings, illegally and inexpertly extended and re-extended on their original base, and the cobweb of looping electricity wires stretching like a canopy above the street. “If there is electricity, there is no water. If there is water, there is no electricity. The power lines are so dangerous that houses keep catching fire. The traffic is so bad that the houses are burnt out before the fire engines can get here. “I’ve never been in a tower block, but I’d be willing to sell up and move.” From ysikand at gmail.com Thu Apr 12 13:34:59 2007 From: ysikand at gmail.com (Yogi Sikand) Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 13:34:59 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Judicial Absurdity: Recent Ruling on Muslims in UP Message-ID: <48097acc0704120104o350df7b6hd5509f3e6e337acb@mail.gmail.com> Judicial Absurdity: Recent Ruling on Muslims in UP Yoginder Sikand & Nigar Ataulla A recent ruling by Justice S.N. Srivastava of the Allahabad High Court declaring that Muslims in Uttar Pradesh could no longer be considered a minority, has, predictably, stirred up a hornet's nest. Although the ruling was stayed by a two-member bench of the same court the next day, it raised crucial questions that pertain to minority rights, secularism and democracy and the impartiality of the judiciary. Muslim leaders were aghast and indignant at the ruling. Hamid Ansari, Chairman of the National Minorities Commission, critiqued it the as 'absurd', and pointed out that the illogicality of the ruling is evident from the fact that the same High Court put a stay on it the next day. As Zafarul Islam Khan, editor of the New Delhi-based Mili Gazette, India's leading Muslim paper in English, put it, 'It is a very disturbing aspect of the current judicial activism that a single judge of a lower court can go against the judgment of a much larger bench of the Supreme Court. If the judge is not aware of the earlier verdict, he seems unfit for his post and if he chose to disregard that judgment he should be sacked right away. It is clear that the judge had some agenda of his own, as the case in front of him did not relate to the minority-majority issue'. 'Instead', he added, 'it was a case against the rampant corruption in a certain government department where a certain educational institution says that it did not get government aid because it refused to pay a bribe'. Logically, the ruling, as critics have pointed out, is deeply flawed. Firstly, it is for the government, rather than the courts, to decide which community can be officially considered as a minority. Secondly, the case that Srivastava was hearing did not require him to pass judgment on whether or not Muslims in Uttar Pradesh could be considered a minority. Thirdly, Srivastava has clearly got his mathematics wrong. Muslims, according to the most recent Census, form less than a fifth of Uttar Pradesh's population. A clear numerical minority in the state, Muslims are also a minority in the sense of being a marginalized community vis-à-vis the dominant caste Hindus, lagging considerably behind them on almost all social indicators. Hence, there is no merit in Srivastava's ruling that Muslims in Uttar Pradesh can no longer be considered a minority. Some critics have argued that Srivastava's ruling reflects the right-wing Hindutva worldview, in which minorities are denied any separate identity of their own. This, in turn, is part of the Hindutva agenda of absorbing Indian Muslims into the amorphous Hindu fold. That Srivastava's ruling plays directly into the hands of the Hindutva lobby, which has warmly welcomed his pronouncement, is obvious. Hamid Ansari of the National Minorities Commission argues that Hindutva forces have consistently denied the fact of Muslim deprivation, fiercely opposed minority rights and have condemned any measure on the part of the state for the amelioration of the pathetic conditions of the Muslims as unwarranted 'minority appeasement'. He opines that Srivastava's ruling must be seen in the light of the fact that following the recent release of the Sachar Commission report that investigated the conditions of Muslims in India, there is much talk about the high levels of deprivation that Muslims suffer in large parts of the country. The report led to demands by Muslim organizations for urgent steps to be taken by the state to make special provision for the educational and economic empowerment of Muslims. 'In response to this', Ansari says, 'Hindutva forces are now trying to confuse the whole debate engendered by the Sachar Commission report by bringing in specious arguments about who should be considered a minority. The controversial ruling should be seen in this light, as a considered approach, rather than an accidental or stray comment'. In other words, if Muslims were not to be considered as a minority by the state, the recommendations of the Sachara Commission report would be scuttled and the limited state-funded schemes for Muslim welfare might be ended forthwith. The rights of Muslims as a minority, too, would be seriously curtailed. Says Syed Qasim Rasul Ilyas, member of the governing council of the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board, 'If Muslims are not treated as minorities, their right as minorities to run educational institutions of their own choice would be denied them. So too would the few government schemes meant particularly for minorities'. Clearly, Srivastava's ruling is a serious blow to democratic rights. Clearly, Srivastava's ruling exposes what some critics have pointed out as the creeping saffronisation of the judiciary, which, in theory, is meant to be impartial. If today Muslims are sought to be denied their rights as minorities through such controversial rulings, it could soon be the turn of other marginalized communities, such as Dalits, Adivasis and Other Backward Classes. The ominous portents this has for the struggle for democracy and secularism in India are obvious. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070412/ee6c0f16/attachment.html From meenamenon at gmail.com Thu Apr 12 15:39:28 2007 From: meenamenon at gmail.com (meena menon) Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 15:39:28 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Recovering Lost Histories -Naupada and Behrampada Message-ID: <57ad49a60704120309i3c7fcf9elc66d7c1572e67ab7@mail.gmail.com> Hi All This is my second posting of the Sarai Independent Fellowship on victims of the 1992-93 riots in Mumbai. Best Meena meenamenon at gmail.com Recovering Lost Histories NAUPADA AND BEHRAMPADA Naupada and Behrampada are two sprawling settlements near Bandra suburban railway station in west Mumbai. The report of the Srikrishna Commission, appointed to inquire into the 1992-93 riots, after the demolition of the Babri Masjid, has extensively documented the events in Behrampada and surrounding areas. There were many riots sparked off by a temple being desecrated and the violent incidents continued well into January. >From Bandra suburban station as you cross the railway bridge, on your left is a mass of shanties. If you look down on the side of the disused railway tracks you can see that it's full of life -- children playing, barbers shaving customers, people shopping. The homes are built on top of one another so much so that some are on the level with the bridge and through the tiny windows you can see people sitting around or cooking. Ayub Mohammed Sheikh, or Ayub bhai, a social worker who lives in Naupada says that it was an old village or a gaothan with a 200-year-old history. Today it is home to hundreds of Muslim families. The settlement of Naupada hugs the railway tracks and narrow dark lanes divide the houses. It was in the news last year, when many of its residents helped retrieve the bodies when a bomb exploded in a railway train as part of the serial blasts on July 11, 2006. One of them, a railway employee was killed in the serial blasts. The road outside Bandra station on the east side divides Naupada and Behrampada. Behrampada is surrounded by tall apartment blocks. Concrete walls separating the slum from the apartment blocks grew higher after the riots of December 1992- January 93. Over a decade ago, children from both sides went to school together and played cricket. All that has changed. BEHRAMPADA Both settlements buzz with activity and the narrow lanes are full of people at all hours. It is not easy to get people to go back to a time when for months on end, terror ruled. On the surface things are forgotten and life seems to go on as usual. But underneath there is anguish and the memories of those days are fresh. In the riots of 1992-93, Behrampada was targeted by mobs and many houses were burnt there. People were killed and injured in firing and riots and many of them lost their homes and livelihoods. Behrampada has always been portrayed as a hotbed of crime and many people at that time including filmmaker Madhushree Datta in her film, tried to dispel those myths. However, the Shiv Sena, led by the local MLA Madhukar Sarpotdar campaigned against Behrampada saying it harboured illegal Pakistanis who were indulging in terror tactics. None of this was borne out with facts and while raids in Behrampada did yield crude bombs and some people were arrested, the police could find no evidence of organised criminal activity. Sarpotdar himself was detained by the army with guns and other weapons, travelling in a vehicle along with his son but he was let off. According to the Srikrishna report, he was not even charge sheeted for an offence as serious as this. CHANGES OVER THE YEARS Over the years, there have been changes and people seemed to moved have in and out of both Behrampada and Naupada. I met families in both Naupada and Behrampada to look at how they have coped with their lives after the riots. I find that people have moved to these places for reasons of security or because they had relatives already living there. Many of the Hindu families have moved out after the riots. That is also something which I will investigate. Families have had to cope with loss of life, homes and livelihoods but the most disturbing finding is that there seem to be a lot of mental trauma which has not been addressed. There is no support structure in place for these affected families in terms of medical care or legal aid. THE STORY OF KHATUNBI Khatunbi is one of those who was forced to come to Naupada when the riots took place. She must be over 65, her legs are stiff and she has high blood pressure. She is unsure why I want to talk to her. Khatunbi now lives with her daughter, Shakila, the only one who is as yet not married. Her strongest memory of the 1992 -93 riots was that she had to hide almost neck deep in a filthy gutter all night. "Mahaul bahut kharab tha (the situation was very bad)," she begins. The rest of her story comes out in a rush. "A temple in our area was damaged. When the riots started, I sent my children away first while I stayed behind. I hid in the gutter and the police found me there- they called to me in Marathi and then they took me to the police station at Nirmal Nagar. My clothes were dirty and then the police brought me to a relief camp in Naupada. I wanted to see if my children were there. I was so glad to see my girls-they all thought I was dead. My son Sajjid, was full of blood, he was unconscious." She is full of praise for her Hindu neighbours who gave her a "maxi" to wear and helped her hide. "My younger son Ramzan had bought gold for my daughter's wedding. Like me he was scared of leaving it behind. Ramzan was a master tailor; he was a specialist in chaniya cholis (long skirts and blouses, heavily embroidered). He lost so much in the riots, and all those expensive clothes he tailored were burnt." After the riots Sajjid refused to work and he died a few years later of jaundice. Ramzan too became a silent, withdrawn person. Those who knew him a little in Naupada say he used to sit under a tree all day reading a newspaper. He contracted tuberculosis (TB) but could not get proper treatment and he died two or three years ago. His friend Taukeer Khan remembers that he spoke very little. Taukeer says, "We did not ask him anything, he suffered on his own." Both of them could not return to normal. Khatunbi has no hesitation in saying that the riots killed her sons. She finds it difficult to sleep at night. "When I think about all these things I feel very bad." She kept repeating that no one helped her. "I used to live in Khar, nearby, for over 40 years. We were the only Muslim family in the chawl (a group of houses) and I did not fight with any one as I had four daughters. I still remember the people who attacked our houses -they were from Shantilal Compound." Her father- in- law owned six rooms in the chawl but people occupied them without paying the rent even before the riots took place. She has rented her old house to a family for Rs 2000 per month. She never wants to go back and live there again. Now, apart from the rent, she and her daughter earn daily wages by fixing sequins on dupattas. She is also very upset that her daughter Shakila's marriage was called off after the riots. "They had so many demands," she says, her eyes full of tears. "I had nothing to give her." Khatunbi is used to fending for herself. Her husband used to work for the Bombay Port Trust. He died many years ago and she was one who raised her family by doing embroidery. Her daughters chipped in by making jewellery. However, despite the bad memories, Khatunbi still goes back to her old home. "When I go there I get scared, people drink and fight. Here it is not like that. I go back and think of the old days." Her account is a bit confused about the exact status of her property but Shakila, her daughter, says her uncle usurped it. They have no one to turn for legal aid to help them sort out this mess. REVISITING OLD MEMORIES Khatunbi was keen that I visit her old place and cordially invited me to accompany her. From Naupada it is a short ride by auto rickshaw. On the way she points to the railway over bridge and said this is the bridge her son Sajjid took to escape from the mob. Her other son Ramzan swore he worked for an Udipi hotel in the vicinity and was spared. We go to Shantilal Compound from where she claims the mobs attacked her chawl. There is a man sitting near the Sai Baba temple- "All these people were involved," she said. Looking around she tells me the shops are all new. Suddenly we turn into a small opening next to a shop. Before us is a cluster of cemented rooms. We go into the house Khatunbi had lived for 40 years. "They destroyed all this," she said in the manner of an expert guide. "My son rebuilt my house it to some extent. Now the tenants are Marwaris-they run a catering business." The tenants are away but there are two cooks frying puris in the hot airless room. But the room is far more spacious than Khatunbi's present home. She looks around with pride at the grimy pink walls stacked with steel vessels. Like a good landlady she goes up one floor to ask if her tenants there have paid the water bill. She asks the cooks for some puris and vegetable and finds a plastic bag to take it away. We leave and on the way back she offers me the puris for lunch. Khatunbi's present home is a small one room tenement- it's not even painted and the walls are uneven-there is a single bare bulb which lights the room. She is desperate to get her property back but with few papers it looks difficult. END -- Meena -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070412/b8ebe00f/attachment.html From rowanwilsonwork at yahoo.co.uk Thu Apr 12 18:26:14 2007 From: rowanwilsonwork at yahoo.co.uk (Rowan Wilson) Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 12:56:14 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Reader-list] =?windows-1252?q?GLASGOW__UNIVERSITY_CAMPUS_CLOSURE?= =?windows-1252?q?_=96_PLEASE_SHOW_YOUR_SUPPORT?= Message-ID: <458857.26160.qm@web25108.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> GLASGOW UNIVERSITY CAMPUS CLOSURE – PLEASE SHOW YOUR SUPPORT On February 14th Glasgow University Court voted to close down the University's Crichton Campus (UGCC) 80 miles away in Dumfries. UGCC is Southwest Scotland's only provider of HE courses in the Humanities, Arts, Environmental Sustainability and Community Learning. The decision if implemented would not only deny vital educational opportunities for an already deprived and marginalised area but also put 40+ members of staff at risk of compulsory redundancy. A friend asked me to forward the message below: Dear All, I am writing to request support. On Wednesday 17th January at 6pm, the Principal of Glasgow University (GU) announced that he would be closing down the GU part of the Crichton Campus in Dumfries in South West Scotland. Because the situation is somewhat complicated, I should fill in some background information. The Crichton Campus is based in Dumfries. It opened less than ten years ago, to provide Higher Education opportunities for a region which, until then, had no Higher Education institution. This caused demographic, cultural, economic and social problems for the area as large numbers of young people left the area for HE not to return. Also because of lack of provision, Dumfries and Galloway had a far lower than thge national average of uptake of Higher education. The Crichton Campus is made up predominantly of three institutions, each of which has its main organisational centre outwith the area. The three institutions are Bell College, who provide nurse training (whose centre is in Hamilton); Paisley University who provide predominantly computing and management courses and Glasgow University who provide predominantly Arts and Humanities courses and post-grad provision. There was a prior agreement by the institutions to avoid replication, so each institution concentrates on particular sections of the curriculum. The campus lacks most of the basic elements required. There are few sports facilities (bar green fields), no students union, no refectory so there is nowhere for staff and students to have a hot meal. However it does have committed staff and students, who provide in these less than ideal circumstances, by all current accepted measures, educational experiences of very high quality. On Wednesday 16th January at 6pm the Principal of the University of Glasgow (based in Glasgow), announced that he was closing Glasgow University's part of the Crichton Campus. A decision ratified by University Court on 14th February. What this means for staff and students is still fairly vague, but it is not good: redundancies for staff, truncated academic careers for students, and lack of educational opportunities for future students in the region, and the ending of a significant cultural resource for the region as a whole. Because of the complicated structure of the Campus, with many institutional partners, the land being owned by the council and an incredibly labyrinthine funding arrangement from the Scottish Funding Council, everyone responsible has the possibility to blame someone else for closing the campus down. The UG Principal, Sir Muir Russell is blaming the Funding Council, the Funding Council is blaming the Principal; the Scottish Executive also bear some responsibility for under-resourcing, as do the local council for not providing basic infrastructure on the site. There is no economic argument for closing the Crichton. Glasgow University is in surplus, the Arts Faculty to which the campus belongs is in surplus, and the monies which are planned to be redistributed up from the impoverished Dumfries site to the relatively well-off Glasgow Campus if UGCC closes are earmarked not for student services, but as the Principal indicated at a public meeting in March 2007 in Dumfries, for hiring a couple of 'star' academic researchers. Students and staff are not taking the threatened closure lying down. UCU the biggest union on campus has already met and there was unanimity to oppose the closure (there are also 3 members of the IWW who are work there and are active in the campaign). There have been a number of demonstrations in Dumfries, up on the main campus in Glasgow and outside the SFC and Scottish parliament in Edinburgh. The next protests are planned for GLASGOW UNIVERSITY MAIN CAMPUS (IN GLASGOW nearest tube Hillhead) WEDNESDAY APRIL 18th at 1pm. Meet at Flagpole behind the quads. Crichton protestors will be joining the DUMFRIES MAYDAY MARCH - SATURDAY APRIL 28th, 12 Noon, BURNS STATUE, DUMFRIES TOWN CENTRE. Crichton campaigners would welcome your participation and advice. Please attend if possible and/or write to following, asking them to reverse the decision with regards to funding for the University of Glasgow Crichton Campus: Sir Muir Russell, The Principal University of Glasgow Glasgow G12 principal at gla.ac.uk Roger McClure Chief Executive Scottish Funding Council Donaldson House 97 Haymarket Terrace Edinburgh EH12 5HD rmcclure at sfc.ac.uk Further information about the campaigns are available from http://www.geocities.com/glasgow_at_crichton/ (General Campaign Website) http://www.cucsa.org.uk/ (Students Representative Council and campaign website) http://www.gla.ac.uk/Staff/GAUT/Crichton/index.html (UCU Union campaign website) http://iwwscotland.wordpress.com/crichton-struggle/ (IWW campaign website) More details from glasgow_at_crichton at yahoo.co.uk ___________________________________________________________ Yahoo! Mail is the world's favourite email. Don't settle for less, sign up for your free account today http://uk.rd.yahoo.com/evt=44106/*http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/mail/winter07.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070412/38a3aeb0/attachment.html From dak at sarai.net Thu Apr 12 10:54:08 2007 From: dak at sarai.net (The Sarai Programme) Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 07:24:08 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Film@Sarai: Faecal Attraction, by Pradip Saha Message-ID: ============================================ Delhi Dialogues Film and Public Discussion @ Sarai: Faecal Attraction ============================================ Faecal Attraction (Parts I & II) 5:30 P.M., Friday, 13 March 2007 Seminar Hall, Sarai-CSDS (In collaboration with the Centre for Science and Environment) Part 1 : Political Economy of Defecation A Film by Pradip Saha, Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi 32 minutes. 2007. All rivers in India look like sewage canals, if they carry any liquid at all! The stretches by the cities are worst. And urban middle class is bothered about the lost beauty of their rivers.City fathers either evict poor people living in 'illegal' shanties by the river, or they build expensive sewage treatment plants.But the rivers are no cleaner than before. We actually do not know how much sewage is generated, and whole city is not connected to the sewage network, and there is not enough electricity to run these treatment plants. The state responds to rich peoples' water and sanitation demand. Poor people get very little water, mostly unsafe water, pay more for it. Poor do not get sanitation cover, and pay heavy price in terms of water-borne diseases.The video shows the relationship between rich man's shit and poor man's water. And it is funny. Part II: Clean Up Your Act A Film by Pradip Saha, Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi 43 minutes. 2007 The electro-mechanical urban sewage management, with miles of pipes and hundreds of pumps have failed. But there is no reason to be depressed.Our ignorance about the sanitation science makes us feel powerless. And if our priority is sanitation, not cosmetic surgery on rivers, or dole to contractors, then we should move towards decentralized, individual house, or neighbourhood level waste management systems. The video travels through Pune, Agra, Delhi, Ujjain, Indore and Pondicherry, to showcase a host of systems that have been improvised over traditional septic tank soak pit. These are not just "beautiful ideas", an euphemism for killing any low cost affordable technology, but being practiced by courageous citizens. In fact, there are cheaper, sure-shot ways of cleaning polluted water bodies like rivers and lakes. There should be an immediate freeze on wasting any more money in the name of sewage management system. After all, cheaper systems will not force citizens of India to be indebted to multilateral banks and financial institutes. The screening will be followed by a discussion with the filmmaker, Pradip Saha and a team of researchers from CSE who work on urban water, sewage and sanitation - S V Suresh Babu, R K Srini, Bharat Seth and Bidisha Kumar. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From anujbhuwania at gmail.com Sat Apr 14 10:02:17 2007 From: anujbhuwania at gmail.com (Anuj Bhuwania) Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2007 10:02:17 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Gyan Prakash on Dalrymple's 'The Last Mughal' Message-ID: The Nation review | posted April 12, 2007 (April 30, 2007 issue) INEVITABLE REVOLUTIONS Gyan Prakash E.M. Forster's A Passage to India ends with a poignant exchange between Aziz, a young Muslim doctor, and Fielding, a Briton sympathetic to Indians. Though Aziz is acquitted of the false charge of molesting a British woman, he is deeply wounded by the experience and wants nothing to do with the colonial race. Fielding, an old friend, seeks him out and asks why they cannot be friends again. But the horses didn't want it--they swerved apart; the earth didn't want it, sending up rocks through which riders must pass single file; the temples, the tank, the jail, the palace, the birds, the carrion, the Guest House, that came into view as they issued from the gap and saw Mau beneath: they didn't want it, they said in their hundred voices. "No, not yet," and the sky said, "No, not there." This is how the novel ended, written in 1924 against the backdrop of the first mass nationalist upsurge against British rule. Gandhi, who led the movement, was a product of the Indian encounter with Western culture. He trained as a barrister in London and spent more than two decades in South Africa, developing his doctrine of nonviolent struggle in campaigning for Indian rights. Western ideas deeply influenced his political philosophy, and he maintained lifelong friendships with a number of Europeans. But anticolonialism formed the bedrock of his relationship with the West. Despite good intentions, there could be no friendship in the abstract. You could not simply wish away empire when it formed the setting in which the members of colonizing and colonized cultures met. Historians of empire have always understood this chasm in human relationships created by the fact of one culture ruling over another. But a reappraisal of this truth has been under way for some time now at the hands of revisionist historians of the British Empire. These historians dislike Edward Said and the postcolonial critics who cite French theory and argue that the British Empire established lasting Orient/Occident and East/West oppositions in politics and knowledge. Uncomfortable with the political passion and theoretical language of these critics, the revisionists counsel us (in mainly British accents, with some American intonations) to lower the anti-imperial temperature and write old-fashioned narrative history. They contend that empire is the oldest and one of the most widely practiced forms of governance. The Romans did it, the Spaniards did it, the Russians did it, the Chinese did it, even the newly independent nations have done it. Everybody oppressed everyone else. Pax Britannica may have ruled over one-fifth of humanity, but the conquerors, soldiers, administrators and scholars were also human. Why bring in such abstractions as Orientalism and colonialism? Underneath it all, the story of the British Empire is a narrative of individuals caught up in human encounters between cultures. True, the revisionist argument continues, Britons went to distant lands to profit and conquer. But vastly outnumbered by the local population and pitted against powerful adversaries, they were deeply conscious of their vulnerability. This was particularly true in the eighteenth century, when the British were all too aware of the power and grandeur of the Ottomans and the Mughals. The Barbary corsairs and Algerian slave owners harassed them in the Mediterranean, the Indian tribes challenged them in North America and the French engaged them in imperial wars. Then, their American territories fell. On the Indian subcontinent, the Mughal Empire was reduced to a shell, but successor states posed a serious challenge to the East India Company's military position. Embattled, the British were forced to depend on indigenous allies and could not afford to treat native populations and cultures as inferior. Forcibly or willingly, many crossed cultural borders. They shed European trousers for native pajamas, grew Hindu mustaches and Muslim beards, married local women and kept concubines, and collected indigenous texts and artifacts. A human story of interest and immersion in other cultures, languages and artifacts--not mastery--underpinned British imperial expansion. Stroke by stroke, this revisionist historiography seeks to redraw the portrait of the British Empire. This picture has received prominent attention in British publications, including leftist ones, eager to mark distance from their imperial past while trying to rescue some cultural value from it for the present. In this version of the story, set against the current spectacle of an arrogant and dangerous American imperialism, we are told the British Empire developed willy-nilly as a collection of territories and cultures; it was never the project that nineteenth-century imperialists claimed and that present-day postcolonial critics allege. The conquerors, particularly in the eighteenth century, are seen not as agents of colonial oppression and exploitation but as hapless imperialists caught in a hostile environment; weak and embattled, they eagerly embraced indigenous allies and cultures. This revisionist view of the British Empire underpins William Dalrymple's deeply researched and beautifully written The Last Mughal. The subject of his study is the 1857 Uprising against British rule in India. It was an event that, according to Dalrymple, marked the end of the eighteenth century's "relatively easy relationship of Indian and Briton" and the onset of "hatreds and racism" that became so characteristic of the nineteenth-century Raj. "The Uprising, it is clear, was the result of that change, not its cause." When the Uprising broke out, Company rule in India was already a century old. During this time, the Company had acquired effective military and political control over nearly the entire subcontinent. The imperial Mughals, a dynasty that traced its lineage back to Timur (Tamerlane) and had ruled India since 1526, still enjoyed nominal authority. The aging Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, lived in Delhi. Clutching hollow emblems of authority, Zafar presided over the royal household and harem. Real power lay with the Company, which used it to build a modern empire. The Company annexed territories, established courts, laid telegraph and railway lines, collected taxes and instituted land settlements that caused widespread discontent. The developing ideology of liberal imperialism, buttressed by evangelical Christianity, left little room for existing cultures and traditions. The old nobility and landholders were summarily cast aside, and Thomas Macaulay declared that all the accumulated products of Oriental knowledge were worth a single shelf of a Western library. The simmering discontent against British rule boiled over with the "greased cartridge" controversy. At the end of 1856, the Company army, which consisted of both Hindu and Muslim sepoys (recruits) commanded by British officers, introduced the new Enfield rifle. Loading the rifle required biting open the cartridge, which was greased to ease pushing the ball down the barrel. Initially, the grease was made of cow and pig fat, defiling to both Hindus and Muslims. This was quickly changed to beeswax and linseed oil, but the damage was done. A rumor spread that the British were deliberately using pig and cow fat to violate the sepoys' religions. The Uprising began on May 10, 1857, with a mutiny of Indian soldiers in the military barracks of Meerut. The mutineers killed their British officers and marched thirty miles south to Delhi, where they were joined by the sepoys in the regiments stationed in the city. Together, they "restored" Zafar as their emperor. The spirit of rebellion spread to other garrisons in North India and turned from a limited mutiny into a widespread revolt of peasants, artisans, laborers, religious leaders and the old gentry. For more than a year, the fire of the Uprising raged. European officers, women and children were massacred. British authority crumbled in large parts of North India until it was restored with brute force in the summer of 1858. Zafar's glory ended even earlier. Within a few months, the rebel position in Delhi fell. The emperor was tried and convicted for hatching an international Muslim conspiracy against his English benefactors, and exiled to Burma. The charge was legally and factually absurd. Since Zafar had never renounced sovereignty over the Company, he could not possibly be guilty of treason. In fact, Dalrymple explains, "from a legal point of view, a good case could be made that it was the East India Company which was the real rebel, guilty of revolt against a feudal superior to whom it had sworn allegiance for nearly a century." Equally groundless was the allegation that Zafar was behind an international Muslim conspiracy stretching from Constantinople to Delhi. "The Uprising in fact showed every sign of being initiated by upper-caste Hindu sepoys reacting against specifically military grievances perceived as a threat to their faith and dharma; it then spread rapidly through the country, attracting a fractured and diffuse collection of other groups alienated by aggressively insensitive and brutal British policies." The British "bigoted and Islamophobic argument" reduced the complexity of the rebellion to an oversimplified and fictional picture of a "global Muslim conspiracy with an appealingly visible and captive hate figure at its centre." Back in England, the Uprising and the aftermath of British bloodlust shocked the Parliament into assuming direct rule over India. Company rule was abolished, and Queen Victoria became the Empress of India. Understandably, the Uprising aroused heated emotions. The British officials and civilians caught up in it captured the experience in their writings. Several fictional and historical accounts were published, including Flora Annie Steel's novel On the Face of Waters (1896) and John Kaye's three-volume History of the Sepoy War in India (1877). In the British imperial imagination the Mutiny was remembered as the moment when Indians bared their barbarian souls. In Indian nationalist mythology, it was the first war of independence. Outside these stock images and myths, there exists a substantial body of sophisticated and complex historical work on the Uprising, notably the writings of Rudrangshu Mukherjee, Gautam Bhadra and Eric Stokes. But historians have largely ignored Delhi's experience of the cataclysm, preferring to focus on areas where the revolt was more protracted. Dalrymple, a British travel writer and historian who divides his time between London and Delhi, sets out to correct this neglect. Writing with obvious affection for Delhi and appreciation for Mughal culture, he shows that the experience of the rebellion in the city was quite distinct. It was the seat of the imperial Mughals and the center of high Indo-Muslim culture. Even if Zafar no longer exercised real power, the emperor, as the rebel proclamation demonstrated, still exercised tremendous symbolic significance. From his palace in Delhi's Red Fort, Zafar wrote accomplished poetry and presided over a refined court milieu. Living under his patronage was Ghalib, possibly the greatest poet ever in the Urdu language, and one who went on to record his experiences of the Uprising. Using sources in Persian and Urdu along with voluminous British papers, Dalrymple has written a riveting and poignant account of the events of 1857 in Delhi. When the mutineers descended on Delhi, the city initially welcomed them. Dalrymple shows that Zafar was gratified by the "restoration" of his imperial sovereignty but chafed at the lack of proper deference the rebels showed. He complained bitterly about the violation of imperial protocols and the country manners of the largely Hindu sepoys and was alarmed by the jihadi rebels who arrived from the North Indian town of Bareilly to add religious zeal to the Uprising. Trapped between the imperious British and the rude sepoys and zealous jihadis, Zafar reluctantly assumed the mantle of rebellion. However, he was too weak, too indecisive and utterly incapable of assuming the role assigned to him. The Uprising floundered and the elite opinion in the city turned against the violence and the unsophisticated culture of the lowly sepoys. Bandits and roving rebels ruled the roost on highways, making escape from the city hazardous. Europeans found their houses ransacked, their property looted and their lives endangered. Upon victory, the British celebrated their triumph by letting loose a reign of terror on the fleeing insurgents and Delhi's inhabitants. The princes who had participated in the Uprising surrendered unconditionally to a British officer, William Hodson, with the hope that their lives would be spared. Hodson stripped them naked and shot them in cold blood. Then he promptly proceeded to strip the corpses of their rings and amulets, which he pocketed. Satisfied with the killing and the loot, Hodson wrote to his sister: "I am not cruel, but I must confess I did enjoy the opportunity of ridding the earth of these wretches." Edward Vibart, who participated in what he called the "murder" of defenseless civilians, wrote about the horror of hearing women scream after witnessing their husbands and sons being butchered. "Heaven knows I feel no pity--but when some old grey bearded man is brought and shot before your eyes--hard must be that man's heart I think who can look on with indifference," he wrote. But horror quickly shifted to bravado and justification: "And yet it must be so for these black wretches shall atone with their blood for our murdered countrymen--my own father and mother--sister and brother all cry aloud for vengeance, and their son will avenge them." Slaughter followed slaughter. In the Kucha Chelan neighborhood, Dalrymple writes, about 1,400 residents were cut down: "After the British and their allies had tired of bayoneting the inhabitants, they marched forty survivors out to the Yamuna, lined them up before the walls of the Fort, and shot them." Among them were some of the most distinguished poets and artists of Delhi. The victors made little distinction between insurgents and civilians. George Wagentrieber wrote with satisfaction in the Delhi Gazette Extra: "Hanging is, I am happy to say, the order of the day here." Believing that the rebels had sexually assaulted their women (a charge proved false by a subsequent inquiry commission), "the British officers did little to stop the raping of the women of Delhi." To escape the victors' wrath, most of Delhi's residents fled to the surrounding countryside, finding shelters in tombs and ruins and scavenging for food. Looters went house to house, seizing whatever they could. "To all of us [soldiers]," wrote one officer, "the loot of the city was to be a fitting recompense for the toils and privations we had undergone." Prize Agents stalked the city, confiscating native property and delivering it to Europeans. To punish the residents for having supported the Uprising, the British considered leveling the entire city. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed. "Even so, great swathes of the city--especially around the Red Fort--were still cleared away." Many fine mosques, Sufi shrines, palaces and the houses of notables were demolished. Ghalib grieved that, under wanton destruction, "the whole city has become a desert." Dalrymple relates this story in all its horror, quoting extensively from the melancholy descriptions written by Delhi's literary elite and from accounts by the victors, who gleefully recorded the terrible vengeance they wreaked on the vanquished in what became known as the City of the Dead. Dalrymple mourns the passing of an age, the end of Delhi's urbane milieu in which the Europeans had taken a deep interest. Now that the "beating heart of Indo-Islamic civilization had been ripped out," the British-Indian racial divide ripped open the body politic. Contrary to received opinion, Dalrymple argues that the Uprising did not cause this divide; rather, the blame should be placed on "the Victorian Evangelicals whose insensitivity, arrogance and blindness did much to bring the Uprising of 1857 down upon both their own heads and those of the people and court of Delhi, engulfing all of northern India in a religious war of terrible violence." The rebel violence and the British retribution merely widened the gap between the rulers and the ruled that had already opened before 1857. He tells this story with an eye on the current phenomenon of an evangelically inspired American imperial power locked in battle with jihadi Islam. He sees ghosts of the past in the present good-versus-evil war: "Today, West and East again face each other uneasily across a divide that many see as religious war. Jihadis again fight what they regard as a defensive action against their Christian enemies, and again innocent women, children and civilians are slaughtered." The contemporary passion for absolutes, he argues, inflicts irreparable damage on ordinary interactions and exchanges between cultures and religions. As critical as Dalrymple is of the current ideological war of opposites, he is equally impatient with Edward Said and postcolonial critics. Writing with the traditional British suspicion of theory, he sees them as purveying the abstract concepts of Orientalism and colonialism. These abstractions, according to him, do injustice to the human interactions across identities that were common in the eighteenth century. Before nineteenth-century racism and colonial arrogance took over, the British and Indians bridged the distance of language and religion. Dalrymple is on familiar ground here. He has published two acclaimed books that celebrated Europeans who crossed racial and religious boundaries. In City of Djinns, a book about his year in Delhi, he uncovers the ghosts of the city's turbulent and varied past. Among them was William Fraser, a Scotsman sent by the Company to Delhi in 1805 to pacify the brigand-infested countryside around Delhi. Cut off from his compatriots, Fraser gathered a private force of Indians and set about his business. Always ready to abandon the routine of the office desk for the excitement of the battleground in the Company's wars, he surrounded himself with a community of Indian followers whom his contemporaries likened to Scottish Highlanders. He adopted native dress and customs, and he fathered "as many children as the King of Persia" from his harem of Indian wives. Dalrymple compares him to Mr. Kurtz in Conrad's Heart of Darkness; like Kurtz, "he saw himself as a European potentate ruling in a pagan wilderness." The Company officialdom did not trust him, but Fraser was no power-hungry brute. He was a philosopher who took a deep interest in Sanskrit, composed Persian couplets and befriended the poet Ghalib. His younger brother found him unrecognizable; he had turned "half Hindoostanee." In a curious twist, Dalrymple's research uncovered that Fraser was a distant cousin of his wife. This mixture of the personal and the intellectual also animates Dalrymple's White Mughals. While researching the book, he discovered that his great-great grandmother was born to a Hindu Bengali woman who had married a Frenchman. This discovery awakened his interest in the unwritten history of interracial unions under empire. In White Mughals, he tells the fascinating story of James Kirkpatrick, the British Resident in the court of Hyderabad between 1797 and 1805. Kirkpatrick fell in love with 14-year-old Khair, the grandniece of a powerful Muslim noble, and married her despite official disapproval. Khair bore him two children, who were promptly packed off to England. After Kirkpatrick died, she had an affair with his assistant, who eventually deserted her. Khair was exiled from Hyderabad, lost her house and money and never got to see her children again. In telling this story of love and betrayal, Dalrymple weaves in accounts of other "White Mughals," men like Sir David Ochterlony, the British Resident in Delhi, who lived the life of a Mughal nobleman. He dressed in Indian clothes, had a fondness for hookahs and dance girls and strolled Delhi every evening with his thirteen wives, each mounted on an elephant. The Last Mughal returns to this territory of Frasers and Ochterlonys. Dalrymple writes that there were a number of landed families in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries who walked the fault lines between Islam and Christianity, the Mughals and the British. Several of these families descended from European mercenaries who had married into the Mughal elite and practiced a hybrid lifestyle. They were Christians but had adopted Mughal customs and manners. All this cultural borrowing came under increasing scrutiny and critique with the consolidation of Company power and the arrival of the evangelicals by the 1830s. An intolerant spirit was in the air. The winds of change were blowing on the Muslim side as well. Zafar himself was born of a Hindu mother, not untypical of the Mughals. He promoted a form of mystical Sufi Islam and was revered by many as a saint. Delhi's literary culture was also open and tolerant, suspicious of orthodox theologians. But the orthodox opinion began gaining strength, setting the stage for the clash of fundamentalisms. This is a neat formulation, but it is also false. The clash of religious fundamentalisms did not cause the Uprising. A great majority of the sepoys who mutinied and assembled in Delhi to "restore" the Mughal emperor were Hindus. Despite the presence of jihadi rebels, the rebellion was a remarkable display of Hindu-Muslim unity in Delhi and elsewhere. If it was a religious war, it was one only insofar as the rebels opposed what they thought was the British plot to impose Christianity. The growing evangelical influence was a factor in fomenting this opposition, but the causes of the Uprising lay in colonialism itself. Coercion, conflict and violence were built into colonial rule, even when it was imposed with the help of indigenous allies and soldiers. As the Company government violently displaced existing structures of power and authority, it encountered endemic opposition. The 1857 Mutiny in the army over greased cartridges served only to unify and escalate specific grievances at different places and among different groups into a widespread violent opposition to the Company. To argue, as Dalrymple does, that it was only imperial arrogance and evangelical influence that forced the rebels to engage in a life-or-death struggle is to underestimate the depth of their determination. Revolt and resistance against colonialism were inherent in alien rule. Since the beginning of the Company conquest in the mid-eighteenth century, rebellions were endemic; the Uprising was only the most widespread and fierce expression of the built-in conflict between the colonizers and the colonized. Dalrymple overlooks this history and assumes that but for the nineteenth-century imperial foolhardiness, the imagined eighteenth-century empire might have remained intact. This would be like supposing that prior to present wars of fundamentalisms, the West's history of domination over the rest of the world was free of sharp oppositions and discords. In drawing a parallel between 1857 and the current "clash of civilizations," Dalrymple makes precisely such a suspect assumption. Whatever the role of the "clash of civilizations" ideology in the current conflict, the opposition to Western domination did not begin with it, just as the insurgency against Company rule in India did not start with the arrival of Victorian evangelicalism but was endemic to British rule. Empire has always produced challenge and resistance. If Dalrymple and like-minded writers were not so dismissive of the "abstractions" of Edward Said and postcolonial critics, they would not need the reminder that colonialism was always a fundamentally violent system. Joseph Conrad wrote that the conquest of earth was never a pretty thing if you looked into it too closely, for it meant taking lands away from people of a different color and appearance. Even if racial superiority and the "civilizing mission" were not marshaled to justify the eighteenth-century empire, this does not mean that it was a pretty thing. As Nicholas Dirks's superb recent book The Scandal of Empire shows, greed, duplicity, corruption, exploitation and violence were present at the birth of Company rule in India. With perceptive readings of the British record in eighteenth-century India, Dirks shows that the scandal of colonial violence and oppression was systemic, and not just the product of a few bloodthirsty and corrupt officials. Edmund Burke's eloquent rage against the Company's arbitrary power during Warren Hastings's impeachment trial, for example, was underpinned by his scorn for Indian customs and traditions. He expressed sympathy for the plight of native rulers deposed by Hastings, but what really troubled him about the Company's conduct was that it was being corrupted by India. One day, he feared, this corruption would spread to Britain. The scandal of Company rule had to be expunged so that the record of the British Empire would remain untarnished. Such an assertion on behalf of the empire and its legitimacy is unthinkable without a belief in Britain's right to conquer and rule and a complete disdain for Indians. Consider the fabrication of European deaths in the Calcutta Fort in 1757 into the mythical "Black Hole" incident. Dirks points out that combat rather than imprisonment caused most of the deaths, and that there were far fewer fatalities than initially claimed. But Europeans were so quick to believe the lurid tale of Oriental barbarism that the Black Hole soon acquired a mythical status. When the Company carried out sustained wars against indigenous rulers in the last quarter of the eighteenth century, the desire to punish native perfidy encouraged the brutal campaigns. As globalization compresses space and time, those privileged and educated enough to travel between cultures find themselves increasingly impatient with the legacies of imperial racism and nationalist myths. This is understandable. But to retail the eighteenth century as a time when Europeans and non-Europeans overcame racial and religious boundaries is to fly in the face of historical evidence. To see the crossing of imperial borders in the lives of "White Mughals" is to misrepresent both the nature of interracial liaisons and imperial conquest. Empire made the Frasers and the Ochterlonys possible. It was because of empire, not despite it, that Europeans took an interest in non-European cultures. Colonial power enabled the Europeans to enter into interracial unions, keep concubines and father children, and learn native languages and customs. This was largely a one-way street on which mostly European men traveled to "collect" Indian women, territory, texts and artifacts. Astonishingly, Dalrymple fails to see the sense of imperial entitlement that permitted Company men to penetrate indigenous culture and become White Mughals. He identifies William Fraser with Kurtz but still insists that the eighteenth-century conquerors could act without a sense of racial privilege. This is to claim that empire can permit "easy relationships" between cultures, that human exchanges can occur outside history. Not now, not then. From hpp at vsnl.com Sat Apr 14 12:10:30 2007 From: hpp at vsnl.com (hpp at vsnl.com) Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2007 06:40:30 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Reader-list] Scroll painters-singers Message-ID: Singing Pictures - a documentary film by Lina Fruzetti, Ákos Östör, Aditi Nath Sarkar http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6719408592320287069&q=Singing+Pictures For generations, Patua (Chitrakar) communities of West Bengal, India have been painters and singers of stories depicted in scrolls. The Patuas tell the stories of Muslim saints (pirs and fakirs) as well as Hindu Gods and Goddesses, and offer devotion to saints at Muslim shrines. In the past they used to wander from village to village, receiving rice, vegetables and coins for their recital. They would unroll a scroll, a frame at a time, and sing their own compositions. But competition from other media eroded this way of life and now the Patuas are trying to adapt to changing conditions. In response to this cultural crisis and as a means to make extra money, recently a group of women from Naya village near Calcutta formed a scroll painters' collaborative. The film follows their daily lives as they paint, sing, cook, tend to their children and meet with the cooperative. They discuss the problems and rewards of practicing their art, and speak freely about the social, religious, and political changes in the village and the world beyond. Their wisdom, artistry, and good humor amidst many difficulties illuminate the lives around them. Scrolls cover a variety of themes: mythological and religious, social and especially women's issues, contemporary local and world news. The more recent themes are communal (Hindu Muslim) harmony, Joy Bangla (the birth of Bangladesh as a country), the battle of Kargil (Kashmir conflict), and the September 11 events in New York. Women painters have also developed the figure of Satya Pir (revered by Muslim and Hindu alike) demonstrating how two communities can live in religious harmony despite mounting tensions in the rest of the country. The women candidly discuss issues of Islam and birth control, victimization of women, female education, poverty and work, religious tolerance and intolerance, and depict some of these ideas in the scrolls themselves. Women painters want to tell their own stories in songs and pictures, illustrating their lives of hardship and endurance. These stories attest to what it means to be a woman in Bengal and India today, demonstrating how a small group of determined women can empower themselves by adapting an ancient art to new conditions. Lina Fruzzetti is a professor of Anthropology at Brown University, co-director of three previous films with Ákos Östör (among them Seed and Earth, 1994, and Fishers of Dar, 2002, and author of several books, including Women, Orphans, and Poverty. Ákos Östör is a professor of Anthropology and Film Studies at Wesleyan University. Author of numerous films and monographs (including Play of the Gods and Vessels of Time) based on research in India and Africa. Ákos assisted filmmaker Robert Gardner in the making of his film, Forest of Bliss (1986), and is credited as producer. Aditi Nath Sarkar is currently a Visiting Associate Professor at the Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology, Gandhinagar, Gujarat. He is the author of numerous articles and museum exhibitions about the Patua tradition of West Bengal and a co-producer of the documentary, Future of Our Cities: Calcutta. Film Festivals, Screenings, Awards Material Culture and Archaeology Prize, International Ethnographic Film Festival of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 2005 Athens International Film & Video Festival, Ohio, 2006 Society for Visual Anthropology/American Anthropological Association Conference, San Jose, California, 2006 Jury Award, International Festival of Ethnological Film, Serbia, 2006 forumdoc.bh.2006, Documentary and Ethnographic Film Festival, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 2006 Best Documentary Independent Short, New England Film & Video Festival, Boston, 2006 Sponsor Award, Eyes & Lenses IV - Competition of Ethnographic and Anthropologic Films, Poland, 2007 From burtoncleetus at yahoo.co.uk Sat Apr 14 12:53:59 2007 From: burtoncleetus at yahoo.co.uk (burton cleetus) Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2007 08:23:59 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] The Rokefeller Foundation in Travancore, IF, Second Posting Message-ID: <20070414072359.48879.qmail@web27106.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> THE ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION IN TRAVANCORE The last posting had discussed the emergence of the notions of science in Travancore and the manner in which the western institutions evolved in the state. This is an attempt to understand as to how science was incorporated, not merely as a new and superior mode of enquiry, rather how it functioned as a superior version of societal and hegemonic truth in Travancore. A history of the engagement of Travancore society with the norms and practices of the west and their re-enactment in the indigenous society is addressed here. The fundamental question that arises in this context is to how did the Travancorean society in general became receptive or made to be familiar with the notions of western science. Was it the belief in the ability of western medicine to successfully intervene in the health practices of the indigenous society that forced the Travancore government to make large-scale investment in western medicine? How did this belief in the ability of western medicine and science emerge in the state? The introduction of western medicine in Travancore particularly in the urban centres of the state signified this mapping of science in the indigenous societies. Over time, one finds that the faith reposed in the basic epistemic paradigms of western science gradually transformed towards the generation, creation and the management of social fear, and the consequent generation of unquestioned hope in the emancipation attached to the larger project of scientific intervention. This is also a signification of the functioning of western medicine and the emergence of the ideology of controlling and regulating of the physical bodies under the hegemonic dominance of colonialism. It was not merely the control of contagious diseases rather it meant that social fear on malaria, filariasis, elephantsis, plague, cholera, etc., enabled the state to come forward with a definite policy, a method, and as purveyors of scientific knowledge. Thus the state became the embodiment of the knowledge of the body, where human bodies were to be subjected to inspection, control and observation by the state. A new pedagogical method was constituted by the state so that the larger problem of bodily ailments and cure became a social knowledge. By the late twenties of the twentieth century, there was a rapid increase in urban mobility of the state. The First World War had in many ways economically aided a large number of the population, particularly those who were engaged in business and trading activities. Those who benefited from the export of coir and other products to the west as a result of the shortages of raw materials and finished goods due to war had moved toward the urban centres. The development of an urban populace who were trained in the literature and ideology of the instrumentalist rationality of the west had high belief in western medicine in terms of its ability to successfully encounter the contagious diseases. It was based on these developments that the state sought the help of the Rockefeller Foundation of United states in framing a larger policy for the state. The decision to get aid from the foundation was a major step in the larger project of governmentality in the princely state of Travancore. It signified a new socio-political order, through which a new life form was to be created. Though, it would seem that the meticulous re-organization of the department of Health under colonialism was aimed at the successful elimination of diseases that were deemed to be contagious. As a health care institution the fundamental aim of the foundation was to secure close co-operation between the medical and public health Departments, between Medical Officers of Health and Practitioners of medicine. By the time of the arrival of the Foundation there were two government departments, which were already engaged, wholly or in part, in public health work. The expectation was that if a public Health department is organized its duties will embrace sooner or later some of the work (vaccination, sanitation and vital statistics), which the department of sanitary commission was currenly engaged in. The foundation was of the view that very little progress can be made towards malaria control until the Malaria mosquitoes have been identified, classified and described and their habits in Travancore well understood. To have this knowledge in advance is essential if the problem is to be attached in a scientific and economical manner. For this reason, the first attempt in this direction was the appointment of a medical Entomologist.The responsibility of the identification of the disease in the late nineteenth century became confined to the entomologist, of differentiating the disease causing mosquitoes. The medical Entomologist was to investigate the mosquitoes, which were responsible for Filariasis, and the fleas, which carry plague. The symptoms of malaria were to be examined on the basis of clinically examining the spleen and blood findings. Propaganda work against the nature, causes and spread of contagious diseases constituted an important aspect of the activities of the foundation. It was recognized that educational and propaganda work is an essential part of a public health department, which should be developed early. A general programme and a working procedure was charted out for which the major part of the activities was dedicated for general public health principles, supplemented by inspections made in rapid journeys to all sections of the country. There was also an attempt to understand and to take into consideration the habits and conditions of the people as revealed by the exact knowledge possessed and furnished by the local medical practitioners. A new order of disease and medicine emerged in Travancore, for which, there was a realization that the indigenous medical system failed to contain. As the press widely reported the spread of contagious diseases, the physicians of indigenous medicines put forward their claim to cure them, which in most cases was ridiculed by the state. A primary analysis of the activities of the foudation points out that the project was not ‘aimed at bringing the entire public health programme at once’ rather it was aimed at the generation of public opinion before each public health initiative is undertaken. The expectation was that through the careful imparting of a western medical paradigm through the press, ‘all false moves will be lessened and steady progress without any serious setbacks may be expected’. There emerged a new form of visualising the disease and its method of cure. There were specialists in the field of sanitary and health care who identified the cause of the disease. There were stages in the identification of the disease and the form of cure to be imparted to the patient. ___________________________________________________________ Yahoo! Mail is the world's favourite email. Don't settle for less, sign up for your free account today http://uk.rd.yahoo.com/evt=44106/*http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/mail/winter07.html From ramganeshk at gmail.com Sat Apr 14 16:41:20 2007 From: ramganeshk at gmail.com (Ram Ganesh Kamatham) Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2007 16:41:20 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] the fruity fruit or wandering fruit of immortality - v&b Message-ID: hi all! the second installment in my interior monologue on the tale of vikram & betal (v&b) is available at the following link: http://addledbraindump.blogspot.com/2007/04/fruit-of-immortality-ifs-2.html#links it's about time i get down to some actual drafting now! cheers ram From junglejaya at gmail.com Sun Apr 15 22:03:32 2007 From: junglejaya at gmail.com (jaya iyer) Date: Sun, 15 Apr 2007 22:03:32 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Fwd: Eviction plan of Basti Nizamuddin. In-Reply-To: <125897.38271.qm@web51404.mail.re2.yahoo.com> References: <3ef603b70704150355g6f7614c8o6497fcff03f81ffd@mail.gmail.com> <125897.38271.qm@web51404.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <1c53f7ad0704150933x3bcd149an4e852c8d917c33bb@mail.gmail.com> dear friends, sorry last week been completely out of sync and now again I am off dayafter- so begin with profuse apologies. I agree with yousuf, we need to find out from MCD what their plans are- even with players like aga khan it is sarkar which is fianlly responsible- will or can demolish and is liable for rehabilation or whatever . But aga khan should be and possibly could be turned into a via media and might be more scared of bad press than MCD. and what the hell, we elected our sarkar not aga khan- no? sorry I missed the meeting and the survey etc. but will join soon in - i ccing this to Pravah and i believe some of pravah students are interested to do their bit . another thought is that RTIs should be followed up and answers sought. peace and best jaya On 4/15/07, Yousuf wrote: > > Looking at stories of all the parties, it looks like MCD and Agha Khan are > not hand in glove about this - they are rather distanced. Whatever be the > exact plans of MCD, the middle level officers of MCD are always out to > exploit the poor people for their own gains. This has been seen in all the > so-called illegal colonies: the MCD officers come and threaten the residents > on pretext of the impending demolition, where in reality nothing exists on > paper. An example of this case is the rumour that was spread that all > structures within 30 meters of Yamuna will be demolished - it spread such > scare in all areas parallel to the river. Some officers actually came to > places like Okhla and Batla House and started measuring the areas near > Yamuna and marked many housed that were to come within 30 meters. It is > reported that some houses were "unmarked" later by them after some > "understandings". However, it has now been proved that no such verdict or > law about 30 meters existed anywhere - it was a hoax. So, the real challange > is find out what the intentions of MCD are. > > > > *Sudeshna Chatterjee * wrote: > > This just came to me from a resident of Nizamuddin. What shall we do? > > Sudeshna > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: Riyaz Qureshi < riyazq at hotmail.com> > Date: Apr 15, 2007 1:34 PM > Subject: Eviction plan of Basti Nizamuddin. > To: sudeshna.kca at gmail.com > > Dear Dr. Chatterjee, > > i was deeply touched by your concern about the residents of Basti > Nizamuddin > which i read at > http://readerlist.freeflux.net/blog/archive/2007/04/09/re-reader-list-response-to-ratish-re-nizamuddin-basti.html > . > As a resident of Basti let me thank you on behalf of all the residents. i > must admit that i myselft was unaware of some of the facts which you gave > there. > > In contrast to Mr. Ratish's reply to you, MCD team visited Basti on > 14/4/07 > asking all the shopkeepers to produce the property papers in the MCD > office. > And a hindi daily carries the news today of demolition plan. (I hope you > are > aware of that). i feel MCD and Aga Khan people are hand in glove into > this. > i personally and most people in Basti are not against the development and > beautification but we certainly are against the this approach. i feel > people > from Basti should be taken into confidence ignoring their "vested > interests" > (as described by Mr. Ratish). > > Residents of Basti have filed 2 RTIs with MCD and the response is still > awaited. Could yiou please enlighten us more on this issue and give us > some > guidelines for the course of action. > > Thanks & Regards. > Riyaz Qureshi > cell No:9899227860 > > _________________________________________________________________ > Voice your questions and our experts will answer them > http://content.msn.co.in/Lifestyle/AskExpert/Default01.htm > > > > -- > Sudeshna Chatterjee, PhD > Partner, Kaimal Chatterjee & Associates > New Delhi, India > > > ------------------------------ > Ahhh...imagining that irresistible "new car" smell? > Check out new cars at Yahoo! Autos. > > -- shanti shalom peace .... -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070415/126cb3df/attachment.html From kocka33 at yahoo.com Sun Apr 15 16:13:20 2007 From: kocka33 at yahoo.com (AK - 47) Date: Sun, 15 Apr 2007 03:43:20 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Seeking info about Koovagam festival Message-ID: <20070415104320.26110.qmail@web53701.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Hi! I'm a reporter for Slovenia's biggest weekly magazine, traditionally progressive and pro-transgender rights oriented publication, I would like to know when the festival at Koovagam begins and ends, would like to attend it and make a big 6 page reportage! Please I am begging for an answer! Alesh, Mladina Magazine __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From renee75 at gmail.com Sat Apr 14 12:14:40 2007 From: renee75 at gmail.com (Renee Lulam) Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2007 12:14:40 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] 2nd Post: Insider-Outsider Message-ID: Iewduh is the largest traditional market in Shillong. Talking to Bah R.Thankhiew, who runs a drug store that he inherited from his grandmother and mother, reveals a layered dynamic in the perception of who the 'outsider' exactly is. Often, references made indicated that the ultimate 'other', the 'Dkhar' was anyone who was not essentially from any of the communities of the North Eastern States. Then come the 'outsiders' from within the communities of the North Eastern states. These distinction seem to be made on who the percieved 'exploiter' is. Further discussions divulge complex perceptions based on socio-cultural propinquity, geographical proximity, a sense of shared history, and linguistic similarities as well. There is a deep seated resentment that seems to arise from the necessary dependance on the 'outsider' for markets and businesses to run. The resentment most often is against the self, but often targetted at the other, who personifies that necessity. These are what we've gleaned so far from preliminary discussions. Considering how complex the narratives are turning out to be, we just might contradict ourselves as interactions continue. Such such are the joys of such a research :) Renee and Jules -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070414/53c295a5/attachment.html From sudeshna.kca at gmail.com Sun Apr 15 16:25:20 2007 From: sudeshna.kca at gmail.com (Sudeshna Chatterjee) Date: Sun, 15 Apr 2007 16:25:20 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Fwd: Eviction plan of Basti Nizamuddin. In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <3ef603b70704150355g6f7614c8o6497fcff03f81ffd@mail.gmail.com> This just came to me from a resident of Nizamuddin. What shall we do? Sudeshna ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Riyaz Qureshi Date: Apr 15, 2007 1:34 PM Subject: Eviction plan of Basti Nizamuddin. To: sudeshna.kca at gmail.com Dear Dr. Chatterjee, i was deeply touched by your concern about the residents of Basti Nizamuddin which i read at http://readerlist.freeflux.net/blog/archive/2007/04/09/re-reader-list-response-to-ratish-re-nizamuddin-basti.html . As a resident of Basti let me thank you on behalf of all the residents. i must admit that i myselft was unaware of some of the facts which you gave there. In contrast to Mr. Ratish's reply to you, MCD team visited Basti on 14/4/07 asking all the shopkeepers to produce the property papers in the MCD office. And a hindi daily carries the news today of demolition plan. (I hope you are aware of that). i feel MCD and Aga Khan people are hand in glove into this. i personally and most people in Basti are not against the development and beautification but we certainly are against the this approach. i feel people from Basti should be taken into confidence ignoring their "vested interests" (as described by Mr. Ratish). Residents of Basti have filed 2 RTIs with MCD and the response is still awaited. Could yiou please enlighten us more on this issue and give us some guidelines for the course of action. Thanks & Regards. Riyaz Qureshi cell No:9899227860 _________________________________________________________________ Voice your questions and our experts will answer them http://content.msn.co.in/Lifestyle/AskExpert/Default01.htm - -- Sudeshna Chatterjee, PhD Partner, Kaimal Chatterjee & Associates New Delhi, India -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070415/3f707dbb/attachment.html From shafiawani at gmail.com Sun Apr 15 19:18:13 2007 From: shafiawani at gmail.com (Shafia Wani) Date: Sun, 15 Apr 2007 19:18:13 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Second posting April 2007 Message-ID: <41eea6080704150648l4ecfbe95y7118043a96acd68b@mail.gmail.com> Hello Vivek, Here is my second posting for the SARAI Independent Fellowship, titled '*The Aesthetic of Resistance and Women in Kashmir'. *Please excuse the delay as I am putting this in a day late. * 2nd Posting, SARAI * Aasia Jeelani, born 9 February 1974, died 20 April 2004, was a student at the Media Education Research Center (MERC) at Kashmir University; while she was there she showed an energy about her which was noticeable to friends and acquaintances. When she finished her course from the University of Kashmir she looked about for an opportunity to work in the media. She began her professional career as a trainee cum researcher with the Agence France Presse (AFP) Kashmir bureau in 1998; in 2001 she started working with the Times of India as an intern. This phase of a 'regular' professional engagement did not last as there was something else that was pulling her, she was appalled by the deteriorating human rights situation in Kashmir and wanted to do something that would contribute in some way to addressing this issue especially vis a vis women. She joined the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (CCS) which is an umbrella of several organizations that have come together to bolster civil society efforts in a variety of ways. She was an energetic activist for the CCS and within some time of her joining she along with a few friends founded the Kashmiri Women's Initiative for Peace and Development. (KWIPD) This initiative ran within the ambit of the CCS but had an autonomous mandate of its own. The initiative started by documenting the issues of women and how the violence of the past many years had affected them. This loose documentation took the form of a newsletter that the KWIPD took out by the name of Voices Unheard. This newsletter came about to represent the voices of women who were at the receiving end of violence and their stories of courage and sometimes despair. Aasia was the editor of this newsletter. Aasia in time came about to became a key representative on the civil rights movement in Kashmir and especially a representative of the issues of women. She represented these issues at many international and national conferences that she attended; she attended conferences on peace management notably the one on Peace Management organized by the CM Partners Negotiation and Conflict Management Advice at the Roger Fisher House, Cambridge, Massachusetts in August 2003 and the one organized by the Netherland based NGO Inter Church Peace Council (IKV) in 2003 in Amsterdam. Talking of her experience in Netherland, Aasia wrote in an issues of the Voices Unheard, that in the numerous trouble spots of the world women alike were are at the receiving end of the consequences of violence and that in these numerous cases the "causes may be different but the repercussions the same. One of the aims of attending this conference as a woman activist was to have interactions with women from other conflict regions and see the way thy work. And the feeling of isolation that we experience would be to an extent surmounted." This effort at finding a community in the experience of other people, who share similar experiences and situations, is something that is a productive endeavor not only in that we learn from the experience of others but that we also find a community and support. This community is crucial to alleviate a condition of general and pervasive loss. This is then what Aasia was looking for in her work, an active agency that shaped, defined her concerns and a community that shares these concerns and supports them. This for her was an effort that could in some measure address the repercussions of violence for the countless women who have suffered through the years of conflict that Kashmir has seen. As time would tell her efforts and her subsequent death instilled a confidence in others to contribute and shape a discourse on the position of women in this society. These are the final lines of her last editorial for the Voices Unheard, for the quarter January March 2004, just before she died, " circumstances demand that confidence has to be instilled in women who have been victims of rape, torture, molestation and widowhood so that they can rethink and restart their lives with a new spirit. We will continue with our efforts." In time other young women attracted and inspired by the work that was being done by the KWIPD joined the initiative. These young women were from diverse backgrounds and in their own way sought to contribute to an initiative that they though was addressing a crucial need. Some were pass outs of the department of mass communications at the University of Kashmir and others were students from the university and some professionals as well who became a part of this initiative. Among these was a young woman named Rafia. When she joined the KWIPD she was still a student of mass communications at the University of Kashmir. She came to know of the KWIPD through a senior of hers at the department and joined it because it represented for her a forum where she could contribute to something that had always been close to her heart. "As the fight for human rights has always been something that has touched my heart, I saw in KWIPD an opportunity to get to know and work for the victims of the conflict, especially women and children." At the KWIPD she used to contribute to the publications of the KWIPD and did many case stories for these publications highlighting the women victims of the conflict and their families. She got to travel a lot to far flung areas to meet the victims of conflict and to know their stories first hand. She also coordinated workshops both at national and local level with other organizations in India, that focused on conflict resolution, management and reporting. For many women in Kashmir this kind of work presented an opportunity to engage directly and creatively with their own context and have an active agency in interpreting and shaping the discourses within this context. In addition, this engagement also provided for opportunities where these young women represented these issues at different fora, recently Rafia was one in an team where there were other young women as well who had an opportunity to travel to Pakistan for the World Social Forum that was held at Karachi in 2006. There they had an opportunity to highlight the plight of the victims of conflict. They achieved a comprehensive representation of the condition of women and children in conflict at the forum. Discussions, debates and interviews with the Pakistani media and intellectuals from all over were an engaging and greatly productive experience for these women. This kind of an agency is crucial in general terms but at a different level such an engagement also is very significant as it strengthens and establishes a feeling of efficacy and significance at an existential level especially for somebody who comes from a context that is dissipative of energy and initiative. In her own words, "I consider my generation as children whom grew up with the conflict; I was 7 years old when the turmoil started in Kashmir, in a way my generation of people haven't experienced what is known as a normal childhood. We went through curfews and bombs and bloodshed. The education system was in shambles". This kind of an evocation of a lost childhood produces a feeling of pervasive loss and that seeks to consume everything within itself. It is in this context that an active engagement with ones owns situation becomes all the more crucial not only as expression of ones desire to represent the condition of others but also to establish a sense of coherent agency within ones own state of being. The story of Aasia makes her a martyr to some and a heroine to others, while her story is yet unheard by so many. She represents the possibility that the story of women in Kashmir though difficult is nevertheless one of courage and determination against all odds and not necessarily of only despair and neglect. Other young women who have participated and joined these initiatives are a part of an initiative that is bound to gain in importance and significance. The initiatives of the KWIPD and many others that will be narrated will give us the stories that will make for the pegs around which a new discourse of women in current times will be woven. A discourse that will be global in its resonance though one that is rooted in the contextual and the local. * Ends * Regards, Shafia Wani. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070415/ac44148f/attachment.html From ysaeed7 at yahoo.com Sun Apr 15 18:28:42 2007 From: ysaeed7 at yahoo.com (Yousuf) Date: Sun, 15 Apr 2007 05:58:42 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Fwd: Eviction plan of Basti Nizamuddin. In-Reply-To: <3ef603b70704150355g6f7614c8o6497fcff03f81ffd@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <125897.38271.qm@web51404.