Femme "reservation" fatale

Hello everyone.

Allow me to introduce myself: My name is Jesse and I'm the newest foliole on your foliage. I am 27, have a masters degree in biotechnology, have worked as an infamous lecturer at the infamous engineering college in Tangori, have also worked in one of CSIR's well known institutes (Imtech) and have just joined the editorial office of Pearson Education.


Ashish has been my friend for a long time now, though we haven't been in regular contact. Recently I sent him message from my new cell phone number asking him to guess who it was (by giving a hint that I'm the guy who likes cycling), he recognized me instantantly...only later did he tell me that he mistakenly read the "cycling" as "crying"...and still guessed accurately who it was :-/ (didn't make a difference...this clue was as good as the original)...that embarassed me so much that I haven't cried since then.



I attended one of the meeting of the Foliole community sometime in the mid-late 2006 at 'Bakes n Beans' Sector 10, Chandigarh. That day, I met three other members of Foliole. I don't remember too much about what all was discussed, but I remember that Ashish asked us all to come up with a word (Why?? I don't remember that!)...no, I couldn't think of any, in the context that it was asked. Ashish came up with the word "perspective"...oh! it's one of the words that I love. Why? Cause over the years, my perspective of the world has become so skewed that lately I've been trying hard to correct it! This word thus holds a place of supreme importance for me.


Anyway, that evening, I was also handed over one of the previous printouts of FOLIOLE. I found one of the anecdotes in it to be extremely interesting; the one in which a burka clad lady, in one of the buses in Delhi, rightfully forced a man to get up from a seat marked "only for ladies" despite the man's best effort to resist. It reminded me of the time when I was in Delhi once ( I was 17 back then) and was rudely told to get up from my seat (it was actually the "ladies" seat). I was shocked at the treatment metted out at me...c'mon man! I wasn't even arguing, so why were these women so rude to me? I wasn't even aware that the "ladies" seat was actually meant for ladies (that's not the case in Chandigarh's buses :-( !!). Since that day, such a strong fear of the "ladies" seat has been instilled in me, that whenever I'm sitting in a local bus and see any female look my way more than once, I just gulp down that last bit of saliva and offer the seat to the lady...lest the androgen-infested lady shouts "auraton ki seat par baith-ta hai besharam!! jaanta nahi- its a woman's world!!"...you never know, maybe all the seats in the world are reserved for women.

June 11, 2007 - Meeting at the adda after a long time

Bhartesh: I wish we had the time (and energy) to carry on the discussion about art and religious sentiments that we began this evening. I am still not sure what more can I say on this widely debated topic. I run the risk of being inane and repetitious as I try to air my views but then ... what's the harm.

On Laltu's blog a few days back I wrote a comment, half-jokingly, that people who need to be jailed are not the artists but those who find their works objectionable, those whose religious sentiments are hurt at the drop of a hat, or some other piece of habiliment. Sensitive people deserve special protection, don't they? I also mentioned that right to blaspheme should be a part of our fundamental rights, like the right to profess any religion with complete freedom. And then I added, "Having said that, it can be argued that that young artist didn't mean to be blasphemous."

Half-jokingly is also half-seriously.

The points I wanted to make were:

1. As diverse cultures and traditions--secular and religious included--come together in a technologically advanced society, unusual forms of expression are bound to appear. These may not necessarily have any moral or immoral motivation but just a postmodern desire to be playfully serious. Or seriously playful--as art should be. They must be recieved in the same spirit.
2. True believers will never get affected. They are already sufficiently otherworldly to not let these things bother them anyway. For a majority of them, their fervent committment to their faith or the icons is matched only by their complete ignorance of art-forms and their traditions. This whole affair is just a sign of end-of-days or the kalyug. And they take it with a pinch of salt. So the core of religion is not shaken, or more precisely religious tradition kept alive in the midst of devotees remains unscathed. Those making the din are a bunch of ruffians half-educated even in their foolishness. They must be ignored.
3. But obviously you can't ignore them. They are there on all the TV channels. Remedy: Switch off your TV and go take a walk to the nearest temple or whatever other place of worship. Just observe the far more profound ruckus created by the devotees and you will realize that the above mentioned ruffians are wasting their time to save what is already impenetrable.
4. Artists should be allowed to create what they want to. A complete freedom must be allowed to them to craft, create and compose whatever they feel gives expression to their inner urges. This also requires that they are provided with high-quality, rigourous trainining modules and faculty, which instill in them vision and not just technique. Vision is paramount, so that they create not just to titillate (though that might be one of the motives) but to redesign reality for the contemporary eyes and ears.
5. Most importantly, you can't terrorize people into becoming responsibile beings. Responsbility (the catch-word for the art-illitrates) is something that grows from within.

Looking forward to hear from you,

Ashish