K.M.Venugopalan says the institution of the hetero-sexual family plays a pivotal role in ’selectively sanctifying certain kinds of economic, social and cultural activities of people‘:
The politics of claiming autonomy over bodies cannot perhaps wait, until all the fears associated with morals and culture are settled forever. It is imperative to talk about how deeply [...]
Archive for the 'Culture' Category
‘Gendered’ majority
Published by May 11th, 2008 in Caste, Culture, Society, Women and sexuality. 0 CommentsManjula translates the poem, SotPatro by Sukumar Roy into English. It is basically about a very nice groom someone has found for his daughter:
Academics next…… Oh! Par excellence!
No,no,not his degree,but perseverance!
Nineteen attempts at a stretch……..
Matriculation degree is yet to fetch!
Yep… Sukumar Roy is the father of Satyajit Roy. For those who want to see the [...]
‘White trash’?
Published by May 3rd, 2008 in Culture, Media, Prejudice, Sports and Women. 0 CommentsSandyk expresses his views on an article by Barkha Dutt in which she refers to the IPL cheerleaders as ‘white trash’:
But I can not blame her since Indian morality is a big issue with people in power and public domain. We do not like things which make us uncomfortable. We have not learnt the art [...]
Old Gangajal in a new bottle
Published by May 3rd, 2008 in Art, Books, Culture, Fiction, India and Religion. 0 CommentsNayan has discovered the newer version of the Ramayana, set in 3392 A.D. and has his opinions:
I wonder what Swami Valmiki thought while writing down this legend. I pray to God to give his soul peace, I am quite sure he would have not been happy to see Rama and Dashratha talking in fundax English, [...]
Sita sings the Blues
Published by May 1st, 2008 in Cinema, Culture, Recommended Links and South Asia. 0 Comments Accro du thé watched the film, Sita sings the Blues by Nina Paley and is very impressed.
The film is, believe it or not, an animated, blues version of the Indian epic tale of Ramayana, this time with Sita as the main character. As an Indian who grew up watching the Ramayana on television [...]
A National Museum of History and Culture of Dalits
Published by April 30th, 2008 in Art, Culture, Dalit, History and Human Rights. 0 CommentsAniruddha Kulkarni says India needs to build a museum of Dalit history and culture:
But I do think some psychological displacement is at work when a magnificent Holocaust Memorial Museum, in which the criminals are not Americans, precedes a Washington institution of equivalent stature dedicated to the saga of national violence that is slavery and segregation…[...] [...]
‘Brand’-new in Bangkok
Published by April 21st, 2008 in Culture, Indiaspora, South Asia and Travel. 0 CommentsVamsee is visiting Bangkok for his summer internship and describes his experiences as a new visitor to Thai territory:
1. People here are shockingly polite. Am yet to see a heated conversation anywhere in the office or the road. One is always welcomed with smiles everywhere.
2. Traffic is excruciatingly devoid of horns. Drivers have a lot [...]
Smita indulges in food talk from Bangkok, mouthwatering, I must say.
Bridging Gaps, Erasing Borders
Published by April 16th, 2008 in Culture, India and South Asia. 1 CommentAnil talks of the recently started India- Bangladesh train service in these words,
“That is my country …. How near is it. Still, I can never reach there.” This was a dialogue in Ritwik Ghatak’s film “Komal Gandhar”, which captured the pain and grief of partition and his dream of reaching there remained just a dream [...]
The sands of time
Published by April 11th, 2008 in Culture, Development, Globalisation, Indiaspora, Photoblog, Society and Travel. 0 CommentsMala visited Kolkata recently, for her vacation. In a very detailed post, she sketches the changes she perceived in the city, and also portrays how she (and her own life) might have changed in the perception of those at home:
Its always a treat catching up with everyones lives. There is one thing in common between [...]
North East Diary
Published by March 31st, 2008 in Adivasi, Culture, North East, Personal and Women. 0 CommentsSriram Anathanarayan notices the strong presence of strong women in the North East:
Of course my heart took a little dive when I saw the local Sub-Inspector of the Assam Police at the station receive his weekly bribe as they were unloading the sacks, but even here the women’s chutzpah was evident. She handed him [...]
“(Yo)nifying with the self”
Published by March 28th, 2008 in Culture, Feminism, Personal, Society, South Asia, Women and sexuality. 0 CommentsAfter much debate with her inner voices, Sunshine finally submits her scripts for “Yoni ki baat” a play inspired by Eve Ensler’s “Vagina Monologues”. Some of her scripts were accepted and she’s now rehearsing for the play.
More than reaching out to the South Asian community, I have reached out to myself, in some of the [...]
Makkal Sakti
Published by March 22nd, 2008 in Activism, Blogging, Culture, Economy, Indiaspora, Language and Prejudice. 0 CommentsNoticed this interesting blog ‘Makkal Sakti‘ (which, I guess, means ‘People’s Power’ in Tamil) which focuses on issues facing Malaysian Indians. This post by Joe Fernandez, a former newspaper editor, unveils one perspective on the recent unrest in Malaysia:
Does the fate of the Tamils in Malaysia hinge solely on the government? The Tamils are the [...]
