Anindita Sengupta

The blogging resolution seems to have flagged already. But in my defence, I finally moved to my own domain. It’s been a bought plot lying vacant for a while so I’m feeling a real sense of achievement about this. Heh. Small pleasures. I’ve also been traveling. Last week, I was in Coorg and Kabini on work (yes, really) and then we drove through the Waynad hills down to Kannur on the Kerala coast. I haven’t really had time to wade through the 700 photos I’ve taken, but a few are up at Flickr.

With coffee bushes and sea shells on my mind, I had boycotted newspapers for a while so I was jerked back to rude reality on my return. A protest meet had been organised (quite on-the-fly) against the Mangalore incident on Tuesday by organisations like Vimochana, Alternative Law Forum and HHS. The turnout was smallish because it was so spontaneous. They’ve prepared an open letter to the government which is up at Ultra Violet.

As someone pointed out to me, acts of hooliganism against women happen every day in India. Yes, which is why we must protest each one that we can, especially when it happens close to home. When the BJP came to power in Karnataka, I remember many of us felt a palpable sense of fear. And increasingly, it is being validated. The fact that cultural identity is continually being closely tied to such beastly violence also means that we need dialogue on what our culture is, what it means to most of us, and how it’s changing. This is something that a statement by feminists like Sumi Krishna and Ammu Joseph points out. An extract:

We believe that the Mangalore assault was not an isolated episode by self-appointed “moral police” and their sympathisers who criminally took the law into their own hands, but that it is part of a pattern in the profoundly contested political struggle over what constitutes Indian traditions, religions and cultures. It is evident that in this instance the attackers were emboldened to carry out the unprovoked assault in a political environment that supports a particularly narrow and fanatical view of Indian culture as also a repressive attitude towards women.

And:

We strongly believe that the State and democratically minded citizens must stand up to the violent targeting of women and re-affirm our commitment to the human rights and civil liberties of all people. There can and should be dialogues on what constitutes “Indian-ness”, but regardless of the interpretations of Indian culture and traditions, the beating and molesting women cannot be condoned.

You can read the entire statement at UV and leave your name, location / affiliation in the comment space if you want be added to the signatories. We will collect them and send them to Sumi.

And here are some of the reactions from politicians. All from here.

“Women should not try to imitate men. Progress does not mean becoming males,” said Mridula Sinha, member of the BJP’s national executive. Bijoya Chakravarty, BJP’s national vice president, said in Assam that “it is not good for a young woman to go to a pub”.

In Jaipur, Gehlot told reporters: “It was being propagated that young boys and girls looked very good while going around the pubs and malls by holding their hands. I want to end that culture.”

“India is not Europe. Mushrooming of pubs is not part of the Indian culture,” said Communist Party of India state secretary Manju Kumar Majumdar.

Bring on the veils already.

Also, my post at Guardian Cif on this.

This guy has been lurking on my garden wall. He can look a little scary at times but I believe he’s harmless. Unfortunately, Dobby who believes he is the lion of the neighbourhood thinks its an invasion. So I must refrain from putting out milk, making kissing sounds or doing other things that may cause all-out war and bloodshed in the compound.

And here is a poem on cats by Eunice D’Souza:

Advice to Women

Keep cats
if you want to learn to cope with
the otherness of lovers.
Otherness is not always neglect –
Cats return to their litter trays
when they need to.
Don’t cuss out of the window
at their enemies.
That stare of perpetual surprise
in those great green eyes
will teach you
to die alone.

– Eunice de Souza

Seven days into the new year, I’m still high on the heady surge of intentions. One of which is to blog more regularly. (Assume all possible disclaimers here.) The year’s been going well. So far:

• uppit and rawa idli at Mavalli Tiffin Room: a wonderful place to witness a strange alliance of motion and stillness — waiters moving in and out of the kitchen in their white knee-length lungis serving an endless inflow of hungry patrons, clattering plates, clinking coffee cups, and everywhere, the relentless slurping, chewing, swallowing. Then there are the people waiting to eat. Groups of two or three around every table. Patient as flies. They stare into the distance or read the newspaper, do their best not to hover. This is also a place that strips the act of eating down to its basics. Assembly line preparation and precise, almost-mechanical servings. How simple the act of eating and feeding can be, how devoid of fuss, how elemental. Photos.

• three beautiful books of poetry: Answering Back, an anthology of poems edited by Carol Ann Duffy, features current poets talking back to poets from the past. It includes gems like Carol Rumens telling Larkin that “Not everybody’s / Childhood sucked”;  Billy Collins’ gumptious answer to Yeats’ Musee des Beaux Arts; and Imtiaz Dharker matching Rumi myth for myth. By and large, I found myself preferring the older poems, but of course this is not a competition and one doesn’t have to choose. What it’s really about is language play, subversion and, in some cases, plain defiance, as each poet tries to fashion something new within the derived framework. Here’s a review. I also (finally) found and bought Daljit Nagra’s Look Who We Have Coming to Dover and Tishani Doshi’s Countries of the Body.

• a new pair of sneakers for all those noble resolutions about getting some exercise. They’ve been carefully put away in the shoe cabinet. Any day now.

• and my article on female condoms at The Guardian Cif.