Vanprastha in Blogosphere

Friday, January 16, 2009 Getting Started in Blogosphere
I am a homemaker and a mother of two who are on the verge of flying the nest. Just had my 50th birthday.

In the Vedic period, I guess, it was around this age, that people opted for the 'vanprastha ashram'. This was the third ashram or phase of life, succeeding 'Brahmacharya ashram' (student phase), and 'Grihastha ashram' (householder phase). 'Vanprastha' literally means 'going to the forest'. The householder gradually relinquishes his responsibilities and rights in the household and allows the younger generation to take over, while he and his spouse move into a more contemplative mode of life. This phase precedes the last one- the 'Sanyas ashram' or the 'phase of renunciation' and is the mental and physical preparation for it. The fruit ripens and gradually disconnects from the branch of worldly life.

I can't say, the idea doesn't appeal to me right now. It made a lot of sense dividing the human life in these four distinct phases. Would have eliminated many conflicts and power struggles within the household, all those 'saas-bahu' scenarios. People would retire to the solitude and peace of the forests, assimilate their life experiences, contemplate and meditate. They would have the opportunity to associate and learn from sages who lived in those verdant environs. They depended on Ayurveda for curing their ailments so even that aspect would be well taken care of in the forests.

All this does appear rather tempting to me at this point in my life! An escape, a sanctuary from the humdrum daily existence, the same old routine of life which goes on and on, the never-ending cycle of chores and duties. So here I am, taking my first steps into Blogosphere, the modern version of the unknown forest, a world beyond my own small one. For a few hours everyday, I am planning to escape into this world and there is no knowing what I might find. So here goes! Posted by Rwitoja at 1:16 PM 3 comments Labels: ashram, blogosphere, brahmacharya, grihastha, homemaker, sanyas, vanprastha

Crossroads and Signposts, All That Has Mattered On The Way: Sri ... By Rwitoja In 2003, I happened to borrow a book from a friend and discovered Sri Aurobindo. The book was Satprem's 'The Adventure Of Consciousness.' Since then, Sri Aurobindo has become my teacher, a refuge, someone to whom I turn, ... Crossroads and Signposts, All...

A prize will be given to the best documentary covering Auroville

Zamsanga
Written by Sean Thursday, 19 February 2009
Here goes the recording of the live reggae concert which took place on 31st of January in the Visitor Center. The very well visited concert drew together listeners of all ages. The band; Zamsanga entertained the crowd for more than 2 hours, having many dancers exhausted, and many others craving for more. This was just one of their recent performances, after having also played in Pondicherry, just a week before, and just this weekend having rocked the tent at the love circus. To listen click on the logo PLAY or check the radio schedule here.

Auroville Film Festival 2009
Written by Radio Team Friday, 13 February 2009

“Image is a poetry in itself.” Films are a way of expressing ourselves as well as learning about far off, exciting places. Auroville will host its first official film festival this year. The following interview is with Marco, a coordinator of the event, and he invites all Aurovillians and guests to come and support this effort. A prize will be given to the best documentary covering Auroville produced within the past two years, the best news piece, and the best poem written by Aurovillians. Listen to this interview to find out more and how you can participate! To download the interview click here.

German/Indian Jazz Exchange
Written by Sean Monday, 02 February 2009
Holger Jetter on violin with guitarist Barbara Jungfer filled the Sri Aurobindo Auditorium with their inspired compositions last Thursday. They teamed up with Keith Peters on bass and Jayraj George on drums, rocking hot with their brilliant solos and frequent unexpected changes. This quartet will continue to tour India, spreading their German/Indian-Jazz/Rock across the country. As promised, the music caught the experienced as well as the virgin jazz fans. Here is an excerpt; check the schedule for more, or just pass by AVRadio for a copy of their CD. To download the recording click here .

bit of music?
Written by Radio Team Friday, 30 January 2009

After the Jazz-Rock concert offered by guitarist Barbara Jungfer and violinist Holger Jetter last Thursday night, AurovilleRadio presented a bit of their music during its 5-minute news. The two artists conceptualized their India tour in June 2008 in Munich, beginning to work on compositions right away. They invited two Indian jazz musicians: Jayraj George on drums and Keith Peters on bass, to exchange knowledge and to explore the Indian jazz scene together. After a few announcements, listen to Prithi and Falguni speak about the program they prepared with the children of Deepanam School. To download the news click here.

When I’m reading Laruelle or those who have taken on his style of prose, my eyes glaze over and nothing sticks

February 17, 2009 In Praise of Materialism Posted by larvalsubjects under Materialism

Dominic Says: February 17, 2009 at 9:41 pm
There’s something about Laruelle’s language (in translation) that I find philosophically repulsive, undigestible, in poor taste. I have no desire whatsoever to master that jargon (and that’s unusual, for me). But I think this is deliberate, that having a tin ear for philosophical euphony is a large part of what Laruelle’s about, performatively speaking. Not to say that serious discussion is pointless, that it’s all a sort of clown act, but that Laruelle is involved in a quite serious effort to “tympanize” philosophy, and one shouldn’t be at all surprised that the language grates, confuses and repulses.

Dominic Says: February 17, 2009 at 9:45 pm
Btw, I totally claim dibs on that connection of Laruelle’s “non-philosophy” to Derrida’s “Tympan”. There should be some sort of prize, and I should totally be awarded it.

larvalsubjects Says: February 18, 2009 at 1:53 am
Dominic,
Absolutely, I have a similar reaction. I find this unusual because I don’t have a similar reaction– and I realize it’s a reaction –to the language of thinkers like Deleuze, Heidegger, Lacan, Hegel, etc. However, for some reason when I’m reading Laruelle or those who have taken on his style of prose, my eyes glaze over and nothing sticks.

kvond Says: February 18, 2009 at 6:55 pm
“Behold, The Non-Rabbit: Kant, Quine, Laruelle,” by Ray Brassier
http://www.warwick.ac.uk/philosophy/pli_journal/pdfs/Vol_12/12_5_Brassier.pdf

Pseudonym Says: February 18, 2009 at 7:05 pm
It reads to me like he’s absorbed the worst stylistic elements of both the continental and analytic traditions. I’m slightly curious about what he’s up to but when it’s put in that form I feel comfortable simply maintaining my vague assumptions about his project. If I find any value in it, it’s as you say LS, that I can begin to empathize with people who react to most continental stuff in this fashion.

Re: The Strange Case of Dr. M and Mr. S koantum Wed 18 Feb 2009 06:31 PM PST Here is a useful crash-course: HOW TO SPEAK AND WRITE POSTMODERN by Stephen Katz, Associate Professor, Sociology, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada Excerpts:
Postmodern language requires that one uses play, parody and indeterminacy as critical techniques to point this out. Often this is quite a difficult requirement, so obscurity is a well-acknowledged substitute. [...] Here is another highly commendable pomo text. Do read it to the very end or, if you get tired, jump to the bottom of the page and read the last screenful. Sitting on a cornflake, waiting for the van to come...

Kalki's parents had come to India as hippies and are devotees of Sri Aurobindo

‘I feel like a kid in grown-up clothes’
Express Features First Published : 16 Feb 2009 11:18:00 AM IST

Born in Pondicherry, Tamil is 25-year-old Kalki Koechlin’s first language (besides French, of course). Her parents were inspired by Sri Aurobindo’s teachings (Kalki, however, as mentioned in an interview, is still searching for the right religion). She attended school in Ooty, moved to London to study theatre, and returned to set up base in Mumbai. Two years and several stints in theatre later, she landed her first Bollywood film, Dev. D, directed by Anurag Kashyap.