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Looking at stories of all the parties, it looks like MCD and Agha Khan are not hand in glove about this - they are rather distanced. Whatever be the exact plans of MCD, the middle level officers of MCD are always out to exploit the poor people for their own gains. This has been seen in all the so-called illegal colonies: the MCD officers come and threaten the residents on pretext of the impending demolition, where in reality nothing exists on paper. An example of this case is the rumour that was spread that all structures within 30 meters of Yamuna will be demolished - it spread such scare in all areas parallel to the river. Some officers actually came to places like Okhla and Batla House and started measuring the areas near Yamuna and marked many housed that were to come within 30 meters. It is reported that some houses were "unmarked" later by them after some "understandings". However, it has now been proved that no such verdict or law about 30 meters existed anywhere - it was a hoax. So, the real challange is find out what the intentions of MCD are. Sudeshna Chatterjee wrote: This just came to me from a resident of Nizamuddin. What shall we do? Sudeshna ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Riyaz Qureshi Date: Apr 15, 2007 1:34 PM Subject: Eviction plan of Basti Nizamuddin. To: sudeshna.kca at gmail.com Dear Dr. Chatterjee, i was deeply touched by your concern about the residents of Basti Nizamuddin which i read at http://readerlist.freeflux.net/blog/archive/2007/04/09/re-reader-list-response-to-ratish-re-nizamuddin-basti.html . As a resident of Basti let me thank you on behalf of all the residents. i must admit that i myselft was unaware of some of the facts which you gave there. In contrast to Mr. Ratish's reply to you, MCD team visited Basti on 14/4/07 asking all the shopkeepers to produce the property papers in the MCD office. And a hindi daily carries the news today of demolition plan. (I hope you are aware of that). i feel MCD and Aga Khan people are hand in glove into this. i personally and most people in Basti are not against the development and beautification but we certainly are against the this approach. i feel people from Basti should be taken into confidence ignoring their "vested interests" (as described by Mr. Ratish). Residents of Basti have filed 2 RTIs with MCD and the response is still awaited. Could yiou please enlighten us more on this issue and give us some guidelines for the course of action. Thanks & Regards. Riyaz Qureshi cell No:9899227860 _________________________________________________________________ Voice your questions and our experts will answer them http://content.msn.co.in/Lifestyle/AskExpert/Default01.htm - -- Sudeshna Chatterjee, PhD Partner, Kaimal Chatterjee & Associates New Delhi, India - --------------------------------- Ahhh...imagining that irresistible "new car" smell? Check outnew cars at Yahoo! Autos. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070415/7fdccac2/attachment.html From rrivulaha at yahoo.com Sun Apr 15 21:41:19 2007 From: rrivulaha at yahoo.com (Rrivu Laha) Date: Sun, 15 Apr 2007 09:11:19 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Cineshop at Prabhat Film Festival, 2007 Message-ID: <313158.28099.qm@web53912.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Dear filmmaker, Film and Television Institute of India is organizing Prabhat Film Festival from 7 th - 12th May,2007. On this occasion the Festival Committee is coming up with 'Cine-shop' where you can promote, distribute and retail your film. The festival will showcase works of student filmmakers across Asia . There will also be seminars and discussions on films by eminent theoreticians and film historians. 'Cine-shop' is a space given to all filmmakers to promote their films and there will be open air night screenings of selected films from the shop. You have to arrange for your own travel and accommodation but the Festival Committee will guide and facilitate in finding your accommodation. There are no registration charges but each filmmaker is requested to donate two copies of his/her film to the video library of the Institute. Come with ample copies of your films and get your fellow filmmakers along. For queries please email at mailcineshop at gmail.com. Sincerely Deepti Khurana Ramanuj Dutta Contact : Ramanuj Dutta +91 9823530109. Deepti Khurana +91 9960562762 --------------------------------- Ahhh...imagining that irresistible "new car" smell? Check outnew cars at Yahoo! Autos. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070415/89cce409/attachment.html From rochellepinto at yahoo.com Mon Apr 16 13:35:07 2007 From: rochellepinto at yahoo.com (rochelle pinto) Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2007 01:05:07 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Recovering Lost Histories -Naupada and Behrampada In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <438827.7717.qm@web30506.mail.mud.yahoo.com> I think an interesting focus for the study would be the continuing loss of those caught in the centre of violence during riots, and the shifts in memory that occur with this incremental loss. With regard to the Hindu families that moved out of areas where mostly Muslims lived, it might be useful to look up YUVA, a bombay-based ngo. I recall that over a decade ago they had conducted a study where they had mapped various neighbourhoods in bombay to try and prove that with each riot, hindus and muslims had been further segregated, and that the municipality then gradually realigned the boundaries of each ward, so that these segregated areas acquired political definition. I don't know what eventually happened to the study, but it's worth checking out. 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. Recovering Lost Histories -Naupada and Behrampada (meena menon) 2. GLASGOW UNIVERSITY CAMPUS CLOSURE – PLEASE SHOW YOUR SUPPORT (Rowan Wilson) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 15:39:28 +0530 From: "meena menon" Subject: [Reader-list] Recovering Lost Histories -Naupada and Behrampada To: reader-list at sarai.net Message-ID: <57ad49a60704120309i3c7fcf9elc66d7c1572e67ab7 at mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Hi All This is my second posting of the Sarai Independent Fellowship on victims of the 1992-93 riots in Mumbai. Best Meena meenamenon at gmail.com Recovering Lost Histories NAUPADA AND BEHRAMPADA Naupada and Behrampada are two sprawling settlements near Bandra suburban railway station in west Mumbai. The report of the Srikrishna Commission, appointed to inquire into the 1992-93 riots, after the demolition of the Babri Masjid, has extensively documented the events in Behrampada and surrounding areas. There were many riots sparked off by a temple being desecrated and the violent incidents continued well into January. >From Bandra suburban station as you cross the railway bridge, on your left is a mass of shanties. If you look down on the side of the disused railway tracks you can see that it's full of life -- children playing, barbers shaving customers, people shopping. The homes are built on top of one another so much so that some are on the level with the bridge and through the tiny windows you can see people sitting around or cooking. Ayub Mohammed Sheikh, or Ayub bhai, a social worker who lives in Naupada says that it was an old village or a gaothan with a 200-year-old history. Today it is home to hundreds of Muslim families. The settlement of Naupada hugs the railway tracks and narrow dark lanes divide the houses. It was in the news last year, when many of its residents helped retrieve the bodies when a bomb exploded in a railway train as part of the serial blasts on July 11, 2006. One of them, a railway employee was killed in the serial blasts. The road outside Bandra station on the east side divides Naupada and Behrampada. Behrampada is surrounded by tall apartment blocks. Concrete walls separating the slum from the apartment blocks grew higher after the riots of December 1992- January 93. Over a decade ago, children from both sides went to school together and played cricket. All that has changed. BEHRAMPADA Both settlements buzz with activity and the narrow lanes are full of people at all hours. It is not easy to get people to go back to a time when for months on end, terror ruled. On the surface things are forgotten and life seems to go on as usual. But underneath there is anguish and the memories of those days are fresh. In the riots of 1992-93, Behrampada was targeted by mobs and many houses were burnt there. People were killed and injured in firing and riots and many of them lost their homes and livelihoods. Behrampada has always been portrayed as a hotbed of crime and many people at that time including filmmaker Madhushree Datta in her film, tried to dispel those myths. However, the Shiv Sena, led by the local MLA Madhukar Sarpotdar campaigned against Behrampada saying it harboured illegal Pakistanis who were indulging in terror tactics. None of this was borne out with facts and while raids in Behrampada did yield crude bombs and some people were arrested, the police could find no evidence of organised criminal activity. Sarpotdar himself was detained by the army with guns and other weapons, travelling in a vehicle along with his son but he was let off. According to the Srikrishna report, he was not even charge sheeted for an offence as serious as this. CHANGES OVER THE YEARS Over the years, there have been changes and people seemed to moved have in and out of both Behrampada and Naupada. I met families in both Naupada and Behrampada to look at how they have coped with their lives after the riots. I find that people have moved to these places for reasons of security or because they had relatives already living there. Many of the Hindu families have moved out after the riots. That is also something which I will investigate. Families have had to cope with loss of life, homes and livelihoods but the most disturbing finding is that there seem to be a lot of mental trauma which has not been addressed. There is no support structure in place for these affected families in terms of medical care or legal aid. THE STORY OF KHATUNBI Khatunbi is one of those who was forced to come to Naupada when the riots took place. She must be over 65, her legs are stiff and she has high blood pressure. She is unsure why I want to talk to her. Khatunbi now lives with her daughter, Shakila, the only one who is as yet not married. Her strongest memory of the 1992 -93 riots was that she had to hide almost neck deep in a filthy gutter all night. "Mahaul bahut kharab tha (the situation was very bad)," she begins. The rest of her story comes out in a rush. "A temple in our area was damaged. When the riots started, I sent my children away first while I stayed behind. I hid in the gutter and the police found me there- they called to me in Marathi and then they took me to the police station at Nirmal Nagar. My clothes were dirty and then the police brought me to a relief camp in Naupada. I wanted to see if my children were there. I was so glad to see my girls-they all thought I was dead. My son Sajjid, was full of blood, he was unconscious." She is full of praise for her Hindu neighbours who gave her a "maxi" to wear and helped her hide. "My younger son Ramzan had bought gold for my daughter's wedding. Like me he was scared of leaving it behind. Ramzan was a master tailor; he was a specialist in chaniya cholis (long skirts and blouses, heavily embroidered). He lost so much in the riots, and all those expensive clothes he tailored were burnt." After the riots Sajjid refused to work and he died a few years later of jaundice. Ramzan too became a silent, withdrawn person. Those who knew him a little in Naupada say he used to sit under a tree all day reading a newspaper. He contracted tuberculosis (TB) but could not get proper treatment and he died two or three years ago. His friend Taukeer Khan remembers that he spoke very little. Taukeer says, "We did not ask him anything, he suffered on his own." Both of them could not return to normal. Khatunbi has no hesitation in saying that the riots killed her sons. She finds it difficult to sleep at night. "When I think about all these things I feel very bad." She kept repeating that no one helped her. "I used to live in Khar, nearby, for over 40 years. We were the only Muslim family in the chawl (a group of houses) and I did not fight with any one as I had four daughters. I still remember the people who attacked our houses -they were from Shantilal Compound." Her father- in- law owned six rooms in the chawl but people occupied them without paying the rent even before the riots took place. She has rented her old house to a family for Rs 2000 per month. She never wants to go back and live there again. Now, apart from the rent, she and her daughter earn daily wages by fixing sequins on dupattas. She is also very upset that her daughter Shakila's marriage was called off after the riots. "They had so many demands," she says, her eyes full of tears. "I had nothing to give her." Khatunbi is used to fending for herself. Her husband used to work for the Bombay Port Trust. He died many years ago and she was one who raised her family by doing embroidery. Her daughters chipped in by making jewellery. However, despite the bad memories, Khatunbi still goes back to her old home. "When I go there I get scared, people drink and fight. Here it is not like that. I go back and think of the old days." Her account is a bit confused about the exact status of her property but Shakila, her daughter, says her uncle usurped it. They have no one to turn for legal aid to help them sort out this mess. REVISITING OLD MEMORIES Khatunbi was keen that I visit her old place and cordially invited me to accompany her. From Naupada it is a short ride by auto rickshaw. On the way she points to the railway over bridge and said this is the bridge her son Sajjid took to escape from the mob. Her other son Ramzan swore he worked for an Udipi hotel in the vicinity and was spared. We go to Shantilal Compound from where she claims the mobs attacked her chawl. There is a man sitting near the Sai Baba temple- "All these people were involved," she said. Looking around she tells me the shops are all new. Suddenly we turn into a small opening next to a shop. Before us is a cluster of cemented rooms. We go into the house Khatunbi had lived for 40 years. "They destroyed all this," she said in the manner of an expert guide. "My son rebuilt my house it to some extent. Now the tenants are Marwaris-they run a catering business." The tenants are away but there are two cooks frying puris in the hot airless room. But the room is far more spacious than Khatunbi's present home. She looks around with pride at the grimy pink walls stacked with steel vessels. Like a good landlady she goes up one floor to ask if her tenants there have paid the water bill. She asks the cooks for some puris and vegetable and finds a plastic bag to take it away. We leave and on the way back she offers me the puris for lunch. Khatunbi's present home is a small one room tenement- it's not even painted and the walls are uneven-there is a single bare bulb which lights the room. She is desperate to get her property back but with few papers it looks difficult. END -- Meena -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070412/b8ebe00f/attachment.htm ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 12:56:14 +0000 (GMT) From: Rowan Wilson Subject: [Reader-list] GLASGOW UNIVERSITY CAMPUS CLOSURE – PLEASE SHOW YOUR SUPPORT To: reader-list at sarai.net Message-ID: <458857.26160.qm at web25108.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252" GLASGOW UNIVERSITY CAMPUS CLOSURE – PLEASE SHOW YOUR SUPPORT On February 14th Glasgow University Court voted to close down the University's Crichton Campus (UGCC) 80 miles away in Dumfries. UGCC is Southwest Scotland's only provider of HE courses in the Humanities, Arts, Environmental Sustainability and Community Learning. The decision if implemented would not only deny vital educational opportunities for an already deprived and marginalised area but also put 40+ members of staff at risk of compulsory redundancy. A friend asked me to forward the message below: Dear All, I am writing to request support. On Wednesday 17th January at 6pm, the Principal of Glasgow University (GU) announced that he would be closing down the GU part of the Crichton Campus in Dumfries in South West Scotland. Because the situation is somewhat complicated, I should fill in some background information. The Crichton Campus is based in Dumfries. It opened less than ten years ago, to provide Higher Education opportunities for a region which, until then, had no Higher Education institution. This caused demographic, cultural, economic and social problems for the area as large numbers of young people left the area for HE not to return. Also because of lack of provision, Dumfries and Galloway had a far lower than thge national average of uptake of Higher education. The Crichton Campus is made up predominantly of three institutions, each of which has its main organisational centre outwith the area. The three institutions are Bell College, who provide nurse training (whose centre is in Hamilton); Paisley University who provide predominantly computing and management courses and Glasgow University who provide predominantly Arts and Humanities courses and post-grad provision. There was a prior agreement by the institutions to avoid replication, so each institution concentrates on particular sections of the curriculum. The campus lacks most of the basic elements required. There are few sports facilities (bar green fields), no students union, no refectory so there is nowhere for staff and students to have a hot meal. However it does have committed staff and students, who provide in these less than ideal circumstances, by all current accepted measures, educational experiences of very high quality. On Wednesday 16th January at 6pm the Principal of the University of Glasgow (based in Glasgow), announced that he was closing Glasgow University's part of the Crichton Campus. A decision ratified by University Court on 14th February. What this means for staff and students is still fairly vague, but it is not good: redundancies for staff, truncated academic careers for students, and lack of educational opportunities for future students in the region, and the ending of a significant cultural resource for the region as a whole. Because of the complicated structure of the Campus, with many institutional partners, the land being owned by the council and an incredibly labyrinthine funding arrangement from the Scottish Funding Council, everyone responsible has the possibility to blame someone else for closing the campus down. The UG Principal, Sir Muir Russell is blaming the Funding Council, the Funding Council is blaming the Principal; the Scottish Executive also bear some responsibility for under-resourcing, as do the local council for not providing basic infrastructure on the site. There is no economic argument for closing the Crichton. Glasgow University is in surplus, the Arts Faculty to which the campus belongs is in surplus, and the monies which are planned to be redistributed up from the impoverished Dumfries site to the relatively well-off Glasgow Campus if UGCC closes are earmarked not for student services, but as the Principal indicated at a public meeting in March 2007 in Dumfries, for hiring a couple of 'star' academic researchers. Students and staff are not taking the threatened closure lying down. UCU the biggest union on campus has already met and there was unanimity to oppose the closure (there are also 3 members of the IWW who are work there and are active in the campaign). There have been a number of demonstrations in Dumfries, up on the main campus in Glasgow and outside the SFC and Scottish parliament in Edinburgh. The next protests are planned for GLASGOW UNIVERSITY MAIN CAMPUS (IN GLASGOW nearest tube Hillhead) WEDNESDAY APRIL 18th at 1pm. Meet at Flagpole behind the quads. Crichton protestors will be joining the DUMFRIES MAYDAY MARCH - SATURDAY APRIL 28th, 12 Noon, BURNS STATUE, DUMFRIES TOWN CENTRE. Crichton campaigners would welcome your participation and advice. Please attend if possible and/or write to following, asking them to reverse the decision with regards to funding for the University of Glasgow Crichton Campus: Sir Muir Russell, The Principal University of Glasgow Glasgow G12 principal at gla.ac.uk Roger McClure Chief Executive Scottish Funding Council Donaldson House 97 Haymarket Terrace Edinburgh EH12 5HD rmcclure at sfc.ac.uk Further information about the campaigns are available from http://www.geocities.com/glasgow_at_crichton/ (General Campaign Website) http://www.cucsa.org.uk/ (Students Representative Council and campaign website) http://www.gla.ac.uk/Staff/GAUT/Crichton/index.html (UCU Union campaign website) http://iwwscotland.wordpress.com/crichton-struggle/ (IWW campaign website) More details from glasgow_at_crichton at yahoo.co.uk ___________________________________________________________ Yahoo! Mail is the world's favourite email. Don't settle for less, sign up for your free account today http://uk.rd.yahoo.com/evt=44106/*http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/mail/winter07.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070412/38a3aeb0/attachment.htm ------------------------------ _______________________________________________ reader-list mailing list reader-list at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list End of reader-list Digest, Vol 45, Issue 37 ******************************************* --------------------------------- Ahhh...imagining that irresistible "new car" smell? Check outnew cars at Yahoo! Autos. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070416/7af3e57b/attachment.html From turbulence at turbulence.org Sat Apr 14 04:36:27 2007 From: turbulence at turbulence.org (Turbulence) Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2007 19:06:27 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Turbulence Commission: "The Simultaneous Translator" by John Roach and Willy Whip Message-ID: <161CA266AADD475AAAED999DBAF42EBF@joPC> April 15, 2007 Turbulence Commission: "The Simultaneous Translator" by John Roach and Willy Whip http://turbulence.org/Works/simtrans/ Requires Windows OS LIVE PERFORMANCE: Sunday April 15; 12:00 PM EST to 3:00 PM EST [Mac users can listen via the player of their choice] "The Simultaneous Translator" (SimTrans) is a Windows based audio interface that enables anyone to load audio streams and manipulate them in real time on the Internet. SimTrans makes the delays and fluctuations of the Internet visible and audible. The Internet becomes your collaborator as you create your mix, and the instability you usually try to avoid becomes a tool for creation. Distance and delay are manifest within the interface numerically and as a series of sliding heads; there is also a link to Google Earth where you can watch the dynamic flight of data travel between yourself and the audio source. "SimTrans" is a 2007 commission of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc., (aka Ether-Ore) for its Turbulence web site. It was made possible with funding from the Murray G. and Beatrice H. Sherman Charitable Trust. THE PERFORMANCE: "The Simultaneous Translator" grew out of the artists' live networked performance project "Simultaneous Translation," in which the delays of the internet are used to dynamically effect the live performances of geographically distant artists. The upcoming performance will take place from 12:00 PM EST to 3:00 PM EST on Sunday April 15. Log on via http://turbulence.org/Works/simtrans. Participants: Greg Davis (USA), Kenneth Goldsmith (USA), John Hudak (USA), Keyman (France), Lawrence Li (China), Mice69 (France), Miguel Ramos (Spain), Joe Reinsel (USA), John Roach (USA) and Willy Whip (France). BIOGRAPHIES JOHN ROACH doesn't consider himself an installation artist, a sound artist, or a sculptor, but prefers to think of himself as a nomad, touching down in whatever place is most hospitable to his ideas. Recent projects have been an installation at the 2B Gallery in Budapest, Hungary; a collaborative performance with objects and video at the Saint Stephen Museum in Szekesfehervar, Hungary; and a web video project called Sweet Music. He continues to work with Willy Whip on their long-standing live networked performance project Simultaneous Translation. WILLY WHIP is a designer and teacher in hypermedia interactivity. Outside his institutional work he likes to produce mashups that fertilize his own secret garden. This personal research and development leads him on a quest for hybrids: connect this information to that information; grow new contents; release new senses. Recent activity includes projects with the artists Anika Mignotte, Reynald Drouhin, and Du Zhenjun. For more Turbulence Commissions, 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 Networked_Performance Blog: http://turbulence.org/blog Networked_Music_Review: http://turbulence.org/networked_music_review Upgrade! Boston: http://turbulence.org/upgrade New American Radio: http://somewhere.org _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From pvadehra at ficart.org Fri Apr 13 16:38:14 2007 From: pvadehra at ficart.org (Parul Vadehra) Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2007 16:38:14 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Announcement: FICA Emerging Artist Award Message-ID: <003c01c77dbc$08d5c720$3301a8c0@Arun> Dear Sir / Madam, The Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art (FICA) announces the Emerging Artist Award 2007 with an aim to promote two young artists studying/practicing in India who demonstrate extraordinary skill and promise in the visual arts. The artists will be awarded two months residency at New Delhi (Sanskriti, November-December 2007), a cash award of Rs 1 lakh and an exhibition at Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, among other things. We have a very distinguished jury helping us out with the selection. The application form is available at http://www.ficart.org. The deadline for receiving applications for the award is May 31, 2007. I would appreciate if you would share this information with your subscribers so that they may apply for this award if eligible. I am also attaching herewith, for your reference, the poster announcing the award. In case you haven't heard about FICA - it opened in January 2007 to support artists and educational activities in the visual arts,benefiting both emerging and established artists,art historians,curators,art critics and other professionals devoted to the study of contemporary Indian art. With initial support from Vadehra Art Gallery, FICA intends to eventually become a self sustaining, not-for-profit entity through various fund-raising activities and generous private contributions. Looking forward to you positive response. Best regards, Parul Vadehra Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art info at ficart.org D-178, Okhla Phase-I, New Delhi - 110020 tel: +91-24622545,24615368,55474006 fax: +91-24622017 www.ficart.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070413/d8b9cb7e/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: fica poster.JPG Type: image/jpeg Size: 294715 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070413/d8b9cb7e/attachment.jpe -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From keshvani at leoalmanac.org Mon Apr 16 05:44:28 2007 From: keshvani at leoalmanac.org (Nisar Keshvani, LEA) Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2007 08:14:28 +0800 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] E-Poetry Symposium 2007 - LEA New MEdia Poetry Special Issue Message-ID: <5d60ab0c0704151714p542e41d3gf55192f12a5bed5c@mail.gmail.com> *E-Poetry Symposium 2007 NYC: Performances And A Symposium on the LEA New Media Poetry Special Issue* 21 April 2007 1600 - 1800hrs Segue Reading Series at the Bowery Poetry Club, 308 Bowery at Bleecker, New York City Event Guest-Curated by Loss Pequeño Glazier. Featuring Aya Karpinska, Elizabeth Knipe, and Jim Rosenberg. Shawn Rider, Respondent. Tim Peterson, Series Curator Live performances, talks, and discussion about New Media art forms, issues, and poetics in a cordial setting. Poetry is on the move ... catch a glimpse of present poetic forms in action! This event seeks to further conversation about poetics through its sampling in digital forms. Join us for an historic presentation of digital poetics featuring an engaging mix of foundational and emerging digital poets! *About the participants **Aya Karpinska *(http://technekai.com) is a digital media artist and interaction designer. She is the 2006 recipient of the prestigious Brown University Fellowship in Electronic Writing. Elizabeth Knipe ( www.dreamdilation.com) is an engaging interdisciplinary artist. She is digital poet and experimental video artist who entertains an interest in physical electronic installations. Jim Rosenberg (http://www.well.com/user/jer) has been working in non-linear poetic forms in one medium or another since 1966 and is one of the foundational figures in digital poetry. His best-known work is *Intergrams*. *Shawn Rider *(http://www.shawnrider.com) is a writer, artist, teacher and programmer, currently working as a Web Technologist for PBS TeacherLine. He is also the owner and Editor in Chief of GamesFirst.com, a long-running independent videogame review website. *Loss Pequeño Glazier* (http://epc.buffalo.edu/authors/glazier) is a digital poet, professor of Media Study, and Founder and Director of the Electronic Poetry Center. He is the author of the digitally-informed poetry collection *Anatman, Pumpkin Seed, Algorithm* (Salt Press) and the digital theory treatise *Digital Poetics: The Making of E-Poetries* (Alabama UP). *Tim Peterson* ( http://mappemunde.typepad.com/) is the author of *Since I Moved In* (Chax Press). He edits *EOAGH: A Journal of the Arts* and currently curates part of the Segue Reading Series in New York. *About the LEA issue* Guest edited by Tim Peterson, the issue features Loss Pequeño Glazier, John Cayley with Dimitri Lemmerman, Lori Emerson, Phillippe Bootz, Manuel Portela, Stephanie Strickland, Mez, Maria Engberg and Matthias Hillner. Don't forget to scurry over to the equally exciting gallery, exhibiting works by Jason Nelson, Aya Karpinska, Daniel Canazon Howe, mIEKAL aND, CamillE BacoS, Nadine Hilbert and Gast Bouschet. Click here to access the LEA New Media Poetics Special(LEA Vol 14 No 5 - 6). URL: http://leoalmanac.org/journal/Vol_14/lea_v14_n05-06/index.asp Join us on April 21st for this celebration of *LEA*, the poetics of the present, and the diversity of digital forms! *********************************************************************** *Useful URLs* ----------------- LEA Current Issue: http://leoalmanac.org/ Gallery: http://leoalmanac.org/gallery/index.asp Archives: http://leoalmanac.org/journal/index.asp Resources: http://leoalmanac.org/resources/index.asp Contributor Guide: http://leoalmanac.org/cfp/submit/index.asp About: http://leoalmanac.org/about/index.asp -------------- *What is LEA? -----------------* Established in 1993, Leonardo Electronic Almanac (ISSN No: 1071-4391) is the electronic arm of the pioneer art journal, Leonardo - Journal of Art, Science & Technology. Leonardo Electronic Almanac (LEA), jointly produced by Leonardo, the International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology (ISAST), and published by MIT Press, is an electronic journal dedicated to providing a forum for those who are interested in the realm where art, science and technology converge. For over a decade, LEA has thrived as an *international peer reviewed electronic journal *and web archive covering the interaction of the arts, sciences, and technology. *On average 5 - 10% of manuscripts received are eventually published. *LEA emphasizes rapid publication of recent work and critical discussion on topics of current excitement with a slant on shorter, less academic texts. Many contributors are younger scholars, artists, scientists, educators and developers of new technological resources in the media arts. Contents include profiles of media arts facilities and projects, insights of artists using new media and feature articles comprising theoretical and technical perspectives. Curated galleries of current new media artwork are also a regular feature, and occasionally, LEA publishes special issues on topics such as locative media, new media poetics, and wild nature and the digital life. *********************************************************************** --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "leonardo electronic almanac alerts list" group. To post to this group, send email to LEAalerts at googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to LEAalerts-unsubscribe at googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/LEAalerts -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~--- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070416/caff2885/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From tasveerghar at gmail.com Mon Apr 16 15:18:54 2007 From: tasveerghar at gmail.com (Tasveer Ghar) Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2007 15:18:54 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Contribute to the House of Pictures Message-ID: <484c1050704160248ifc80e72t11fb83f3cb3cccae@mail.gmail.com> Dear friends This is in continuation of our Call for Proposals (for short fellowships on popular visual culture in India) that we announced recently. While the deadline for receiving proposals on the Tasveer Ghar fellowship is approaching fast (30th April 2007), we also invite you to contribute to our Virtual Gallery or the House of Pictures where we plan to feature short visual essays or image galleries focusing on specific representations of popular visual culture in India. A virtual gallery is basically a compilation of images (say between 8 and 15, or even more if required) depicting a unique aspect of popular visual culture, accompanied by a text introduction and detailed captions that weave all the images into one coherent presentation spread over several interactive pages of the website. The individual images could either be scans of authentic artwork or photographs of scenarios (streets or homes) where such public art is displayed. A contributor can either send us hard copies of images or electronic versions (scanned in the prescribed format). Tasveer Ghar will not buy or own the image contributed by you. If you submit hard copies of any art work, we would return the same to you after digitizing. The contributor does not have to design the gallery – that would be done by our website designer. But the contributor would have to provide the text and captions for the images (or any other details that maybe necessary for the gallery). To see an example of such a gallery, please visit a new presentation compiled by Christiane Brosius featuring New Year Greeting Cards produced by Hindu Nationalist institutions. http://www.tasveerghar.net/hgreet/ We encourage the topic of the virtual galleries to be related to our larger theme of the fellowship this year – "Gender, Nation and the Everyday Spaces" in popular culture. You may initially send us a short proposal about a gallery along with a few sample images. We would then contact you for further details. You must mention the copyright status of the images in your initial proposal. Any body is eligible to submit content for a virtual gallery as long as it is unique, creative, and fits into our theme. If there are any copyright issues or permissions-to-be-taken for the use of such images on tasveerghar website, the contributor would be responsible for procuring the same. You may also see the disclaimer to the copyright issue on our website http://www.tasveerghar.net/copyright.html Tasveer Ghar is a non-profit initiative depending upon limited resources and funding. We hope to build our digital archive by contributions from all of you. If available, we would provide a nominal honorarium for your contributions to our website. Meanwhile, we are awaiting the full proposals on the 6-Months Tasveer Ghar Fellowships. You may see the detailed Call for Proposals at http://www.tasveerghar.net/call.html Important: We are also looking for an Art Curatorial Assistant (Delhi-based) to work with us on a part-time basis to help us collect, store, restore, handle and scan the hard copy art works such as posters, prints, photographs, paintings, and other objects of popular art that we are collecting. The candidate should have training and/or experience in handling works of art (including rare and decaying prints), and should be computer literate. Knowledge of the trends in popular art and culture would be an added advantage. Kindly send us your CV or call Yousuf at 9810379016. Looking forward to your ideas, images and proposals Christiane Brosius Sumathi Ramaswami Shuddhabrata Sengupta Yousuf Saeed tasveerghar at gmail.com From prithu7 at hotmail.com Mon Apr 16 15:33:37 2007 From: prithu7 at hotmail.com (pritham k chakravarthy) Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2007 15:33:37 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Sind Message-ID: I am a theatre performer from Chennai. I am looking for any memories, narratives in Sind w.r.t to Mahabarat, w.special.r.t Jayathradha. He was the ruler of Sind in the text. ASAP. Please send me any onfo however tiny it may be. Pritham K. Chakravarthy _________________________________________________________________ Catch all the cricketing action right here. Live score, match reports, photos et al. http://content.msn.co.in/Sports/Cricket/Default.aspx From ravikant at sarai.net Mon Apr 16 19:40:14 2007 From: ravikant at sarai.net (Ravikant) Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2007 19:40:14 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Shahid Amin on 1857 Message-ID: <200704161940.15196.ravikant@sarai.net> May be of interest to some in the context of the current round of celebrations of the great rebellion. There are also a couple of very good pictures on the link below. Enjoy Ravikant The Outlook magazine, 26 march, 2007 http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20070326&fname=Shahid+%28F%29&sid=1&pn=1 A hanging Twice Over Shahid Amin They say it was the telegraph and 'native intelligence' (Indian spies) that saved the Company Bahadur in 1857, helping the firangis retake 'their' Indian Empire. But that was in real historical time. In poised retrospect, it was photography—the thousands of takes of ruined remains, strung-up rebels, the dead stripped to skulls and bones that held the Ghadar up as an object lesson for all colonial times to come. Then there were the unrelenting Stones of the Empire: the manicured, bombed-out Residency at Lucknow, the pointed victory memorial on the Delhi Ridge which were meant to monumentalise the mutiny for posterity. And finally, as is its wont, came History. English history, written almost in the manner of the classic accounts of Mughal royal hunts: the hounding of game gone wild into ever-shrinking enclosures for the final, heroic coup de grace. The challenge of 2007 is how to rescue the centenary-and-a-half of 'san sattavan' from evaporating into fluffy celebrations ad nauseam. Our leaders and copywriters, the media and sarkari commemorators are all set to carry the day. However, the enticement of the thousands of 'mutiny photographs' housed now in the fabulous Alkazi Collection in New Delhi, some of them showcased in a recent exhibition, and of the canonical, colonial histories, is here to stay. And they pose a challenge to historians, who have a professional and not just a national stake in our past: how to read and behold these, not as Past Reality slices (to which we can counter our very own), but as texts and images suffused irrevocably with the spirit of triumphant colonialism. Just as rebels require masters to pit themselves against, similarly most histories of rebellions cannot be written without reference to the accounts of the dominant. Indeed, it would be an unhistorical revenge—a quaint 'magical realism' of sorts—were we to conjure up a history of anti-colonialism in India without once mentioning the British, or the colonial records for that matter. Of all the tomes that appeared in the aftermath of the great revolt, the most authoritative and influential was, and has been, the massive three-volume History of the Sepoy War in India by Sir John William Kaye. By the time Kaye sat down to writing it soon after the event, he had on his desk personal communications from the main English actors of this high drama and records loaned by a gracious India Office, in which he held a senior position. Kaye produced the three volumes between 1864 and 1876, and died almost immediately afterwards. Till the late 1980s, perched on a pedestal in the India Office Library, London, a bust-size statue of Sir John seemed to keep watch over the 'native' researchers going in and out of that great colonial archive! A cursory reading of Kaye's prefatory statements may convey the impression that what we have here is a history of the struggle between the colonisers and the colonised: "a multitude of detached and almost contemporaneous incidents, the only connecting link being the universal fact that the Black man had risen against the White." But Kaye's history is not so much about the Black Man's rising as about the White Man's suppression of that uprising. In Kaye's Sepoy War , the colonial masters are so completely the subject of Indian history that an account of the most important rebellion against them can only be written up as English history, that is, the heroism of the English under fire: "The story of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 is, perhaps, the most single illustration of our national character ever yet recorded in the annals of our country." Contrary to that famous quip in Midnight's Children—What do the English know of their history, for a great deal of it happened elsewhere—Kaye was intent on teaching the English their overseas history: (It was) "because we were too English. (2 of 4)..(in) the over-eager pursuit of Humanity and Civilisation...that the great crisis arose; but it was because we were English that when it arose, it did not utterly overwhelm us." Our response, by and large, has been to replace the word English with Indian in the above description: as we were colonised, we rebelled; but because we were not yet fully Indian, we failed. This seems to be as true of Subhadra Kumari Chauhan's famous Hindi poem (Khoob ladi mardani...) about the Rani of Jhansi, where 'an old Bharat' is not quite fully rejuvenated, as of the persistent idea, down to the present celebrations, of the Ghadar as the First War of Indian Independence. But History is always messier, more cluttered, than the Museum of a National Past. Recent first-rate historical work by Rudrangshu Mukherjee on Awadh—a core area of the rebellion—has painted a more nuanced picture. True, the injustice of exiling Nawab Wajid Ali Shah was felt generally: 'Angrej Bahadur aien, aur muluk le lihin', as a popular Awadhi dirge has it. But it was only after the mutinies in each and every station had succeeded that the landed chiefs, who had earlier given shelter to the British, marched with their retainers and peasants to besiege and harass the British in and around Lucknow. Paradoxically, while the British sought to sunder the moral and economic ties that bound taluqdars and peasants, it was these very traditional loyalties that asserted themselves in the moment of rebellion. Even when fighting together, the Indians did not constitute an undifferentiated mass. Not so in Kaye's Sepoy War. Here king, nawab, taluqdars, sipahsalar, sipahi are all flattened out so that the triumphant march of 'English heroes' may continue—interrupted, yet unabated: "Over the Indian Dead Level which that system had created, the English heroes marched triumphantly to victory." Whether it is Mangal Pandey, the purabiya sipahi running amok in the Barrackpore Quarter Guard in March 1857, only to attempt suicide at the sight of the advancing General, or the young Wajid Ali Shah, face to face with Lord Hardinge in 1847, it is the English gaze that transfixes native prince and peasant alike. "Lord Hardinge lifted up his voice in earnest remonstrance and solemn warning; and the young King (of Awadh) cowered beneath the keen glance of the clear blue eyes that were turned upon him." It's not that Kaye's History has no place for the natives; the Indians of his narrative are fixed into their appointed places. This comes across nicely in Kaye's description of the 'Treatment of the Natives' on Delhi's northern ridge. For it was here, abutting the cantonment, that the British driven out of the city in the summer of 1857 encamped, a large number huddled into the Flagstaff tower, awaiting the siege train from the Punjab. By July, there were 10 natives for every European on the Ridge. The demands of humanity suggested that the English be slightly more considerate towards their Indian camp-followers, without whom the project of the reconquest of Delhi would have been quite impossible. But the distance between the native and the sahib on the Ridge, implies Kaye, could not be reduced in the process of the bloody assault on Delhi, meant to re-establish the lost supremacy of the Company Bahadur. In the moment of the crisis of the civilising mission of the English in India, 'humanity' had to make way for the successful march of 'history'— the victory of the English in the 'Sepoy War'. In contrast to Kaye's "stern, hard and immovable" Englishmen, standing tall "in the midst of disasters and humiliations", a contemporary satire in a Delhi akhbar had lampooned the harassed 'English Gathering at the Flagstaff': 'Jamiyat-i-Angrezi-az-Baunta'. (3 of 4)Here 'Angrez ki aqal ki topi aur khirad ka patloon ', the thinking cap of the English and the pantaloons of their wisdom, had slipped all the way down to their 'moza-i-ghabrahat' (sockful of worries). And it went on to poke fun at the inability of the Ridge force to raise the wherewithal from Delhi's hostile villages for an immediate frontal attack on the city. The barrenness of that place which in the mid-1950s was associated with keekar jungle and wildness is remarkably portrayed in war photographer Felice Beato's shots of the Delhi Ridge taken soon after the recapture of the city. The Flagstaff of today is very much as it was in late 1857, except that it had then only a solitary midgety tree where the road forked right towards the Chauburja Mosque picket, another of the hallowed sites of the English heroism in the summer and autumn of 1857. Akin to Kaye's victorious prose, Felice Beato's photographs of the Flagstaff and the Chauburja are celebrations of the English ability to withstand the sustained artillery pounding from the city of Delhi. In Beato's frame, this 'Mosque Picket' looms large in a desolate nowhere, its 400-year history as an outlying Tughlaq-era masjid standing testimony solely to British resolve in the year of the mutiny. Three of the four domes that gave the mosque its chauburja name had withstood the pounding of 1857. It was from this mosque-picket and other batteries on the northern ridge that the British had made their decisive assault on Kashmiri Gate in mid-September 1857, and then onwards to the city, the Fort and Humayun's Tomb, halfway to where Hudson captured Bahadur Shah Zafar and brought him back to trial and eventual exile in Rangoon. Now a World Heritage Site and one of the best maintained of Delhi's monuments, Humayun's Tomb in Beato's sepia composition stands testimony to an Indian past lodged firmly in its own ruins. The long shot catches a relatively small tomb in the distance with an oversized, pockmarked dome; the majestic gateway of today appears detached and almost unnecessary. Bits of low walls, a solitary keekar tree and two small puddles from a late September shower, all combine to give the place a sense of oblivious vulnerability. What a sad and ludicrous place for Bahadur Shah to have repaired to after the fall of Delhi, Beato's photograph seems to be telling us; what a waste of time and effort before the march of colonial history. Applauded as the lung of Delhi, the Ridge now exists in a non-historical present. The historic Flagstaff is an unprotected mutiny building in a state of disrepair, in virtual possession of a 'Baunta Royal Club (Regd.)' of yoga practitioners and morning walkers. Its circular ground-floor hall is used to house durries and mattresses in king-size trunks. No notice about the past of the narrow strip of this Ridge to which the British were confined between early May and mid-September 1857 greets the energetic early morning walkers in tracksuits, as they expertly sidestep the audacious Delhi monkeys, feeding them bananas as they go along. Even the Flagstaff Road, winding up the Ridge to that undisputed mutiny structure, has lost its name to the idiosyncrasies of a high-level street name-changing decision: it is now called Bhimrao Ambedkar Memorial Marg! Dr Ambedkar indeed lived on an adjacent street during his Delhi sojourn, but as that (already renamed) road was then closed due to the construction of the metro, three years ago our previous prime minister was counselled to go ahead and perform a surgical name-change on the adjacent Flagstaff Road! The Chauburja Marg leading up to that bombed-out mosque-picket has been renamed Acharya Sushil Muni Marg, and this even without the benefit of a prime ministerial visit. It is nobody's case that distinguished persons from our recent or distant pasts should not have roads, towns, even districts named after them. There are sundry pasts that tend to remain, each laying its own claim to our collective present. However, the exigencies of both municipal and national politics—the reworking of histories and memories by sarkari fiat—require that past events be cobbled shoddily into 'national histories': history be damned. But to rechristen place names connected with the rebellion of 1857, while going about commemorating it doesn't quite make sense. It is like countering the colonialist history of Kaye's Sepoy War with a pucca nationalist version, but with the names of all the sites of action changed unrecognisably in deference to the wishes of a provincial satrap or a municipal councillor. As the search for heroes and martyrs goes into top gear, we are bound to witness an excessive focus on acts of valour and chivalry; the spotlight would be on manly acts, or on women who acted like real men. And we would tend to miss out on the way 1857 has been sung, indeed feminised, in some North Indian folksongs: 'Meerut ka Sadr Bazar hai, mera saiyan lute na jaane': the bazaar of Meerut is up for grabs after the mutiny in the barracks, and my love does not even know how to plunder properly! And in a similar vein: Others looted shawls, large and small, my love brought home a small kerchief; others looted gold coins, big and small, my lover, a novice in such matters and much else, could manage only a copper paisa! How striking in its sensuousness is this ditty to the mock celebration of the anari, nadaan—untrained in the arts of love—balma or lover, who is the object of desire precisely because he has to be taught the finer points of love-making: mora nadaan balma, na jaane dil ki baat re, to cite that filmi hit of yesteryears. Should we forget these folk products of the events of 1857, simply because they inconvenience a neatly ordered, male-centric understanding of the Rebellion as the first great stirrings of our long-existent sense of nationalism? Must we be content with the gouging out of a colonial memorial stone at one place, or with mock sepoys knocking at the Rajghat gate of the Red Fort on the morning of May 11, 2007? To orchestrate a unified commemoration in 2007 would be to bleach that multifaceted occurrence of its true colours. To hang the story of the Ghadar by a single thread would amount to hanging its myriad rebels twice over. ---- From sukhdev.sandhu at nyu.edu Mon Apr 16 23:48:22 2007 From: sukhdev.sandhu at nyu.edu (SS Sandhu) Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2007 14:18:22 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] 4/20-4/22: Emergencies and Emergencies: New South Asian Film-Making From Britain In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: ====== PLEASE FORWARD == PLEASE FORWARD ====== Asian/Pacific/American Institute at New York University presents: South Asian Underground Film Festival 4/20-4/22: EMERGENCES AND EMERGENCIES: NEW SOUTH ASIAN FILM-MAKING FROM BRITAIN Featuring: "My Son the Fanatic", "Mutiny: Asians Storm British Music", "India Calling", "The Road to Guantanamo", "Bradford Riots", "Otolith", "England Expects" and more... Post screening discussions w/ Hanif Kureishi, Vivek Bald, Steve Savale, Vivien Goldman Lately there has been an explosion in the number of films starring, written or directed by British South Asians. Moving beyond staid coming-of-age stories, arranged-marriage melodramas or middle-of-the-road comedy, a new generation of Asian artists is producing a wealth of bold, experimental, dynamic works – spanning genres as diverse as spaghetti Western and political sci fi – that explore, with humour, sass and fiery intellect – a post-9/11, post-7/7 political landscape in which the nation’s formerly most-wanted minority group is now seen as a hotbed of cultural refuseniks and nascent terrorists. This season brings to New York, for the first time in many cases, an exciting cross-section of these feature films, documentaries and video-art works. There will be a number of Q&As, including one with Hanif Kureishi, and a live video-link up with Ruhal Ahmed, a former Guantanamo Bay detainee. A catalogue, featuring newly-commissioned essays by the likes of Mohsin Hamid, Amitava Kumar, Vijay Prashad and Kamila Shamsie, will also be available during the festival. Friday-Sunday - April 20-22 Cantor Film Center 36 E. 8th St. @ University Pl. Subway: A, C, E, B, D, F, V to West 4th St. N, R, W to 8th St., 6 to Astor Place First come/first serve. Doors open 15 minutes before screening. Visit http://www.nyu-apastudies.org/event.php?type=1_event&event_id=194 for more information. FRIDAY, APRIL 20 7pm-10pm "MY SON THE FANATIC" - Featuring a Q&A with Hanif Kureishi Join Hanif Kureishi, internationally-renowned author (THE BUDDHA OF SURBURBIA), Oscar-nominated screenwriter (MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDERETTE), and playwright for a special screening of this prescient 1997 drama. Om Puri stars as a Pakistani taxi driver who enters into a passionate relationship with a Northern prostitute much to the disgust of his increasingly fundamentalist son. Screening Co-Sponsored by New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, The Maurice Kanbar Institute SATURDAY, APRIL 21 2pm - "BRADFORD RIOTS” (2006, dir. Neil Biswas) and "YOUNG, ANGRY AND MUSLIM" (2005, dir. Julian Hendy) Discussion with Steve Savale from Asian Dub Foundation 5pm - "THE ROAD TO GUANTANAMO” (2004, dir. Michael Winterbottom) 8pm - "A LOVE SUPREME" (2001, dir. Nilesh Patel) and "THE WARRIOR" (2001, dir. Asif Kapadia) SUNDAY, APRIL 22 2pm - "INDIA CALLING" (2002, dir. Sonali Fernando) and "OTOLITH" (2003, dir. The Otolith Group)" (2003) 5pm - "ENGLAND EXPECTS" (2004, dir. Tony Smith) 8pm - 10pm "MUTINY: ASIANS STORM BRITISH MUSIC" (2003, dir. Vivek Bald) and "SKIN DEEP" (2001, dir. Yousaf Ali Khan) Special post-screening discussion with ADF's Steve Savale and Mutiny director Vivek Bald, moderated by renowned music journalist and punk professor Vivien Goldman 10pm – FESTIVAL AFTERPARTY Join the filmmakers and festival goers at the festival afterparty. Location: Leela Lounge, One West 3rd Street at Broadway. Featuring new and classic music by the artists profiled in Mutiny: Asians Storm British Music. All seating is first come/first serve. Doors open 15 minutes before screening. "Emergences and Emergencies" is co-sponsored by NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, The Maurice Kanbar Institute, The Directors Series, NYU Center for Media, Culture and History and Center for Media and Religion, 3rd-I NY, Asian Cinevision, Imaginasian Theater, Leela Lounge. ABOUT THE FILMS A LOVE SUPREME (2001, dir. Nilesh Patel), 9 min Nilesh Patel's debut film is a beautifully shot and multi-award-winning audio-visual essay on the preparation of samosas by his mother. Influenced, unexpectedly, by sequences in Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull, it makes the daily dishes cooked by Asian mothers resemble exquisite art installations. BRADFORD RIOTS (2006, dir. Neil Biswas), 75 min The July 2001 riots in the Northern city of Bradford were the most violent to hit the United kingdom in over two decades. 191 men, most of them locally-born Pakistani Muslims, were jailed for a total of more than 500 years. Neil Biswas's meticulously researched drama goes beyond the tabloid headlines to present a fascinating portrait, influenced visually by La Haine and The Battle of Algiers, and scored by Asian Dub Foundation, of an immigrant community riven by religious and generational tension. ENGLAND EXPECTS (2004, dir. Tony Smith), 124 min The New York premiere of this controversial and no-holds-barred drama about a responsible family man, living in the shadow of London's financial district, whose life falls apart after he develops a sexual obsession with a trader at the investment bank where he works as a security guard. His meltdown, of a ferocity that recalls both Taxi Driver and the work of the late Alan Clarke, brings him into violent conflict with local Bangladeshis. As powerful and incisive a post-9/11 film as has yet been made. INDIA CALLING (2002, dir. Sonali Fernando), 50 min The first and still the best documentary about the modern-day call centre, this is a deliciously ironic portrait of a David Brett-style Australian boss who has arrived in Delhi to effect a self-proclaimed revolution in the working practices of twenty-something Indian graduates. Acclaimed film-maker Fernando ensures that the black comedy is leavened with a probing and deeply empathetic study of the yearning, aspirational call agents themselves. MUTINY: ASIANS STORM BRITISH MUSIC (2003, dir. Vivek Bald), 77 min Combining music documentary and social documentary, Mutiny charts the meteoric rise of South Asian music in 1990s Britain, as well as the decades of cultural cross-pollination and political struggle that led up to that historic moment. Shot independently on digital video over the course of seven years, Mutiny features Asian Dub Foundation, State of Bengal, Talvin Singh, Fun^Da^Mental, DJ Ritu and a host of other British musicians of Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi descent, presenting these artists and their music with depth, intimacy, and intensity. Rarely screened in New York since its completion in 2003, this is a film not to be missed. MY SON THE FANATIC (1998, dir. Udayan Prasad), 87 min Hanif Kureishi adapted this remarkably prophetic film from a short story he originally wrote for The New Yorker. Set in Bradford, it centres on a Pakistani taxi driver (Om Puri) whose respect and love for most things English - including a local prostitute (Rachel Griffiths) - brings him into terrible conflict with his increasingly fundamentalist son who regards his family's adopted northern English city as irredeemably decadent. Movingly acted and expressionistically filmed, this is an affecting romance rich in political and psychological insights. OTOLITH (2003, dir. The Otolith Group), 22 min Influenced by the work of Chris Marker and the Black Audio Film Collective, and with stunning sound design from the latter's Trevor Matthison, Otolith is an eerie cinematic essay that doubles as a rare example of post-colonial science fiction. Moving between the zero- gravity astronaut-training centre at Star City and the two-million- protestor-strong anti-war protests in London in early 2003, it's a meditation on utopianism, Third World socialism and the nature of colonialism's visual archive. THE ROAD TO GUANTANAMO (2004, dir. Michael Winterbottom), 95 min Winner of the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival, this is the true story of three British Muslims, subsequently known as the 'Tipton Three', who traveled to Pakistan to attend a wedding, only to end up being held for two years without charges in the American military prison at Guantanamo Bay. Shot in Winterbottom's characteristic part-dramatic, part-documentary style, it has been described by the New York Times as a "film of staggering force". SKIN DEEP (2001, dir. Yousaf Ali Khan), 13 min Set in deprived, inner-city England during the 1970s, Skin Deep is a brutal and haunting portrait of Romo, a half-English, half-Pakistani teenager who tries to pass for white. Things come to a crisis one night when his new-found skinhead friends tell him to attack another Asian kid. This unforgettable exploration of Asian abjection won Salford, Manchester-born Khan a nomination at the UK BAFTA awards in 2002. THE WARRIOR (2001, dir. Asif Kapadia), 82 min Kapadia's debut feature is a ravishing Western in which the drama has been relocated to the deserts of feudal Rajasthan. Irfan Khan plays a bloodythirsty warlord's henchman who decides to lay down arms. In consequence, his only son is killed. He finds himself travelling deeper and deeper into a wilderness that is both geographic and spiritual. Magisterial in pace and sweep, this fully deserves the Comparisons to Kurosawa and Leone that enthusiastic international critics have been making since its release. YOUNG, ANGRY AND MUSLIM (2005, dir. Julian Hendy), 48 min In the wake of the London Underground bombings in July 2005, Navid Akhtar, a British Pakistani Muslim, journeys across the country to explore the tensions and alienation within his community and asks how this has contributed to the terror attacks. As part of his passionate and very personal documentary, Akhtar also returns to his parents' Kashmiri village and agonises over whether to sell the land he has inherited from his recently deceased father. From smriti at sarai.net Tue Apr 17 11:28:48 2007 From: smriti at sarai.net (smriti at sarai.net) Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2007 07:58:48 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] 'Free Speech and Fearless Listening': seminar report Message-ID: <99a472f347ad55869d1f9093e56dab7b@sarai.net> Dear friends, Here is the link to the conference narrative of the seminar ‘Free Speech and Fearless Listening: The Encounter with Censorship in South Asia’, held at Max Muller Bhavan, Delhi, from 21-24 February 2006. The seminar was organised by the Delhi Film Archive and Films for Freedom, in association with Max Muller Bhavan and the Sarai Programme of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Delhi. http://www.sarai.net/resources/event-proceedings/2006/censorship This detailed report documents perspectives on the censorship, i.e., the simultaneous repression/production, of ideas, images, beliefs, actions, bodies and modes of being... Recently the Reader-list offered a (brutal) opportunity to observe ongoing mechanisms of censorship and self-censorship, through the 5 April post by Swadhin Sen on the torture-murder of Choles Ritchil, a prominent leader of the indigenous Garo community in Bangladesh. Led by Ritchil, the community was protesting eviction from their forest habitat that the state wanted to convert into an 'Eco-Park'; there were violent clashes between protestors and state forces. Ritchil was arrested on 10 February and killed five weeks later. Ritchil was buried at Beribald village on 20 March 2007. Before the burial, as per religious customs, the body was given a bath. Those who performed the ritual bath (names withheld for safety reasons) reported the following evidence of torture: Both eyes plucked out, testicles removed, anus mutilated, palms smashed, nails of three fingers of the right hand removed, left thumbnail removed, holes in the palms, severely wounded upper right hand, two deep holes in the middle of both thighs, deep wounds on the lower legs, nail of the right big toe removed, charred back and feet, all fingers broken. Choles Ritchil is survived by his wife, son and three daughters. On 20 March his wife had filed a complaint at the Modhupur Police Station but as of 2 April the police station had not registered any case. The description of atrocity and extremity bludgeoned me into a state of paralysis (I found I could not even flinch as I read) and amnesia (for the next few hours I struggled to mentally erase the information). But I cannot forget Choles Ritchil -- whatever of him remained to be handed over to his family for the last rites. The kinsfolk and community who received this monstrous testimonial of state force -- how did they grieve? Were they able to? Or did a saving censor emerge within the mourners, to protect them from themselves? Emily Dickinson's musings on the crucifixion assure us that "After great pain a formal feeling comes/ the nerves stand ceremonious as tombs..." Could this, or any other mechanism, have protected Choles Ritchil during his slow, systematic, sadistic destruction by the agents of the law? Michel Foucault, cited in an introductory epigraph to the censorship report, tells us that censorship "links the inexistent, the illicit and the inexpressible in such a way that each is at the same time the principle and effect of the other... This logic of power exerted upon free expression is the paradoxical logic of a law that might be expressed as an injunction of non-existence, non-manifestation and silence." Sigmund Freud, also cited in an introductory epigraph,tells us "...It is a mistake to emphasise only the repulsion that operates from the direction of the conscious upon what is to be repressed. Quite as important is the attraction exercised by what was primarily repressed upon everything with which it can establish a connection." However different -- or similar -- their arguments, the archaeologist of knowledge and the astute doctor would surely have agreed that we don’t need theorists to remind us of what we should protect, always and absolutely, from internal and external censors: the conscience and the heart that keep us human. Regards, Smriti From ravikant at sarai.net Tue Apr 17 12:15:54 2007 From: ravikant at sarai.net (Ravikant) Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2007 12:15:54 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Appeal for action from Varanasi Message-ID: <200704171215.55474.ravikant@sarai.net> Apologies for cross-posting. The following letter is self explanatory. This is from a friend who has been running Varanasi-based pro-sex workers NGO called GuRiya for years and is at the moment being harassed by the local authorities in the 'jiski-laathi-uski-bhains' Uttar Pradesh. Please circulate widely. Ravikant Appeal for action   ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION – URGENT APPEALS PROGRAM   Update on Urgent Appeal     12 March 2007   [RE: UP-035-2006: INDIA: Girls forced into prostitution still being victimized in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh; UP-131-2005: INDIA: Protection required for girls released from prostitution and for the human rights defenders who sought to help them; UA-190-2005: INDIA: Demand guarantees of proper treatment and protection for girls released from prostitution and human rights defender] ------------------------------------------------------ UP-036-2007: INDIA: Human rights activists threatened not to pursue cases against the women traffickers   INDIA: Threats to human rights activists; failure of criminal justice system; police criminal nexus ------------------------------------------------------   Dear friends   The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that two human rights activists are facing death threats in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh state, India for their work against women trafficking in the state. It is alleged that the perpetrators are the same persons who were charged for trafficking after a complaint lodged by Mr. Ajeet Singh and Ms. Manju, two human rights activists working for a local human rights group named Guria. The AHRC in the past had issued urgent appeals regarding this case which are available at UA-190-2005, UP-131-2005 and UP-035-2006. The perpetrators who were arrested were later released on bail. It is alleged that after being released on bail by producing false bail bonds the perpetrators are now threatening Manju calling her on her mobile telephone. It is alleged that the perpetrators who are well connected with the local police, administration and certain officers within the local judiciary obtained bail in spite of Guria's caution  to the court.   DETAILED INFORMATION:   On 27 and 28 February 2007 Ms. Manju, wife of Mr. Ajeet Singh, a resident of S- 8/ 395, Khajuri Colony, Cantonment police station, Varanasi district, Uttar Pradesh, received several calls on her mobile telephone (near about 50) threatening her with death and using filthy language. The perpetrator has allegedly threatened Manju that they would kidnap her and her husband from their home and kill them. Manju received these calls on her mobile telephone with number + 919919780636. Due to these threats both Manu and her husband are living in fear.   Manju has filed a written complaint to the Superintendent of Police of Varanasi, and other authorities in the state but it is alleged that the state police has failed to identify and arrest the persons responsible for the calls.   Guria is a local human rights organization working on women and child rights in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. On 25 October 2005, volunteers and the staff of Guria attempted the rescue of 31 women from Shivdaspur, the red light area in Varanasi. The police intervened and some of the brothel keepers were arrested and later produced in court. The police also registered cases against Ajeet and Manju on false charges of trespassing into private property.   The sequences of incidents were as follows: - on 25 October 2005 Guria and its volunteers facilitate rescue of 31 women from the brothels at Shivdaspur and hand the women over to the police. The police accept the rescued women and also charge sheet cases against four brothel keepers as Crime 274/2005 of Manduadih police station under the provisions of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956. On a subsequent investigation into the case under pressure from Guria and due to wide media publicity the Manduadih police also registered separate crimes, Crime 279/2005 to 299/2005 against 21 accused, including brothel keepers and their assistants and agents under Section 3 (1) of the Uttar Pradesh Gangster Act on 5 November 2005.   On a further application filed by Guria on 13 November 2005 in follow-up, the Manduadih police registered yet another case against nine more persons as Crime 300/2005 under the relevant provisions of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956. All these crimes, Crime 279/2005 to 300/2005 were registered by the Manduadih police after heavy pressure by Guria and the media after Crime 274/2005 was registered. In total there are 38 accused persons all charge sheeted on crimes connected to the complaint lodged by Guria against women trafficking in Shivdaspur. All these cases are now pending before the courts in Varanasi including the Fast Track Cases Court, the Court of the Special Judge – Gangster Cases and the Judicial Magistrate Court of Varanasi.   Once arrested, the accused were produced before the concerned courts. Once produced before the courts the accused moved for bail, most of which were rejected by the Magistrate Court. However, they managed to bail out by obtaining bail from the Sessions Court, the Special Court for Gangster cases and also from the Uttar Pradesh High Court.   Guria was aware that the brothel keepers were well connected with the local administration and for that reason they were able to run the brothel in public, even though it is an offense to do so in Indian law. The brothels are two rows of houses in Shivdaspur area in Varanasi and it is public knowledge that women, including minors are trafficked from Bangladesh and Nepal and neighboring states to Varanasi in the pretext of legitimate jobs. Guria had in the past informed the local administration about the practice, but each time when the local police raided the brothels, the women were moved to discreet places and the police had to return without registering any case. Once the police retreat, the women reappear and the business continues. From several past experiences it was clear to Guria that the brothel keepers were well connected with the local police and that no fruitful action would follow if it were for the police to take any action. The very fact is that the police  also registered cases against Guria and its volunteers also show how influential the brothel keepers are. Soon after the arrest of the brothel keepers, the person who was running the brothel was murdered in an alleged incident of encounter killing.   The brothel keepers and the other accused who were arrested were all released on bail. However when Guria came to know about the bail application, Guria tried to intervene in the case by informing the courts that the bail bonds, which include details regarding immovable property held by the guarantees, which is a regular requirement for bail, were fabricated documents. In the meanwhile Guria filed an application – Special Leave Application – before the Supreme Court of India on 12 May 2006 opposing the granting of bail to the accused on the ground that if the accused are released on bail they would tamper with the evidence and would be a threat to the witnesses in the case and also that many documents produced by the accused in court as security for bail are fabricated and forged. The court admitted the application and has issued notice to the accused. However, Guria is certain that none of the accused will be able to be traced back and brought to the court.   In India when a person moves for bail, if the court grants bail, the court issues a conditional order that the detainee will be released on bail provided the detainee produces adequate security and guarantee in court. This security and guarantee is an undertaking by a surety that the detainee if released on bail will be produced in court as and when the court requires, failing which the surety will be held responsible for the non-production of the detainee. Usually the court also insist that the surety produce records from the land records or revenue department to prove that the surety holds landed property that could be proceeded against if the surety and the detainee jump bail. These records usually are tax receipts or land records showing that the surety is in ownership and possession of the property mentioned in the document produced in court.   Dozens of such records were produced in the court to secure bail for the brothel keepers in this case. However, Guria being suspicious of these documents did their research through the land records department and they were shocked to know about the findings. Guria filed an application in court, which showed that in most cases the documents submitted by the sureties in court were fabricated.   Now that the accused have all been released on bail and that in most cases there is no possible process by which they could be brought back to the court, the cases in which they stand trial will never be adjudicated in the presence of the concerned accused. Since the accused enjoy complete impunity since they have all jumped bail and also since they are all well connected the chances of the local police tracing them is also limited. However, it is surprising to note that the concerned police officers have not taken any steps to investigate the matter and the courts have not taken any steps in spite of the fact that the courts were mislead on the face of records and the courts did not verify whether the securities were correct before granting bail to the accused.   Now that the accused are practically free they are threatening the activists associated with Guria, particularly Ajeet and his wife Manju that if they further proceeded with the case they would abduct Ajeet and Manju and may even murder them.   ADDITIONAL COMMENT:   The criminal justice system in India, particularly the judiciary, police and the prosecution suffer from serious problems that makes it impossible for these three machineries to function as they are expected to in India. The courts never receive appropriate funds to function so that every court is crowded and the judges literally have no time to verify the veracity of documents produced before it. Additionally, in this case Guria allege and their experience confirms it that most of the accused in the case are well connected and it is even feared that the influence of the accused might be long enough to tamper with the judiciary and some judges and prosecutors. No practical help is expected from the police since most police officers are corrupt and practically there is no mechanism in place to curb corruption in the police department.   There is no protection mechanism in India for witnesses so that Guria and its activists can expect the least from the court or from the state as protection against the threats they face now. If situations continue like this, Guria soon will find it really hard to continue their work in Varanasi.   SUGGESTED ACTION:   Please send a letter immediately to the Senior Superintendent of Police and the District Magistrate in Varanasi and the Chief Justice of India expressing concern in this case.   The AHRC is also writing to appropriate UN bodies asking for an intervention into the matter.   To support this appeal, please click here:   SUGGESTED LETTER:   Dear ____________,   INDIA: Human rights activists threatened not pursue cases against the women traffickers   Name and address of the victim: Mr. Ajeet Singh, and his wife Ms. Manju, residents of S- 8/ 395, Khajuri Colony, Cantonment police station, Varanasi district, Uttar Pradesh Date and time of incident: 27 – 28 February 2007 Place of incident: Varanasi District, Uttar Pradesh, India Alleged perpetrators: The accused in Crime 274/2005, 279/2005 to 300/2005 of Manduadih police station, Varanasi district, Uttar Pradesh, India   I am writing to voice my concern over the alleged death threats to human rights activists in Varanasi for working against women trafficking. It is alleged that perpetrators are the same persons who were charged for trafficking on the complaint lodged by a local group Guria working against women trafficking.   I am informed that on 27 and 28 February 2007 Manju, a human rights activist and also the wife of activist Mr. Ajeet Singh working for a local group Guria received several calls (near about 50) of threatening that both Ajeet and Manju will be abducted and even murdered if they continued working on the cases of the accused mentioned above. It is alleged that all the accused were released on bail after they produced fake bail bonds in courts. It is also alleged that even after the courts were notified that the accused have produced fake bail bonds the courts released the accused on bail and have taken no action against the accused or the sureties who produced the fake documents in the courts. It is also alleged that the accused are having good connections with the local administration and even with the lower judiciary and its officers.   It is also alleged that the accused would never return to the court, while they will remain free with the help of the local police who so far has refrained to take any action in the case.   I am concerned to know that the lower court as well as the police fail to take any action in this case were near about two dozen persons have jumped bail and are now threatening the human rights activists involved in this case.   I therefore urge you to take immediate action into this case and order an inquiry so that the entire sequence of producing fake bail bonds in court and the continuing disappearance of the accused is investigated into. I also urge you to take appropriate steps so that the victims named above are given adequate protection pending the inquiry into this case.   I am also informed that the Superintendent of Police of Varanasi has been informed that Manju has been receiving threatening calls over her mobile telephone. However I am concerned why the local police is taking no action upon the incident and is not caring to investigate into the case. I urge you to intervene in this incident and make sure that the local police do investigate into the threats Manju received on her telephone and take appropriate action against the accused.   I look forward to hearing about your positive response to this serious matter.   Yours truly,   PLEASE SEND LETTERS TO:   1. The Senior Superintendent of Police Varanasi INDIA Tel: +91 54 22502655, +91 98 3950 4898 (mobile) Fax: +91 54 2250 1450   2. The Chief Justice of India Through the Office of the Registrar General Supreme Court of India 1 Tilak Marg, New Delhi INDIA Fax: +91 11 23383792 Email: supremecourt at nic.in   3. Mr. Rajiv Agarwal District Magistrate Varanasi INDIA Tel: +91 54 2250 8585 Fax: +91 54 2234 8313 E-mail: dmvsn at satyam.net.in   4. Mr. Yashpal Singh, IPS Director General of Police Tilak Marg, Lucknow Uttar Pradesh INDIA Tel: +91 52 2220 6104 Fax: +91 52 2220 6120, 2220 6174. E-mail: police at up.nic.in   5. Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister's Secretariat Lucknow Uttar Pradesh INDIA Fax: + 91 52 2223 0002 / 2223 9234   6. The Chairperson National Human Rights Commission of India Faridkot House, Copernicus Marg New Delhi-110001 INDIA Tel: + 91 11 2307 4448/ 2338 2742 Fax: +91 11 23384863 Email: chairnhrc at nic.in   Thank you.     Urgent Appeals Programme (ua at ahrchk.org) Asian Human Rights Commission (ahrchk at ahrchk.org)     Posted on 2007-03-12   Back to [2006 Urgent Appeals]                       Asian Human Rights Commission            For any suggestions, please email to support at ahrchk.net. From faiz.outsider at gmail.com Mon Apr 16 17:19:08 2007 From: faiz.outsider at gmail.com (faiz ullah) Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2007 17:19:08 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Speculation and Sports Message-ID: <96c0bb200704160449o58fa9efcsdccb4c5a950ff1d@mail.gmail.com> Dear All, After Kerry Packer changed the face of the game the element of speculation has crept in measures more than what the obvious betting/fixing connection suggests. With spectator sports audience devises various ways to associate with and possibly intervene in the game and resist being just spectators (and is spectator a speculator too? As the similarity between the two terms suggests? contemplation, speculation, looking at, things looked at, to consider, speculate, and look at). If we take betting as an example then it I think goes on to show that the element of speculation has now come to assume more importance than the game itself- and in certain cases so much so that it threatens to influence the natural flow of the game (which also happens when a reliable spectator- the critic pans a film and dents the box-office collections). A better part of speculation also builds upon the past-performances of the subject in question. As soon as a batsman comes to the crease statistic supers come on the screen and gives us the career average, strike rate, centuries and fifties scored, ducks, who's gotten him out most, record at a particular ground, against a particular team, at a particular batting position, and what not. For a naïve spectator like me it meant that a batsman with a strike rate of 100 will get India that run a ball chase to victory. I was proven wrong many a times but not my expert friends who armed with all the statistics speculated and put all their money on projected outcomes. availability of information and the way its used also then comes in handy while speculating. Abundance and over-abundance of freely available information or it's incorrect interpretation gives rise to over-speculation, and maybe when the information is bogus speculations go awry. News media and brands also put their money on the 'potential' performers and their best bet will be a Sachin or Sehwag as they have done well in the past and could be expected to do well in the future too. And finally mega sporting events like Commonwealth Games also give us a lot of opportunities to speculate while putting on stake the health of the city. Would we get to host the Asian games also in 2014 (bidding is on in Kuwaitright now)? Maybe Olympics in 2016? Maybe if we do a good job at hosting the Commonwealth games. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070416/fad5234b/attachment.html From zainab at mail.xtdnet.nl Tue Apr 17 09:49:50 2007 From: zainab at mail.xtdnet.nl (zainab) Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2007 6:19:50 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] Of Pension Mohalla and Khan Message-ID: <168bd298eb7bcfca98ecb96fb24f843c@mail.xtdnet.nl> 16/04/07 ‘Pension Mohalla’, the address read on the details of the display board in his auto. I was intrigued. I asked him what kind of place was ‘Pension Mohalla’. He said these were old names of places. ‘Pension Mohalla’ is about one and a half kilometers away from K. R. Market, he explained. Khan is his name. His physique is on the leaner side, and he looks friendly and kind. I entered the autorickshaw outside Theological College on Millers Road. A bunch of North East boys were in his auto. They wanted him to drive them inside the college. But he told them, Paidal chalo, paidal chalo. Go walk inside. I have a fare waiting here. My curiosity about ‘Pension Mohalla’ got us talking. In reality, it was my desperation to connect with this city that got me talking to him - my search for ordinarily extraordinary stories in this city. Khan owns the auto he is riding, among the few auto drivers I have encountered so far who own the auto they drive. He says his auto runs his household and that he recently got his daughter married through the earnings of the rickshaw. He completed schooling and then did a vocational course in air-condition repairs. But back then in 1988-1990, he said, there was no demand for his services. As a matter of desire he learnt how to drive. This auto, cars and even buses, I learnt to drive them all. I wanted to drive a bus, but I just cannot seem to get off riding this auto. Already, riding this auto from 10 in the morning to 10 at night, my ears burn, my eyes burn, I have backache and, look at these hands, they start to hurt. And the dust around, that also causes fatigue. He asks me whether I am still studying. Then he wonders why I am headed towards Jayanagar. I am amazed, he says, you study here and you live there. Dikkat nahi hoti? Nowadays, it is luxury for even working class people to ride in autos and you are a student here. I am amazed. I explain to him that I live in Jayanagar and also study there and that I was at the Theological College on a special class. That’s what I was wondering, otherwise it is too expensive for students to ride in autos. As we continue to ride further up, I tell him that I was in Bangalore back in 1993 sometime and the city was different then. Oh yeah, it has changed a lot now. Earlier, main aankhein moondke gaadi chalata tha, I would close my eyes and ride and today, I am afraid even as I keep my eyes open and attention focused. Traffic has increased. Now just look at this man here on the scooter, he has stopped in the middle of this thick traffic to talk on his cell phone. Back then, the city was different. Now, it has improved. I wonder what ‘improved’ means to Khan. He goes on. I encounter so many people who come from outside to study in Bangalore – from Bihar, Delhi, the madrasis – they all come here. How long have you been here? Nine months, I tell him. How long will you be here? Three years. Hmmm, even in software you see, many people from outside are coming - from Bihar, Delhi, the madrasis. There are good earnings, you can have a good life. But I remark that this city is ver! y expensive. Why do you say that, he asks. I tell him that commuting is a cheaper affair in Bombay given the trains and the buses. But there are buses here too, he tells me, trying to understand. But here the buses run only on main roads, I explain, and then, in Bombay, the train is always there. Ah, trains run on the roads there haan? he asks. I don’t know what to say. Then he says, I have never to been to Bombay or Delhi, but I have heard about these cities. I was born in Bangalore, have grown up here, aur idhareech main khatam hona hai. His words remind of the dialogue I had heard in the movie Namesake. A fellow passenger in the train asks Ashoke Ganguly whether he has been abroad, ‘England, America’? Ashoke says he has never been to these places but then his grandfather had told him that books are meant to help travel. Here is Khan, working through an imagination of the cities he does not know and he perhaps does not even have the books to help him travel. He late! r tells me that last night he watched a television programme which ann ounced that Delhi is the best city in India and he started wondering where does Bangalore figure in the scheme of India. Main soochne laga, Dilli ki baatein kar rahe hai yeh log, Bangalore kahan pe aata hain India mein. He says that the best thing about Bangalore is the weather – cool climate and lots of greenery. That is why they have named this Garden City, he tells me. I continue to talk to him about the costs of living in Bangalore being high. Rents are high, I tell him. Oh yes, I agree. Back in my time, a house in my area was available for three hundred rupees monthly rent. If you gave four hundred, you would get more amenities. Five hundred, even more and with six hundred to seven hundred rupees, you could get two rooms, a kitchen, good water, etc. How much rent do you pay? I lied to him saying I pay three thousand when in fact I pay four. He is shocked and says, you find two or three people to live with you. Then you can each pay a thousand and spend about two thousand monthly on food. I cook at home, I tell him. He asks if I can make rotis and I say yes. How about rice? I tell him I eat red rice. And chappatis, you eat wheat eh? Yeah, and also raagi. Really, do you eat raagi rotis? he asks me. Yes, I tell him. We make raagi mudde at home. But back in the villages, they eat the rotis. with spicy chutneys, I tell him immediately. Yeah, ! he says excitedly, clicking his fingers, you are right, with chutneys. I think we have connected now. I have relatives in Thilaknagar, he tells me. I tell him I like living in Thilaknagar because it is a noisy and vibrant area. Yes, he says, otherwise you have houses scattered at distances. In Bangalore, he says, 80% people are good and only 20% are not so good. Only 20%, he emphasizes. See, if you ask for directions in this city, people will tell you, unlike in Bombay or Delhi where people don’t have the time to tell you. Here, in Bangalore, you see this man walking on the roads, if you ask him for directions, he will tell you. In fact, if he is going in the same direction, he will come along with you and say, ‘I am also going in the same direction’. But back in Bombay and Delhi, people don’t tell right. See, what happens is that 20% of the not-so-nice people, they are jealous of outsiders coming here and making money. They say these people are outsiders. Jealous people. We arrive. I ask him to stop on the main road so that I can walk into the lanes, to my house. He asks me where I stay. I explain to him. The fare reads Rs. 62. He returns forty rupees to me. I tell him to wait as I fish for two rupees. He says, let it be. Don’t bother about two rupees. You are a student here. I tell him the two rupees are his earnings and that he should let me give it to him. He smiles at me as I leave. It is a smile which tells me that for that moment of our journey together, for that time that he drove me, we traveled into each other’s lives, in Bombay, in Bangalore, in Delhi. We journeyed together. It was desperation to seek my own words, to seek stories in this city that I got talking to Khan. I still seek the ordinary lives which have stories to tell me, stories which reinforce that these lives are not ordinary, that they make this city- whether it is Bangalore, Bombay or Delhi. I seek these stories … From filmfestival at film-sharing.net Mon Apr 16 23:31:07 2007 From: filmfestival at film-sharing.net (film_sharing) Date: 16 Apr 2007 11:01:07 -0700 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] [infosouth] LAST CALL FOR ENTRIES 2nd NoBudget VideoFilmfestival Message-ID: deutsche Version unterhalb LAST CALL FOR ENTRIES / DEADLINE 1st of May 2007 http://www.filmsharing.eu/ 2nd International No Budget VideoFilmfestival – Deadline 1st of May Categories: extremely short (<3min) shortfilm (3 - 15min) In focus stand narrative and fictional shorts. The manner of development can be various: we like accurately planned films, spontaneously done projects, exercices and inventive products which came into being by accident. Filmmakers who are not willing to fix their creativity into a kind of commercial frame are invited to share their work with our festival audience! Originality of narration or progress are the crucial factors of evaluation. DEADLINE 1st of May 2007 http://www.filmsharing.eu/ english version above 2nd International No Budget VideoFilmfestival – Deadline 1. Mai Kategorien: Ultrakurzfilm (<3min) Kurzfilm (3 - 15min) Wir möchten ein internationales Forum sein für unabhängige Produktionen mit unterschiedlichster Finanzierung; was zählt, ist die inhaltliche und ästhetische Eigenständigkeit. Der Fokus richtet sich dabei auf fiktive und narrative Kurzfilme. Die Entstehungsweise kann von sorgfältig geplanten Filmen über spontan entstandene Projekte bis zu gelungenen Übungen und originellen Zufallsprodukten reichen. Filmemacher, die ihre Kreativität nicht unbedingt in einen kommerziellen Rahmen pressen wollen, sind dazu aufgefordert, unser Festivalpublikum an ihren Werken teilhaben zu lassen! Originalität der Handlung oder des Ablaufs sind ausschlaggebende Kriterien der Bewertung. Deadline 1. Mai 2007 http://www.filmsharing.eu/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070416/3b1d4c7a/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From amitabhkumar84 at gmail.com Tue Apr 17 13:11:31 2007 From: amitabhkumar84 at gmail.com (Amitabh Kumar) Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2007 13:11:31 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] George Quasha Presentation Message-ID: George Quasha Presentation and Discussion on Poetry and Visual Art Saturday, 21st April, 2007. 3:00 p.m Seminar Room, Sarai-CSDS, 29 Rajpur Road,Civil Lines, Delhi. You are invited to an interaction with George Quasha, an artist and poet based in New York, and be part of his work in progress, 'Art is..?'. There will be a presentation by the artist about his work and this will be followed by a question & answer session.The artist will then interview people who see themselves as 'artists' and are willing to answer what 'Art' is. Art is.. ?:Speaking Portraits, is an open-ended video art work in portraiture,which registers artists in the act of saying what art is. George Quasha has so far filmed artists in six countries and for the Art is..?/India-Pakistan version he is collaborating with Mamta Murthy, a Bombay based filmmaker. Art is can be seen as a work of documentary quality with the axial principle as its basis — it works on an intentionally open axis. Here at least the field of all possible art saying emerges in the present moment. A record of artists across the world, across media, articulating their connection to their art. George Quasha (born 1942) is an artist and poet based in New York. He works across mediums to explore principles in common within language, sculpture, drawing, video, sound, installation, and performance. He is currently in the country for the India-Pakistan version of his Art is video series. Combining his poetry and art works, his presentation will deal with how the same principle can work for both in his particular use of the Axial principle. Since the 70s, Quasha has collaborated in performances featuring video, language and sound with video artist Gary Hill and poet Charles Stein. His 'axial stones' and 'axial drawings' have been exhibited in New York's Chelsea at Baumgartner Gallery and ZONE Chelsea Center for the Arts, and are featured in the book, Axial Stones: An Art of Precarious Balance (North Atlantic Books: Berkeley). In 2006 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in video art. His 14 books include poetry (Somapoetics, Giving the Lily Back Her Hands, Ainu Dreams [with Chie Hasegawa], Preverbs), anthologies and writing on art. He has taught at Stony Brook University (SUNY), Bard College, the New School, and Naropa University. Admission on a first-come-first-served basis. -- www.amitabhkumar.blogspot.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070417/d777ec47/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From elkamath at yahoo.com Tue Apr 17 16:42:17 2007 From: elkamath at yahoo.com (lalitha kamath) Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2007 04:12:17 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Article from the Washington Post: an experiment in context, perception, priorities Message-ID: <132707.151.qm@web53603.mail.re2.yahoo.com> A story ran in The Washington Post this week -- on Easter Sunday -- In a nutshell, the Post convinced one of the world's greatest violinists to=20= go incognito and play his fiddle at a Metro station, standing there with his= open case like just another street musician, begging for money. He was play= ing some of the most beautiful and complex violin pieces from history, thing= s that people shell out $100 and put on their Sunday best to go see in a con= cert hall. But would anyone appreciate him -- or his music -- as essentially= a street corner beggar, even though the same gorgeous music was being playe= d? The results are astonishing. Check it out: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401= 721.html Here's the story, for those who can't get to it online: Pearls Before Breakfast Can one of the nation's great musicians cut through the fog of a D.C. rush h= our? Let's find out. By Gene Weingarten Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, April 8, 2007; W10 HE EMERGED FROM THE METRO AT THE L'ENFANT PLAZA STATION AND POSITIONED HIMSE= LF AGAINST A WALL BESIDE A TRASH BASKET. By most measures, he was nondescrip= t: a youngish white man in jeans, a long-sleeved T-shirt and a Washington Na= tionals baseball cap. From a small case, he removed a violin. Placing the op= en case at his feet, he shrewdly threw in a few dollars and pocket change as= seed money, swiveled it to face pedestrian traffic, and began to play. It was 7:51 a.m. on Friday, January 12, the middle of the morning rush hour.= In the next 43 minutes, as the violinist performed six classical pieces, 1,= 097 people passed by. Almost all of them were on the way to work, which mean= t, for almost all of them, a government job. L'Enfant Plaza is at the nucleu= s of federal Washington, and these were mostly mid-level bureaucrats with th= ose indeterminate, oddly fungible titles: policy analyst, project manager, b= udget officer, specialist, facilitator, consultant. Each passerby had a quick choice to make, one familiar to commuters in any u= rban area where the occasional street performer is part of the cityscape: Do= you stop and listen? Do you hurry past with a blend of guilt and irritation= , aware of your cupidity but annoyed by the unbidden demand on your time and= your wallet? Do you throw in a buck, just to be polite? Does your decision=20= change if he's really bad? What if he's really good? Do you have time for be= auty? Shouldn't you? What's the moral mathematics of the moment? On that Friday in January, those private questions would be answered in an u= nusually public way. No one knew it, but the fiddler standing against a bare= wall outside the Metro in an indoor arcade at the top of the escalators was= one of the finest classical musicians in the world, playing some of the mos= t elegant music ever written on one of the most valuable violins ever made.=20= His performance was arranged by The Washington Post as an experiment in cont= ext, perception and priorities -- as well as an unblinking assessment of pub= lic taste: In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty transcen= d? The musician did not play popular tunes whose familiarity alone might have d= rawn interest. That was not the test. These were masterpieces that have endu= red for centuries on their brilliance alone, soaring music befitting the gra= ndeur of cathedrals and concert halls. The acoustics proved surprisingly kind. Though the arcade is of utilitarian=20= design, a buffer between the Metro escalator and the outdoors, it somehow ca= ught the sound and bounced it back round and resonant. The violin is an inst= rument that is said to be much like the human voice, and in this musician's=20= masterly hands, it sobbed and laughed and sang -- ecstatic, sorrowful, impor= tuning, adoring, flirtatious, castigating, playful, romancing, merry, triump= hal, sumptuous. So, what do you think happened? HANG ON, WE'LL GET YOU SOME EXPERT HELP. Leonard Slatkin, music director of the National Symphony Orchestra, was aske= d the same question. What did he think would occur, hypothetically, if one o= f the world's great violinists had performed incognito before a traveling ru= sh-hour audience of 1,000-odd people? "Let's assume," Slatkin said, "that he is not recognized and just taken for=20= granted as a street musician . . . Still, I don't think that if he's really=20= good, he's going to go unnoticed. He'd get a larger audience in Europe . . .= but, okay, out of 1,000 people, my guess is there might be 35 or 40 who wil= l recognize the quality for what it is. Maybe 75 to 100 will stop and spend=20= some time listening." So, a crowd would gather? "Oh, yes." And how much will he make? "About $150." Thanks, Maestro. As it happens, this is not hypothetical. It really happened= .. "How'd I do?" We'll tell you in a minute. "Well, who was the musician?" Joshua Bell. "NO!!!" A onetime child prodigy, at 39 Joshua Bell has arrived as an internationally= acclaimed virtuoso. Three days before he appeared at the Metro station, Bel= l had filled the house at Boston's stately Symphony Hall, where merely prett= y good seats went for $100. Two weeks later, at the Music Center at Strathmo= re, in North Bethesda, he would play to a standing-room-only audience so res= pectful of his artistry that they stifled their coughs until the silence bet= ween movements. But on that Friday in January, Joshua Bell was just another=20= mendicant, competing for the attention of busy people on their way to work. Bell was first pitched this idea shortly before Christmas, over coffee at a=20= sandwich shop on Capitol Hill. A New Yorker, he was in town to perform at th= e Library of Congress and to visit the library's vaults to examine an unusua= l treasure: an 18th-century violin that once belonged to the great Austrian-= born virtuoso and composer Fritz Kreisler. The curators invited Bell to play= it; good sound, still. "Here's what I'm thinking," Bell confided, as he sipped his coffee. "I'm thi= nking that I could do a tour where I'd play Kreisler's music . . ." He smiled. ". . . on Kreisler's violin." It was a snazzy, sequined idea -- part inspiration and part gimmick -- and i= t was typical of Bell, who has unapologetically embraced showmanship even as= his concert career has become more and more august. He's soloed with the fi= nest orchestras here and abroad, but he's also appeared on "Sesame Street,"=20= done late-night talk TV and performed in feature films. That was Bell playin= g the soundtrack on the 1998 movie "The Red Violin." (He body-doubled, too,=20= playing to a naked Greta Scacchi.) As composer John Corigliano accepted the=20= Oscar for Best Original Dramatic Score, he credited Bell, who, he said, "pla= ys like a god." When Bell was asked if he'd be willing to don street clothes and perform at=20= rush hour, he said: "Uh, a stunt?" Well, yes. A stunt. Would he think it . . . unseemly? Bell drained his cup. "Sounds like fun," he said. Bell's a heartthrob. Tall and handsome, he's got a Donny Osmond-like dose of= the cutes, and, onstage, cute elides into hott. When he performs, he is usu= ally the only man under the lights who is not in white tie and tails -- he w= alks out to a standing O, looking like Zorro, in black pants and an untucked= black dress shirt, shirttail dangling. That cute Beatles-style mop top is a= lso a strategic asset: Because his technique is full of body -- athletic and= passionate -- he's almost dancing with the instrument, and his hair flies. He's single and straight, a fact not lost on some of his fans. In Boston, as= he performed Max Bruch's dour Violin Concerto in G Minor, the very few youn= g women in the audience nearly disappeared in the deep sea of silver heads.=20= But seemingly every single one of them -- a distillate of the young and pret= ty -- coalesced at the stage door after the performance, seeking an autograp= h. It's like that always, with Bell. Bell's been accepting over-the-top accolades since puberty: Interview magazi= ne once said his playing "does nothing less than tell human beings why they=20= bother to live." He's learned to field these things graciously, with a bashf= ul duck of the head and a modified "pshaw." For this incognito performance, Bell had only one condition for participatin= g. The event had been described to him as a test of whether, in an incongruo= us context, ordinary people would recognize genius. His condition: "I'm not=20= comfortable if you call this genius." "Genius" is an overused word, he said:= It can be applied to some of the composers whose work he plays, but not to=20= him. His skills are largely interpretive, he said, and to imply otherwise wo= uld be unseemly and inaccurate. It was an interesting request, and under the circumstances, one that will be= honored. The word will not again appear in this article. It would be breaking no rules, however, to note that the term in question, p= articularly as applied in the field of music, refers to a congenital brillia= nce -- an elite, innate, preternatural ability that manifests itself early,=20= and often in dramatic fashion. One biographically intriguing fact about Bell is that he got his first music= lessons when he was a 4-year-old in Bloomington, Ind. His parents, both psy= chologists, decided formal training might be a good idea after they saw that= their son had strung rubber bands across his dresser drawers and was replic= ating classical tunes by ear, moving drawers in and out to vary the pitch. TO GET TO THE METRO FROM HIS HOTEL, a distance of three blocks, Bell took a=20= taxi. He's neither lame nor lazy: He did it for his violin. Bell always performs on the same instrument, and he ruled out using another=20= for this gig. Called the Gibson ex Huberman, it was handcrafted in 1713 by A= ntonio Stradivari during the Italian master's "golden period," toward the en= d of his career, when he had access to the finest spruce, maple and willow,=20= and when his technique had been refined to perfection. "Our knowledge of acoustics is still incomplete," Bell said, "but he, he jus= t . . . knew." Bell doesn't mention Stradivari by name. Just "he." When the violinist shows= his Strad to people, he holds the instrument gingerly by its neck, resting=20= it on a knee. "He made this to perfect thickness at all parts," Bell says, p= ivoting it. "If you shaved off a millimeter of wood at any point, it would t= otally imbalance the sound." No violins sound as wonderful as Strads from th= e 1710s, still. The front of Bell's violin is in nearly perfect condition, with a deep, rich= grain and luster. The back is a mess, its dark reddish finish bleeding away= into a flatter, lighter shade and finally, in one section, to bare wood. "This has never been refinished," Bell said. "That's his original varnish. P= eople attribute aspects of the sound to the varnish. Each maker had his own=20= secret formula." Stradivari is thought to have made his from an ingeniously=20= balanced cocktail of honey, egg whites and gum arabic from sub-Saharan trees= .. Like the instrument in "The Red Violin," this one has a past filled with mys= tery and malice. Twice, it was stolen from its illustrious prior owner, the=20= Polish virtuoso Bronislaw Huberman. The first time, in 1919, it disappeared=20= from Huberman's hotel room in Vienna but was quickly returned. The second ti= me, nearly 20 years later, it was pinched from his dressing room in Carnegie= Hall. He never got it back. It was not until 1985 that the thief -- a minor= New York violinist -- made a deathbed confession to his wife, and produced=20= the instrument. Bell bought it a few years ago. He had to sell his own Strad and borrow much= of the rest. The price tag was reported to be about $3.5 million. All of which is a long explanation for why, in the early morning chill of a=20= day in January, Josh Bell took a three-block cab ride to the Orange Line, an= d rode one stop to L'Enfant. AS METRO STATIONS GO, L'ENFANT PLAZA IS MORE PLEBEIAN THAN MOST. Even before= you arrive, it gets no respect. Metro conductors never seem to get it right= : "Leh-fahn." "Layfont." "El'phant." At the top of the escalators are a shoeshine stand and a busy kiosk that sel= ls newspapers, lottery tickets and a wallfull of magazines with titles such=20= as Mammazons and Girls of Barely Legal. The skin mags move, but it's that lo= ttery ticket dispenser that stays the busiest, with customers queuing up for= Daily 6 lotto and Powerball and the ultimate suckers' bait, those pamphlets= that sell random number combinations purporting to be "hot." They sell bris= kly. There's also a quick-check machine to slide in your lotto ticket, post-= drawing, to see if you've won. Beneath it is a forlorn pile of crumpled slip= s. On Friday, January 12, the people waiting in the lottery line looking for a=20= long shot would get a lucky break -- a free, close-up ticket to a concert by= one of the world's most famous musicians -- but only if they were of a mind= to take note. Bell decided to begin with "Chaconne" from Johann Sebastian Bach's Partita N= o. 2 in D Minor. Bell calls it "not just one of the greatest pieces of music= ever written, but one of the greatest achievements of any man in history. I= t's a spiritually powerful piece, emotionally powerful, structurally perfect= .. Plus, it was written for a solo violin, so I won't be cheating with some h= alf-assed version." Bell didn't say it, but Bach's "Chaconne" is also considered one of the most= difficult violin pieces to master. Many try; few succeed. It's exhaustingly= long -- 14 minutes -- and consists entirely of a single, succinct musical p= rogression repeated in dozens of variations to create a dauntingly complex a= rchitecture of sound. Composed around 1720, on the eve of the European Enlig= htenment, it is said to be a celebration of the breadth of human possibility= .. If Bell's encomium to "Chaconne" seems overly effusive, consider this from t= he 19th-century composer Johannes Brahms, in a letter to Clara Schumann: "On= one stave, for a small instrument, the man writes a whole world of the deep= est thoughts and most powerful feelings. If I imagined that I could have cre= ated, even conceived the piece, I am quite certain that the excess of excite= ment and earth-shattering experience would have driven me out of my mind." So, that's the piece Bell started with. He'd clearly meant it when he promised not to cheap out this performance: He= played with acrobatic enthusiasm, his body leaning into the music and archi= ng on tiptoes at the high notes. The sound was nearly symphonic, carrying to= all parts of the homely arcade as the pedestrian traffic filed past. Three minutes went by before something happened. Sixty-three people had alre= ady passed when, finally, there was a breakthrough of sorts. A middle-age ma= n altered his gait for a split second, turning his head to notice that there= seemed to be some guy playing music. Yes, the man kept walking, but it was=20= something. A half-minute later, Bell got his first donation. A woman threw in a buck an= d scooted off. It was not until six minutes into the performance that someon= e actually stood against a wall, and listened. Things never got much better. In the three-quarters of an hour that Joshua B= ell played, seven people stopped what they were doing to hang around and tak= e in the performance, at least for a minute. Twenty-seven gave money, most o= f them on the run -- for a total of $32 and change. That leaves the 1,070 pe= ople who hurried by, oblivious, many only three feet away, few even turning=20= to look. No, Mr. Slatkin, there was never a crowd, not even for a second. It was all videotaped by a hidden camera. You can play the recording once or= 15 times, and it never gets any easier to watch. Try speeding it up, and it= becomes one of those herky-jerky World War I-era silent newsreels. The peop= le scurry by in comical little hops and starts, cups of coffee in their hand= s, cellphones at their ears, ID tags slapping at their bellies, a grim danse= macabre to indifference, inertia and the dingy, gray rush of modernity. Even at this accelerated pace, though, the fiddler's movements remain fluid=20= and graceful; he seems so apart from his audience -- unseen, unheard, otherw= orldly -- that you find yourself thinking that he's not really there. A ghos= t. Only then do you see it: He is the one who is real. They are the ghosts. IF A GREAT MUSICIAN PLAYS GREAT MUSIC BUT NO ONE HEARS . . . WAS HE REALLY A= NY GOOD? It's an old epistemological debate, older, actually, than the koan about the= tree in the forest. Plato weighed in on it, and philosophers for two millen= nia afterward: What is beauty? Is it a measurable fact (Gottfried Leibniz),=20= or merely an opinion (David Hume), or is it a little of each, colored by the= immediate state of mind of the observer (Immanuel Kant)? We'll go with Kant, because he's obviously right, and because he brings us p= retty directly to Joshua Bell, sitting there in a hotel restaurant, picking=20= at his breakfast, wryly trying to figure out what the hell had just happened= back there at the Metro. "At the beginning," Bell says, "I was just concentrating on playing the musi= c. I wasn't really watching what was happening around me . . ." Playing the violin looks all-consuming, mentally and physically, but Bell sa= ys that for him the mechanics of it are partly second nature, cemented by pr= actice and muscle memory: It's like a juggler, he says, who can keep those b= alls in play while interacting with a crowd. What he's mostly thinking about= as he plays, Bell says, is capturing emotion as a narrative: "When you play= a violin piece, you are a storyteller, and you're telling a story." With "Chaconne," the opening is filled with a building sense of awe. That ke= pt him busy for a while. Eventually, though, he began to steal a sidelong gl= ance. "It was a strange feeling, that people were actually, ah . . ." The word doesn't come easily. ". . . ignoring me." Bell is laughing. It's at himself. "At a music hall, I'll get upset if someone coughs or if someone's cellphone= goes off. But here, my expectations quickly diminished. I started to apprec= iate any acknowledgment, even a slight glance up. I was oddly grateful when=20= someone threw in a dollar instead of change." This is from a man whose talen= ts can command $1,000 a minute. Before he began, Bell hadn't known what to expect. What he does know is that= , for some reason, he was nervous. "It wasn't exactly stage fright, but there were butterflies," he says. "I wa= s stressing a little." Bell has played, literally, before crowned heads of Europe. Why the anxiety=20= at the Washington Metro? "When you play for ticket-holders," Bell explains, "you are already validate= d. I have no sense that I need to be accepted. I'm already accepted. Here, t= here was this thought: What if they don't like me? What if they resent my pr= esence . . ." He was, in short, art without a frame. Which, it turns out, may have a lot t= o do with what happened -- or, more precisely, what didn't happen -- on Janu= ary 12. MARK LEITHAUSER HAS HELD IN HIS HANDS MORE GREAT WORKS OF ART THAN ANY KING=20= OR POPE OR MEDICI EVER DID. A senior curator at the National Gallery, he ove= rsees the framing of the paintings. Leithauser thinks he has some idea of wh= at happened at that Metro station. "Let's say I took one of our more abstract masterpieces, say an Ellsworth Ke= lly, and removed it from its frame, marched it down the 52 steps that people= walk up to get to the National Gallery, past the giant columns, and brought= it into a restaurant. It's a $5 million painting. And it's one of those res= taurants where there are pieces of original art for sale, by some industriou= s kids from the Corcoran School, and I hang that Kelly on the wall with a pr= ice tag of $150. No one is going to notice it. An art curator might look up=20= and say: 'Hey, that looks a little like an Ellsworth Kelly. Please pass the=20= salt.'" Leithauser's point is that we shouldn't be too ready to label the Metro pass= ersby unsophisticated boobs. Context matters. Kant said the same thing. He took beauty seriously: In his Critique of Aesth= etic Judgment, Kant argued that one's ability to appreciate beauty is relate= d to one's ability to make moral judgments. But there was a caveat. Paul Guy= er of the University of Pennsylvania, one of America's most prominent Kantia= n scholars, says the 18th-century German philosopher felt that to properly a= ppreciate beauty, the viewing conditions must be optimal. "Optimal," Guyer said, "doesn't mean heading to work, focusing on your repor= t to the boss, maybe your shoes don't fit right." So, if Kant had been at the Metro watching as Joshua Bell play to a thousand= unimpressed passersby? "He would have inferred about them," Guyer said, "absolutely nothing." And that's that. Except it isn't. To really understand what happened, you have to rewind that= video and play it back from the beginning, from the moment Bell's bow first= touched the strings. White guy, khakis, leather jacket, briefcase. Early 30s. John David Mortense= n is on the final leg of his daily bus-to-Metro commute from Reston. He's he= ading up the escalator. It's a long ride -- 1 minute and 15 seconds if you d= on't walk. So, like most everyone who passes Bell this day, Mortensen gets a= good earful of music before he has his first look at the musician. Like mos= t of them, he notes that it sounds pretty good. But like very few of them, w= hen he gets to the top, he doesn't race past as though Bell were some nuisan= ce to be avoided. Mortensen is that first person to stop, that guy at the si= x-minute mark. It's not that he has nothing else to do. He's a project manager for an inter= national program at the Department of Energy; on this day, Mortensen has to=20= participate in a monthly budget exercise, not the most exciting part of his=20= job: "You review the past month's expenditures," he says, "forecast spending= for the next month, if you have X dollars, where will it go, that sort of t= hing." On the video, you can see Mortensen get off the escalator and look around. H= e locates the violinist, stops, walks away but then is drawn back. He checks= the time on his cellphone -- he's three minutes early for work -- then sett= les against a wall to listen. Mortensen doesn't know classical music at all; classic rock is as close as h= e comes. But there's something about what he's hearing that he really likes. As it happens, he's arrived at the moment that Bell slides into the second s= ection of "Chaconne." ("It's the point," Bell says, "where it moves from a d= arker, minor key into a major key. There's a religious, exalted feeling to i= t.") The violinist's bow begins to dance; the music becomes upbeat, playful,= theatrical, big. Mortensen doesn't know about major or minor keys: "Whatever it was," he says= , "it made me feel at peace." So, for the first time in his life, Mortensen lingers to listen to a street=20= musician. He stays his allotted three minutes as 94 more people pass briskly= by. When he leaves to help plan contingency budgets for the Department of E= nergy, there's another first. For the first time in his life, not quite know= ing what had just happened but sensing it was special, John David Mortensen=20= gives a street musician money. THERE ARE SIX MOMENTS IN THE VIDEO THAT BELL FINDS PARTICULARLY PAINFUL TO R= ELIVE: "The awkward times," he calls them. It's what happens right after eac= h piece ends: nothing. The music stops. The same people who hadn't noticed h= im playing don't notice that he has finished. No applause, no acknowledgment= .. So Bell just saws out a small, nervous chord -- the embarrassed musician's= equivalent of, "Er, okay, moving right along . . ." -- and begins the next=20= piece. After "Chaconne," it is Franz Schubert's "Ave Maria," which surprised some m= usic critics when it debuted in 1825: Schubert seldom showed religious feeli= ng in his compositions, yet "Ave Maria" is a breathtaking work of adoration=20= of the Virgin Mary. What was with the sudden piety? Schubert dryly answered:= "I think this is due to the fact that I never forced devotion in myself and= never compose hymns or prayers of that kind unless it overcomes me unawares= ; but then it is usually the right and true devotion." This musical prayer b= ecame among the most familiar and enduring religious pieces in history. A couple of minutes into it, something revealing happens. A woman and her pr= eschooler emerge from the escalator. The woman is walking briskly and, there= fore, so is the child. She's got his hand. "I had a time crunch," recalls Sheron Parker, an IT director for a federal a= gency. "I had an 8:30 training class, and first I had to rush Evvie off to h= is teacher, then rush back to work, then to the training facility in the bas= ement." Evvie is her son, Evan. Evan is 3. You can see Evan clearly on the video. He's the cute black kid in the parka=20= who keeps twisting around to look at Joshua Bell, as he is being propelled t= oward the door. "There was a musician," Parker says, "and my son was intrigued. He wanted to= pull over and listen, but I was rushed for time." So Parker does what she has to do. She deftly moves her body between Evan's=20= and Bell's, cutting off her son's line of sight. As they exit the arcade, Ev= an can still be seen craning to look. When Parker is told what she walked ou= t on, she laughs. "Evan is very smart!" The poet Billy Collins once laughingly observed that all babies are born wit= h a knowledge of poetry, because the lub-dub of the mother's heart is in iam= bic meter. Then, Collins said, life slowly starts to choke the poetry out of= us. It may be true with music, too. There was no ethnic or demographic pattern to distinguish the people who sta= yed to watch Bell, or the ones who gave money, from that vast majority who h= urried on past, unheeding. Whites, blacks and Asians, young and old, men and= women, were represented in all three groups. But the behavior of one demogr= aphic remained absolutely consistent. Every single time a child walked past,= he or she tried to stop and watch. And every single time, a parent scooted=20= the kid away. IF THERE WAS ONE PERSON ON THAT DAY WHO WAS TOO BUSY TO PAY ATTENTION TO THE= VIOLINIST, it was George Tindley. Tindley wasn't hurrying to get to work. H= e was at work. The glass doors through which most people exit the L'Enfant station lead int= o an indoor shopping mall, from which there are exits to the street and elev= ators to office buildings. The first store in the mall is an Au Bon Pain, th= e croissant and coffee shop where Tindley, in his 40s, works in a white unif= orm busing the tables, restocking the salt and pepper packets, taking out th= e garbage. Tindley labors under the watchful eye of his bosses, and he's sup= posed to be hopping, and he was. But every minute or so, as though drawn by something not entirely within his= control, Tindley would walk to the very edge of the Au Bon Pain property, k= eeping his toes inside the line, still on the job. Then he'd lean forward, a= s far out into the hallway as he could, watching the fiddler on the other si= de of the glass doors. The foot traffic was steady, so the doors were usuall= y open. The sound came through pretty well. "You could tell in one second that this guy was good, that he was clearly a=20= professional," Tindley says. He plays the guitar, loves the sound of strings= , and has no respect for a certain kind of musician. "Most people, they play music; they don't feel it," Tindley says. "Well, tha= t man was feeling it. That man was moving. Moving into the sound." A hundred feet away, across the arcade, was the lottery line, sometimes five= or six people long. They had a much better view of Bell than Tindley did, i= f they had just turned around. But no one did. Not in the entire 43 minutes.= They just shuffled forward toward that machine spitting out numbers. Eyes o= n the prize. J.T. Tillman was in that line. A computer specialist for the Department of H= ousing and Urban Development, he remembers every single number he played tha= t day -- 10 of them, $2 apiece, for a total of $20. He doesn't recall what t= he violinist was playing, though. He says it sounded like generic classical=20= music, the kind the ship's band was playing in "Titanic," before the iceberg= .. "I didn't think nothing of it," Tillman says, "just a guy trying to make a c= ouple of bucks." Tillman would have given him one or two, he said, but he sp= ent all his cash on lotto. When he is told that he stiffed one of the best musicians in the world, he l= aughs. "Is he ever going to play around here again?" "Yeah, but you're going to have to pay a lot to hear him." "Damn." Tillman didn't win the lottery, either. BELL ENDS "AVE MARIA" TO ANOTHER THUNDEROUS SILENCE, plays Manuel Ponce's se= ntimental "Estrellita," then a piece by Jules Massenet, and then begins a Ba= ch gavotte, a joyful, frolicsome, lyrical dance. It's got an Old World delic= acy to it; you can imagine it entertaining bewigged dancers at a Versailles=20= ball, or -- in a lute, fiddle and fife version -- the boot-kicking peasants=20= of a Pieter Bruegel painting. Watching the video weeks later, Bell finds himself mystified by one thing on= ly. He understands why he's not drawing a crowd, in the rush of a morning wo= rkday. But: "I'm surprised at the number of people who don't pay attention a= t all, as if I'm invisible. Because, you know what? I'm makin' a lot of nois= e!" He is. You don't need to know music at all to appreciate the simple fact tha= t there's a guy there, playing a violin that's throwing out a whole bucket o= f sound; at times, Bell's bowing is so intricate that you seem to be hearing= two instruments playing in harmony. So those head-forward, quick-stepping p= assersby are a remarkable phenomenon. Bell wonders whether their inattention may be deliberate: If you don't take=20= visible note of the musician, you don't have to feel guilty about not forkin= g over money; you're not complicit in a rip-off. It may be true, but no one gave that explanation. People just said they were= busy, had other things on their mind. Some who were on cellphones spoke lou= der as they passed Bell, to compete with that infernal racket. And then there was Calvin Myint. Myint works for the General Services Admini= stration. He got to the top of the escalator, turned right and headed out a=20= door to the street. A few hours later, he had no memory that there had been=20= a musician anywhere in sight. "Where was he, in relation to me?" "About four feet away." "Oh." There's nothing wrong with Myint's hearing. He had buds in his ear. He was l= istening to his iPod. For many of us, the explosion in technology has perversely limited, not expa= nded, our exposure to new experiences. Increasingly, we get our news from so= urces that think as we already do. And with iPods, we hear what we already k= now; we program our own playlists. The song that Calvin Myint was listening to was "Just Like Heaven," by the B= ritish rock band The Cure. It's a terrific song, actually. The meaning is a=20= little opaque, and the Web is filled with earnest efforts to deconstruct it.= Many are far-fetched, but some are right on point: It's about a tragic emot= ional disconnect. A man has found the woman of his dreams but can't express=20= the depth of his feeling for her until she's gone. It's about failing to see= the beauty of what's plainly in front of your eyes. "YES, I SAW THE VIOLINIST," Jackie Hessian says, "but nothing about him stru= ck me as much of anything." You couldn't tell that by watching her. Hessian was one of those people who=20= gave Bell a long, hard look before walking on. It turns out that she wasn't=20= noticing the music at all. "I really didn't hear that much," she said. "I was just trying to figure out= what he was doing there, how does this work for him, can he make much money= , would it be better to start with some money in the case, or for it to be e= mpty, so people feel sorry for you? I was analyzing it financially." What do you do, Jackie? "I'm a lawyer in labor relations with the United States Postal Service. I ju= st negotiated a national contract." THE BEST SEATS IN THE HOUSE WERE UPHOLSTERED. In the balcony, more or less.=20= On that day, for $5, you'd get a lot more than just a nice shine on your sho= es. Only one person occupied one of those seats when Bell played. Terence Holmes= is a consultant for the Department of Transportation, and he liked the musi= c just fine, but it was really about a shoeshine: "My father told me never t= o wear a suit with your shoes not cleaned and shined." Holmes wears suits often, so he is up in that perch a lot, and he's got a go= od relationship with the shoeshine lady. Holmes is a good tipper and a good=20= talker, which is a skill that came in handy that day. The shoeshine lady was= upset about something, and the music got her more upset. She complained, Ho= lmes said, that the music was too loud, and he tried to calm her down. Edna Souza is from Brazil. She's been shining shoes at L'Enfant Plaza for si= x years, and she's had her fill of street musicians there; when they play, s= he can't hear her customers, and that's bad for business. So she fights. Souza points to the dividing line between the Metro property, at the top of=20= the escalator, and the arcade, which is under control of the management comp= any that runs the mall. Sometimes, Souza says, a musician will stand on the=20= Metro side, sometimes on the mall side. Either way, she's got him. On her sp= eed dial, she has phone numbers for both the mall cops and the Metro cops. T= he musicians seldom last long. What about Joshua Bell? He was too loud, too, Souza says. Then she looks down at her rag, sniffs. Sh= e hates to say anything positive about these damned musicians, but: "He was=20= pretty good, that guy. It was the first time I didn't call the police." Souza was surprised to learn he was a famous musician, but not that people r= ushed blindly by him. That, she said, was predictable. "If something like th= is happened in Brazil, everyone would stand around to see. Not here." Souza nods sourly toward a spot near the top of the escalator: "Couple of ye= ars ago, a homeless guy died right there. He just lay down there and died. T= he police came, an ambulance came, and no one even stopped to see or slowed=20= down to look. "People walk up the escalator, they look straight ahead. Mind your own busin= ess, eyes forward. Everyone is stressed. Do you know what I mean?" What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare. -- from "Leisure," by W.H. Davies Let's say Kant is right. Let's accept that we can't look at what happened on= January 12 and make any judgment whatever about people's sophistication or=20= their ability to appreciate beauty. But what about their ability to apprecia= te life? We're busy. Americans have been busy, as a people, since at least 1831, when= a young French sociologist named Alexis de Tocqueville visited the States a= nd found himself impressed, bemused and slightly dismayed at the degree to w= hich people were driven, to the exclusion of everything else, by hard work a= nd the accumulation of wealth. Not much has changed. Pop in a DVD of "Koyaanisqatsi," the wordless, darkly=20= brilliant, avant-garde 1982 film about the frenetic speed of modern life. Ba= cked by the minimalist music of Philip Glass, director Godfrey Reggio takes=20= film clips of Americans going about their daily business, but speeds them up= until they resemble assembly-line machines, robots marching lockstep to now= here. Now look at the video from L'Enfant Plaza, in fast-forward. The Philip= Glass soundtrack fits it perfectly. "Koyaanisqatsi" is a Hopi word. It means "life out of balance." In his 2003 book, Timeless Beauty: In the Arts and Everyday Life, British au= thor John Lane writes about the loss of the appreciation for beauty in the m= odern world. The experiment at L'Enfant Plaza may be symptomatic of that, he= said -- not because people didn't have the capacity to understand beauty, b= ut because it was irrelevant to them. "This is about having the wrong priorities," Lane said. If we can't take the time out of our lives to stay a moment and listen to on= e of the best musicians on Earth play some of the best music ever written; i= f the surge of modern life so overpowers us that we are deaf and blind to so= mething like that -- then what else are we missing? That's what the Welsh poet W.H. Davies meant in 1911 when he published those= two lines that begin this section. They made him famous. The thought was si= mple, even primitive, but somehow no one had put it quite that way before. Of course, Davies had an advantage -- an advantage of perception. He wasn't=20= a tradesman or a laborer or a bureaucrat or a consultant or a policy analyst= or a labor lawyer or a program manager. He was a hobo. THE CULTURAL HERO OF THE DAY ARRIVED AT L'ENFANT PLAZA PRETTY LATE, in the u= nprepossessing figure of one John Picarello, a smallish man with a baldish h= ead. Picarello hit the top of the escalator just after Bell began his final piece= , a reprise of "Chaconne." In the video, you see Picarello stop dead in his=20= tracks, locate the source of the music, and then retreat to the other end of= the arcade. He takes up a position past the shoeshine stand, across from th= at lottery line, and he will not budge for the next nine minutes. Like all the passersby interviewed for this article, Picarello was stopped b= y a reporter after he left the building, and was asked for his phone number.= Like everyone, he was told only that this was to be an article about commut= ing. When he was called later in the day, like everyone else, he was first a= sked if anything unusual had happened to him on his trip into work. Of the m= ore than 40 people contacted, Picarello was the only one who immediately men= tioned the violinist. "There was a musician playing at the top of the escalator at L'Enfant Plaza.= " Haven't you seen musicians there before? "Not like this one." What do you mean? "This was a superb violinist. I've never heard anyone of that caliber. He wa= s technically proficient, with very good phrasing. He had a good fiddle, too= , with a big, lush sound. I walked a distance away, to hear him. I didn't wa= nt to be intrusive on his space." Really? "Really. It was that kind of experience. It was a treat, just a brilliant, i= ncredible way to start the day." Picarello knows classical music. He is a fan of Joshua Bell but didn't recog= nize him; he hadn't seen a recent photo, and besides, for most of the time P= icarello was pretty far away. But he knew this was not a run-of-the-mill guy= out there, performing. On the video, you can see Picarello look around him=20= now and then, almost bewildered. "Yeah, other people just were not getting it. It just wasn't registering. Th= at was baffling to me." When Picarello was growing up in New York, he studied violin seriously, inte= nding to be a concert musician. But he gave it up at 18, when he decided he'= d never be good enough to make it pay. Life does that to you sometimes. Some= times, you have to do the prudent thing. So he went into another line of wor= k. He's a supervisor at the U.S. Postal Service. Doesn't play the violin muc= h, anymore. When he left, Picarello says, "I humbly threw in $5." It was humble: You can= actually see that on the video. Picarello walks up, barely looking at Bell,= and tosses in the money. Then, as if embarrassed, he quickly walks away fro= m the man he once wanted to be. Does he have regrets about how things worked out? The postal supervisor considers this. "No. If you love something but choose not to do it professionally, it's not=20= a waste. Because, you know, you still have it. You have it forever." BELL THINKS HE DID HIS BEST WORK OF THE DAY IN THOSE FINAL FEW MINUTES, in t= he second "Chaconne." And that also was the first time more than one person=20= at a time was listening. As Picarello stood in the back, Janice Olu arrived=20= and took up a position a few feet away from Bell. Olu, a public trust office= r with HUD, also played the violin as a kid. She didn't know the name of the= piece she was hearing, but she knew the man playing it has a gift. Olu was on a coffee break and stayed as long as she dared. As she turned to=20= go, she whispered to the stranger next to her, "I really don't want to leave= .." The stranger standing next to her happened to be working for The Washingt= on Post. In preparing for this event, editors at The Post Magazine discussed how to d= eal with likely outcomes. The most widely held assumption was that there cou= ld well be a problem with crowd control: In a demographic as sophisticated a= s Washington, the thinking went, several people would surely recognize Bell.= Nervous "what-if" scenarios abounded. As people gathered, what if others st= opped just to see what the attraction was? Word would spread through the cro= wd. Cameras would flash. More people flock to the scene; rush-hour pedestria= n traffic backs up; tempers flare; the National Guard is called; tear gas, r= ubber bullets, etc. As it happens, exactly one person recognized Bell, and she didn't arrive unt= il near the very end. For Stacy Furukawa, a demographer at the Commerce Depa= rtment, there was no doubt. She doesn't know much about classical music, but= she had been in the audience three weeks earlier, at Bell's free concert at= the Library of Congress. And here he was, the international virtuoso, sawin= g away, begging for money. She had no idea what the heck was going on, but w= hatever it was, she wasn't about to miss it. Furukawa positioned herself 10 feet away from Bell, front row, center. She h= ad a huge grin on her face. The grin, and Furukawa, remained planted in that= spot until the end. "It was the most astonishing thing I've ever seen in Washington," Furukawa s= ays. "Joshua Bell was standing there playing at rush hour, and people were n= ot stopping, and not even looking, and some were flipping quarters at him! Q= uarters! I wouldn't do that to anybody. I was thinking, Omigosh, what kind o= f a city do I live in that this could happen?" When it was over, Furukawa introduced herself to Bell, and tossed in a twent= y. Not counting that -- it was tainted by recognition -- the final haul for=20= his 43 minutes of playing was $32.17. Yes, some people gave pennies. "Actually," Bell said with a laugh, "that's not so bad, considering. That's=20= 40 bucks an hour. I could make an okay living doing this, and I wouldn't hav= e to pay an agent." These days, at L'Enfant Plaza, lotto ticket sales remain brisk. Musicians st= ill show up from time to time, and they still tick off Edna Souza. Joshua Be= ll's latest album, "The Voice of the Violin," has received the usual critica= l acclaim. ("Delicate urgency." "Masterful intimacy." "Unfailingly exquisite= .." "A musical summit." ". . . will make your heart thump and weep at the sam= e time.") Bell headed off on a concert tour of European capitals. But he is back in th= e States this week. He has to be. On Tuesday, he will be accepting the Avery= Fisher prize, recognizing the Flop of L'Enfant Plaza as the best classical=20= musician in America. Emily Shroder, Rachel Manteuffel, John W. Poole and Magazine Editor Tom Shro= der contributed to this report. Gene Weingarten, a Magazine staff writer, ca= n be reached at weingarten at washpost.com. He will be fielding questions and c= omments about this article Monday at 1 p.m. .. __________________________________________________ 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/20070417/dc96eacc/attachment.html From turbulence at turbulence.org Tue Apr 17 19:47:41 2007 From: turbulence at turbulence.org (Turbulence) Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2007 10:17:41 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] OurFloatingPoints 4: The Art of Living a Second Life Message-ID: Emerson College, New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc./Turbulence.org, and the Museum of Science present: OurFloatingPoints 4: The Art of Living a Second Life http://institute.emerson.edu/floatingpoints/ DATE: April 25, 7 pm *NEW VENUE*: Museum of Science, Cahners Theater STREAMED LIVE: http://institute.emerson.edu/floatingpoints/2007/live.php BROADCAST TO SECOND LIFE: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Emerson%20Island/153/109/24 FREE AND OPEN TO ALL! A panel discussion with Wagner James Au (aka Hamlet Linden), John Lester (aka Pathfinder Linden), and John (Craig) Freeman (aka JC Freemont); moderated by Eric Gordon (aka Boston Borst). Called "the biggest digital art installation in the world" (Warren Ellis), Second Life is a highly imaginative, online, 3-D rendered environment populated with avatars (graphic representations of people). In Second Life you can teleport, fly, live in a house, go to clubs, take classes, make and view art, or just "hang out." You cannot drown and you do not age. Spanning more than 42,000 acres in real-world scale--larger than metropolitan Boston--Second Life is second home to over 2 million "residents," many of whom collaboratively create its content. It is a place where real business is conducted using virtual dollars that can also be traded in the real world. Join us during the Boston Cyberarts Festival for a discussion about the creative, social and economic implications of Second Life. For more information about the series, please visit http://institute.emerson.edu/floatingpoints/ 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 Networked_Performance Blog: http://turbulence.org/blog Networked_Music_Review: http://turbulence.org/networked_music_review Upgrade! Boston: http://turbulence.org/upgrade New American Radio: http://somewhere.org _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From turbulence at turbulence.org Wed Apr 18 02:36:52 2007 From: turbulence at turbulence.org (Turbulence) Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2007 17:06:52 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Turbulence Commission: "Handheld Histories as Hyper-Monuments" by Carmin Karasic, Rolf van Gelder and Rob Coshow Message-ID: <87A38F2DEC9F4F408D67C3FD1E5877D9@joPC> Turbulence Commission: "Handheld Histories as Hyper-Monuments" by Carmin Karasic, Rolf van Gelder and Rob Coshow, with special thanks to the HP mscapers team, Brett Stalbaum, and Jo Rhodes http://turbulence.org/works/HyperMonument/ Designed for HP iPAQ 6900 series smartphones, "Handheld Histories as Hyper-Monuments" uses GPS and mobile technologies to address historic bias in Boston's public monuments. The artwork gathers non-official stories to socially construct hyper-monuments that exist as digital doubles, augmenting specific historic monuments. For example, imagine you are near the Old South Church in Boston, MA, USA. The smartphone sounds church bells to get your attention. It then displays an easily identifiable image of the Old South Church circa 2007, followed by images of the church that take you back in time. Finally you see the location as it was in its natural, wild state. You can send text, image and audio content to the website from the monument location via any internet enabled device. Or use any internet browser to view and add histories to the hyper-monuments. HHHM requires HP mediascapes locative media software to create content rich hotspots on GPS aware maps. Once the HHHM mediascape is installed on a handheld device, a GPS fix is required to automatically display the hyper-monument. WiFi internet connectivity is best for viewing and contributing to the hyper-monument via the handheld's browser. HHHM is part of the Boston Cyberarts Festival (http://bostoncyberarts.org/). Pick up a smartphone at the Judi Rotenberg Gallery (http://www.judirotenberg.com/), 130 Newbury Street, Boston from April 21-28, 2007, Tues-Sat 10am-6pm. "Handheld Histories as Hyper-Monuments" is a 2007 commission of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc., (aka Ether-Ore) for its Turbulence web site. It was made possible with funding from the LEF Foundation. BIOGRAPHIES One November morning in 1994, CARMIN KARASIC was listening to digital artists on NPR when she realized she was a digital artist trapped in a Fidelity Technical Project Manager's body. This simple realization changed her life. A multimedia artist focused on Internet Art, she is also an Assistant Director of Boston Cyberarts, and on the faculty of Lesley University. Her work can be seen online in several e-zines, websites, and galleries, such as CAGE. She has exhibited in the Boston area at the DeCordova Museum, MIT List Center, the Attleboro Museum, Computer Museum, New England School of Art and Design, The Art Institute of Boston, and The Brodigan Gallery; in NY at the Studio Museum, Harlem; Brooks Gallery at Cooper Union, and the New York Hall of Science; and Austria, Canada, Japan, and Germany. Carmin has been awarded a Mudge Fellowship from the Groton School and a duPont Fellowship from the Art Institute of Boston. ROLF VAN GELDER is an artist and web developer. Self-taught, he has been creating visual art since the early 80s and collaborating with Carmin Karasic since the 1990s. They created "d{s}eduction dialogue" for the 2001 Boston Cyberarts Festival and "Virtual Quilt" (2002) for the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA, USA (with Clara Wainwright). In 1995 Rolf founded one of the first on-line art galleries, CAGE - Cyber Art Gallery Eindhoven (http://www.cage.nl). His work has been exhibited in over 50 exhibitions in the U.S.A., Canada, Austria, Portugal, Italy, Sweden, Germany, UK, Spain and the Netherlands. ROB COSHOW is an artist/photographer who recently graduated Magna Cum Laude from the Art Institute of Boston. Trained in classic wet-lab photography as well as digital and new media, Rob has honed his experimental approach to create works that bridge multiple disciplines. In 2006, he exhibited his "Crab Cake" robots at Axiom Gallery, and collaborated with Jeff Warmouth, Roland Smart and other Boston artists to create "Art Show Down" at Art Interactive. He has received various honors for his photography and illustrious reviews for his new media work. 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 Networked_Performance Blog: http://turbulence.org/blog Networked_Music_Review: http://turbulence.org/networked_music_review Upgrade! Boston: http://turbulence.org/upgrade New American Radio: http://somewhere.org _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From machleetank at gmail.com Wed Apr 18 10:51:03 2007 From: machleetank at gmail.com (Jasmeen P) Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2007 10:51:03 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] BLANK NOISE PRESENTS - MIND THE GAP! In-Reply-To: <277f58b70704172214y652e377ey28d3aabe7ad02dd6@mail.gmail.com> References: <277f58b70704172214y652e377ey28d3aabe7ad02dd6@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Hello! >From April 13th- 21st, 2007, Max Mueller Bhavan will host the first public exhibition of Blank Noise. The exhibition will present a documentation of the project through a multi-media arts installation using photographs, sound and video. It will be centred around the debates of looking and the gaze, and of modesty. The exhibit, *Mind the Gap* explores personal boundaries and forms of control as practiced in changing urban India. The exhibition proposes to bring forth and challenge common attitudes towards women and street sexual harassment. *The exhibition is open from 3-8 pm and here's the week schedule for you to get involved!* 1. You are invited to contribute to the building testimonials of clothing. Pls bring along a garment to donate, discard so that it can add to our collective stand ' *THERE* * **IS NO SUCH THING* * **AS ASKING FOR IT*.' The clothes project concludes the second we build a 1000 testimonialsin the form of garments. For those of you in Bangalore, please bring a garment you were wearing when you were 'eve teased'/ sexually violated on the street and add to this installation of garments. When these garments count 1000, they will be installed on the streets of different cities/ countries. 2. On *Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings from 7-8 pm* we will explore -- through performance -- issues of body perception and clothing. Please call Blank Noise at 9886840612 or e-mail at blanknoise at gmail.com for more details and to sign up to participate. Note: In order to participate, you must have a saree, a burka, and/or clothes that you may not feel comfortable wearing. 3. Friday April 20- public discussion. details coming soon. all are invited. 4. Saturday. 5 - 6 pm . dispersing testimonials in the locality. all are invited to participate. Max Mueller Bhavan is on CMH Road. Bangalore. See you there! * Blank Noise Team* -- BLANK NOISE PROJECT Ph:+ 91 98734 85284 (In Delhi) + 91 98868 40612 (Bangalore) www.blanknoiseproject.blogspot.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070418/f5c23a25/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From gora at sarai.net Wed Apr 18 11:46:08 2007 From: gora at sarai.net (Gora Mohanty) Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2007 11:46:08 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Article from the Washington Post: an experiment in context, perception, priorities In-Reply-To: <132707.151.qm@web53603.mail.re2.yahoo.com> References: <132707.151.qm@web53603.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <1176876968.6438.41.camel@anubis> On Tue, 2007-04-17 at 04:12 -0700, lalitha kamath wrote: > > > A story ran in The Washington Post this week -- on Easter Sunday -- > In a nutshell, the Post convinced one of the world's greatest > violinists to go incognito and play his fiddle at a Metro station, > standing there with his open case like just another street musician, > begging for money. [...] Thank you for sharing that. That was just a beautiful, and thought- provoking article. Why just a musical virtuoso performing unnoticed on a crowded platform; most of us go through life in the same way, blind to the beauty around us. If sunset happened once in a thousand days, what paeans of praise would be written to it? As for itinerant musicians on the Metro, this is a more common thing on the Paris Metro, where it seems that they are better appreciated. At least, I remember that there used to be this woman who played a harp regularly at one of the stations, and people would stop to listen, usually stand through a complete piece, and applaud. As the article points out, perhaps it is a matter of context, in that people are more habituated to seeing good musicians on the Paris Metro. Or, as another quote in the article has it, maybe life has slowly choked the poetry out of us. Regards, Gora From jace at pobox.com Wed Apr 18 15:32:52 2007 From: jace at pobox.com (Kiran Jonnalagadda) Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2007 15:32:52 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Article from the Washington Post: an experiment in context, perception, priorities In-Reply-To: <1176876968.6438.41.camel@anubis> References: <132707.151.qm@web53603.mail.re2.yahoo.com> <1176876968.6438.41.camel@anubis> Message-ID: On 18-Apr-07, at 11:46 AM, Gora Mohanty wrote: > Thank you for sharing that. That was just a beautiful, and thought- > provoking article. Why just a musical virtuoso performing unnoticed > on a crowded platform; most of us go through life in the same way, > blind to the beauty around us. If sunset happened once in a thousand > days, what paeans of praise would be written to it? Before we start blaming people for failing to appreciate beauty unless it is pointed out to them... http://sawlady.com/blog/?p=27 The thing is Joshua Bell is a great violinist but he doesn’t know how to busk. There are violinists who are not even close to being as good as he is (such as Jim Grasec or Lorenzo LaRock), yet they get crowds to stop and listen to them. It’s because when you play on the street you can’t approach it as if you are playing on a stage. ... A bad busking act is when the performer doesn’t make an effort to connect with the audience. Like musicians who play for themselves, not acknowledging the audience, just burying their heads in their instruments. From aman.am at gmail.com Wed Apr 18 15:42:36 2007 From: aman.am at gmail.com (Aman Sethi) Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2007 15:42:36 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Thank heavens we lost Message-ID: <995a19920704180312l496ba332kc0a5cc361b479eec@mail.gmail.com> If the Commonwealth games got us here, what would the Asiad have done? A. New Delhi loses bid Kuwait: New Delhi's bid to host the 2014 Asian Games came unstuck as the Olympic Council Asia awarded the multi-sport event to South Korean city of Incheon on Tuesday. The Games was awarded to Incheon by the 45-member General Assembly of the OCA at the conclusion of its two-day meeting here. New Delhi was bidding to bring back the continental mega event to the Indian soil after a gap of 32 years, having last organised the same in 1982. The Indian capital was also the host for the inaugural edition of the sporting extravaganza, which is second only to the Olympics in terms of number of disciplines, in 1951. Korea will be hosting the Games for a third time, with Seoul and Busan having conducted it in 1986 and 2002 respectively. Big offer Incheon seemed to have clinched the bid with its offer of $20 million for training, equipment and other facilities for the participating nations. In its bid-presentation earlier in the day, the South Korean delegation had also emphasised on the high-tech facilities that will be available to the athletes. — PTI From jeebesh at sarai.net Wed Apr 18 17:02:07 2007 From: jeebesh at sarai.net (Jeebesh Bagchi) Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2007 17:02:07 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Thank heavens we lost In-Reply-To: <995a19920704180312l496ba332kc0a5cc361b479eec@mail.gmail.com> References: <995a19920704180312l496ba332kc0a5cc361b479eec@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Interesting Sepp Blatter, FIFA president has asked India in his CII speech to bid for Football World Cup, (2018) saying if they miss this round, it will be too late to get the next round....it moves in rotation. CII has shown great interest, only the host nation is suppose to field a team..and that looks fairly remote..... On 18-Apr-07, at 3:42 PM, Aman Sethi wrote: > If the Commonwealth games got us here, what would the Asiad have done? > A. > > > > New Delhi loses bid > > > > Kuwait: New Delhi's bid to host the 2014 Asian Games came unstuck as > the Olympic Council Asia awarded the multi-sport event to South Korean > city of Incheon on Tuesday. > > The Games was awarded to Incheon by the 45-member General Assembly of > the OCA at the conclusion of its two-day meeting here. > > New Delhi was bidding to bring back the continental mega event to the > Indian soil after a gap of 32 years, having last organised the same in > 1982. > > The Indian capital was also the host for the inaugural edition of the > sporting extravaganza, which is second only to the Olympics in terms > of number of disciplines, in 1951. > > Korea will be hosting the Games for a third time, with Seoul and Busan > having conducted it in 1986 and 2002 respectively. > > Big offer > > > Incheon seemed to have clinched the bid with its offer of $20 million > for training, equipment and other facilities for the participating > nations. > > In its bid-presentation earlier in the day, the South Korean > delegation had also emphasised on the high-tech facilities that will > be available to the athletes. — PTI > _________________________________________ > 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. > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> From gora at sarai.net Thu Apr 19 00:24:04 2007 From: gora at sarai.net (Gora Mohanty) Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2007 00:24:04 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Article from the Washington Post: an experiment in context, perception, priorities In-Reply-To: References: <132707.151.qm@web53603.mail.re2.yahoo.com> <1176876968.6438.41.camel@anubis> Message-ID: <1176922444.6379.15.camel@anubis> On Wed, 2007-04-18 at 15:32 +0530, Kiran Jonnalagadda wrote: > On 18-Apr-07, at 11:46 AM, Gora Mohanty wrote: > > > Thank you for sharing that. That was just a beautiful, and thought- > > provoking article. Why just a musical virtuoso performing unnoticed > > on a crowded platform; most of us go through life in the same way, > > blind to the beauty around us. If sunset happened once in a thousand > > days, what paeans of praise would be written to it? > > Before we start blaming people for failing to appreciate beauty > unless it is pointed out to them... Maybe my words were too strong? My intention was not so much to assign blame as to enjoin appreciation of the apparently humdrum. To tell the truth, if the equivalent had happened on the Delhi Metro, I would probably have avoided the encounter for fear of having to decide whether to give money, and how much to give. The article itself is quite nuanced, and does not seek to point fingers arbitrarily, though there is an overall tone of disapprobation. I guess that what I agreed with is the point that it is all too easy to get caught up in a daily routine, and fail to see the beauty hidden in the mundane. > http://sawlady.com/blog/?p=27 > > The thing is Joshua Bell is a great violinist but he doesn’t know how > to busk. There are violinists who are not even close to being as good > as he is (such as Jim Grasec or Lorenzo LaRock), yet they get crowds > to stop and listen to them. [...] Maybe so. I am not at all conversant with Western classical music, nor with any of the people involved. But the article does say that he did make an energetic performance. Maybe the lack of street savvy could explain a certain lack of involvement, but it hardly covers the fact that only seven people out of a rush hour crowd took any interest in the performance of a world-class violinist. As a personal, anecdotal counterpoint, people did stop to listen to the harpist on the Paris Metro. In my opinion, that is because the French make a special effort to make time for for leisure and the arts, certainly more so than Americans (and, sadly Indians too, these days). Regards, Gora From indersalim at gmail.com Thu Apr 19 00:34:55 2007 From: indersalim at gmail.com (inder salim) Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2007 00:34:55 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] queer,lover,poet,saint & martyr of Delhi's history Message-ID: <47e122a70704181204q6e647304t9b2bd848556427d6@mail.gmail.com> Proposed performance at the coming Queer Festival organized by Nigah READING HAZRAT SUFI SARMAD SHAEED FROM RS. 20/- BOOKLET SOLD AT THE VERY PLACE WHERE HE WAS BHEADED BY AURANGEZB, < for some images please visit http://indersalim.livejournal.com> . Hazrat Sarmad saheed : eye and a light of a Jewish family from city Armina in Iran "what is truth ?" immersed him in the Arabic of those times. So, Islam was the free air to inhale. But to utter thoughts, he used his mother tongue: Persian. By profession: a trader. Hindustan of Mughals attracted him And as Karachi of those days was quite friendly to traders, He obviously relished his sojourns. Literary gatherings of Karachi warmed his soul in traders guise. Not surprising that why he decided to make Hindustan his home; many others those days liked it that way. It was during this time that he saw the magic: A young poet, Abhay Chan at a Mushaira, reciting his verses, mixing his grace with the style of reading a ghazal, which ravished him to no end.. . Sarmad sahib lost his heart. Abhey chand too reciprocated his advances. Few more days, and the fire of love engulfed them both completely. They began to live together. Almost akin to our times, this too went against the grain of those times, and at the behest of Abhay Chand's guardian, the official Mirza Mohd Beg Bakshi managed to keep him away from Sarmad Sahib. The sudden disappearance of Abhey chand devastated him. Meanwhile Mirza beg conveyed him to forget about the boy and get some lavish gifts instead to which Sarmad sahib responded by a couplet in Persian. A rough translation: " I am Quite conscious about your offical duty, but I am in Love and no material gains can distract me". For a while Love succeeded and they once again started to live together. A true reason for Sarmad sahib to dance because his love ( abhey chand ) was reciting his own verses. People lapped it all but circumstances forced him to leave Karachi and move to Lahore where he lived for 11 long years. Love had changed all, and it is at this point that he began to abandoned his garments.In love, and therefore, barriers between colour ephemeral and eternal were collapsing quite rapdily. And with such a state of mind...from Hydrabad to Agra and finally to Delhi; all without a garment to cover his body. Khajwa Syed Abu Qasim Sabaz wari ( Hazrat Haray baray ) blessed him in Delhi. Fame was inevitable. A sufi Prince like Dara Shikou was a natural disciple. A meet with King Shahjahan resolved nothing about his debate of nudity in public space. King was inwardly convinced about the grace and power of his being and allowed him to be the way he wanted to be, and no wonder why he (King Shahjahan) preferred Dara to stay back in Delhi after the great divide of Hindustan into four of his sons. Aurangzeb's disdain for this Hindu-Muslim blending by Dara and implicityly rejected his father's decision. It was just a matter of time before Aurangzeb succeeded to capture Delhi, resulting in the murder of his brothers and life imprisonment to his father in Agra. The letter Dara Shikou to Sarmad My dear Peer sahib, every day I yearn to be blessed by you, but it does not happen. And if I am me then why I am unable to realize my desire. What is my fault ? And if the murder of Hussain was the will of God then why we blame the Yazids. And if God had not granted such a will then what is the meaning of this that whatever happens, happens by the will of God alone. Even Prophet Mohammad had to face defeat in the battle grounds, and why then Islamic scholars interpret it as the hidden will of God. But people like me don't want any explanation from any body. I simply want to be but then why? The letter ( reply ) >From Sarmad to Dara My dear Friend We forgot whatever we read or learnt except the name of our love which we utter endlessly. During one of these days when wax and rose like Sarmad sahib was busy making toy-homes in clay, the princess, Zaib-ul-Nisa visited him and even bought one of his creations in exchange of a little tobacco which Sarmad sahib quickly inscribed on the toy-in-clay. The same night King Aurangzeb saw a dream that he was denied entry into a house which belonged to Zaib-ul-Nisa. The mystery deepened when he knew that princess had actually bought one toy-house created by Sarmad Sahib. The paranoid King finally acted and went out to meet Sarmad sahib. He was all nude and did not care about the king. Aurangzeb stopped and told him that he should be careful with his garments because people go the mosque to offer prayers. A blanket is next to you, why don't you cover your body. Sarmad sahib replied humbly " please put it on me " The King stretched his hand, and the moment he lifted the blanket he saw bleeding heads of various people underneath. Some heads were of his own nephews and friends. Then Sarmad Sahib looked up into his eyes and told him that now tell me should I hide your bad deeds or my body ? The Kings heart turned, and thought him as his friend in disguise. This was the time that he performed many miracles. This was the time that he would utter only the first word of Kalima " LA ILL LA ". This was the time that his reputation also grew as some one who challenged the holy verses of Quran. Sarmad Sahib argued that he would utter the complete verse if he happens to see God. But till then, let it be so. As the reputation goes, King Aurangzeb was fundamentally against the Sufi ways of living, so it was matter of time before the coterie around him succeeded to brand Sarmad Sahib as kafir( infidel). This was the time for Sarmad to become a martyr, and he himself felt the need for a dignified exit. He was beheaded at the same spot where his shrine exists today. It is believed that the bleeding head uttered the complete verse : La ill la ill lal la. Mohamadan rasool al law. It is believed that he lifted his head from the ground and began to walk towards the Masjid, and at that time his peer Hazrat Sayad Haray Baray Shah sound echoed in the air which stopped him. The sound reminded him that he should not do what he resisted all along his life. Sarmad Sahib stopped and a eternal calm prevailed. Some of his famous verses roughly translated by Guwhar Fazili and me: Umr eest ki aawaaza-e mansoor-e kuhan shud/ an az sar-e tu jalwaa-e deham dar-o-rasan ra / My life is a reminder of Mansoor of the olden (times) / I see his face, and I desire to die now. Shorey shud o az khoab-e adm kashoodeim/ Deedeim ki baqi ast shab-e fitna-e ghunoodeim! A noise pulled me out of the sleep of death / Yet the night of sadness seemed to persist Hum matee-e farmaanam, hum kashish-e rahbaanu/ Rabbi hu daanam... kafir na Musalmaanum I observe commandments and i am drawn to sufis (rahbaan: travellers who have abandoned settled life) I know my creator... I am not a Kafir... or a Muslim! All those who are in love, are in pain,/ Thus a bee can enter the heart of a butterfuly/ Thus one can achieve the thing which one aspires/ Thus one can cherish the golden thoughts of Sarmad. Sarmad, you have a name in the world/ This happened when you understood Islam through things alien to Islam. What was so unauthentic about Allah or Mohammad, That you turned your head towards Ram and Laxman. Sarmad, if it contains my will, it will come towards me,/ your search is an exercise in futility/ Just sit, and if there is God, he himself will visit you. Oh my God, I confess, that I am a weak,/ I am ashamed of my self for my deeds/ I am just a small entity/ And I am not proud of myself. ( … might have later in the period influenced Ghalib even, Yeh tera masailay tasawuf , yeh tera bayan ghalib, tujay hum wali samajtay, jo na bada khwar hota ) From dak at sarai.net Thu Apr 19 08:23:46 2007 From: dak at sarai.net (The Sarai Programme) Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2007 04:53:46 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Applications Invited for the post of Programme Co-Ordinator at Sarai-CSDS Message-ID: <555e1fbab0bae137291dc1512ffd5cd1@sarai.net> The Sarai Programme, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi Invites application for the post of Programme Coordinator Sarai, an interdisciplinary research and practice programme on the city and media, at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi, invites applications for a Programme Co-Ordinator. The Programme Coordinator will be responsible for coordinating and administering research projects, programmes, conferences and other institutional activities. In addition, the incumbent would also be responsible for liaison work with grant-making / research collaborators and the Sarai research network comprising individuals and institutions in India and abroad. The position requires administrative competence, ease and familiarity with computers, e-mail and the internet, ability to administer and create newsletters and edit web content. We are looking for someone who welcomes the challenge of independence of thought and autonomy in decision making in a work culture that also places a premium on collective functioning & team effort. Candidates should possess a masters degree in a social science discipline with a minimum of three years of relevant work experience in administration/research/coordination of research related activities in educational/research institutions and/or NGOs. Send your application along with a one page statment indicating the nature of your interests and background and an updated C.V. to: Ashish Mahajan Sarai, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies 29,Rajpur Road, Delhi 110054. ph: 23830065, 23983352 and 23928391. Last Date for applications: 15th of May, 2007. Selected candidates will be invited for an interview. For more details about Sarai please visit our website - www.sarai.net _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From paramita_gh at yahoo.com Wed Apr 18 22:42:14 2007 From: paramita_gh at yahoo.com (paramita ghosh) Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2007 18:12:14 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] Article from the Washington Post: an experiment in context, perception, priorities In-Reply-To: <132707.151.qm@web53603.