Waddell’s ‘A Yank’s Memory of Calcutta’

‘A Yank’s Memory of Calcutta’, an exhibition of 60 gelatin photographs of Calcutta by Clyde Wadell is being hosted by the Aakriti Art Gallery, Kolkata from 8 December’2014 -24 January’2015.

Waddell’s photographs capture the eccentricities Kolkata in the early twentieth century. Away from the general tendency of artists, authors and litterateurs to slot Kolkata as a city straddling either of the two extremes of civilization – poverty or riches, cultural richness or defunct abject human condition, Waddell’s photographs give a sneek peek into the city living between these binaries. This uniqueness of his art, makes Wendell perhaps the only artist who has captured the essence of Kolkata so well.

Waddell was a Chief Photographer for the Huston Press before entering the army. He worked in the India-Burma Theater during the World War II as a part of the south east Asian front of the allied forces. In November 1943, Waddell was attached to the Public Relations Staff of the Southeast Asia Command. He served the Supreme Commander Admiral Lord Luis Mountbatten as his personal press photographer. Beginning in Ceylon, between 1943 till February 1945, Waddell accompanied Mountbatten throughout Southeast Asia visting many battle-fronts, hospital stations, and other war-afflicted areas.

In February 1945, Phoenix Magazine was formed. This was a 24 page weekly picture magazine, sponsored by the combined U.S. – British command. Waddell took leave of Mountbatten and resumed his life as a news photographer. Waddell was granted a leave after his return from the Singapore operation. In want to any assignment during that time, Clyde began clicking pictures of the erstwhile Calcutta. He ventured into some of the remotest, out-of-bound areas of Kolkata (and even on top of Calcutta’s Howrah Bridge) to click pictures. By the end of this passionate break from work, Waddell was flooded with requests from America and Britain for copies of his photographs.

The photographs at Aakriti reveal the responses of Clyde Waddell to a city experiencing a historic clash of civilizations – the east and the west. The poignant gaze of a western male on a city ravaged and plundered by the colonial exploits of Europe does not escape the ideological moorings of the images and scenes Waddell captures.

The album carries an introduction by N. Chas Preston and was dedicated to the GI agents.

Aakriti hosts the exhibition from 11 am-7pm.

Peshawar attack darkest spot on human kind: Satyarthi

http://www.newsroompost.com/140589/peshawar-attack-darkest-spot-human-kind-satyarthi/

Nobel Peace Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi described the child massacre by Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in Peshawar as “the darkest and blackest spot on human kind” and “the most heinous crime that no civilised society and no human society could ever tolerate”.

Talking to newsroompost.com, he condemned the killing of 132 school children in Pakistan. Informing that he has not been able to speak to Malala post the tragedy, he said, “I definitely believe that all children must be safe. All children must be enjoying their childhood. All children are free. All children should go to schools and there should be no compromise on this.”

He further added, “These are fundamental principles already laid down in the UN Conventions and so on.” Elaborating on his future course of action with the government especially with respect to the issue of child rights and child safety, Satyarthi said, “Of course we will be in more concrete talks in future.”

He also said, “Now we are surrounded by the media all the time. If you allow us, in a few days we will begin speaking to the government.”

Speaking about his recent interactions with political and government stakeholders, Satyarthi informed, “I never met Rahul Gandhi. I met Mr. Modi. Of course I also met Soniaji after the announcement of the prize. They are all excited about the prize.”

Talking of the award, Satyarthi said, “This is not a prize for me alone. It is for the entire nation and all the children in the world.”

http://www.newsroompost.com/140589/peshawar-attack-darkest-spot-human-kind-satyarthi/

There is no good or bad Taliban: Lt. Gen(Rtd.) S Prasad

http://www.newsroompost.com/140336/peshwar-attack-no-distinction-good-bad-taliban/

Lt. Gen.(Rtd.) Shankar Prasad, in a conversation with the newsroompost.com explores the reaction within the Indian Army on the gruesome child massacre by the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in Peshawar on the December 16.

Responding to a question on where he thought Pakistan failed, Prasad quipped, “Simply because they are nurturing terrorism. What they did for 20 years has hit them hard pushing them back by at least 10 years now.”

He said that for Pakistan, “those groups that they unleash on India to perpetrate terror are good and those who attack them are bad even though they are created, funded and trained by them”, adding, “There is no good or bad Taliban.”

Answering a question on how he thought the Pakistani establishment can send a strong message to the world and its own people, Prasad said, “The Government of Pakistan has to decide once and for all if it actually wants to end terrorism. It will have to demonstrate to the world that it is serious about dismantling the terror network.”

“As a first step, the Government of Pakistan should hand over Hafeez Sayeed and Dawood Ibrahim to the Indian government. Not just the TTP but LeT, Al Qaeda and all other terrorist outfits have to be dealt with iron hands by the government of Pakistan,” he said

Reflecting on Pakistan’s army, Prasad remarked, “Pakistan’s Prime Minister advised the army not to launch offensive in the North Wajiristan region. But the Army chief went ahead. Going by this state of the army, it is difficult to say that there is any hope in a region where there is mass destruction by the army.”

Commenting on lifting the ban on death penalty in Pakistan in an announcement made by Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, Prasad said, “The announcement to lift the ban on death penalty is going to do nothing as long as the government and/or the army keeps sheltering the terror outfits.”

Sympathising and empathizing with the people of Pakistan, Prasad said, “The people of Pakistan are disgusted by the kind of government they have. There is so called democracy which is not democratic.”

He further said that the people of Pakistan must revolt.

On being questioned on the role of Pakistan’s media in the wake of this attack, Prasad reflected that the media in Pakistan needs to be aggressive on incidents of terror not just within its territory but also outside it especially on cases of cross border terrorism.

http://www.newsroompost.com/140336/peshwar-attack-no-distinction-good-bad-taliban/

Where are we since December 16?

http://www.newsroompost.com/139110/since-december-16/

It has been two years since the Nirbhaya case rocked the country’s consciousness. 16th December this year again is an opportunity to have a look at what has happened ever since; and where, if at all, we have progressed so far.