A contemporary take on Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s novel, Devdas, it is an audaciously crafted drama, with Kalki playing Chanda (Chandramukhi), a prostitute who talks dirty in Tamil and French.

Kalki Koechlin is an Indian actress of French descent who debuted in Anurag Kashyap's critically acclaimed Hindi film Dev.D. She played the character of Chandramukhi in Dev.D, which is a modern take on Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's Bengali novella Devdas.
Kalki was born to French parents in a small village in Pondicherry. Her parents had come to India as hippies 38 years ago and settled there after they fell in love with the country. Her parents are devotees of Sri Aurobindo.
Kalki was studying in Ooty when her parents insisted her to attend university. Kalki studied drama and theatre in Goldsmiths, University of London, where she also worked with a theatre company called Theatre of Relativity for two years. She performed in various plays like David Hare’s The Blue Room, Marivaux’s The Dispute and a devised play The Rise of the Wild Hunt in her two year stint with the theatre group.
Kalki later decided to move to Mumbai to try her luck in Indian Cinema. She was doing modeling assignments for Television commercials before being shortlisted for the role of Chandramukhi (Chanda) in Dev.D. Kalki can speak Tamil, English and French while she had to learn Hindi to prepare for her role in Dev.D.
She won The Hindu metro playwright award 2009 along with Prashant Prakash [1] for their for their co-authored entry ‘Skeleton Woman.’ She had also acted in the play "Hair" directed by Ajaykrishnan.[2]

Those whose power is threatened bray at the pace of change. They claim to defend the culture by preserving it in aspic

Nobody owns a nation's culture
8 Feb 2009, 0122 hrs IST, Jon Sen
There is only one real question that any immigrant must answer: what do i hold onto of the culture into which i was born? Or in other words, what do i jettison?

My father arrived from Kolkata in 1961 clutching a medical degree and desperate to make it in a country that hid a well of hostility beneath its welcoming façade. He jettisoned more than most in an attempt to integrate. Casting aside his Indian clothes, he chose instead tailored suits. His faith dwindled and he abandoned his native tongue, save for those rare occasions his path crossed with a fellow Bengali. He went as far as he could to turn himself into an English gentleman and almost succeeded. For many back home it was the ultimate betrayal: a betrayal of his roots and, by consequence, a betrayal of them. But then they hadn't suffered the violence of the colonial spirit in the way that he, as an immigrant, had. Yet, after almost half a century of immersion in British culture, he is still undeniably an Indian. His world-view, work ethic and his way with others are distinctly un-English. Despite his best attempts to become British, there exists, an invisible line that he cannot cross and one that i was always aware of growing up. Stretched to breaking point, it appears his culture and identity remain intact.

The idea that anyone can claim to defend a definitive 'Indian culture' has always seemed a truly remarkable fact in a modern world. After all, the one thing - perhaps the only thing - that can be said about Indian culture is that it has managed to evolve for centuries without ever losing itself.

As a filmmaker in England, i have made a living out of telling stories about the clash of East and West in contemporary Britain. The ways in which a first generation of Indian settlers navigated the cultural landscape, bringing their own values to a foreign land, moulding old traditions to new ways, has been the bedrock of British Asian narrative for decades. Hanif Kureishi's masterful storytelling in The Buddha of Suburbia showed just how complex this process can sometimes be with the father-figure, Haroon, exploiting his 'otherness' to impress suburban British ladies with a phoney mysticism.

Now, the focus has switched to the second and third generation who have their own tales of living with a foot in both cultures. Some of these young men and women thrive as they walk the tightrope of conflicting expectations of parents, community and country. When i directed Second Generation, we were clear that the story was a celebration of a new dawn for British Asians. The debate was no longer how to find a place in a foreign land, but how to celebrate the place we had now found. India and Indian culture had become fashionable in Britain. Everybody wanted a piece of it. The lead character, Sam, was a DJ who revelled in a musical and cultural fusion of his eastern roots and western experience.

At the other end of the scale, others find the pressure to live in two cultural camps too much. Like Omar in Stephen Frears' film My Beautiful Launderette (also scripted by Kureishi) or Om Puri's children in East is East, they resort to living double lives to avoid disappointing an older generation who place cultural subservience over personal happiness. As each generation is born and fresh conflicts are resolved, new definitions of British Asian identity are borne.

As i sit in London, i hear of the resurgent India, second-hand, as if by echo. I watch the changes that the country is undergoing and observe the challenges to old ways provoked by an unquenchable thirst for, dare i say it, western freedoms. As in England, those whose power is threatened bray at the pace of change. They claim to defend the culture of nation by preserving it in aspic. But they only claim this because they think they can own it. But nobody can. No one person. Not a hundred or a hundred million.

The culture of a nation is more spirited than the lot of us. The best we can do is observe the beauty of its transformation. The writer is a London-based director. His 2003 drama 'Second Generation' was the first time that prime-time British TV featured 'reverse immigration' of the diaspora from West to East. Homeward Bound-Opinion-The Times of India Kolkata's hot for Florian's shots -Calcutta Times-Cities-The Times ... Recently it was director John Sen from UK shooting Second Generation, an adaptation from King Lear, here. But German film-maker Florian Gallenberger Westside Story-Opinion-The Times of India The film is going to be directed by John Sen, a Bengali settled in Britain. It's written by Neil Biswas. Neither the director nor the writer has ever come.

Gopinath Kobiraj was close to Dilip Kumar Roy

Anurag Banerjee

Sri Anirvan (1896-1978) was a great yogi and man of immense learning. He was a linguist and proficient in the Vedas and Buddhism but he called himself a Baul and preached the ideal of humanity. In childhood he was blessed with the Darshan of the Divine Vedmata as a six year old whom he named Haimavati as in the Kena Upanishad. Since then she had been the main source of inspiration for him. He translated Sri Aurobindo’s The Life Divine into Bengali and penned masterpieces like Vedamimangsha (in three volumes) which earned him the Rabindra Puraskar, Gayatri Mandala (in six volumes), Upanishad Prashanga, Kaveri, Patralekha to name a few.

Gopinath Kobiraj (1887-1976) was a disciple of Swami Vishuddhananda Paramahansa. A brilliant scholar of Indian philosophy, he authored more than seventy books. Born in the district of Dacca, he had his early education in Jaipur and then in the Government Sanskrit College of Benaras under Dr. Arthur Venis who understood and recognized his pupil’s brilliance and offered him the post of the Librarian when he earned his M.A. degree in 1914. Eventually, he became the Principal of the College and renowned, not only a scholar, but also as an “explorer of the realms of consciousness.” He was close to Dilip Kumar Roy. His last years were spent in the Ashram of Anandamoyee Ma at Bhadini on the banks of the Ganges.

Khitish Chandra Sen was the Judge of Bombay High Court and also a poet and litterateur who had translated Rabindranath Tagore’s famous poem on Sri Aurobindo into English. He was introduced to Dilip Kumar by Shahid Suhrawardy.

Annadashankar Roy (1904-2002) was a noted poet, novelist and essayist of Bengal and his contributions to Bengali literature earned him the Padmabhushan, Rabindra Puraskar and Vidyasagar Puraskar. He was the Founder-President of Paschim Banga Bangla Academy and was also associated with PEN (international club of Poets, Playwrights, Essayists, Editors and Novelists).

