Today is Bhogi, the first day of the four-day Pongal festival in Tamil Nadu. Growing up in South Bombay, a completely urban creature, I can only tell you that I hear people make a bonfire of old, broken things--and agricultural waste, I presume--on this day. I have no idea.
The smoke in the air this morning got me thinking of 'Bonfire of Vanities,' a movie I haven't seen. I wondered, what if we made a bonfire of our negativities today? Would such a bonfire, made with mine, consume the universe in mythical mode?
Almost as if summoned, I could feel them all rise within me, from the corners to which they had been expelled in the last three relatively restful weeks. Acquisitiveness. Anger. Pride. Delusion. Envy. Fear. Ego. A poornaahuti on this day.
That's probably what it's meant to be. But can I do it? I don't know. Or am I too attached to my negativities to part with them so easily? Tough question.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Who would you cite? Southasian women writing international relations & security
This morning, I found this interesting, short (and yes, old) exchange between Daniel Drezner and Laura Sjoberg on how to write about women and international relations: http://bit.ly/12BJJ9, http://bit.ly/29PDNr, http://bit.ly/ajcpm.
Then a little later I found Stephen Walt's and Foreign Affairs' reading lists on the same subject.
Stephen Walt's top 10 picks: Books by women on IR. Also, see the comments for books he left out, notably those by Cynthia Enloe.
This is Foreign Affairs' list of what to read on women and IR.
It got me thinking about a similar Southasian list. Whose work/ which work would I place on that list? (And I should say that I am thinking of a feminist IR list and not a women scholars list.)
Rita Manchanda, ed., Women, War and Peace in South Asia, Sage, 2001.
Farah Faizal and Swarna Rajagopalan, eds., Women, Security, South Asia: A Clearing in the Thicket, Sage 2006.
Paula Banerjee, ed., Women in Peace Politics, Sage, 2008.
They're all Sage books, and they're all anthologies. Interesting, isn't it?
There are lots of other books that I would consider interesting, useful and must-reads but in this area, feminist scholarship/ scholarship by feminist writers is rare. WISCOMP has had an active research programme and has commissioned some very good work but their publications are not easily accessed in the public domain.
Related read:
Ammu Joseph and Kalpana Sharma, eds., Counter-Terrorism: Women Speak Out, Zed, 2003.
Well, who would you cite? I really would like to know.
PS: Paula Bannerjee reminded me of Anuradha Mitra Chenoy's work on gender and militarism. I should have remembered! But 4-5 works? That's it?
Then a little later I found Stephen Walt's and Foreign Affairs' reading lists on the same subject.
Stephen Walt's top 10 picks: Books by women on IR. Also, see the comments for books he left out, notably those by Cynthia Enloe.
This is Foreign Affairs' list of what to read on women and IR.
It got me thinking about a similar Southasian list. Whose work/ which work would I place on that list? (And I should say that I am thinking of a feminist IR list and not a women scholars list.)
Rita Manchanda, ed., Women, War and Peace in South Asia, Sage, 2001.
Farah Faizal and Swarna Rajagopalan, eds., Women, Security, South Asia: A Clearing in the Thicket, Sage 2006.
Paula Banerjee, ed., Women in Peace Politics, Sage, 2008.
They're all Sage books, and they're all anthologies. Interesting, isn't it?
There are lots of other books that I would consider interesting, useful and must-reads but in this area, feminist scholarship/ scholarship by feminist writers is rare. WISCOMP has had an active research programme and has commissioned some very good work but their publications are not easily accessed in the public domain.
Related read:
Ammu Joseph and Kalpana Sharma, eds., Counter-Terrorism: Women Speak Out, Zed, 2003.
Well, who would you cite? I really would like to know.
PS: Paula Bannerjee reminded me of Anuradha Mitra Chenoy's work on gender and militarism. I should have remembered! But 4-5 works? That's it?
Visa-on-arrival
Last week, my niece arrived in Chennai seeking a visa-on-arrival for her two week visit. All her papers were in order and she got the visa, but it took her hours to get out of the airport. Why?
Immigration officials insisted she pay the visa fee in rupees. She had earlier been informed that she could pay in USD and she came prepared, but when she arrived, she was told the visa had to be paid for in INR.