According to the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) reports, there has been an overall increase of 10.5 cases per lakh women in 2013. There have been 3,09,546 total cases of crime against women of which 33,707 cases of rape and 8,083 cases of dowry deaths have been registered with the police. Experience with official records suggest that the actual number of crime is far more than what the registered data show.

A 39 years old Swiss woman cycling from Orchha to Agra in March 2013 was gang raped. A woman photo journalist was gang raped at the isolated Shakti Mills compund in Mumbai in August 2013. In the very recent case, a young woman professional in Delhi was raped by a Uber driver on her way back home. These cases are just a snapshot of much highlighted ones ever since the Nirbhaya case happened. Each day, at least once a woman feels unsafe – either at home or in office, or to and from office, in the market, in any public space and also in her private space. Something is going fundamentally wrong. And we need to address that – very soon.

After the Nirbhaya case happened, I shared my story on facebook. which went viral. In the following few months, my inbox was flooded with heart wrenching stories of rape and molestation of women and girls residing in various parts of the country that the media can never pick up. Someone from Mizoram was raped in Delhi where she came to study. She never shared it with anyone because she feared social ostracization in a largely biased city. Some woman, now a mother of two, was raped and left to die in an open field in some remote village in Bihar until her parents brought her home after a frantic search that fateful night. Her parents left the village thereafter. She is now a teacher in Ranchi. She too never quoted the incident before for the same fear of social stigma. A young girl in Mumbai was molested by her school teacher. She wished me luck and wanted more of such writings from women all across. Another woman was raped by her husband day in and day out until she took the step to file for divorce. She wished me more strength.

But the situation still stands grim. I had to explain umpteen times to my landlord and property dealer that as a single girl I will not ‘cross any boundaries of decency’ in my stay at the independent flat. That I will not have male friends coming over for night stay. I have had terrible and hard times explaining to professional acquaintances that a friendship between a woman and man does not necessarily have to have a romantic or a sexual connotation. I have had a tough time explaining to my family and relatives that it is logical and empowering to the education they bestowed on me to decide by and for myself who I wish to spend the rest of my life with.

And because all these are glaring realities in my life and in the lives of many others I know, I realise that the battle is not won. That there is lot more to be done. That there is lot more that needs to be said and each one of us will have to take the onus of saying, debating, putting our collective foot down and excelling in our respective fields to prove our points. Because the battle will be won not just by token pink chaddi and kiss of love campaigns in metropolitan cities but by taking these acts to the roots of where we belong to – 70% of Indian population which lives in the villages.

Increasingly, the incidents of rape and molestation suggest that more than a perverse mindset, it is the hunger for control and domination that translates into acts of violence against women. It is the unease with so many women out in the streets, inside office spaces, in the government, in administrative units and by and large, in positions of power that mostly propels that urge to physically dominate. But to limit the analysis of rape with just this hypothesis will be to overlook the issue in the impatience to reach conclusions.

The pathetic raillery by many ministers and police officers in the aftermath of any unfortunate incident of rape has been a continuing saga of arguments heaped on the already patriarchal construct of ‘it must be the woman’s fault’. But let us not ignore the fact that while technologically we have exposed ourselves to faster and ready to achieve means of online pleasures of the body and mind, socially we are far behind in catching up with this progression. It is this disconnect in some – if not all cases – which has led to many of these crimes.

It is alright for men and boys to salivate over a Savita Bhabhi but almost impossible to accept a practical corollary of ‘illegitimate’ sex. Sex outside the sanctimonious institution of marriage especially in a case when marital age of both women and men have increased is a natural progression which needs to be embraced than shunned and hastily brushed under the carpet. It is alright for women in the country to thrust it down the throats of boys that one day he will have to take care of that one woman in his life but impossible to fathom that these are subtle lessons in control and domination being passed on to men who shall take it on them to rule the household. It is alright for degree-ed parents to make their daughters equally degree-ed but impossible to take them as individuals with a mind and opinion of their own. It is alright for men and women alike to abuse using a woman’s name but illogical to realise that these innocent acts are seeped in a culture where women is merely a symbol and object of sexual gratification or a creature of passion. It is alright to have sex education in schools but separate girls and boys when given lessons on menstrual hygiene. Where do we expect to head to with this rootedness in hypocrisy?

Until all these gradual shifts in power equations, language politics, subtle sexualization by careful separation of genders will continue, we will continue to have sagas of Nirbhaya, Bhawana Yadav and Nirupama Pathak repeated at regular intervals. And till then we will continue to have our fashionable feminism hanging out of visible bra straps, kissing carefully chosen elite individuals in manicured lawns of urbane parks.

http://www.newsroompost.com/139110/since-december-16/

"I have a problem with people using their popularity for political gains"

http://www.newsroompost.com/153313/zee-jlf-good-forum-writers-beyond-language-barriers-ravish-kumar/

Ravish Kumar is the senior executive editor at NDTV India. As a TV anchor, journalist and writer, he has created his own niche on social media, Hindi electronic media and in the hearts of people. This year the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival(ZEE JLF) 2015 will witness the inauguration of his latest book, Ishq Me Shahar Hona. As an invitee to the world’s largest free literature festival, Ravish will participate in two discussions on the 24th of January.

In a conversation with newsroompost.com, Ravish speaks about his latest collection of short stories, or nano stories, his ideas on politics, literature festivals and the readers/audience.

Newsroompost – Your latest book Ishq Me Shahar Hona would be inaugurated at the ZEE JLF 2015. What is this book about?

Ravish – It is a collection of short stories about two lovers in a city who interact with each other and in the process recreate their own cities. When we migrate from one city to the other, we adapt to and adopt the cities. So, inevitably we form a relationship with the city. I migrated from Motihari to Patna to Delhi. Each time I used to go back, I was told ‘not to become the city’ and not to ‘become of the city’. Values, habits, ideas changed over time in Delhi. The injunctions of coming back home before 5pm, not working for night shifts etc broke in the process of adapting to the city. This book deals with these processes of adaptation, adoption and migration. It is about two lovers who explore the city and in the process, their own selves.