Kanailal Ganguly came to the Ashram in 1923 when he was twenty two years of age. He was the Ashram tailor.

Satyendranath Bose (1.1.1894-4.2.1974) was a Bengali physicist, specializing in mathematical physics. He was best known for his work on quantum mechanics in the early 1920s and provided the foundation of Bose-Einstein statistics and the theory of BOSON. He also made deep study in chemistry, geology, biochemistry, zoology, anthropology and engineering. He was elected the General Prseident of Indian Science Congress in 1944 and Fellow of the Royal Society in 1958.

Atulprasad Sen (1871-1934) was a Bengali lyricist and composer who carved out a distinct style of his own in Bengali music. Dilip Kumar had popularized his songs.

Kazi Nazrul Islam (25.5.1899—29.8.1976) was a Bengali poet and musician whose poetry and songs revolutionized the Bengali literature and also earned him the title of ‘Bidrohi Kavi’ meaning the ‘Rebel Poet’. Born in a poor Muslim family, he enlisted himself in the Indian Army in 1917 and was posted to the Karachi cantonment where he penned his first prose and poetry. His first work in prose Baunduler Atmakahini (The Vagabond’s Autobiography) was published in May 1919 and his poem Mukti (Liberation) was published in Bangla Mussalman Sahitya Patrika (Bengal Muslim Literary Journal) in July 1919. He left the Army in 1920 and settled in Calcutta; in the same year he published his first novel Badhanhara (Free of bondage). On 12 August 1922 he started the bi-monthly magazine Dhumketu (The Comet). He was the first lyricist to compose ghazals in Bengali and in due course he wrote and set tune to almost 2600 songs. He was diagnosed with the Pick’s Disease which made him lose his voice and memory. He was shifted to Bangladesh where he was declared the ‘National Poet’, his song Amar Sonar Bangla became the national song of the country. Among the many awards and titles he received were Jagattarini Padak from the Calcutta University in 1945, Padmabhushan in 1960 and D. Litt by the University of Dhaka.

Brownian motion of this nebulous population of the city

From Aggregates to Assemblages
from Larval Subjects by larvalsubjects

The film The Mist can be read as depicting the morphogenesis of groups or as being a study of the process of groups-in-formation making the transition from the status of aggregates to the status of assemblages. At the beginning of the film you have people belonging to the same town but in such a way as to primarily be an aggregate. That is, any unity or One among these people is minimal and weak, consisting of being members of the same town without these members thinking of themselves as an assemblage or One. As the film progresses and the people trapped in the store encounter more and more of the creatures in the mist, polarities begin to form within the population. The process here could be analogized to one similar to the process an egg undergoes as the yoke gets progressively differentiated over the course of development.

Eventually fairly well defined assemblages are produced, consisting of secularists on the one side and the religious on the other side, as well as racial divides. These identities did not pre-exist the formation of the assemblages– or if they did it was only with a low degree of intensity. The people that side with the ultra-fundamentalist religious woman were not themselves ultra-fundamentalist at the beginning of the film. Likewise, the people that form the secularist assemblage were not significantly related to one another in any particular way. Rather, the identity that forms the aggregates instead emerges from out of the Brownian motion of this nebulous population of the city and reinforces itself as a One or Unity as it comes into being. 8:20 PM

Nothing has been more productive for my thought than my engagement with others on the net

Graham on Writing Productivity
from Larval Subjects by larvalsubjects

Graham has a terrific post up on how to write productively that is well worth the read for any struggling grad students or academics. While the entire post is great, I think a couple of his points are particularly valuable as they have to do with the psychology and sociology of writing. This latter dimension of writing might come as a surprise as we so often think of writing as a private affair, but just as science is a collective activity and scientists are the product of collective action (i.e., the idea of the lone scientist creating out of his sovereign genius is a myth), so too is it the case with writing. [...]

Productivity is sociological or collective in the sense that the more your reputation grows the more work you’re asked to do. Since the publication of Difference and Givenness and the rise of this blog, I have gotten more and more invitations to write articles and give presentations every year. It is not that I set out to write four or five articles a year, but rather people approach me asking if I would like to contribute to their project. Like an idiot I accept and then have to rush about doing all sorts of work to avoid [hopefully] disappointing those who have made the request. As a result of doing this work more opportunities emerge and things snowball from there. Productivity is not so much the result of a solitary individual as it is the result of a collective assemblage.

I’d like to close with two further remarks in relation to Graham’s post. First, the more you write the more you will write. This sounds like an idiotic tautology, but the point isn’t that if you write more you’ll write more. Rather, the point is that thought and writing grow It is very difficult to write a lot if you don’t write at all. However, if writing becomes a part of your daily routine, this writing will generate further concepts and ideas, which will, in turn, become the ground of yet other ideas. The activity of inscription allows thought to come into being. As you write the more you write the less painful this experience will become, the more your plant will grow.

Second, and above all, get involved! It astonishes me that there are so many graduate students and beginning academics that don’t blog or participate on the internet. I can appreciate the anxiety involved in approaching another academic out of the blue at a conference (say at the Smokers at the APA). However, with the net you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. You can blog anonymously, thereby protecting yourself from the danger of your production hurting you professionally. However, through blogging and participating on blogs you also create the opportunity to develop all sorts of relations to other thinkers that create opportunities for you and which enhance your thought.

I have been participating on the net in one form or another for over ten years now and I can confidently say that nothing has been more productive for my thought and more valuable professionally than my engagement with others in this medium. Through encountering others whether on the old Deleuze list, the Lacan list, or on this blog I have constantly been placed in a position where I have to respond. In responding my thought refines itself and leads to other thoughts. Additionally I have landed all sorts of opportunities for publication and conferences. Blogging isn’t simply a pleasant diversion– indeed it’s often unpleasant –but a professional necessity. Don’t allow fear of the big Other to prevent you from getting involved with other academics.

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Give writing the highest priority
What Stops you from Writing? Written by tejvan from Net Writing on July 21, 2007 9 Comments

Most bloggers know the importance of writing, but, to actually write as much as we would like can be difficult. It is not just about writing for our own blog; we should also try to occasionally write for other blogs or ezines. The more we can write, the more we can help our blog to grow. These are some of the common Stumbling blocks to writing and what we can do to overcome them:

1. Procrastination. Procrastination is easy on the internet. We have countless RSS feeds to read, forums to visit, blogs to comment on, youtube videos to watch…, the list is endless. If we are not careful hours can pass by and we haven’t actually achieved anything. If you find yourself procrastinating, you are not alone, but you do need to try and keep it under control.

• Give writing the highest priority. Write an article, then allow yourself a bit of surfing. Don’t do it the other way round.
• Set time aside for writing. E.g: Mondays 9-11am, I set aside only for writing.
• Get away from the internet. My most productive writing periods are usually in airport lounges or on trains...
• Related Posts Freewriting for Bloggers The benefits of internal linking Does your blog run on steroids? Improving your writing Write like you’re (not your) selling newspaper subscriptions 2:50 PM

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Blog Rules

• Rule#1 - Write regularly. I'll try to at least start a draft whenever I can and post right away.
• Rule#2 - Be selective about what gets written.I don't expect I'd benefit from recording useless trivia.
• Rule#3 - Read other blogs, and post comments. If I just wanted to keep a diary, I wouldn't do it on the internet. The thing that makes blogging so interesting is the whole aspect of interactivity. That's enough rules to start with. http://daedalux.blogspot.com/2004/11/blog-rules.html

O

Religion & American politics:
The Oprahfication of Obama posted by Kathryn Lofton
“Obama is the post-polarization candidate and Oprah is a post-polarization celebrity.”Ross K. Baker, Rutgers University political scientist
“I think Oprah is John the Baptist, leading the way for Obama to win.” Iowa caucus voter

First, you need a name. Not just any name. A weird name: a Biblical misspelling, maybe, or an invocation of some distant land. No matter what: the name needs an O.