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <590197.91888.qm@web30502.mail.mud.yahoo.com> just wonder how an experiment like this would play out in the delhi metro? which artist do u think could be game for this? lalitha kamath wrote: A story ran in The Washington Post this week -- on Easter Sunday -- In a nutshell, the Post convinced one of the world's greatest violinists to=20= go incognito and play his fiddle at a Metro station, standing there with his= open case like just another street musician, begging for money. He was play= ing some of the most beautiful and complex violin pieces from history, thing= s that people shell out $100 and put on their Sunday best to go see in a con= cert hall. But would anyone appreciate him -- or his music -- as essentially= a street corner beggar, even though the same gorgeous music was being playe= d? The results are astonishing. Check it out: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401= 721.html Here's the story, for those who can't get to it online: Pearls Before Breakfast Can one of the nation's great musicians cut through the fog of a D.C. rush h= our? Let's find out. By Gene Weingarten Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, April 8, 2007; W10 HE EMERGED FROM THE METRO AT THE L'ENFANT PLAZA STATION AND POSITIONED HIMSE= LF AGAINST A WALL BESIDE A TRASH BASKET. By most measures, he was nondescrip= t: a youngish white man in jeans, a long-sleeved T-shirt and a Washington Na= tionals baseball cap. From a small case, he removed a violin. Placing the op= en case at his feet, he shrewdly threw in a few dollars and pocket change as= seed money, swiveled it to face pedestrian traffic, and began to play. It was 7:51 a.m. on Friday, January 12, the middle of the morning rush hour.= In the next 43 minutes, as the violinist performed six classical pieces, 1,= 097 people passed by. Almost all of them were on the way to work, which mean= t, for almost all of them, a government job. L'Enfant Plaza is at the nucleu= s of federal Washington, and these were mostly mid-level bureaucrats with th= ose indeterminate, oddly fungible titles: policy analyst, project manager, b= udget officer, specialist, facilitator, consultant. Each passerby had a quick choice to make, one familiar to commuters in any u= rban area where the occasional street performer is part of the cityscape: Do= you stop and listen? Do you hurry past with a blend of guilt and irritation= , aware of your cupidity but annoyed by the unbidden demand on your time and= your wallet? Do you throw in a buck, just to be polite? Does your decision=20= change if he's really bad? What if he's really good? Do you have time for be= auty? Shouldn't you? What's the moral mathematics of the moment? On that Friday in January, those private questions would be answered in an u= nusually public way. No one knew it, but the fiddler standing against a bare= wall outside the Metro in an indoor arcade at the top of the escalators was= one of the finest classical musicians in the world, playing some of the mos= t elegant music ever written on one of the most valuable violins ever made.=20= His performance was arranged by The Washington Post as an experiment in cont= ext, perception and priorities -- as well as an unblinking assessment of pub= lic taste: In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty transcen= d? The musician did not play popular tunes whose familiarity alone might have d= rawn interest. That was not the test. These were masterpieces that have endu= red for centuries on their brilliance alone, soaring music befitting the gra= ndeur of cathedrals and concert halls. The acoustics proved surprisingly kind. Though the arcade is of utilitarian=20= design, a buffer between the Metro escalator and the outdoors, it somehow ca= ught the sound and bounced it back round and resonant. The violin is an inst= rument that is said to be much like the human voice, and in this musician's=20= masterly hands, it sobbed and laughed and sang -- ecstatic, sorrowful, impor= tuning, adoring, flirtatious, castigating, playful, romancing, merry, triump= hal, sumptuous. So, what do you think happened? HANG ON, WE'LL GET YOU SOME EXPERT HELP. Leonard Slatkin, music director of the National Symphony Orchestra, was aske= d the same question. What did he think would occur, hypothetically, if one o= f the world's great violinists had performed incognito before a traveling ru= sh-hour audience of 1,000-odd people? "Let's assume," Slatkin said, "that he is not recognized and just taken for=20= granted as a street musician . . . Still, I don't think that if he's really=20= good, he's going to go unnoticed. He'd get a larger audience in Europe . . .= but, okay, out of 1,000 people, my guess is there might be 35 or 40 who wil= l recognize the quality for what it is. Maybe 75 to 100 will stop and spend=20= some time listening." So, a crowd would gather? "Oh, yes." And how much will he make? "About $150." Thanks, Maestro. As it happens, this is not hypothetical. It really happened= .. "How'd I do?" We'll tell you in a minute. "Well, who was the musician?" Joshua Bell. "NO!!!" A onetime child prodigy, at 39 Joshua Bell has arrived as an internationally= acclaimed virtuoso. Three days before he appeared at the Metro station, Bel= l had filled the house at Boston's stately Symphony Hall, where merely prett= y good seats went for $100. Two weeks later, at the Music Center at Strathmo= re, in North Bethesda, he would play to a standing-room-only audience so res= pectful of his artistry that they stifled their coughs until the silence bet= ween movements. But on that Friday in January, Joshua Bell was just another=20= mendicant, competing for the attention of busy people on their way to work. Bell was first pitched this idea shortly before Christmas, over coffee at a=20= sandwich shop on Capitol Hill. A New Yorker, he was in town to perform at th= e Library of Congress and to visit the library's vaults to examine an unusua= l treasure: an 18th-century violin that once belonged to the great Austrian-= born virtuoso and composer Fritz Kreisler. The curators invited Bell to play= it; good sound, still. "Here's what I'm thinking," Bell confided, as he sipped his coffee. "I'm thi= nking that I could do a tour where I'd play Kreisler's music . . ." He smiled. ". . . on Kreisler's violin." It was a snazzy, sequined idea -- part inspiration and part gimmick -- and i= t was typical of Bell, who has unapologetically embraced showmanship even as= his concert career has become more and more august. He's soloed with the fi= nest orchestras here and abroad, but he's also appeared on "Sesame Street,"=20= done late-night talk TV and performed in feature films. That was Bell playin= g the soundtrack on the 1998 movie "The Red Violin." (He body-doubled, too,=20= playing to a naked Greta Scacchi.) As composer John Corigliano accepted the=20= Oscar for Best Original Dramatic Score, he credited Bell, who, he said, "pla= ys like a god." When Bell was asked if he'd be willing to don street clothes and perform at=20= rush hour, he said: "Uh, a stunt?" Well, yes. A stunt. Would he think it . . . unseemly? Bell drained his cup. "Sounds like fun," he said. Bell's a heartthrob. Tall and handsome, he's got a Donny Osmond-like dose of= the cutes, and, onstage, cute elides into hott. When he performs, he is usu= ally the only man under the lights who is not in white tie and tails -- he w= alks out to a standing O, looking like Zorro, in black pants and an untucked= black dress shirt, shirttail dangling. That cute Beatles-style mop top is a= lso a strategic asset: Because his technique is full of body -- athletic and= passionate -- he's almost dancing with the instrument, and his hair flies. He's single and straight, a fact not lost on some of his fans. In Boston, as= he performed Max Bruch's dour Violin Concerto in G Minor, the very few youn= g women in the audience nearly disappeared in the deep sea of silver heads.=20= But seemingly every single one of them -- a distillate of the young and pret= ty -- coalesced at the stage door after the performance, seeking an autograp= h. It's like that always, with Bell. Bell's been accepting over-the-top accolades since puberty: Interview magazi= ne once said his playing "does nothing less than tell human beings why they=20= bother to live." He's learned to field these things graciously, with a bashf= ul duck of the head and a modified "pshaw." For this incognito performance, Bell had only one condition for participatin= g. The event had been described to him as a test of whether, in an incongruo= us context, ordinary people would recognize genius. His condition: "I'm not=20= comfortable if you call this genius." "Genius" is an overused word, he said:= It can be applied to some of the composers whose work he plays, but not to=20= him. His skills are largely interpretive, he said, and to imply otherwise wo= uld be unseemly and inaccurate. It was an interesting request, and under the circumstances, one that will be= honored. The word will not again appear in this article. It would be breaking no rules, however, to note that the term in question, p= articularly as applied in the field of music, refers to a congenital brillia= nce -- an elite, innate, preternatural ability that manifests itself early,=20= and often in dramatic fashion. One biographically intriguing fact about Bell is that he got his first music= lessons when he was a 4-year-old in Bloomington, Ind. His parents, both psy= chologists, decided formal training might be a good idea after they saw that= their son had strung rubber bands across his dresser drawers and was replic= ating classical tunes by ear, moving drawers in and out to vary the pitch. TO GET TO THE METRO FROM HIS HOTEL, a distance of three blocks, Bell took a=20= taxi. He's neither lame nor lazy: He did it for his violin. Bell always performs on the same instrument, and he ruled out using another=20= for this gig. Called the Gibson ex Huberman, it was handcrafted in 1713 by A= ntonio Stradivari during the Italian master's "golden period," toward the en= d of his career, when he had access to the finest spruce, maple and willow,=20= and when his technique had been refined to perfection. "Our knowledge of acoustics is still incomplete," Bell said, "but he, he jus= t . . . knew." Bell doesn't mention Stradivari by name. Just "he." When the violinist shows= his Strad to people, he holds the instrument gingerly by its neck, resting=20= it on a knee. "He made this to perfect thickness at all parts," Bell says, p= ivoting it. "If you shaved off a millimeter of wood at any point, it would t= otally imbalance the sound." No violins sound as wonderful as Strads from th= e 1710s, still. The front of Bell's violin is in nearly perfect condition, with a deep, rich= grain and luster. The back is a mess, its dark reddish finish bleeding away= into a flatter, lighter shade and finally, in one section, to bare wood. "This has never been refinished," Bell said. "That's his original varnish. P= eople attribute aspects of the sound to the varnish. Each maker had his own=20= secret formula." Stradivari is thought to have made his from an ingeniously=20= balanced cocktail of honey, egg whites and gum arabic from sub-Saharan trees= .. Like the instrument in "The Red Violin," this one has a past filled with mys= tery and malice. Twice, it was stolen from its illustrious prior owner, the=20= Polish virtuoso Bronislaw Huberman. The first time, in 1919, it disappeared=20= from Huberman's hotel room in Vienna but was quickly returned. The second ti= me, nearly 20 years later, it was pinched from his dressing room in Carnegie= Hall. He never got it back. It was not until 1985 that the thief -- a minor= New York violinist -- made a deathbed confession to his wife, and produced=20= the instrument. Bell bought it a few years ago. He had to sell his own Strad and borrow much= of the rest. The price tag was reported to be about $3.5 million. All of which is a long explanation for why, in the early morning chill of a=20= day in January, Josh Bell took a three-block cab ride to the Orange Line, an= d rode one stop to L'Enfant. AS METRO STATIONS GO, L'ENFANT PLAZA IS MORE PLEBEIAN THAN MOST. Even before= you arrive, it gets no respect. Metro conductors never seem to get it right= : "Leh-fahn." "Layfont." "El'phant." At the top of the escalators are a shoeshine stand and a busy kiosk that sel= ls newspapers, lottery tickets and a wallfull of magazines with titles such=20= as Mammazons and Girls of Barely Legal. The skin mags move, but it's that lo= ttery ticket dispenser that stays the busiest, with customers queuing up for= Daily 6 lotto and Powerball and the ultimate suckers' bait, those pamphlets= that sell random number combinations purporting to be "hot." They sell bris= kly. There's also a quick-check machine to slide in your lotto ticket, post-= drawing, to see if you've won. Beneath it is a forlorn pile of crumpled slip= s. On Friday, January 12, the people waiting in the lottery line looking for a=20= long shot would get a lucky break -- a free, close-up ticket to a concert by= one of the world's most famous musicians -- but only if they were of a mind= to take note. Bell decided to begin with "Chaconne" from Johann Sebastian Bach's Partita N= o. 2 in D Minor. Bell calls it "not just one of the greatest pieces of music= ever written, but one of the greatest achievements of any man in history. I= t's a spiritually powerful piece, emotionally powerful, structurally perfect= .. Plus, it was written for a solo violin, so I won't be cheating with some h= alf-assed version." Bell didn't say it, but Bach's "Chaconne" is also considered one of the most= difficult violin pieces to master. Many try; few succeed. It's exhaustingly= long -- 14 minutes -- and consists entirely of a single, succinct musical p= rogression repeated in dozens of variations to create a dauntingly complex a= rchitecture of sound. Composed around 1720, on the eve of the European Enlig= htenment, it is said to be a celebration of the breadth of human possibility= .. If Bell's encomium to "Chaconne" seems overly effusive, consider this from t= he 19th-century composer Johannes Brahms, in a letter to Clara Schumann: "On= one stave, for a small instrument, the man writes a whole world of the deep= est thoughts and most powerful feelings. If I imagined that I could have cre= ated, even conceived the piece, I am quite certain that the excess of excite= ment and earth-shattering experience would have driven me out of my mind." So, that's the piece Bell started with. He'd clearly meant it when he promised not to cheap out this performance: He= played with acrobatic enthusiasm, his body leaning into the music and archi= ng on tiptoes at the high notes. The sound was nearly symphonic, carrying to= all parts of the homely arcade as the pedestrian traffic filed past. Three minutes went by before something happened. Sixty-three people had alre= ady passed when, finally, there was a breakthrough of sorts. A middle-age ma= n altered his gait for a split second, turning his head to notice that there= seemed to be some guy playing music. Yes, the man kept walking, but it was=20= something. A half-minute later, Bell got his first donation. A woman threw in a buck an= d scooted off. It was not until six minutes into the performance that someon= e actually stood against a wall, and listened. Things never got much better. In the three-quarters of an hour that Joshua B= ell played, seven people stopped what they were doing to hang around and tak= e in the performance, at least for a minute. Twenty-seven gave money, most o= f them on the run -- for a total of $32 and change. That leaves the 1,070 pe= ople who hurried by, oblivious, many only three feet away, few even turning=20= to look. No, Mr. Slatkin, there was never a crowd, not even for a second. It was all videotaped by a hidden camera. You can play the recording once or= 15 times, and it never gets any easier to watch. Try speeding it up, and it= becomes one of those herky-jerky World War I-era silent newsreels. The peop= le scurry by in comical little hops and starts, cups of coffee in their hand= s, cellphones at their ears, ID tags slapping at their bellies, a grim danse= macabre to indifference, inertia and the dingy, gray rush of modernity. Even at this accelerated pace, though, the fiddler's movements remain fluid=20= and graceful; he seems so apart from his audience -- unseen, unheard, otherw= orldly -- that you find yourself thinking that he's not really there. A ghos= t. Only then do you see it: He is the one who is real. They are the ghosts. IF A GREAT MUSICIAN PLAYS GREAT MUSIC BUT NO ONE HEARS . . . WAS HE REALLY A= NY GOOD? It's an old epistemological debate, older, actually, than the koan about the= tree in the forest. Plato weighed in on it, and philosophers for two millen= nia afterward: What is beauty? Is it a measurable fact (Gottfried Leibniz),=20= or merely an opinion (David Hume), or is it a little of each, colored by the= immediate state of mind of the observer (Immanuel Kant)? We'll go with Kant, because he's obviously right, and because he brings us p= retty directly to Joshua Bell, sitting there in a hotel restaurant, picking=20= at his breakfast, wryly trying to figure out what the hell had just happened= back there at the Metro. "At the beginning," Bell says, "I was just concentrating on playing the musi= c. I wasn't really watching what was happening around me . . ." Playing the violin looks all-consuming, mentally and physically, but Bell sa= ys that for him the mechanics of it are partly second nature, cemented by pr= actice and muscle memory: It's like a juggler, he says, who can keep those b= alls in play while interacting with a crowd. What he's mostly thinking about= as he plays, Bell says, is capturing emotion as a narrative: "When you play= a violin piece, you are a storyteller, and you're telling a story." With "Chaconne," the opening is filled with a building sense of awe. That ke= pt him busy for a while. Eventually, though, he began to steal a sidelong gl= ance. "It was a strange feeling, that people were actually, ah . . ." The word doesn't come easily. ". . . ignoring me." Bell is laughing. It's at himself. "At a music hall, I'll get upset if someone coughs or if someone's cellphone= goes off. But here, my expectations quickly diminished. I started to apprec= iate any acknowledgment, even a slight glance up. I was oddly grateful when=20= someone threw in a dollar instead of change." This is from a man whose talen= ts can command $1,000 a minute. Before he began, Bell hadn't known what to expect. What he does know is that= , for some reason, he was nervous. "It wasn't exactly stage fright, but there were butterflies," he says. "I wa= s stressing a little." Bell has played, literally, before crowned heads of Europe. Why the anxiety=20= at the Washington Metro? "When you play for ticket-holders," Bell explains, "you are already validate= d. I have no sense that I need to be accepted. I'm already accepted. Here, t= here was this thought: What if they don't like me? What if they resent my pr= esence . . ." He was, in short, art without a frame. Which, it turns out, may have a lot t= o do with what happened -- or, more precisely, what didn't happen -- on Janu= ary 12. MARK LEITHAUSER HAS HELD IN HIS HANDS MORE GREAT WORKS OF ART THAN ANY KING=20= OR POPE OR MEDICI EVER DID. A senior curator at the National Gallery, he ove= rsees the framing of the paintings. Leithauser thinks he has some idea of wh= at happened at that Metro station. "Let's say I took one of our more abstract masterpieces, say an Ellsworth Ke= lly, and removed it from its frame, marched it down the 52 steps that people= walk up to get to the National Gallery, past the giant columns, and brought= it into a restaurant. It's a $5 million painting. And it's one of those res= taurants where there are pieces of original art for sale, by some industriou= s kids from the Corcoran School, and I hang that Kelly on the wall with a pr= ice tag of $150. No one is going to notice it. An art curator might look up=20= and say: 'Hey, that looks a little like an Ellsworth Kelly. Please pass the=20= salt.'" Leithauser's point is that we shouldn't be too ready to label the Metro pass= ersby unsophisticated boobs. Context matters. Kant said the same thing. He took beauty seriously: In his Critique of Aesth= etic Judgment, Kant argued that one's ability to appreciate beauty is relate= d to one's ability to make moral judgments. But there was a caveat. Paul Guy= er of the University of Pennsylvania, one of America's most prominent Kantia= n scholars, says the 18th-century German philosopher felt that to properly a= ppreciate beauty, the viewing conditions must be optimal. "Optimal," Guyer said, "doesn't mean heading to work, focusing on your repor= t to the boss, maybe your shoes don't fit right." So, if Kant had been at the Metro watching as Joshua Bell play to a thousand= unimpressed passersby? "He would have inferred about them," Guyer said, "absolutely nothing." And that's that. Except it isn't. To really understand what happened, you have to rewind that= video and play it back from the beginning, from the moment Bell's bow first= touched the strings. White guy, khakis, leather jacket, briefcase. Early 30s. John David Mortense= n is on the final leg of his daily bus-to-Metro commute from Reston. He's he= ading up the escalator. It's a long ride -- 1 minute and 15 seconds if you d= on't walk. So, like most everyone who passes Bell this day, Mortensen gets a= good earful of music before he has his first look at the musician. Like mos= t of them, he notes that it sounds pretty good. But like very few of them, w= hen he gets to the top, he doesn't race past as though Bell were some nuisan= ce to be avoided. Mortensen is that first person to stop, that guy at the si= x-minute mark. It's not that he has nothing else to do. He's a project manager for an inter= national program at the Department of Energy; on this day, Mortensen has to=20= participate in a monthly budget exercise, not the most exciting part of his=20= job: "You review the past month's expenditures," he says, "forecast spending= for the next month, if you have X dollars, where will it go, that sort of t= hing." On the video, you can see Mortensen get off the escalator and look around. H= e locates the violinist, stops, walks away but then is drawn back. He checks= the time on his cellphone -- he's three minutes early for work -- then sett= les against a wall to listen. Mortensen doesn't know classical music at all; classic rock is as close as h= e comes. But there's something about what he's hearing that he really likes. As it happens, he's arrived at the moment that Bell slides into the second s= ection of "Chaconne." ("It's the point," Bell says, "where it moves from a d= arker, minor key into a major key. There's a religious, exalted feeling to i= t.") The violinist's bow begins to dance; the music becomes upbeat, playful,= theatrical, big. Mortensen doesn't know about major or minor keys: "Whatever it was," he says= , "it made me feel at peace." So, for the first time in his life, Mortensen lingers to listen to a street=20= musician. He stays his allotted three minutes as 94 more people pass briskly= by. When he leaves to help plan contingency budgets for the Department of E= nergy, there's another first. For the first time in his life, not quite know= ing what had just happened but sensing it was special, John David Mortensen=20= gives a street musician money. THERE ARE SIX MOMENTS IN THE VIDEO THAT BELL FINDS PARTICULARLY PAINFUL TO R= ELIVE: "The awkward times," he calls them. It's what happens right after eac= h piece ends: nothing. The music stops. The same people who hadn't noticed h= im playing don't notice that he has finished. No applause, no acknowledgment= .. So Bell just saws out a small, nervous chord -- the embarrassed musician's= equivalent of, "Er, okay, moving right along . . ." -- and begins the next=20= piece. After "Chaconne," it is Franz Schubert's "Ave Maria," which surprised some m= usic critics when it debuted in 1825: Schubert seldom showed religious feeli= ng in his compositions, yet "Ave Maria" is a breathtaking work of adoration=20= of the Virgin Mary. What was with the sudden piety? Schubert dryly answered:= "I think this is due to the fact that I never forced devotion in myself and= never compose hymns or prayers of that kind unless it overcomes me unawares= ; but then it is usually the right and true devotion." This musical prayer b= ecame among the most familiar and enduring religious pieces in history. A couple of minutes into it, something revealing happens. A woman and her pr= eschooler emerge from the escalator. The woman is walking briskly and, there= fore, so is the child. She's got his hand. "I had a time crunch," recalls Sheron Parker, an IT director for a federal a= gency. "I had an 8:30 training class, and first I had to rush Evvie off to h= is teacher, then rush back to work, then to the training facility in the bas= ement." Evvie is her son, Evan. Evan is 3. You can see Evan clearly on the video. He's the cute black kid in the parka=20= who keeps twisting around to look at Joshua Bell, as he is being propelled t= oward the door. "There was a musician," Parker says, "and my son was intrigued. He wanted to= pull over and listen, but I was rushed for time." So Parker does what she has to do. She deftly moves her body between Evan's=20= and Bell's, cutting off her son's line of sight. As they exit the arcade, Ev= an can still be seen craning to look. When Parker is told what she walked ou= t on, she laughs. "Evan is very smart!" The poet Billy Collins once laughingly observed that all babies are born wit= h a knowledge of poetry, because the lub-dub of the mother's heart is in iam= bic meter. Then, Collins said, life slowly starts to choke the poetry out of= us. It may be true with music, too. There was no ethnic or demographic pattern to distinguish the people who sta= yed to watch Bell, or the ones who gave money, from that vast majority who h= urried on past, unheeding. Whites, blacks and Asians, young and old, men and= women, were represented in all three groups. But the behavior of one demogr= aphic remained absolutely consistent. Every single time a child walked past,= he or she tried to stop and watch. And every single time, a parent scooted=20= the kid away. IF THERE WAS ONE PERSON ON THAT DAY WHO WAS TOO BUSY TO PAY ATTENTION TO THE= VIOLINIST, it was George Tindley. Tindley wasn't hurrying to get to work. H= e was at work. The glass doors through which most people exit the L'Enfant station lead int= o an indoor shopping mall, from which there are exits to the street and elev= ators to office buildings. The first store in the mall is an Au Bon Pain, th= e croissant and coffee shop where Tindley, in his 40s, works in a white unif= orm busing the tables, restocking the salt and pepper packets, taking out th= e garbage. Tindley labors under the watchful eye of his bosses, and he's sup= posed to be hopping, and he was. But every minute or so, as though drawn by something not entirely within his= control, Tindley would walk to the very edge of the Au Bon Pain property, k= eeping his toes inside the line, still on the job. Then he'd lean forward, a= s far out into the hallway as he could, watching the fiddler on the other si= de of the glass doors. The foot traffic was steady, so the doors were usuall= y open. The sound came through pretty well. "You could tell in one second that this guy was good, that he was clearly a=20= professional," Tindley says. He plays the guitar, loves the sound of strings= , and has no respect for a certain kind of musician. "Most people, they play music; they don't feel it," Tindley says. "Well, tha= t man was feeling it. That man was moving. Moving into the sound." A hundred feet away, across the arcade, was the lottery line, sometimes five= or six people long. They had a much better view of Bell than Tindley did, i= f they had just turned around. But no one did. Not in the entire 43 minutes.= They just shuffled forward toward that machine spitting out numbers. Eyes o= n the prize. J.T. Tillman was in that line. A computer specialist for the Department of H= ousing and Urban Development, he remembers every single number he played tha= t day -- 10 of them, $2 apiece, for a total of $20. He doesn't recall what t= he violinist was playing, though. He says it sounded like generic classical=20= music, the kind the ship's band was playing in "Titanic," before the iceberg= .. "I didn't think nothing of it," Tillman says, "just a guy trying to make a c= ouple of bucks." Tillman would have given him one or two, he said, but he sp= ent all his cash on lotto. When he is told that he stiffed one of the best musicians in the world, he l= aughs. "Is he ever going to play around here again?" "Yeah, but you're going to have to pay a lot to hear him." "Damn." Tillman didn't win the lottery, either. BELL ENDS "AVE MARIA" TO ANOTHER THUNDEROUS SILENCE, plays Manuel Ponce's se= ntimental "Estrellita," then a piece by Jules Massenet, and then begins a Ba= ch gavotte, a joyful, frolicsome, lyrical dance. It's got an Old World delic= acy to it; you can imagine it entertaining bewigged dancers at a Versailles=20= ball, or -- in a lute, fiddle and fife version -- the boot-kicking peasants=20= of a Pieter Bruegel painting. Watching the video weeks later, Bell finds himself mystified by one thing on= ly. He understands why he's not drawing a crowd, in the rush of a morning wo= rkday. But: "I'm surprised at the number of people who don't pay attention a= t all, as if I'm invisible. Because, you know what? I'm makin' a lot of nois= e!" He is. You don't need to know music at all to appreciate the simple fact tha= t there's a guy there, playing a violin that's throwing out a whole bucket o= f sound; at times, Bell's bowing is so intricate that you seem to be hearing= two instruments playing in harmony. So those head-forward, quick-stepping p= assersby are a remarkable phenomenon. Bell wonders whether their inattention may be deliberate: If you don't take=20= visible note of the musician, you don't have to feel guilty about not forkin= g over money; you're not complicit in a rip-off. It may be true, but no one gave that explanation. People just said they were= busy, had other things on their mind. Some who were on cellphones spoke lou= der as they passed Bell, to compete with that infernal racket. And then there was Calvin Myint. Myint works for the General Services Admini= stration. He got to the top of the escalator, turned right and headed out a=20= door to the street. A few hours later, he had no memory that there had been=20= a musician anywhere in sight. "Where was he, in relation to me?" "About four feet away." "Oh." There's nothing wrong with Myint's hearing. He had buds in his ear. He was l= istening to his iPod. For many of us, the explosion in technology has perversely limited, not expa= nded, our exposure to new experiences. Increasingly, we get our news from so= urces that think as we already do. And with iPods, we hear what we already k= now; we program our own playlists. The song that Calvin Myint was listening to was "Just Like Heaven," by the B= ritish rock band The Cure. It's a terrific song, actually. The meaning is a=20= little opaque, and the Web is filled with earnest efforts to deconstruct it.= Many are far-fetched, but some are right on point: It's about a tragic emot= ional disconnect. A man has found the woman of his dreams but can't express=20= the depth of his feeling for her until she's gone. It's about failing to see= the beauty of what's plainly in front of your eyes. "YES, I SAW THE VIOLINIST," Jackie Hessian says, "but nothing about him stru= ck me as much of anything." You couldn't tell that by watching her. Hessian was one of those people who=20= gave Bell a long, hard look before walking on. It turns out that she wasn't=20= noticing the music at all. "I really didn't hear that much," she said. "I was just trying to figure out= what he was doing there, how does this work for him, can he make much money= , would it be better to start with some money in the case, or for it to be e= mpty, so people feel sorry for you? I was analyzing it financially." What do you do, Jackie? "I'm a lawyer in labor relations with the United States Postal Service. I ju= st negotiated a national contract." THE BEST SEATS IN THE HOUSE WERE UPHOLSTERED. In the balcony, more or less.=20= On that day, for $5, you'd get a lot more than just a nice shine on your sho= es. Only one person occupied one of those seats when Bell played. Terence Holmes= is a consultant for the Department of Transportation, and he liked the musi= c just fine, but it was really about a shoeshine: "My father told me never t= o wear a suit with your shoes not cleaned and shined." Holmes wears suits often, so he is up in that perch a lot, and he's got a go= od relationship with the shoeshine lady. Holmes is a good tipper and a good=20= talker, which is a skill that came in handy that day. The shoeshine lady was= upset about something, and the music got her more upset. She complained, Ho= lmes said, that the music was too loud, and he tried to calm her down. Edna Souza is from Brazil. She's been shining shoes at L'Enfant Plaza for si= x years, and she's had her fill of street musicians there; when they play, s= he can't hear her customers, and that's bad for business. So she fights. Souza points to the dividing line between the Metro property, at the top of=20= the escalator, and the arcade, which is under control of the management comp= any that runs the mall. Sometimes, Souza says, a musician will stand on the=20= Metro side, sometimes on the mall side. Either way, she's got him. On her sp= eed dial, she has phone numbers for both the mall cops and the Metro cops. T= he musicians seldom last long. What about Joshua Bell? He was too loud, too, Souza says. Then she looks down at her rag, sniffs. Sh= e hates to say anything positive about these damned musicians, but: "He was=20= pretty good, that guy. It was the first time I didn't call the police." Souza was surprised to learn he was a famous musician, but not that people r= ushed blindly by him. That, she said, was predictable. "If something like th= is happened in Brazil, everyone would stand around to see. Not here." Souza nods sourly toward a spot near the top of the escalator: "Couple of ye= ars ago, a homeless guy died right there. He just lay down there and died. T= he police came, an ambulance came, and no one even stopped to see or slowed=20= down to look. "People walk up the escalator, they look straight ahead. Mind your own busin= ess, eyes forward. Everyone is stressed. Do you know what I mean?" What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare. -- from "Leisure," by W.H. Davies Let's say Kant is right. Let's accept that we can't look at what happened on= January 12 and make any judgment whatever about people's sophistication or=20= their ability to appreciate beauty. But what about their ability to apprecia= te life? We're busy. Americans have been busy, as a people, since at least 1831, when= a young French sociologist named Alexis de Tocqueville visited the States a= nd found himself impressed, bemused and slightly dismayed at the degree to w= hich people were driven, to the exclusion of everything else, by hard work a= nd the accumulation of wealth. Not much has changed. Pop in a DVD of "Koyaanisqatsi," the wordless, darkly=20= brilliant, avant-garde 1982 film about the frenetic speed of modern life. Ba= cked by the minimalist music of Philip Glass, director Godfrey Reggio takes=20= film clips of Americans going about their daily business, but speeds them up= until they resemble assembly-line machines, robots marching lockstep to now= here. Now look at the video from L'Enfant Plaza, in fast-forward. The Philip= Glass soundtrack fits it perfectly. "Koyaanisqatsi" is a Hopi word. It means "life out of balance." In his 2003 book, Timeless Beauty: In the Arts and Everyday Life, British au= thor John Lane writes about the loss of the appreciation for beauty in the m= odern world. The experiment at L'Enfant Plaza may be symptomatic of that, he= said -- not because people didn't have the capacity to understand beauty, b= ut because it was irrelevant to them. "This is about having the wrong priorities," Lane said. If we can't take the time out of our lives to stay a moment and listen to on= e of the best musicians on Earth play some of the best music ever written; i= f the surge of modern life so overpowers us that we are deaf and blind to so= mething like that -- then what else are we missing? That's what the Welsh poet W.H. Davies meant in 1911 when he published those= two lines that begin this section. They made him famous. The thought was si= mple, even primitive, but somehow no one had put it quite that way before. Of course, Davies had an advantage -- an advantage of perception. He wasn't=20= a tradesman or a laborer or a bureaucrat or a consultant or a policy analyst= or a labor lawyer or a program manager. He was a hobo. THE CULTURAL HERO OF THE DAY ARRIVED AT L'ENFANT PLAZA PRETTY LATE, in the u= nprepossessing figure of one John Picarello, a smallish man with a baldish h= ead. Picarello hit the top of the escalator just after Bell began his final piece= , a reprise of "Chaconne." In the video, you see Picarello stop dead in his=20= tracks, locate the source of the music, and then retreat to the other end of= the arcade. He takes up a position past the shoeshine stand, across from th= at lottery line, and he will not budge for the next nine minutes. Like all the passersby interviewed for this article, Picarello was stopped b= y a reporter after he left the building, and was asked for his phone number.= Like everyone, he was told only that this was to be an article about commut= ing. When he was called later in the day, like everyone else, he was first a= sked if anything unusual had happened to him on his trip into work. Of the m= ore than 40 people contacted, Picarello was the only one who immediately men= tioned the violinist. "There was a musician playing at the top of the escalator at L'Enfant Plaza.= " Haven't you seen musicians there before? "Not like this one." What do you mean? "This was a superb violinist. I've never heard anyone of that caliber. He wa= s technically proficient, with very good phrasing. He had a good fiddle, too= , with a big, lush sound. I walked a distance away, to hear him. I didn't wa= nt to be intrusive on his space." Really? "Really. It was that kind of experience. It was a treat, just a brilliant, i= ncredible way to start the day." Picarello knows classical music. He is a fan of Joshua Bell but didn't recog= nize him; he hadn't seen a recent photo, and besides, for most of the time P= icarello was pretty far away. But he knew this was not a run-of-the-mill guy= out there, performing. On the video, you can see Picarello look around him=20= now and then, almost bewildered. "Yeah, other people just were not getting it. It just wasn't registering. Th= at was baffling to me." When Picarello was growing up in New York, he studied violin seriously, inte= nding to be a concert musician. But he gave it up at 18, when he decided he'= d never be good enough to make it pay. Life does that to you sometimes. Some= times, you have to do the prudent thing. So he went into another line of wor= k. He's a supervisor at the U.S. Postal Service. Doesn't play the violin muc= h, anymore. When he left, Picarello says, "I humbly threw in $5." It was humble: You can= actually see that on the video. Picarello walks up, barely looking at Bell,= and tosses in the money. Then, as if embarrassed, he quickly walks away fro= m the man he once wanted to be. Does he have regrets about how things worked out? The postal supervisor considers this. "No. If you love something but choose not to do it professionally, it's not=20= a waste. Because, you know, you still have it. You have it forever." BELL THINKS HE DID HIS BEST WORK OF THE DAY IN THOSE FINAL FEW MINUTES, in t= he second "Chaconne." And that also was the first time more than one person=20= at a time was listening. As Picarello stood in the back, Janice Olu arrived=20= and took up a position a few feet away from Bell. Olu, a public trust office= r with HUD, also played the violin as a kid. She didn't know the name of the= piece she was hearing, but she knew the man playing it has a gift. Olu was on a coffee break and stayed as long as she dared. As she turned to=20= go, she whispered to the stranger next to her, "I really don't want to leave= .." The stranger standing next to her happened to be working for The Washingt= on Post. In preparing for this event, editors at The Post Magazine discussed how to d= eal with likely outcomes. The most widely held assumption was that there cou= ld well be a problem with crowd control: In a demographic as sophisticated a= s Washington, the thinking went, several people would surely recognize Bell.= Nervous "what-if" scenarios abounded. As people gathered, what if others st= opped just to see what the attraction was? Word would spread through the cro= wd. Cameras would flash. More people flock to the scene; rush-hour pedestria= n traffic backs up; tempers flare; the National Guard is called; tear gas, r= ubber bullets, etc. As it happens, exactly one person recognized Bell, and she didn't arrive unt= il near the very end. For Stacy Furukawa, a demographer at the Commerce Depa= rtment, there was no doubt. She doesn't know much about classical music, but= she had been in the audience three weeks earlier, at Bell's free concert at= the Library of Congress. And here he was, the international virtuoso, sawin= g away, begging for money. She had no idea what the heck was going on, but w= hatever it was, she wasn't about to miss it. Furukawa positioned herself 10 feet away from Bell, front row, center. She h= ad a huge grin on her face. The grin, and Furukawa, remained planted in that= spot until the end. "It was the most astonishing thing I've ever seen in Washington," Furukawa s= ays. "Joshua Bell was standing there playing at rush hour, and people were n= ot stopping, and not even looking, and some were flipping quarters at him! Q= uarters! I wouldn't do that to anybody. I was thinking, Omigosh, what kind o= f a city do I live in that this could happen?" When it was over, Furukawa introduced herself to Bell, and tossed in a twent= y. Not counting that -- it was tainted by recognition -- the final haul for=20= his 43 minutes of playing was $32.17. Yes, some people gave pennies. "Actually," Bell said with a laugh, "that's not so bad, considering. That's=20= 40 bucks an hour. I could make an okay living doing this, and I wouldn't hav= e to pay an agent." These days, at L'Enfant Plaza, lotto ticket sales remain brisk. Musicians st= ill show up from time to time, and they still tick off Edna Souza. Joshua Be= ll's latest album, "The Voice of the Violin," has received the usual critica= l acclaim. ("Delicate urgency." "Masterful intimacy." "Unfailingly exquisite= .." "A musical summit." ". . . will make your heart thump and weep at the sam= e time.") Bell headed off on a concert tour of European capitals. But he is back in th= e States this week. He has to be. On Tuesday, he will be accepting the Avery= Fisher prize, recognizing the Flop of L'Enfant Plaza as the best classical=20= musician in America. Emily Shroder, Rachel Manteuffel, John W. Poole and Magazine Editor Tom Shro= der contributed to this report. Gene Weingarten, a Magazine staff writer, ca= n be reached at weingarten at washpost.com. He will be fielding questions and c= omments about this article Monday at 1 p.m. .. --------------------------------- Ahhh...imagining that irresistible "new car" smell? Check out new cars at Yahoo! Autos. _________________________________________ 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. To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list List archive: --------------------------------- Check out what you're missing if you're not on Yahoo! Messenger -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070418/5b7dd9e7/attachment.html From taraprakash at gmail.com Mon Apr 9 23:59:14 2007 From: taraprakash at gmail.com (Taraprakash) Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2007 14:29:14 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] a 6-year-old hand-cuffed References: Message-ID: <012901c7821a$e0923fb0$0201a8c0@IBM61525879EE4> Here is a disturbing article from NY Times. 6-Year-Olds Under Arrest By BOB HERBERT AVON PARK, Fla. 6-Year-Olds Under Arrest By BOB HERBERT AVON PARK, Fla. When 6-year-old Desre'e Watson threw a tantrum in her kindergarten class a couple of weeks ago she could not have known that the full force of the law would be brought down on her and that she would be carted off by the police as a felon. But that's what happened in this small, backward city in central Florida. According to the authorities, there were no other options. 'The student became violent,' said Frank Mercurio, the no-nonsense chief of the Avon Park police. She was yelling, screaming -- just being uncontrollable. Defiant.' 'But she was 6,' I said. The chief's reply came faster than a speeding bullet: 'Do you think this is the first 6-year-old we've arrested?' The child's tantrum occurred on the morning of March 28 at the Avon Elementary School. According to the police report, 'Watson was upset and crying and wailing and would not leave the classroom to let them study, causing a disruption of the normal class activities.' After a few minutes, Desre'e was, in fact, taken to another room. She was 'isolated,' the chief said. But she would not calm down. She flailed away at the teachers who tried to control her. She pulled one woman's hair. She was kicking. I asked the chief if anyone had been hurt. Yes,' he said. At least one woman reported 'some redness.' After 20 minutes of this 'uncontrollable' behavior, the police were called in. At the sight of the two officers, Chief Mercurio said, Desre'e 'tried to take flight.' She went under a table. One of the police officers went after her. Each time the officer tried to grab her to drag her out, Desre'e would pull her legs away, the chief said. Ultimately the child was no match for Avon Park's finest. The cops pulled her from under the table and handcuffed her. The officers were not fooling around. In the eyes of the cops the 6-year-old was a criminal, and in Avon Park she would be treated like any other felon. There was a problem, though. The handcuffs were not manufactured with kindergarten kids in mind. The chief explained: 'You can't handcuff them on their wrists because their wrists are too small, so you have to handcuff them up by their biceps.' As I sat listening to Chief Mercurio in a spotless, air-conditioned conference room at the Avon Park police headquarters, I had the feeling that I had somehow stumbled into the middle of a skit on 'Saturday Night Live.' The chief seemed like the most reasonable of men, but what was coming out of his mouth was madness. He handed me a copy of the police report: black female. Six years old. Thin build. Dark complexion. Desre'e was put in the back of a patrol car and driven to the police station. Then,' said Chief Mercurio, 'she was transported to central booking, which is the county jail.' The child was fingerprinted and a mug shot was taken. Those are the normal procedures for anyone who is arrested,' the chief said. Desre'e was charged with battery on a school official, which is a felony, and two misdemeanors: disruption of a school function and resisting a law enforcement officer. After a brief stay at the county jail, she was released to the custody of her mother. The arrest of this child, who should have been placed in the care of competent, comforting professionals rather than being hauled off to jail, is part of an outlandish trend of criminalizing very young children that has spread to many school districts and law enforcement agencies across the country. A highly disproportionate number of those youngsters, like Desre'e, are black. In Baltimore last month, the police arrested, handcuffed and hauled away a 7-year-old black boy for allegedly riding a dirt bike on the sidewalk. The youngster was released and the mayor, Sheila Dixon, apologized for the incident, saying the arrest was inappropriate. Last spring a number of civil rights organizations collaborated on a study of disciplinary practices in Florida schools and concluded that many of them, 'like many districts in other states, have turned away from traditional education-based disciplinary methods -- such as counseling, after-school detention, or extra homework assignments -- and are looking to the legal system to handle even the most minor transgressions.' Once you adopt the mindset that ordinary childhood misbehavior is criminal behavior, it's easy to start seeing young children as somehow monstrous. 'Believe me when I tell you,' said Chief Mercurio, 'a 6-year-old can inflict injury to you just as much as any other person.' -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070409/5e6aa581/attachment.html From yasir.media at gmail.com Thu Apr 19 22:37:26 2007 From: yasir.media at gmail.com (yasir ~) Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2007 22:07:26 +0500 Subject: [Reader-list] [Urbanstudy] Article from the Washington Post: an experiment in context, perception, priorities In-Reply-To: References: <132707.151.qm@web53603.mail.re2.yahoo.com> <590197.91888.qm@web30502.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <5af37bb0704191007q42cefb0fr7620852c864e336c@mail.gmail.com> Joshua was not on the street, not on the train platform, but sure it was a large mall-like public lobby used mostly to dart across, not hang out or wait in. then the morning timing was chosen to work adversely for the aesthetic experiment - it did. it is likely then that a different venue and a different time, or a different artist (as kiran points out) would likely produce different results. best From faiz.outsider at gmail.com Thu Apr 19 11:16:34 2007 From: faiz.outsider at gmail.com (faiz ullah) Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2007 11:16:34 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Article from the Washington Post: an experiment in context, perception, priorities In-Reply-To: <590197.91888.qm@web30502.mail.mud.yahoo.com> References: <132707.151.qm@web53603.mail.re2.yahoo.com> <590197.91888.qm@web30502.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <96c0bb200704182246g7f0990abjaf053c4c69324ff9@mail.gmail.com> Maybe Susmit Bose...urban folk...based in Delhi On 4/18/07, paramita ghosh wrote: > > just wonder how an experiment like this would play out in the delhi > metro? which artist do u think could be game for this? > > *lalitha kamath * wrote: > > > > A story ran in The Washington Post this week -- on Easter Sunday -- > In a nutshell, the Post convinced one of the world's greatest violinists > to=20= > go incognito and play his fiddle at a Metro station, standing there with > his= > open case like just another street musician, begging for money. He was > play= > ing some of the most beautiful and complex violin pieces from history, > thing= > s that people shell out $100 and put on their Sunday best to go see in a > con= > cert hall. But would anyone appreciate him -- or his music -- as > essentially= > a street corner beggar, even though the same gorgeous music was being > playe= > d? > > The results are astonishing. Check it out: > > > http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401 > = > 721.html > > Here's the story, for those who can't get to it online: > > Pearls Before Breakfast > Can one of the nation's great musicians cut through the fog of a D.C. rush > h= > our? Let's find out. > > By Gene Weingarten > Washington Post Staff Writer > Sunday, April 8, 2007; W10 > > HE EMERGED FROM THE METRO AT THE L'ENFANT PLAZA STATION AND POSITIONED > HIMSE= > LF AGAINST A WALL BESIDE A TRASH BASKET. By most measures, he was > nondescrip= > t: a youngish white man in jeans, a long-sleeved T-shirt and a Washington > Na= > tionals baseball cap. From a small case, he removed a violin. Placing the > op= > en case at his feet, he shrewdly threw in a few dollars and pocket change > as= > seed money, swiveled it to face pedestrian traffic, and began to play. > > It was 7:51 a.m. on Friday, January 12, the middle of the morning rush > hour.= > In the next 43 minutes, as the violinist performed six classical pieces, > 1,= > 097 people passed by. Almost all of them were on the way to work, which > mean= > t, for almost all of them, a government job. L'Enfant Plaza is at the > nucleu= > s of federal Washington, and these were mostly mid-level bureaucrats with > th= > ose indeterminate, oddly fungible titles: policy analyst, project manager, > b= > udget officer, specialist, facilitator, consultant. > > Each passerby had a quick choice to make, one familiar to commuters in any > u= > rban area where the occasional street performer is part of the cityscape: > Do= > you stop and listen? Do you hurry past with a blend of guilt and > irritation= > , aware of your cupidity but annoyed by the unbidden demand on your time > and= > your wallet? Do you throw in a buck, just to be polite? Does your > decision=20= > change if he's really bad? What if he's really good? Do you have time for > be= > auty? Shouldn't you? What's the moral mathematics of the moment? > > On that Friday in January, those private questions would be answered in an > u= > nusually public way. No one knew it, but the fiddler standing against a > bare= > wall outside the Metro in an indoor arcade at the top of the escalators > was= > one of the finest classical musicians in the world, playing some of the > mos= > t elegant music ever written on one of the most valuable violins ever > made.=20= > His performance was arranged by The Washington Post as an experiment in > cont= > ext, perception and priorities -- as well as an unblinking assessment of > pub= > lic taste: In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty > transcen= > d? > > The musician did not play popular tunes whose familiarity alone might have > d= > rawn interest. That was not the test. These were masterpieces that have > endu= > red for centuries on their brilliance alone, soaring music befitting the > gra= > ndeur of cathedrals and concert halls. > > The acoustics proved surprisingly kind. Though the arcade is of > utilitarian=20= > design, a buffer between the Metro escalator and the outdoors, it somehow > ca= > ught the sound and bounced it back round and resonant. The violin is an > inst= > rument that is said to be much like the human voice, and in this > musician's=20= > masterly hands, it sobbed and laughed and sang -- ecstatic, sorrowful, > impor= > tuning, adoring, flirtatious, castigating, playful, romancing, merry, > triump= > hal, sumptuous. > > So, what do you think happened? > > HANG ON, WE'LL GET YOU SOME EXPERT HELP. > > Leonard Slatkin, music director of the National Symphony Orchestra, was > aske= > d the same question. What did he think would occur, hypothetically, if one > o= > f the world's great violinists had performed incognito before a traveling > ru= > sh-hour audience of 1,000-odd people? > > "Let's assume," Slatkin said, "that he is not recognized and just taken > for=20= > granted as a street musician . . . Still, I don't think that if he's > really=20= > good, he's going to go unnoticed. He'd get a larger audience in Europe . . > .= > but, okay, out of 1,000 people, my guess is there might be 35 or 40 who > wil= > l recognize the quality for what it is. Maybe 75 to 100 will stop and > spend=20= > some time listening." > > So, a crowd would gather? > > "Oh, yes." > > And how much will he make? > > "About $150." > > Thanks, Maestro. As it happens, this is not hypothetical. It really > happened= > .. > > "How'd I do?" > > We'll tell you in a minute. > > "Well, who was the musician?" > > Joshua Bell. > > "NO!!!" > > A onetime child prodigy, at 39 Joshua Bell has arrived as an > internationally= > acclaimed virtuoso. Three days before he appeared at the Metro station, > Bel= > l had filled the house at Boston's stately Symphony Hall, where merely > prett= > y good seats went for $100. Two weeks later, at the Music Center at > Strathmo= > re, in North Bethesda, he would play to a standing-room-only audience so > res= > pectful of his artistry that they stifled their coughs until the silence > bet= > ween movements. But on that Friday in January, Joshua Bell was just > another=20= > mendicant, competing for the attention of busy people on their way to > work. > > Bell was first pitched this idea shortly before Christmas, over coffee at > a=20= > sandwich shop on Capitol Hill. A New Yorker, he was in town to perform at > th= > e Library of Congress and to visit the library's vaults to examine an > unusua= > l treasure: an 18th-century violin that once belonged to the great > Austrian-= > born virtuoso and composer Fritz Kreisler. The curators invited Bell to > play= > it; good sound, still. > > "Here's what I'm thinking," Bell confided, as he sipped his coffee. "I'm > thi= > nking that I could do a tour where I'd play Kreisler's music . . ." > > He smiled. > > ". . . on Kreisler's violin." > > It was a snazzy, sequined idea -- part inspiration and part gimmick -- and > i= > t was typical of Bell, who has unapologetically embraced showmanship even > as= > his concert career has become more and more august. He's soloed with the > fi= > nest orchestras here and abroad, but he's also appeared on "Sesame > Street,"=20= > done late-night talk TV and performed in feature films. That was Bell > playin= > g the soundtrack on the 1998 movie "The Red Violin." (He body-doubled, > too,=20= > playing to a naked Greta Scacchi.) As composer John Corigliano accepted > the=20= > Oscar for Best Original Dramatic Score, he credited Bell, who, he said, > "pla= > ys like a god." > > When Bell was asked if he'd be willing to don street clothes and perform > at=20= > rush hour, he said: > > "Uh, a stunt?" > > Well, yes. A stunt. Would he think it . . . unseemly? > > Bell drained his cup. > > "Sounds like fun," he said. > > Bell's a heartthrob. Tall and handsome, he's got a Donny Osmond-like dose > of= > the cutes, and, onstage, cute elides into hott. When he performs, he is > usu= > ally the only man under the lights who is not in white tie and tails -- he > w= > alks out to a standing O, looking like Zorro, in black pants and an > untucked= > black dress shirt, shirttail dangling. That cute Beatles-style mop top is > a= > lso a strategic asset: Because his technique is full of body -- athletic > and= > passionate -- he's almost dancing with the instrument, and his hair > flies. > > He's single and straight, a fact not lost on some of his fans. In Boston, > as= > he performed Max Bruch's dour Violin Concerto in G Minor, the very few > youn= > g women in the audience nearly disappeared in the deep sea of silver > heads.=20= > But seemingly every single one of them -- a distillate of the young and > pret= > ty -- coalesced at the stage door after the performance, seeking an > autograp= > h. It's like that always, with Bell. > > Bell's been accepting over-the-top accolades since puberty: Interview > magazi= > ne once said his playing "does nothing less than tell human beings why > they=20= > bother to live." He's learned to field these things graciously, with a > bashf= > ul duck of the head and a modified "pshaw." > > For this incognito performance, Bell had only one condition for > participatin= > g. The event had been described to him as a test of whether, in an > incongruo= > us context, ordinary people would recognize genius. His condition: "I'm > not=20= > comfortable if you call this genius." "Genius" is an overused word, he > said:= > It can be applied to some of the composers whose work he plays, but not > to=20= > him. His skills are largely interpretive, he said, and to imply otherwise > wo= > uld be unseemly and inaccurate. > > It was an interesting request, and under the circumstances, one that will > be= > honored. The word will not again appear in this article. > > It would be breaking no rules, however, to note that the term in question, > p= > articularly as applied in the field of music, refers to a congenital > brillia= > nce -- an elite, innate, preternatural ability that manifests itself > early,=20= > and often in dramatic fashion. > > One biographically intriguing fact about Bell is that he got his first > music= > lessons when he was a 4-year-old in Bloomington, Ind. His parents, both > psy= > chologists, decided formal training might be a good idea after they saw > that= > their son had strung rubber bands across his dresser drawers and was > replic= > ating classical tunes by ear, moving drawers in and out to vary the pitch. > > TO GET TO THE METRO FROM HIS HOTEL, a distance of three blocks, Bell took > a=20= > taxi. He's neither lame nor lazy: He did it for his violin. > > Bell always performs on the same instrument, and he ruled out using > another=20= > for this gig. Called the Gibson ex Huberman, it was handcrafted in 1713 by > A= > ntonio Stradivari during the Italian master's "golden period," toward the > en= > d of his career, when he had access to the finest spruce, maple and > willow,=20= > and when his technique had been refined to perfection. > > "Our knowledge of acoustics is still incomplete," Bell said, "but he, he > jus= > t . . . knew." > > Bell doesn't mention Stradivari by name. Just "he." When the violinist > shows= > his Strad to people, he holds the instrument gingerly by its neck, > resting=20= > it on a knee. "He made this to perfect thickness at all parts," Bell says, > p= > ivoting it. "If you shaved off a millimeter of wood at any point, it would > t= > otally imbalance the sound." No violins sound as wonderful as Strads from > th= > e 1710s, still. > > The front of Bell's violin is in nearly perfect condition, with a deep, > rich= > grain and luster. The back is a mess, its dark reddish finish bleeding > away= > into a flatter, lighter shade and finally, in one section, to bare wood. > > "This has never been refinished," Bell said. "That's his original varnish. > P= > eople attribute aspects of the sound to the varnish. Each maker had his > own=20= > secret formula." Stradivari is thought to have made his from an > ingeniously=20= > balanced cocktail of honey, egg whites and gum arabic from sub-Saharan > trees= > .. > > Like the instrument in "The Red Violin," this one has a past filled with > mys= > tery and malice. Twice, it was stolen from its illustrious prior owner, > the=20= > Polish virtuoso Bronislaw Huberman. The first time, in 1919, it > disappeared=20= > from Huberman's hotel room in Vienna but was quickly returned. The second > ti= > me, nearly 20 years later, it was pinched from his dressing room in > Carnegie= > Hall. He never got it back. It was not until 1985 that the thief -- a > minor= > New York violinist -- made a deathbed confession to his wife, and > produced=20= > the instrument. > > Bell bought it a few years ago. He had to sell his own Strad and borrow > much= > of the rest. The price tag was reported to be about $3.5 million. > > All of which is a long explanation for why, in the early morning chill of > a=20= > day in January, Josh Bell took a three-block cab ride to the Orange Line, > an= > d rode one stop to L'Enfant. > > AS METRO STATIONS GO, L'ENFANT PLAZA IS MORE PLEBEIAN THAN MOST. Even > before= > you arrive, it gets no respect. Metro conductors never seem to get it > right= > : "Leh-fahn." "Layfont." "El'phant." > > At the top of the escalators are a shoeshine stand and a busy kiosk that > sel= > ls newspapers, lottery tickets and a wallfull of magazines with titles > such=20= > as Mammazons and Girls of Barely Legal. The skin mags move, but it's that > lo= > ttery ticket dispenser that stays the busiest, with customers queuing up > for= > Daily 6 lotto and Powerball and the ultimate suckers' bait, those > pamphlets= > that sell random number combinations purporting to be "hot." They sell > bris= > kly. There's also a quick-check machine to slide in your lotto ticket, > post-= > drawing, to see if you've won. Beneath it is a forlorn pile of crumpled > slip= > s. > > On Friday, January 12, the people waiting in the lottery line looking for > a=20= > long shot would get a lucky break -- a free, close-up ticket to a concert > by= > one of the world's most famous musicians -- but only if they were of a > mind= > to take note. > > Bell decided to begin with "Chaconne" from Johann Sebastian Bach's Partita > N= > o. 2 in D Minor. Bell calls it "not just one of the greatest pieces of > music= > ever written, but one of the greatest achievements of any man in history. > I= > t's a spiritually powerful piece, emotionally powerful, structurally > perfect= > .. Plus, it was written for a solo violin, so I won't be cheating with > some h= > alf-assed version." > > Bell didn't say it, but Bach's "Chaconne" is also considered one of the > most= > difficult violin pieces to master. Many try; few succeed. It's > exhaustingly= > long -- 14 minutes -- and consists entirely of a single, succinct musical > p= > rogression repeated in dozens of variations to create a dauntingly complex > a= > rchitecture of sound. Composed around 1720, on the eve of the European > Enlig= > htenment, it is said to be a celebration of the breadth of human > possibility= > .. > > If Bell's encomium to "Chaconne" seems overly effusive, consider this from > t= > he 19th-century composer Johannes Brahms, in a letter to Clara Schumann: > "On= > one stave, for a small instrument, the man writes a whole world of the > deep= > est thoughts and most powerful feelings. If I imagined that I could have > cre= > ated, even conceived the piece, I am quite certain that the excess of > excite= > ment and earth-shattering experience would have driven me out of my mind." > > So, that's the piece Bell started with. > > He'd clearly meant it when he promised not to cheap out this performance: > He= > played with acrobatic enthusiasm, his body leaning into the music and > archi= > ng on tiptoes at the high notes. The sound was nearly symphonic, carrying > to= > all parts of the homely arcade as the pedestrian traffic filed past. > > Three minutes went by before something happened. Sixty-three people had > alre= > ady passed when, finally, there was a breakthrough of sorts. A middle-age > ma= > n altered his gait for a split second, turning his head to notice that > there= > seemed to be some guy playing music. Yes, the man kept walking, but it > was=20= > something. > > A half-minute later, Bell got his first donation. A woman threw in a buck > an= > d scooted off. It was not until six minutes into the performance that > someon= > e actually stood against a wall, and listened. > > Things never got much better. In the three-quarters of an hour that Joshua > B= > ell played, seven people stopped what they were doing to hang around and > tak= > e in the performance, at least for a minute. Twenty-seven gave money, most > o= > f them on the run -- for a total of $32 and change. That leaves the 1,070 > pe= > ople who hurried by, oblivious, many only three feet away, few even > turning=20= > to look. > > No, Mr. Slatkin, there was never a crowd, not even for a second. > > It was all videotaped by a hidden camera. You can play the recording once > or= > 15 times, and it never gets any easier to watch. Try speeding it up, and > it= > becomes one of those herky-jerky World War I-era silent newsreels. The > peop= > le scurry by in comical little hops and starts, cups of coffee in their > hand= > s, cellphones at their ears, ID tags slapping at their bellies, a grim > danse= > macabre to indifference, inertia and the dingy, gray rush of modernity. > > Even at this accelerated pace, though, the fiddler's movements remain > fluid=20= > and graceful; he seems so apart from his audience -- unseen, unheard, > otherw= > orldly -- that you find yourself thinking that he's not really there. A > ghos= > t. > > Only then do you see it: He is the one who is real. They are the ghosts. > > IF A GREAT MUSICIAN PLAYS GREAT MUSIC BUT NO ONE HEARS . . . WAS HE REALLY > A= > NY GOOD? > > It's an old epistemological debate, older, actually, than the koan about > the= > tree in the forest. Plato weighed in on it, and philosophers for two > millen= > nia afterward: What is beauty? Is it a measurable fact (Gottfried > Leibniz),=20= > or merely an opinion (David Hume), or is it a little of each, colored by > the= > immediate state of mind of the observer (Immanuel Kant)? > > We'll go with Kant, because he's obviously right, and because he brings us > p= > retty directly to Joshua Bell, sitting there in a hotel restaurant, > picking=20= > at his breakfast, wryly trying to figure out what the hell had just > happened= > back there at the Metro. > > "At the beginning," Bell says, "I was just concentrating on playing the > musi= > c. I wasn't really watching what was happening around me . . ." > > Playing the violin looks all-consuming, mentally and physically, but Bell > sa= > ys that for him the mechanics of it are partly second nature, cemented by > pr= > actice and muscle memory: It's like a juggler, he says, who can keep those > b= > alls in play while interacting with a crowd. What he's mostly thinking > about= > as he plays, Bell says, is capturing emotion as a narrative: "When you > play= > a violin piece, you are a storyteller, and you're telling a story." > > With "Chaconne," the opening is filled with a building sense of awe. That > ke= > pt him busy for a while. Eventually, though, he began to steal a sidelong > gl= > ance. > > "It was a strange feeling, that people were actually, ah . . ." > > The word doesn't come easily. > > ". . . ignoring me." > > Bell is laughing. It's at himself. > > "At a music hall, I'll get upset if someone coughs or if someone's > cellphone= > goes off. But here, my expectations quickly diminished. I started to > apprec= > iate any acknowledgment, even a slight glance up. I was oddly grateful > when=20= > someone threw in a dollar instead of change." This is from a man whose > talen= > ts can command $1,000 a minute. > > Before he began, Bell hadn't known what to expect. What he does know is > that= > , for some reason, he was nervous. > > "It wasn't exactly stage fright, but there were butterflies," he says. "I > wa= > s stressing a little." > > Bell has played, literally, before crowned heads of Europe. Why the > anxiety=20= > at the Washington Metro? > > "When you play for ticket-holders," Bell explains, "you are already > validate= > d. I have no sense that I need to be accepted. I'm already accepted. Here, > t= > here was this thought: What if they don't like me? What if they resent my > pr= > esence . . ." > > He was, in short, art without a frame. Which, it turns out, may have a lot > t= > o do with what happened -- or, more precisely, what didn't happen -- on > Janu= > ary 12. > > MARK LEITHAUSER HAS HELD IN HIS HANDS MORE GREAT WORKS OF ART THAN ANY > KING=20= > OR POPE OR MEDICI EVER DID. A senior curator at the National Gallery, he > ove= > rsees the framing of the paintings. Leithauser thinks he has some idea of > wh= > at happened at that Metro station. > > "Let's say I took one of our more abstract masterpieces, say an Ellsworth > Ke= > lly, and removed it from its frame, marched it down the 52 steps that > people= > walk up to get to the National Gallery, past the giant columns, and > brought= > it into a restaurant. It's a $5 million painting. And it's one of those > res= > taurants where there are pieces of original art for sale, by some > industriou= > s kids from the Corcoran School, and I hang that Kelly on the wall with a > pr= > ice tag of $150. No one is going to notice it. An art curator might look > up=20= > and say: 'Hey, that looks a little like an Ellsworth Kelly. Please pass > the=20= > salt.'" > > Leithauser's point is that we shouldn't be too ready to label the Metro > pass= > ersby unsophisticated boobs. Context matters. > > Kant said the same thing. He took beauty seriously: In his Critique of > Aesth= > etic Judgment, Kant argued that one's ability to appreciate beauty is > relate= > d to one's ability to make moral judgments. But there was a caveat. Paul > Guy= > er of the University of Pennsylvania, one of America's most prominent > Kantia= > n scholars, says the 18th-century German philosopher felt that to properly > a= > ppreciate beauty, the viewing conditions must be optimal. > > "Optimal," Guyer said, "doesn't mean heading to work, focusing on your > repor= > t to the boss, maybe your shoes don't fit right." > > So, if Kant had been at the Metro watching as Joshua Bell play to a > thousand= > unimpressed passersby? > > "He would have inferred about them," Guyer said, "absolutely nothing." > > And that's that. > > Except it isn't. To really understand what happened, you have to rewind > that= > video and play it back from the beginning, from the moment Bell's bow > first= > touched the strings. > > White guy, khakis, leather jacket, briefcase. Early 30s. John David > Mortense= > n is on the final leg of his daily bus-to-Metro commute from Reston. He's > he= > ading up the escalator. It's a long ride -- 1 minute and 15 seconds if you > d= > on't walk. So, like most everyone who passes Bell this day, Mortensen gets > a= > good earful of music before he has his first look at the musician. Like > mos= > t of them, he notes that it sounds pretty good. But like very few of them, > w= > hen he gets to the top, he doesn't race past as though Bell were some > nuisan= > ce to be avoided. Mortensen is that first person to stop, that guy at the > si= > x-minute mark. > > It's not that he has nothing else to do. He's a project manager for an > inter= > national program at the Department of Energy; on this day, Mortensen has > to=20= > participate in a monthly budget exercise, not the most exciting part of > his=20= > job: "You review the past month's expenditures," he says, "forecast > spending= > for the next month, if you have X dollars, where will it go, that sort of > t= > hing." > > On the video, you can see Mortensen get off the escalator and look around. > H= > e locates the violinist, stops, walks away but then is drawn back. He > checks= > the time on his cellphone -- he's three minutes early for work -- then > sett= > les against a wall to listen. > > Mortensen doesn't know classical music at all; classic rock is as close as > h= > e comes. But there's something about what he's hearing that he really > likes. > > As it happens, he's arrived at the moment that Bell slides into the second > s= > ection of "Chaconne." ("It's the point," Bell says, "where it moves from a > d= > arker, minor key into a major key. There's a religious, exalted feeling to > i= > t.") The violinist's bow begins to dance; the music becomes upbeat, > playful,= > theatrical, big. > > Mortensen doesn't know about major or minor keys: "Whatever it was," he > says= > , "it made me feel at peace." > > So, for the first time in his life, Mortensen lingers to listen to a > street=20= > musician. He stays his allotted three minutes as 94 more people pass > briskly= > by. When he leaves to help plan contingency budgets for the Department of > E= > nergy, there's another first. For the first time in his life, not quite > know= > ing what had just happened but sensing it was special, John David > Mortensen=20= > gives a street musician money. > > THERE ARE SIX MOMENTS IN THE VIDEO THAT BELL FINDS PARTICULARLY PAINFUL TO > R= > ELIVE: "The awkward times," he calls them. It's what happens right after > eac= > h piece ends: nothing. The music stops. The same people who hadn't noticed > h= > im playing don't notice that he has finished. No applause, no > acknowledgment= > .. So Bell just saws out a small, nervous chord -- the embarrassed > musician's= > equivalent of, "Er, okay, moving right along . . ." -- and begins the > next=20= > piece. > > After "Chaconne," it is Franz Schubert's "Ave Maria," which surprised some > m= > usic critics when it debuted in 1825: Schubert seldom showed religious > feeli= > ng in his compositions, yet "Ave Maria" is a breathtaking work of > adoration=20= > of the Virgin Mary. What was with the sudden piety? Schubert dryly > answered:= > "I think this is due to the fact that I never forced devotion in myself > and= > never compose hymns or prayers of that kind unless it overcomes me > unawares= > ; but then it is usually the right and true devotion." This musical prayer > b= > ecame among the most familiar and enduring religious pieces in history. > > A couple of minutes into it, something revealing happens. A woman and her > pr= > eschooler emerge from the escalator. The woman is walking briskly and, > there= > fore, so is the child. She's got his hand. > > "I had a time crunch," recalls Sheron Parker, an IT director for a federal > a= > gency. "I had an 8:30 training class, and first I had to rush Evvie off to > h= > is teacher, then rush back to work, then to the training facility in the > bas= > ement." > > Evvie is her son, Evan. Evan is 3. > > You can see Evan clearly on the video. He's the cute black kid in the > parka=20= > who keeps twisting around to look at Joshua Bell, as he is being propelled > t= > oward the door. > > "There was a musician," Parker says, "and my son was intrigued. He wanted > to= > pull over and listen, but I was rushed for time." > > So Parker does what she has to do. She deftly moves her body between > Evan's=20= > and Bell's, cutting off her son's line of sight. As they exit the arcade, > Ev= > an can still be seen craning to look. When Parker is told what she walked > ou= > t on, she laughs. > > "Evan is very smart!" > > The poet Billy Collins once laughingly observed that all babies are born > wit= > h a knowledge of poetry, because the lub-dub of the mother's heart is in > iam= > bic meter. Then, Collins said, life slowly starts to choke the poetry out > of= > us. It may be true with music, too. > > There was no ethnic or demographic pattern to distinguish the people who > sta= > yed to watch Bell, or the ones who gave money, from that vast majority who > h= > urried on past, unheeding. Whites, blacks and Asians, young and old, men > and= > women, were represented in all three groups. But the behavior of one > demogr= > aphic remained absolutely consistent. Every single time a child walked > past,= > he or she tried to stop and watch. And every single time, a parent > scooted=20= > the kid away. > > IF THERE WAS ONE PERSON ON THAT DAY WHO WAS TOO BUSY TO PAY ATTENTION TO > THE= > VIOLINIST, it was George Tindley. Tindley wasn't hurrying to get to work. > H= > e was at work. > > The glass doors through which most people exit the L'Enfant station lead > int= > o an indoor shopping mall, from which there are exits to the street and > elev= > ators to office buildings. The first store in the mall is an Au Bon Pain, > th= > e croissant and coffee shop where Tindley, in his 40s, works in a white > unif= > orm busing the tables, restocking the salt and pepper packets, taking out > th= > e garbage. Tindley labors under the watchful eye of his bosses, and he's > sup= > posed to be hopping, and he was. > > But every minute or so, as though drawn by something not entirely within > his= > control, Tindley would walk to the very edge of the Au Bon Pain property, > k= > eeping his toes inside the line, still on the job. Then he'd lean forward, > a= > s far out into the hallway as he could, watching the fiddler on the other > si= > de of the glass doors. The foot traffic was steady, so the doors were > usuall= > y open. The sound came through pretty well. > > "You could tell in one second that this guy was good, that he was clearly > a=20= > professional," Tindley says. He plays the guitar, loves the sound of > strings= > , and has no respect for a certain kind of musician. > > "Most people, they play music; they don't feel it," Tindley says. "Well, > tha= > t man was feeling it. That man was moving. Moving into the sound." > > A hundred feet away, across the arcade, was the lottery line, sometimes > five= > or six people long. They had a much better view of Bell than Tindley did, > i= > f they had just turned around. But no one did. Not in the entire 43 > minutes.