Newsroompost – So, how do you look at the city in your book?

Ravish – The image of a city is very private in this book. This book creates a personal space for two lovers within urban space. The lovers talk to each other using city and its various components as metaphor. So, that is city in this book. Very personal. Like, a Bihari boy goes to Lajpat Nagar and is fascinated to discover momos. He eats them. Later, he gives the vendor athekua. Like, a boy from Karawal Nagar falls in love with a girl from South Ex. They talk about their own Delhis. So, it is an interaction of all these recreated personal cities for very different characters in this book.

Newsroompost – Do you think something like this has been done before? How do you see the journey from your first book Dekhte Rahiye to Ishq Me Shahar Hona?

Ravish – I am not a learned man when it comes to literature. This was not a work that I accomplished as a project. I write on blogs, twitter, facebook. In fact, this book is a collection of my writings on facebook. When facebook had a limited space to write about, there were a few lines I used to scribble. This book is a collection of 7-8 lines written on many of those posts. Dekhte Rahiye was a collection of my blog posts.

Newsroompost – Many writers participating in ZEE JLF or otherwise are not very happy with the way literature festivals are organized. As a Hindi writer, how do you find yourself in the space these festivals provide?

Ravish – I have been going to the Jaipur Literature Festival over the years. It is extremely encouraging to see that Hindi and regional literature have been given equal respect at this forum. There was a session of Maithili in the festival sometime back. The first Maithili newspaper was published from Jaipur under the patronage of the royal house. Many maithili brahmins from Bihar migrated there. And all this could be known because of the discussions that ensued there. We have acclaimed poets like Ashok Vajpayi  attending the festival. Even Vinod Kumar Shukla has been duly honoured at the festival. So, I think it’s a good place for writers beyond language barriers. But yes, I agree, that literature festivals are literary melas these days. Meet people, authors, readers, publishers alike like you meet someone at melas. But then what do you do? That’s how it has become everywhere. A writer should get an opportunity to move out of his serious cocoon. What is wrong in a little bit of pompousness?

Newsroompost – Can I navigate a little bit into politics?

Ravish – Yes yes. Ask.

Newsroompost – How do you see the upcoming Delhi elections, especially after Kiran Bedi’s entry into the BJP?

Ravish – It is a test of the public. Like many others, I am disappointed with the way political discourse has been reduced to hollow political sloganeering. There is, in fact, no debate. It seems personalities are being launched as marketing products – in all the parties; AAP or the BJP or anyone. Kiran Bedi comes with an experience. Kejriwal came with his own set of experience. But what are you trying to sell and present? All of them, each one of them, are selling administration as governance. What do they think? That people have no sense of judgment? Look at the hoardings all over Delhi today. It is shameful. Crores are being spent on buying that kind of space and for what? It is unfortunate because if we see zero political debate in Delhi, where at least we have a decent educated population, what do we hope for the country? Can we even do that – hope? So, I think, this election, more than anything else is a test of the public.

Newsroompost – I know you have said many times before that you don’t like hearing this, but the fact is that you are almost a celebrity. You connect with the masses and raise pertinent issues of concern. Do we see Ravish in politics?

Ravish – In one word, no. I will tell you why. I have a problem with people using their popularity for political gains. Though yes, some have done wonderful work as well but I cannot. I like understanding people, knowing them, meeting them. It is a challenge. I fail sometimes. I do some very bad shows at times. But whatever it is, it is this work that has given me this identity and I respect that. For me, the love and bond with people is more important than anything else. People have loved me a lot. They trust me a great deal. And I respect these emotions people have for me. Politics is a serious business. Karyakartas in a party serve and struggle for ages to get to a place where they are and aim to be. For me, it is wrong to use my currency and snatch their position just because I am popular. And am not popular because of my politics but because people think I did good work in whatever I did.

Nesroompost – Because of all that you said about politics when talking of Delhi elections, do you not think a person like you will do some good in politics?

Ravish – I don’t trust the public. If you say, I might do good work, I would also need people for whom I can do good work. I don’t see those kind of people. Do you see anyone protesting about the kind of ridiculously lousy posters everywhere? Look at the amount of money that is being used in elections by everyone who is contesting. Do I have that kind of money? Where will I get that kind of money from? Also, the person that I am, if I do not like anything in a hypothetical party I join, I will be the person to call a press conference and say that such and such is wrong. I am a creative person. I will do something else after I leave what I am doing. I don’t know yet what I will do. But I will do something. As to your question, no I will not join politics – in the ideal state that we are talking, as of now.

http://www.newsroompost.com/153313/zee-jlf-good-forum-writers-beyond-language-barriers-ravish-kumar/

‘Why should we blame only men?’

http://www.newsroompost.com/147009/blame-men-dr-alka-pande/

An art historian and writer, Dr. Alka Pande is a Consultant Arts Advisor and Curator of the Visual Arts Gallery at the India Habitat Center, New Delhi. Dr. Alka has delved deep into various forms of art and has written with care on issues ranging from art to culinary delights to body – androgyny, sexuality, gender and much more. She is one of the invitees at the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival this year. In a detailed conversation with newsroompost.com, Dr. Alka talks candidly about art, literature, politics and her intimate engagement with each of these concerns.
Newsroompost.com – Thank for this appointment, Dr. Alka. In your passion for curating exhibitions from across the country, you have touched upon so many facets of Indian artistic sensibility. Would you elaborate, what is it that drew you towards this art of curating art?

Dr. Alka Pande – We are all a product of our lived experiences. My mother was a trained singer from the Gwalior Gharana. I learnt dancing from Yamini Krishnamurthy. So, I was exposed to art at a very early age.

Newsroompost.com – You physically learnt various art forms and were exposed to mobile art – dance and music, then went on to study history, specialized in history of art, submitted your research on art; therefore, becoming more niche and more focused. And then, took up this task of curating art. What was it that drew you towards the mobile to the absorbed and felt and then a static representation of these various art forms?

