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Showing posts from August, 2010

An afternoon at Jeevika

A personal story of a family whose mother is a nurse, dilemmas and desires of three youngsters in the reform era, journeys of young women in search of brighter futures from Chattisgarh, Orissa to Delhi and the anguish suffered by them and their families, visual wonders of Titanic and Gabber Singh in Assamese of the 40 year old mobile theatre of Assam whose 120 member troupe performs for nine months straight moving from over 70 locations, mesmerising sounds of Rukma-the lone female Mangadia singer in Rajasthan, and to round it off a discussion with budding documentary makers on reality and the medium. That was my afternoon at this year's Jeevika. There is so much I do not know about India. In the discussion with filmmakers, Nandan-the moderator's question "what is a documentary?" offered different responses. It offers perspectives on everyday issues and happenings, it helps us discover new ones. It is a reflection of the filmmaker's conscience. It is a subjective p...

Work, celebration and politalk at Patna

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It so happened that our 9th anniversary clashed with a joint CCS-FNF programme with journalists in Patna. I was excited about visiting a new city and thanks to our dear friends Rajesh and Amit, we had a lovely anniversary celebration with cakes (yes we got two!), wine (which Rajesh went all over town to find!), litti (Bihari dish), breezy weather, and conversations on Bihari politics! Bihar has a fascinating mix of history-Gautam Buddha attaining enlightment at Bodhgaya, Mahavir spending a lot of time here, Chandragupta Maurya building a vast empire, Ashoka ruled from Patliputra, now Patna. The famous Patna museum was established in 1917 houses stone sculptures and statues. As we travelled across the city, old British clubs are quite visible. We had dinner in the gardens with palm trees along side the river at one such club-Bankipore, established in 1865! There are many sites to explore out of Patna-Nalanda, Bodhgaya, Vaishali. Alas, this trip was too short! We entered Patna town ...

The artist in the making!

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These are the proud art works of my darling 3.5 year old nephew! He is quite spontaneous with his art tools and fervently produces these marvelous creations!

My Highs and Lows on Independence Day

I have earned a bad reputation in my office for asking the annoying question-so what were your highs and lows on x, y/ z? I think today I can subject myself to this question. I am trying to make sense of what I feel about "India", not just today, but anyday. That is itself a difficult question to answer, since India is a land of mutliple realities. My German colleague gets quite annoyed whenever she asks us a question about India, in a typical Indian fashion, we answer indefinitively, this is also true, on the other hand, so is that.... My highs about India: My former boss once asked me what gives us optimism when all he can see around him goes against any ray of hope. My answer instinctively was-its people! I see my heroes and hope everyday: the street seller who was desperate to sell me a wet newspaper in the drenching rain, the cycle rickshaw puller who was pulling well-endowed and well-fed fellow citizens, the fruit and vegetable vendor who lugs his cart in my colony call...

The Politics and Insecurity of Hair

Note: I was going so crazy recently about wanting a decent hair cut once and for all, that I thought penning down my mumbling mind may give it some rest! When does one really become conscious of one's hair? How the look and feel of hair affect our lives and how do our lives in term affect our hair? When I was in school, I had to sit out for the ritualistic oil massage, brading into a plat, making two pigtales or a ponytail for school. I did not much of a say in the inputs into my hair nor the output of how my hair would finally look like. Ironically, that was the time I think my hair in terms of quality was at its best. At some point, peer pressure and the mirror started taking over which never really go away. I think, hmmm, how does my hair affect how I look? How I am perceived? Does it make me look older? Does it make me look well-kept? Does it match with the clothes I am wearing? Does it match with my face?....The constant need to whisk out my brush. Oh if there is one emergency...

Word on the Road!

The roads across Ladakh are laiden with eye-catching and witty signs. A sample of what we saw over and over again... "Drive fast. Test my recovery." "I like you. But not so fast." "Better Mr. Late than Late Mr." "If you are married, divorce speed." "After whiskey, driving risky." "I am curveceous, be slow." ----My favourite! "Don't gossip, let him drive." "Safety on road is safe tea at home." On googling, I found many travelers have captured these. Ajay Jain has a book " Peep, Peep, Don't Sleep " on interesting road signs and ADs across India! And I thought I had the divine idea of a coffee table book:(

An afternoon at Women's Alliance and the thoughts that followed...

One unique thing about Vinod's " Journeys with Meaning " are visits to civil society organisations working in Ladakh on disability, promoting Ladakhi culture, encouraging debate on the effects of globalisation and integration with the world. On our first day in Leh, we made a visit to one such organisation-the Women's Alliance of Ladakh (WAL), http://womenallianceladakh.org/. "The Women’s Alliance of Ladakh was set up in 1991 with the twin goals of raising the status of rural women and to strengthen local culture and agriculture. Since its inception the WAL membership was swelled to over 5000 women belonging to over 100 villages from all areas of Ladakh." WAL was set up by ISEC (International Society for Ecology and Culture). Helena Norberg Hodge set up ISEC to "promote locally based alternatives to the global consumer culture". ISEC organises regular documentary screenings at Women's Alliance office (a mention in the Lonely Planet brings in ...

The Journey to Leh

Parth and I were quite confident of ourselves that we will not only make it through the 1000 odd km road journey to Leh but also enjoy every bit of it! We kicked it off with an overnight ride to Manali in a AC volvo bus, alas in the last row! One has to pay a price of booking at the last minute. Anyhow, the seats did recline with enough of a buffer from the seat in front. As we started out of Delhi, the rain Gods spoke and we were stuck in traffic for couple of hours before we felt that we had actually started. A quick stop was made at the Mirchi resturant in Ambala (which had CCD by the way!). With the intention of keeping the passengers entertained (or was it for the driver, hmmm!), two bollywood movies back to back made sure that we did not get much sound sleep! But I could feel myself moving at the thumping beats of the nice songs, though! One great thing about the Volvo buses are the large windows with no grills giving a clean view of the outside world. The hills came into view al...

The Calming Peace of Ladakh

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Even for an agnostic, there is something deeply spiritual about Ladakh-the Little Tibet. The rotating prayer wheels , the multi-coloured prayer flags, the mound-like Stupas and Chortens containing relics of Buddhist texts or remains of Buddha or a saint are omnipresent. They mark the beginning of habitation, the high points of mountain passes, the entrance and roof tops of houses and monastaries, the length of bridges...The colours of the prayer flags symbolise the five elements: Blue (sky/space); White (air/wind); Red (fire); Green (water); Yellow (earth ). Traditionally families have an inscribed wooden block which is used to make the flags. The old ones are never removed when the new ones are added, it is believed they will naturally merge with the wind in their own time.