Harjit Sodhi’s story
Published by March 21st, 2008 in Culture, Society and Spotlight Series. 0 Comments[ This is Essay # 28 in our Spotlight Series. Click here for the archives.]
Harjit Sodhi’s story
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Hari Balasubramanian
I was a student at Arizona State University in the Phoenix metro area when 9/11 happened. The days after were quite tense. On Saturday, the 15th, there were rumors among Indian students that a gang in a car [...]
Talking around Tibet
Published by March 20th, 2008 in Culture, Democracy, Geopolitics, Human Rights, India, Justice, Media, Politics and Religion. 0 CommentsKaran ponders on what India should do:
The Tibet issue is bound to remain in the headlines given the scrutiny the world has thrown on every aspect of Chinese existence. From levels of pollution, to dealing with dictators in Africa, to poisoned toys being exported, the lack of free speech and media and their crackdown on [...]
Unchaahi
Published by March 20th, 2008 in Activism, Blogging, Culture, Feminism, India, Media, Prejudice, South Asia and Women. 0 CommentsUnchaahi is a new group blog that aims to be a ‘voice against Female Genocide (a result of sex-selective abortions, and murders of female infants also known as female infanticide) focused specifically in the Indian Subcontinent.’ An excerpt from a recent post (on Ekta Kapoor soaps) by Roop Rai, one of the contributors:
I wondered then, [...]
10 years of heading a gang
Published by March 17th, 2008 in Culture, Democracy, History and Politics. 0 CommentsV.Isvarmurti writes a letter full of good counsel to Sonia Gandhi:
Dear Mrs.Gandhi,
Today is March 14 and it nice to write to you and congratulate you for having completed the President ship of the Congress for 10 long years.
This is a great accomplishment by any measurement and in politics this is something unusually a long [...]
Gender and other identities
Published by March 17th, 2008 in Caste, Culture, Feminism, Human Rights, Women and sexuality. 0 CommentsAt Ultra Violet, Usha BN eplains why ‘gender does not function in isolation’:
In the 70s and 80s, the women’s movement in India focused on mobilising women across caste, class and ethnic background against violence and discrimination. Women were seen as a single political category. So there was a universalising approach which held that all women [...]
Automated Daydreaming?
Published by March 16th, 2008 in Culture, Media, Personal and Society. 0 CommentsTharini is wary of TV, and this is why:
This continued for a good 2 years. We got so involved in it that we would get agitated if Winkie didn’t go to bed quickly, making us miss all the action happening downstairs. We took to recording the episodes and catching up with all that we missed. We [...]
What Bangles Mean
Published by March 16th, 2008 in Culture, Feminism, Humour, Media, Patriarchy, Politics, Women and sexuality. 0 CommentsA women’s day news report about Renuka Chowdhury’s “empowerment bangles” has Rimi B Chatterjee musing on bangles and their cultural significance.
If women are socialised to see certain kinds of jewelry in certain ways, so are men. Indian dance and drama have turned the business of a woman putting on her jewelry into an art form: shringar. Men [...]
In democracy, there is hope
Published by March 11th, 2008 in Community, Culture, Democracy, Development, Economy, Government, History, India, North East, Personal and Politics. 1 CommentRelating four stories of people he spoke to, Mishti believes there is hope for the country, if the NDA Government comes back to power.
For the sake of the aam aadmi, for the sake of the immigrant workers in Mumbai, for the sake of our highways, for the sake of our pride as Indians, for [...]
Celebrating Women’s Day
Published by March 8th, 2008 in Community, Culture, Development, Feminism, India and Women. 0 CommentsA brief round-up of blogger posts on Women’s Day, which is being celebrated today.
Chandni introspects on feminism, following the recent controversy in our blogosphere over the role of women, and questions female chauvinism.
Coming to the fundas of women’s emancipation, feminism and equality…how come this issue reeks of some sort of female chauvinism?How come women are [...]
Letter to a Young American Hindu
Published by March 5th, 2008 in Caste, Culture, Democracy, Indiaspora, Politics, Religion and Secularism. 2 CommentsYou might find this letter on other blogs and sites. As I am not sure about where it was orginally published I am linking to the blog where I first found it. One of the more memorable arguments Vijay Prashad, Professor and Director of International Studies at Trinity College, Hartford, makes in the letter is [...]
Beyond the Open Road, Wandering and Wondering
Published by March 3rd, 2008 in Adivasi, Culture, Environment, History, Language, Personal, Spotlight Series and Travel. 1 Comment[ This is Essay # 22 in our Spotlight Series. Click here for the archives.]
Beyond the Open Road, Wandering and Wondering
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Anil P
Now when I look back I wonder if I’ve been lucky to not confront, even once, any introspective thought on the merits of travel. However, I’ve been asked just that by people. This [...]
‘When it hits somewhere near home…’
Published by March 2nd, 2008 in Culture, Democracy, Economy, India, Language, Politics, Religion, Secularism and Society. 0 CommentsBVN muses on diversity, language, religion and politics:
…in Mumbai we are comfortably silent when the Shiv Sainiks take on the valentines or muslims or the touring Pakistan cricket team or M.F Hussein. They are like that, we know they are crazy. But when the Sena turns to North Indians, there is news value, and perceivable [...]
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