The O will come in handy when you need to summon a common sphere, encourage chanting, or design a gentle logo. Never deny the utility of its replication, never avoid its allusion, and never miss a moment for its branding. An O is a space anyone can fill with anything. Posted in Religion & American politics

A Bharatanatyam Dance drama on the legend of Auroville

Auroville - Celebrating forty years
A Bharatanatyam Dance drama on the legend of Auroville
'Kaluveli Siddhar - Mahaleesar Puranam'
an Irumbai legend
Tuesday January 6th 8 p.m.
at the Sri Aurobindo Auditorium
performed by the students of
Sri Krishna Kumar Dance Academy
with
Johnny as Kaluveli Siddhar
story & lyrics: P.Murugesan, Kottakarai
Music Composition: Krishna Kumar
A u n i t y i n D i v e r s i t y p r o j e c t
s u p p o r t e d b y S t i c h t i n g d e Z a a i e r
posted by sundaravalli

A string of cultural activities has been planned on January 1, 2009

JOIN US 20th Safdar Hashmi Memorial
1st January 2009, Thursday
1.30 pm onwards at Constition Club Lawns, Rafi Marg, Near Metro:Central Secretariat Patel Chowk
STREET THEATRE*MUSIC*DANCE*PUPPETRY* POSTER EXHIBITION RELEASE of BOOKS & CALENDAR*

India TodayLATEST NEWS Fest to mark 20 years of SAHMAT
Twenty years is a milestone for any organisation. The end of 2008 marks the completion of 20 years of activities of the Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust (SAHMAT).
It was formed in January 1989, a few weeks after Safdar Hashmi was brutally murdered in Delhi. SAHMAT became a platform for artists, cultural activists and intellectuals to intervene in crucial political and cultural debates, through activities aimed at defending cultural spaces, opposing divisiveness in all forms and strengthening the bonds of artistic unity.
In the last 20 years, the members of SAHMAT have published books, presented plays and organised art exhibitions, held seminars and voiced concerns on important social issues. A string of cultural activities has been planned on January 1, 2009. They include Kabir Bani by Prahlad Singh Tipania from the Malwa region of Madhya Pradesh, the Manganiar repertoire of Rajasthani folk and Sufi music by Anwar Khan and Ghazi Khan Barana and Group, music performances by Rabbi Shergill, young Hindustani classical vocalist, Sunanda Sharma, Jasbir Jassi, Vidya Shah, Madangopal Singh, contemporary dance by Astad Deboo, a puppet play by Dadi Pudumjee and a performance by Maya Rao.
On January 8, you can participate in the Lecture by Akeel Bilgrami (Columbia University) on the possibilities of a radical alternative to standard liberal orthodoxies about democracy at Constitution Club. On January 15, don't miss the exhibition - Image Music Text. It maps the trajectory of the 20-year cultural journey of SAHMAT at M.F. Husain Gallery, Jamia Millia Islamia University.
The exhibition will showcase SAHMAT projects over the last 20 years like Artists Alert, Janotsav, Images and Words, Hum Sab Ayodhya, Postcards for Gandhi, Art on the Move, Ways of Resisting, The Making of India, Making History our Own, in the contexts of the times they were conceived.
Stage backdrops, videos, street banners, posters, mobile exhibitions and the books published by SAHMAT will be a part of the display. There will also be a series of lectures, performances and street plays during the month-long exhibition. The exhibition will be on view till February 14, 2009.

Books-Bihar-Bajpai

Handicapping politics of Amar- Akbar – Anthony (part 2)
from Punya Prasun Bajpai by Punya Prasun Bajpai
I went to Patna from Delhi to attend the Book Fair

Choosing the best book in a fair is similar to choosing the best couple; which is happening on a same platform. The filmy version of music and dramatization of plays looks similar everywhere. Black magic and painting competition are happening in the same event and venue. What has Bihar become? This was a question that kept me occupied throughout the book fair.

Sri Aurobindo's Savitri is a landmark in Indian English writing

BHUBANESWAR Tuesday, February 20, 2007 The Pioneer 'Indian English writers have made great impact on world arena' Santanu Barad Berhampur

Indian English writing has made great impact on the world arena in present times; however, there is no room for complacency; hence the present generation writers have to sustain their efforts," opined Prof Prafulla Kumar Mohanty, while speaking on the recent trends in Indian writing in English at a national seminar, held recently at the Khallikote Autonomous College. Quoting from his survey, he said there were several inspirational writings in English by Gandhi, Sri Aurobindo and Nehru. Aurobindo's Savitri was a landmark in Indian English writing. Later, some Indian writers like RK Narayan, Raja Rao and Mulk Raj Anand had strengthened this tradition, he added.

Viswabharati's Prof Niranjan Mohanty presented a paper on trends in Indian poetry in English. He observed that after Independence, Indian poetry in English evidenced a new trend. Instead of writing about myths, real-life situations drew the attention of the poets who had attempted to find out their own original voices. Such kind of regional identities subsumed their national identities.

Prof Mohanty expressed hope that the future direction which Indian poetry in English would take, is full of promises- promises to authenticate the experience, to minimise the gap between experience and expression and to authenticate one's identity without failing to project a valourous national identity. Sarat Chandra Roy, in his paper Tradition and Modernity: A Study of Indian and Indo-English Love Poetry, mentioned, "The best work of art is that in which tradition asserts immortality most vigorously."

He stated that the international exchange of ideas and the new mode of verse expression in world poetry influenced the style of expression. Though it took a new shape in Indian English poetry, the traditional and cultural ethos prevailed as an undercurrent of motivation and inspiration, he added. He quoted TS Eliot's remark that when new literature is created. "the past is altered by the present and the present is directed by the past."

Utkal University Professor Himansu S Mohapatra also presented a paper 'A fiction of our own?' in which he explained different stages of Indian English writing, starting from the 18th century to the present times, particularly about the hybrid genre of writers. Commenting on the new generation of writers, Prof Mohapatra stated, "VS Naipaul, one of the indisputable early pioneers of the hybrid form, explained the secret of nativisation in an illuminating comment he made on Narayan's achievement, saying that it consisted in writing about ordinary people and small places of India in English, which, freighted by its imperial baggage, was obliged to write only about big, epochal things."

"The fact of the matter, of course, is that the Diaspora writing of the 1980s and 1990s has gathered all the three phases of Indian writing in English, marked by colonialists in the 18th century, aestheticism in the 19th century, anti-colonialism and cosmopolitanism in the early and middle decades of the 20th century, into itself, as it has sought to create a rich, complex and ambiguous post-colonial discourse of both collusion and resistance, of commoditisation and decolonisation," Prof Mohapatra explained.

Speaking on the "fantasywallahs" like Vikram Chandra, Amitabh Ghosh and Arundhati Roy, Mohapatra said Salman Rushdie was the writer who inspired the young generation of Indian writers. felt the necessity to quote Rushdie, "These writers have gone on to find new literary voices through English, thereby taking India's encounter with the English language to a whole new level."