Dr. Alka Pande – Art is all about the theory of colour, of joy, of beauty, isn’t it? All these drive the engine of art. And all these aesthetic experiences are shared. Also, in an inclusive country we live in, these forms are no different from each other. They inform each other and are but multiple representation of the same essence – the same rasas. It is a retelling, reinvestigating of the same themes in different formats and different ways.

Newsroompost.com – It is interesting that you talked about an inclusive country. In the current context, you would agree, won’t you, that the political atmosphere in the country is not very open to this idea of inclusiveness? There are voices that want films banned, sentiments that get hurt at the slightest pretext, and then issues that are far from being discussed in the mainstream discourse. There is same sex love, there is article 377; there is the third gender, there is political discrimination. In such a situation how inclusive do you think India is?

Dr. Alka Pande – You cannot do away with truth and what exists.Ardhanarishvara has always been my favourite concept. And it is an Indian concept. It talks about equality. Shiva which is staya and sundara. What is truth is God and is beautiful. If you look at it, it is life. Similarly, shakti is powerful and feminine and encompasses motherhood. The more I researched, the more I understood the nuances, the more I got exposed into believing that this is the idea of India and this is beauty. And both these forces coexist. However, much you would like to curb this truth, the fact is, it exists and will continue to exist. India is inclusive. Because at the core, it is non-judgemental. It does not prescribe what to do and what not to do. A concept like the Ardhanarishvara can exist only in this country. So, yes, I do believe that we are an inclusive culture.

Newsroompost.com – But do you not think that the kind of appropriation of this idea of Indian culture, which is going on in so many different ways, by so many different groups, makes survival for artists and writers like you difficult? Because, you talk of Indian culture in the most historical and ancient sort of way. You talk of issues that are better not raked up, according to some groups.

Dr. Alka Pande – You see, I am wearing black track pants because it is convenient. But that does not mean I am less Indian and that should not mean I stop living my values. I know of my textiles, my sarees, my brocade but as a woman who has to run and work and manage home and office, I cannot keep managing my pallu all the time. But at the same time, I like touching feet of elders. It is the manner in which you say things that are different.

Newsroompost.com – So, where do you think we went wrong? As a historian, how do you explain the change in this narrative about culture?

Dr. Alka Pande – I think it was the Victorian prudery that took it away – the idea of a cosmopolitan, international Indian which was informed by so many Victorian ideals which changed how things were being said.

Newsroompost.com – You are a curator and not averse to the market forces interacting with art which in some ways makes people in certain camps uncomfortable.

Dr. Alka Pande – How does an artist survive? Why should an artist always be poor? One has to erase stereotypes. Money liberates an artist. It helps him/her create more and better work.

Newsroompost.com – As a historian, when you see the decades gone by, how do you conceptualize development?

Dr. Alka Pande – Educate the women. The rest will follow. Women are born leaders. Enlightened women educate a nation. Sensitize them.

Look at the country today. Look at all the major NGOs and other slow beat sectors. Who heads them? They are all women. You may create lot of money and exclude lot many from your narrative. These are the people women work for. Women are basically nurturers. They have an inclusive world view. So, educate them. The rest will follow. And when I say this, I am being gender inclusive and not feminist.

Newsroompost.com – With the women question, I was going to ask you, are you a feminist but you answered that already. So, let me ask you this. Why is it that the feminist voice in our country today is so preoccupied with body and sexuality? It is liberating to talk about it, but in one sense, also limiting and is increasingly becoming repetitive and therefore, likely to be taken less seriously – by even women.

Dr. Alka Pande – And how is it about the body?

Newsroompost.com – For example, in the name of sexual liberation, pouting for a facebook or an instagram or a twitter picture, putting up the body for display on an exploding social media platforms where invariably, you have a male gaze judging you and appreciating you with all the nuances of patriarchal parameters.

Dr. Alka Pande – Look, there are three basic needs to life – food, sex, shit. Why should we blame only men? And am sure, you understand what i am saying, without myself being misunderstood. At 20 to 30 years of age, it is all about body. And it should be, unless you are a saint. Body is an integral part.

Newsroompost.com – Well, then to go back to my question, why can’t women writers accept it as a part and parcel and/or as you say an ‘integral’ part of life and move on to talk of things other than just that? I say this, because as a nobody, when I pick up women’s writing in India especially, I find the ‘canon’ bursting with almost everyone talking of an assertion of sexual freedom, as if all battles end there.

Dr. Alka Pande – Well, what else do you talk about when day in and day out this is what you face? Your tits and pussy are stared at the first thing, when you move out in the open space. Despite donning western outfits, why is it that you and I are covering ourselves with scarves and carefully blending the attire to suit as a dupatta. You might not be talking about it verbally, but we all are doing the same. Fighting it out. Women are wired differently. They are more vulnerable because of their bodies. They can be raped. Even men can be. But men don’t have to bear children. Therefore, for women, their bodies are associated with shame. That is how it’s revealed to them. Also, youth today, especially women, are talking not much about the body as they are talking about sexuality when they seek freedom. Look at what Meena Kandasamy is writing about.

Newsroompost.com – Glad that you brought her up. I was going to mention her works primarily among others. Also, with respect to the recent revelation of her traumatic relationship and divorce.

Dr. Alka Pande – Yes, she is a dalit woman writing of her lived experiences. I was glad I was born and brought up in times I lived in. It is very difficult for women like you these days.

Newsroompost.com – Do you really think so?

Dr. Alka Pande – Yes. We had less stress, less choices. Men, we married to, were more responsible. Today, men have far less commitment. Men are too busy screwing women and asserting the demands for working wives – all in the name of feminism. And women are busy talking about other women tagging them as sluts and whores and bitches. So, there are these dual lives and dual struggles that inform a woman’s life today. We had much simpler times.

Newsroompost.com – You are articulating it so well. But, I did not have to fight for going to school or college or working or living alone as perhaps your generation did.