First of all, most visitors are unlikely to have rupees in their possession when they arrive, because few foreign exchange dealers abroad deal in rupees.Second, if this is the rule, then there should have been a currency exchange counter at Immigration. Of course, there isn't. So the poor child had to wait to be escorted by Immigration officials to an ATM... OUTSIDE the arrival area.
Does this make any sense?
Contrast it to my recent Sri Lanka experience, when I landed, walked up to and out of Immigration in less than five minutes with a visa-on-arrival. And fee? What fee? I paid no fee. I am sure the costs of processing and monitoring my entry were built into something, but you know what, I don't really mind because entry itself was painless and pleasant. I felt welcome.
It's just as well my niece has a lot of equanimity or the day would have been ruined for her. It would have for me. I would have fretted, fumed and got really tired.
But what does it say about us? On the one hand, a visa-on-arrival is intended to promote tourism. On the other, this sort of regulation makes it a very unpleasant arrival and entry into India. Are we saying to people, "Please come to my house," or "Ya, whatever, don't care as long as I can 'vasool' your money?" Conflicting messages, humid weather on arrival and discomfiting arrival procedures can make a tired tourist turn tail and go right back!
There's outrage and beyond that outrage, we really have to ask what purpose is served by this policy and its silly attendant regulations. This is something that MEA, the tourism department and the Finance Ministry need to think about seriously.
Immigration officials insisted she pay the visa fee in rupees. She had earlier been informed that she could pay in USD and she came prepared, but when she arrived, she was told the visa had to be paid for in INR.
First of all, most visitors are unlikely to have rupees in their possession when they arrive, because few foreign exchange dealers abroad deal in rupees.Second, if this is the rule, then there should have been a currency exchange counter at Immigration. Of course, there isn't. So the poor child had to wait to be escorted by Immigration officials to an ATM... OUTSIDE the arrival area.
Does this make any sense?
Contrast it to my recent Sri Lanka experience, when I landed, walked up to and out of Immigration in less than five minutes with a visa-on-arrival. And fee? What fee? I paid no fee. I am sure the costs of processing and monitoring my entry were built into something, but you know what, I don't really mind because entry itself was painless and pleasant. I felt welcome.
It's just as well my niece has a lot of equanimity or the day would have been ruined for her. It would have for me. I would have fretted, fumed and got really tired.
But what does it say about us? On the one hand, a visa-on-arrival is intended to promote tourism. On the other, this sort of regulation makes it a very unpleasant arrival and entry into India. Are we saying to people, "Please come to my house," or "Ya, whatever, don't care as long as I can 'vasool' your money?" Conflicting messages, humid weather on arrival and discomfiting arrival procedures can make a tired tourist turn tail and go right back!
There's outrage and beyond that outrage, we really have to ask what purpose is served by this policy and its silly attendant regulations. This is something that MEA, the tourism department and the Finance Ministry need to think about seriously.
Friday, December 31, 2010
A Million Sita-s.. and remembering the joy of creativity
Last night, I went to watch Anita Ratnam's new dance theatre presentation, A Million Sita-s. It was the first performance I managed to attend this Margazhi, and it was so worth shaking myself out of the inertia of staying home.
The presentation tells five stories through Sita's voice, breaking down the traditional distance/ difference between Sita and other characters in the Ramayana. Sita, the narrator, is in exile in Valmiki's ashram and encounters Manthara, Soorpanakha, Sabari and Ahalya. She tells them about herself, remembers her encounter with them and because she has empathy, she shows us the world as they would have seen it.
As Ahalya, she lets you into her feeling of temptation and being flattered, and her anger about her punishment--to turn into a stone till Rama's feet can liberate her. When Sita apologizes to Manthara for the teasing--even pelting with stones--that Dasharatha's sons inflicted on her, a window opens, and then you feel Manthara's sadness and anger... maybe for the first time. In Sabari's devotion, we are all moved--not just Rama. When Sita chats with Soorpanakha, you see them both as sisters. You hear a sarcasm that is never associated with Sita, when she asks Soorpanakha if she knows what the Maryada Purushottaman did. And in her sharing that, you see that they have a great deal in common.
If Anita's performance as Sabari was very, very moving, she was scary as hell as Soorpanakha. I thought for a moment that I would have nightmares, but of course I dreamt of deadlines instead. Anita Ratnam's Soorpanakha would have been a better aesthetic experience!
