Chandigarh blues...

Finally! I am through with my exams. Now, no more horror stories to be re-told over the phone to my family or enacted with all might, at the railway station itself! I think, I would be the first person in the history of MA in India who actually studied during the intervening holidays between the exams ONLY. Seriously, its no mean exaggeration to suggest that I am a genius ( I am certainly not a taboo yet!:P) I just did not have any time to prepare for my exams. No, I wasn't hunting for dates, that is something, I have completely forgotten thanks to the ceaseless work pressure since my book released last year, followed by my work for a leading NGO in the field of culture,a project to write for an international journal, invitation to edit another, my weekly column and finally my MA exams!
Voila! and here we are in May 2006. I am sure, I am forgetting something from that list since I was surely more exhausted than I pretended to be all this time~ Or may be I have been truly ill all this while and that's the reason why I appear all washed out.

And I think, my day hasn't got over as yet. The work on journal still remains, there are still more controversies and shockers for me and for the readers. That reminds me of a number of dance Gurus who called up the next day after my speech on World Dance Day to say that I had destroyed them!
Boy, the same Gurus who don't shy from cursing you as effortlessly and coyly as they seem to seduce the Gods above! I reserve my hatred for the pretentious lot for better use in future.

For now, its a long holiday that I want, along with a good head massage from Ma and a reassurance that I too will have my share of R E S T!

National Commission for General Castes

Yesterday, on a visit to National Comission for Scheduled Castes for some work, I couldn't help but feeling slighted because again the Reservation Quota started twirling in my brain, like a heat worm. Strangely, I was at NCSC to talk about a case where, in my personal opinion, an SC person is using this identity to take undue advantage of the situation.

The concerned officer was curt and frank enough to admit, that NCSC cannot entertain the complaints of General Category people, and that we could go to Human Rights Commission. I wondered, regardless of the need for the reservation, was the time coming soon when a National Commission for General Castes will find its flesh. The recent protests by young General Category Medicos, is a case in point too.

No matter how we define secular antecedents of India, there is no denying that the role played by the executive in creating a social environment of equal rights has failed miserably.

I cannot help but question how the Saints belonging to SC category made it to Guru Granth Sahib? Was there a National Commission in Place at that time or were the Sikh Gurus intelligent enough to implement activities like Langar or community kitchen. The very creation of Khalsa was done to blunt the caste system.Did we say, Krishna was a cow-herd God?

Infact, One of leading contemporary dancers, Uttara Asha Coorwala, while studying the "Brahminisation of dance body" says that dance follows the caste heirarchy zealously. Sample this: Vachika or Speech in dance occurs from Mouth, the face is considered the Brahminical part of the body. The hands and chest, which join the face with the body and help face express what is being spoken is Kshtreya part of the body. Chest being the skeletol part or the warrior part that protects our heart. The hips, belong to the Vaishyas or the traders, since a dancer squats, jumps and moves about thanks to their support. The half squatting and full squatting position in Bharatnatyam is essential to perform any basic adavu. The legs, finally are Shudras, since they do the dirty work or running about. While performing, we scarsely look at the feet, who do maximum work. The visibility quotient is always the face, i.e. the Brahminical part.

I find this interpretation, which has been explained at length above, for clarity, very intriguing. I cannot say if I agree, perhaps I hold the romantic vision away from the politics that consituted Bharatanatyam and resurrected it from the Devadasis, or the contemporary politics to create a divide in the world of academia, where a teacher and a student's relationship may be determined by his/her caste and perhaps the ranks in class and university.

Indian...and apologetic?

My friend from France was in town and much as I was busy, I agreed to meet him, more so, since we had a marathon debate on caste and religion in India and how the "White" saw it the last time he was here.

But then, he does know alot of Indian performing arts scene and his knowledge about our biting caste reality comes from his experiences of working with NGOs down south, especially the interiors of Tamil Nadu.

So, after a long time, we again caught up for a cuppa coffee and his friend too joined in. Incidentally, the couple of hours that we spent together, revolved around the same topic again! Right from the Job Quota to the situation in Temples in India in the past.

Well, French have not been doing too good on their home turf, so I too had few aces to blunt their dismal outlook about India. The bours, the controversial job law and of course, the politics of JC and the rise of Rightist Le Penn in last decade.

However, towards the end of the conversation, when we finally shifted the focus on religion, I found both the guys nodding in unison about India's religious diversity- but yes, punctuated with reminders of communal violence; On the role of Missionaries, again, it was the civilising forces versus conversions; On the polarised world straddling between Islam and Christianity- one of the them blamed Islam squarely.

Perhaps, as Indians, we cannot blame any one religion for the wrongs we have gone through; The only country, which still keeps its social and religious frabic, ever so fragile, intact, the country which had the invention of first Alphabet; the first agricultural activity and the first numeral system; From the world of divinity and "sadhus" (as one smirked), to the problems of traffic, corruption, humdity, pollution,infrastructure, and hordes of desperate Indian girls dying to get into their pants, both the guys, confessed they had to come back to the country, again and again, for it got them bread and butter.

And India still breathes, they agreed, perhaps it was exotica, perhaps, its the Sun shining intensely on their fortunes with India...I said...

When we bid farewell, I told them to get me the contacts of French writers they knew, who are doing their bit, to create a discourse of comparative culture in France. They looked confused, I smiled...

And...he died....

Regardless of his share of controversies, his seemingly swagger behaviour and steady but passionate ambition, Pramod Mahajan ( and no one else perhaps) did not deserve to be murdered by his very own brother.

For the family, as also for the Mahajan clan, it means a complete reversal of fortunes, with one sibling no more and other, all set for a rigorous imprisonment and perhaps ( though one hopes not) a bitter relationship between the surviving members of the two families.

For the BJP, it is a curse, with far reaching consequences...both in Maharashtra and at the Centre. Pramod was the umbilical cord that connected BJP with Shiv Sena to an extent and he was the financial life line for the BJP since many industrial houses and rich pockets, veered towards the party thanks to their personal equations with the leader.

My guess is, Pramod Mahajan, was the best bet for the BJP and with him gone, BJP will become a more vitriolic communal mouthpiece, since in all probability, Narendra Modi will emerge as the tallest leader of second generation as the events unfold. That he knows he has a chance can be gauged from the huge pots of Gold he chipped in during the last Bihar elections.

Are we as Indians ready for Modi to take the giant leap.

Wish Mahajan was alive to answer this, for all of us.

Bless his soul.

Hell..a free voyeuristic TV

Don't raise your hopes, for its no Jerry Springer show but our desi News Channels. I feel rather ashamed that I am part of Media, which does not budge from zooming in on a mother who is in a state of shock on hearing the news of her son's death in Kuwait ( on Prime Time NDTV India); or the unnerving pictures of the wife and kids of K Suryanarayana who died at the hands of the Taliban.
It is a worst of reality TV, worse than the ones that air the "simple life" of Paris Hilton, who I am sure will die of exhaustion when she stands in the que, on the Gates of heaven/hell...or well..err... a reservation quota up there puleez!
In hindsight, can it be really undone?
Where was the Media when the entire B****y Parliament passed a resolution for an increase in Quota...or to say, to have a Quota for OBC-SC/ST separately. The strikes, no doubt make for good image feeds but thats where it all stops... I M A G E S

Ho Hum! Tomo. who knows your pet wishes an audition at any of the news channels and the creteria would be...a STRIPTEASE...Demi Moore, you have competition here lady!