Since 1963, attracted by Sri Aurobindo's philosophy, he has made Puducherry (Pondicherry) his home

FORAY Sunday, July 27, 2008 The Pioneer Orissa's literary genius One of Orissa's famous sons, Manoj Das is a stalwart of Oriya and English literature. Swati Das profiles the veteran litterateur as he shares nuggets from his journey

He is still chasing his rainbow. But its arc has changed in time. He was a columnist in leading newspapers and magazines, he is one of India's ablest interpreters of literary and cultural heritage and his literary works in Oriya and English have made him a hugely successful bi-lingual writer in the country. But for the last one decade Manoj Das, who was recently conferred Sahitya Akademy's highest honour - a Fellowship "reserved for immortals of literature," has busied himself with projects like Sahitya Akademy's Mythical, legendary and literary antiquities of India and editing the historical Yogic and Mystic Experiences. He is planning on an English novel pegged on India in transition and his quest today is a spiritual one - a far cry from his days as a Communist.

"Chasing the rainbow began in infancy and the chase continues. Only the meaning has changed from time to time. Everybody is driven by an urge to chase a rainbow - it is a dream or an ideal. Today my rainbow is to know myself and I ask myself simple questions like why was I born, why do I suffer, why do chances and coincidences occur to overshadow one's personal way and why does one die," says the litterateur who was conferred the Padmashri in 2000, recounting the opportunities and events he enjoyed in his 74 years. He frowned as he reflected on current Indian writers.

"Literature is an expression. There are plenty of literary talents in India. But there are not enough opportunities for these talents to surface. Today's writing has become commercialised. My anguish is most of them (writers) are not reflections of the genius of India - they do not project the Indian genius. They lack vision. Hype and publicity play a major role than serious writing or reviews. These books are believed by people outside (the country)," says the writer who began writing in English only after reading a book where a "cynical" writer made a "poor" portrayal of rural India.

Das was a regular columnist for English and Oriya dailies The Times of India, The Hindustan Times, The Hindu, Samaj and Dharitri. But his favourites were The Illustrated Weekly, The Statesman and The Imprint, where his writings were a regular feature. He was the editor of the English monthly The Heritage (1985-89) and served the Ministry of Education, Singapore as its author-consultant (1981-85). His Stories of Lights and Delights in 1970 published by National Book Trust is still the largest selling children's book. Along with his friend Ruskin Bond, he worked for Chandamama (1970s-80s), churning out stories for children. Even today, Chandamama bears the name of the two authors. Das captivated readers with simplicity of his language and style, born out of a charming rustic childhood in a village by the sea in Orissa.

Since 1963, attracted by Sri Aurobindo's philosophy, he has made Puducherry (Pondicherry) his home. Like all other villages and towns Pondicherry has changed. When he came, not a single hotel existed. Now they have mushroomed. The former French colony is crowded and polluted. The (Sri Aurobindo) Ashram is teeming with tourists. "Yet there is something spiritual and mystic about Pondicherry that will never change - an inner Pondicherry. The city is harmonious and people are courteous," says the writer. He teaches English Literature and works of Aurobindo at the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education, while his wife Pratijna Devi teaches psychology.

"I stopped writing columns (The Hindu) 10 years back. Deadlines were becoming too tedious for me," he says. Looking for newspapers at a newsstand in New Delhi one morning few years ago, he noticed The Pioneer with a blurb "Three short stories of Manoj Das". He was surprised. "Today there are hardly any newspapers or magazines that encourage creative writing. There are no short stories, poems or essays in them. This is why we are unable to tap the literary talent in the country. It is a betrayal of the creativity and of young Indian writers who need a forum to reveal their talents," he said unhappily.

"Journalism has gained from literature. Literature has given good journalists to this country. But they (journalists) do not give space for creative writing. Ironically, it is journalism that can give the best that the nation has," said the writer.

"True literary genius can be found in regional languages," he observed. Translation of literary works from one language to another provides exposure for young writers - especially regional writers. Das himself had benefited from this. But only two journals publish translated writings today - Anubhat Patrika in Bengali and Vipula in Telugu.

Das was decorated with Saraswati Samman and Orissa's Utkal Ratna. His awards include Sahitya Akademi Award, Orissa Sahitya Akademi Award (twice), Sahitya Bharati Award (Orissa), Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad Award (Kolkata) and BAPASI (Booksellers and Publishers Association of South India) Award. Among the honours: Professor Emeritus by Berhampur University and D Litt. (Honoris Causa) from two universities - Utkal and Fakir Mohan. In 2000, he led the Indian writers' delegation to China. Among his western admirers are scholars Graham Greene and HRF Keating.

The litterateur was born in the coastal village of Shankhari in Balasore district of Orissa, bordering West Bengal. His father Madhusudan Das was one of the few Oriya zamindars of the region who travelled on horseback and his mother Kadambini Devi a poet who travelled in a palanquin. He grew up running around the green meadows in-between tall palms, munching on delicious berries - water berries, barriers from cane trees, berries from creepers on sand dunes etc. He was witness to the killer cyclone in 1942, followed by the great famine. His house was attacked twice by dacoits and his family watched helplessly as the dacoits plundered the house.

His childhood has been recorded in his autobiographical Chasing The Rainbow - Growing Up In An Indian Village. He often narrated his observations to his friends in school and gradually began to write them down. His first book in Oriya was published when he was only 14. At 15, he launched his first Oriya literary journal Diganta. He completed his schooling in Jamalpur and college in Balasore, where he emerged as a popular revolutionary youth leader. He also worked as an English lecturer in Cuttack before moving to Puducherry. He has written 40 books each in English and Oriya.

Sri Aurobindo’s remarkable capacity to hold Paradise Lost and the Mahabharata in his mind at once is an integral gesture

"Such a Body We Must Create:" New Theses on Integral Micropolitics
Daniel Gustav Anderson
INTEGRAL REVIEW December 2008 Vol. 4, No. 2
Anderson: New Theses on Integral Micropolitics
I mean something very specific by integral theory. Broadly speaking, the integral part of integral theory seeks to address the problem of everything (Wilber, 2000b),3 and to propose means of transforming it: [...]
3 As a cultural matter, integral theory is in this sense one heir of a project initiated by early-modern pedagogues such as Pierre de la Ramee (Petrus Ramus, 1515-1572) and Jan Amos Komensky (Comenius, 1592-1670)—that of organizing many discrete problems into a schematic, spatial theory of everything. Ong (2004) offers a now-classic analysis of this project. [...]

Uncompromisingly novel interventions have been challenging in just this way, historically. Consider the riot that greeted the debut of Igor Stravinsky’s prophetic-voiced Rite of Spring, most meaningful in the context of all ballet that had come before it, or the difficulty James Joyce’s Ulysses must have presented to a reader accustomed to the much less demanding narratives of Walter Scott or Charles Dickens.10

This is not to imply that my work is analogous in significance to Stravinsky’s or Joyce’s, or that the oeuvre of any integral theorist (Aurobindo, Gebser, Krishnamurti, Wilber) is analogous in importance to that produced by Dickens, Scott, or Tchaikovsky. Rather, Ulysses and The Rite of Spring are examples of how the novel appears first as an unacceptable or impenetrable surprise, but then over time transforms its milieu—again, a double intervention. The present inquiry aspires to such a transformation in integral practice (see Thesis Eight).