Dr. Alka Pande – But we had a different life then. Today, everything is market driven. An investment banker girl with a pay check of a lakh a month will any day be more desirable for a guy than a freelance writer and artist with no fixed salary. This shift is important to be understood. Earlier, it was believed that only women made these calculative choices. But today, men do this too. Also, a rich, successful, alpha male today will always have women lined up for him according to his choices because not all women are as free and empowered as the others are and are happily ready fall in the traditional trap. So, women like you, today, have to fight these dual battles – day in and day out.

Newsroompost.com – So, what do you think of relationships today, then?

Dr. Alka Pande – It is about education and economic empowerment. Love is all crap. Ultimately, it’s about power and money. If you bring in money at home, your husband, parents – all will respect you. Also, neither the rich nor the poor women are bound by morals encoded in love. The poor have no option but to succumb to pressures and survive and the rich women can buy whatever they want. It’s the middle class, which is lost and confused and struggling in this grand narrative of love and its morality.

Newsroompost.com – Thank you so much for your time, Dr. Alka.

Dr. Alka Pande- I enjoyed the conversation too.

http://www.newsroompost.com/147009/blame-men-dr-alka-pande/

Breaking the Dark Silence : Child Sexual Abuse

http://www.newsroompost.com/129099/breaking-dark-silence-child-sexual-abuse/

20 November, marks the day on which the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1959, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989. This is the silver jubilee of the anniversary of the convention and on this occasion the ambitious Indian polity needs to deliberate where it stands on the issue of child rights.

Out of the world’s 19% of children who reside in India, 53.22% have been victims of sexual abuse. This data comes from the Study on Child Abuse: India 2007 published by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, India. The study also points out that 50% of these cases identify victimisers as either known to the child or in those in position of high trust.

The Prevention of Children against Sexual Offenses (POCSO) Act, 2012 has been a welcome move by the then government towards taking a note of rising crime against children. However, much needs to be done to take this initiative to its intended denouement.

Currently, the Act within its purview reiterates its commitment to the Convention on Child Rights by the UN General Assembly acceded to in 1992, comprehensively defines the ambit of cases under child sexual abuse and acknowledges the need for privacy and confidentiality of the child during judicial process. The act also details the procedure for reporting cases and recording the instances of abuse. The quite comprehensive Act ensures that a complainant and aggrieved in a child rights’ abuse case is at ease within the legal and judicial framework.

However, beyond the intent of this Act, the practical aspects in addressing the menace of child sexual abuse needs to be duly considered. One of the parliamentarians, Rajeev Chandrashekhar has been speaking about the need to amend this Act. In the two focus areas he earmarks, he speaks about third party liability and need for speedy justice to be incorporated in the body of the Act. While, these legislative interventions are important, an awareness and activism based approach towards dealing with this issue is crucial.

Reports after reports have reiterated that the need to talk about the issue of child sexual abuse is a must. A seminar concluded yesterday in Tiruchirapalli had experts talking about the need to discuss the issue at hand as the first step.

Shame, embarrassment and a false sense of family honour associated with cases of child abuse happening within very close knit family and friend circles makes it all the more necessary to vocalise instances of child abuse.

Schools, crèches, kindergartens and places of recreation for children need to become more vigilant and most importantly need to be held accountable for any instance of child sexual abuse. School curriculums should necessarily carry tailor made modules for students at various ages to make them aware about this heinous trend. Workshops to sensitize parents, teachers, all kinds of staff employed in children-populated institutions must be organised.

The central government’s intention to ban pornographic sites may be debated within the larger framework of its infringement on the Fundamental Right to Freedom, but a blanket ban on all sites encouraging child pornography will be a much welcome move.

India – a country that houses a huge chunk of the world’s children population – must wake up to realise the growing threat to its human resource.

http://www.newsroompost.com/129099/breaking-dark-silence-child-sexual-abuse/

It takes all kinds of artists to change the world: Ellie Cross

http://www.newsroompost.com/146422/conversation-ellie-cross/

Ellie Cross is an artist from Seattle. After a formal training in art, she got interested in using art as a medium and a tool for curating solutions in order to create a better and just world. Ellie has worked in almost 10 countries and worked with local communities in Malaysia, Thailand, Guatemala, India, El Salvador, Ghana, Nicaragua, Tibet, Cambodia and the U.S.

Ellie, along with the local teams at all these places, created mural paintings on wide array of themes like environmental concerns and sustainable development, gender injustice and a strive towards equality, crippling poverty and art as a medium to learn and express, human trafficking and being salvaged from flesh trade among many others.

In a skype conversation with newsroompost.com, here is what Ellie revealed about her art and her commitments:

Newsroompost: Ellie, thank you so much for joining us. Art, in India is not considered a lucrative vocation and artists abandoning everything and embracing just art for their livelihood is a very brave step. You are from the US and have worked a great deal in various continents and countries. Do you think this kind of marginalisation when it comes to looking at art and giving it its due is a universal phenomenon?

Ellie Cross: Of course, yes. Art is not really a lucrative career option anywhere which is unfortunate given the immense possibilities within art. But i feel, one should follow one’s passion most definitely.

Newsroompost: You have done so much within such a short span of time. How is it that you fund your activities and your work? You were in India for a fair bit of time, for example.

Ellie Cross: I work for a bit, save, travel and work again. This cycle continues to run me and my passions. In India, i was teaching for three years. So, that kind of kept the kitchen running and allowed me to do my work.

Newsroompost: Your concept of marrying social commitment with art is a very beautiful and unique concept especially in times we inhabit where art either exists for ‘art’s sake’, is abstract or is vociferously polemical or political. How and why do you see art as this medium for social change?

Ellie Cross:  Art was always my calling. I knew that come what may, i will invest all my energies in art and work herein. It is so wonderful how art grapples with realities all around. You know, you don’t create anything anew. It is all interrogated by what you see around, what you feel and how you respond. Therefore, for me , it is almost impossible to dissociate art and reality or social commitment as you put it. Therefore, art has to and must invade meanings and help create something for a better world.

