Mad Woman in the Attic

Tales of time, Tales of space Old and New Backward and Forth Together and Apart Growing and Stagnating Engaging and Dis-engaging Writing and Rewriting Covering and Discovering In a direction and elsewhere… The old and medieval cities that co-exist with their modern counterparts are living testimonials of organic growth, transformation, albeit with constant changing notions of the community space, public space, residential and commercial space within the confines of a neighborhood, a street, a nukkad , a square. Like these old cities, any interior space- a living space- is an agglomeration of different lifestyles, each emerging from individual histories and assuming a different character each time, it interacts with the individuals that inhabit it. It seems that with globalization, homogenization and the sake of financial gains, local and individual histories get sacrificed. But do they? No! The pace and nature of living and being- the innate growth- ho...

Take a second look. It is imagination you are looking at, an imagination both individual & collective: fluent, expressive, very contemporary, ancient. It is more than a little mysterious. Objectives: Beginning towards research & documentation, transmission, promotion & conservation of the diverse heritage of the painting style Document and disseminate forgotten forms, materials and processes of the painting style as a repository of cultural ways and values Celebrate time-honored indigenous skills and practices as perceived in the life of individual painters such as Mahavir Swami [1] , a master craftsman, awarded by the President of India and others Create a research led base for exploring new paradigms of growth and knowledge forms vis-à-vis the narrative led technique of the painting style Create a basis for an inter-disciplinary process spanning craft skills, performance arts, new media and architecture i...

One of my special adventures in ‘Dilwalon ki Dilli’, since I have shifted here, has been traveling by public transport: The Buses. The windows on the driver’s seat are interestingly adorned to the core with bangles, danglers, stickers depicting various Gods and aspects of Hinduism, with four speakers for listening to music, while traveling. This music essentially comprises of Bollywood songs, sometimes old, sometimes new (either through cassettes or CDs or FM Radio); as also of regional music. What I am hinting at is the fascinating affiliation of Hindi film songs with the process of traveling, which largely remains true of northern parts of India . What are the various facets of this affiliation? There are varied emotions while listening to music: this can range from comforting to soothing to noisy et al. Nevertheless, there is a wish to probe deeper into exploring other facets of this relation. Talking about Hindi film songs, they are linked to films not just by appearing ...

With Arshad Hamid It was the autumn season and my mother had taken me to the shrine of Hazrat Zain-ud-din Wali (locally called Zain Shah) in Aishmuqam, south of Srinagar city, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir. Inside the premises of shrine perched on hillock, my mother was murmuring passages from the holy Quran intermittently seeking blessings and intercession from Zain Shah. Hands cupped together, facing the shrine’s decorated and painted gate, I was waiting for some miracle to happen. I could see tears gushing from mother’s eyes wetting her pheran (a traditional outer garment). My attention was diverted from a sudden blare of shahnai and thuds of dhool. My curiosity took me outside the shrine and while descending the stairs I saw a small crowd gathering. A woman taking quick leaps towards the spot blurted “Bhande Pather”. Inviting others, she told it has already started. I too rushed to the watch. Jostling through the crowd, I made my way to the front row. Squatting o...

‘Microfinance refers to small scale financial services for both credits and deposits- that are provided to people who farm or fish or herd; operate small or micro enterprise where goods are produced, recycled, repaired, or traded; provide services; work for wages or commissions; gain income from renting out small amounts of land, vehicles, draft animals, or machinery and tools; and to other individuals and local groups in developing countries in both rural and urban areas’ - Marguerite S. Robinson It is well known that in the development paradigm, micro-finance has become an integral part as a need-based policy and program to cater to the so far neglected target groups (women, poor, rural, deprived, etc.). Micro finance is a participative model that can address the needs of the poor especially women members. It envisages the empowerment of the members by promoting their saving habits and extending bank loans to them. When women become economically self-reliant and contribute d...

“And so the child grows, his awareness expanding to encompass ideas and images larger than himself…” [1] Play is universal. Children of every culture engage themselves in play. Though play differs from culture to culture, generation-to-generation, it is clearly an instinctual and an essential part of growing up. The vast landscape of play, by itself, is an emotional experience of joy. Play is almost incomplete without toys. A toy gives form and reality to a child’s play. The young use toys and play to discover their identity, help their bodies grow strong, learn cause and effect, explore relationships, and practice skills they will need as adults. Adults use toys and play to form and strengthen social bonds, teach, remember and reinforce lessons from their youth, discover their identity, exercise their minds and bodies, explore relationships, practice skills, and decorate their living spaces. Toys are more than simple amusement, and the ways that they are used profoundly...

I have seen, I say, the Hereditary Princess of Potztausend-Donnerwetter (that serenely-beautiful woman) use her knife in lieu of a fork or spoon; I have seen her almost swallow it, by Jove! Like Ramo Samee, the Indian juggler . And did I blench? Did my estimation for the Princess diminish? No, lovely Amalia! - William Makepeace Thackeray, The Book of Snobs (1848) Ramo Samee (or “ Ramaswamy ”, probably the more accurate spelling), the most famous practitioner of his art in his era, inspired royalty, journalists, and famous essayists like William Hazlitt, who found him a performer of astonishing skill. Today he is, aside from the appreciation he receives from a handful of juggling history websites, completely forgotten. The kind of sword-swallowing and juggling he did is in fact a real historical profession in India , and goes back hundreds of years. So while clearly part of Ramo Samee’s appeal was his exotic otherness, he was doing what he did best -- what he had been ra...

India is a country of immense linguistic diversity and, thus, a country of many literatures. Many of the 221 language groups are small according to the latest census, and it is only the eighteen listed in the Indian Constitution as major languages that comprise the bulk of the population's speakers. In addition to the eighteen languages listed in the Constitution, four more are recognized by the Sahitya Akademi (National Academy of Letters) for reasons of their significance in literature (Assamese, Bengali, Dogri, Indian English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kankani, Kashmiri, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Panjabi, Rajasthani, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu). But in general, the perspective of India as a hegemonic language and literature area is ubiquitous. A writer in any one is counted as much Indian by the Sahitya Akademi as a writer in any other and no distinction is made between one literature prize and another. Thus, while we have a pl...

"Comparative literature," Earl Miner writes, "clearly involves something more than comparing two great German poets, and something different from a Chinese studying French literature or a Russian studying Italian literature." PRE-HISTORY… Comparative Literature is defined as "the study of literatures of different languages, nations, and periods with a view to examining and analyzing their relationships.  “In the Middle Ages the literatures of Western Europe were generally considered to be parts of a unified whole, mostly because they were frequently written in a common language, Latin.  In the nineteenth century, concurrently with the beginnings of the comparative study of religion and mythology, various European scholars began to develop theories and methods for the comparative study of the literatures of different languages and nationalities...Several different approaches to the examination of comparative literatures have developed:  the stu...