I humbly ask my readers’ indulgence with the stiffly-worded passages, on the promise that, insofar as I have been successful, the effort one invests in parsing a given thesis ought to be rewarded in kind with conceptual, and therefore practical and transformational, clarity. I have also suggested ways in which these theses relate to and recontextualize each other parenthetically, giving some texture and space for the reader to work with imaginatively. The structural and stylistic features of this text are intentional and purposive.

As a practical matter, I invite newcomers to explore this essay in order to become acquainted with it, at least for a first exposure. Because major points and many minor motifs are cross-referenced to other relevant material in the essay, one can follow threads and skip around at a self-directed pace, as desired. In fairness to the work, however, if one intends to really understand any one part of this proposal, one will need to work through all of it systematically, because it expresses a systematic strategy. This is an integral theory, after all. One must be responsible for the totality (see Thesis Two). [...]

27 For example, Hampson (2007) observes that Wilber is dyspeptically disissive of multiculturalism (p.163), a cultural moment that makes real integral inquiry possible in the first place—as a properly contextualized, respectful, and intelligent appreciation of world values and traditions (see Thesis Seven), akin to respect for human dignity (and appropriately, it is the third commitment made by the California Institute of Integral Studies in its mission statement).

Aurobindo Ghose’s remarkable capacity to hold Paradise Lost and the Mahabharata in his mind at once is nothing other than a multicultural gesture, an integral gesture; but this contradiction in Wilber’s work, between monoculture and multiculture, is but one example of a contradiction in an articulation (the articulation "Wilber’s work," numbered as it is in consecutive waves). I would like to suggest that as coherences spiral into increasing complexity, the odds increase that contradictions, inner tensions, will arise, and that these tensions can be wedged open productively by critique into new coherences.

Studying figures of speech, and Rhetoric is a de facto study of human perception

Victor Davis Hanson on classical education
from The Daily Goose by Matthew
His piece from City Journal is worth reading several times (hat tip Drew Campbell).

This comprises a form of “media studies” because as one studies meter, metaphor, allusion, invective, and the hundreds more figures of speech, two things occur. One, one learns how to write more flexibly; and two, one learns the effects of figures of speech upon human perception and common sense. Why?

Because studying figures of speech is part of studying the subject of Rhetoric; and studying the subject of Rhetoric is studying what persuades people. And we all know that the study of what persuades people is so wedded to human perception so as to be functionally the same. Thus studying figures of speech, and Rhetoric more generally, is a de facto study of human perception.

Once one studies a discipline from both its concrete dimension and its “rhetorical” dimension, one is down the road of what, in the post-McLuhan age, is now called “media studies” and, when grouped with other disciplines and their media, “media ecology”.

Intuitively, but not at the time explicitly, understanding this is probably why I suggested to Dan Allison that classical education is the most seasoned and traditional form of “media studies”. And, at the very least, we continue to see how McLuhan insights continue to be a crucial bridge between classical education and contemporary fine artistry. Because without McLuhan, I don’t see how to make the connections between the study of classics and the kind of renewed study and practice of the fine aesthetics, of which, in my view, our society is in such want.

Without McLuhan, we have “many small creeks of water” in the fine arts and firm dams between what famous artists like Shakespeare “used to do” and what we fine artists today do. Whereas with McLuhan, we have A Mighty River of inspiration, insight, and intuition where we, today, can breathe the one and same electric air along with all the famous fine artists of our traditions.

English Studies in India both in its contestatory and collaborative modes

RETHINKING INDIAN ENGLISH LITERATURE
Edited by: U. M. Nanavati, Prafulla C. Kar
ISBN: 81-85753-37-7 Year of Pub: 2000 Price: Rs.300.00

The Book: This volume of essays examines some of the important issues in Indian English literature emerging both from its search for a new sense of identity and its affiliation to a global perspective in the wake of post colonialism. The essays comprising this volume address topics such as nation and nationalism, hybridization and assimilation, problems of exile and migration, the question of location and boundaries and the place of Indian English literature in the changing canon of English Studies.

By focusing on the shifting paradigms of Indian English literature as a part of the subtle transformation of the global configurations of English, the volume attempts to place the genre of this writing within a broad range of issues stemming from the peculiar and problematic role of English as a creative medium deployed in various ways in the countries which were once a part of the British Empire.

For illustrative diagnostic purposes some important writers like Salman Rushdie, Amitav Ghosh, Attia Hosain, Vikram Seth, Arundhati Roy are included in this volume. But the overall focus of this volume is not on the individual writers or texts and their close readings, but on conceptual and ideological formations of the genre of Indian English literature and the way it has entered the canon of English Studies in India both in its contestatory and collaborative modes.

The Editors: Prafulla C. Kar is Professor of English at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. He was Deputy Director of the American Studies Research Centre, Hyderabad during 1982-86, and Chair, Department of English at Baroda during 1995-2000. He visited Universities of Chicago, Taxas at Austin, and California at Berkeley under a Fulbright postdoctoral fellowship. He was a Fellow at the School of Criticism and Theory at Dartmouth College, USA in 1986. Besides editing several scholarly books, he has published papers on American literature, critical theories and new literatures in English. He is one of the editors of the Journal of Contemporary Thought, Baroda.

U.M. Nanavati is a reader in the department of English at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. He was the recipient of the Shastri Indo-Canadian Fellowship to Visit Canada to work on a project on postcolonial include Indian Literature and Aesthetics, Comparative Literature and Literary Theory. 6:30 AM 11:41 AM

The complexity and struggle involved in living a life of faith in this world

Part IV: Alyosha and Zarathustra on Com-passion and a Genuine Embodied Life
from Per Caritatem by Cynthia R. Nielsen

Dostoevsky, as well, offers his own critique of rationalism and related forms of reductionism. Though accused by many scholars of advocating a (so-called) Kierkegaardian irrationalism and extreme voluntarism, as Rowan Williams has convincingly argued, such a conclusion (among other things) fails to take into account (1) what Mikhail Bakhtin coined as the “polyphonic” mode of Dostoevsky’s text-a mode creating both dissonant and consonant extended harmonies-and (2) the way in which Dostoevsky allows Alyosha’s faith to grow and mature, thus exhibiting a picture that reflects more authentically the complexity and struggle involved in living a life of faith in this world.[6]

Many critics point to an early statement (Feb. 1854) found in a letter written by Dostoevsky to Natalya Fonvizina, a woman who had gifted him with a copy of the New Testament that he had read avidly while in prison. The content of the letter is frequently cited as evidence that Dostoevsky’s religious faith is based on irrationalism and exhibits something closely resembling Nietzsche’s will to power (extreme voluntarism).[7] Dostoevsky’s admittedly difficult statement reads as follows: “if someone were to prove to me that Christ was outside [вне] the truth, and it was really the case that the truth lay outside Christ, then I should choose to stay with Christ rather than the truth.”[8]

Williams, having examined and analyzed several of Dosteovsky’s texts and characters-from the Underground Man (Notes from the Underground), to Shatov and Stavrogin (Devils), to Alyosha and Ivan (Brothers Karamazov), offers a plausible (and to this author convincing) way to approach and interpret Dostoevsky’s statement that resonates with Dostoevsky’s own complex understanding of faith as that which “moves and adapts, matures and reshapes itself.” 6:58 AM

Savitri is represented in the poem as an incarnation of the Divine Mother

Dawn Built her Aura of Magnificent Hues
from Savitri: the Light of the Supreme by RY Deshpande

The legend of Savitri is, writes Sri Aurobindo in a letter, “one of the many symbolic myths of the Vedic cycle”. In another letter: “Savitri is represented in the poem as an incarnation of the Divine Mother. This incarnation is supposed to have taken place in far past times when the whole thing had to be opened, so as to ‘hew the ways of immortality’. ”

New Films on the Integral Yoga
from Sri Aurobindo Yoga Website by VladNesh

Dear friends!
40 films of the sequence “The Synthesis of Yoga” in high quality are available for download.