I am really glad I went to this presentation.
It was beautifully conceptualised, written and choreographed. The music was terrific, and Lakshmi Rangarajan's rendition of the bhajan that comes right after the Manthara segment was particularly beautiful.
Only two things that bothered me a little. The pile of cloth on stage when Anita danced as Ahalya--I kept worrying that she would trip--but maybe this particular stage was really small and that's why. And for the first part of the performance, the person reading out the narrative was speaking too close to the mike, so the sound was jarring and distracted from both the dance and the music, which is one reason I may not have understood the Ahalya segment correctly, actually.
In her performer's note: Anita Ratnam writes, "A MILLION SITA-s is not a feminist bashing of Rama." And it isn't a critique of the epic or the cultural traditions in which it is rooted either. It is simply a very sympathetic look at people in Rama and Sita's story who don't get a lot of airtime or understanding. I am not sure if this is the right way to put it, but it's very much a story told from within... from within this tradition, by someone who enjoy the epic and who enjoys all its characters. It's just a story told from an unusual standpoint within the story. Like a new look-out point in a very popular holiday destination.
This was a wonderful experience and if "A Million Sita-s" is performed anywhere near where you are, you shouldn't miss it.
I saw "A Million Sita-s" on the penultimate day of 2010 and it reminded me of how much joy creative work can give the creator and the person who gets to enjoy the work. Those of us who can be creative in different ways and those of us that can appreciate creativity should never let those parts of us languish on the back-burners of our lives. That's my New Year's Resolution, for sure!
The presentation tells five stories through Sita's voice, breaking down the traditional distance/ difference between Sita and other characters in the Ramayana. Sita, the narrator, is in exile in Valmiki's ashram and encounters Manthara, Soorpanakha, Sabari and Ahalya. She tells them about herself, remembers her encounter with them and because she has empathy, she shows us the world as they would have seen it.
As Ahalya, she lets you into her feeling of temptation and being flattered, and her anger about her punishment--to turn into a stone till Rama's feet can liberate her. When Sita apologizes to Manthara for the teasing--even pelting with stones--that Dasharatha's sons inflicted on her, a window opens, and then you feel Manthara's sadness and anger... maybe for the first time. In Sabari's devotion, we are all moved--not just Rama. When Sita chats with Soorpanakha, you see them both as sisters. You hear a sarcasm that is never associated with Sita, when she asks Soorpanakha if she knows what the Maryada Purushottaman did. And in her sharing that, you see that they have a great deal in common.
If Anita's performance as Sabari was very, very moving, she was scary as hell as Soorpanakha. I thought for a moment that I would have nightmares, but of course I dreamt of deadlines instead. Anita Ratnam's Soorpanakha would have been a better aesthetic experience!
I am really glad I went to this presentation.
It was beautifully conceptualised, written and choreographed. The music was terrific, and Lakshmi Rangarajan's rendition of the bhajan that comes right after the Manthara segment was particularly beautiful.
Only two things that bothered me a little. The pile of cloth on stage when Anita danced as Ahalya--I kept worrying that she would trip--but maybe this particular stage was really small and that's why. And for the first part of the performance, the person reading out the narrative was speaking too close to the mike, so the sound was jarring and distracted from both the dance and the music, which is one reason I may not have understood the Ahalya segment correctly, actually.
In her performer's note: Anita Ratnam writes, "A MILLION SITA-s is not a feminist bashing of Rama." And it isn't a critique of the epic or the cultural traditions in which it is rooted either. It is simply a very sympathetic look at people in Rama and Sita's story who don't get a lot of airtime or understanding. I am not sure if this is the right way to put it, but it's very much a story told from within... from within this tradition, by someone who enjoy the epic and who enjoys all its characters. It's just a story told from an unusual standpoint within the story. Like a new look-out point in a very popular holiday destination.
This was a wonderful experience and if "A Million Sita-s" is performed anywhere near where you are, you shouldn't miss it.
I saw "A Million Sita-s" on the penultimate day of 2010 and it reminded me of how much joy creative work can give the creator and the person who gets to enjoy the work. Those of us who can be creative in different ways and those of us that can appreciate creativity should never let those parts of us languish on the back-burners of our lives. That's my New Year's Resolution, for sure!
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