Joyous Devi

And as the current year runs its last stretch before it can expel its final shuddering breaths to become: the Year that Was, a reference in the past, a collection of wooly memories; everything within us - the human parallel to the animal instinct of marking territory – invents ways of marking this time. Time intrinsically linked to our sense of our chronological existence, which at a deeper level is an uneasy acknowledgement of our mortality. So that the very celebration of this ‘ time’ holds a kind of quiet keening, a sense of loss, which we try every which way to subsume under a collective , concentrated kind of forgetfulness. This induced amnesia is expressed best through a party and any invented excuses for a celebration. And so we have imported some, concocted some, traditionally followed some, while some remain with us as a hungovered presence from our colonial past, specially while marking this time of the year. There is, to begin with , a mad rush of...

My visit to Chindwara was rife with mixed feelings, an anticipation not unmixed with a certain uncertainty ( what an oxymoron!). It was a project that had been on the burner for all of a 365+365 plus some days and now that it had been tossed into my lap or rather our organisation’s, it came with the rider that it had to be done in x number of days, starting NOW, with not a minute to be expended on wasteful activities such as drawing a deep shuddering breath and getting one’s addled thoughts into some order. My trepidation of course had a history to it. It was an intervention amongst weavers, where the weaving tradition had all but gone into a comatose state and what remained was a stale whiff of nostalgia amongst the old hands, who harboured dim memories of a glory, which in many ways continued to shine rather brightly in their imagined perception of it. And what touched me very deeply during my various interactions with them, was the hope that still made their eyes sparkle as...

My visit to Chhindwara was rife with mixed feelings, an anticipation not unmixed with a certain uncertainty ( what an oxymoron!). It was a project that had been on the burner for all of a 365+365 plus some days and now that it had been tossed into my lap or rather our organisation’s, it came with the rider that it had to be done in x number of days, starting NOW, with not a minute to be expended on wasteful activities such as drawing a deep shuddering breath and getting one’s addled thoughts into some order. My trepidation of course had a history to it. It was an intervention amongst weavers, where the weaving tradition had all but gone into a comatose state and what remained was a stale whiff of nostalgia amongst the old hands, who harboured dim memories of a glory, which in many ways continued to shine rather brightly in their imagined perception of it. And what touched me very deeply during my various interactions with them, was the hope that still made their eyes sparkle a...

Reasons to Smile The main auditorium in the Kumaon State Guest house (Nainital) resonated to the sound of the chief guest’s speech. Margaret Alva Governor of Uttarakhand was addressing the audience. The subject : the state of women of India with special reference to those engaged in agriculture. The occasion: The National Seminar on Gender & Development in the World of Work and Health – with Focus on Agrarian Women. Phew! Quite a mouthful one would think, but since our organisaton WWHI(Women Work & Health Initiative) was behind it, I knew that none of the words in the title could invite the delete key, without diluting some of the message of this debate. Prof. Patel the Chair, in her address, pointed out that in an unequal world, while women form ½ its inhabitants , they earn 1/10 of its income and own merely 1/100 of its resources. These were sobering statistics and point to a world of inequities, which manifests itself in so many different ways. Dr. Kaistha's address emp...

8th March , Women's Day! It's around the corner and this is a special one, being its 100th anniv. So of course, everybody who is pc inclined , is bringing out the events calendar and filling it with some event to mark it. Even if lip service or symbolic, or a tired reiteration of an annual commemoration, it's still celebration and that marks it as a special day in our calendars. This year, with not many hours left to the date, the various forms of the media is filled with news of the impending Women's Reservation Bill. Whips have been issued by some of the major parties and there is hope that it may be passed . This story however has been repeated so often, without making any progress at all, that a certain cynicism greets this eventuality. How is it that when the Congress, BJP and the communists parties are united in their assertion, the Bill cannot make it through? That this display of muscle power and vociferous opposition by a few members, can stymie all effort...