= > They just shuffled forward toward that machine spitting out numbers. Eyes > o= > n the prize. > > J.T. Tillman was in that line. A computer specialist for the Department of > H= > ousing and Urban Development, he remembers every single number he played > tha= > t day -- 10 of them, $2 apiece, for a total of $20. He doesn't recall what > t= > he violinist was playing, though. He says it sounded like generic > classical=20= > music, the kind the ship's band was playing in "Titanic," before the > iceberg= > .. > > "I didn't think nothing of it," Tillman says, "just a guy trying to make a > c= > ouple of bucks." Tillman would have given him one or two, he said, but he > sp= > ent all his cash on lotto. > > When he is told that he stiffed one of the best musicians in the world, he > l= > aughs. > > "Is he ever going to play around here again?" > > "Yeah, but you're going to have to pay a lot to hear him." > > "Damn." > > Tillman didn't win the lottery, either. > > BELL ENDS "AVE MARIA" TO ANOTHER THUNDEROUS SILENCE, plays Manuel Ponce's > se= > ntimental "Estrellita," then a piece by Jules Massenet, and then begins a > Ba= > ch gavotte, a joyful, frolicsome, lyrical dance. It's got an Old World > delic= > acy to it; you can imagine it entertaining bewigged dancers at a > Versailles=20= > ball, or -- in a lute, fiddle and fife version -- the boot-kicking > peasants=20= > of a Pieter Bruegel painting. > > Watching the video weeks later, Bell finds himself mystified by one thing > on= > ly. He understands why he's not drawing a crowd, in the rush of a morning > wo= > rkday. But: "I'm surprised at the number of people who don't pay attention > a= > t all, as if I'm invisible. Because, you know what? I'm makin' a lot of > nois= > e!" > > He is. You don't need to know music at all to appreciate the simple fact > tha= > t there's a guy there, playing a violin that's throwing out a whole bucket > o= > f sound; at times, Bell's bowing is so intricate that you seem to be > hearing= > two instruments playing in harmony. So those head-forward, quick-stepping > p= > assersby are a remarkable phenomenon. > > Bell wonders whether their inattention may be deliberate: If you don't > take=20= > visible note of the musician, you don't have to feel guilty about not > forkin= > g over money; you're not complicit in a rip-off. > > It may be true, but no one gave that explanation. People just said they > were= > busy, had other things on their mind. Some who were on cellphones spoke > lou= > der as they passed Bell, to compete with that infernal racket. > > And then there was Calvin Myint. Myint works for the General Services > Admini= > stration. He got to the top of the escalator, turned right and headed out > a=20= > door to the street. A few hours later, he had no memory that there had > been=20= > a musician anywhere in sight. > > "Where was he, in relation to me?" > > "About four feet away." > > "Oh." > > There's nothing wrong with Myint's hearing. He had buds in his ear. He was > l= > istening to his iPod. > > For many of us, the explosion in technology has perversely limited, not > expa= > nded, our exposure to new experiences. Increasingly, we get our news from > so= > urces that think as we already do. And with iPods, we hear what we already > k= > now; we program our own playlists. > > The song that Calvin Myint was listening to was "Just Like Heaven," by the > B= > ritish rock band The Cure. It's a terrific song, actually. The meaning is > a=20= > little opaque, and the Web is filled with earnest efforts to deconstruct > it.= > Many are far-fetched, but some are right on point: It's about a tragic > emot= > ional disconnect. A man has found the woman of his dreams but can't > express=20= > the depth of his feeling for her until she's gone. It's about failing to > see= > the beauty of what's plainly in front of your eyes. > > "YES, I SAW THE VIOLINIST," Jackie Hessian says, "but nothing about him > stru= > ck me as much of anything." > > You couldn't tell that by watching her. Hessian was one of those people > who=20= > gave Bell a long, hard look before walking on. It turns out that she > wasn't=20= > noticing the music at all. > > "I really didn't hear that much," she said. "I was just trying to figure > out= > what he was doing there, how does this work for him, can he make much > money= > , would it be better to start with some money in the case, or for it to be > e= > mpty, so people feel sorry for you? I was analyzing it financially." > > What do you do, Jackie? > > "I'm a lawyer in labor relations with the United States Postal Service. I > ju= > st negotiated a national contract." > > THE BEST SEATS IN THE HOUSE WERE UPHOLSTERED. In the balcony, more or > less.=20= > On that day, for $5, you'd get a lot more than just a nice shine on your > sho= > es. > > Only one person occupied one of those seats when Bell played. Terence > Holmes= > is a consultant for the Department of Transportation, and he liked the > musi= > c just fine, but it was really about a shoeshine: "My father told me never > t= > o wear a suit with your shoes not cleaned and shined." > > Holmes wears suits often, so he is up in that perch a lot, and he's got a > go= > od relationship with the shoeshine lady. Holmes is a good tipper and a > good=20= > talker, which is a skill that came in handy that day. The shoeshine lady > was= > upset about something, and the music got her more upset. She complained, > Ho= > lmes said, that the music was too loud, and he tried to calm her down. > > Edna Souza is from Brazil. She's been shining shoes at L'Enfant Plaza for > si= > x years, and she's had her fill of street musicians there; when they play, > s= > he can't hear her customers, and that's bad for business. So she fights. > > Souza points to the dividing line between the Metro property, at the top > of=20= > the escalator, and the arcade, which is under control of the management > comp= > any that runs the mall. Sometimes, Souza says, a musician will stand on > the=20= > Metro side, sometimes on the mall side. Either way, she's got him. On her > sp= > eed dial, she has phone numbers for both the mall cops and the Metro cops. > T= > he musicians seldom last long. > > What about Joshua Bell? > > He was too loud, too, Souza says. Then she looks down at her rag, sniffs. > Sh= > e hates to say anything positive about these damned musicians, but: "He > was=20= > pretty good, that guy. It was the first time I didn't call the police." > > Souza was surprised to learn he was a famous musician, but not that people > r= > ushed blindly by him. That, she said, was predictable. "If something like > th= > is happened in Brazil, everyone would stand around to see. Not here." > > Souza nods sourly toward a spot near the top of the escalator: "Couple of > ye= > ars ago, a homeless guy died right there. He just lay down there and died. > T= > he police came, an ambulance came, and no one even stopped to see or > slowed=20= > down to look. > > "People walk up the escalator, they look straight ahead. Mind your own > busin= > ess, eyes forward. Everyone is stressed. Do you know what I mean?" > > What is this life if, full of care, > > We have no time to stand and stare. > > -- from "Leisure," by W.H. Davies > > Let's say Kant is right. Let's accept that we can't look at what happened > on= > January 12 and make any judgment whatever about people's sophistication > or=20= > their ability to appreciate beauty. But what about their ability to > apprecia= > te life? > > We're busy. Americans have been busy, as a people, since at least 1831, > when= > a young French sociologist named Alexis de Tocqueville visited the States > a= > nd found himself impressed, bemused and slightly dismayed at the degree to > w= > hich people were driven, to the exclusion of everything else, by hard work > a= > nd the accumulation of wealth. > > Not much has changed. Pop in a DVD of "Koyaanisqatsi," the wordless, > darkly=20= > brilliant, avant-garde 1982 film about the frenetic speed of modern life. > Ba= > cked by the minimalist music of Philip Glass, director Godfrey Reggio > takes=20= > film clips of Americans going about their daily business, but speeds them > up= > until they resemble assembly-line machines, robots marching lockstep to > now= > here. Now look at the video from L'Enfant Plaza, in fast-forward. The > Philip= > Glass soundtrack fits it perfectly. > > "Koyaanisqatsi" is a Hopi word. It means "life out of balance." > > In his 2003 book, Timeless Beauty: In the Arts and Everyday Life, British > au= > thor John Lane writes about the loss of the appreciation for beauty in the > m= > odern world. The experiment at L'Enfant Plaza may be symptomatic of that, > he= > said -- not because people didn't have the capacity to understand beauty, > b= > ut because it was irrelevant to them. > > "This is about having the wrong priorities," Lane said. > > If we can't take the time out of our lives to stay a moment and listen to > on= > e of the best musicians on Earth play some of the best music ever written; > i= > f the surge of modern life so overpowers us that we are deaf and blind to > so= > mething like that -- then what else are we missing? > > That's what the Welsh poet W.H. Davies meant in 1911 when he published > those= > two lines that begin this section. They made him famous. The thought was > si= > mple, even primitive, but somehow no one had put it quite that way before. > > Of course, Davies had an advantage -- an advantage of perception. He > wasn't=20= > a tradesman or a laborer or a bureaucrat or a consultant or a policy > analyst= > or a labor lawyer or a program manager. He was a hobo. > > THE CULTURAL HERO OF THE DAY ARRIVED AT L'ENFANT PLAZA PRETTY LATE, in the > u= > nprepossessing figure of one John Picarello, a smallish man with a baldish > h= > ead. > > Picarello hit the top of the escalator just after Bell began his final > piece= > , a reprise of "Chaconne." In the video, you see Picarello stop dead in > his=20= > tracks, locate the source of the music, and then retreat to the other end > of= > the arcade. He takes up a position past the shoeshine stand, across from > th= > at lottery line, and he will not budge for the next nine minutes. > > Like all the passersby interviewed for this article, Picarello was stopped > b= > y a reporter after he left the building, and was asked for his phone > number.= > Like everyone, he was told only that this was to be an article about > commut= > ing. When he was called later in the day, like everyone else, he was first > a= > sked if anything unusual had happened to him on his trip into work. Of the > m= > ore than 40 people contacted, Picarello was the only one who immediately > men= > tioned the violinist. > > "There was a musician playing at the top of the escalator at L'Enfant > Plaza.= > " > > Haven't you seen musicians there before? > > "Not like this one." > > What do you mean? > > "This was a superb violinist. I've never heard anyone of that caliber. He > wa= > s technically proficient, with very good phrasing. He had a good fiddle, > too= > , with a big, lush sound. I walked a distance away, to hear him. I didn't > wa= > nt to be intrusive on his space." > > Really? > > "Really. It was that kind of experience. It was a treat, just a brilliant, > i= > ncredible way to start the day." > > Picarello knows classical music. He is a fan of Joshua Bell but didn't > recog= > nize him; he hadn't seen a recent photo, and besides, for most of the time > P= > icarello was pretty far away. But he knew this was not a run-of-the-mill > guy= > out there, performing. On the video, you can see Picarello look around > him=20= > now and then, almost bewildered. > > "Yeah, other people just were not getting it. It just wasn't registering. > Th= > at was baffling to me." > > When Picarello was growing up in New York, he studied violin seriously, > inte= > nding to be a concert musician. But he gave it up at 18, when he decided > he'= > d never be good enough to make it pay. Life does that to you sometimes. > Some= > times, you have to do the prudent thing. So he went into another line of > wor= > k. He's a supervisor at the U.S. Postal Service. Doesn't play the violin > muc= > h, anymore. > > When he left, Picarello says, "I humbly threw in $5." It was humble: You > can= > actually see that on the video. Picarello walks up, barely looking at > Bell,= > and tosses in the money. Then, as if embarrassed, he quickly walks away > fro= > m the man he once wanted to be. > > Does he have regrets about how things worked out? > > The postal supervisor considers this. > > "No. If you love something but choose not to do it professionally, it's > not=20= > a waste. Because, you know, you still have it. You have it forever." > > BELL THINKS HE DID HIS BEST WORK OF THE DAY IN THOSE FINAL FEW MINUTES, in > t= > he second "Chaconne." And that also was the first time more than one > person=20= > at a time was listening. As Picarello stood in the back, Janice Olu > arrived=20= > and took up a position a few feet away from Bell. Olu, a public trust > office= > r with HUD, also played the violin as a kid. She didn't know the name of > the= > piece she was hearing, but she knew the man playing it has a gift. > > Olu was on a coffee break and stayed as long as she dared. As she turned > to=20= > go, she whispered to the stranger next to her, "I really don't want to > leave= > .." The stranger standing next to her happened to be working for The > Washingt= > on Post. > > In preparing for this event, editors at The Post Magazine discussed how to > d= > eal with likely outcomes. The most widely held assumption was that there > cou= > ld well be a problem with crowd control: In a demographic as sophisticated > a= > s Washington, the thinking went, several people would surely recognize > Bell.= > Nervous "what-if" scenarios abounded. As people gathered, what if others > st= > opped just to see what the attraction was? Word would spread through the > cro= > wd. Cameras would flash. More people flock to the scene; rush-hour > pedestria= > n traffic backs up; tempers flare; the National Guard is called; tear gas, > r= > ubber bullets, etc. > > As it happens, exactly one person recognized Bell, and she didn't arrive > unt= > il near the very end. For Stacy Furukawa, a demographer at the Commerce > Depa= > rtment, there was no doubt. She doesn't know much about classical music, > but= > she had been in the audience three weeks earlier, at Bell's free concert > at= > the Library of Congress. And here he was, the international virtuoso, > sawin= > g away, begging for money. She had no idea what the heck was going on, but > w= > hatever it was, she wasn't about to miss it. > > Furukawa positioned herself 10 feet away from Bell, front row, center. She > h= > ad a huge grin on her face. The grin, and Furukawa, remained planted in > that= > spot until the end. > > "It was the most astonishing thing I've ever seen in Washington," Furukawa > s= > ays. "Joshua Bell was standing there playing at rush hour, and people were > n= > ot stopping, and not even looking, and some were flipping quarters at him! > Q= > uarters! I wouldn't do that to anybody. I was thinking, Omigosh, what kind > o= > f a city do I live in that this could happen?" > > When it was over, Furukawa introduced herself to Bell, and tossed in a > twent= > y. Not counting that -- it was tainted by recognition -- the final haul > for=20= > his 43 minutes of playing was $32.17. Yes, some people gave pennies. > > "Actually," Bell said with a laugh, "that's not so bad, considering. > That's=20= > 40 bucks an hour. I could make an okay living doing this, and I wouldn't > hav= > e to pay an agent." > > These days, at L'Enfant Plaza, lotto ticket sales remain brisk. Musicians > st= > ill show up from time to time, and they still tick off Edna Souza. Joshua > Be= > ll's latest album, "The Voice of the Violin," has received the usual > critica= > l acclaim. ("Delicate urgency." "Masterful intimacy." "Unfailingly > exquisite= > .." "A musical summit." ". . . will make your heart thump and weep at the > sam= > e time.") > > Bell headed off on a concert tour of European capitals. But he is back in > th= > e States this week. He has to be. On Tuesday, he will be accepting the > Avery= > Fisher prize, recognizing the Flop of L'Enfant Plaza as the best > classical=20= > musician in America. > > Emily Shroder, Rachel Manteuffel, John W. Poole and Magazine Editor Tom > Shro= > der contributed to this report. Gene Weingarten, a Magazine staff writer, > ca= > n be reached at weingarten at washpost.com. He will be fielding questions and > c= > omments about this article Monday at 1 p.m. > .. > > > > > > ------------------------------ > Ahhh...imagining that irresistible "new car" smell? > Check out new cars at Yahoo! Autos._________________________________________ > 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. > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > List archive: > > > ------------------------------ > Check out what you're missing if you're not on Yahoo! Messenger > > > _________________________________________ > 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. > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > List archive: > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070419/a6f5f961/attachment.html From priyashakaul at gmail.com Thu Apr 19 20:50:42 2007 From: priyashakaul at gmail.com (Priyasha Kaul) Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2007 16:20:42 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] [Urbanstudy] Article from the Washington Post: an experiment in context, perception, priorities In-Reply-To: <590197.91888.qm@web30502.mail.mud.yahoo.com> References: <132707.151.qm@web53603.mail.re2.yahoo.com> <590197.91888.qm@web30502.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: and what do you think of the reactions of the people, especially if the musican was a woman? the jumble of gender, power, expression and space in the interstices of a city like delhi, indeed a worthy experiment ! On 4/18/07, paramita ghosh wrote: > just wonder how an experiment like this would play out in the delhi metro? > which artist do u think could be game for this? > > > lalitha kamath wrote: > > > A story ran in The Washington Post this week -- on Easter Sunday -- > In a nutshell, the Post convinced one of the world's greatest violinists > to=20= > go incognito and play his fiddle at a Metro station, standing there with > his= > open case like just another street musician, begging for money. He was > play= > ing some of the most beautiful and complex violin pieces from history, > thing= > s that people shell out $100 and put on their Sunday best to go see in a > con= > cert hall. But would anyone appreciate him -- or his music -- as > essentially= > a street corner beggar, even though the same gorgeous music was being > playe= > d? > > The results are astonishing. Check it out: > > http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401= > 721.html > > Here's the story, for those who can't get to it online: > > Pearls Before Breakfast > Can one of the nation's great musicians cut through the fog of a D.C. rush > h= > our? Let's find out. > > By Gene Weingarten > Washington Post Staff Writer > Sunday, April 8, 2007; W10 > > HE EMERGED FROM THE METRO AT THE L'ENFANT PLAZA STATION AND POSITIONED > HIMSE= > LF AGAINST A WALL BESIDE A TRASH BASKET. By most measures, he was > nondescrip= > t: a youngish white man in jeans, a long-sleeved T-shirt and a Washington > Na= > tionals baseball cap. From a small case, he removed a violin. Placing the > op= > en case at his feet, he shrewdly threw in a few dollars and pocket change > as= > seed money, swiveled it to face pedestrian traffic, and began to play. > > It was 7:51 a.m. on Friday, January 12, the middle of the morning rush > hour.= > In the next 43 minutes, as the violinist performed six classical pieces, > 1,= > 097 people passed by. Almost all of them were on the way to work, which > mean= > t, for almost all of them, a government job. L'Enfant Plaza is at the > nucleu= > s of federal Washington, and these were mostly mid-level bureaucrats with > th= > ose indeterminate, oddly fungible titles: policy analyst, project manager, > b= > udget officer, specialist, facilitator, consultant. > > Each passerby had a quick choice to make, one familiar to commuters in any > u= > rban area where the occasional street performer is part of the cityscape: > Do= > you stop and listen? Do you hurry past with a blend of guilt and > irritation= > , aware of your cupidity but annoyed by the unbidden demand on your time > and= > your wallet? Do you throw in a buck, just to be polite? Does your > decision=20= > change if he's really bad? What if he's really good? Do you have time for > be= > auty? Shouldn't you? What's the moral mathematics of the moment? > > On that Friday in January, those private questions would be answered in an > u= > nusually public way. No one knew it, but the fiddler standing against a > bare= > wall outside the Metro in an indoor arcade at the top of the escalators > was= > one of the finest classical musicians in the world, playing some of the > mos= > t elegant music ever written on one of the most valuable violins ever > made.=20= > His performance was arranged by The Washington Post as an experiment in > cont= > ext, perception and priorities -- as well as an unblinking assessment of > pub= > lic taste: In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty > transcen= > d? > > The musician did not play popular tunes whose familiarity alone might have > d= > rawn interest. That was not the test. These were masterpieces that have > endu= > red for centuries on their brilliance alone, soaring music befitting the > gra= > ndeur of cathedrals and concert halls. > > The acoustics proved surprisingly kind. Though the arcade is of > utilitarian=20= > design, a buffer between the Metro escalator and the outdoors, it somehow > ca= > ught the sound and bounced it back round and resonant. The violin is an > inst= > rument that is said to be much like the human voice, and in this > musician's=20= > masterly hands, it sobbed and laughed and sang -- ecstatic, sorrowful, > impor= > tuning, adoring, flirtatious, castigating, playful, romancing, merry, > triump= > hal, sumptuous. > > So, what do you think happened? > > HANG ON, WE'LL GET YOU SOME EXPERT HELP. > > Leonard Slatkin, music director of the National Symphony Orchestra, was > aske= > d the same question. What did he think would occur, hypothetically, if one > o= > f the world's great violinists had performed incognito before a traveling > ru= > sh-hour audience of 1,000-odd people? > > "Let's assume," Slatkin said, "that he is not recognized and just taken > for=20= > granted as a street musician . . . Still, I don't think that if he's > really=20= > good, he's going to go unnoticed. He'd get a larger audience in Europe . . > .= > but, okay, out of 1,000 people, my guess is there might be 35 or 40 who > wil= > l recognize the quality for what it is. Maybe 75 to 100 will stop and > spend=20= > some time listening." > > So, a crowd would gather? > > "Oh, yes." > > And how much will he make? > > "About $150." > > Thanks, Maestro. As it happens, this is not hypothetical. It really > happened= > .. > > "How'd I do?" > > We'll tell you in a minute. > > "Well, who was the musician?" > > Joshua Bell. > > "NO!!!" > > A onetime child prodigy, at 39 Joshua Bell has arrived as an > internationally= > acclaimed virtuoso. Three days before he appeared at the Metro station, > Bel= > l had filled the house at Boston's stately Symphony Hall, where merely > prett= > y good seats went for $100. Two weeks later, at the Music Center at > Strathmo= > re, in North Bethesda, he would play to a standing-room-only audience so > res= > pectful of his artistry that they stifled their coughs until the silence > bet= > ween movements. But on that Friday in January, Joshua Bell was just > another=20= > mendicant, competing for the attention of busy people on their way to work. > > Bell was first pitched this idea shortly before Christmas, over coffee at > a=20= > sandwich shop on Capitol Hill. A New Yorker, he was in town to perform at > th= > e Library of Congress and to visit the library's vaults to examine an > unusua= > l treasure: an 18th-century violin that once belonged to the great > Austrian-= > born virtuoso and composer Fritz Kreisler. The curators invited Bell to > play= > it; good sound, still. > > "Here's what I'm thinking," Bell confided, as he sipped his coffee. "I'm > thi= > nking that I could do a tour where I'd play Kreisler's music . . ." > > He smiled. > > ". . . on Kreisler's violin." > > It was a snazzy, sequined idea -- part inspiration and part gimmick -- and > i= > t was typical of Bell, who has unapologetically embraced showmanship even > as= > his concert career has become more and more august. He's soloed with the > fi= > nest orchestras here and abroad, but he's also appeared on "Sesame > Street,"=20= > done late-night talk TV and performed in feature films. That was Bell > playin= > g the soundtrack on the 1998 movie "The Red Violin." (He body-doubled, > too,=20= > playing to a naked Greta Scacchi.) As composer John Corigliano accepted > the=20= > Oscar for Best Original Dramatic Score, he credited Bell, who, he said, > "pla= > ys like a god." > > When Bell was asked if he'd be willing to don street clothes and perform > at=20= > rush hour, he said: > > "Uh, a stunt?" > > Well, yes. A stunt. Would he think it . . . unseemly? > > Bell drained his cup. > > "Sounds like fun," he said. > > Bell's a heartthrob. Tall and handsome, he's got a Donny Osmond-like dose > of= > the cutes, and, onstage, cute elides into hott. When he performs, he is > usu= > ally the only man under the lights who is not in white tie and tails -- he > w= > alks out to a standing O, looking like Zorro, in black pants and an > untucked= > black dress shirt, shirttail dangling. That cute Beatles-style mop top is > a= > lso a strategic asset: Because his technique is full of body -- athletic > and= > passionate -- he's almost dancing with the instrument, and his hair flies. > > He's single and straight, a fact not lost on some of his fans. In Boston, > as= > he performed Max Bruch's dour Violin Concerto in G Minor, the very few > youn= > g women in the audience nearly disappeared in the deep sea of silver > heads.=20= > But seemingly every single one of them -- a distillate of the young and > pret= > ty -- coalesced at the stage door after the performance, seeking an > autograp= > h. It's like that always, with Bell. > > Bell's been accepting over-the-top accolades since puberty: Interview > magazi= > ne once said his playing "does nothing less than tell human beings why > they=20= > bother to live." He's learned to field these things graciously, with a > bashf= > ul duck of the head and a modified "pshaw." > > For this incognito performance, Bell had only one condition for > participatin= > g. The event had been described to him as a test of whether, in an > incongruo= > us context, ordinary people would recognize genius. His condition: "I'm > not=20= > comfortable if you call this genius." "Genius" is an overused word, he > said:= > It can be applied to some of the composers whose work he plays, but not > to=20= > him. His skills are largely interpretive, he said, and to imply otherwise > wo= > uld be unseemly and inaccurate. > > It was an interesting request, and under the circumstances, one that will > be= > honored. The word will not again appear in this article. > > It would be breaking no rules, however, to note that the term in question, > p= > articularly as applied in the field of music, refers to a congenital > brillia= > nce -- an elite, innate, preternatural ability that manifests itself > early,=20= > and often in dramatic fashion. > > One biographically intriguing fact about Bell is that he got his first > music= > lessons when he was a 4-year-old in Bloomington, Ind. His parents, both > psy= > chologists, decided formal training might be a good idea after they saw > that= > their son had strung rubber bands across his dresser drawers and was > replic= > ating classical tunes by ear, moving drawers in and out to vary the pitch. > > TO GET TO THE METRO FROM HIS HOTEL, a distance of three blocks, Bell took > a=20= > taxi. He's neither lame nor lazy: He did it for his violin. > > Bell always performs on the same instrument, and he ruled out using > another=20= > for this gig. Called the Gibson ex Huberman, it was handcrafted in 1713 by > A= > ntonio Stradivari during the Italian master's "golden period," toward the > en= > d of his career, when he had access to the finest spruce, maple and > willow,=20= > and when his technique had been refined to perfection. > > "Our knowledge of acoustics is still incomplete," Bell said, "but he, he > jus= > t . . . knew." > > Bell doesn't mention Stradivari by name. Just "he." When the violinist > shows= > his Strad to people, he holds the instrument gingerly by its neck, > resting=20= > it on a knee. "He made this to perfect thickness at all parts," Bell says, > p= > ivoting it. "If you shaved off a millimeter of wood at any point, it would > t= > otally imbalance the sound." No violins sound as wonderful as Strads from > th= > e 1710s, still. > > The front of Bell's violin is in nearly perfect condition, with a deep, > rich= > grain and luster. The back is a mess, its dark reddish finish bleeding > away= > into a flatter, lighter shade and finally, in one section, to bare wood. > > "This has never been refinished," Bell said. "That's his original varnish. > P= > eople attribute aspects of the sound to the varnish. Each maker had his > own=20= > secret formula." Stradivari is thought to have made his from an > ingeniously=20= > balanced cocktail of honey, egg whites and gum arabic from sub-Saharan > trees= > .. > > Like the instrument in "The Red Violin," this one has a past filled with > mys= > tery and malice. Twice, it was stolen from its illustrious prior owner, > the=20= > Polish virtuoso Bronislaw Huberman. The first time, in 1919, it > disappeared=20= > from Huberman's hotel room in Vienna but was quickly returned. The second > ti= > me, nearly 20 years later, it was pinched from his dressing room in > Carnegie= > Hall. He never got it back. It was not until 1985 that the thief -- a > minor= > New York violinist -- made a deathbed confession to his wife, and > produced=20= > the instrument. > > Bell bought it a few years ago. He had to sell his own Strad and borrow > much= > of the rest. The price tag was reported to be about $3.5 million. > > All of which is a long explanation for why, in the early morning chill of > a=20= > day in January, Josh Bell took a three-block cab ride to the Orange Line, > an= > d rode one stop to L'Enfant. > > AS METRO STATIONS GO, L'ENFANT PLAZA IS MORE PLEBEIAN THAN MOST. Even > before= > you arrive, it gets no respect. Metro conductors never seem to get it > right= > : "Leh-fahn." "Layfont." "El'phant." > > At the top of the escalators are a shoeshine stand and a busy kiosk that > sel= > ls newspapers, lottery tickets and a wallfull of magazines with titles > such=20= > as Mammazons and Girls of Barely Legal. The skin mags move, but it's that > lo= > ttery ticket dispenser that stays the busiest, with customers queuing up > for= > Daily 6 lotto and Powerball and the ultimate suckers' bait, those > pamphlets= > that sell random number combinations purporting to be "hot." They sell > bris= > kly. There's also a quick-check machine to slide in your lotto ticket, > post-= > drawing, to see if you've won. Beneath it is a forlorn pile of crumpled > slip= > s. > > On Friday, January 12, the people waiting in the lottery line looking for > a=20= > long shot would get a lucky break -- a free, close-up ticket to a concert > by= > one of the world's most famous musicians -- but only if they were of a > mind= > to take note. > > Bell decided to begin with "Chaconne" from Johann Sebastian Bach's Partita > N= > o. 2 in D Minor. Bell calls it "not just one of the greatest pieces of > music= > ever written, but one of the greatest achievements of any man in history. > I= > t's a spiritually powerful piece, emotionally powerful, structurally > perfect= > .. Plus, it was written for a solo violin, so I won't be cheating with some > h= > alf-assed version." > > Bell didn't say it, but Bach's "Chaconne" is also considered one of the > most= > difficult violin pieces to master. Many try; few succeed. It's > exhaustingly= > long -- 14 minutes -- and consists entirely of a single, succinct musical > p= > rogression repeated in dozens of variations to create a dauntingly complex > a= > rchitecture of sound. Composed around 1720, on the eve of the European > Enlig= > htenment, it is said to be a celebration of the breadth of human > possibility= > .. > > If Bell's encomium to "Chaconne" seems overly effusive, consider this from > t= > he 19th-century composer Johannes Brahms, in a letter to Clara Schumann: > "On= > one stave, for a small instrument, the man writes a whole world of the > deep= > est thoughts and most powerful feelings. If I imagined that I could have > cre= > ated, even conceived the piece, I am quite certain that the excess of > excite= > ment and earth-shattering experience would have driven me out of my mind." > > So, that's the piece Bell started with. > > He'd clearly meant it when he promised not to cheap out this performance: > He= > played with acrobatic enthusiasm, his body leaning into the music and > archi= > ng on tiptoes at the high notes. The sound was nearly symphonic, carrying > to= > all parts of the homely arcade as the pedestrian traffic filed past. > > Three minutes went by before something happened. Sixty-three people had > alre= > ady passed when, finally, there was a breakthrough of sorts. A middle-age > ma= > n altered his gait for a split second, turning his head to notice that > there= > seemed to be some guy playing music. Yes, the man kept walking, but it > was=20= > something. > > A half-minute later, Bell got his first donation. A woman threw in a buck > an= > d scooted off. It was not until six minutes into the performance that > someon= > e actually stood against a wall, and listened. > > Things never got much better. In the three-quarters of an hour that Joshua > B= > ell played, seven people stopped what they were doing to hang around and > tak= > e in the performance, at least for a minute. Twenty-seven gave money, most > o= > f them on the run -- for a total of $32 and change. That leaves the 1,070 > pe= > ople who hurried by, oblivious, many only three feet away, few even > turning=20= > to look. > > No, Mr. Slatkin, there was never a crowd, not even for a second. > > It was all videotaped by a hidden camera. You can play the recording once > or= > 15 times, and it never gets any easier to watch. Try speeding it up, and > it= > becomes one of those herky-jerky World War I-era silent newsreels. The > peop= > le scurry by in comical little hops and starts, cups of coffee in their > hand= > s, cellphones at their ears, ID tags slapping at their bellies, a grim > danse= > macabre to indifference, inertia and the dingy, gray rush of modernity. > > Even at this accelerated pace, though, the fiddler's movements remain > fluid=20= > and graceful; he seems so apart from his audience -- unseen, unheard, > otherw= > orldly -- that you find yourself thinking that he's not really there. A > ghos= > t. > > Only then do you see it: He is the one who is real. They are the ghosts. > > IF A GREAT MUSICIAN PLAYS GREAT MUSIC BUT NO ONE HEARS . . . WAS HE REALLY > A= > NY GOOD? > > It's an old epistemological debate, older, actually, than the koan about > the= > tree in the forest. Plato weighed in on it, and philosophers for two > millen= > nia afterward: What is beauty? Is it a measurable fact (Gottfried > Leibniz),=20= > or merely an opinion (David Hume), or is it a little of each, colored by > the= > immediate state of mind of the observer (Immanuel Kant)? > > We'll go with Kant, because he's obviously right, and because he brings us > p= > retty directly to Joshua Bell, sitting there in a hotel restaurant, > picking=20= > at his breakfast, wryly trying to figure out what the hell had just > happened= > back there at the Metro. > > "At the beginning," Bell says, "I was just concentrating on playing the > musi= > c. I wasn't really watching what was happening around me . . ." > > Playing the violin looks all-consuming, mentally and physically, but Bell > sa= > ys that for him the mechanics of it are partly second nature, cemented by > pr= > actice and muscle memory: It's like a juggler, he says, who can keep those > b= > alls in play while interacting with a crowd. What he's mostly thinking > about= > as he plays, Bell says, is capturing emotion as a narrative: "When you > play= > a violin piece, you are a storyteller, and you're telling a story." > > With "Chaconne," the opening is filled with a building sense of awe. That > ke= > pt him busy for a while. Eventually, though, he began to steal a sidelong > gl= > ance. > > "It was a strange feeling, that people were actually, ah . . ." > > The word doesn't come easily. > > ". . . ignoring me." > > Bell is laughing. It's at himself. > > "At a music hall, I'll get upset if someone coughs or if someone's > cellphone= > goes off. But here, my expectations quickly diminished. I started to > apprec= > iate any acknowledgment, even a slight glance up. I was oddly grateful > when=20= > someone threw in a dollar instead of change." This is from a man whose > talen= > ts can command $1,000 a minute. > > Before he began, Bell hadn't known what to expect. What he does know is > that= > , for some reason, he was nervous. > > "It wasn't exactly stage fright, but there were butterflies," he says. "I > wa= > s stressing a little." > > Bell has played, literally, before crowned heads of Europe. Why the > anxiety=20= > at the Washington Metro? > > "When you play for ticket-holders," Bell explains, "you are already > validate= > d. I have no sense that I need to be accepted. I'm already accepted. Here, > t= > here was this thought: What if they don't like me? What if they resent my > pr= > esence . . ." > > He was, in short, art without a frame. Which, it turns out, may have a lot > t= > o do with what happened -- or, more precisely, what didn't happen -- on > Janu= > ary 12. > > MARK LEITHAUSER HAS HELD IN HIS HANDS MORE GREAT WORKS OF ART THAN ANY > KING=20= > OR POPE OR MEDICI EVER DID. A senior curator at the National Gallery, he > ove= > rsees the framing of the paintings. Leithauser thinks he has some idea of > wh= > at happened at that Metro station. > > "Let's say I took one of our more abstract masterpieces, say an Ellsworth > Ke= > lly, and removed it from its frame, marched it down the 52 steps that > people= > walk up to get to the National Gallery, past the giant columns, and > brought= > it into a restaurant. It's a $5 million painting. And it's one of those > res= > taurants where there are pieces of original art for sale, by some > industriou= > s kids from the Corcoran School, and I hang that Kelly on the wall with a > pr= > ice tag of $150. No one is going to notice it. An art curator might look > up=20= > and say: 'Hey, that looks a little like an Ellsworth Kelly. Please pass > the=20= > salt.'" > > Leithauser's point is that we shouldn't be too ready to label the Metro > pass= > ersby unsophisticated boobs. Context matters. > > Kant said the same thing. He took beauty seriously: In his Critique of > Aesth= > etic Judgment, Kant argued that one's ability to appreciate beauty is > relate= > d to one's ability to make moral judgments. But there was a caveat. Paul > Guy= > er of the University of Pennsylvania, one of America's most prominent > Kantia= > n scholars, says the 18th-century German philosopher felt that to properly > a= > ppreciate beauty, the viewing conditions must be optimal. > > "Optimal," Guyer said, "doesn't mean heading to work, focusing on your > repor= > t to the boss, maybe your shoes don't fit right." > > So, if Kant had been at the Metro watching as Joshua Bell play to a > thousand= > unimpressed passersby? > > "He would have inferred about them," Guyer said, "absolutely nothing." > > And that's that. > > Except it isn't. To really understand what happened, you have to rewind > that= > video and play it back from the beginning, from the moment Bell's bow > first= > touched the strings. > > White guy, khakis, leather jacket, briefcase. Early 30s. John David > Mortense= > n is on the final leg of his daily bus-to-Metro commute from Reston. He's > he= > ading up the escalator. It's a long ride -- 1 minute and 15 seconds if you > d= > on't walk. So, like most everyone who passes Bell this day, Mortensen gets > a= > good earful of music before he has his first look at the musician. Like > mos= > t of them, he notes that it sounds pretty good. But like very few of them, > w= > hen he gets to the top, he doesn't race past as though Bell were some > nuisan= > ce to be avoided. Mortensen is that first person to stop, that guy at the > si= > x-minute mark. > > It's not that he has nothing else to do. He's a project manager for an > inter= > national program at the Department of Energy; on this day, Mortensen has > to=20= > participate in a monthly budget exercise, not the most exciting part of > his=20= > job: "You review the past month's expenditures," he says, "forecast > spending= > for the next month, if you have X dollars, where will it go, that sort of > t= > hing." > > On the video, you can see Mortensen get off the escalator and look around. > H= > e locates the violinist, stops, walks away but then is drawn back. He > checks= > the time on his cellphone -- he's three minutes early for work -- then > sett= > les against a wall to listen. > > Mortensen doesn't know classical music at all; classic rock is as close as > h= > e comes. But there's something about what he's hearing that he really likes. > > As it happens, he's arrived at the moment that Bell slides into the second > s= > ection of "Chaconne." ("It's the point," Bell says, "where it moves from a > d= > arker, minor key into a major key. There's a religious, exalted feeling to > i= > t.") The violinist's bow begins to dance; the music becomes upbeat, > playful,= > theatrical, big. > > Mortensen doesn't know about major or minor keys: "Whatever it was," he > says= > , "it made me feel at peace." > > So, for the first time in his life, Mortensen lingers to listen to a > street=20= > musician. He stays his allotted three minutes as 94 more people pass > briskly= > by. When he leaves to help plan contingency budgets for the Department of > E= > nergy, there's another first. For the first time in his life, not quite > know= > ing what had just happened but sensing it was special, John David > Mortensen=20= > gives a street musician money. > > THERE ARE SIX MOMENTS IN THE VIDEO THAT BELL FINDS PARTICULARLY PAINFUL TO > R= > ELIVE: "The awkward times," he calls them. It's what happens right after > eac= > h piece ends: nothing. The music stops. The same people who hadn't noticed > h= > im playing don't notice that he has finished. No applause, no > acknowledgment= > .. So Bell just saws out a small, nervous chord -- the embarrassed > musician's= > equivalent of, "Er, okay, moving right along . . ." -- and begins the > next=20= > piece. > > After "Chaconne," it is Franz Schubert's "Ave Maria," which surprised some > m= > usic critics when it debuted in 1825: Schubert seldom showed religious > feeli= > ng in his compositions, yet "Ave Maria" is a breathtaking work of > adoration=20= > of the Virgin Mary. What was with the sudden piety? Schubert dryly > answered:= > "I think this is due to the fact that I never forced devotion in myself > and= > never compose hymns or prayers of that kind unless it overcomes me > unawares= > ; but then it is usually the right and true devotion." This musical prayer > b= > ecame among the most familiar and enduring religious pieces in history. > > A couple of minutes into it, something revealing happens. A woman and her > pr= > eschooler emerge from the escalator. The woman is walking briskly and, > there= > fore, so is the child. She's got his hand. > > "I had a time crunch," recalls Sheron Parker, an IT director for a federal > a= > gency. "I had an 8:30 training class, and first I had to rush Evvie off to > h= > is teacher, then rush back to work, then to the training facility in the > bas= > ement." > > Evvie is her son, Evan. Evan is 3. > > You can see Evan clearly on the video. He's the cute black kid in the > parka=20= > who keeps twisting around to look at Joshua Bell, as he is being propelled > t= > oward the door. > > "There was a musician," Parker says, "and my son was intrigued. He wanted > to= > pull over and listen, but I was rushed for time." > > So Parker does what she has to do. She deftly moves her body between > Evan's=20= > and Bell's, cutting off her son's line of sight. As they exit the arcade, > Ev= > an can still be seen craning to look. When Parker is told what she walked > ou= > t on, she laughs. > > "Evan is very smart!" > > The poet Billy Collins once laughingly observed that all babies are born > wit= > h a knowledge of poetry, because the lub-dub of the mother's heart is in > iam= > bic meter. Then, Collins said, life slowly starts to choke the poetry out > of= > us. It may be true with music, too. > > There was no ethnic or demographic pattern to distinguish the people who > sta= > yed to watch Bell, or the ones who gave money, from that vast majority who > h= > urried on past, unheeding. Whites, blacks and Asians, young and old, men > and= > women, were represented in all three groups. But the behavior of one > demogr= > aphic remained absolutely consistent. Every single time a child walked > past,= > he or she tried to stop and watch. And every single time, a parent > scooted=20= > the kid away. > > IF THERE WAS ONE PERSON ON THAT DAY WHO WAS TOO BUSY TO PAY ATTENTION TO > THE= > VIOLINIST, it was George Tindley. Tindley wasn't hurrying to get to work. > H= > e was at work. > > The glass doors through which most people exit the L'Enfant station lead > int= > o an indoor shopping mall, from which there are exits to the street and > elev= > ators to office buildings. The first store in the mall is an Au Bon Pain, > th= > e croissant and coffee shop where Tindley, in his 40s, works in a white > unif= > orm busing the tables, restocking the salt and pepper packets, taking out > th= > e garbage. Tindley labors under the watchful eye of his bosses, and he's > sup= > posed to be hopping, and he was. > > But every minute or so, as though drawn by something not entirely within > his= > control, Tindley would walk to the very edge of the Au Bon Pain property, > k= > eeping his toes inside the line, still on the job. Then he'd lean forward, > a= > s far out into the hallway as he could, watching the fiddler on the other > si= > de of the glass doors. The foot traffic was steady, so the doors were > usuall= > y open. The sound came through pretty well. > > "You could tell in one second that this guy was good, that he was clearly > a=20= > professional," Tindley says. He plays the guitar, loves the sound of > strings= > , and has no respect for a certain kind of musician. > > "Most people, they play music; they don't feel it," Tindley says. "Well, > tha= > t man was feeling it. That man was moving. Moving into the sound." > > A hundred feet away, across the arcade, was the lottery line, sometimes > five= > or six people long. They had a much better view of Bell than Tindley did, > i= > f they had just turned around. But no one did. Not in the entire 43 > minutes.= > They just shuffled forward toward that machine spitting out numbers. Eyes > o= > n the prize. > > J.T. Tillman was in that line. A computer specialist for the Department of > H= > ousing and Urban Development, he remembers every single number he played > tha= > t day -- 10 of them, $2 apiece, for a total of $20. He doesn't recall what > t= > he violinist was playing, though. He says it sounded like generic > classical=20= > music, the kind the ship's band was playing in "Titanic," before the > iceberg= > .. > > "I didn't think nothing of it," Tillman says, "just a guy trying to make a > c= > ouple of bucks." Tillman would have given him one or two, he said, but he > sp= > ent all his cash on lotto. > > When he is told that he stiffed one of the best musicians in the world, he > l= > aughs. > > "Is he ever going to play around here again?" > > "Yeah, but you're going to have to pay a lot to hear him." > > "Damn." > > Tillman didn't win the lottery, either. > > BELL ENDS "AVE MARIA" TO ANOTHER THUNDEROUS SILENCE, plays Manuel Ponce's > se= > ntimental "Estrellita," then a piece by Jules Massenet, and then begins a > Ba= > ch gavotte, a joyful, frolicsome, lyrical dance. It's got an Old World > delic= > acy to it; you can imagine it entertaining bewigged dancers at a > Versailles=20= > ball, or -- in a lute, fiddle and fife version -- the boot-kicking > peasants=20= > of a Pieter Bruegel painting. > > Watching the video weeks later, Bell finds himself mystified by one thing > on= > ly. He understands why he's not drawing a crowd, in the rush of a morning > wo= > rkday. But: "I'm surprised at the number of people who don't pay attention > a= > t all, as if I'm invisible. Because, you know what? I'm makin' a lot of > nois= > e!" > > He is. You don't need to know music at all to appreciate the simple fact > tha= > t there's a guy there, playing a violin that's throwing out a whole bucket > o= > f sound; at times, Bell's bowing is so intricate that you seem to be > hearing= > two instruments playing in harmony. So those head-forward, quick-stepping > p= > assersby are a remarkable phenomenon. > > Bell wonders whether their inattention may be deliberate: If you don't > take=20= > visible note of the musician, you don't have to feel guilty about not > forkin= > g over money; you're not complicit in a rip-off. > > It may be true, but no one gave that explanation. People just said they > were= > busy, had other things on their mind. Some who were on cellphones spoke > lou= > der as they passed Bell, to compete with that infernal racket. > > And then there was Calvin Myint. Myint works for the General Services > Admini= > stration. He got to the top of the escalator, turned right and headed out > a=20= > door to the street. A few hours later, he had no memory that there had > been=20= > a musician anywhere in sight. > > "Where was he, in relation to me?" > > "About four feet away." > > "Oh." > > There's nothing wrong with Myint's hearing. He had buds in his ear. He was > l= > istening to his iPod. > > For many of us, the explosion in technology has perversely limited, not > expa= > nded, our exposure to new experiences. Increasingly, we get our news from > so= > urces that think as we already do. And with iPods, we hear what we already > k= > now; we program our own playlists. > > The song that Calvin Myint was listening to was "Just Like Heaven," by the > B= > ritish rock band The Cure. It's a terrific song, actually. The meaning is > a=20= > little opaque, and the Web is filled with earnest efforts to deconstruct > it.= > Many are far-fetched, but some are right on point: It's about a tragic > emot= > ional disconnect. A man has found the woman of his dreams but can't > express=20= > the depth of his feeling for her until she's gone. It's about failing to > see= > the beauty of what's plainly in front of your eyes. > > "YES, I SAW THE VIOLINIST," Jackie Hessian says, "but nothing about him > stru= > ck me as much of anything." > > You couldn't tell that by watching her. Hessian was one of those people > who=20= > gave Bell a long, hard look before walking on. It turns out that she > wasn't=20= > noticing the music at all. > > "I really didn't hear that much," she said. "I was just trying to figure > out= > what he was doing there, how does this work for him, can he make much > money= > , would it be better to start with some money in the case, or for it to be > e= > mpty, so people feel sorry for you? I was analyzing it financially." > > What do you do, Jackie? > > "I'm a lawyer in labor relations with the United States Postal Service. I > ju= > st negotiated a national contract." > > THE BEST SEATS IN THE HOUSE WERE UPHOLSTERED. In the balcony, more or > less.=20= > On that day, for $5, you'd get a lot more than just a nice shine on your > sho= > es. > > Only one person occupied one of those seats when Bell played. Terence > Holmes= > is a consultant for the Department of Transportation, and he liked the > musi= > c just fine, but it was really about a shoeshine: "My father told me never > t= > o wear a suit with your shoes not cleaned and shined." > > Holmes wears suits often, so he is up in that perch a lot, and he's got a > go= > od relationship with the shoeshine lady. Holmes is a good tipper and a > good=20= > talker, which is a skill that came in handy that day. The shoeshine lady > was= > upset about something, and the music got her more upset. She complained, > Ho= > lmes said, that the music was too loud, and he tried to calm her down. > > Edna Souza is from Brazil. She's been shining shoes at L'Enfant Plaza for > si= > x years, and she's had her fill of street musicians there; when they play, > s= > he can't hear her customers, and that's bad for business. So she fights. > > Souza points to the dividing line between the Metro property, at the top > of=20= > the escalator, and the arcade, which is under control of the management > comp= > any that runs the mall. Sometimes, Souza says, a musician will stand on > the=20= > Metro side, sometimes on the mall side. Either way, she's got him. On her > sp= > eed dial, she has phone numbers for both the mall cops and the Metro cops. > T= > he musicians seldom last long. > > What about Joshua Bell? > > He was too loud, too, Souza says. Then she looks down at her rag, sniffs. > Sh= > e hates to say anything positive about these damned musicians, but: "He > was=20= > pretty good, that guy. It was the first time I didn't call the police." > > Souza was surprised to learn he was a famous musician, but not that people > r= > ushed blindly by him. That, she said, was predictable. "If something like > th= > is happened in Brazil, everyone would stand around to see. Not here." > > Souza nods sourly toward a spot near the top of the escalator: "Couple of > ye= > ars ago, a homeless guy died right there. He just lay down there and died. > T= > he police came, an ambulance came, and no one even stopped to see or > slowed=20= > down to look. > > "People walk up the escalator, they look straight ahead. Mind your own > busin= > ess, eyes forward. Everyone is stressed. Do you know what I mean?" > > What is this life if, full of care, > > We have no time to stand and stare. > > -- from "Leisure," by W.H. Davies > > Let's say Kant is right. Let's accept that we can't look at what happened > on= > January 12 and make any judgment whatever about people's sophistication > or=20= > their ability to appreciate beauty. But what about their ability to > apprecia= > te life? > > We're busy. Americans have been busy, as a people, since at least 1831, > when= > a young French sociologist named Alexis de Tocqueville visited the States > a= > nd found himself impressed, bemused and slightly dismayed at the degree to > w= > hich people were driven, to the exclusion of everything else, by hard work > a= > nd the accumulation of wealth. > > Not much has changed. Pop in a DVD of "Koyaanisqatsi," the wordless, > darkly=20= > brilliant, avant-garde 1982 film about the frenetic speed of modern life. > Ba= > cked by the minimalist music of Philip Glass, director Godfrey Reggio > takes=20= > film clips of Americans going about their daily business, but speeds them > up= > until they resemble assembly-line machines, robots marching lockstep to > now= > here. Now look at the video from L'Enfant Plaza, in fast-forward. The > Philip= > Glass soundtrack fits it perfectly. > > "Koyaanisqatsi" is a Hopi word. It means "life out of balance." > > In his 2003 book, Timeless Beauty: In the Arts and Everyday Life, British > au= > thor John Lane writes about the loss of the appreciation for beauty in the > m= > odern world. The experiment at L'Enfant Plaza may be symptomatic of that, > he= > said -- not because people didn't have the capacity to understand beauty, > b= > ut because it was irrelevant to them. > > "This is about having the wrong priorities," Lane said. > > If we can't take the time out of our lives to stay a moment and listen to > on= > e of the best musicians on Earth play some of the best music ever written; > i= > f the surge of modern life so overpowers us that we are deaf and blind to > so= > mething like that -- then what else are we missing? > > That's what the Welsh poet W.H. Davies meant in 1911 when he published > those= > two lines that begin this section. They made him famous. The thought was > si= > mple, even primitive, but somehow no one had put it quite that way before. > > Of course, Davies had an advantage -- an advantage of perception. He > wasn't=20= > a tradesman or a laborer or a bureaucrat or a consultant or a policy > analyst= > or a labor lawyer or a program manager. He was a hobo. > > THE CULTURAL HERO OF THE DAY ARRIVED AT L'ENFANT PLAZA PRETTY LATE, in the > u= > nprepossessing figure of one John Picarello, a smallish man with a baldish > h= > ead. > > Picarello hit the top of the escalator just after Bell began his final > piece= > , a reprise of "Chaconne." In the video, you see Picarello stop dead in > his=20= > tracks, locate the source of the music, and then retreat to the other end > of= > the arcade. He takes up a position past the shoeshine stand, across from > th= > at lottery line, and he will not budge for the next nine minutes. > > Like all the passersby interviewed for this article, Picarello was stopped > b= > y a reporter after he left the building, and was asked for his phone > number.= > Like everyone, he was told only that this was to be an article about > commut= > ing. When he was called later in the day, like everyone else, he was first > a= > sked if anything unusual had happened to him on his trip into work. Of the > m= > ore than 40 people contacted, Picarello was the only one who immediately > men= > tioned the violinist. > > "There was a musician playing at the top of the escalator at L'Enfant > Plaza.= > " > > Haven't you seen musicians there before? > > "Not like this one." > > What do you mean? > > "This was a superb violinist. I've never heard anyone of that caliber. He > wa= > s technically proficient, with very good phrasing. He had a good fiddle, > too= > , with a big, lush sound. I walked a distance away, to hear him. I didn't > wa= > nt to be intrusive on his space." > > Really? > > "Really. It was that kind of experience. It was a treat, just a brilliant, > i= > ncredible way to start the day." > > Picarello knows classical music. He is a fan of Joshua Bell but didn't > recog= > nize him; he hadn't seen a recent photo, and besides, for most of the time > P= > icarello was pretty far away. But he knew this was not a run-of-the-mill > guy= > out there, performing. On the video, you can see Picarello look around > him=20= > now and then, almost bewildered. > > "Yeah, other people just were not getting it. It just wasn't registering. > Th= > at was baffling to me." > > When Picarello was growing up in New York, he studied violin seriously, > inte= > nding to be a concert musician. But he gave it up at 18, when he decided > he'= > d never be good enough to make it pay. Life does that to you sometimes. > Some= > times, you have to do the prudent thing. So he went into another line of > wor= > k. He's a supervisor at the U.S. Postal Service. Doesn't play the violin > muc= > h, anymore. > > When he left, Picarello says, "I humbly threw in $5." It was humble: You > can= > actually see that on the video. Picarello walks up, barely looking at > Bell,= > and tosses in the money. Then, as if embarrassed, he quickly walks away > fro= > m the man he once wanted to be. > > Does he have regrets about how things worked out? > > The postal supervisor considers this. > > "No. If you love something but choose not to do it professionally, it's > not=20= > a waste. Because, you know, you still have it. You have it forever." > > BELL THINKS HE DID HIS BEST WORK OF THE DAY IN THOSE FINAL FEW MINUTES, in > t= > he second "Chaconne." And that also was the first time more than one > person=20= > at a time was listening. As Picarello stood in the back, Janice Olu > arrived=20= > and took up a position a few feet away from Bell. Olu, a public trust > office= > r with HUD, also played the violin as a kid. She didn't know the name of > the= > piece she was hearing, but she knew the man playing it has a gift. > > Olu was on a coffee break and stayed as long as she dared. As she turned > to=20= > go, she whispered to the stranger next to her, "I really don't want to > leave= > .." The stranger standing next to her happened to be working for The > Washingt= > on Post. > > In preparing for this event, editors at The Post Magazine discussed how to > d= > eal with likely outcomes. The most widely held assumption was that there > cou= > ld well be a problem with crowd control: In a demographic as sophisticated > a= > s Washington, the thinking went, several people would surely recognize > Bell.= > Nervous "what-if" scenarios abounded. As people gathered, what if others > st= > opped just to see what the attraction was? Word would spread through the > cro= > wd. Cameras would flash. More people flock to the scene; rush-hour > pedestria= > n traffic backs up; tempers flare; the National Guard is called; tear gas, > r= > ubber bullets, etc. > > As it happens, exactly one person recognized Bell, and she didn't arrive > unt= > il near the very end. For Stacy Furukawa, a demographer at the Commerce > Depa= > rtment, there was no doubt. She doesn't know much about classical music, > but= > she had been in the audience three weeks earlier, at Bell's free concert > at= > the Library of Congress. And here he was, the international virtuoso, > sawin= > g away, begging for money. She had no idea what the heck was going on, but > w= > hatever it was, she wasn't about to miss it. > > Furukawa positioned herself 10 feet away from Bell, front row, center. She > h= > ad a huge grin on her face. The grin, and Furukawa, remained planted in > that= > spot until the end. > > "It was the most astonishing thing I've ever seen in Washington," Furukawa > s= > ays. "Joshua Bell was standing there playing at rush hour, and people were > n= > ot stopping, and not even looking, and some were flipping quarters at him! > Q= > uarters! I wouldn't do that to anybody. I was thinking, Omigosh, what kind > o= > f a city do I live in that this could happen?" > > When it was over, Furukawa introduced herself to Bell, and tossed in a > twent= > y. Not counting that -- it was tainted by recognition -- the final haul > for=20= > his 43 minutes of playing was $32.17. Yes, some people gave pennies. > > "Actually," Bell said with a laugh, "that's not so bad, considering. > That's=20= > 40 bucks an hour. I could make an okay living doing this, and I wouldn't > hav= > e to pay an agent." > > These days, at L'Enfant Plaza, lotto ticket sales remain brisk. Musicians > st= > ill show up from time to time, and they still tick off Edna Souza. Joshua > Be= > ll's latest album, "The Voice of the Violin," has received the usual > critica= > l acclaim. ("Delicate urgency." "Masterful intimacy." "Unfailingly > exquisite= > .." "A musical summit." ". . . will make your heart thump and weep at the > sam= > e time.") > > Bell headed off on a concert tour of European capitals. But he is back in > th= > e States this week. He has to be. On Tuesday, he will be accepting the > Avery= > Fisher prize, recognizing the Flop of L'Enfant Plaza as the best > classical=20= > musician in America. > > Emily Shroder, Rachel Manteuffel, John W. Poole and Magazine Editor Tom > Shro= > der contributed to this report. Gene Weingarten, a Magazine staff writer, > ca= > n be reached at weingarten at washpost.com. He will be fielding questions and > c= > omments about this article Monday at 1 p.m. > .. > > > > > > ________________________________ > Ahhh...imagining that irresistible "new car" smell? > Check out new cars at Yahoo! Autos. > _________________________________________ > 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. > To unsubscribe: > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > List archive: > > > > ________________________________ > Check out what you're missing if you're not on Yahoo! Messenger > > > _______________________________________________ > 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 gora at sarai.net Fri Apr 20 13:56:42 2007 From: gora at sarai.net (Gora Mohanty) Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2007 13:56:42 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Urbanstudy] Article from the Washington Post: an experiment in context, perception, priorities In-Reply-To: References: <132707.151.qm@web53603.mail.re2.yahoo.com> <590197.91888.qm@web30502.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <1177057602.6364.87.camel@anubis> On Thu, 2007-04-19 at 16:20 +0100, Priyasha Kaul wrote: > and what do you think of the reactions of the people, especially if > the musican was a woman? the jumble of gender, power, expression and > space in the interstices of a city like delhi, indeed a worthy > experiment ! [...] First of all, I am not even sure whether this would even be possible. The Delhi Metro seems to aggressively control the space, and even the soundscape within the environs of the Metro. For example, at the Dwarka station where I disembark, they have managed to force the line of rickshaw-pullers some distance away from the exit, even though this is on a public road. Even should one manage to convince the powers-that-be in the Delhi Metro, this would be a different kind of an experiment, as there is no history of beggars, or street musicians within the Metro premises. So, the event would probably garner attention because of its novelty, and because people would assume that it was organised by the Metro authorities themselves. Regards, Gora From surya_rajan21 at yahoo.com Fri Apr 20 19:35:13 2007 From: surya_rajan21 at yahoo.com (surya upadhyay) Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2007 07:05:13 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] 2nd Posting I-Fellowship/ Guru on the Air Message-ID: <578700.42763.qm@web32102.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Dear Readers, As a part of requirement of Independent Fellowship, this is the second posting of my work titled "Guru on the Air: Televised Hinduism in contemporary India". I mentioned about the plan and reason for taking up the work in the first posting. Nevertheless, I am starting from where I left last time. The work is concerned with the instrumentality of media in the construction as well as maintenance of socio-religious life of people. The work looks at all forms of media- print as well as electronic media. But before print media or electronic media comes in picture, one essential element that inevitably needs to be mentioned is the concept of 'DARSAN'- sight or visual interaction between the devotee and the deity. It is darsan that is much important that makes the devotee to realize the power of the deity and the deity in turn grants her/his devotee her/his favour and grace. Though much has been said about the idea of darsan but I feel that is the most important part through which the process of devotionalism propagates. Few works that needs to be mentioned here are: Babb (1981) Glancing: Visual Interaction in Hinduism; Eck (1981) Darsan: seeing the Divine Image in India; DuPertuis (1986) How People recognize Charisma: The case of Darsan in Radhasoami and DLM; Sinha (2007) Visual Culture and the Politics of Locality in Modern India etc. The point is important in a way because it carries a big consumer section with it. The photo-iconography has a vigorous tradition in which photographs- small and big- and icons of the deity are sold and purchased. The question emerges that what darsan itself is? Why do people seek darsan? Whether it is a two way process or one way? The idea of Darsan is important because devotees feels attached with the deity and marks various kinds of feelings. The devotee complaints, requests, shows affection, praises, etc in front of the idol or photo. However, in case of guru, it is urged by the devotee to see the guru in person. The above mentioned reviewed articles assets various feature of darsan. Babb discusses about different aspects of visual interaction by citing examples from various sects. He says that in Radhasoami group, the teachings place strongest possible emphasis on seeing, and being seen by, a true guru. He mentions the feelings of the poet devotee, "We join glances as I stand facing him, Satguru casts on me his glance of compassion (daya drishti). He discusses about various kinds of analogy that is made in the interaction like dristhi ki dhar (current of vision), lahar (wave). In the other example, he mentions the other kind of glance that is the glance of anger. This particular visual interaction is an example from a film named *Jai Santoshi Ma*. The film includes scenes of deity and worshippers confronting and interacting with each other. He mentions one other example about the transformative power of the vision. DuPertuis talks about the phenomenon of realization of charisma of the guru. He talks about three aspects of darsan and suggests the imputation of charisma on three interrelated levels. He mentions that by the vehicles of darsan mundane interactions are sacralised. With this brief introduction and literature review, I would like to stress that this darsan aspect is one fact of bondage between the individual and the deity/ guru. However,in contemporary scenario, this darsan has been facilitated and made easier by the coming of the devotionalists cable television channels. In the present work, the photos of the guru could be purchased from the shops often sitated within the premises of the local ashram or at the shops owned by any sadhak( devotee). Hence, it is being tried in the current work to show that how the various forms of media are working towards lessening the spatial distance between the guru and the devotee. The present post is written on the basis of the ideas formed by reviewing few articles. This will be discussed at length in the paper. Guru dristhi (Guru's vision) is considered so much potent that it could bless any devotee with self-realization, it is considered much more than going to pilgrimages. While I was in the field for getting permission from the Guru for interviewing the devotees of the guru, the guru replied, "You have come under the vision of guru, go you will accomplish eveything." END Surya Prakash Upadhyay surya.upadhyay at gmail.com surya_rajan21 at yahoo.com __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From ysaeed7 at yahoo.com Fri Apr 20 22:04:27 2007 From: ysaeed7 at yahoo.com (Yousuf) Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2007 09:34:27 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] God save the nation from the Bachchan wedding Message-ID: <112070.66117.qm@web51411.mail.re2.yahoo.com> "The Greatest Wedding of the Century" "Tight security outside Aish-Abhi wedding" "Sallu to tie knot same day?" "Salman to come in open jeep and wait outside Aish's window to elope" "Sweetshop owner to take laddoos for Abhi-Aish wedding" "The son of the king of Bollywood and the queen of beauty wed tonight" (Son of the king to wed the queen? Isn't that Oedipus?) "Who is invited and who is not." "ABHI-AISH wedding as big as Charles and Diana's" "Salman Khan is the BEST MAN is Abhi-Aish Wedding" "Friends to perform at Abhi Aish's sangeet ceremony" "Wedding to be a non-lavish affair" "How can he marry her - isn't he a gay?" "A doli with gold and silver for the bride" "Will she continue to work after the wedding" "‘haldi’ ceremony on April 18. 'bidaai' on 20th" "President Kalam not invited" "Priests from Varanasi to conduct the rituals" "We'll give a full-page colour ad on the wedding day" "They are made for each other couple." "Dressed in a gold-embroidered white sherwani and face covered with a frill of flowers, Bollywood's Bunty rode a colourfully decorated white horse with his nephew Agastya." "Aishwarya to wear lehenga designed by Nita Lulla." "Lathicharge outside "Prateeksha" "They first took Aish around all the temples of the country to purify her from the sins committed in the previous life" (with Sallu?). "Model Jhanavi attempts suicide outside wedding" "Abhishek look-alike gatecrashes into Aish house" "Aishwarya Rai, who will tie the knot with Abhishek Bachchan tomorrow, has inspired a film director to make a film on her life." "Only Doordarshan allowed to enter the venue" "This is a couple made in heaven." "Their progeny will lead to the Bachchan dynasty, as in Nehru dynasty." "Abhishek wants his wax figure at Mdm. Tussauds" (jealous of wife and father?) ------- __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From balthassar at gmail.com Fri Apr 20 16:13:18 2007 From: balthassar at gmail.com (Fahad Mustafa) Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2007 16:13:18 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Urbanstudy] Article from the Washington Post: an experiment in context, perception, priorities In-Reply-To: <1177057602.6364.87.camel@anubis> References: <132707.151.qm@web53603.mail.re2.yahoo.com> <590197.91888.qm@web30502.mail.mud.yahoo.com> <1177057602.6364.87.camel@anubis> Message-ID: <5047ec820704200343r72ac8735y37395d053ff8c679@mail.gmail.com> > > First of all, I am not even sure whether this would even be possible. > The Delhi Metro seems to aggressively control the space, and even the > soundscape within the environs of the Metro. > Around 10 pm, a few days ago, at the New Delhi Metro Station, I was waiting for a train towards Delhi University, when old Hindi tunes- Hero, Ajeeb Dastan Hai Yeh, Musafir Hoon Yaaron- played on the flute, caught my attention. A thin man, in a kurta-pyjama, standing next to a dustbin was playing a bamboo flute, impromptu. Not quiet the virtuoso mentioned in the Washington post, but he played beautifully. People crowded around, curious, yet maintaining a respectful distance. Nobody stopped him, nobody offered him money; nor was he asking. He played for 6-8 minutes, till the metro arrived (frequency is lesser at that hour). Some people broke into an applause-bahut badhiya, bahut badhiya-and others offered to buy him dinner at Chandni Chowk. He took his bows, and accepted the dinner treat. On 4/20/07, Gora Mohanty wrote: > > On Thu, 2007-04-19 at 16:20 +0100, Priyasha Kaul wrote: > > and what do you think of the reactions of the people, especially if > > the musican was a woman? the jumble of gender, power, expression and > > space in the interstices of a city like delhi, indeed a worthy > > experiment ! > [...] > > First of all, I am not even sure whether this would even be possible. > The Delhi Metro seems to aggressively control the space, and even the > soundscape within the environs of the Metro. For example, at the Dwarka > station where I disembark, they have managed to force the line of > rickshaw-pullers some distance away from the exit, even though this is > on a public road. > > Even should one manage to convince the powers-that-be in the Delhi > Metro, this would be a different kind of an experiment, as there is no > history of beggars, or street musicians within the Metro premises. So, > the event would probably garner attention because of its novelty, and > because people would assume that it was organised by the Metro > authorities themselves. > > Regards, > Gora > > _________________________________________ > 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. > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> -- Fahad Mustafa 26 Narmada Apartments Alaknanda New Delhi, 110019 Phone:+91-9818893784 **** ragon mein daudtey rahney ke ham nahin qayal jo aankh se hi na tapka woh lahoo kya hai http://www.nomadings.blogspot.com/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070420/6ceede1c/attachment.html From miyaa_mihir at yahoo.com Fri Apr 20 21:11:33 2007 From: miyaa_mihir at yahoo.com (mihir pandya) Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2007 08:41:33 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] THE NAMESAKE Message-ID: <694033.15244.qm@web53606.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Hi friends, In the summer of 2006, I enjoyed jhumpa lahiri’s novel ‘the namesake’ and after that gogol’s story always with me wherever I go. This review I wrote just after I finished the novel (in a raining august night in 2006) and after watching the meera nair’s version I thought that I should tell you my version. So this is not the movie review. This is the book review. Enjoy ..................... "i miss you nikhil" he nods "what about the New Year's Eve?" she says. “What about it?” “Do you still want to try to go to New Hampshire?” For they had talked of this, going away together, just the two of them, Maxine picking him up after Christmas, staying at the lake house. Maxine was going to teach him how to ski. “I don’t think so.” “It might do you good.” She says, tilting her head to one side. She glances around the room. “To get away from all this.” “I don’t want to get away.” This is the point where the change begins. Just after his father’s death. Death of “Gogol’s father”. And if we wish, we split the novel into two parts from here. As I call 1st part- going away 2nd part- coming home Ones you realize that “the namesake” is Gogol’s story, you go ahead with him. and this name ‘gogol’ has his own story. This is the main story and all other stories came together with this main story. To bring this “dual identity” to us, jhumpa lahiri creates a grand narrative. She used a tradition very common in Indian families, a different name in private sphere and public sphere. Ashok and ashima choose the name ‘Gogol’ for his son because Ashok had a special kinship with “Nikolai Gogol” (it has his own story). And in a dramatic sequence ‘Gogol’ became his official name. Gogol hates his name. Because there is no one here in America who has this name. And after some time he knows that also in Far East India, there is no one who has his namesake. This is a terrific symbol for a generation who is not like their Indian counterparts and not like their fellow county mates. They are unique in terms of culture. A transforming generation. But they want to be like their country mates. Googol changes his name because he wants his identity back. With name ‘gogol’ he has a feeling that he belongs to ‘nowhere’. Like ashima feels in the starting, “For being a foreigner, ashima is beginning to realize, is a sort of lifelong pregnancy –a perpetual wait, a constant burden, a continuous feeling out of sorts. It is an ongoing responsibility; a parenthesis in what had once been ordinary life, only to discover that that previous life has vanished, replaced by something more complicated and demanding. Like the pregnancy, being a foreigner, ashima believes, is something that elicits the same curiosity from strangers, the same combination of pity and respect.” And this same reaction takes moushumi (a character who has the same identity like googol has and in the novel she was ‘by-chance’ gogol’s wife) to France. And she finds her lost identity there. But googol never finds his lost identity and after running corners in America, finally ‘comes back’. He comes back to his father, after his death. And after some pages an unforgettable scene comes, “Will you remember this day, googol?” his father asked, turning back to look at him, his hands pressed like earmuffs to either side of his head. “How long do I have to remember it?” Over the rise and fall of the wind, he could hear his father’s laughter. He was standing there, waiting for gogol to catch up, putting out a hand as googol drew near. “Try to remember it always,” he said once googol had reached him, leading him slowly back across the breakwater, to where his mother and sonia stood waiting, “remember that you and I made this journey, that we went together to a place where there was nowhere left to go.” Jhumpa lahiri often not write her story in dialog. This is a difficult style of writing but she manages well. And when she uses dialog it is a hard-hitting effect as you just saw in the review before. ‘The namesake’ passed throw your eyes like a picture. If you want to see the ‘picture perfect’ scene, just go throw the 'gogol-Maxine' summer holiday scenes. Just Two bodies down on the lakeside and moonlight everywhere. I am still in a sad mood because they are not together, but now I know that ‘perfect ending’ is not always the best one. And see in the last pera, gogol (in first time in his life) reading ‘gogol’!" ......................... your take on the movie or on the novel..? --------------------------------- Ahhh...imagining that irresistible "new car" smell? Check outnew cars at Yahoo! Autos. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070420/74e28f7d/attachment.html From anujaghosalkar at yahoo.com Sat Apr 21 19:54:35 2007 From: anujaghosalkar at yahoo.com (anuja ghosalkar) Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2007 07:24:35 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] God save the nation from the Bachchan wedding In-Reply-To: <112070.66117.qm@web51411.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <672367.32009.qm@web54502.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Hi, This is my second post on the work I am doing on my Grand father. I have created a blog, so I can upload pictures etc. I will post more often than once a month, smaller snippets.But of course the mandatory once a month will be sent to the reader list. Here is the link: www.papaajoba.blogspot.com Cheers Anuja __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From anujaghosalkar at yahoo.com Sat Apr 21 19:58:36 2007 From: anujaghosalkar at yahoo.com (anuja ghosalkar) Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2007 07:28:36 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Post No. 2: Papa Ajoba In-Reply-To: <112070.66117.qm@web51411.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <7094.38305.qm@web54505.