Newsroompost: So, you feel that art is political? Do you think art should send out messages for world – from the eyes of the artist as poet P.B. Shelley said that ‘poets(artists) are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.’

Ellie Cross: You are right. Art can not be a vocation in vacuum. It is very political. In fact, i personally feel that art should always be coupled with acitivism. That it should and must pave way for what’s happening around to what should happen around. Having said that, i also feel that it takes all kinds of artists to change the world. One common formula does not fit in all. Only activist artists can not be credited with the beautiful changes that we see or will see around. So, to go back to what you said, ‘art for art’s sake’ is also important just at Shelleyian idea of art is.

Newsroompost: Ellie, you have worked in 10 countries and have interacted with so many people, cultures, realities, responses and art forms. What do you think has been the most challenging situation by far? And what do you think are the challenges common to working in a dynamic space like this?

Ellie Cross:  Cultures, as you said, are different.  They created a beautiful dichotomy in my work space. On the one hand, it was amazing to know and absorb so much working with communities in all these different spaces. On the other hand, there was this huge language and cultural barrier that needed to be dealt with – broken and forged – before taking up the work that i envisaged. It took up a large part of my time, to form relationships with people that were conducive enough to come together for work.

Art, the kind which i engage in, is all about community coming together for a common good or goal or reason, or however you put it. For me, creating that condition to be able to create something new was the most challenging. Language, in that respect too, creates a problem.

I remember, in my first project at Mahim, Mumbai, i was so ennerved by the sheer size of population that came up that it was difficult to imagine completing that work(chuckles)…but we did.

Newsroompost: Ellie, you worked in India for a year. How do you see our country and what did you think of its potential, as an artist and acitivist?

Ellie Cross:The one thing which absolutely amazes me about your country is the sheer connectivity within communities. It is a culturally connected community. So, the kind of work i tried to do in India – its potential is huge and unique.

Look at this. The murals in slums and railway stations of Mumbai are now a community asset. It is great to discover that the community took care of its own creation by adding fresh layers of paint to it at regular intervals. That is the reward for community, its power to own and appropriate its space. So, in terms of potential, it huge – this kind of an ownership that incidentally happened through art there.

Newsroompost: Isn’t it similar to your experiences in Tibet?

Ellie Cross:  Yes, it is. In fact, Tibet showed me a microcosm of understanding art and how and what it means. I went to Tibet with a preconceived notion. I was cynical and thought that the western influence is consuming the Tibetan world and that it needs protection and preservation. But i was amazed and humbled to find how beautifully they had appropriated the western world view to their own advantage. Tibetans, being the smart people they are, are not just using art forms to preserve their culture but armed with the western ideals are forging new and creative bonds.

Newsroompost: What are issues that are close to your heart. I know you have worked a great deal on various issues and concerns, but what is that one thing that resonates with your commitment?

Ellie Cross:  I went to an all girls college. So, for sure, feminism is important to me. But i also feel quite strongly about environmental concerns.

Newsroompost: At the risk of asking you a very political and therefore a personal question, Ellie, i hope you do see some problems that are generated by the US and that has made this kind of ‘grappling with art for a better world’ a necessity. As an American, how do you see this politically?

Ellie Cross:  I disagree to what Obama has done in many ways. However, one has to understand that the real problems are structural – Obama or no Obama. Within the US,  immigration reforms, prison reforms are very important and need immediate attention. And you are right, the foreign policy of the government which is, by and large, based on aggression, is deeply problematic.

Newsroompost: What projects are keeping you busy these days?

Ellie Cross:  I am working on a poetry book that makes use of illustrative art and am working in Chile for murals called Window on the wall.

Newsroompost: Ellie, thank you so much for this beautiful conversation

Ellie Cross: The pleasure was all mine.

http://www.newsroompost.com/146422/conversation-ellie-cross/

Family matters and the unreliable maps of memory

http://www.sunday-guardian.com/bookbeat/family-matters-and-the-unreliable-maps-of-memory

Ira Singh's The Surveyor is a coming-of-age narrative trying to negotiate the realities of a recently decolonised nation. Weaving a panoramic view of social, political, literary and personal histories of the mid-20th century India through the characters of Ravinder and his daughter Natasha, Singh tries to grapple with the contradictions and binaries overriding generational shifts in the novel.

Ravinder joins the Survey of India as a cartographer at the historical junction of India's independence and the subcontinent's partition in 1947. Much against the wishes of his father, Ravinder marries an Anglo-Indian, Jennifer Robbins, and is blessed with two daughters, Anushka and Natasha. Natasha, the protagonist of The Surveyor, inherits the passion for cartography and reading from her father, Ravinder. In The Surveyor, she creates a cinematic portrait of her life, from households scattered in small towns, to the larger world of the city. The novel in that sense is Natasha's cartographic exploration of freedom and a search for her identity.

The almost sombre existential questions in the worlds of Ravinder's parents, Ravinder and Natasha, are negotiated in violently contradictory fashions. There is a fiercely savage grip on tradition and religion on the part of Ravinder's parents, Ravinder's own absolute rejection of ritualistic tradition and unstinting love for cartography and finally, a calmness shown by Natasha as she makes her peace with the bits and pieces of these previous lives that she encounters. And through the novel, one begins to gradually align oneself with the natural simplicity of being.

Memory and the act of surveying, remembering and chronicling form the essence of the book, in terms of plot, structure and form. A free narrative shift of physical location from Punjab to Dehradun to Delhi is akin to cartographic curating. It denotes moving on as a snap from one world to the other. Indeed, the strength of the narration lies in the organic tectonic shifts that Natasha's story takes. While lost in the rich dream-like narrative sequence of Dehradun and its hills, a reader reaches the end of a chapter. The very next moment, a chapter starts off in an upmarket Delhi space, jolting the reader as it quickly absorbs her into its enchanting fold. From one chapter to the other, one feels the narrative sliding away into wistful pasts, transporting the readers into a world of sharp images and moments punctuated by elegiac pangs.