Harekrishna Meher's endeavours for simplification and modernization of Sanskrit language are appreciable

Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation Submissions Harekrishna Meher
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Harekrishna Meher (b. May 5, 1956) was born at Sinapali, Nuapara District of Orissa in a renowned poetic family. His father was Poet Narayan Bharasa Meher and mother Smt. Sumati Meher. His grandfather Poet Manohar Meher is regarded as 'Ganakavi' of Western Orissa. He has excellent qualifications being topper in his career: B.A. (Sankrit Honours) from Ravenshaw College, Utkal University; M.A. (Sanskrit) and Ph.D. from Banaras Hindu University. He joined OES in 1981 as Lecturer in Sanskrit.

Currently he resides at Bhawanipatna working as Sr. Reader and Head of the Department of Sanskrit, Govt. Autonomous College, Bhawanipatna. He mainly writes in Sankrit, Hindi, English, Oriya and Koshali languages in the field of literature, music and language. He is a noted researcher, creative writer, critic, poet, lyricist, composer of songs, orator and translator. His endeavours for simplification and modernization of Sanskrit language are appreciable. His tri-lingual (Hindi, English and Sanskrit) translations of Gangadhar Meher's Tapasvini Kavya are remarkable.[1]

LITERARY AWARDS: Gangadhar Samman (2002), Gangadhar Saraswat Samman (2002), Jayakrishna Mishra Kavya Samman (2003), Vidyaratna Pratibha Samman (2005)
MAIN PUBLICATIONS: 1. Philosophical Reflections in the Naisadhacarita (Ph.D. Thesis) ISBN :81-85094-21-7 2. Naishadha-Mahakavye Dharma-Shastriya Pratiphalanam 3. Sahitya Darpana: Alankara (With Oriya-Sanskrit Commentaries) ISBN : 81-7411-12-7 4. Manohar Padyavali of Poet Manohar Meher (Edited) 5. Matrigitikanjalih (Original Modern Sanskrit Gitikavya)[2] 6. Tapasvini (Hindi Version of Poet Gangadhar Meher's Oriya Kavya) [3] [4]
SOME OTHER PUBLICATIONS (TRANSLATED): 1. Niti-Sataka, Sringara-Sataka and Vairagya-Sataka of Bhartrihari 2. Naishadhacharita (IX Canto) of Sriharsha 3. Kumara-Sambhava (I, II, V, VII Cantos) of Kalidasa 4. Raghuvamsha (II Sarga) of Kalidasa 5. Koshali Meghaduta (Kalidasa's Meghaduta into Koshali) 6. Siva Tandava Stotra 7. Gayatri Sahasra Nama.

References http://www.hkmeher.blogspot.com About Harekrishna Meher
http://marketime.blogspot.com/2008/07/among-modern-sanskrit-lyricists.html Modern Sanskrit Lyricist
http://themusepaper.blogspot.com/2008/07/poet-gangdhara-is-influenced-by.html Gangadhar Meher
http://www.museindia.com/showcurrent10.asp?id=1073 English Tapasvini
Categories: Completed Afc requests Indian poets Sanskrit poets 1956 births Indian poet

6 people whose lives intertwine one day in a small resort town

Play: A PERFECT SANDCASTLE
Sri Aurobindo Auditorium ::: 7:30 PM
The Auroville Theatre Group
presents
A PERFECT SANDCASTLE
by Rachel Barnett
SAT and SUN, NOV 1 and 2, 2008
Sri Aurobindo Auditorium, Bharat Nivas
7:30 pm.
"A Perfect Sandcastle", written by English playwright Rachel Barnett, is a sad, sweet story about 6 people whose lives intertwine one day in a small resort town on the English sea coast.
Rachel, a young playwright (only 28 years old) has given us a story about choices we make to move on or stay put, to grow old, to love, to mourn, to remember, to die, to live eternally, to suffer when we try to hold on, to let go and let be.

Actors: Swar, Damian, Amy, Anna Durga, Masha, Ladina and Drupad.
Directed by Jill.
Lighting Design by Jean L. and Mahi
Lighting Tech: Mahi
Sound Recorded by Matthia.
Sound Tech: Axel.
Stage Assistant: Janaka
Set from Auroarchana (Coco and Clemens).
Original Music by Hartmut.
Surfboard by Himal and friends.
With thanks to Joel, Anna, Penny, the Visitor's Centre Cafeteria and the Bharat Nivas Group.
Our very amateur theatre group welcomes three new actors to the stage: Ladina, Amy and Damian!
The Auroville Theatre Group is a project of SAIIER (The Sri Aurobindo International Institute for Educational Research) posted by jill

2nd Annual Mussoorie International Writers Festival

from swapan k banerjee momobanerjee@rediffmail.com to tusarnmohapatra@gmail.com date 27 October 2008 18:34

NATURE IN PERIL
How long the Nature will hold out and will not let us down? Why is tiger population shrinking in our country? Is self publishing more reliable than sending your stuff to publishers and wait eternally only to have it rejected? If Tolstoy, Pamuk, Oe, Szymborska, writing in their mother tongue, could be familiar all over the world, then why some of our highly evolved writers writing in vernacular are still unknown and therefore sadly underrated?

These are some of the topics that were debated and dissected over in the 2nd Annual Mussoorie International Writers Festival (7 Oct to 11 Oct) at Woodstock with 25 published authors from Australia, USA, Singapore, London and India and students from Doon school, RIMC, Welham, Woodstock and Tibetan Home Foundation School participating.
After the welcome address by David Laurenson, Principal of Woodstock School, and the introductory remarks by K Desiraju representing Govt. of Uttarakhand, the festival opened with a book release function at the lawn of Hanifl Centre: Freedom’s Child by Chandralekha Mehta, elder sister of reputed author Nayantara Sahgal who was present on the occasion. It’s a memoir that chronicles her growing up at a critical moment in India’s history. “I tried to capture the nuance of that long vanished age”, said Chandralekha.
The photographic exhibition of wonderful Uttaranchal landscapes, birds and of celebrated writers from that area, at Hanifl centre, by S F Ahmed, A Naurial and S Khullar, drew a large crowd.

In the first session titled ‘Writing about Nature’, Ullas Karanth, wildlife ecologist, basically a conservation scientist and Director of Tigers Forever at the centre for Wildlife Studies in Bangalore, talked on tiger preservation. It’s the decline of prey’s species rather than the poachers that has contributed to the shrinking number of tigers. At least an area of 15 sq km is needed to raise 3 cubs. Conservation is more a political decision than otherwise, he said.
Bill Aitken, the renowned travel writer, took the microphone next: “When I climb Landour’s slopes to meet my literary guru Ruskin Bond, I revel in the heartsease I share with him over the arching trees we have grown up with for fifty years. Faithful companions, their roots anchor the hillside while the canopy provides shade to Mussoorie writers-- as well as their publishers and book sellers. The message, at least to a writer, seems clear: If you must have shady companions, let them be trees.”
Mukul Sharma, a Senior Editor with The Times of India, who’s ‘an agnostic teetering on atheism’, spoke brilliantly on topics ranging from recreational mathematics and spirituality.
In the last session on the first day, poets from Uttarakhand: Narendra Singh Negi, Leeladhar Jaguri and Maglesh Debral were introduced by Padmashri Sekhar Pathak. The poems they read out touched the chords of the appreciative audience.