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Hi, This is my second post on the work I am doing on my Grand father. I have created a blog, so I can upload pictures etc. and can view photos, comments. I will post more often than once a month, smaller snippets. But of course the mandatory once a month will be sent to the reader list. www.papaajoba.blogspot.com Cheers Anuja __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From hpp at vsnl.com Sun Apr 22 11:22:32 2007 From: hpp at vsnl.com (hpp at vsnl.com) Date: Sun, 22 Apr 2007 05:52:32 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Reader-list] On "Industrialisation" Message-ID: INDUSTRIALISATION: WHICH WAY NOW? Amit Bhaduri (Professor of Economics, University of Pavia, Italy and Council for Social Development). Medha Patkar (Social Activist, Narmada Bachao Andolan, and National Alliance of People's Movements) If multi-party parliamentary democracy means giving people a wide range of political choices, we have it in plenty in India, parties big or small with a variety of labels. However, if we have to choose also the content in critical areas of economic policy there is hardly any choice anymore. A marked convergence among political parties is taking place, less apparent in their rhetoric, but unmistakably clear in their actions. One could have believed that this is the result of compromise of coalition politics at the centre. But when the same thing happens at the level of states, and political parties of different labels follow with equal vengeance the same economic course, no room is left even for illusions. Grand terms like 'growth, 'industrialisation', and 'development are used by politicians with abandon these days to hide the poverty of their economics and politics. And, the central question remains unanswered. If a high rate of growth necessarily entails a certain type of industrialisation, is this industrialisation synonymous with development? The type of industrialisation India is experiencing with recent high growth has three characteristics that are unmistakably neo-liberal. First, it is led by corporations. Second, they are mostly private corporations. Third, the role that the government plays at the central and at the state level is that of a promoter, an agent of private corporations, not one of a regulator. All parliamentary political parties seem to agree. We are repeatedly told that sacrifice is needed for this industrialization, but it is conveniently left untold that the sacrifice must be borne by those who are least capable of bearing it, the poor and the most marginalized sections. The rich corporations need not sacrifice, instead they are subsidized by the governments. The estimated subsidy for the TATAS in Singur, West Bengal is over Rs. 850 crores for an investment of Rs. 1000 crores, and also similar deals are said to have been cut by the two Ambani brothers in Dad ri, Uttar Pradesh and, for the Mumbai Special Economic Zone in Raigad, Maharastra. The traditional political differences have melted away in many respects in a homogeneous neo-liberal mass. In so far as the traditional Left is concerned, first Singur and then Nandigram drove home the point that, many of the left politicians are not that different from the 'dream team' of economic policy makers at the centre, who favour the World Bank, the IMF and the Asian Development Bank. The cultural nationalists of Hindutwa variety uphold violently their culture when it comes to Ram Mandir and 'Vande Mataram', but surrender willingly to foreign multinationals. The political double talk everywhere is amazing. Congress has a remarkably short memory about the Sikh massacre of 1984. The left parties rightly breathe fire about the Gujarat massacre of 2002, while BJP covers it up with false propaganda and manipulation of the State machinery. Then Nandigram massacre happens in 2007, and Advani compares it with Jallianwala bagh conveniently forgetting Gujarat, while CPM leaders and some of the supportive intellectuals call it an unfortunate incident that happened accidentally. The unwarranted shooting and land mining of 13 tribals in Kalinganagar in 2006 by the police bears an uncanny parallel. The tribals were refusing to hand over their land to the same TATAs in Kalinganagar, just as in Singur the peasants are resisting, and in Nandigram they have resisted. Should we be erecting a defence of empty words to say how different Navin Patnaik is from Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, only because they go by different political labels? It is evident from a chronological survey of field reports from Kalinganagar and Nandigram that these were premeditated actions by the State authorities to test the waters and see, how far they can go in the service of large corporations. In this world of neo-liberal harmony parties of different shades insist that corporate style industrialisation with the State as its agent is our only option. And, Indian polity with an increasingly inequitable economy thrives in the name of high growth, industrialisation and development, working ruthlessly against the poor majority. A spectre of despair and popular anger is stalking in all corners of the country. Farmers are committing suicide in hundreds especially in Maharastra, Andhra Pardesh, Punjab because the government wants to usher in a new type of commercial agriculture under WTO with expensive inputs supplied by multinationals but no subsidy, no appropriate price for their produce. In Chattisgarh in the name of fighting extremism, tribals are being evacuated forcibly in thousands from their villages under Salva Judum to be huddled in Vietnam-style concentration camps, while the corporations eye greedily their mineral reso urce rich land. The poorest are the richest in natural resources in this country, but are kept poorest by denying them what belongs to them. Since land is a state subject according to the Constitution of India whether to acquire or not acquire, and with what degree of coercion, is largely the prerogative of the state government. This is where the political hypocrisy is particularly evident, and rhetoric about centre state division of power, cannot hide it. Land is being acquired by various state governments in a competitive race to the bottom in servitude to win the favour of the corporations. The argument goes, "if we in West Bengal do not do it, Uttaranchal will do it" or, "we can be more ferocious than Orissa" in pleasing the TATAs or the Jindals or whoever else. This has full legal and moral support of the central government, but the state has full constitutional power not to oblige. Land is being acquired in different guises, for mining, for the location of industries, for large estates and IT parks and finally for Special Economic Zones (SEZ) under the 'eminent domain' clause which allows the state to override private property right in land in 'public interest'. Land, the primary source of livelihood in the agrarian economy, includes as per the Act 'everything' attached to land - water, minerals. Therefore, it becomes the most obvious case of forcible transfer of resources from common people for whom land and resource base is not property but livelihood to private corporations. Using the same old Act since the British days, amended in 1984, land acquisition is carried out to serve corporate interest, destroying livelihoods, and displacing people. It is often said there are invariably gainers and losers in such economic processes, which the economist Schumpeter had captured with the phrase ' creative destruction'. However, in the present context this is a misleading half-truth. If such creative destruction were just a part of the normal process of capitalistic development, it would have been unnecessary for the state to intervene in the guise of 'public interest' on behalf of the private corporations. It involves a transaction between two private parties, namely the corporation and the land owning peasants without level playing field, and the function of the State should be at least to ensure this transaction is voluntary, particularly because one party in the transaction namely the peasant is economically far weaker. This would mean that the corporations can acquire land at a price at which the peasants are willing to part voluntarily with their land, either individually or through collective decisions, the latter being especially relevant in the case of tribal land. Instead what has been happening is that the state using force and violence under a cloak of secr ecy despite the Right to Information Act. Although the SEZ scheme has the most pronounced pro-corporate bias, the difference between acquiring SEZ land in Nandigram, and the land for the Tata-FIAT joint venture in Singur is one of legal nicety, not of relevance in so far as those who derive livelihood from that land are concerned. And, even after Nandigram, what most parties, including the CPM has to recommend is not the scrapping of SEZ altogether, but restricting its maximum size and similar marginal changes! Although land is the most visible symbol of transfer of resources to the corporations, the problem goes deeper. The bias against the poor in policy making is both direct and indirect. The direct bias is visible in plan allocation. Despite 60% or more of our working population living in agriculture, all the recent five year plans under different governments have allocated less than 5 per cent of planned investment to agriculture. The indirect bias operates pervasively through a pattern of consumption and production promoted by the state. Mammoth projects create the impression of urban glossiness with fancy malls, underground metros, flyovers etc at public cost. We take it for granted that many of these public utilities are essential for efficiency, saving time in travelling, improving the quality of life, even for attracting investment. These arguments are not false, but one sided. We need, even more desperately, higher efficien cy and better quality of life in rural India where the majority lives. In the metropolitan area, we need infrastructure to ensure basic amenities to the most needy. Manhattan like world-class cities are set as our goals, when 25% to 60% of the city population live a subhuman existence in slums. So why this bias, and whom does it benefit? It certainly benefits the urban elite population, and leads to uncontrolled urbanisation and mega cities with growing hunger for energy, water and urban housing space. So slums have to be cleared without providing resettlement with poverty banished only from sight. This large-scale destruction of livelihoods of both urban and rural communities is only the surface phenomenon. The modes of transports we are creating with more flyovers for cars (including TATA's people's car), the type of shopping or housing complex we are promoting are not merely iniquitous. They are far more energy intensive, and the majority of our ordinary citizens who do not consume them also have to pay directly or indirectly for this pattern of consumption. This is why farmers get less water, are staved of electricity in critical periods, clean drinking water or proper sanitation is a luxury in villages. The idea that industry is more efficient than agriculture is largely because of this pronounced bias against agriculture and the poor. With almost two thirds of our work force in agriculture producing hardly over one fourth of national output, output per worker in agriculture is about 40 per cent of national average. In contrast, industry and services have a labour productivity double the national average. This is also a game of attributing 'values' to selected products and services, so that higher growth is achieved by transferring more and more resources to the high productivity sector, and by favouring large corporations which organize this pattern of production for the privileged India. The other India watches in despair and anger, while many have no choice but to commit suicide. Must we not strive for an economic alternative on the basis of new politics? An economic alternative creating another kind of development is feasible, and elements of it exist even in the present political-economic system. Very briefly, it has to be based on three basic premises. First, we must learn to rely far more on the internal rather than the external market. The biggest driving force of the internal market is the purchasing power of the ordinary people derived from employment growth. India's record on this score has been dismal in recent years. An eight per cent growth in output has been accompanied by hardly 1 per cent growth in regular employment, and increase in irregular or ancillary employment is marked by flexible contracts loaded against the worker with insecurity and over-crowding of infrastructure. It is foolish to expect that corporate-led growth can do better on the employment front, because corporations are in the game of making profit by cutting costs, including labour costs. And the more we accept globalisation unconditionally, t he stronger would be the relative importance of the external over the internal market. This means cutting labour cost to increase export will become even more pressing. Primacy to export also means priorities in production going against the needs of the population here. Growth of the internal market through rapid employment growth, therefore, requires a far more selective approach to globalization. Second, economic growth must be the outcome of employment growth, not the other way round and the former should never be at the cost of the latter. Our benchmark should be a time bound programme for full employment. How much does the growth in employment contribute to growth in output depends naturally on how productively labour can be employed. India performed poorly in this respect. The main reason is a bureaucratized system of central control which kills local initiative. We have to start at the opposite end of socialist orthodoxy, not by accepting neo- liberalism, but by forging a new combination. On the one hand, we have to get out of the grip of corporate led industrialisation by making agriculture and the rural economy the centre of economic dynamism; on the other, we have to break the grip of current centralised bureaucratic decision making. This can be done by extending the present national employment guarantee scheme to an ambiti ous time bound full employment programme, and delegating much of the decision making power to the panchayats and local bodies to identify, formulate and execute local employment generating productive projects. A pre-condition for this is local control over local resources related to land, and maximum fiscal autonomy for the panchayats. Even the Constitution, through Article 243 provided for a finance commission to support and ensure that village/ward level local bodies become financially viable, which was to be appointed in 1993. No government, central or state followed this up seriously. The record of the Kerala has been the best while that of West Bengal Government has been among the worst. Acknowledging that the Left Front played a role in getting NREGA enacted, it is shocking that only 14 per cent of the money allotted in the poorest district of Purulia for employment guarantee was spent until December, 2006, more than half the money of employment guarantee provided by th e centre remaining unspent in the state, and not more than 16 days of employment provided while the legal and financial provision allows for 100 days. (Reports from other states too show similar situation with an exception of certain areas). If the governments had shown the same zeal in making a success of employment guarantee as they have shown in acquisitioning land from the unwilling peasants, we would have taken at least the first step towards a genuine process of development. Finally, there is the question of finance. Where would the money come from for such an ambitious employment programme, and how to make sure it is spent effectively? The Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act (2003) which ties the hands of the Government in spending money for most pressing needs like employment guarantee must be scrapped. With this Act the Centre pushes privatization to raise money, denies basic health and educational expenditure, and restricts the role of public policy in the name of financial discipline. This suits well the IMF, the World Bank, and the corporations who want the state to promote but not to regulate them. This is where the Left should have its biggest battle, and insist that money that is needed for employment, basic education, health and social security of the unorganised workers must be found within our means, if necessary by revising this law. It went along instead with the neo-liberal economic ideology with only a whimper of protest, and concentrating energy on corporate-led industrialisation. To ensure fiscal autonomy for local bodies, their budget can be kept in a separate account in nationalized banks with credit line extended to panchayats. This would avoid duplication of institutions, while a system of mutual check and balance between the panchayats and the local branch of nationalised banks can be devised based on their performance as borrowers and lenders. Banks would lend the next round only if the previous project succeeds, and panchayats can borrow the next round only if the money is well spent. It is this mutuality of interest, which has to be strengthened over time in creating the new form of sustained financing for development. Not withstanding whether the growth is 8 or 10 per cent, these measures would initiate a process that empowers the poor, imparting a genuine democratic content to India's development. We stand by the belief that development with non-corporate led rural industrialisation at the focal point is the way forward. Posted by: V Ramaswamy Calcutta cuckooscall.blogspot.com From yasir.media at gmail.com Mon Apr 23 00:08:43 2007 From: yasir.media at gmail.com (yasir ~) Date: Sun, 22 Apr 2007 23:38:43 +0500 Subject: [Reader-list] [Urbanstudy] Article from the Washington Post: an experiment in context, perception, priorities In-Reply-To: <31d5ea920704220847p4894cdbcve473ee3001ae7b39@mail.gmail.com> References: <132707.151.qm@web53603.mail.re2.yahoo.com> <590197.91888.qm@web30502.mail.mud.yahoo.com> <1177057602.6364.87.camel@anubis> <5047ec820704200343r72ac8735y37395d053ff8c679@mail.gmail.com> <31d5ea920704220847p4894cdbcve473ee3001ae7b39@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <5af37bb0704221138n366417b7l188ede8d3b8e7928@mail.gmail.com> On 4/22/07, Vishal Rawlley wrote: > this is turning out to be an interesting discussion... > **music** this is a deep site. go to music and bio/samples, etc http://www.mta.info/mta/aft/ audition http://www.lulu.tv/?p=4029 a subway performer http://www.cathygrier.com/muny/index.html **poetry** http://www.mta.info/mta/pim/index.html From shekhar at crit.org.in Mon Apr 23 09:44:21 2007 From: shekhar at crit.org.in (Shekhar Krishnan) Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2007 00:14:21 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] "Q2P" Film on Friday Message-ID: <1177301661.5269.113.camel@nowhereman> Dear Friends: The Students Council and Students of Color Committee of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP) and the South Asia Forum at MIT invite you to a screening of the documentary film from India, "Q2P", on woman and public toilets in Mumbai, directed by Paromita Vohra. The screening will be on FRIDAY 27 APRIL at 6.00 P.M. in the Audio-Visual Theatre in Room 7-431 at DUSP, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139. The director will introduce the film, and the hour-long screening will be followed by dinner and open discussion. If you plan to attend, please RSVP to Anne Schwieger aschwieg at mit.edu and Ronilda Rosario Co at ronilda at mit.edu. For more information about the film and the director, please visit http://urban.media.mit.edu/wiki/Q2P_Screening Regards, Shekhar Krishnan -- About the Film: "Q2P" (Documentary, 2005, 53 minutes, DV, English, Hindi) LOOK AT THE TOILET ... ... SEE THE CITY Who is dreaming up the global city? Q2P peers through the dream of a futuristic Mumbai and finds... public toilets... not enough of them. As this film observes who has to queue to pee, we begin to understand the imagination of gender that underlies the city’s shape and the constantly shifting boundaries between public and private space. We meet whimsical people with novel ideas of social change, which thrive with mixed results. We learn of small acts of survival that people in the city’s bottom half cobble together. In the Museum of Toilets, at a night concert, in a New Delhi “international toilet”, in a Bombay slum, we hear the silence that surrounds toilets and sense how similar it is to the silence that surrounds inequality. The toilet becomes a riddle with many answers and some of those answers are questions – about gender, about class, about caste and most of all about space, urban development and the twisted myth of the global metropolis. About the Director: PAROMITA VOHRA is a filmmaker and writer. She has written, produced and directed Morality TV and the Loving Jehad: Ek Manohar Kahani (2007) a documentary on moral policing and tabloid culture set in Meerut, Q2P(2006), a film about toilets, and the language of urban development with a focus on Bombay, Where’s Sandra(2005), a film about sexual and community stereotyping of Christian women, often referred to as ‘Sandra from Bandra’ in Bombay, Work In Progress (2004) about the World Social Forum which took place in Bombay in 2004), Cosmopolis: Two Tales of A City (2004), a film that probes the myth of Bombay’s cosmopolitanism through the politics of land and food, which won an award at the Indo-British Digital Film Festival, Unlimited Girls (2001), an exploration of what feminism means to different people in urban India which has won several awards, A Woman’s Place (1998), a film about women's legal strategies in India, South Africa and the USA (for PBS), Annapurna: Goddess of Food (1995) about an organization of women food workers in Bombay's textile mill area which has been broadcast in 10 countries and A Short Film About Time (1999) a short fiction about a woman with a broken heart, her therapist and his watch. Her work as a writer includes the feature films Khamosh Pani (Silent Waters), about a woman whose life is transformed by growing fundamentalism in a Pakistani village(dir: Sabiha Sumar), for which she won the Best Screenplay award at the Kara Film Festival, 2003 and Khamoshi:The Musical (Additional Scriptwriting) (dir: Sanjay Leela Bhansali); the documentaries Skin Deep, A Few Things I Know About Her and If You Pause: In a Museum of Craft as well as a series of short fiction films on communal conflict for the People’s Decade of Human Rights Education (PDHRE). -- Shekhar Krishnan 400, West 119th Street, Apt.10D New York, NY 10027 U.S.A. http://www.mit.edu/~shekhar http://www.heptanesia.net http://www.crit.org.in/members/shekhar From prithu7 at hotmail.com Mon Apr 23 11:59:28 2007 From: prithu7 at hotmail.com (pritham k chakravarthy) Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2007 11:59:28 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Urban Sabha Drama - April 2007 Message-ID: Urban Drama - Pritham K. Chakravarthy 2nd Posting [April 2007] Ever since Sankaradas Swamigal put together the format for professional theatre groups in the early part of the 20th century, the number of tropes also increased. The 30s to late 50s saw several traveling groups like Nawab Rajamanikam Pillai, Seva Stage, Shakthi Nadaga Sabha, and TKS Brothers. They were all groups that functioned from outside the city, Madras, now Chennai but made frequent visits wherein they would have long tours performing primarily at Ottraivaadi Theater hall in North Madras. Though there were other performance spaces available in the city like Rasiga Ranjini Sabha, Mylapore Fine Arts, Parthasarathy Swami Sabha, and Music Academy, these halls primarily fostered shows of carnatic music and Barathanatyam. Theatre very rarely found space here mostly because staging a professional drama for their audience was a costly affair. Early 50s it became a fashion in public offices like Accounts General, Post Office and Telephones to foster annual theatrical performances by their employees. It was the popularity that these groups enjoyed and the need to have a form of theatre that could be staged with-no-cost was the birth moment of Sabha Drama, a genre that emerged out of this urban space and need. The earliest group very active in the mid 50s was Ramakrishna Kripa Amateurs run by Dr. V. Ramamurthy and his son-in-law V. C. Gopalrathnam, a famous lawyer. They performed mythologies. The other group equally famous for their socials and light-hearted anglophile farces was United Amateur Artists, run Y. G. Parthsarathy and Pattu. 1957 saw a group of students from Vivekanada College in Mylapore form a theatre group with their alumni called Viveka Fine Arts. That was the moment when Mylapore Fine Arts also decided to open its doors to this local amateur group for Sabha Drama performance for its member. _________________________________________________________________ Free & easy posting . Yello Classifieds. http://www.yello.in/home.php?utm_source=hotmailtag&utm_medium=textlink&utm_content=in&utm_campaign=april From mrsg at vsnl.com Mon Apr 23 12:54:06 2007 From: mrsg at vsnl.com (MRSG) Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2007 12:54:06 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Search for ponds References: Message-ID: <000801c78578$8cb21800$20c741db@MRAY> Search for ponds Our search for heritage ponds is taking us back through the lanes of history. We have identified a number of old ponds which still exist and serve as water resources for people. But interesting finds were a few major ponds with long history which have been wiped out of existence, for some, traces can be found, for others only the stories. There were ponds for the use of religious people: one could be located by a 200 year old temple at Chetla, an old locality in South Kolkata, or one within the boundary of an old mosque at Dharamtola at the heart of Kolkata, -- but those are no more there. However there are still such old waterbodies within Kolkata Municipal Corporation which are related to the several hundred years old dynasties like the Sen dynasties of 13th century and Pratapaditya Roy of 16th century! A number of interviews has been recorded and some have been noted in long hand. We are hoping responses from the Kolkata-based readers to give us information from their localities. P.S Due to internet problem, my subscription to the list was removed and then restored. This led to little delay in posting. Mohit Ray From p.hatzopoulos-alumni at lse.ac.uk Mon Apr 23 13:43:54 2007 From: p.hatzopoulos-alumni at lse.ac.uk (p.hatzopoulos-alumni at lse.ac.uk) Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2007 09:13:54 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] Wiki politics - special issue Message-ID: New online journal Re-public < www.republic.gr/en > has just published the first part of its special issue "Wiki politics". The issue explores how the use of new collaborative tools (wikis, blogs, forums, mailing lists, podcasting, and videos) can transform the ways politics are practiced . Articles include: McKenzie Wark: Gamer theory for collaborative knowledge production < http://www.re-public.gr/en/?p=132 > An interview with the author of A Hacker's Manifesto on how wikipedia is an example of a new kind of social relation _____ Geert Lovink - Theses on wiki politics < http://www.re-public.gr/en/?p=135 > Wikis reflect a culture of pragmatic non-commitment, argues Geert Lovink. One edits, adds, deletes, changes and quits. Then it is time to stand up, get a coffee, smoke a cigarette, talk on the phone or chats, and return to the screen again… _____ Trebor Scholz - What the MySpace generation should know about working for free < http://www.re-public.gr/en/?p=138 > MySpace addicts formulate comments, tag, rank, forward, read, subscribe, re-post media, link, moderate, remix, share, collaborate, favorite, and write. what kind of labor is this, asks Trebor Scholz? _____ Michel Bauwens - P2P politics, the state, and the renewal of the emancipatory traditions < http://www.re-public.gr/en/?p=128 > Michel Bauwens explores the possibilities opened up by P2P projects for progressive politics, arguing that they could present an alternative to neoliberal privatization, and to the Blairite introduction of private logics in the public sphere. _____ All articles of Re-public are published with a Creative Commons license and can be re-printed freely, by acknowledging their source. ***** Email confidentiality notice ***** This message is private and confidential. If you have received this message in error, please notify us and remove it from your system. The London School of Economics and Political Science (the School) is a company limited by guarantee, registered in England and Wales, under registered number 00070527, and having its registered office at 10th Floor, Tower One, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE. The inclusion of this information does not of itself make this email a business document of the School and, to the maximum extent permitted by law, the School accepts no liability for the content and opinions in any non-business emails. From ravikant at sarai.net Mon Apr 23 15:08:57 2007 From: ravikant at sarai.net (Ravikant) Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2007 15:08:57 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Mahmood Farooqui on Bahurupiya shahar Message-ID: <200704231508.58217.ravikant@sarai.net> Which is the latest book written and produced by practioners of the cybermohalla project, jointly run by Ankur and Sarai-CSDS. Ravikant http://www.mid-day.com/columns/mahmood_farooqui/2007/april/155807.htm We built this city By: Mahmood Farooqui Mid-day April 20, 2007 When we first came and settled here, what was the land like? It was ashes. It was a wilderness. There was nothing except ashes. There was nothing here at all. There would be ash in our mouths when we ate. We have spent our earnings of the last twenty twenty-five years in building it. Not just our earnings, we have built it up with our labours too.” There is a startling combination of brevity and bite in this piece entitled, Manto-like, ‘Suna Gaya’, from a collection of writings produced by children from three bastis of Delhi. Produced under the aegis of the Cyber-Mohalla project of Sarai and Ankur, two Delhi-based organisations ‘Bahuroopiya Shahar’, the title of the collection brought out by Rajkamal Publications is a first at many levels. School children contribute It is the first collection of writings from below, from that sub-city level organisation called the slum. It is also writing produced mostly by children of school-going age. But it does more than tell us about the lives of people we know nothing about. It allows us to see the city differently, to witness the chimera of hopes, expectations and fears that underline migration into and within the city. Divided into segments that narrate, broadly, signs of arrival, settlement and displacement, the collection is not merely educative, it also contains some superb writing. Shamsher Ali’s ‘Rasool Bhai, how come,’ ostensibly narrates Rasool’s journey from Calcutta to Delhi to join his brother, who works as a kabariwalla in the walled city. More than outlining the intricacies of the trade, the story presents a fascinating emotional study of the main players by drawing upon multiple narrative voices. Rasool’s story comes to us from his own point of view, from his brother’s point of view and from a neutral observer’s account. Rasool ends up making the city his own, exemplified by the quarter of booze he shares with his mates at the shop. The protagonist in Suraj Rai’s story, the Decisive Moment, decides to leave school to start work as a courier boy, an easy enough option since the job requires no specialised skill, training or connection. More than the story of a courier boy, Suraj’s story details the emotional struggles of a teenager, who goes against his father’s wishes and discontinues his education in order to take up a job. Is it fear of failure or the desire to shoulder his responsibility towards the house, which motivates him, father and son struggle through the conundrum. Invent forms Older forms of writings are not adequate to the telling required by these writers. So they go ahead and invent their own forms, a mixture of reportage, memoir and fragmentary reflection. They thereby construct the city in a light that is unfamiliar to us and come to a realisation, through their writing, which might earlier have eluded them. Displacement is not just about the demolition of houses, what we fight for is not the houses, but for the pride of having led beautiful lives here in this dump yard called Godam which is now J P colony says Suraj Rai in ‘I have seen from up close.’ There is colourfulness to the city’s language, we bring to it the colour of our own dialects and that is why Delhi is called a collection of different tongues. Now when there is talk of changing the city, are we also going to alter this colorfulness, will these colours be restricted to a few chosen hues alone? “It is said in Nangla, on one side is a soothing river and on the other there is a pair of drunken snakes. The river is Yamuna and the snakes the two main lanes of the ring road and its zooming traffic. Even strangers hold hands to cross the city.” Finally, the snakes move to bite as the demolition drive arrives in full force. It brings us face to face with the dread that might be experienced by an entire city if it were forewarned of extinction via a natural disaster of sorts. What would we do if we knew that the entire city would be drowned? Like the residents of Nangla Machi, an entire habitus that was demolished, would we cling on to our bits of papers right till the very end, would we continue to celebrate our marriages, observe our funerals, feed our guests? What’s a city? As the writers negotiate their understanding of what a shahar is, what it might be and what it threatens to become as beautification drives gather force, we are treated to a spectrum of voices which are both fresh and pungent. Objects, space, organisation and social relations come into sharp focus as Nangla is displaced to Ghevra, two hours and Rs 60 away from home. Years of labour, years of struggles to establish the legitimacy of existence goes awry in moments because this world now ‘runs on papers’. What we have in this collection is cities within cities, mobility within stasis and consciousness that growing up is not an individual feat, but a collective achievement. Spaces can be made and unmade but how do you arrange memories, which have been detached from locality as all things solid virtually melt into air? While the collection is released next month you can get a foretaste of some of the writings at http://nangla.freeflux. net and http://nangla-maachi.freeflux.net. ------------------------------------------------------- From apnawritings at yahoo.co.in Mon Apr 23 21:01:52 2007 From: apnawritings at yahoo.co.in (ARNAB CHATTERJEE) Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2007 16:31:52 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] Meditations on the Virginia Tech accident Message-ID: <12670.41444.qm@web8513.mail.in.yahoo.com> It was those days in the early 90’s when leaving my desolate college in Park Street, I used to go the American Center Library in Esplanade to read Gregory Corso and American Poetry Review. It was pretty exciting when I came across an adolescent monograph on postmodernism ( edited by Ihab Hassan) in which there were praises for separate lonely, unorganized acts of violence as being postmodern. I still remember at least two of such anecdotes: “ What is Stalin but a Chenghiz Khan with a telephone” and “terrorists are the greatest entertainers of our times.” Quotable quotes—ofcourse (though neither Stalin nor Chenghiz Khan or the terrorists could be called lonely aggressors any way!) Having grown up in age, it seemed no longer interesting to grapple with things such as postmodernism—and “post” others—and sit, being unwell, in an eternal post-office—as if. But those two sentences remained in my mind and slept as quotations like two friends till Cho Seung-hui and his Virginia Tech massacre—sparked that memory with bright light. If you’ve been following the incidents post Virginia-Tech carnage, you will nothing but agree with me. In a US school campus—in the canteen somebody had left a small note: “Shooting will start at dot 12 noon and it will be worse than Virginia Tech.” Immense snooping followed up the threat to find just nothing—it was a joke. A boy in a New Jersey college has been arrested, as because, from the dorm he swayed his toy gun in ambivalence to a suspecting audience; at Oklahoma a man’s umbrella has been seized for a gun. A number of campuses have been shut down to goof up security and return to normalcy. All in the United States. In India for instance one remembers, subsequent to Dhananjay Chatterjee’s hanging, a number of adolescent deaths while aping that act. I still remember an excerpt (published in a local Bengali daily) from a boy’s interview who belonged to a group in which atleast two such dramatic deaths celebrating Dhananjay’s noose had been reported. He said, “ Thank God !-- I’ve escaped; now in our group—it is the latest game, this Monday I was to be hanged—it was my date .” To make sense of this, one needs to examine a number of play theories that we know. Winnicott for instance noticed how for a child any violent act he perceives will be the subject of his next new game. Only children could afford “To play with the four seasons : this play, this evil.” But when so called adults give hoax calls as bomb alerts, then how come s/he adopts the gesture of a playing, aping child? I think we need to take this with a pinch of sugar. This is how things become normalized. Today’s Gujarat is tomorrow’s joke, today’s Nandigram will not remain a nightmare anymore. It might be painful this way but there is less cause for misunderstanding if one reckons with the fact that these hoax callers, game players, joke makers are not at all insensitive people; they have real tears in their eyes which have not been planted. But all the more they can transform an event into an image—which having undergone this change—looses much of its cutting edge. On a massacre - either a joke is invented or a cinema censored; stories written, documentaries are shown, novels forbidden. It’s mourning ( as all the hoax calls are mourning) in a very different way; even some mourning will not be permitted. It proves that all deaths are social and allegorical. Or how come people arrive for a feast ( the shraddh ) after a very near one has died? One popular explanation is, to forget the setback and get on with life again. An objection is easy: time itself fades the ruthlessness of pogroms and poetry continues to be written after Auschwitz; so why do we need a joke, or games have to be crafted to aid us in forgetting? Truly time is a good leveler. But time takes time and if we agree that we live in an age of speed and trace, we need to undertake the duties that time performs and accomplish acts well before time. A hoax bomb alert is thus after an event but it is well before time too; for what “remains to come”! Situated in between, it’s mourning for the already dead; also for the deaths to come. No one can deny its message. It is meant for everybody but is no where—an utopia. The consequence of adopting an impossible duty that only time performs. And this is the final crux of the Virginia Tech carnage. Cho had complained that everybody in his audience had had a hundred chance to be saved from his gunfire, but could not avail them. Teachers and pop-psychologists are complaining that signs were everywhere –in the country’s errant gun laws to Cho’s authored dramas, his “unwanted” SMS’s sent to campus girls, his ‘Old man’ movie, his voice, his loneliness—that he was dangerous and “sick” and needed ‘counseling’ (though his so called ex-counsellors had released him with Cho showing ‘normal’ responses). Alas! it seems, signs-- for both the perpetrator and the victims, were everywhere and nowhere. Now, to declare a war of extermination against the “ the rich, the debauch and the deceitful charlatans”—which Cho said he did, is, in 2007, a sickness and a crime both-- an anarcho-communist syndrome as if-- anachronically misplaced in time and space. Lets agree he was sick. The problem with Cho is he could not persuade others to go with him. In an age of commodification he could not transform “neurosis and even mild lunacy into a commodity which the afflicted can easily sell, once he has discovered that many others have an affinity for his own illness.” Cho Seung-hui could not; but who could have done that ? Adorno answers, “The fascist agitator is usually a masterly salesman of his own psychological defects.” Do Cho’s critics want him to have been an anarcho –communist with the techniques of a proto-fascist? Well, it comes for the first time that Cho’s acts will be praised as infinitely normal and (in)comparably sane not having had the potential to play a Hitler or a Pol Pot game. And in the wake of this uncalled for praise, Cho’s footage will be surrounded by (dead) bodies of those –all of whom were not rich, debauch or cunning charlatans—equally or perhaps--not even minimally—gifted with Cho’s itemized “Mercedes” or “cognac”. They will stand (or sleep for ever)--allegorically for perpetrators who were not present –a utopia again. Neither Cho would represent the “weak and the defenseless” as he claims. Cho is definitely a postmodern unlike Che who had had his aims and enemies clear. _________________________________________ Send a FREE SMS to your friend's mobile from Yahoo! Messenger. Get it now at http://in.messenger.yahoo.com/ From forpavithra at yahoo.com Mon Apr 23 22:02:49 2007 From: forpavithra at yahoo.com (Pavithra Sankaran) Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2007 09:32:49 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Qn for Pritham Chakravarthy In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <672322.29394.qm@web51308.mail.re2.yahoo.com> > From: "pritham k chakravarthy" > was Ramakrishna Kripa Amateurs run by Dr. V. > Ramamurthy and his son-in-law > V. C. Gopalrathnam, a famous lawyer. They performed Would this Gopalratnam be Mani Ratnam's father by any chance? - Pavithra Sankaran p.s. I have enjoyed your two posts a lot--what an interesting subject you have chosen to research! __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From hpp at vsnl.com Tue Apr 24 12:48:19 2007 From: hpp at vsnl.com (hpp at vsnl.com) Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2007 12:18:19 +0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Impact of iron-ore mining for steel investments in eastern India Message-ID: Dear Friends A friend pointed out to me yesterday that with the whole gamut of steel sector investments planned in eastern India (West Bengal, Orissa, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh) - meeting the iron-ore requirements for this is going to mean a hideous rape of the environment of the iron-ore rich states of Orissa, Jharkhand and Chattisgarh. These are also the areas populated by adivasi communities. The iron-ore mining operations may be expected to have a serious destructive socio-cultural and environmental impact. Among the steel plants coming up: Orissa has signed around 45 memoranda of understanding for setting up steel capacities aggregating 60 million tonnes within the next few years. Leading the pack is Korean steel giant POSCO which is setting up a 12-mtpa steel plant near Paradeep in Jagatsinghpur district. Other players who are setting up steel capacities in Orissa include Tata Steel, Jindal Stainless, Jindal Steel & Power, Bhushan Steel, Uttam Galva, Visa Steel and Welspun, among others. Tata Steel proposes to increase its steel making capacity to 33-34 mtpa by 2015, besides increasing the capacity of its Jamshedpur plant from 5 mtpa to 10 mtpa. In addition, the Tatas are planning to set up a 12-mtpa greenfield project in Jharkhand, a 6-mtpa plant in in Jajpur district of Orissa (Kalinganagar), and another 5 mtpa capacity unit in Chhattisgarh. Mittal Steel has announced a 12-mtpa greenfield steel project in Jharkhand and a 12-mtpa greenfield steel plant in Orissa. Jindal Steel's Rs 10,000-crore steel plant in West Bengal, with initial capacity of four million tonnes, to be expanded to 10 mt in due course. V Ramaswamy Calcutta cuckooscall.blogspot.com From nicheant at yahoo.co.uk Tue Apr 24 16:08:14 2007 From: nicheant at yahoo.co.uk (Nishant) Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2007 10:38:14 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Reader-list] International Film Festival of Kashmir Message-ID: <20070424103814.41374.qmail@web27914.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> You are cordially invited to the first International Film Festival of Kashmir. Please feel free to pass the invite to your friends. You can get in touch with Emran Ali in Srinagar at 09419719009 for the help in accommodation in Srinagar. (He can direct you to the right guest houses.) With regards Nishant. Festival Coordinator Ph.: 9811454929. International Film Festival of Kashmir (IFFK) It is an annual film festival that will show films from all over the world in all genres. Its first edition will be held in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, from 28 to 30 April 2007. The first edition of the festival opens with the films that have been made on Kashmir and by the people of the state. Apart from this there will be some other documentaries and short films made by well-known filmmakers. The format of the film festival supports independent curators to curate a part of the festival. This year we will have a package of films on gender in this section. From the next year onwards the IFFK will have a retrospective and a lot more feature films from around the world and be a much longer event attracting films and audience from different parts of the world. Filmmakers Some of the filmmakers whose work is being shown include: Amar Kanwar, Anand Patwardhan, Ajay Raina, Sonia Jabbar, Abir Bazaz, Meenu Gaur, Emran Ali, Monica Bhasin, Kavita Pai, Ansa Thaplial, Atul Gupta, Shabnam Aara... Venue and Date Tagore Hall, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir. >From 28 to 30 April 2007. Organisers The IFFK is co-organised by XMITA (Xperimental Moving Images and Theatre Association) and J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages. XMITA is a Srinagar-based non-governmental organisation comprising of artists, filmmakers and writers from Srinagar and Delhi. Some of the people associated with include Emran Ali, a Srinagar-based filmmaker, Aarshad Mushtaq, a Srinagar-based theatre director and filmmaker, Noushad Gayoor, a Srinagar-based artist, and Nishant, a Delhi-based writer. XMITA seeks to support young artists and filmmakers in a variety of ways, some of which include organising events, helping them get funds for their projects and pitch for their works at international events. A few prominent artists and writers of Kashmir are on the advisory board of XMITA. Contact In Srinagar, Emran Ali: 09419719009 In Delhi, Nishant: 9811454929 email: nicheant at gmail.com ___________________________________________________________ Yahoo! Mail is the world's favourite email. Don't settle for less, sign up for your free account today http://uk.rd.yahoo.com/evt=44106/*http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/mail/winter07.html From hpp at vsnl.com Tue Apr 24 16:24:54 2007 From: hpp at vsnl.com (hpp at vsnl.com) Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2007 10:54:54 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Reader-list] Development and Discontent Message-ID: Media Solidarity presents Development and Discontent Film Screening and Discussion at Max Mueller Bhavan, Kolkata 1st day (3. 5. 2007, Thursday) 3.00 - 3.30 pm Inauguration and Keynote Address. 3.30 -5.00 pm Life and Debt (Jamaica / 85min) A documentary look at the effects of globalization on Jamaican industry and agriculture, by Stephanie Black. 5.00 -5.30 pm Break 5.30 - 6.00 pm Who’s Land Is It Anyway? ( India / 28min.) A documentary on peasant movement against land acquisition in Singur, by Ladly Mukhopadhyay 6.15- 7.30 pm Interactive Discussion: Economy of Development Moderator: Subhendu Dasgupta Participants: Anjan Chakraborty, Jaya Mitra, Raghab Bandyopadhyay and others. 7.30-8.35 pm Aftershock: The Rough Guide to Democracy (India / 64min.) A documentary about the transformation of the welfare State into an instrument of corporate governance after Gujarat earthquake, by Rakesh Sharma 2nd day (4. 5. 2007, Friday) 3.00-3.35 pm SEZ: A Prelude to Anarchy (India / 35 min.) A critical, in-depth documentary on Special Economy Zone projects, by Atul Pethe 3.50- 4.35 pm Development at Gunpoint (India / 45min.) A film on peasants’ resistance movement at Nandigram and the massacre following it, by Pramod Gupta 4.35- 5.00 pm Break 5.00-5.30 pm Filming Eviction: Filmmaker Pramod Gupta and Ranu Ghosh share their experience. 5.30- 7.00 pm Interactive Discussion: Reporting from the Edge - Singur and Nandigram. Moderator: Raju Raman Participants: Journalists who reported from Singur and Nandigram. 7.00-8.50 pm. Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance (Canada / 120 min.) The 1990 stand-off (78-day) between Mohawk Indians and the Canadian government provides the basis of this insightful documentary that focuses on the Mohawks’ courageous defiance and determination to protect their land in the face of mortal danger. by Alanis Obomsawin OR The Fourth World War (USA / 76 min.) This documentary offers an eyeball-to-eyeball look at the people’s battle against the growing global empire. By Richard Rowley ............ posted by V Ramaswamy Calcutta cuckooscall.blogspot.com From kaustubh at houndbee.com Tue Apr 24 16:52:05 2007 From: kaustubh at houndbee.com (Kaustubh Srikanth) Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2007 16:52:05 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Thank heavens we lost In-Reply-To: References: <995a19920704180312l496ba332kc0a5cc361b479eec@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <922fdfef0704240422x138f4356w3cb72c36b598fb42@mail.gmail.com> There is doubt over the rotation policy continuing beyond the FIFA 2014 World Cup. If it does, the world cup in 2018 should be hosted in North America according to the policy(US, Canada and Mexico). - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_FIFA_World_Cup I couldn't find any information online about India being asked to bid for World Cup 2018, but there seemed to be a mention of India getting a chance to host one of the smaller FIFA tournaments. - http://in.sports.yahoo.com/070416/43/6emt2.html Cheers, -K On 4/18/07, Jeebesh Bagchi wrote: > Interesting Sepp Blatter, FIFA president has asked India in his CII > speech to bid for Football World Cup, (2018) saying if they miss this > round, it will be too late to get the next round....it moves in > rotation. CII has shown great interest, only the host nation is > suppose to field a team..and that looks fairly remote..... > > On 18-Apr-07, at 3:42 PM, Aman Sethi wrote: > > > If the Commonwealth games got us here, what would the Asiad have done? > > A. > > > > > > > > New Delhi loses bid > > > > > > > > Kuwait: New Delhi's bid to host the 2014 Asian Games came unstuck as > > the Olympic Council Asia awarded the multi-sport event to South Korean > > city of Incheon on Tuesday. > > > > The Games was awarded to Incheon by the 45-member General Assembly of > > the OCA at the conclusion of its two-day meeting here. > > > > New Delhi was bidding to bring back the continental mega event to the > > Indian soil after a gap of 32 years, having last organised the same in > > 1982. > > > > The Indian capital was also the host for the inaugural edition of the > > sporting extravaganza, which is second only to the Olympics in terms > > of number of disciplines, in 1951. > > > > Korea will be hosting the Games for a third time, with Seoul and Busan > > having conducted it in 1986 and 2002 respectively. > > > > Big offer > > > > > > Incheon seemed to have clinched the bid with its offer of $20 million > > for training, equipment and other facilities for the participating > > nations. > > > > In its bid-presentation earlier in the day, the South Korean > > delegation had also emphasised on the high-tech facilities that will > > be available to the athletes. — PTI > > _________________________________________ > > 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. > > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> > > _________________________________________ > 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. > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> -- Kaustubh Srikanth http://houndbee.com http://radioverve.com http://infinitymag.com From jeebesh at sarai.net Tue Apr 24 18:42:35 2007 From: jeebesh at sarai.net (Jeebesh Bagchi) Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2007 18:42:35 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Film Studies, Film Practice and Asian Cinema: Points in Re-Connection Message-ID: dear all, This is an excellent essay that is trying to reflect on the transformation that is brought about in teaching Film Studies after the expansion of the "culture of the digital copy". best jeebesh ========================================================= Film Studies, Film Practice and Asian Cinema: Points in Re-Connection[1] Moinak Biswas Department of Film Studies Jadavpur University i. These reflections are prompted by the new cinephilia that is emerging across cities in India. I have in mind the small groups forming in Delhi, Bombay, Bangalore, Calcutta, Hyderabad, Chennai, and in smaller cities and towns, around the LCD projector and the DVD player, holding screenings of select films, often accompanied by discussions. The DVDs come from lending libraries and private collections, copy culture providing the basis to the creation of resource. I have had the opportunity to participate in discussions at a few such screenings recently. They seem to be a reincarnation of the film society in the digital era. The film society had its origins in India in 1947, reached its peak in the 1970s, and went into a steady decline in the mid-1980s. If video played a major role in that decline it is the DVD which is bringing it back to a new life from the ashes. It is, of course, a new life, and therefore, different in its promise. The composition of the groups itself is different, connected as it is to virtual societies on the Web, linked to home viewing facilities that were not available to the earlier film society members, smaller in size, and based more or personal acquaintance and friendship. As it so happens, at the moment, Asian Cinema forms a central focus of excitement in these fledgling societies. Interest in Iran was already deep when the activity took off, and Wong Kar-wai was already a favourite from the East. Then came the discovery of Hou Hsiao-hsien, Tsai Ming-liang, Edward Yang, Jia Zhangke, Kim Ki-duk, et al. I am calling the excitement around the encounter with these filmmakers cinephilia in the old sense. There is a fascination for the possibilities of cinema that these films are bringing back. There is a part in the appreciation that is critical of the fact that we do not expect Indian film industry to produce such films. It is analytical in the sense that it tries to grasp the artistic processes at work. And then, it is a critical education in the way it tries to connect the techniques back to the act of filmmaking, often feeding into an interest in making films, into the increasingly common dream, fostered by digital formats, of the viewer turning into an image- maker some day. The interest in technique is always evident in the way young viewers discover possibilities of cinema, but there is enough reason to see it also as a fascination with challenging material. Take, for example, the passages of non-action that characterize much of the cinema coming from the practitioners mentioned above - those wordless durations where action is stripped of its dramatic content to a degree that often pushes screen reality beyond its imaginary wholeness, towards a registration of bare space and time. I am choosing this thematic-stylistic device since it has historically characterized many attempts of deviation from the norm in cinema. It was once a recognizable mark of the contemplative and defiant form, for instance, in the European cinema of the 1960s and 70s. It has been part of the celluloid cinephilia to appreciate the barren places of Antonioni, the camera writing over space in Mizoguchi, the near ridiculous moments of anticipation in Jim Jarmusch, or the withdrawal of movement in Mani Kaul. It was also part of the viewer's education to come to terms with the dead moments in various ‘new wave’ styles. One remembers how, later on, Gilles Deleuze devised a nomenclature for these moments in cinema, and brought out their deeper significance for thought in the twentieth century. It is intriguing to see the new cinephile learning to take delight in the same interruptions in the standardized system of pleasure. The logic of the action-less passage can connect up with a range of ruptures through which new speech emerges in cinema, through which cinema dares to speak in a different language. It strikes correspondence with an interruption in the suture of on-screen and off-screen space, of which Kiarostami and Hou are the new masters. The technique may lend itself to rediscovery, but its function has to be different each time at the level of the content. Jia Zhangke, for example, inserts stillness in the very heart of the story of the modernizing miracle of China. For him it is another time, hidden in the heart of a province; but he feels it is precisely what should be presented as the time of the contemporary, not the capitalist time of growth. His criticism of the Fifth Generation's turn to the past and period pieces[2] is visible in the way he withdraws from action and the dramatic organization of space. The withdrawal makes it possible to figure the story of a systematic erasure of people and life- worlds. As the young cinephile in India receives films like Unknown Pleasures and Platform does she think of the daily experience of our provinces, urban fringes and suburbia that is almost never articulated in our mainstream cinema? Does she feel the same sense of absence as she watches the immobilized gangsters traveling across the city borders in Hou's Goodbye South, Goodbye? The strategic function of immobility is not necessarily only to provide a critical access to the contemporary. A film like The Puppetmaster ( Hou Hsiao-hsien) reveals how cinema can achieve the difficult task of positioning itself between the past and the present by using the same technique. Goodbye Dragon Inn (Tsai Ming- liang) captures by the same method the emptiness invading cinema itself, in the shape of a theatre abandoned by the audience, in the compulsion to hand everything over to the past before it is time. One is always prompted to think of such things as more than technique because of this iterability, their renewed and repeated use across films, and their shifting effects. The range of possibilities organized around a single technical cluster could well present a legitimate point about the content we in India do not explore. The theme of homosexuality, for example, has found its way into our popular cinema. These are issues 'taken up' by films and remain extricable from them as issues. And then there are our serious films dealing with marital difficulties and physical disabilities. What must be a reinvigorating experience for the new cinephile is that something like homosexuality not only crosses the borders of chic and safe-play in a film like Tsai's The River, but the way the film opens itself to the unknown possibilities of cinema by placing the contingent sexual encounter between the father and the son without the justification of plot or character. The technique of immobility develops into a form in the proper sense as it bounces off these critical moments rather than follow a logic of succession. What it does in a film like The River is to clear space for a reconsideration of ideas that sustain our sense of reality. Rey Chow, in an essay on The River, calls this 'discursivity in production'. She thinks the stillness and non-decidability of the film helps a discursive scattering[3]. If, in its attempt to appreciate a technique like this, the new cinephilia reconnects with the older one one need not be alarmed about the return of dead paradigms. What we witness in the artistic adventure of the new Asian cinema is an ability to speak to the rich and varied history of world cinema. I am reminded of the way Fredric Jameson read Edward Yang's Terrorizer in 1992 in his 'Remapping Taipei', placing it side by side with Andre Gide's The Counterfeiters, and saw the formal dynamics of the film, its re- capture of the symptoms of an urban subjectivity, as a mirror in which modernism could discover truths about its own career[4]. One could think of the moment in What Time Is It There? when Jean-Pierre Leaud hands his phone number in a chit of paper to Chen Shiang-chyi - a tribute from the young appearing on screen as a gesture of generosity from the old. The film stops at unexpected moments to remember Francois Truffaut's 400 Blows. Tsai says in an interview that Leaud wanted lines to speak in that scene, but he didn't want him to. He also says how, when the film was shown in Paris, the audience broke into applause the moment the silent Jean-Pierre Leaud, the most remembered face of the young from the Nouvelle Vague, appeared on the screen[5]. An applause of the cinephile, it was occasioned, one would like to think, by the connection that Paris established with Taipei at that moment. ii. It is difficult for the Film Studies we practice to echo these moments of gratitude. To repeat the point about the connection between the new cinephilia and film practice, the technique that I mention above cannot be a part of the standard cinema, Hollywood, Bombay or Chennai. As someone associated with academic Film Studies in India, I see a chasm opening up once more between our work and the cinephile's engagement at this point. It is not the first time, since Film Studies began by marking a distance from the existing cinephile discourse. The latter was a discourse conducted under the aegis of the film society movement. The first generation of Indian Film Studies practitioners all came from that background. The new scholarship they represented became visible in the late 1980s. Film Studies soon found itself ensconced in the academia, the first full fledged Department with a postgraduate curriculum was to be launched at Jadavpur University in 1993. I have been asked here to speak from the experience of being associated with the Department; hence you will forgive me this quick overview based on personal impressions. A divergence from the film art discourse was necessary, we thought, to open a domain proper to the historical-cultural understanding of film. The auteurist bias, the focus on select films, prevented historical investigation, re-produced notions of art and the artist which appeared problematic in the face of the challenges from Theory. The absence of any historical account of the institution of Indian cinema, for example, was obviously a product of the rarefied 'appreciation' approach to film that the existing discourse had. I come from a city which had an active film society movement, and it was also home to some of the most prominent practitioners of alternative cinema in India, including Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak. Film Studies there had a paradoxical circumstance of birth. It was possible to motivate the university to launch a Department of Film Studies in the face of skepticism from the academic old guard because of the prestige film culture enjoyed among the intellectuals; on the other hand, soon upon the formation of the Department it became clear that the writers and organizers belonging to the film society culture did not identify themselves with our work. That they found our business esoteric was only one side of the problem; they also found it baffling that we shifted our attention from the art of cinema entirely to its culture, and therefore, also got occupied with a kind of cinema which the film society movement was launched to debunk. I do not have to tell this audience about the benefits of that departure. If that justification is at all needed I should rather be arguing with my disappointed friends from the film societies. I have been asked to reflect on the experience of the Department rather than tell the story of its environmental adaptation. I would like to speak a little about the internal effects of that adaptation though. When we formulated the syllabi for the Department, we were enjoined to strike a balance between Film Studies and its non-academic neighbour discourses. In teaching Hollywood and film theory we were drawn naturally to the seventies film theory and the attending historical research; in our courses on the world cinema schools (Europe, Latin America, Japan) we leant on a selection of critical texts that precede and run parallel to film theory. The courses that dealt with Indian cinema and cultural theory had to make a quick connection with what was then an incipient scholarship of Film Studies orientation in India. This bricolage of tools was sought to be put within a framing Film Studies discourse, which, after film theory washed ashore and receded, formed a closer alliance with Cultural Studies. As Film Studies began its productive investigation of the institution of cinema in India it had to deflect the focus onto culture. I would like to remember here that this does not necessarily demand a turn to the 'category of popular culture', since the new scholarship promised to analyze the processes of cultural production of all kinds of cinema, not only the mainstream popular. So far as a focus on production was retained, it held the promise of taking us back to film practice, the uncovered weave of cultural composition offering an engagement with films not only wider but richer than auteur-based or close textual discussion . But let us remember that there was no radical content to this struggle to wean away criticism from art to culture, it was precisely what the new economy of culture demanded. Academic Film Studies began its career in India at a time when the state was about to withdraw its support to alternative cinema, a certain cultural project of post-independence modernity was coming to an end; the state's initiatives in culture was being handed over to the market. It also coincided with the onset of new television and the implication of cinema in a new audiovisual matrix, the beginning of the 'end of cinema as we knew it'. To the Film Studies scholar the alternative cinema in the feature film sector will simply become unavailable. It would not be inaccurate to say that that the Cultural Studies turn became recognizable in the increasing interest Film Studies began to take in the broad area of reception, and the increasing investment in the contemporary. Once again, I assume that I do not need to mention the important results of that project. The work on the changing exhibition modes and new forms of dissemination, for instance, is one of the most exciting areas of current research. This turn, however, made the rift between two approaches to cinema clearer. In the teaching situation, we do not necessarily produce scholarly material, we introduce them. We need a somewhat finished body of work to take to the students; and therefore, often move at a lag with research. But sometimes, you would agree, that little gap forces a choice on us, which has its own benefits given the occasional hazards of being fully contemporary to the contemporary. And one is not always sharing a discourse among peers in the class; the students have their own reality to present. We have often felt that the students, exposed only to Indian and American mainstream cinema, no longer having the support of the film society, should first know another cinema exists. They should not be deprived of the immersion in a cinema that has made us relate to the world in a new way, revealed the immense potentials of sound and image, provided incitement to thought, have changed us in small and important ways. One had to invoke a discourse that did not overlap with the new film scholarship in India in order to keep a dialogue on with Ozu or Oshima, Bunuel or Renoir, Ghatak or Glauber Rocha, even as one talked about the politics of popular pleasure. The Japanese critic Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto says in an essay that the reason Japan doesn't have Film Studies is the study of cinema there never took off from the older humanities framework in the direction of Cultural Studies[6]. What happens when Film Studies co-exists in the university with other humanities disciplines? While the literature courses at Jadavpur have over the years incorporated parts of our content, Film Studies in its turn has been reminded of the usefulness of the methods they work with, which may not belong to Cultural Studies. I would say criticism is at stake at the juncture where we stand. Criticism demands a distance, a non-identity with the object. Film Studies in its current shape in India, tends to lose contact with criticism in that sense, committed as it is to what is, to the description of the given. In its reading of cultural symptoms it often resembles the hybrid body of the popular cinematic frame it encounters, collapsing the framing gap with the object. We run the risk of ending up placing a trust in the industry as the only creative source since it defines our area of operation. In that sense, retaining the framing gap would mean keeping alive the reflection on the possibilities of cinema, connecting back to creation of films. Retaining the gap would also mean taking a detour through other cinemas, those that are close to us, and yet distant. After all, a trend within Cultural Studies, by isolating the elements of artistic production and laying bare their strategic and historical functions, their diverse affiliations, sought to open the way for their renewal. Film Studies, especially in the space it shares with students, may need a conversation with the cinephile at this point, who is exploring the alternatives that exist next door, using them as the 'outside' that every criticism needs. It is not as if the industrial film in India does not establish links of its own kind with film scholarship. The smartness of contemporary Indian cinema shows how it has already incorporated a certain critical discourse about itself and turned it into an advantage. Why shouldn't criticism also attempt to make a connection with the films that are about to come, maybe through a process in which our filmmakers join the collaborative network in East Asia that sustains the new Asian cinema. The cinephile's viewing activity is connected by an imaginary thread to the films that many of the young, not content with what our cinema has to offer, would like to make. Shouldn't Film Studies also produce accounts of existing films that remember those that are made in our heads? ----------------------- [1] This paper was prepared for ‘Asian Cinema: Towards a Research and Teaching Agenda’, International Conference organized by Centre for the Study of Culture and Society, Bangalore, in February, 2007. [2] 'Capturing a Transforming Reality', interview with Michael Berry, in Berry, Speaking in Images, New York, 2005 [3] 'A Pain in the Neck, A Scene of "Incest", and Other Enigmas of an Allegorical Cinema, Tsai Ming-liang's The River', New Centennial Review 4.1 (2004) [4] Jameson in The Geopolitical Aesthetic, Cinema and Space in the World System, London, 1992 [5] '"My Films Reflect My Living Situation": An Interview with Tsai Ming-liang on Film Spaces, Audiences, and Distribution', by Sujen Wang and Chris Fujiwara, positions: east asia cultures critique, 14.1 (2006) [6] See Yoshimoto, 'The University, Disciplines, National Identity. Why is There No Film Studies in Japan?', South Atlantic Quarterly (2000) From hie_deepak at yahoo.com Wed Apr 25 00:31:45 2007 From: hie_deepak at yahoo.com (Deepak Kadyan) Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2007 12:01:45 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Popular Music and configuration of jat identity in Haryana 1900-2000 Message-ID: <384794.72337.qm@web32005.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Hi, I am recepient of independent fellowship-2007, and the topic of my research is 'Popular Musical Traditions and Configuration of Jat Identity in Haryana 1900-2000'. This is my first posting delineating the major lines of investigation, which, i shall be exploring in the coming months. I am an M.Phil(History) student at Department of History, University of Delhi. This research seeks to examine the relationship between popular musical traditions and the forging of a jat identity in north India in general and in Haryana in particular. The processes of identity formation and self-perceived notions of community will be analyzed and discerned through the prism of popular culture and as to how a ‘community’ viewed itself and what its aspirations have been over a period of time. Popular culture thus provides insights into the aspects of a society that have hitherto been veiled from the archives, but this is not to negate the importance of archives in this study and will make its presence felt wherever necessary. This study will be divided into two parts. First, before analyzing the notions of community as manifested in popular culture, it would be of importance to investigate the popular musical traditions itself. In the first part, a history of popular musical traditions in this region will be traced; as such traditions are a constitutive part of popular culture wherein notions of community are manifested. In the second part an inquiry into the construction and articulation of notions of community in popular musical tradition, and transformation therein, at different historical junctures will be conducted The history of popular musical traditions present a thread of commonality running across all forms of popular musical traditions in north India, but this study intends to present its uniqueness in the context of Haryana, and its differences from and similarities with the forms present in other regions. The history of popular musical tradition posits an inextricable issue of the relationship between oral tradition and print culture. This becomes more so when written documents and manuscripts have survived from about late seventeenth century, a case in point being Maulana Ganimat’s masnavi (a narrative in couplets) composed in 1685A.D, and also compilations in the works of colonial ethnographers like R.C. Temple and others. It is matter of inquiry as to how this documentation impinges on oral tradition, does it provide fixity or permit intervention, and notably oral tradition kept its dynamic nature of constant interaction with the society and developed newer forms. This documentation continued in twentieth century as well and got compiled in huge volumes, sometimes with the initiative of state institutions like Haryana Sahitya Akademi, and also with the efforts of individual enthusiasts. This constant documentation preserves oral tradition on the one hand but loses out on the forms of performances. Though the latter are also being preserved with the emergence of ‘cassette culture’ in last two decades of c.20th, but such medium in which the process of archivization is taking place, has its limitations too. An aspect of this archivization was made possible by the student stipendship programme, in which many aspects related to oral tradition and its intersection and interaction with technological changes were discussed, and some of the issues will be discussed at length in this research. The major forms of oral traditions, performed in this region, are swang/sang (to impersonate), bam lahri (a tradition associated with the singing of shiva-parvati epics performed mostly by ascetics i.e. sadhus), alha, and nautanki. An important aspect of popular culture is that it doesn’t follow guru-sisya (mentor-disciple) relationship and thus there is no fixed school or style of performance. This, in a way, provides more flexibility in terms of innovation i.e. enabling creation of altogether a new form out of the existing tradition. Thus, instead of a particular style of performance, there are certain personalities/performers, which come to define performance and, thus, oral tradition. Bansi lal(1800-33) documented by R.C. Temple, Ali Baksh(1854-1899), Ahmad Baksh, Pandit Deep Chand(1900-1924), Lakhmi Chand(1920-45), Mange Ram(1950-70), and Jagannath(1970-80), are a few of the major performers this region has witnessed, and their references are present in the oral traditions of neighbouring regions as well. An important aspect of this study would be an analysis of the sites of performance and circulation of this oral tradition. One such site is the akharas( lit. a wrestling arena, but here, it refers to a space for rehearsals and practice), influential until mid twentieth century, and all the above mentioned performers too either had their own akhara or were associated with other’s. Akhara became the space where performers came and sat and practiced. Though no formal training was imparted and much of it was a matter of watching and learning, but akhara developed its own rules and notion of a master and, thus, an in-built hierarchy. A major exception to this akhara tradition is Mehr Singh( d.1944), a jat by caste, and a recruit in colonial army, who produced an entirely different kind of oral tradition, completely breaking away from traditional themes. His compositions reflected more of everyday issues like devar-bhabhi and jija-Sali relationship. Since he himself was in the army and away from home, he experienced a man’s longingness for his family and dear ones which, traditional themes rarely brought to the fore. Another site for circulation that was available to oral tradition, was the colonial army, where Mehr Singh had an indisputable authority; and even nowadays, there are people in the army and police who perform just for leisure- there is even a delhi police officer who performs in his village. There is also an older generation of performers who perform on certain occasions and have preserved the styles of people like Mehr Singh. For instance, Ramphal, a jat by caste, in his early 70’s, has his performances, eagerly awaited by the audience. His singing is not a mere rendition, but a performance in true sense, so impressive is the way the way he gets animated during the performance and dances like a teenager with energy and enthusiasm much higher than that of professional singers. Whereas Mehr Singh’s compositions are few in number and appeal to more intimate issues, Lakhmi Chand, on the other hand, took traditional themes to newer heights, not only in terms of performance but also in terms of compositions. Lakhmi Chand is accredited with more than two and half thousand compositions and according to an anecdote, he composed more than thirty five raginis in a matter of three hours in one performance which are available in urdu manuscript and published as well. The history of oral tradition, thus, gets intertwined with the history of these prominent performers, and major structural and performative changes, whether in terms of musical instruments, rhythms, intonation, appropriation of symbols or content constitute another strand of this relationship between performers and performance. Akharas, in the early decades of twentieth century, encountered opposition from arya samaj. Arya bhajanis too adopted popular musical traditions in propagating their agenda, but were successfully countered and thus arya samaj couldn’t spread its influence in Haryana as it was able to do so in Punjab. Thus, oral tradition had diverse sites of circulation, performance and contestation. Another such site was high schools and colleges, where this tradition was forged into a means of cultural assertion, and was well received by youth. Since Haryana has a strong tradition of Sufism, it would be an interesting inquiry to discern the symbiotic and interactive relationship between sufi tradition and popular culture. Haryana, till independence, had muslim nawabs (e.g. Nawab of Pataudi, Jhajjar; Nawab of Jind; Bhiwani) and they patronized traditional performing castes like mirasis and kanjars which consisted of female performers as well. The social composition of oral tradition in Haryana is different, as it wasn’t dominated by any particular community. Brahmins, jats, muslims, lower castes all participated in this tradition, though muslims disappear from the scene in the wake of partition. Whereas traditional performing castes had an elite patronage, the popular musical tradition developed its ties of dependence, and networks of patronage through communitarian solidarity. It is also of significance to note the cultural and regional origins of these oral traditions. Dhanpat, a performer, was taken to high court in 1950’s on the charges that his composition titled ‘Leelo-Chaman’, dishonoured the family of the complainant as their daughter leelo, a jat woman, was left behind in Pakistan and later on married Chaman, a muslim man. It is interesting to note that, the center of action in many themes are the regions which now are in Pakistan, thus, suggesting a larger cultural landscape of musical tradition and an interplay of multiplicity of identities. This study will be incomplete without an ethnographic mapping of this region. Since, jats are not limited only to Haryana region, they inhabit major chunks of U.P., Rajasthan, and a sizeable population existed in Pakistan as well in pre-partition period, and though now there is a category of ‘muslim jats’, mainly in areas like sialkot, pathankot and eastern pockets of Pakistan. The influence and popularity of popular musical tradition can be discerned from the fact that AIR Rohtak and sometimes Delhi station receives requests from Pakistani soldiers to play their favourite compositions, and it is Mehr Singh who is most popular in these demands. These letters are preserved by the authorities for six months after which they are dumped but such special requests are preserved since they show an interest in Haryana’s culture. Thus army acts as a major site of circulation of this musical tradition. This point is further buttressed by a research paper titled ‘Pakistan me basa ek Sanakritik Haryana’ (A Cultural Haryana settled in Pakistan), which discusses the continuity of cultural practices and other traditions in the areas that are inhabited by the people who migrated from Haryana in the wake of partition and the ways by which locals have also been influenced through popular cultural practices. It is notable that despite having a sizeable muslim population Haryana remained unscathed from communal violence in the wake of partition, the reasons for which lies partially in the syncretic culture of Haryana, which has historical medieval cities like Hisar (settled by Firuz Shah Tughlaq), Panipat, Kalanaur (the place where Akbar was coronated, a few kilometers away from my ancestral village). This syncretic culture is manifested in the language of popular musical traditions which consists of words from Persian, urdu, rajasthani, Punjabi, hindi, and this is visible in everyday language as well. It would be of interest to discern the notion of jat community in the wake the multiplicity of jats and the notion of being a ‘jat’ in the collective memory of jats of Haryana and see as to how do they relate themselves to jats from other regions. This study seeks to use a variety of sources ranging from archival material to oral traditions and personal interviews. This study intends to make use of all the documented oral tradition in the form of text and cassettes as well. A process of documentation of sufi tradition, which is so strong in this region will be initiated. Major journals and magazines published by academic institutions like Haryana Sahitya Akademi( Harigandha), M.D.University Rohtak, Kurukshetra University and other important pamphlets and papers will be used extensively. A historical insight is discernible in Haryana Tilak( 1920-1972), a weekly journal, available at the Teen Murti library. Another source that is indispensable is the compilations of Arya Samaj Bhajans and other similar texts relating to the activities of arya samaj in this region. Amongst other textual sources are diaries, personal letters, memoirs and compositions of prominent political leaders like Chotu Ram, Chajju Ram and others merit analysis. A composition by jat Harphool which until now was available in India Office Library only, has been compiled and published by an enthusiast in Chandigarh also forms a part of textual sources. All these textual sources would be used in conjunction with the archives available at the National Archives, some of which I already have started accessing; Haryana State Archives at Chandigarh, and major districts settlement and gazetteer records and military records also constitute an important fragment of the sources. Publications from other regions will also be a matter of consideration since this oral tradition has been documented and published in regions like Rajasthan and U.P. For instance Komal Kothari has done extensive work in the context of Rajasthan and bears strong resemblance to the popular musical traditions in Haryana as well. An attempt would also be made to collect all the masnavis and other literature surviving from seventeenth century and later period for example Maulana Ganimat’s masnavi ‘Naurang-i-Ishq’. Another important search would be of medieval archives although it may not be directly related to popular music but would provide rare insights into the socio-cultural milieu and also the political apparatus as it remained a region of strategic importance to Mughal Empire, and later to colonial rule in terms of manpower and labour supply to army. But, this aspect at present is limited to collection only and an attempt at weaving them into a larger narrative can be undertaken at a later stage. As pointed earlier this study seeks to use the letters received from Pakistani soldiers lying with AIR and personal collection of correspondences between people who left Haryana and were constantly interacting through correspondence. There are stories of people who often come to visit their ancestral houses in Haryana and also many have donated their property to needy ones in this region. An important aspect of this study would be the documentation of centers of local centers of powers which was in the hands of nawabs and exploring networks and patterns of patronage. In conjunction with this, interviews will be done with the people who migrated from Pakistan and are settled in towns like Kahanaur, Kalanaur (mostly Punjabis and jats from Jhang region) will be conducted so as to get a glimpse of the cultural landscape of these popular musical traditions. These would be accompanied by interactions with major performers in this region of which a part is already covered in an earlier programme. All of that which isn’t documented is available in the form of cassettes and VCD’s, thus it will also serve as an important source in understanding popular music and its relationship with a particular community. It is striking to note that despite all the documentation and compilation of this oral tradition, no performer resorts either to text or cassettes for references and even a commont person is able to tell its composer and the larger context of which it forms a part. This study, thus intends to integrate oral tradition and oral tradition in the narrative of jat identity. Deepak Kadyan --------------------------------- Ahhh...imagining that irresistible "new car" smell? Check outnew cars at Yahoo! Autos. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070424/5dfb4df3/attachment.html From lmadhura77 at gmail.com Sat Apr 21 19:01:27 2007 From: lmadhura77 at gmail.com (madhura l) Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2007 19:01:27 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Urban Spaces and Identity Formation: Second Posting Message-ID: <4dea04310704210631y56018c0aqe58b81f18072d602@mail.gmail.com> Hi all! Am just managing to put in my second posting before my designated week gets over. I'm beginning to think this practice is nice though…gives you a chance to stop and look back on where your work is going. And this is how and where my work is going: By now I have a fairly concrete idea of what is the pattern of content of the notice boards (*vartaphalak*) I've been covering in different areas. To give a crude categorization, here are the 'types' of content that are put up in the *vartaphalak*: *Pertaining to religion:* There are actually three broad categories in this type. The first one concerns overtly technical information about religious practices (in the context of Hindu religion of course). Very pedagogic in nature, these are small tips on how to perform *puja*, where to place ritual objects, how to make a ritual offering, what is the significance of a particular festival and so on. The language used is extremely formal, some of the words almost alien to everyday language. These boards are homogenous since they are 'adopted' by a local organization 'Sanatan Sanstha', whose volunteers write these messages on the various *vartaphalak*. I'm not yet completely sure what the organization is all about, whether it is affiliated to the political Hindu right and so on. More on this in the next posting definitely! The second type is again related to religious teachings, but which are largely couched in a spiritual-moral discourse. The 3-4 Muslim boards included in this study fall in this category. For instance, some of the messages generally revolve around extolling the virtues of Khwaja Garib Nawaaz or explaining the generosity of a particular *pir*. Lastly, there are the overtly Hindu fundamentalist *vartaphalaks*, which have a specific agenda of consistently spewing forth hatred against Muslims and Christians. The content here is acidic, the rhetoric strongly communal. It is not a surprise that these 3 *vartaphalak* are to be found in the Sadashiv Peth-Narayan Peth areas, which are almost exclusively Brahmin populated. *The moral discourse:* I have given this title to this category for the want of a better term. But I'll try and explain what exactly it entails. There are 3-4 such vartaphalaks, wherein a '*Suvichar*' (Thought for the day) is written everyday. There is a strong rhetoric of morality, 'good' behaviour, ethics, values like humanism, benevolence, courage that is reflected in these messages. They present an archetype of 'ideal' citizen, who is moral, ethical and patriotic in his outlook. *Political commentaries: *This is an interesting category. There are 2 vartaphalaks which constantly engage in commenting on the recent political happenings, at the local as well as the national level. Both the boards use an irreverent, satirical style while critiquing the happenings around them. I will try and give a sample of a few messages of each category the next time. I have also realized that the frequency of these messages tends to be pretty inconsistent, barring a few. So some boards that regularly used to change their content, have now hardly anything new to say. In such cases, I've been confused as to whether to include these in the study or omit them. By now I have almost close to 300 photographs, since a photoessay is also one of the outcomes of this study. It's a shame one cannot put up images on the reader-list, otherwise it would have given everyone a greater sense of what I was saying. That's all for now. Waiting for some feedback, comments, whatever. Madhura -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070421/a485cf4c/attachment.html From surojit369 at yahoo.co.in Tue Apr 24 10:55:50 2007 From: surojit369 at yahoo.co.in (SUROJIT SEN) Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2007 06:25:50 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] IFS - '07 - 2nd posting - April - Displacement of prostitutes Message-ID: <883259.48810.qm@web8612.mail.in.yahoo.com> Dear Reader, This is my second posting of my project Displacement of Prostitutes - A tale of two cities in two centuries. Towards a Towards Text I had   Surojit Sen Surojit Sen I had spent my childhood days in the northern part of Calcutta before our family shifted to Chandannagar in Hoogly. In north Calcutta, the house we lived in was a few minutes’ walk from Sonagachi , the proverbial red light area in Calcutta. Later, our joint family broke up and we moved to another house which was also not very far from Sonagachi, as I grew up in this area , I developed , as a child , a curiosity about Sonagachi which is known as the oldest and biggest brothel in Bengal , if not in India. Gradually, this curiosity turned into an eerie feeling and finally into a sort of sexual wonder. Sonagachi has been a large part of Chitpur road ( now Rabindra Sarani ) - the oldest throughfare in the city over the last 100 or 150 years. Sonagachi was familiar to me because we had to go to Natunbazar ( to by fish ) and frequently pass through such areas as Garanhata, Masjidbari street, Darjipara, Durgacharan Mitra street, and others - all located in close vicinity to this brothel, we could not avoid Sonagachi even when we would go to see the charak festival at Chhatubabur bazaar every year. As I got familiar to Sonagachi in my early years, I once thought of writing a novel on the prostitutes inhabiting this area. I wished to dub those women as ‘ Birds in the neighbouring area’. With time, this childish idea wore off, but the curiosity continued to stay on. How was Sonagachi , say, about hundred years ago! Haridaser Guptokatha ( secret tales of Haridas ), a very sensational book written by Bhubonchandra Mukhopadhyay in 1903 describes Sonagachi as this : “ Six months have passed since I settled in Calcutta. By now I have got acquainted with the roads and streets [ in the city ]. One day, on a full moon autumn evening , I was strolling along Chitpur Road. I had not stepped in this area in the afternoon before. I found the same look but one thing struck me as strange. I saw a type of women in the balconies of houses on either side of the road. Dressed in various colours, they put on metal ornaments of different types and dressed their hair in various styles. Some of them were sitting down on stools or their chairs, some standing in the balcony puffing at their silver- made hookahs and some leaning out of veranda, resembling the posture a juggler, with their eyes descending on the road below. Some of these women, I found, had colorful bodices on and some had painted their faces and some were standing with disheveled hair- locks hanging down loosely. Who are these women? I had heard from gossip that there are many harlots in Calcutta. Those who choose to speak sadhu [ chaste; Sanskritised] Bangla say that harlots or prostitutes are charming public women ( barangana ) bent on capturing the spoilt young men by providing them with carnal pleasure - a sort of entertainment in low taste, once trapped by these women, the young boys - who have gone ashtray and seek entertainment in sensual pleasure only - are done for. I could recall those words standing on Chitpur Road. So, these are public women, I understood, the women who lure young men on to destruction. I got started and shuddered. These women have shaken off all the shyness and sense of dignity, characteristic of a women, and are showing themselves up right on the road. In form and shape, they look like women; but by nature they are demonic creatures, Calcutta is really filled with filth to the brim, with perfumed clothes and hair cut in a particular fashion, dandies are walking down the road with their eyes raised to balconies above. And the eyes from each balcony are casting lewd looks at them [ to attract their attention ]. Keeping this sight in mind, one city bard interestingly known as pakshi- kabi [ie, bird poet] once said at a gathering : ‘ Those eyes are traps set for catching birds; they are flutes to men folk.’ I thought that the poet was absolutely right. Such traps abound in Chitpur Road. There is hardly any gentle household in this area. Had there been a few, it would have made a little difference. The pattern of prostitutes’ settlement in Calcutta is simply contemptible. There is a prostitute’s quarter beside a middle – class household, by the side a school, close to a school, close to a doctor’s chamber. In some cases they live in the upper part of a gentleman’s house, and on top of all, they even surround the Brahmo Samaj temple. If this be the situation , what would be the fate of this city! Doesn’t any body care? ( pp 85 – 86). Harishchandra Mukherjee of Hindoo Patriot fame discussed this problem in this paper ( 15 june, 1854 ) and mentioned that there were around 13,000 prostitutes in Calcutta at that time. And Kaliprasanna Singha in his celebrated Hutom Penchar Naksha ( a pithy satire on the 19th Calcutta) observed that ‘ the city of Calcutta has become the city of whores. There is hardly any area in the city where you would not find at least ten prostitute’s quarters. Their number is rising every year, showing no sign of decline.’ Nababibi bilas (1822) by Bhabanicharan Bandopadhyay, Apunar much apuni dekho (1863) by Bholanath Mukhopadhyay, Sachitra guljar Nagar ( 1871) by Kedernath Datta and some other satirical pieces written in the 19th Century sketch the same scenario. Going by these sources, we learn that the main red light area in Calcutta in those days spread along a large stretch of Chitpur Road – from Siddheswaritala ( a temple) at Bagbazar to Nakhoda Masjid (the biggest mosque in Calcutta) at Kalutola. In the course of reading these books, I came across one prose – piece Bodmaish jobdo ( Wicked Punished ) written by Prankrishna Dutta in 1869. We learn from this text that in 1868, the British Government promulgated the Indian Contagious diseases Act 14, popularly known as choddo ayin ie Act 14 to arrest the spread of syphilis among the soldiers. The Government found this act urgent because after the great Mutiny of 1857, the number of soldiers in Fort William was increased and the government knew it full well that it would be impossible to prevent the soldiers from visiting brothels and contracting venereal diseases as a consequence. According to one account, in 1860, one third of the British soldiers had contracted syphilis. The 1868 Act, therefore, aimed to free the prostitutes from that contagious disease and thus to make sure that spread of syphilis among the soldiers does not assume endemic proportions. The act sparked off a stir in Calcutta and led to the publication of scores of plays, skits and satirical sketches on the Act 14. Battala in north Calcutta , the oldest publishing centre in the city, brought out these books. The bhadralok ( elite ) class tended to look down upon the Battala publications as vulgar literature in bad taste. By the elite standards, the language and style of the Battala Literature was vulgar but the social reality reflected in those books provide significant glimpses of social life in 19th Century Calcutta. Prankrishna Datta ‘s text was the first to the 1868 Act. It was followed by thrice satirical sketches on the same subject published in the same year (1869 ). In a caustic style, prankrishna datta depicts the reactions that the said Act brought in wake. --------------------------------- Check out what you're missing if you're not on Yahoo! Messenger -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070424/1dcf8b2e/attachment.html From vishal.rawlley at gmail.com Sun Apr 22 21:17:58 2007 From: vishal.rawlley at gmail.com (Vishal Rawlley) Date: Sun, 22 Apr 2007 10:47:58 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] [Urbanstudy] Article from the Washington Post: an experiment in context, perception, priorities In-Reply-To: <5047ec820704200343r72ac8735y37395d053ff8c679@mail.gmail.com> References: <132707.151.qm@web53603.mail.re2.yahoo.com> <590197.91888.qm@web30502.mail.mud.yahoo.com> <1177057602.6364.87.camel@anubis> <5047ec820704200343r72ac8735y37395d053ff8c679@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <31d5ea920704220847p4894cdbcve473ee3001ae7b39@mail.gmail.com> this is turning out to be an interesting discussion... i am from bombay and there are a lot of musicians on the local trains... most of them are really bad, completely off tune and really annoying. you want to pay them to stop singing or playing their instrument. specially the little kids with shreeky voices, they are hilarious. but often a real nice musician or a genuine talent would come along... i know a friend who has a small music label, who is sending two talented kids for classical music lessons to train their voices a bit and then wants to put out a record with them. the *bhajan mandalis* on bombay trains are quite controversial, but some of them are really good... delicate aalaps and long taans, mesmerising stuff... in full rush hour. these days i am in montreal and the metro here has a real nice system. they have allocated spots in the stations for musicians. these spots are competetive, one has to audition for it. it is reasonably lucrative to get a spot on the metro station as begging is otherwise illegal. so these spots are taken up by people with some amount of talent and they can be very good. i saw a white guy playing a sitar, a bunch of brazilians playing drums, a karaoke guy singing soulful love songs, acoustic guitarists etc. etc. people do not stop to listen always but do drop some change as they hurry past, carrying the tune on their lips or whistling out as they leave. metro stations in montreal are also often the venue for art installations, performances etc. after the trains stop at 1.30am, there have been hip hop acts and open house parties.... all this is well regulated of course... so here is a role model for arts in the metro. -vishal www.bombay-arts.com On 4/20/07, Fahad Mustafa wrote: > > First of all, I am not even sure whether this would even be possible. > > The Delhi Metro seems to aggressively control the space, and even the > > soundscape within the environs of the Metro. > > > > Around 10 pm, a few days ago, at the New Delhi Metro Station, I was > waiting for a train towards Delhi University, when old Hindi tunes- Hero, > Ajeeb Dastan Hai Yeh, Musafir Hoon Yaaron- played on the flute, caught my > attention. A thin man, in a kurta-pyjama, standing next to a dustbin was > playing a bamboo flute, impromptu. Not quiet the virtuoso mentioned in the > Washington post, but he played beautifully. People crowded around, curious, > yet maintaining a respectful distance. Nobody stopped him, nobody offered > him money; nor was he asking. He played for 6-8 minutes, till the metro > arrived (frequency is lesser at that hour). Some people broke into an > applause- bahut badhiya, bahut badhiya-and others offered to buy him dinner > at Chandni Chowk. He took his bows, and accepted the dinner treat. > > > On 4/20/07, Gora Mohanty wrote: > > > > On Thu, 2007-04-19 at 16:20 +0100, Priyasha Kaul wrote: > > > and what do you think of the reactions of the people, especially if > > > the musican was a woman? the jumble of gender, power, expression and > > > space in the interstices of a city like delhi, indeed a worthy > > > experiment ! > > [...] > > > > First of all, I am not even sure whether this would even be possible. > > The Delhi Metro seems to aggressively control the space, and even the > > soundscape within the environs of the Metro. For example, at the Dwarka > > station where I disembark, they have managed to force the line of > > rickshaw-pullers some distance away from the exit, even though this is > > on a public road. > > > > Even should one manage to convince the powers-that-be in the Delhi > > Metro, this would be a different kind of an experiment, as there is no > > history of beggars, or street musicians within the Metro premises. So, > > the event would probably garner attention because of its novelty, and > > because people would assume that it was organised by the Metro > > authorities themselves. > > > > Regards, > > Gora > > > > _________________________________________ > > 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. > > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> > > > > > -- > Fahad Mustafa > 26 Narmada Apartments > Alaknanda > New Delhi, 110019 > Phone:+91-9818893784 > **** > ragon mein daudtey rahney ke ham nahin qayal > jo aankh se hi na tapka woh lahoo kya hai > > http://www.nomadings.blogspot.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. > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070422/b6caa18b/attachment.html From potdar.ashutosh at gmail.com Tue Apr 24 15:00:54 2007 From: potdar.ashutosh at gmail.com (Ashutosh Potdar) Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2007 15:00:54 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] God save the nation from the Bachchan wedding References: <20070421142506.VYPA372744.bgl-svr-mta-in-03.dataone.in@mum-svr-mta-in-01.dataone.in> Message-ID: <002901c78653$5a47a200$b472013d@ashitosh> anuja, Congrats, very intersting research. What kind of theatre they were doing in 1930s and 40s? It was recession period on theatre. Do you have any photographs of those days? Also, what was economics of those plays? I read few letters of those days written by artists. If you need for your research, I can make them available. Well, my grandfather was Varkari and he too was acting in those days. But not like yours. Mine was part of bhajani mandals. I heard about Mhamulal Sangaonkar, Chotekhan Sangaonkar from him. I have some documents left of those days. I think your grandpa could say something about communication between various natak mandalis in the gandarv period. I read that small dynasts have motivated many artists, especially theatre artists. In the same way, did they help film industry? It seems they didn't (I am not sure). Your post makes me wait eagerly for next. ashutosh ----- Original Message ----- From: anuja ghosalkar To: sarai list Sent: Saturday, April 21, 2007 7:54 PM Subject: Re: [Reader-list] God save the nation from the Bachchan wedding > Hi, > This is my second post on the work I am doing on my > Grand father. I have created a blog, so I can upload > pictures etc. I will post more often than once a > month, smaller snippets.But of course the mandatory > once a month will be sent to the reader list. > > Here is the link: www.papaajoba.blogspot.com > > Cheers > Anuja > > __________________________________________________ > 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. > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> From anujaghosalkar at yahoo.com Sat Apr 21 19:56:39 2007 From: anujaghosalkar at yahoo.com (anuja ghosalkar) Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2007 07:26:39 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Post No. 2: Papa Ajoba Message-ID: <452935.68918.qm@web54511.mail.yahoo.com> Note: forwarded message attached. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com -------------- next part -------------- An embedded message was scrubbed... From: anuja ghosalkar Subject: Re: [Reader-list] God save the nation from the Bachchan wedding Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2007 07:24:35 -0700 (PDT) Size: 4227 Url: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070421/1ea44f06/attachment.mht From turbulence at turbulence.org Sat Apr 21 21:21:53 2007 From: turbulence at turbulence.org (Turbulence) Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2007 11:51:53 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Turbulence.org at Boston Cyberarts Festival + Cambridge Science Festival Message-ID: <0E047D9C2BF64F2794AF9C6B80BE124F@joPC> New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc./Turbulence.org has commissioned two works and co-organized two panel discussions for the Boston Cyberarts Festival and Cambridge Science Festival: 1. TURBULENCE COMMISSION: "HANDHELD HISTORIES AS HYPER-MONUMENTS" (http://turbulence.org/works/HyperMonument/) by Carmin Karasic, Rolf van Gelder and Rob Coshow. Designed for HP iPAQ 6900 series smartphones, "Handheld Histories as Hyper-Monuments" uses GPS and mobile technologies to address historic bias in Boston's public monuments. The artwork gathers non-official stories to socially construct hyper-monuments that exist as digital doubles, augmenting specific historic monuments. Pick up a smartphone at Judi Rotenberg Gallery, 130 Newbury Street, Boston; April 21-28, 2007, Tues-Sat 10am-6pm. Funded by the LEF Foundation. Read more: http://www.turbulence.org/blog/archives/004127.html 2. TURBULENCE COMMISSION: "PULSE POOL" (http://turbulence.org/Works/PulsePool/) by the Symbiotic Media Group. For the first time, two cities will be connected via the human pulse. This interactive art installation uses Internet and radio-frequency identification (RFID) technologies to allow people in Boston and Oklahoma City to experience one another's pulses. Co-presented with the Museum of Science, Boston and the Fred Jones Art Museum, Oklahoma; April 23 - 30, 2007. Funded by mediaThe Foundation, the Museum of Science, Rhizome.org; and the University of Oklahoma Symbiotic Media Center and School of Art. Read more: http://www.turbulence.org/blog/archives/004055.html 3. "OURFLOATINGPOINTS 4: THE ART OF LIVING A SECOND LIFE." A panel discussion with Wagner James Au (aka Hamlet Linden), John Lester (aka Pathfinder Linden), and John (Craig) Freeman (aka JC Freemont); moderated by Eric Gordon (aka Boston Borst). Co-presented with Emerson College and the Museum of Science. April 25, 7 pm; Museum of Science, Cahners Theater, Boston. Streamed live online and broadcast to Second Life. Funded by Emerson College. More information: http://www.turbulence.org/blog/archives/004120.html 4. UPGRADE! BOSTON: "TECHNOLOGICAL FRONTIERS AND THE LIMITS OF NATURE: NETWORKED INTERVENTIONS." A panel discussion with Jane D. Marsching, Cary Peppermint and Brooke Singer; moderated by Shane Brennan. May 3, 7 pm at Art Interactive, 130 Bishop Allen Drive, Cambridge. Funded by the LEF Foundation. More information: http://www.turbulence.org/blog/archives/004140.html Cambridge Science Festival: http://www.cambridgesciencefestival.org/ Boston Cyberarts Festival: http://bostoncyberarts.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 Networked_Performance Blog: http://turbulence.org/blog Networked_Music_Review: http://turbulence.org/networked_music_review Upgrade! Boston: http://turbulence.org/upgrade New American Radio: http://somewhere.org _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From turbulence at turbulence.org Tue Apr 24 19:49:27 2007 From: turbulence at turbulence.org (Turbulence) Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2007 10:19:27 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Turbulence Commission: "Pulse Pool" by the Symbiotic Media Group Message-ID: <23DF34993B3F431EA14F16031D152205@joPC> Turbulence Commission: "Pulse Pool" by the Symbiotic Media Group http://turbulence.org/works/PulsePool/ For the first time, two cities are connected via the human pulse. From today through April 29th, during the Cambridge Science Festival and the Boston Cyberarts Festival, the MUSEUM OF SCIENCE, and NEW RADIO AND PERFORMING ARTS, Inc. present "Pulse Pool." Place a finger to your neck or wrist. Find your pulse. How does it alter your awareness of your body? Imagine if you could simultaneously see and experience another person's pulse the way you feel your own. "Pulse Pool" is a collaborative multimedia installation created by a group of students from the Symbiotic Computer Laboratory at the University of Oklahoma. The interconnected components of the "Pulse Pool" project explore how access to otherwise unavailable corporal information affects human interaction. Wearable electronic units measure individuals' heart rates and transmit this data to other participants through physical stimulation created by small, vibrating motors incorporated within the devices. This allows participants to feel the pulse of individuals who are in close proximity to them. Additionally, a visual representation of this information is created by droplets of water falling and making ripples in a pool. These droplets are synchronized with live pulse and relative location data that is collected using wireless communication and RFID positioning technology. An internet connection and custom software allows real-time and archived transmissions of information about the localized "Pulse Pool" community to be shared with the global community on the World Wide Web. This makes it possible to create interaction between "Pulse Pool" communities in remote locations. Pulse Pool is a 2006 commission of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. for its Turbulence web site. It was made possible with funds from mediaThe Foundation. Additional funds from the Museum of Science, Boston; the National Endowment for the Arts; Rhizome.org; and the University of Oklahoma Symbiotic Media Center, Lester Wilkinson Chair, College of Engineering, School of Computer Science, Symbiotic Computing Laboratory, and School of Art. Museum of Science, Boston: DATES: April 23 - 29, 2007 ADMISSION: included with regular Exhibit Halls admission: $16 for adults, $14 for seniors (60+), and $13 for children (3-11). For more information, call 617/723-2500, (TTY) 617/589-0417, or visit http://mos.org. Fred Jones Museum of Art: DATES: April 24 - 29, 2007, 10am - 5pm. For more information, visit http://www.ou.edu/fjjma/information/index.html Cambridge Science Festival: http://www.cambridgesciencefestival.org/ Boston Cyberarts Festival: http://bostoncyberarts.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 Networked_Performance Blog: http://turbulence.org/blog Networked_Music_Review: http://turbulence.org/networked_music_review Upgrade! Boston: http://turbulence.org/upgrade New American Radio: http://somewhere.org _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From elkamath at yahoo.com Mon Apr 23 17:37:16 2007 From: elkamath at yahoo.com (lalitha kamath) Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2007 05:07:16 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Invitation for Public Meeting with "Reclaiming Public Water"- Network tour -- 27th April 2007 in Bangalore Message-ID: <111850.48401.qm@web53606.mail.re2.yahoo.com> The invitation follows below. All are welcome. Additionally, if you know Spanish and can help with Spanish-English translations at any point during the interactions on April 27th, please get in touch with Vinay Baindur (yanivbin at gmail.com) Dear Friends, Public Meeting Interaction with Reclaiming Public Water (RPW) network members. Time : 4.30 p.m. Date : 27th April 2007 Venue: S C M House (Behind Vijayalakshmi Silks) 2nd Cross Mission Compound , Bangalore All citizens have a Right to Water. But in the new and current revenue recovery model of the Govt of India (GoI) projects are made with only a few people in mind especially the rich and those who can pay. This is happening increasingly with erosion of Government responsibility towards its electorate by pressures from "fiscal reform" and the private (for profit) sector. The poorest people all over have now been identified as those who are a sizable market for purchase of commercial goods. Water supply has also become one of the biggest revenue earners for a few multinational companies. This has been also backed by the "neoliberal ideology and vision" of the world Bank, the IMF and others which have generated "bureaucratic consensus" without political or public debate among reprsentatives or citizens. In this context over the last several years a coordinated international effort began to roll back the privatisation of water supply as part of the network known as :- RECLAIMING PUBLIC WATER. This has received extensive support from all over the world from various sections of the common people. They include water utility workers, residents from slum areas, neighbourhood associations, NGOs and civil society organisations, academics and researchers, etc etc. 5 Key members of the RPW group are visiting India as part of the campaign efforts from 23-30 April 2007. Reclaiming Public Water (RPW) network, was initiated in November 2005 to promote progressive public water ( Public - Public partnership) models and other alternatives to water privatisation. This involves connecting in an open and consensus-based network, activists, trade unionists, researchers and public water managers from around the world. A series of case studies have now been put together in a new book "Reclaiming Public Water: Achievements, Struggles and Visions from Around the World" has been published in Chinese, Spanish, Finnish, Indonesian, Italian and Korean, along with Transnational Institute (TNI) & Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO). In India as part of the tour Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam editions will be released. The English edition of the book can be downloaded from: http://www.tni.org/detail_page.phtml?&page=books_publicwater The full download of the Hindi edition will be available after April 25th at: www.insafindia.org The translated books are being released during April 25-30 in New Delhi, Mumbai, Indore, Bhopal, Bangalore, Coimbatore, Plachimeda, Thrissur & Chennai. The authors of the book and waterjustice campaigners participating in these book launches are: a.. Julian Perez (Bolivia) works with the Ministry of Water of the Bolivian Government and responsible for the Inter-institutional Commission, which is a responsible organisation of the construction of the "Public and Social" model for the city of El Alto and La Paz, consisting of the municipal governments of La Paz and El Alto and civil society organisations, Federation of Neighborhood Associations of El Alto and La Paz (FEJUVE), and the Ministry of Water. Member and adviser of the FEJUVE El Alto, during the second "Water War" in Bolivia that happened in the cities of El Alto and La Paz against the Transnational Company SUEZ. b.. Santiago Arconada Rodriguez (Venezuela) works at Hidroven, the main agency for drinking water and sanitation in Venezuela. He is the former secretary-general of the Textile Worker Union U.T.I.T. and has worked in water management in the cities of Caracas and Maracaibo. c.. Olivier Hoedeman (Dutch/Danish) is the research and campaign coordinator at Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), an Amsterdam-based civil society group targeting the threats to democracy, equity, social justice and the environment posed by the economic and political power of corporations and their lobby groups. d.. Ms. Tamsyn East (UK) has been the water campaigner at the World Development Movement(WDM) for the last 2 years. She also campaigns on climate change and trade. Much of her work involves working with activists in the global south and with networks of activists in the UK. She is responsible for production and dissemination of campaigning materials and inspiring people to take action to achieve political change. She also coordinates the parliamentary advocacy work for WDM. Before working at the World Development Movement Tamsyn worked on the Corporates campaign at Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland. e.. V. Suresh (Chennai) is an advocate of Madras High Court, Supreme Court appointed Adviser for Tamil Nadu to the Supreme Court Commissioner on Food Security, President of People's Union for Civil LIberties, Tamil Nadu & Pondicherry. Suresh has been working on governance reform of different public service departments like education, health, welfare and recently with water department. f.. Rakhi Sehgal (Delhi) was a volunteer with the Right to Water Campaign during 2004-2005. She is currently engaged in labour research in the new industrial area of Gurgaon, near New Delhi. Julian Perez (Bolivia), Olivier Hoedeman and V . Suresh will be speaking at the meeting along with CAWP-Ka members Issac Arul selva and Y J Rajendra who will share the Bangalore experience. This interaction meeting will give all of us an excellent opportunity to find out more about struggles all over the world and an insight into what it means to re-nationalise water sector like in Bolivia under Evo Morales, President of Bolivia, or in France where municpalities are also planning to RECLAIM the water supply services. by what is now being termed as a process of "remunicipalisation". we look forward to meeting all of you, Yours sincerely, Vinay Baindur Issac Arul Selva , Kshitij Urs Casum-m Campaign Against Water Privatisation- Karnataka __________________________________________________ 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/20070423/918366be/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070423/918366be/attachment-0001.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From mail at shivamvij.com Wed Apr 25 02:21:35 2007 From: mail at shivamvij.com (Shivam Vij) Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2007 02:21:35 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Urbanstudy] Article from the Washington Post: an experiment in context, perception, priorities In-Reply-To: <5047ec820704200343r72ac8735y37395d053ff8c679@mail.gmail.com> References: <132707.151.qm@web53603.mail.re2.yahoo.com> <590197.91888.qm@web30502.mail.mud.yahoo.com> <1177057602.6364.87.camel@anubis> <5047ec820704200343r72ac8735y37395d053ff8c679@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <9c06aab30704241351h7cd5fd1ene90873b3393d10ad@mail.gmail.com> > He took his bows, and accepted the dinner treat. Did you go? best s On 4/20/07, Fahad Mustafa wrote: > > > First of all, I am not even sure whether this would even be possible. > > The Delhi Metro seems to aggressively control the space, and even the > > soundscape within the environs of the Metro. > > > Around 10 pm, a few days ago, at the New Delhi Metro Station, I was waiting for a train towards Delhi University, when old Hindi tunes- Hero, Ajeeb Dastan Hai Yeh, Musafir Hoon Yaaron- played on the flute, caught my attention. A thin man, in a kurta-pyjama, standing next to a dustbin was playing a bamboo flute, impromptu. Not quiet the virtuoso mentioned in the Washington post, but he played beautifully. People crowded around, curious, yet maintaining a respectful distance. Nobody stopped him, nobody offered him money; nor was he asking. He played for 6-8 minutes, till the metro arrived (frequency is lesser at that hour). Some people broke into an applause- bahut badhiya, bahut badhiya-and others offered to buy him dinner at Chandni Chowk. He took his bows, and accepted the dinner treat. From indersalim at gmail.com Wed Apr 25 17:53:46 2007 From: indersalim at gmail.com (inder salim) Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2007 17:53:46 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] 'The Tiger' lives in an image, but... In-Reply-To: <47e122a70704250514k7b82a4cbre7b2b6ff5937190e@mail.gmail.com> References: <47e122a70704250514k7b82a4cbre7b2b6ff5937190e@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <47e122a70704250523r2b2f94cco276656aac176de74@mail.gmail.com> please have a look at the images before you read the following: http://indersalim.livejournal.com 1. On Tipu's Tiger www.victoria&albertmuseum reads : " …and Tipu Sultan's (The Tiger of Mysore) macabre model of a tiger devouring a British soldier, a mechanical marvel prized by Tipu and kitted out with an organ that simulated the growls and shrieks of its British victims. After Tipu's defeat at the Battle of Seringapatam in 1799, "Tipu's Tiger," shown below, was seized by the British and became the most famous exhibit of the East India Company's collection, later transferred to the V & A." Before one can go into 'the tiger' as a natural symbol for a national representation or so, let us re-read the text in the site of V&A. "Macabre model of a tiger" or "The British victim" are clearly from the their understanding of history. Fine, but that is the difference which continues till date, and is unfortunately poised to shape our contemporary history even. Be it the devastation of Afganistan due to their cold war tactics or war in Iraq or something else, the foreign policy of 'the west' is still emanating from an old and cold understanding of the other. Mr Count West west of the The Castle by Franz Kafka is still questioning Mr.K about his existential choice to enter the Inn without his permission. The tiger is still around. A golden 100 dollar Australian coin is carrying 'a tiger' leaping out for its victim. And before the British devoured the whole of India, Tipu Sultan fantasized to let his imaginary tiger devour the dangerous British in uniform. This British tiger afterwards had to control India through a Leopard on an Indian coins. There are some other animals which helped 'the state' to control its subjects, but 'the tiger' is special. Greatest great God knows why ? 2. A forest fire once looked very beautiful from a distance, but not now, not now anymore. This is how a couplet in Urud by Bashir Baddar lucidly conveys us about the change of aesthetics value judgment. In 1799, (( all the Lady(s) and Lord Curzon(s) and numersou other dead tigers too )) a dead tiger under your feet for a photograph with a gun around represented the status symbol and pride of a person or family. The tradition of hunting has a history and some elites want to live with this tradition even when they enjoy the best of technological gadgetries to stimulate their pleasure nerve ends and all that. Alas, the skin of tiger is the requirement of a drawing room, and the demand of it is coming from the rich people only. The poachers are only fulfilling this demand. So are we still living with that old aesthetic form(s) which talk about colour and material without the understanding of changed times. The new aesthetic paradigm must engage 'the environmental' as its primary shift to its manifesto besides 'the mental' and 'the social', as Felix Guattari puts forth in his most poignant and profound writings. 3. I took the photo of the photo and it contains: a master with a cane looking at the tiger who is about to enter the arena. There is at least one clear frame in front of the tiger to enter from other end. The Tiger's destiny is this frame, lower end of which is solidly merged with the circus floor. A small but significant reflection of myself on the black trousers of the poor circus employee, which is darker than the dark of his trousers, reveals a half face, a fragment of the shirt, ear and a shadow like face with no eyes. There is a girl witness, standing next to a tiger upon a woman, but is she actually looking at what the tiger upon the girl like figure is all about ? Although the gallery walls, which I remember were all white, but there is a small blue reflection with the entrance door of the room in which the images are exhibited. There is one more tiger upon a stool like an art object in a gallery space, here in front of many empty chairs of the circus. In the gallery it was real circus of the black and white images, but the actual images of the circus were taken during a rehearsal time. The photographer of these images used the protective glass like the circus people use iron frames to protect people from tigers in the circus. ( although the fact is reverse ). As we all know, in the circus the reality of iron simply stays on the eyes of the tigers even when they are released from the cage to perform. The iron exists for the tigers while we don't see it, which is almost similar to the image under the transparent glass. So if the image is like a tiger with or without cage, then it is the very transparent glass which incorporated some meaning to the image for my understanding of this image of the image thing. The image of the image is surreal in form but tragic in content. I am part of the circus-in-surreal and yet a witness to it from outside. However, still the most interesting part of the image is the theatrical gesture of the tiger upon the woman like figure. The gender of the tiger is immaterial, because it performs the role of that tiger like male chauvinist, a mask, and for the same reason there must be a buyer for the image in the gallery space as well. The idea sells in the real circus and the image of the idea too sells in the gallery. Wittingly or unwittingly, I am also writing about the image because something is too loud in the picture. Is then the image of the image still performing the role which it was designed to perform in the gallery space in the first place? I see there is hardly any trace of life in it, because everything is dead in it. I see a tiger buried under the woman who is almost buried under the tiger. It looks like a grave. The wax model like girl next to the grave is standing in front of it as if mourning the death of her own sister-self. The so called master is too melancholic. Every figure in the image of the image is looking else where, and yet they are all players to perform in sync for an audience that is not in the picture but in front of it anyway. The image happens to be like this only to generate meaning for the eye. During rehearsal it is unlikely that they are not in sync within each other. Obviously there is no space for a joker, and even if the joker is around, usually a dwarf, has to behave reasonably within limits, lest these looking-tigers but blind misbehave. The beast is already out of the human living space, and human being has already encroached upon the most of the space which actually belongs to this so called beast. The space controlled by human beings offers a living space to the tiger either in a circus, or in a zoo or in a protected sanctuary. The tiger also lives in an image, but on our terms. The tiger was too sad while i went a little closer to this tiger, and if I go nearer 'this reality' may devour me. So I better save my skin and leave this tiger alone in the wilderness of form, gallery dynamics and meaning of an image. Still , the more important question is 'The Tiger' who is… - From anujbhuwania at gmail.com Wed Apr 25 19:49:29 2007 From: anujbhuwania at gmail.com (Anuj Bhuwania) Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2007 19:49:29 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] A Supreme Court Judge on caste in judiciary In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Hi, In the context of the breathtaking arrogance displayed by Justice Arijit Passayat of the Supreme Court in refusing to reconsider its erroneous order injuncting reservation for OBCs in Central educational institutions, and the rather different response from Chief Justice Balakrishnan yesterday, I think its high time we started discussing the caste character of the higher judiciary itself. Of course, broader social representation is not necessarily a pancea for the "judicial emergency" that increasingly seems to prevail in India. To initiate a discussion on this issue, I am giving a link below to an extract from an astonishing SC judgment, in the SCAORA case, the famous case where the SC gave itself the power to appoint judges of the higher judiciary in India. The extract is a separate concurring judgment filed by Justice Ratnavel Pandian. Pandian cited data regarding SC/ST and OBC judges in the High Courts and the Supreme Court, and reproduced them in his judgement to make his point. (By the way, J. Pandian is the same judge who gave the majority opinion upholding the constitutionality of TADA) . Apart from this, I am not aware of any recent data and this too is dated 1993, compiling the caste make-up of the higher judiciary in India. http://www.altlawforum.org/Resources/judicial_nineties/Pandian Anuj From anujbhuwania at gmail.com Wed Apr 25 21:34:59 2007 From: anujbhuwania at gmail.com (Anuj Bhuwania) Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2007 21:34:59 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] A Supreme Court Judge on caste in judiciary In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Sorry, the earlier link I had sent did not work. Its now available at: http://www.altlawforum.org/Resources/judicial_nineties/pandian.rtf Anuj On 4/25/07, Anuj Bhuwania wrote: > Hi, > > In the context of the breathtaking arrogance displayed by Justice > Arijit Passayat of the Supreme Court in refusing to reconsider its > erroneous order injuncting reservation for OBCs in Central educational > institutions, and the rather different response from Chief Justice > Balakrishnan yesterday, I think its high time we started discussing > the caste character of the higher judiciary itself. Of course, broader > social representation is not necessarily a pancea for the "judicial > emergency" that increasingly seems to prevail in India. > > To initiate a discussion on this issue, I am giving a link below to an > extract from an astonishing SC judgment, in the SCAORA case, the > famous case where the SC gave itself the power to appoint judges of > the higher judiciary in India. The extract is a separate concurring > judgment filed by Justice Ratnavel Pandian. Pandian cited data > regarding SC/ST and OBC judges in the High Courts and the Supreme > Court, and reproduced them in his judgement to make his point. (By > the way, J. Pandian is the same judge who gave the majority opinion > upholding the constitutionality of TADA) . Apart from this, I am not > aware > of any recent data and this too is dated 1993, compiling the caste > make-up of the higher judiciary in India. > > http://www.altlawforum.org/Resources/judicial_nineties/Pandian > > Anuj > From mail at shivamvij.com Thu Apr 26 00:32:31 2007 From: mail at shivamvij.com (Shivam Vij) Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2007 00:32:31 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] A Supreme Court Judge on caste in judiciary In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <9c06aab30704251202o2bee5ff5w2c9d0d434688fda7@mail.gmail.com> By the way, Pandian is now the Chairperson of the National Commission for Backward Classes, the Constitution body as far as OBC reservations are concerned. Strangely, Pandian and the NCBC have not been speaking at all in the current controversy, mute as if they were deaf, and Pandian refuses to meet any journalists. On 4/25/07, Anuj Bhuwania wrote: > > Hi, > > In the context of the breathtaking arrogance displayed by Justice > Arijit Passayat of the Supreme Court in refusing to reconsider its > erroneous order injuncting reservation for OBCs in Central educational > institutions, and the rather different response from Chief Justice > Balakrishnan yesterday, I think its high time we started discussing > the caste character of the higher judiciary itself. Of course, broader > social representation is not necessarily a pancea for the "judicial > emergency" that increasingly seems to prevail in India. > > To initiate a discussion on this issue, I am giving a link below to an > extract from an astonishing SC judgment, in the SCAORA case, the > famous case where the SC gave itself the power to appoint judges of > the higher judiciary in India. The extract is a separate concurring > judgment filed by Justice Ratnavel Pandian. Pandian cited data > regarding SC/ST and OBC judges in the High Courts and the Supreme > Court, and reproduced them in his judgement to make his point. (By > the way, J. Pandian is the same judge who gave the majority opinion > upholding the constitutionality of TADA) . Apart from this, I am not > aware > of any recent data and this too is dated 1993, compiling the caste > make-up of the higher judiciary in India. > > http://www.altlawforum.org/Resources/judicial_nineties/Pandian > > Anuj > _________________________________________ > 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. > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> -- http://www.shivamvij.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070426/93b3dbd5/attachment.html From cahen.x at levels9.com Wed Apr 25 20:29:51 2007 From: cahen.x at levels9.com (xavier cahen) Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2007 16:59:51 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] pourinfos Newsletter / 04-25 to 05-02-2007 Message-ID: <462F6CE7.4050804@levels9.com> pourinfos.org l'actualité du monde de l'art / daily Art news ----------------------------------------------------------------------- >From Wenesday April 25, 2007 to Wenesday May 02 2007 (included) ------------------------------------------------------------------- (mostly in french) @ 001 (25/04/2007) Residency: Headlands Center for the Arts Residency Applications Now, Online, Fort Barry Sausalito, Usa. http://pourinfos.org/art-34752-tit--Headlands-Center-for-the-Arts-Residency -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 002 (25/04/2007) Residency: exchange artists in residence with IAAB-Basle, Astérides, Basle, Switzerland. http://pourinfos.org/art-34753-tit--echange-d-artistes-en-residence-avec-l- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 003 (25/04/2007) Residency: of artist at La Galerie, contemporary art Center of Noisy-le-Sec, Noisy-le -Sec, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-34754-tit-Residence-d-artiste-a-La-Galerie-Centre -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 004 (25/04/2007) Publication: Post-Minimalism, Trace N°24, TraceLabel, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-34767-tit--Post-Minimalism-Trace-N-24-TraceLabel- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 005 (25/04/2007) Publication: number 24, Archistorm review, editions bookstorming publications, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-34768-tit--numero-24-La-revue-Archistorm-editions -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 006 (25/04/2007) Publication : « HUNGARY: NEW POETS », n° 187, Action Poetique, mars 2007, quarterly review, Ivry-sur-Seine, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-34769-tit--HONGRIE-NOUVEAUX-POETES-n-187- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 007 (25/04/2007) Job: Professorship, Graphic arts, Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts’ Schools of Visual Arts, Copenhagen, Danemark. http://pourinfos.org/art-34770-tit--Professorship-Graphic-arts-Royal-Danish -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 008 (25/04/2007) Formation: Call for curatoriales practices 2007-08, Ecole du Magasin, Grenoble, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-34771-tit-Formation-aux-pratiques-curatoriales -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 009 (25/04/2007) Formation: Call for Art, Creation & Therapy, c f p i _bourges, e n s a _bourges, Bourges, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-34772-tit-Formation-Art-Creation-Therapie-c -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 010 (25/04/2007) Job: Manager-curator of a museum of d’art moderne Lille Metropole, Lille, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-34773-tit--Directeur-Conservateur-pour-le-Musee -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 011 (25/04/2007) Call: convocatoria presentacion proyectos/call for projects, Medialab, Madrid, Spain. http://pourinfos.org/art-34774-tit-Appel-a-participation-convocatoria -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 012 (25/04/2007) Call: Snd:arc- Final Call for works, Deadline 27/04/07, Canterbury Christ Church Broadstairs campus, United Kingdom. http://pourinfos.org/art-34775-tit--Snd-arc-Final-Call-for-works-Deadline -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 013 (25/04/2007) Call: Call for participants in Documenta 12, Kassel, deadline May 24, Germany. http://pourinfos.org/art-34778-tit--Call-for-participants-in-Documenta-12- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 014 (25/04/2007) Call: Call for Works for the 60x60 project, Radio City Station, New York, USA. http://pourinfos.org/art-34779-tit--Call-for-Works-for-the-60x60-project- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 015 (25/04/2007) Call: Congress of the video artists and poets not aligned, Instants Video Numeriques et Poetiques, Marseille, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-34780-tit--Congres-des-artistes-video-et-poetes-non -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 016 (25/04/2007) Call: Film festival (very) independent, 6th edition, Lyon, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-34781-tit--Festival-de-films-tres-independants- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 017 (25/04/2007) Call: to imagine a film poster, Du cinema a l'envers, France http://pourinfos.org/art-34782-tit--imaginer-une-affiche-de-film-Du-cinema-a -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 018 (25/04/2007) Call: The Vegetable one, collectif Artefact, Agen, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-34783-tit--La-Vegetale-collectif-Artefact-Agen- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 019 (25/04/2007) Call: multilingue review, Collectif Vers, Le Kremlin Bicetre, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-34784-tit--revue-multilingue-Collectif-Vers-Le -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 020 (25/04/2007) Call: for MUSICVIDE0ART 2 - Heure Exquise ! Mons en Baroeul, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-34785-tit-s-Appel-a-projets-pour-MUSICVIDE0ART-2- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 021 (25/04/2007) Call: short films , Brigade des Images, Jerusalem, Israel. http://pourinfos.org/art-34786-tit-Appel-a-candicature-films-courts-Brigade -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 022 (25/04/2007) Call: Photo street reportage, Competition photos Eyeka, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-34787-tit-Appel-a-candicature-Photo-street -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 023 (25/04/2007) Call: 29 th Festival international du Cinema Mediterranéen de Montpellier, Montpellier, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-34788-tit--29e-Festival-international-du-Cinema -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 024 (25/04/2007) Call: Talent Prize 2007, Jean-Luc Lagardere' Foundation , Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-34789-tit--Bourse-de-Talent-2007-Fondation-Jean-Luc -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 025 (25/04/2007) Call: MADRID PROCESOS 07, Avam, Madrid, Spain. http://pourinfos.org/art-34790-tit--MADRID-PROCESOS-07-Avam-Madrid- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 026 (25/04/2007) Call: The One Minute Film & Video Festival Aarau: Call for Entries!, Aarau, Switzerland. http://pourinfos.org/art-34791-tit--The-One-Minute-Film-Video-Festival -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 027 (25/04/2007) Divers: radiolist.org ((((( Plate-forme sonore des arts visuels ))))) | ))))) visual arts noise platform ((((( 10 http://pourinfos.org/art-34792-tit--radiolist-org-Plate-forme-sonore -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 028 (27/04/2007) Meetings: “Division of the horizon: experimentation with the representation”, Celine Flecheux, Friday April 27, 2007, collectif Echolalie , ENSBA, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-34755-tit--Partage-de-l-horizon-de -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 029 (27/04/2007) Meetings: 1first Show of the independent edition, 27, 28 , April 29, 2007, LEM, Lille, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-34757-tit--1er-Salon-de-l-edition-independante-27- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 030 (27/04/2007) Meetings: André Baldinger, Friday April 27, 2007, University Paris 8, Saint-Denis, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-34758-tit--Andre-Baldinger-vendredi-27-avril-2007- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 031 (27/04/2007) Call: artopi projections 2007 #2, Ales, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-34776-tit--artopi-projections-2007-2-Ales- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 032 (28/04/2007) Meetings: Les Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin/Madrid, Circulo de Bellas Artes, Madrid, Spain. http://pourinfos.org/art-34763-tit--Les-Internationales-Paris-Berlin-Madrid- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 033 (28/04/2007) Meetings: Stephane Sautour, April 28, 2007, Ecole municipale des beaux-arts/galerie Edouard Manet, Gennevilliers, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-34766-tit--Stephane-Sautour-Samedi-28-avril-Ecole -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 034 (02/05/2007) Meetings: Policy of photography, Photographs of the policy, On Wednesday May 2, 2007, Confluences - Maison des Arts Urbains, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-34608-tit--Politique-de-la-photographie- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 036 (02/05/2007) Meetings: Conference “To connect the esthètes, to control the French”, Alain Giffard, May 2, 2007, BMVR Alcazar, Marseille, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-34759-tit--Conference-Enchainer-les-esthetes- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From ysikand at gmail.com Wed Apr 25 10:25:50 2007 From: ysikand at gmail.com (Yogi Sikand) Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2007 10:25:50 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Second Posting: Muslim Publishing Houses in Delhi (Markazi Maktaba Islami) Message-ID: <48097acc0704242155h7e956a08g3af739a90dafdba9@mail.gmail.com> *Muslim Publishing Houses in Delhi* * * * * *Atiqur Rab is the Manager of the New Delhi-based Markazi Maktaba Islami (MMI). One of the largest Muslim publishing houses in India, the MMI is associated with the Jamaat-e Islami Hind. Below are excerpts of the conversation that he had with Naseem ur-Rahman and Yoginder Sikand recently. * The MMI works under the Human Welfare Trust, whose members are largely people associated with the Jamaat-e Islami Hind. This Trust, which was established by the Jamaat-e Islami Hind in 1994, works at an all-India level. Its aims include social work, providing scholarships and publishing Islamic literature. The Trust has around 10 members. Its present chairman, Abdul Haq Ansari Saheb, was, till recently, the *Amir* or President of the Jamaat-e Islami Hind. Prior to the setting up of the Human Welfare Trust, the MMI was run under the Ishaat-e Islam Trust. The MMI was established in 1973. Prior to that, the Jamaat used to publish its literature through the Maktaba Jamaat-e Islami Hind, which was established in Rampur in 1948, soon after the Partition. It remained in Rampur till it was shifted to Delhi in 1960. Before the Partition, Jamaat literature was published from Pathankot, where Maulana Maududi, the founder of the Jamaat, then resided. The MMI publishes Islamic literature in English, Hindi and Urdu. One of our principal objectives is to provide people with a proper understanding of Islam in the light of the Holy Quran and the Hadith and to counter misunderstandings about and propaganda against Islam. Through our literature, we seek to present Islam as a complete code of conduct, which provides guidance, principles and rules for all aspects of personal and social life. Hence, our literature covers all aspects of society, from prayer and dress to economics, women's rights, inter-community relations and international relations. The books we produce aim to provide Islamic perspectives on all these issues. We seek to address issues that are debated and discussed so much today in the media. For instance, we have produced many books on the rights and status of women in Islam that aim at countering the wrong arguments that some detractors put forward regarding Islam and women. Likewise, since there is today much talk that seeks to wrongly link Islam with terrorism, we have produced many books that aim to counter this propaganda and to present the true teachings of Islam. Thus, our literature is directed both at Muslims as well as non-Muslims, addressing issues and questions that they might have about Islam. Some Muslim publishing houses produce books that are geared to promoting inter-sectarian rivalries. This is really unfortunate. The MMI consciously stays away from this sort of thing. We don't publish anything that might create conflict, be it on the basis of sect, caste or religion. Our mission is only to promote Islam through literature based on the Quran and the Hadith. It is true that, like most other such publishing houses, we have published only a few books that are based on social, scientific, empirical research on Muslims in India. We prefer to focus on the *usul* or principles of Islam and to provide, through our literature, Islamic solutions to a wide range of problems and issues. We believe that if Muslims, and others as well, were to put these principles into action, our problems would be solved. However, I admit there is a pressing need for more empirical studies on Indian Muslims. This is important for the development and empowerment of the community and also to disabuse people of serious misunderstandings that they might have about Muslims. Unfortunately, few Muslim publishing houses bring out literature of this sort. The MMI prefers to focus on the normative Islamic position on a wide range of issues. Others can, and, indeed must, focus on publishing texts based on the empirical conditions of the country's Muslims. Another issue is that we don't have the resources to conduct or commission large empirical studies. Further, such studies require a different sort of social science research methodology. Hopefully, the younger generation of Muslim scholars will take this issue up with the urgency that it deserves. Many non-Muslims have misunderstandings and doubts about Islam. To address these issues, we also aim at reaching out to a non-Muslim readership. Hence, the Jamaat has translated the Holy Quran into numerous Indian languages. Publishing houses run by Jamaat activists or sympathisers in various states of India produce considerable Islamic literature in various regional languages, including books as well as magazines. These provide Islamic perspectives on a range of issues as well as seek to correct misunderstandings that some people might have about Islam. Decisions to publish new books are taken by the Tasnifi Academy, which consists of leading members of the Jamaat, who are experts in different fields. The Academy has half a dozen or so members. Sometimes, people pen a manuscript and send it to the MMI authorities, asking them if they would be interested in publishing it as a book. But more commonly, the Tasnifi Academy requests experts in different fields to write books on the subjects in which they have an expertise. The Academy meets every three months to decide on new books. Often, this decision is taken based on the importance of a particular topic at a particular time. For instance, because of the wrong propaganda in recent years about Islam being linked to terrorism, the Academy decided that the MMI must publish books that clearly set out the true Islamic position on the matter. Most of our authors are members of the Jamaat. But this does not mean that we only publish books written by Jamaat members. In fact, we have published some books by authors who are not members of the Jamaat, but who sympathise with its objectives and understanding of Islam and who support the Islamic movement. We haven't as yet commissioned research projects which can then be published as books, although perhaps this is a good idea. We offer ten per cent royalty to our authors, but most of our authors who are members of the Jamaat themselves choose not to take any money for their books. We also offer five per cent royalty to translators of books which we publish. We provide forty per cent discount to distributors on most of our books. Our books are quite affordable and modestly priced. In fact, this is true for most Urdu publishing houses in India. Urdu books are much cheaper than English books because our pricing policy is shaped by our consumers' behaviour and purchasing power. On the whole, the average Urdu reader has limited purchasing power, so Urdu books are priced much more modestly. But we still make some profit in order to keep us functioning. On the whole, our profit margin is between fifteen to twenty per cent, but making profit is not our aim. We have a good distribution network across India and we also export books, to the Gulf, Europe, America, etc.—mainly to places where there is a South Asian Muslim immigrant community. We have two marketing executives as well as a number of like-minded people in different places in India who sell our books. Relatively, few non-Muslim-owned bookshops stock our books, but several others get in touch with us or our local distributors when they receive orders for books published by us. In 2002, we launched our own website [www.mmipublishers.net], through which we are now able to reach out to a far larger potential readership. We get regular orders, from Muslims as well as others, for our books through our website. It is important for Islamic publishing houses to reach out to non-Muslims, too. They must not remain a Muslim preserve. Islam is for everyone, so our publishing houses must reach out with the message of Islam to others as well, and also in order to address the misunderstandings they might have about our faith. The MMI has tried to do this in different ways. For instance, we have advertised some of our books a couple of times in the Hindi *Rashtriya Sahara*, which has a very good circulation. On the occasion of the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, we advertised in a Hindi newspaper about the Hindi translation of the Holy Quran which we had published. I wish we could advertise our books in English newspapers, too, but that is very costly. We have sent some of our books to *The Hindu* for review, but, unfortunately, they were not reviewed. Reviews are a good means of publicizing new books, but, lamentably, few Urdu newspapers, especially in north India, have a book review section. We also send our new books free of cost to some major public libraries in different parts of India. This is a very effective way of reaching out to people. In our effort to reach out to a wider readership, both Muslims as well as others, we regularly participate in book fairs held in different parts of India, where we set up our stalls. We participate every year in the National and International book fairs in New Delhi. In these fairs, many of our customers are non-Muslims. Recently, we participated in a book fair in Dehra Dun. Most of our customers there were Hindus. Many of them appreciated our literature. A large number of them had no access to Islamic literature before. Today, MMI is one of the largest Islamic publishing houses in India. Some six hundred titles that we have published in Urdu, Hindi and English are still being printed and distributed, and every year we add around thirty new books to that list. We reprint around 300 titles every year. We have come a long way, but, yes, I would agree that there is still so much for us to do. Atiqur Rab can be reached at mmipub at nda.vsnl.net.in -- Sukhia Sab Sansar Khaye Aur Soye Dukhia Das Kabir Jagey Aur Roye The world is 'happy', eating and sleeping The forlorn Kabir Das is awake and weeping -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070425/cc2ebde9/attachment.html From monica at sarai.net Thu Apr 26 08:13:05 2007 From: monica at sarai.net (Monica Narula) Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2007 08:13:05 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Urban Spaces and Identity Formation: Second Posting In-Reply-To: <4dea04310704210631y56018c0aqe58b81f18072d602@mail.gmail.com> References: <4dea04310704210631y56018c0aqe58b81f18072d602@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <8D40256C-D313-4A14-A19E-8521947B486A@sarai.net> Hi Madhura The problem with posting images on the list is that there is a very high possibility of virus getting through the administering of the list as well - we must dismiss at least 50 spam/virus messages a day... But i agree that those images should be seen Can i suggest that you start a blog? Places like blogspot make it very easy and if you go to http://freetemplates.blogspot.com/ you can also get a different template from the usual one. Once you have uploaded images on to that, members of the reader-list could visit the blog and see the images. There are many on the list who keep blogspot blogs - i'm sure that they can give more advice! best M Monica Narula Raqs Media Collective Sarai-CSDS 29 Rajpur Road Delhi 110 054 www.raqsmediacollective.net www.sarai.net On 21-Apr-07, at 7:01 PM, madhura l wrote: > Hi all! Am just managing to put in my second posting before my > designated week gets over. I'm beginning to think this practice is > nice though…gives you a chance to stop and look back on where your > work is going. And this is how and where my work is going: > > > By now I have a fairly concrete idea of what is the pattern of > content of the notice boards ( vartaphalak) I've been covering in > different areas. To give a crude categorization, here are the > 'types' of content that are put up in the vartaphalak: > > > Pertaining to religion: There are actually three broad categories > in this type. The first one concerns overtly technical information > about religious practices (in the context of Hindu religion of > course). Very pedagogic in nature, these are small tips on how to > perform puja, where to place ritual objects, how to make a ritual > offering, what is the significance of a particular festival and so > on. The language used is extremely formal, some of the words almost > alien to everyday language. These boards are homogenous since they > are 'adopted' by a local organization 'Sanatan Sanstha', whose > volunteers write these messages on the various vartaphalak. I'm not > yet completely sure what the organization is all about, whether it > is affiliated to the political Hindu right and so on. More on this > in the next posting definitely! > > > The second type is again related to religious teachings, but which > are largely couched in a spiritual-moral discourse. The 3-4 Muslim > boards included in this study fall in this category. For instance, > some of the messages generally revolve around extolling the virtues > of Khwaja Garib Nawaaz or explaining the generosity of a particular > pir. > > > Lastly, there are the overtly Hindu fundamentalist vartaphalaks, > which have a specific agenda of consistently spewing forth hatred > against Muslims and Christians. The content here is acidic, the > rhetoric strongly communal. It is not a surprise that these 3 > vartaphalak are to be found in the Sadashiv Peth-Narayan Peth > areas, which are almost exclusively Brahmin populated. > > > The moral discourse: I have given this title to this category for > the want of a better term. But I'll try and explain what exactly it > entails. There are 3-4 such vartaphalaks, wherein a ' > Suvichar' (Thought for the day) is written everyday. There is a > strong rhetoric of morality, 'good' behaviour, ethics, values like > humanism, benevolence, courage that is reflected in these messages. > They present an archetype of 'ideal' citizen, who is moral, ethical > and patriotic in his outlook. > > > Political commentaries: This is an interesting category. There are > 2 vartaphalaks which constantly engage in commenting on the recent > political happenings, at the local as well as the national level. > Both the boards use an irreverent, satirical style while critiquing > the happenings around them. > > > I will try and give a sample of a few messages of each category the > next time. > > > I have also realized that the frequency of these messages tends to > be pretty inconsistent, barring a few. So some boards that > regularly used to change their content, have now hardly anything > new to say. In such cases, I've been confused as to whether to > include these in the study or omit them. > > > By now I have almost close to 300 photographs, since a photoessay > is also one of the outcomes of this study. It's a shame one cannot > put up images on the reader-list, otherwise it would have given > everyone a greater sense of what I was saying. > > > That's all for now. Waiting for some feedback, comments, whatever. > > Madhura > > > _________________________________________ > 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. > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070426/d2168c68/attachment.html From elkamath at yahoo.com Wed Apr 25 21:29:21 2007 From: elkamath at yahoo.com (lalitha kamath) Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2007 08:59:21 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Of Pension Mohalla and Khan Message-ID: <564185.47580.qm@web53601.mail.re2.yahoo.com> dear zainab, i so enjoyed this posting. thanks for sharing it. thought i'd share one of my own. cheers lalitha We got into the autorickshaw in a hurried scramble barely looking at him. Once I had said Gandhi Bazaar and we had settled somewhat I looked at him more closely. A kindly face- the first thing that came into my mind I’m not sure why except that he smiled at me- covered with white stubble. I was busy discussing work with my companion and it was only when there was a longish pause in our conversation that he started making conversation. I used to work in a shop, he said, but I didn’t like it. You’re not your own master there and I didn’t like having to work so hard and take orders from someone else. I made an ok living but…so I decided to leave and start my own business. This is my own auto, he said proudly. Do you know how much autos cost, sister? “Sister” - I have always liked that form of address from strangers. It conveys a sense of camaraderie in age and experience and thinking. No, I said, I don’t know how much auto rickshaws cost. “One lakh and seventy thousand” he said, “only a little less than a maruti car.” I was startled into an explanation. He was pleased with the reaction this provoked. “I got a loan and its been 3 years and have almost paid it off.” “What do you do”, he asked me? I struggled to explain the kind of urban research I do. “You study the city and its development and change”, he responded with interest. Then he pointed out several places of interest – we were passing through Jayanagar 4th block. “See all the new buildings and big shopping malls coming up,” he said, “I know this area very well.” After a few minutes of driving, he turned around and asked shyly, “Can I ask you something sister? I want to ask your advice because you are so educated and clever.” “What is it”, I asked? “You see all these new malls- do you think if someone like me went and applied for a job selling things there, I would get it? What do you need for a job there?” As I paused to think of how to respond, he said eagerly, “I can speak a little English.” He immediately spoke some broken English. “Someone like me”- those words still resound. I fumbled then, as I do now, “maybe you can try, you don’t know till you try.” As I was saying this I felt so inadequate- to judge what he was worth, how marketable he was. And yet, I knew I wasn’t being truthful- the bright shiny malls that held such irresistible appeal would probably not be interested in someone like him. They would want someone younger, more attractive, more plastic somehow – a better symbol of the world class cities we belong to. I asked, “But why do you want to leave off driving your auto rickshaw.” Immediately he said, “I just thought of that as an idea sister, and I wanted to ask you what my chances are.” He dismissed his question as idle speculation. But I felt instinctively that it wasn’t. I had the feeling that he would like to enter this new world- with its shiny tiled floor, bright colours, expensive smells and vigilant sentries. Now I can’t visit a mall in quite the same way I used to- a hurried blinkered rush in and out for the purchase I need. I realize the privilege contained in entry and the world of aspirations left outside. ----- Original Message ---- From: zainab To: reader-list at sarai.net; urbanstudygroup at sarai.net Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2007 9:49:50 AM Subject: [Reader-list] Of Pension Mohalla and Khan 16/04/07 ‘Pension Mohalla’, the address read on the details of the display board in his auto. I was intrigued. I asked him what kind of place was ‘Pension Mohalla’. He said these were old names of places. ‘Pension Mohalla’ is about one and a half kilometers away from K. R. Market, he explained. Khan is his name. His physique is on the leaner side, and he looks friendly and kind. I entered the autorickshaw outside Theological College on Millers Road. A bunch of North East boys were in his auto. They wanted him to drive them inside the college. But he told them, Paidal chalo, paidal chalo. Go walk inside. I have a fare waiting here. My curiosity about ‘Pension Mohalla’ got us talking. In reality, it was my desperation to connect with this city that got me talking to him - my search for ordinarily extraordinary stories in this city. Khan owns the auto he is riding, among the few auto drivers I have encountered so far who own the auto they drive. He says his auto runs his household and that he recently got his daughter married through the earnings of the rickshaw. He completed schooling and then did a vocational course in air-condition repairs. But back then in 1988-1990, he said, there was no demand for his services. As a matter of desire he learnt how to drive. This auto, cars and even buses, I learnt to drive them all. I wanted to drive a bus, but I just cannot seem to get off riding this auto. Already, riding this auto from 10 in the morning to 10 at night, my ears burn, my eyes burn, I have backache and, look at these hands, they start to hurt. And the dust around, that also causes fatigue. He asks me whether I am still studying. Then he wonders why I am headed towards Jayanagar. I am amazed, he says, you study here and you live there. Dikkat nahi hoti? Nowadays, it is luxury for even working class people to ride in autos and you are a student here. I am amazed. I explain