The moments of lengthy, lisping almost relaxed recounting of details — as simple as remembering the almost forgotten Cherry Blossom shoe polish and Pears soap — have the ability to transport a reader to the real world of lost fantasies and memories fast fading into oblivion. The Coleridgean Kubla Khan experience of imagining and feeling a part of that makeshift dream which The Surveyor creates is so sensuous, delightful and rich that one genuinely wants that imagery to continue — without even a punctuation marring the effect.

Long, well knit, carefully carved and chiseled phrases and sentences mark the length and breadth of the novel. The preciseness of each word, the force of each phrase and the sensibility of each sentence is indicative of a careful craft.

Perhaps it's the conscious decision of the author to use memory as a trope to interrogate various themes. Memory builds up the story. Memory constructs characters. Memory conjures up historical and political details of Emergency years. Memory constructs and deconstructs the larger notions of nation formation, re-formation and deformation. This flirtation with memory glosses over a few important details of events in history, but one can see that this is mostly by design.

The novel could have said a little more about the time it encapsulates. Just as each character in the novel is well rounded and well formed, so could each moment in history and politics have been crafted. Perhaps, that is the limitation of memory or this kind of memorisation. Through cartography, memory, fleeting landscapes, polyphonic voices and a language rich in historical allegory, The Surveyor provides a dream-like experience. But like a lot of dreams, it also ends up being vague at certain places.

Dreamy, brimming with lingering memories, intense, rich and fleetingly sensuous, Ira Singh'sThe Surveyor is a recommendation for anyone who lives life with simplicity, honesty and adaptability. It's a book that seeks resonance in (and provides nourishment to) all those who search for their identities in their homes, families, work, solitude, desire and freedom. Ultimately, though, it's also about the price one pays for these things.

http://www.sunday-guardian.com/bookbeat/family-matters-and-the-unreliable-maps-of-memory

A harsh winter awaits homeless Kashmiris

http://gulfnews.com/culture/people/a-harsh-winter-awaits-homeless-kashmiris-1.1411916

The Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir saw unprecedented damage after the floods in September. Nothing was spared — houses to hotels, the high court to hospitals, government offices to private businesses, shopping complexes to universities, schools and houseboats. The financial loss has yet to be ascertained. According to official estimates, at least 350 villages were completely submerged.

Jammu and Kashmir has had to face catastrophes time and again. There was a blizzard and an earthquake in 2005, a cloudburst and flash floods in 2010, and another cloudburst in 2011 — all this in addition to the militancy that has gone out of control since the Nineties. And each time these tragedies struck, the state has gone back by more than five years in terms of development, in spite of the efforts of the government and the resilience of Kashmiris.

In the Rajbagh area of Srinagar, the state capital, Shahala Ali Shaikh, a fiercely independent and successful entrepreneur and an environmental activist, lost her house and business. Standing amid the debris, she says, “It was bound to happen. What you give to nature will come back to you!”

Along with a team of other concerned citizens of the state, Shaikh had met officials of the central and state governments to warn of an impending disaster way back in 2006. They had suggested practical measures that needed some common sense and political will to check the changing dynamics of the environment. But all fell on deaf ears.“You need to understand the topography of a city like Srinagar where you have the River Jhelum, a Dal Lake, mountains all around; it’s like a saucer, you know — very fragile and very sensitive to earthquakes and flood situations,” Shaikh says. “City planning and transport could not and should not have ignored this aspect.”

Sajid Farooq Shah, a prominent businessman who owns the now-destroyed Comrade Inn, says: “A city whose population has already exhausted the carrying capacity of land will have to rethink the outdated the Housing Master Plan 2001. The presumption that Srinagar would experience a population growth akin to Switzerland has been fatal. Look at this: the master plan does not allow residential constructions beyond 25 feet (7.6 metres) but the floodwaters rose way beyond 30 feet (9 metres). The entire city had to drown. There is an urgent need for drafting practical and well-researched housing and transport policies for the city.”

In 2006 the delegation of concerned citizens also submitted a proposal to enunciate the importance of a water transport system. They explained the benefits of keeping the waters of the Dal Lake and Jhelum flowing. The proposal, based on what London has done with its Thames, elaborated on developing a water transport system in the Jhelum and its tributaries and how dredging the river bed and having a waterfront makes environmental and economic sense. “If the government had heeded the citizens’ advice”, says my driver, as he drives me from Pampore to HMT Crossing, “and you had taken a boat to cover this distance, you could have easily saved about an hour.”

I imagine a well-developed transport system in the River Jhelum taking care of the local transportation needs and supplementing incomes. This would take care of the inter-district travels within the state from the north to the south and 70 per cent of the present transportation woes between Anantnag and Baramullah. But what I actually see as I drive around Srinagar, and along the Jhelum and the sides of the Dal Lake is something different: heavily populated pockets in a shambles and refugee camps whose residents have nothing but plastic sheets to keep off the elements, all pointing accusingly at the extreme insensitivity of the government(s) in place.

“Look at what has happened to Rajbagh, Kursu and adjoining areas,” says Shabeena, a survivor of the floods now living in a makeshift camp. “It’s all gone … forever. Whatever you do, you cannot reclaim the lost history of the area.”

All that remains of the Lalded hospital, the Presentation Convent, state museum, swanky emporiums and coffee shops are ruins. Move away from the once-posh areas of Rajbagh and there are stagnant floodwaters everywhere, sparking fears of an epidemic. Mehzoor Nagar, colonies on the banks of the Dal Lake, and countless temporary shelters house people with itchy skin and other health complaints.

As an immediate step towards relief in Kashmir, one needs to build houses for thousands of people who have lost their homes. No one seems to have an idea where the relief packages announced by the central or the state governments have been going. The recent Rs7.45 billion (Dh445 million) package announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his plan to have a central-government body oversee its implementation are laudable. But all these promises will count for nothing if the homeless have no protection against the harsh winter that will set in soon. Whatever has to be done, has to be done urgently.

Omar Shafi Trumboo, a well-known industrialist and general-secretary of the Civil Society Forum of Kashmir, has been involved in relief work in the state, especially in the badly hit south.