On the second day, Gabrielle Walker, award-winning science writer, who explored the coldest region on earth, swam in the Amazon, climbed trees in rain forest, and Gretel Ehrlich, Nature writer, poet, who visited Greenland more than once, enthralled the audience at Parker Hall, talking about their Polar Journeys.
The Antarctic has all the secrets of big bang buried in there. In the middle of the winter it’s -890C. Ice is more than 3 km thick. The deeper you go the older the ice you find. It’s the only way to calculate the age of the earth. Now there’s too much carbon heating up the earth giving rise to Green House gas. Ice is melting faster than ever. If the sea level goes up and up, places like London, Bombay, Bangladesh, New York are likely to vanish under the water soon. North Pole is frozen sea, no land there at all. But it’s drier than the Sahara desert! Yes, the South Pole contains land, almost a circle, isolated from the rest of the world. It’s the natural air conditioner on earth. Arctic ice has shrunk by half in just 15 years as a result of carbon emissions. The most miraculous stuff on earth is air which is born here. We live submerged in the ocean of air. It’s only who sees takes off the shoes.
In a discussion about editors and publishers at Media Centre, Woodstock Campus, Ritu Menon, co-founder for Kali for Women, and now publisher, Women Unlimited, said that theirs a publishing for social change. She stressed on precision and the danger of overstatement. One has to hammer home the message. She talked about the catastrophe that confronts the climate, about the tribal land appropriated by the Govt. for development. She said her publishing house wanted to be a small link in the chain of movement to generate a ripple effect.
Shamini Flint, whose crime fiction novels are to be published by the big publishing house Little, Brown in 2009, brought a whiff of great energy into the discussion. She said one can avoid standard rejections that sap the spirit, and go for vanity publication where one is at liberty to use recycled papers and actually get a bigger margin, but the stack at the backroom can be very depressing. The distribution, the reach, the way of getting books into a shop that’s what worries a self publisher.
Despite all this, Flint managed to make some money through self publishing. Her Sunbear Publishing House is still there, and doing brisk business. She publishes her own books when she does not find another publisher. Flint does not want the publisher to control what she writes. Moreover, some publishers take a long time to respond and this process of waiting involves frustration.
Neeta Gupta representing Yatra Books in collaboration with Penguin said: We publish creative writing and works in translation. We’ve so far during the last four years published some 50 books in Hindi, Marathi and Urdu. The ultimate translator’s tool is dictionary which will be published soon. A course in translation, said she, should also made compulsory.

In the fiction reading session at Vera Marley Library, Shamini Flint, Malaysian born who writes from Singapore, read out from Seeds of Time, an environmental fantasy. Its about a whale that swam up the Thames. Shamini has a knack of reaching the deeper layers of a child’s urges. Whatever she said was lapped up by the adults and the children alike.
According to Ken Spillman, a well-known Australian author, story telling is not something special. Every one of us has that power ingrained in us. The important tool a writer has is his/her sense, the receptor.
Now it was the turn of I Allan Sealy, a writer of great gifts. Introducing the story of his choice he said: “It’s basically a series of city in noir collections. This is the Delhi one. What happened was that each writer’s given the choice of a particular suburb, locality in which to set his crime. Mine takes place on a ridge. It’s roughly where the Delhi University is.” The story is told in the voice of an auto rickshaw driver. Sealy’s words wove a world of suspense, crime and mystery, taking the audience with him to the heart of the place where the actual crime happened.

The much-awaited poetry reading took place under the famed Lyre tree. Sampurna Chatterji, poet, translator, fiction writer who situates herself in the cacophonous world and makes sense out of it, recited some of her poems like Mother & Daughter: A Duel, Object Lessons from her debut collection “Sight May Strike You Blind” which carries an introduction by none other than Keki N Daruwalla.
Gieve Patel, one of India’s most distinguished poets, usually works on a poem for years. But one poem came and he hardly had to change anything. The poem ‘Killing a Tree’ was inspired by a huge peepul tree uprooted in monsoon blizzard. It’s prescribed for study in school. “I’ve lots of kids coming up to me. What’s the moral, they ask, what’s the hidden meaning? Horrifying questions! Was I writing a conservation piece, warning people not to kill? It was just a response…” Patel recited particularly those poems born out of his being a medical practitioner like Post Mortem, Hill Station, Just Stretch Your Neck, The Multitude Comes to the Man etc.

On 9 Oct, Advaita Kala read out from her maiden novel: Almost Single. It’s now in its sixth print. She started with a disclaimer: The heroine in the novel is not me! The adhoc selections for reading she made resonated with the audience.
Anita Jain read out from her memoir: Marrying Anita, an under-explored genre in India. In response to a question regarding the danger of writing about someone who is shown in a negative light in the book, Anita said: “People are actually dying to be written about…”
Later, at Woodstock farm, Sampurna chatterji talking on the mystery and madness of translation recounted how difficult it was to retain some of the originality through translation which was for her a kind of reverse journey, when she felt something was lacking in the existing translation. She recalled how the dark, imagistic surreal images in Joy Goswami’s poetry drove her to the wall. The rule is: “Possess the text not kidnap”.
Ira Pande, writer, translator, Chief Editor of the Publications Division of the India International Centre, stole the limelight with her graceful exposition on how to keep intact through translation the visual memory of a word which’s the greatest challenge. Her advice was: Get rid of the vanity of a writer. You’re just like a medium. The original author is speaking through you. What has killed translation in India is the presence of the official translator who lacks the emotional depth and the sense of music that reverberates in the original. Writers like Tolstoy, Pamuk…— the translation of their works has brought them to the doorstep of readers all over the world, whereas the works of our writers of the same calibre writing in vernacular are relatively unknown…

At the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, next day, Mukul Dev, from the second oldest profession in the world (Army) read out from Salim Must Die (releasing in Jan’09). It’s all about terrorist strike and the chin-wagging politician. Answering a question on terrorism he said: Terrorism is not solved with military. The responsibility lies with the civil administration. Any lack on the part of intelligence will always lead to disaster. The terrorist has the latitude. He is going to get you somewhere.
Poet Bruce Berger, a poet of great distinction, specializes in desert setting. He started with a poem titled “Transmigration” which he recited from the heart. It’s on the black spot, the Death Valley somewhere in California. He captured the heart of the audience with poems on money (money is mysticism), how to look at desert sunset, and on the way the water flows and the writing moves.
The event on the last day was all about tips for creative writing. Geoff Page, the renowned Australian poet, after reciting some of his interesting animal poems, said: If you want to learn the business, art, craft of writing, you must keep your eyes and ears open for ideas from dream, newspaper, conversation … everywhere. Idea happens but the work is hard, for the poem does not happen easily. You need to revise, revise and revise to make them better and better.
Advaita Kala, the young novelist said that she grew up reading Ruskin Bond stories and stressed on the need of keeping a diary.
Shamini Flint had the children on their feet when she narrated her story. At the end, she had this advice for the budding writers: Don’t do a book for a reason. Think about your life. If you find a moment straight from the core of your heart, eventually it’ll come out the other side…
Stephen Alter, writer of international repute, also the main organizer of this writers’ festival, said that the intention of the lit-fest was not to restrict itself just to Woodstock but to see that it spread right across the country. -- SWAPAN K BANERJEE
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