to him that I live in Jayanagar and also study there and that I was at the Theological College on a special class. That’s what I was wondering, otherwise it is too expensive for students to ride in autos. As we continue to ride further up, I tell him that I was in Bangalore back in 1993 sometime and the city was different then. Oh yeah, it has changed a lot now. Earlier, main aankhein moondke gaadi chalata tha, I would close my eyes and ride and today, I am afraid even as I keep my eyes open and attention focused. Traffic has increased. Now just look at this man here on the scooter, he has stopped in the middle of this thick traffic to talk on his cell phone. Back then, the city was different. Now, it has improved. I wonder what ‘improved’ means to Khan. He goes on. I encounter so many people who come from outside to study in Bangalore – from Bihar, Delhi, the madrasis – they all come here. How long have you been here? Nine months, I tell him. How long will you be here? Three years. Hmmm, even in software you see, many people from outside are coming - from Bihar, Delhi, the madrasis. There are good earnings, you can have a good life. But I remark that this city is ver! y expensive. Why do you say that, he asks. I tell him that commuting is a cheaper affair in Bombay given the trains and the buses. But there are buses here too, he tells me, trying to understand. But here the buses run only on main roads, I explain, and then, in Bombay, the train is always there. Ah, trains run on the roads there haan? he asks. I don’t know what to say. Then he says, I have never to been to Bombay or Delhi, but I have heard about these cities. I was born in Bangalore, have grown up here, aur idhareech main khatam hona hai. His words remind of the dialogue I had heard in the movie Namesake. A fellow passenger in the train asks Ashoke Ganguly whether he has been abroad, ‘England, America’? Ashoke says he has never been to these places but then his grandfather had told him that books are meant to help travel. Here is Khan, working through an imagination of the cities he does not know and he perhaps does not even have the books to help him travel. He late! r tells me that last night he watched a television programme which ann ounced that Delhi is the best city in India and he started wondering where does Bangalore figure in the scheme of India. Main soochne laga, Dilli ki baatein kar rahe hai yeh log, Bangalore kahan pe aata hain India mein. He says that the best thing about Bangalore is the weather – cool climate and lots of greenery. That is why they have named this Garden City, he tells me. I continue to talk to him about the costs of living in Bangalore being high. Rents are high, I tell him. Oh yes, I agree. Back in my time, a house in my area was available for three hundred rupees monthly rent. If you gave four hundred, you would get more amenities. Five hundred, even more and with six hundred to seven hundred rupees, you could get two rooms, a kitchen, good water, etc. How much rent do you pay? I lied to him saying I pay three thousand when in fact I pay four. He is shocked and says, you find two or three people to live with you. Then you can each pay a thousand and spend about two thousand monthly on food. I cook at home, I tell him. He asks if I can make rotis and I say yes. How about rice? I tell him I eat red rice. And chappatis, you eat wheat eh? Yeah, and also raagi. Really, do you eat raagi rotis? he asks me. Yes, I tell him. We make raagi mudde at home. But back in the villages, they eat the rotis. with spicy chutneys, I tell him immediately. Yeah, ! he says excitedly, clicking his fingers, you are right, with chutneys. I think we have connected now. I have relatives in Thilaknagar, he tells me. I tell him I like living in Thilaknagar because it is a noisy and vibrant area. Yes, he says, otherwise you have houses scattered at distances. In Bangalore, he says, 80% people are good and only 20% are not so good. Only 20%, he emphasizes. See, if you ask for directions in this city, people will tell you, unlike in Bombay or Delhi where people don’t have the time to tell you. Here, in Bangalore, you see this man walking on the roads, if you ask him for directions, he will tell you. In fact, if he is going in the same direction, he will come along with you and say, ‘I am also going in the same direction’. But back in Bombay and Delhi, people don’t tell right. See, what happens is that 20% of the not-so-nice people, they are jealous of outsiders coming here and making money. They say these people are outsiders. Jealous people. We arrive. I ask him to stop on the main road so that I can walk into the lanes, to my house. He asks me where I stay. I explain to him. The fare reads Rs. 62. He returns forty rupees to me. I tell him to wait as I fish for two rupees. He says, let it be. Don’t bother about two rupees. You are a student here. I tell him the two rupees are his earnings and that he should let me give it to him. He smiles at me as I leave. It is a smile which tells me that for that moment of our journey together, for that time that he drove me, we traveled into each other’s lives, in Bombay, in Bangalore, in Delhi. We journeyed together. It was desperation to seek my own words, to seek stories in this city that I got talking to Khan. I still seek the ordinary lives which have stories to tell me, stories which reinforce that these lives are not ordinary, that they make this city- whether it is Bangalore, Bombay or Delhi. I seek these stories … _________________________________________ 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. To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> __________________________________________________ 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/20070425/45134813/attachment.html From senpriya at gmail.com Wed Apr 25 07:41:07 2007 From: senpriya at gmail.com (Priya Sen) Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2007 07:41:07 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Party for the Pink Rupee: Thursday, April 26th : 9:30pm onwards Message-ID: <8c9003440704241911m3bc5ac6al929b24a199993b5c@mail.gmail.com> ***Please Forward Widely**** Dear All, Please see the attached invite. It says it all. If you can't see it, please click www.nigahmedia.com/fundraiser.jpg . You need a printout to be able to enter. Things we can't put on the invite: Cover at the door: Rs 300 (Rs 100 entry, Rs 200 in coupons for drinks) Fundraising Contribution to The Nigah Queerfest '07: Rs 200 (given to any of the 10 t-shirt wearing volunteers inside the club) Spread the word and come party in the name of queer history! When was supporting a cause this much fun? -The Nigah Team -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070425/880618f7/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From zubinpastakia at gmail.com Thu Apr 26 14:09:12 2007 From: zubinpastakia at gmail.com (Zubin Pastakia) Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2007 14:09:12 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Photographs from Bombay's Cinema Halls Message-ID: <379173b10704260139y3e8cef91t56401ae795bfad70@mail.gmail.com> Hello, This is my second post related to my fellowship project, "A Photographic Study of Bombay's Cinema Halls as a Cultural Experience of Space." I have set up a blog so that people on this list can see what I am photographing. I would rather post pictures that may encourage dialogue, than ramble on about what I am doing. This is what I am doing. Please take a moment to visit and bookmark the site: http://peripheralvision.blogspot.com/ I would appreciate it if people on this list would respond by posting their thoughts, queries, and suggestions if any on the project so far. Please note that it is a work in progress. Looking forward to hearing from you. Best, Zubin From fmadre at free.fr Thu Apr 26 14:33:47 2007 From: fmadre at free.fr (fmadre at free.fr) Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2007 11:03:47 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] unblog the web In-Reply-To: <8D40256C-D313-4A14-A19E-8521947B486A@sarai.net> References: <4dea04310704210631y56018c0aqe58b81f18072d602@mail.gmail.com> <8D40256C-D313-4A14-A19E-8521947B486A@sarai.net> Message-ID: <20070426110347.illj04m684wo0soo@imp4.free.fr> May I ask why you suggest a blog ? this ancient form is not specially well suited for posting pictures perhaps we could turn people to doing websites there are a number of providers that offer webspace for free, most of them with ads and some not. I suggest brinkster http://www.brinkster.com/ I have researched ~20 of those for my next piece and brinkster is unobtrusive (which is not what I was looking for) also you could use live spaces or googlepages http://spaces.live.com/ http://www.googlepages.com googlepages doesn't have ads, I think they assume eveybody is going to add theirs... if you are concerned with hotlinking there is tripod http://www.tripod.lycos.com/ they have that really ugly system in place which replaces your hotlinked image with thei logo and a message, brrrr now if you want to have the full sponsored web experience you should go for fortunecity or geocities they produce really scary sites most of those will have aids to produce the html, most of them fairly ok then you could learn html or just use some tool to do it and upload your files, it's very easy of course a top solution would be that sarai opens hosting for its researchers with photo albums, etc, but that is a political choice about location as well as property the web should be preserved in its diversity there are enough blogs already f. > Hi Madhura > > The problem with posting images on the list is that there is a very > high possibility of virus getting through the administering of the > list as well - we must dismiss at least 50 spam/virus messages a day... > > But i agree that those images should be seen > > Can i suggest that you start a blog? Places like blogspot make it very > easy and if you go to http://freetemplates.blogspot.com/ you can also > get a different template from the usual one. > > Once you have uploaded images on to that, members of the reader-list > could visit the blog and see the images. > > There are many on the list who keep blogspot blogs - i'm sure that > they can give more advice! > > best > M > > Monica Narula > Raqs Media Collective > Sarai-CSDS > 29 Rajpur Road > Delhi 110 054 > www.raqsmediacollective.net > www.sarai.net > > From mail at shivamvij.com Thu Apr 26 15:16:32 2007 From: mail at shivamvij.com (Shivam Vij) Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2007 15:16:32 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] The journalist who cracked Gujarat fake encounter case Message-ID: <9c06aab30704260246o48945f6ew3ebca924900bf2d7@mail.gmail.com> The journalist who cracked Gujarat fake encounter case A Correspondent in Ahmedabad Rediff, April 25, 2007 http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/apr/25spec.htm On Tuesday, the Gujarat police arrested its Deputy Inspector General (Border Range) D G Vanzara and Rajkumar Pandian, superintendent of police with the Intelligence Bureau, and M N Dinesh Kumar (Rajasthan police) on the charge of murdering Sohrabuddin Sheikh. Sohrabuddin was killed by the Gujarat police in a fake encounter on November 26, 2005. None other than the Gujarat government has accepted this before the Supreme Court. The Gujarat government's lawyer A T S Tulsi told the court, 'The preliminary inquiry has found that it was a fake encounter.' The sensational admission by the government itself has been intriguing because Vanzara was known as a favourite officer of Chief Minister Narendra Modi and state Home Minister Amit Shah. Then, why did the Gujarat government confess before the apex court that senior state police officers have "killed" Sohrabuddin? State Congress leader Arjun Modhawadia has already charged that "the government has arrested the police officers to save the skin of Home Minister Shah." But, sources in Gandhinagar claim, "A senior Bharatiya Janata party leader from Rajasthan is apprehensive about his name being dragged into the case. And, to stop the case from getting messier or becoming political, police officers have been arrested. Remember, along with Vanzara and Pandian, IPS officer Dinesh Kumar from Rajasthan has also been arrested." The "encounter", which is now admitted to be a fake one, was a joint operation of the Gujarat and Rajasthan police. The police claimed Sheikh was a Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative and while trying to escape, he was killed near Vishala Circle in Ahmedabad. Just after Sheikh got killed, his wife Kausar Bi had gone missing. Rubabuddin, Sohrabuddin's brother, had filed a petition in the Supreme Court claiming that the Gujarat police's encounter was fake and he wanted to know where his sister-in-law Kausar Bi was. That's a question the Gujarat government doesn't want to answer. After the Supreme Court's intervention, an inquiry was ordered in March 2007, which eventually forced the Gujarat government to admit in court that it was a fake encounter, and that it was further investigating its officers in the case. Interestingly, Prashant Dayal, one time rickshawallah-turned-journalist, played a spirited role behind these sensational arrests. The Gujarat police's version to media claimed that Sohrabuddin had links with the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, the Pakistan-based terrorist organisation. Sohrabuddin had come to Gujarat from Rajasthan to assassinate Chief Minister Narendra Modi. The Rajasthan police tipped off its Gujarat counterparts about him and the Rajasthan police even accompanied the Gujarat police to identify the man during the joint operation to nab him. When he was trying to escape on a motorcycle, he was killed, went this version. Dayal, a senior reporter with the Gujarati daily Divya Bhaskar, who broke the story first in November 2006, told rediff.com, "The police version and reality are completely different. There is much more to the story than meets the eye. It is alleged that Sohrabuddin was a big goon in Rajasthan, involved in extorting ransom from big marble merchants and rich builders. My sources in Gujarat police claimed that some Rajasthan-based people arranged for Rs 2 crore supari (contract killing) for killing Sohrabuddin. But the stage was set in Gujarat, instead of Rajasthan." However, due to the absence of hard evidence, Prashant refuses to reveal the names of people who allegedly gave the supari on Sohrabuddin. As things become clearer now, the Gujarat government will be in a tight spot over at least six encounters in the last four years. In all of them, the state police had claimed to have killed "terrorists" who allegedly had plans to kill Modi. "The police picked up Sohrabuddin and his wife along with a close aide Tulsi Prajapati from a bus near Sangli, Maharashtra. The inquiry by upright police officer Geeta Jauhari brought out some important facts. Police officers took three of them to a farmhouse near Ahmedabad, tortured them and then killed Sohrabuddin in the fake encounter. "Then, the police officers feared that Kausar Bi would spill the beans. She might have been eliminated. No one knows what happened to her. Tulsi was let off at that time, as he was an informer of Vanzara. But when newspapers started reporting the fake encounter, expectedly, the news about Tulsi being killed also came out. We were told that he was also killed in an encounter in Banaskantha district," Dayal said. Banaskantha district falls under Vanzara's jurisdiction. Dayal said when he first filed the story, editors were hesitant to go with it, as "there can't be documented evidence" of such crimes. Dayal said he has cultivated a habit of drinking alcohol with police officers, "where I drink within limit, so that I can listen and grasp what the officers say when they open up after a few pegs." Prashant revealed that on one such evening, officers involved in the Sohrabuddin encounter case boasted before him how they had "punished" and eliminated some anti-national elements. With this clue, the next morning Dayal cross-checked the details of the case. "I got confirmation from the farmhouse in Ahmedabad that three persons were kept there. Then, from my sources in Vanzara's native village, I confirmed that Vanzara was there with his team during the period. At the farmhouse, the servants confirmed that a lady in burkha was kept there. I suspect she must be Kausar Bi," he added. All these facts matched with what he was told by the drunken police official, Dayal claimed. Dayal himself has seen a lot in his short life. He was so weak in studies that he failed in all subjects in Class 8. Then, he decided to finance his own education instead of wasting his parents' hard-earned money. He started working in a garage. When in college, he started driving an autorickshaw at night. After a degree in journalism, he managed to land a job but was refused salary, which is quite common in Gujarati journalism. Trainees and stringers are rarely given money. Instead, they are asked to earn through commission on advertisements. But Dayal was so enthusiastic to earn a name as a reporter that he worked without a salary for more than a year. As a result, he had to continue driving the autorickshaw at night after reporting news stories during the day. In his over 19-year-career in journalism, Dayal has switched jobs almost 14 times. "I have never seen an increment or bonus in my career, because I could never settle down in a newspaper. Everyday, I used to have a fight with the editors over stories." He has earned a name as a crime reporter and fame for having keen eyes to dig out stories beyond the obvious. Dayal is also known for his column called Jivti Varta (living stories), which probes ordinary yet outstanding lives from a very soft angle. "The state government is trying all it can to save the culprits, but I am sure, there will be more arrests and big names will come to light in the near future," Dayal said. From iram at sarai.net Thu Apr 26 14:50:23 2007 From: iram at sarai.net (Iram Ghufran) Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2007 14:50:23 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] DIGITAL VIDEO MASTERCLASS - deadline extension Message-ID: <46306ED7.8070505@sarai.net> Application Deadline EXTENDED to May 07, 2007 ======================================================== CALL FOR APPLICATIONS FOR DIGITAL VIDEO MASTERCLASS with Kabir Mohanty (Video Artist and Filmmaker) ======================================================== A reflective workshop focusing on the role of the practitioner as composer and instrumentalist of all of aspects of video - shooting, recording and editing. A personalized masterclass with the video artist and filmmaker Kabir Mohanty. "...I have tried over these years to find ways of creating a palette of certain keys to shooting video. It seems two stages of working with the moving image are important. The first is everything that leads up to the shoot and including the act of shooting. The second is post-shooting. The first workshop I held at Sarai in 2005 dealt with the first stage. This one deals primarily though not exclusively with the second stage. However, this separation of stages is within one person. That is, it is one person's work. It also means we could go from edited material to how one is shooting. The workshop does not create the context of professional editors or sound designers that work on others' material, yet attempts to imbibe that rigour, because one has also lived those vocations. We shall look at edited material closely, and treat sound recording in its fundamentals. I imagine acoustics being brought in simply and we shall use Robert Bresson's "Notes on the Cinematographer" and Michel Chion's "Audio Vision" as keys to thinking about sound..." (From Kabir Mohanty's Statement introducing the Workshop) For More Details about the Workshop and the full text of Kabir Mohanty's introductory text - see - http://www.sarai.net/about-us/events/workshops/video-masterclass DURATION Four weeks, July 2-28, 2007. Final screening July 29th, Sunday. Workshop meetings on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday. All meetings 4-8 pm unless otherwise noted. PLACES AVAILABLE There are 9 Places available for this intensive workshop. Of these 7 will be devoted to the practitioners (people with some prior knowledge of the moving image). These 7 will complete at least one short video during the workshop.2 places are reserved for people who reflect on the practice of the moving image (like 'rasikas' in music) and who can help the group take their thinking forward. SUBMISSION DETAILS For the 7 practitioners - 30 minutes of solidly shot un-edited video material. If someone does not have material ready to edit then the workshop coordinator may consider submission of rushes from previously shot material that the applicant may want to re-edit/re-visit. For the 2 rasikas - a long written piece that demonstrates interest in thinking about the moving image. A curriculum vitae. SEND TO Digital Video Image Masterclass Sarai CSDS 29 Rajpur Road Delhi 110054 E MAIL ENQUIRIES If you have e mail enquiries about this workshop, write to Iram Ghufran, Media Lab Sarai-CSDS APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS All applicants should submit a page on their involvement with the moving image, their backgrounds. Very often this helps in a one-on-one engagement within a small group. DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION Video material on dvd and written material printed out, in Sarai by May 7th. Participants will be notified by May 15th. Workshop fees should be paid to Sarai, 100 % in advance by June 1st. EQUIPMENT RESERVED FOR THE WORKSHOP One computer with editing software for image and sound. A camera with a microphone. For a period a DAT recorder with a professional microphone. WORKSHOP FEES Rs.7,500 per person for the 7 'practitioners'. The 2 'rasikas' fee is Rs.2,500 per person ABOUT KABIR MOHANTY (Adapted from the catalogue for 'Song for an Ancient Land', Solo Show, Gallery SKYE, Bangalore, October 29-Dec 2, 2006.) Kabir Mohanty has been working in both film and video for some time now and has made about ten films and videos. Most of his work has been shown in film and video festivals in India and abroad including Oberhausen, Rotterdam, Torino, Hawaii, World Wide Video Festival Amsterdam and Bombay.He has also have been part of art shows like Sidewinder, which was a residency cum exhibition, hosted by CIMA in 2001-02 where he showed a short fiction film, titled - "and now i feel i don't know anything".He has also been part of a show on the tradition of experimentation in Indian film and video starting with Dadasaheb Phalke, titled Cinema of Prayoga, which has been shown at the Tate Modern, London His training was at the University of Iowa where he obtained a masters in filmmaking in 1986. His teachers included the great filmmaker Leighton Pierce and film theorist Dudley Andrew, author of Major Film Theories, both full-time faculty at Iowa.Over the years he has received international grants and production awards in the form of the Hubert Bals Fund, Rotterdam Film Festival, the Fond Sud Award from the Ministry of External Affairs, France, an individual artist grant from the Prince Claus Fund, Netherlands and a collaboration grant with sound designer, Vikram Joglekar from the India Foundation for the Arts, Bangalore. From September 2002 till June 2004, Mohanty was a Visiting Artist in the Department of Art, UCLA, and in residence for half that period. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From faiz.outsider at gmail.com Thu Apr 26 12:15:42 2007 From: faiz.outsider at gmail.com (faiz ullah) Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2007 12:15:42 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] "President Bush is a bad, or inadequate, communicator" Message-ID: <96c0bb200704252345w2be1245dg2b841e11e334208b@mail.gmail.com> Media too rough on Bush, says Murdoch Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has told a large audience of business leaders the press is routinely unfair to George W Bush and the US President does not seem capable of defending himself. "I'm a supporter of President Bush but I do believe he's a bad, or inadequate, communicator," Mr Murdoch told attendees at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles. The News Corporation chairman and chief executive says Mr Bush is "persuasive, strong and articulate" in person but "he seems to freeze whenever a television camera appears". Motioning to *Wall Street Journal* editorial page editor Paul Gigot, Mr Murdoch said, "Apart from your newspaper and mine, there's a sort of monolithic attack on him every day of the year". News Corporation is the parent company of *The Australian*, *The Daily Telegraph*, Fox News Channel, the *New York Post* and dozens of other media assets. "The atmosphere is absolutely toxic," Mr Murdoch said of the partisanship of US politics. "You can't really expect anything to be achieved in the next 18 months and it's a very serious, sad problem for this country." Mr Murdoch has also lamented a US populace that he says cannot agree on how serious a threat militant Islam is and suggested skepticism about the danger of man-made global warning. The environment is a long-running theme at the Milken event, now in its 10th year. In the past at the event, former US vice president Al Gore has promoted his message about the perils of global warming and this year, another former presidental candidate, Senator John Kerry, has done likewise. But Mr Murdoch says "alleged climate changes" and other problems are far more manageable than is the threat of Islamic terror, which will worsen significantly if Iran is allowed to develop nuclear weapons. He says Americans need to come together in the "war on terror". "It's a tragedy that we're not more united," he said. Mr Murdoch has also praised Internet technologies for helping to usher individual freedom to places where it is not the norm and lamented the difficulties he has had in doing business with China, where, "the fact is, media is pretty much closed". - *Reuters* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070426/189c67f7/attachment.html From surojit369 at yahoo.co.in Thu Apr 26 12:52:41 2007 From: surojit369 at yahoo.co.in (SUROJIT SEN) Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2007 08:22:41 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] IFS'07 - 2nd posting - April - Displacement of Prostitutes Message-ID: <236108.10216.qm@web8612.mail.in.yahoo.com> Dear Reader, This is my second posting of my project Displacement of Prostitutes - A tale of two cities in two centuri     Surojit Sen towards text I had spent my childhood days in the northern part of Calcutta before our family shifted to Chandannagar in Hoogly. In north Calcutta, the house we lived in was a few minutes’ walk from Sonagachi , the proverbial red light area in Calcutta. Later, our joint family broke up and we moved to another house which was also not very far from Sonagachi, as I grew up in this area , I developed , as a child , a curiosity about Sonagachi which is known as the oldest and biggest brothel in Bengal , if not in India. Gradually, this curiosity turned into an eerie feeling and finally into a sort of sexual wonder. Sonagachi has been a large part of Chitpur road ( now Rabindra Sarani ) - the oldest throughfare in the city over the last 100 or 150 years. Sonagachi was familiar to me because we had to go to Natunbazar ( to by fish ) and frequently pass through such areas as Garanhata, Masjidbari street, Darjipara, Durgacharan Mitra street, and others - all located in close vicinity to this brothel, we could not avoid Sonagachi even when we would go to see the charak festival at Chhatubabur bazaar every year. As I got familiar to Sonagachi in my early years, I once thought of writing a novel on the prostitutes inhabiting this area. I wished to dub those women as ‘ Birds in the neighbouring area’. With time, this childish idea wore off, but the curiosity continued to stay on. How was Sonagachi , say, about hundred years ago! Haridaser Guptokatha ( secret tales of Haridas ), a very sensational book written by Bhubonchandra Mukhopadhyay in 1903 describes Sonagachi as this : “ Six months have passed since I settled in Calcutta. By now I have got acquainted with the roads and streets [ in the city ]. One day, on a full moon autumn evening , I was strolling along Chitpur Road. I had not stepped in this area in the afternoon before. I found the same look but one thing struck me as strange. I saw a type of women in the balconies of houses on either side of the road. Dressed in various colours, they put on metal ornaments of different types and dressed their hair in various styles. Some of them were sitting down on stools or their chairs, some standing in the balcony puffing at their silver- made hookahs and some leaning out of veranda, resembling the posture a juggler, with their eyes descending on the road below. Some of these women, I found, had colorful bodices on and some had painted their faces and some were standing with disheveled hair- locks hanging down loosely. Who are these women? I had heard from gossip that there are many harlots in Calcutta. Those who choose to speak sadhu [ chaste; Sanskritised] Bangla say that harlots or prostitutes are charming public women ( barangana ) bent on capturing the spoilt young men by providing them with carnal pleasure - a sort of entertainment in low taste, once trapped by these women, the young boys - who have gone ashtray and seek entertainment in sensual pleasure only - are done for. I could recall those words standing on Chitpur Road. So, these are public women, I understood, the women who lure young men on to destruction. I got started and shuddered. These women have shaken off all the shyness and sense of dignity, characteristic of a women, and are showing themselves up right on the road. In form and shape, they look like women; but by nature they are demonic creatures, Calcutta is really filled with filth to the brim, with perfumed clothes and hair cut in a particular fashion, dandies are walking down the road with their eyes raised to balconies above. And the eyes from each balcony are casting lewd looks at them [ to attract their attention ]. Keeping this sight in mind, one city bard interestingly known as pakshi- kabi [ie, bird poet] once said at a gathering : ‘ Those eyes are traps set for catching birds; they are flutes to men folk.’ I thought that the poet was absolutely right. Such traps abound in Chitpur Road. There is hardly any gentle household in this area. Had there been a few, it would have made a little difference. The pattern of prostitutes’ settlement in Calcutta is simply contemptible. There is a prostitute’s quarter beside a middle – class household, by the side a school, close to a school, close to a doctor’s chamber. In some cases they live in the upper part of a gentleman’s house, and on top of all, they even surround the Brahmo Samaj temple. If this be the situation , what would be the fate of this city! Doesn’t any body care? ( pp 85 – 86). Harishchandra Mukherjee of Hindoo Patriot fame discussed this problem in this paper ( 15 june, 1854 ) and mentioned that there were around 13,000 prostitutes in Calcutta at that time. And Kaliprasanna Singha in his celebrated Hutom Penchar Naksha ( a pithy satire on the 19th Calcutta) observed that ‘ the city of Calcutta has become the city of whores. There is hardly any area in the city where you would not find at least ten prostitute’s quarters. Their number is rising every year, showing no sign of decline.’ Nababibi bilas (1822) by Bhabanicharan Bandopadhyay, Apunar much apuni dekho (1863) by Bholanath Mukhopadhyay, Sachitra guljar Nagar ( 1871) by Kedernath Datta and some other satirical pieces written in the 19th Century sketch the same scenario. Going by these sources, we learn that the main red light area in Calcutta in those days spread along a large stretch of Chitpur Road – from Siddheswaritala ( a temple) at Bagbazar to Nakhoda Masjid (the biggest mosque in Calcutta) at Kalutola. In the course of reading these books, I came across one prose – piece Bodmaish jobdo ( Wicked Punished ) written by Prankrishna Dutta in 1869. We learn from this text that in 1868, the British Government promulgated the Indian Contagious diseases Act 14, popularly known as choddo ayin ie Act 14 to arrest the spread of syphilis among the soldiers. The Government found this act urgent because after the great Mutiny of 1857, the number of soldiers in Fort William was increased and the government knew it full well that it would be impossible to prevent the soldiers from visiting brothels and contracting venereal diseases as a consequence. According to one account, in 1860, one third of the British soldiers had contracted syphilis. The 1868 Act, therefore, aimed to free the prostitutes from that contagious disease and thus to make sure that spread of syphilis among the soldiers does not assume endemic proportions. The act sparked off a stir in Calcutta and led to the publication of scores of plays, skits and satirical sketches on the Act 14. Battala in north Calcutta , the oldest publishing centre in the city, brought out these books. The bhadralok ( elite ) class tended to look down upon the Battala publications as vulgar literature in bad taste. By the elite standards, the language and style of the Battala Literature was vulgar but the social reality reflected in those books provide significant glimpses of social life in 19th Century Calcutta. Prankrishna Datta ‘s text was the first to the 1868 Act. It was followed by thrice satirical sketches on the same subject published in the same year (1869 ). In a caustic style, prankrishna datta depicts the reactions that the said Act brought in wake. es. --------------------------------- SHOUT IT OUT! Tell everyone, from anywhere, that you're online on Yahoo! Messenger -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070426/fe9becf0/attachment.html From cedban at doccentre.net Thu Apr 26 12:43:05 2007 From: cedban at doccentre.net (CED) Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2007 13:33:05 +0580 Subject: [Reader-list] cednews, april 2007 Message-ID: <252fbba309f1360b35a0f9e2109c1e2c@192.168.1.5> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070426/f0c27088/attachment.html From monica at sarai.net Thu Apr 26 16:28:52 2007 From: monica at sarai.net (Monica Narula) Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2007 16:28:52 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] unblog the web In-Reply-To: <20070426110347.illj04m684wo0soo@imp4.free.fr> References: <4dea04310704210631y56018c0aqe58b81f18072d602@mail.gmail.com> <8D40256C-D313-4A14-A19E-8521947B486A@sarai.net> <20070426110347.illj04m684wo0soo@imp4.free.fr> Message-ID: <056301A3-A033-4B82-A6F8-F52B5AC96FCD@sarai.net> Quite true. I suggested blog as I thought it was technically easy to use... Another place i would recommend is www.openmute.org where you can > Get a yourname.omweb.org address for your website with 5MB space Also, its a space that believes in opensource/free software solutions. As they say, their mission is: Mission OpenMute is a web resource project aiming to support cultural practice in the information age. Through the provision of server space, tools, practical guidance and critical contextualisation, we seek to develop open and collaborative ways of working, and contribute to the kind of public knowledge architectures that will serve practitioners' needs over the long term. In the light of this great place (part of the extended network that sarai is part of) another one seems unnecessary, even if made by Sarai, unless it can offer more... (which we are still thinking about). What we are about to start is planet.sarai.net where people can find others in the sarai community together... best M Monica Narula Raqs Media Collective Sarai-CSDS 29 Rajpur Road Delhi 110 054 www.raqsmediacollective.net www.sarai.net On 26-Apr-07, at 2:33 PM, fmadre at free.fr wrote: > May I ask why you suggest a blog ? > this ancient form is not specially well suited for posting pictures > perhaps we could turn people to doing websites > there are a number of providers that offer webspace for free, most of > them with ads and some not. I suggest brinkster > http://www.brinkster.com/ > I have researched ~20 of those for my next piece and brinkster is > unobtrusive (which is not what I was looking for) > also you could use live spaces or googlepages > http://spaces.live.com/ > http://www.googlepages.com > googlepages doesn't have ads, I think they assume eveybody is going to > add theirs... > > if you are concerned with hotlinking there is tripod > http://www.tripod.lycos.com/ > they have that really ugly system in place which replaces your > hotlinked image with thei logo and a message, brrrr > > now if you want to have the full sponsored web experience you should > go for fortunecity or geocities > they produce really scary sites > > most of those will have aids to produce the html, most of them > fairly ok > then you could learn html or just use some tool to do it and upload > your files, it's very easy > > of course a top solution would be that sarai opens hosting for its > researchers with photo albums, etc, but that is a political choice > about location as well as property > > the web should be preserved in its diversity > there are enough blogs already > > f. > > >> Hi Madhura >> >> The problem with posting images on the list is that there is a very >> high possibility of virus getting through the administering of the >> list as well - we must dismiss at least 50 spam/virus messages a >> day... >> >> But i agree that those images should be seen >> >> Can i suggest that you start a blog? Places like blogspot make it >> very >> easy and if you go to http://freetemplates.blogspot.com/ you can >> also >> get a different template from the usual one. >> >> Once you have uploaded images on to that, members of the reader-list >> could visit the blog and see the images. >> >> There are many on the list who keep blogspot blogs - i'm sure that >> they can give more advice! >> >> best >> M >> >> Monica Narula >> Raqs Media Collective >> Sarai-CSDS >> 29 Rajpur Road >> Delhi 110 054 >> www.raqsmediacollective.net >> www.sarai.net >> >> > > _________________________________________ > 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. > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> From fmadre at free.fr Thu Apr 26 17:50:42 2007 From: fmadre at free.fr (fmadre at free.fr) Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2007 14:20:42 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] unblog the web In-Reply-To: <056301A3-A033-4B82-A6F8-F52B5AC96FCD@sarai.net> References: <4dea04310704210631y56018c0aqe58b81f18072d602@mail.gmail.com> <8D40256C-D313-4A14-A19E-8521947B486A@sarai.net> <20070426110347.illj04m684wo0soo@imp4.free.fr> <056301A3-A033-4B82-A6F8-F52B5AC96FCD@sarai.net> Message-ID: <20070426142042.16myb47f48gocw0c@imp4.free.fr> ----- Message de monica at sarai.net --------- > Quite true. I suggested blog as I thought it was technically easy to use... unfortunately, yes it's one reason why it has become the generic form of online publication, people choose it by default or conformism one should be able to use a form which is adapated to function it distresses me to see all those sarai related blogs, even all using the same template > Another place i would recommend is www.openmute.org where you can >> Get a yourname.omweb.org address for your website with 5MB space oh, yes, didn't think of that one the url is http://www.openmute.org/ > In the light of this great place (part of the extended network that > sarai is part of) another one seems unnecessary, even if made by Sarai, > unless it can offer more... (which we are still thinking about). What > we are about to start is planet.sarai.net where people can find others > in the sarai community together... ok, i'll be watching that f. http://pleine-peau.com From bangali_mnb at yahoo.com Thu Apr 26 21:44:55 2007 From: bangali_mnb at yahoo.com (bangali_ mnb) Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2007 17:14:55 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] Second Posting, Mithun Narayan Bose, I-Fellow Message-ID: <998412.75416.qm@web35708.mail.mud.yahoo.com> In a recent visit I saw these two rickshaws having rest by the Park Circus Railway station. I have got interested while noticing the astonishing differences between these two rickshaws, which can freely share their spaces inside a single frame. The rickshaw which is seen on the left side of the picture and facing front has chosen a CD as an integral part of decoration on the rickshaw-puller’s life feeder, his ‘The Street Car Named Desire’, the use of CD as a part of decoration is commonly visible nowadays. It had gained a huge question mark from my side and I interviewed almost twenty rickshaw-pullers and only then Rabi Pradhan had thrown some light on the question. Is it only for the illuminating nature of CDs? Or any other possibilities to explore the thought process of these people are lying hidden beneath the question. Rabi said, its not only because of the illuminating character of the CDs, neither for the possible use of CDs as light-reflector but also the possibility to connect himself with the modern age is playing a significant role in the rationality and thought process in and among my subjects. He said, CD is very much a modern thing and thus the wish to incorporate modernity is being reflected through this practice. In fact, my thought and this statement had had no vital differences between them. And my successful inference gave me ample confidence and pleasure. The uses of many mirrors on the handle, playing of F.M Radios with huge sound boxes are other signs of affection between the man and his bread-earner. Swarup Mondol, has written truthfully on the rear side of his rickshaw; “Gari Shudhu gari to noy/ Bhalobasar ful/ Olpo kore bojhai koro/ Cholbe bohudur” [Means, the rickshaw is not only a mere rickshaw, but also the flower of love. If you load her a bit lighter, she will go far.] The uses of mirrors, plastic flowers, ribbons to decorate the rickshaw prove this love. Another rickshaw being seen here, on the right hand side of the picture posses a sacred picture of the goddess Tara of Tarapeeth mainly for the security reason. Using the pictures of Gods and goddesses of various religions and beliefs, the use of the number 786 among the Muslim rickshaw-pullers is common to notice. This frame of picture got this two different but simultaneous flows of life : Quest for Modernity and tradition and got intermingled quite easily and thus I would like to call it as a distinct part of living Urban Folk-Lore. Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070426/7eee7707/attachment.html From aiindex at mnet.fr Fri Apr 27 18:42:20 2007 From: aiindex at mnet.fr (Harsh Kapoor) Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2007 15:12:20 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] Pakistan: Stop right wing campaign to stifle Ajoka theatre Message-ID: http://www.sacw.net/FreeExpAndFundos/Ajoka27042007.html www.sacw.net > In Defence of Intellectual and Artistic Freedom in (or on) South Asia April 27, 2007 Request for action against right wing campaign - State should not cave in to pressure from fundamentalists PAKISTAN: CAMPAIGN TO TERRORIZE THEATRE GROUP 1. The pro-Taliban elements and their political patrons have made an issue of an Ajoka play "Burqavaganza', which was staged in Lahore in March 2007. Five MMA MNAs submitted an adjournment motion in the National Assembly, which was discussed on 26 April 2007. MMA members used extremely provocative language against the writer/director of the play and director of Ajoka, accused them of ridiculing Islamic injunctions and demanded action against them under blasphemy laws. Although several MNAs from Government and Opposition including women MNAs wanted to speak on the motion but the speaker did not allow them. The Minister for Culture Mr. G.G. Jamal announced that the Government had banned the play and further action will be taken after a report from the Punjab Government is received. 2. "Burqavaganza" is a satirical play, which uses Burqa as a metaphor for double standards and cover-ups in the society. The play shows all characters (men and women) wearing burqas, including politicians, terrorist leaders and policemen. Issues addressed include gender discrimination, religious extremism, terrorism, love marriage and media programmes promoting intolerance. It had been made very clear in the brochure of the play and before and after the play that the theme of the play was not critical of any one's religious beliefs or dress preference, but about the hypocrisy and double standards and the feudal mindset. The audience loved the play and it got very good press reviews. The play had been staged in collaboration with the Lahore Arts Council and the Executive director of the Council greeted the cast at the end of the play. On great public demand the play was again staged on 18 April at the Panjpani Indo-Pak Theatre Festival at Arts Council, Lahore. 3. The capitulationist stand taken by the Government in the face of MMA onslaught is very disappointing and disturbing. Instead of telling the fanatic MMA members not to intimidate theatre groups and the arts councils, he arbitrarily announced a ban on the play and promised further action. The speaker did not prevent the members from using defamatory language against two leading theatre practitioner Shahid Nadeem and Madeeha Gauhar. Reporting of the remarks can incite fanatics to further harass Ajoka, Arts Council and other artists in the country. It is disturbing that the Government of President Musharraf is taking a weak-kneed and apologetic stand on the continuous challenge by the pro-Taliban elements. The Government inaction over Jamia Hafsa stand off, Islami Jamiat attacks in Punjab University and moral policing in the NWFP have not only damaged government's credibility and ability to establish its writ, it has also emboldened the fanatics to spread their tentacles. The Government has totally failed to punish those who are challenging its writ and intimidating students and artists. It has also miserably failed to protect those are being intimated and attacked by the pro-Taliban elements. 4. Ajoka is an independent and non-commercial theatre group committed to the cause of social change since 1984. It has addressed social issues boldly but artistically. It is determined to promote a culture of peace and enlightenment. As the Government of Pakistan has failed in its duty to protect the rights of freedom of expression and paid only lip service to the concept of "enlightened moderation' , we appeal to the democratic governments and international human rights and development organizations to support us and urge the Pakistan Government to fulfill its obligation to protect its citizens rights and take effective measures against the Talibanist who are terrorizing the people of Pakistan. 5. We will appreciate if you could contact the Pakistan Government expressing your concern at the harassment of Ajoka and urge the Government to ensure that Ajoka is able to carry out its work as a theatre group freely. Please address the letters to: General Pervez Musharraf President of Pakistan President House Constitution House Islamabad, Pakistan Please copy the letters to the following: 1. Mr Shaukat Aziz Prime Minister of Pakistan Prime Minister Secretariat Constitution Avenue Islamabad, Pakistan 2. Mr G.G. Jamal Federal Minister for Culture Ministry of Culture Pakistan Secretariat Constitution Avenue Islamabad, Pakistan 3. Mr Pervez Elahi Chief Minister Punjab Chief Minister House Lahore, Pakistan 4. Lt General Khalid Maqbool Governor Punjab Governor House Lahore, Pakistan 5. Copy for information to; Ajoka theatre 24-B Sarwar Road, Lahore Cantt Pakistan. Fax: 9242-666 5021 Thank you for your support, Madeeha Gauhar 27 April 2007 Artistic Director Ajoka Theatre o o o [ see also a news report on BBC ] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6598685.stm BBC News 27 April 2007, 10:14 GMT 11:14 UK Anger at Pakistan burka play ban Women wearing burkas The play is a satire on the wearing of burkas The head of a Pakistani theatre company whose play about burkas was banned by the government has said that she is hurt and astonished by the decision. The government banned the play because it said that it made "unacceptable fun" out of Pakistani culture. Madeeha Gauhar, head of the Ajoka Theatre group, said that there was nothing offensive in the production against Islam or any other religion. She said that she was being pulled up for "promoting moderation". Parody Complaints about the issue came to light after Islamist MPs raised the issue in parliament on Thursday. They complained that the play was against "Koranic injunctions on the veil". "The veil has long been part of local culture and nobody is allowed to make fun of these values," Minister for Culture Ghazi Gulab Jamal said. Madiha Gohar We never expected this from President Musharraf's government Ajoka head Madeeha Gauhar The satirical play Burqavaganza was staged this month by Ajoka Theatre group in the eastern city of Lahore, known as the country's cultural capital. The government announced an immediate ban, and stopped it from being staged in other cities following the end of its run in Lahore. The BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan in Karachi says that the play is a parody on the burka - the enclosing garment worn by conservative Muslim women. Pakistan has stringent laws for blasphemy against Islam or the Prophet Mohammed with a maximum penalty of death. "They have committed blasphemy against the Holy Prophet", Razia Aziz, a conservative female parliamentarian told the assembly. But the Ajoka Theatre group has said that it has not received any official notification of the ban. Censorship "We have just heard the news from the press... the government has not contacted us so far," Ms Gauhar said. She said told the BBC that while she was not surprised that hardline Islamists had raised the issue, she was "astonished at how the government has reacted". Ms Gauhar said that the Ajoka theatre group was one of the oldest in the country, and had faced censorship before, particularly during the military government of General Zia ul-Haq. "But we never expected this from President Musharraf's government", she said. Members of the Ajoka Theatre group in a play about family planning The Ajoka Theatre group tackles controversial social issues "They have promoted arts and artistes so far, in line with a policy of enlightened moderation. "The government now appears to be going back on its own policies. "These are ominous signs for Pakistan. "We are trying to end the evils from society, we are against forcing women to wear the burka. I condemn the ban," she said. Correspondents say that the play reflects what many see as the aggressive behaviour of the burka-clad students attached to Islamabad's Red Mosque. Baton-wielding students of two schools linked to the mosque have launched "morality patrols" targeting music and video shops and local brothels. From shijusam at gmail.com Sat Apr 28 12:30:56 2007 From: shijusam at gmail.com (Shiju Sam Varughese) Date: Sat, 28 Apr 2007 12:30:56 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] on the politics of Popularisation of Science Message-ID: <345848710704280000l44215dacn40fa36bde0527504@mail.gmail.com> Dear friends, My second posting is on the politics of science popularisation and the emergence of Public Understanding of Science (PUS) as a specialised area of investigation within Social Studies of Science (SSS). The popularisation of science became an important agenda in the post world war period. The turning point was a report named 'Science: The Endless Frontier' produced by Vannevar Bush, President Roosvelt's policy maker in 1945, where he advocated autonomy for scientists from the political, economic and social realms. The report placed the public at the receiving end in contrast to the pre-war period in which science activism was a major trend in many countries. Such a change in approach to science popularisation enhanced the view that the scientific community had the authority over scientific knowledge, and the priorities of scientific research or technological policy are produced through negotiation between the state and the scientific community. Thus science gets assimilated into the hegemonic ideology of the modern nation state. Here the public is assumed as ignorant and needs to be educated by scientists with the aid of the state. According to the proponents of this model of science popularisation, the life of citizens is impoverished by an exclusion from scientific thought and it was assumed that a wider exposure to scientific thinking would lead to greater acceptance and support for science and technology. Through such construction of a homogenous, inert and ignorant public, the positivist image of science as monolithic and disembodied knowledge with a distinct and impeccable method of investigation acquired acceptability. This framework is also successful in distancing science from public scrutiny and places the scientist at a safe position beyond public criticism. It legitimates further public expenditure on science through popularisation programmes and pays no heed to the public response. The fact that science could be problematic for society is ignored and thereby the model rejects the multitude of responses from the public as 'anti science'. However, a new 'social constructivist' approach was proposed in the late 1980s when sociology of scientific knowledge turned to be a major trend within SSS. The newly proposed constructivist model, which is also known as the 'contextualist' model, suggested a new perspective on the engagement of the public with science. The main proponents of this approach are Brian Wynne and Alan Irwin, and they developed this new model based on micro sociological studies, which depicted the active role of local communities in negotiating the meanings of science in their daily life. In their studies, science appears as a subculture with a diffuse collection of institutions and areas of special knowledge and theoretical interpretations whose forms and boundaries are open to negotiation with other social institutions and forms of knowledge. The classic case study of the Cumbrian hill sheep farmers' encounter with science, done by Brian Wynne ('Sheep Farming after Chernobyl: A Case Study in Communicating Scientific Information'. Environment Magazine, 31/2: 10-15, 33-39, 1989) shows how scientists and sheep farmers are different social groups attempting to express and defend their distinct social identities. The sheep farmers of the Lake District of northern England claimed that the radioactive fall-out from the Chernobyl accident had contaminated their sheep flocks and upland pastures. The farmers found their social and cultural identities as threatened by the form of scientific interventions since the scientists were not willing to take into consideration the farmers' expertise on the local environment and the social practices and relationships. The farmers had expressed specialist knowledge for the conduct and development of science, but this was ignored by scientists in their experiments in the field. The scientists' ignorance, lack of interest in local realities, and imposition of false assumption about the agency of local people ended up in a loss of trust among the farmers and the consecutive failure of scientific experiments and predictions. The expertise of the farmers was based on a deep cultural outlook, and which was incompatible with the scientific-bureaucratic cultural idiom of standardization, formal and inflexible methods and procedures, and prediction and control, the study pointed out. Unlike the former science popularisation model that undertook large-scale public surveys with the help of quantitative methods, the constructivist model provided a wide range of qualitative analytical tools and variables that made it a most useful framework. New areas of investigations have contributed to further development of the framework such as the study of scientific controversies, case studies on science movements and 'anti-science' movements, historical analysis of the encounter of different communities with modern science in colonial backgrounds as well as representations of science in popular culture. Thus the constructivist model successfully problematises science and the practices of science communication, and its emphasis is on understanding how the public understands science. While the former model blamed the public for lack of appreciation of science, the later established the agency of the public and demanded scientists to be more reflexive in doing science. My study for SARAI draws theoretical tools from the latter. with regards, Shiju Sam Varughese, JNU, NEW DELHI From yasir.media at gmail.com Sun Apr 29 05:58:46 2007 From: yasir.media at gmail.com (yasir ~) Date: Sun, 29 Apr 2007 05:28:46 +0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Pakistan: Stop right wing campaign to stifle Ajoka theatre In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <5af37bb0704281728j2e3b0c63wa3b2de6ff93cba39@mail.gmail.com> it will only serve to polish the satire :) i'd like some more please ! with zia it was the brilliant tv show fifty-fifty - although they may be living off it, none of the actors have been able to get their careers straight since - never had that kind of focused attention. On 4/27/07, Harsh Kapoor wrote: > http://www.sacw.net/FreeExpAndFundos/Ajoka27042007.html > www.sacw.net > In Defence of Intellectual and Artistic Freedom in (or > on) South Asia > April 27, 2007 > > Request for action against right wing campaign - State should not > cave in to pressure from fundamentalists > > PAKISTAN: CAMPAIGN TO TERRORIZE THEATRE GROUP > > 1. The pro-Taliban elements and their political patrons have made an > issue of an Ajoka play "Burqavaganza', From clinicalexam at gmail.com Sun Apr 29 12:42:14 2007 From: clinicalexam at gmail.com (Chitra Venkataramani) Date: Sun, 29 Apr 2007 12:42:14 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Hygiene and the City: IFS Post 2 Message-ID: Hygiene and the City. Second post. I have spent the past month figuring out the stories that constitute the book and collecting data. The book has three parts. The first part is a compilation of parts of interviews that looks at individual notions of cleanliness and order, mostly in domestic set up. It also goes through Advertisements for cleaning products, objects catalogued as being harmful (taken from old newspaper articles). The second and the third parts of the books both chronicle traveling through the city in trains. But while the second part looks at the journey as a series of maps, the third is the journey of a medical student in a crowded compartment, looking at the idea of paranoia and contagious diseases. The second part of the book is narrated by a woman who imagines clean and unclean as ideas that exist simultaneously. Her story maps objects in a busy market place, the difference between private and public gardens, and lastly the naala that run along the Central Railway line- where is it the deepest, where is it murky and where is it clear; what vegetation grows around it (strips along the railway lines are given away for farming vegetables like spinach and coriander) and where do these vegetables go? The third part narrated by a medical student looks at the idea of proximity and disease. If we go in a crowded train, what diseases do we catch? How clean are crowds? Of course, it moves from the surroundings in the train itself to how he imagines the disease will enter our bodies. It also looks at ads put inside trains for curing infections like ringworm to ads for faith healers and the ergonomic data based on which spaces are designed. Another part that had to be resolved was the language of each of the three stories. The fist was pretty clear as each image could change with the excerpt from the interview. The third borrows its language from medical posters and from the ads, where figure are drawn out as stenciled lines or as figures in screen printed pamphlets. I am still working on a language for the second story. I will be posting a few images from the book by next week and upload them onto a blog. Will post that link later next week. My primary sources of data have been newspaper ads (articles taken from CED), Books documenting ads from the 40's (especially post war advertising), books on anatomy, ads posted around the city on telephone boxes and inside trains, and product design projects like domestic scrubbers, road cleaning devices and a few medical posters (hard to get- hospitals do not encourage people taking pictures or even borrowing the posters) -- Chitra Venkataramani 7B, Orchard Avenue, Powai Mumbai 400076 9819 474375 www.flipsearch.blogspot.com From venkatt2k at gmail.com Sun Apr 29 18:58:35 2007 From: venkatt2k at gmail.com (venkat t) Date: Sun, 29 Apr 2007 18:58:35 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] =?windows-1252?q?Living_and_Working_Conditions_of_M?= =?windows-1252?q?igrant_Workers_on_Chennai=92s_=91IT_corridor=92_?= =?windows-1252?q?=3A_second_posting?= Message-ID: <388da81f0704290628u6a355d2fg9a6d6ca4e921f4e3@mail.gmail.com> Living and Working Conditions of Migrant Workers on Chennai's 'IT corridor' Second posting Sorry for the delayed posting. I was not in town for the best part of April and thought I would put in more field work before I write to you. The work on OMR (Old Mahabalipuram Road) which is designated to be IT corridor has been speeded up. Only a small stretch of about 4 km has been completed and work has moved to another 5-7 kms. One can see state of the art machinery at work, razing to complete the road on schedule. The construction activity along the IT corridor is progressing unabated as multi storied buildings are fast changing the skyline. Most of the construction involves unorganised migrant workers from Andhra as well as from other eastern and central Indian states. They are housed in camps close to or on the construction site. In one such camp we saw 500-700 persons coming to work after lunch from dwelling units that at best could house around a 100. Their houses (which are usually a few sheets of aluminum or steel) are provided by the construction contractors as 'temporary housing'. "We provide them with houses on the site and once work is over here, we move them to the new site, we have to provide them with a place to live or else they will not work, they cannot afford it" said a contractor. Thus the workers, move from one temporary house to another as long as there is construction work. >From enquiries in different places, we can conclude that a day's labour to an unskilled male worker fetches anywhere between Rs.110 to Rs.150, while it is not more than Rs.90 for women. "they (contractors) also give us rooms to stay for free" added a female worker from one of the camps. They generally work from 10 am to 6 pm with an hours break for lunch. While the contractors state that they work only for six days a week, they are generally working on all the seven days a week. On one site, where they were working on a Sunday, which was supposed to be a non working day, the contractor said that they would only work half a day and go to shop for the week's groceries and provisions. The children, who are too small, ie under the age of 10, are not employed in any form. But due to lack of day care facilities in many of the camp sites, children while away their time around construction site and at times perilously close to construction activity. There have been few NGOs, which have set up day care centers, where they also provide primary level education. One NGO runs a couple of centers for migrant workers where the teach in telugu medium. Talking about the condition of the migrant workers, the Director of the NGO, who was one of the key informants said "they (migrant workers) live in some 25 or more small camps near the sites of construction, but the problem is they are a floating population. They keep moving from site to site and to their native places. They live in small places with no water or other sanitation facilities, many fall ill and have to leave, their wages is low and they are also cheated by the contractors, there are also a high level of fatal accidents in the construction sites. He said "the wages for a local is around 250/- while for the same work a migrant male worker is paid 150/-. Ladies are paid around 80/- a day" but while dealing with issues he did not raise any specific issue about women though he said women numbered more than men. While the contractors deny employing people below 18 years of age, we did encounter a few who said they were 16 years. (They looked younger). There are very minimal facilities for sanitation and health care. Some workers desired having a medical practitioner visit them on a regular basis. While they did not complain of any accidents or injuries during work, they did complain that medical fees were exorbitant. One contractor said "we do provide them with first aid and bear the expenses for treatment in case of injuries during work, but for contracting fever or other ailments they have to go to a doctor at their cost. Most of them especially those who have been staying here for long go to a clinic in vallurvarkottam ( approx. 20 kms away) where they charge nominal fees and also provide free medicines. The facilities in themselves lack sanitation facilities. But only a more intrusive investigation would reveal how the workers manage with this lacuna. Over the next month, we would be concentrating on building rapport with the construction workers while also meeting with officials from the labour department as well as with contractors and companies to know about the terms and conditions under which the workers have been contracted. I am working on setting up a blog and hope to put some of the pictures on it. I will send the URL soon. Thank you From fsrnkashmir at gmail.com Fri Apr 27 13:14:30 2007 From: fsrnkashmir at gmail.com (Shahnawaz Khan) Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2007 13:14:30 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Second Post: Cinema Revival a lost tale in Kashmir Message-ID: <2ad82fd30704270044n675b7a57ic2eca45d19ef389d@mail.gmail.com> Cinema Revival a lost tale in Kashmir For the generation that grew up with the turmoil in Kashmir, entertainment in life is limited to confines of house. And beyond that one can not think of it. For people here believe that entertainment is under siege! Usually going to cinema halls and watching a movie is considered a sort of entertainment and a break from the routine but in valley the cinema halls were closed with the outbreak of armed insurgency. Although a couple of cinema halls like Broadway and Neelam in Srinagar city were reopened much to showcase the return of normalcy, however owing to cold response from people the eupohoria died down soon. Broadway downed its shutters while Neelam drags on playing shows for just five people at times. Ten years down the line, the first cinema hall (Broadway) that braved the odds in 1997 to reopen got again closed. This time the decision to close the Cinema hall was proprietor's' own. Nowadays the building is being renovated to be converted into a hotel. Neelam is now the only functional cinema hall in the Kashmir. Neelam has the appearance more of a military installation than a place of entertainment. CRPF men wielding guns atop the bunkers in the Cinema premises keep eye on visitors and anyone passing by. The outer fence has coils of razor wire around it. The area has a restricted movement and people prefer the alternate route to avoid any untoward incident. Noor Mohammed, an old man in his late sixties sells the tickets for the show. Waiting under the porch in the wintry sun, wait for customers on Noor's wrinkled face is conspicuous. Holding ticket books in his left hand he signals anyone entering the premises towards him. Behind him are the couple of hoardings of the latest show. In spite of having no competition Neelam has a tough time getting viewers. For example when I visited the the first show had been abandoned for want of visitors. The second show was running on just 15 people only. The tickets are sold only for the balcony. The Dress Circle has an ghostly aura unlikely of a functional cinema hall. With total capacity of 800, the number of persons watching the show had rarely crossed 40 since its reopening. Employees in the cinema hall say year 2004 was an exception. A good number of people thronged the cinema hall during a film festival organized by Directorate of Information. Otherwise the hall never witnessed a houseful. "I am associated with this cinema hall since 1966, the year it began initially. Those days I was young and it was a peaceful era. People used to throng cinemas to entertain themselves. Tickets were sold in black but now …," sighs Noor. "The proportion of cine goers both male and female was fifty- fifty, Those were the golden days," he adds. Noor Mohammed is skeptic about the revival of cinema culture in the valley and is finding it hard to earn livelihood out of it. "Unless and until Pakistan and India reach a compromise on Kashmir, nothing can happen. Revival of cinema culture and opening of cinema halls can't be expected without return of peace," he feels. Mohammed Ayub Wani is the projector operator in the cinema. After 1990, when the Cinema halls ceased to function here, his employer shifted him to other business units and appointed him as a clerk there. "From 1990- 1999, I was working in the floor mill. When the decision to open the cinema matured I was brought back to my job," said Ayub. >From the schedule of running five shows a day prior to 1990, today it is mere three and most of the times show is being played just for five people. "Now ours is the only functional one but God knows how long will it go on like this. Broadway got closed, Regal that joined the fray in 1999 pulled down the shutters the same day it was opened following a grenade attack outside it," Ayub says. The ruins of another famous Cinema hall in the heart of city at LalChowk are still intact. Experts say that it is enough to gauge the scenario of entertainment in the valley. Instead of film hoardings announcing the show, it has hoardings exhibiting CRPF men with the text praising there role in valley. The area which was once the seating arrangement for viewers has now sycamore and others plants growing from it. S, Khurshid ul Islam teaches behavioral science at institute of Managementand Public administration (IMPA) Srinagar. As a social expert Khurshid believes that entertainment has an important place in the society as well as in the life of an individual. "Entertainment can't be replaced from the society as it provides relax and respite from the routine. There 's no alternative to it. The worst part of the turmoil was that it affected the spheres of environment badly," said Khurshid. Prasing the role of cable TV in Kashmiri society, Khurshid says that it became the mega source of entertainment for the people but cautions about its ill affects as well. "With insurgency in place valley witnessed closure of cinema and video halls, moratorium on sports activity and excursions. Result of this was TV received the prime importance. "as a father I would like to see my son becoming a sportsman and going outside the house for playing but at the same time keeping in view the circumstances prevailing outside I won't allow him to venture outside the premises of my house and not to talk of playing in the play ground,' Khurshid explains. It may be noted that Cable TV operators have also received threats from militant groups often, but Cable TV remains one of the very few medium of entertainment in Kashmir Valley. Turmoil in Kashmir has left its impact on the outdoor games and sports as well. Situation in Kashmir is not considered favorable enough to allow the younger generation to gather in a playground for playing sports. Even the two outdoor stadiums and one indoor stadium in the Srinagar city have been closed for the general public as forces battling the militancy are stationed there. "The Sher e-Kashmir stadium, Bakshi stadium as well as the indoor stadium have been closed for people. None one can enter the grounds for playing. At times it's being opened specially for players but spectators are not allowed," said Ghulam Mohammed a tea vendor outside in the market outside the Sher-e Kashmir stadium. The dressing rooms of the stadium now store ammunition. The fear coupled with the restrictions during the past 17 years has flourished the culture of indoor games and in city some privately run snooker clubs and other centres are slowly opening up. -- Shahnawaz Khan ----------------------------------------------------------- www.kashmirnewz.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070427/3a5b777a/attachment.html From vedprakash.sharma at gmail.com Sun Apr 29 12:25:54 2007 From: vedprakash.sharma at gmail.com (Vedprakash Sharma) Date: Sun, 29 Apr 2007 12:25:54 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Setu Samudram Project Message-ID: <008301c78a2b$71ba73a0$6401a8c0@ved6suqbkuh1sf> Dear list members, I do not know much about the Setu Samudram project. but recently, I went through an article about it. I am pasting below the same for your comments. let me clarify, neither do I endorse the facts given in the article nor do I condemn them. I am a bit confused over the matter. therefore, I need your worthy comments over it. Date: Wed, Apr 25 2007 9:06 am From: "Hindu Mahasabha" "Ram Mandir Banaayenge !" "Ram Setu Bachaayenge !!" 4/19/2007 5:28:57 AM Special Correspondent. (With inputs from VSK Chennai) HINDUS SERVE AN ULTIMATUM RAMESWARAM, APRIL 18, 2007 "Ram Mandir.? Banaayenge !" "Ram Setu .? Bachaayenge !!" That was the slogan which reverberated at the land's end this afternoon. In the middle of the holiest pilgrim centre of Rameswaram, Shri. Ashok Singhal, International President of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, led the slogan and a huge assembly of a couple of thousands demonstrators - 60 percent of them women - followed the chant, waving saffron flags. They had assembled there in response to the call of 'Rameswaram Ram Setu Protection Movement'. MAY 13 ALERT : THE ULTIMATUM Shri. Singhal elctrified the atmosphere by declaring an ultimatum: In his special address to the demonstrators - in fact, to the whole of Bharat - he roared: "The Central government should leave Ram Setu untouched and come forward with an alternative alignment for the Sethusamudram Shipping Canal before May 13, 2007. If it fails to do so, a very big struggle will follow. On that day, Mahamandaleswars and heads of Akhadas will meet in Delhi to chalk out the further step. I have consulted them all in this regard. Members of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha must come out in support of this mighty struggle to protect Hind interests". Shri. Singhal asserted that Shri Hanuman himself protects Ram Janmasthan as proved by the fact that of the 19 bombs hurled by anti nationals on Ram Janmabhoomi, only one exploded, that too just destroyed the hand of the terrorist involved. He quizzed: " So also, Ram Setu too is protected by Hanumanji. Otherwise, how does one explain dredgers, cranes and ships approaching Ram Setu break down one by one? (Latest: The engineer of a Russian ship working for Sethusamudram Project broke his hand and has been since hospitalized in Madurai. His condition is kept as a guarded secrect!). But Shri. Singhal was prompt in reminding the people that they will have to convey their anger to the Hon'ble President of Bharat and the Prime Minister through telegrams and letters (Midway during his speech, he asked those in the meeting who would write letters the very next day to raise their hands. All hands went up!) He explained: "Ram Setu is the sole surviving solid proof that Shri. Ram lived in this land, that he came to Rameswaram and constructed the Setu. Western powers want to destroy the Setu just because of this. Their historians want to hide the fact from the people that Shri. Ram took birth thousands of years before Jesus Christ, as that would demolish their theory that Bharat did never have a long and glorious hisotry. It is not a coincidence that Sonia participated in the inuaguration of the Sethusamudram Project in its present form that seeks to destroy the Ram Setu and Ambika Soni declares that there is no Ram Setu at all". ("It is due to the pressure from USA which made Sonia to inaugurate the Project to make the Palk Strait as international waters to help the American government." Shri Singhal had told presspersons in Chennai on April 17). The British taught us distorted history and never recognised Lord Ram as a historical figure and those who want to destroy the bridge are those against Shri. Ram, he said. Any desha bhakta will be angry for this, he concluded. The work on the Project be suspended immediately. VHP and the religious leaders are not against the Project per se; Earlier in his address, Shri. Singhal reiterated quite a few aspects of Ram Setu protection, brought to the notice of people and the government in several hundreds of similar protest demonstrations from Punjab to Kerala through UP and Andhra - and, of course, in every district place of Tamilnadu all along past months. · 'If Ram Setu is demolished then it would destroy thorium, the fuel source for nuclear energy generation, large deposits running into tens of thousands of tons of which are found in the place. It can supply energy fotr the whole country for more than 100 years; it has to be saved for making Bharat a self-reliant nuclear power and as it is one of our top national imperatives . ·In addition to the NASA images, our own scientific evidences point to human activity in ancient times on both sides of Ram Setu as found by Dept. of Earth Sciences and ocean technologists of Bharat. ·The work on the project be suspended immediately. VHP the religious leaders are not against the Project per se; they were opposed to the present alignment that involved damaging the Ram Setu. There were five alternatives and the VHP and the Hindu Dharma Acharya Sabha wanted the Government to choose one of them. The Rameswaram demonstration was held in the presence of Shri. R.V.S.Marimuthu ji (Sanghchalak of Tamilnadu), RSS. Blessing the people fighting for the protection of Ram Setu, Mahamandaleswar Swami Vishveshananda of Hardwar, sent out a warning that the family of anyone who destroys Ram Setu will face disaster. In Rama Janmabhoomi movement, Hindus were pitted against Muslim intransigence; but in saving Ram Setu, all fishermen - Muslims, Christians and Hindus - have come together, the Swami pointed out (It may be remembered that 140 associations of Rameswaram had joined the Ram Setu protection Movement). Swami Paramatmananda of Rajkot Swami Paramatmananda, Secretary, Acharya Sabha made it clear that destruction of Ram Setu does not merely indicate economic or political loss. It means a cultural, religious destruction, he said. He called upon people to hit the streets as the government has become deaf to the demands of Hindus. Raise your voice if you want to be heard, he appealed. He exposed the Shipping Minister T.R.Balu's trickery in not giving an explanation to the Hindu leaders even after the lapse of three weeks after Prime Minister's directive to that effect. The PM had asked Balu to respond to the delegation of religious leaders when they had met him in Delhi to demand protection of Ram Setu. Highlighting the sentiments of the Hindu mind, Swami Abhimukhananda of Dwaraka said the Ram Setu is like the maang (the partitng of hair above the forehead) of Bharat Mata and destroying it would amount to making the Mother look like a widow. Shri. Ram appealed to Samudra Raja to no avail; only when Ram tried to take out his bow and arrow, work on the Setu could begin; like that, Hindu appeals have fallen on deaf ears. Struggle seems to be the only way, the Swami said. Swami Sahaja Chaitanya spoke, also participated in the demonstration.Shri. Rama. Gopalan, founder, Hindu Munnani, pionted out that people should be ready to lay down even their lives in order to bring the powers that be, to their knees and thus save Ram Setu. He cited the Nandigram experience as precedence to this; there, the Marxist government backtracked from land acquisition only after people laid down their lives to realize their demand, he reminded. Shri. S. Vedantam, international vice president of VHP, wanted the questionable background of Minister T.R.Baalu be brought to focus. He recalled how Balu had declared that he was ashamed of calling himself a Hindu - that too at a convention of Christians some months back. (The Minster has proved last week that he can be repeatedly wayward: "There is no man made structure in the area where Sethusamudram Ship Channel Project (SSCP) works are going on", said T R Baalu in Ramanathapuram on April 16 while speaking to reporters. There is no need for any change in the alignment of the project, he added). So, battle lines were drwan unmistakeably. In his address, Shri R.S. Narayanaswami, journalist and vice president of VHP, Tamilnadu, traced history of the failure of the Canal Project for over a century. Dr. Subramaniam Swamy of Janata Party referred to the ancientness of monuments. He said structures like Taj Mahal in Agra and Kutub Minar in Delhi were saved from the threat of damage and destruction from the modern development oriented initiatives due to public and judicial intervention. While the above two date back only to a few hundred years, the Ram Setu's historical antiquity goes back to several millennia, he compared. Shri. L. Ganesan, state BJP president, alleged that the persistence with the unwise alignment of Sethusamudram Canal is aimed at perpetuating vote bank and corruption (which he described as 'note bank'). He said nobody has the authority to question belief systems like the honouring of a 'hair of Mohamed Nabi' in the Hazratbal mosque. Likewise, nobody can question the belief of Hindus - now scientifically proved - that Ram Setu was built by Shri Ram and so it is worship worthy. Shri. Kuppuramu, advocate and Ramanathapuram Jilla Sanghchalak, RSS, presided over the demonstration. He is also the convenor of 'RAMESWARAM RAMAR PAALAM PROTECTION MOVEMENT', Chennai. The Movement's website is being constantly updated with developments regarding protection of Ram Setu. Please visit the site at - www.saveramasetu.blogspot.com As Shri Ashok Singhal hinted, the Movemnet seems all set to spread far and wide across the whole country soon, thanks to the the UPA apparatus out to antagonize Hindus in an unimaginative manner. The rulers are bound to encounter an organised bitter resistence of Hindus this time. Vedprakash Sharma Ph 011-32440078, M 09350158273 skype Id: ved1234 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070429/91a5ca34/attachment.html