“Temporary shelters for people need to be built urgently as winter is almost here,” he says. “Also, conversion of these temporary shelters into permanent structures has to begin soon. One can clearly see politics and the impending elections affecting relief work. Good Samaritans from the corporate world and other individuals need to come forward and begin work.”

Sachin Pilot, former union minister for corporate affairs, agrees with Trumboo: “The J&K tragedy is a national tragedy and it should not and must not be politicised. Funds, resources, efforts should flow in from everywhere to rehabilitate victims. The government should see that CSR rules are made a little flexible, as I did during my tenure as union minister, so that people from everywhere can pitch in. In fact, the project of rehabilitation should be the topmost priority of the government after rescue and relief work.”

Organisations like the HMP Foundation have been working from day one, rescuing victims, distributing relief material, holding medical camps, stocking up medicines and food in hospitals.

Faisal Patel, founder and director of HMP, says, “We have distributed 1,500 litres of water, 3,500 kilograms of food packets [including rice, pulses, flour, salt, sugar, biscuits, etc], 2,000 kilograms of milk powder, 100 kilograms of baby food, 3,000 blankets, 2,000 pieces of warm clothing, 5,000 chlorine tablets, 3,000 face masks, 2,000 tubes of disinfectants, 5,000 packets of ORS, 5,000 strips of general medicines, 2,500 bandage strips, and other essential items for daily use. We have also organised health camps in south Kashmir and Srinagar and catered to more than 2,000 patients. We have reached out to more than 1,500 households in the state through health camps or by providing relief.”

Elaborating on his future plans for rehabilitation in Jammu and Kashmir, he adds, “We have realised that one needs to identify specific areas where one wants to work and get on with it. So, at HMP, we have decided on working towards ‘Adopt a J&K Village’ project, where we will rebuild 100 completely destroyed villages and rehabilitate their residents. These villages will be worked upon with the motive of building them better than before in terms of infrastructure, opportunities for growth and employment, and the overall aesthetics.

“We are also planning to undertake the rebuilding of hospitals such as the Lalded and G.B. Pant. Organisations like the FICCI [Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry], corporate houses such as Jindal Steel and Larsen & Toubro, are already on board in realising this task.”

Restoring normality in this beautiful land that Firdaus once described as heaven in the much-quoted couplet, Agar Firdaus bar ru-e-zamin ast, hami ast o- hami ast o- hami ast [If there is a heaven on earth, it’s here, it’s here, it’s here] will take all the goodness and resilience humankind, especially Indians, can muster.

http://gulfnews.com/culture/people/a-harsh-winter-awaits-homeless-kashmiris-1.1411916

A Menstruation Kit With A Difference: Sadhvi Thukral [Interview]

http://www.womensweb.in/2014/08/sadhvi-thukral-menstruation-kit/

Sadhvi Thukral is a post graduate student at the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad. Prior to studying at NID, Sadhvi worked at Jatan Sansthan as part of her internship in between her graduation days at Pearl Academy, Noida. It was during that stint with Jatan that Sadhvi designed India’s first design kit for the visually impaired to understand menstruation.

She created ‘Kahani har Mahine ki’ – a booklet and kit to help visually challenged girls and women understand the intricacies of the female life. ‘Kahani…’ comprises of a braille booklet that compiles literature around safe and hygienic menstruation and a three dimensional, practical kit to help the visually impaired know the facts easily and lucidly.

Here are excerpts of an interview with a young, effervescent, passionate social innovator and designer.

Shubhrastha : Sadhvi, you have done a marvellous feat at bringing this issue to the forefront of not just society but also of one of the most neglected section of the same. What has been your inspiration?

Sadhvi Thukral : I was staying with a family in Udaipur, when I realized that women of that household do not enter the kitchen during their menstruation. It came as a shock that in this supposedly ‘modern’ day and age, a perfectly natural and biological phenomenon of menstruation is treated as a taboo. Perhaps, somewhere the need to talk about it flickered in my mind.

I was amazed by the non-availability of supporting and core material for the visually impaired, (women, especially) vis-a-vis reproductive health. While all of us -meaning people with good eyesight and education- could research on the internet, feed on information through advertisements, written material etc. I realized that there is a huge lack that needs to be addressed.

Visually impaired girls reach puberty at a younger age than most of us, and it was appalling that neither the syllabi in schools nor in colleges were sensitive to the vacuum. Also, I had always been interested in disability  and issues related to the disabled. So, there I was – with a vision that had come to reveal itself in slight haziness.

I had to submit my end of semester project in college. And I decided that I would design a kit that would try to give the necessary information in as much of detail as possible. So, I chose to author literature around menstruation and menstrual health which could be converted into braille, and also produce a three dimensional kit which could be instrumental in acting as a sensory support to the literature.

Now that you have designed the kit and there has been a fair amount of buzz regarding the same, what do you plan to do next with the same? Is there a plan to further the intent of working on the issue?

Sadhvi Thukral: Well, frankly, I did not know that the kit would be talked about so much. But I am thankful that it got the attention. Right now, I want this kit to be used as extensively as possible. I also wish that this becomes the core part of school curricula and meets its core objective. I am still to decide on the modalities of the same. But my vision is very clear.

Have you tried approaching government institutions and non-governmental organizations?

Sadhvi Thukral : As a matter of fact, yes. But the responses have been verbal more than in actions. Currently, I am looking for partners for funds. In fact, I am ready to provide the entire kit for free to just anyone who wants to use it for the cause.

How far do you see “Kahani…” as a part of a social advocacy tool? Or do you not see it that way at all?

Sadhvi Thukral : Of course, I do. Social advocacy or not, am not sure. But I want to see every visually impaired girl and woman in the country as educated and equipped with information on menstruation and menstrual hygiene as a visually able woman or girl.

Also, the taboo to talk about menstruation, the social bias in dealing with menstruating women, the culture of shame that marginalizes a woman undergoing something as natural as this should end. I will do whatever it takes to achieve that.

http://www.womensweb.in/2014/08/sadhvi-thukral-menstruation-kit/