[Reader-list] Welcome 2002

[Shuddhabrata Sengupta]

Dear all on the Reader List

Firstly, a very happy new year to all. 

Our list will soon be a year old (the first posting, a test message, went out 
on the 10th of March last year) and since then, the list has faithfully 
reflected the events of this turbulent year. 9/11 was obviously a big issue, 
as were the growing climate of authoritarianism in South Asia, in India, 
Pakistan and Bangladesh. The list also reflected a lot on software related 
issues, and the social and cultural implications of software. Another 
important concern was the global forms of resistance to the WTO. As the year 
turns, the list has begun to reflect on the growing threat of War in South 
Asia. We have also had a number of very informative  postings on the 
situation in Kashmir.

It is only natural that a list such as this will reflect what happens in the 
world around us. Let us hope that this year, the world can get a respite from 
war and violence, and that the list can have conversations that are more than 
reactive, that we can initiate the debates on city spaces, and the images and 
transmissions that emanate from our spaces. 

Sometimes, the list has acted as that space where one could vent ones rage at 
what was happening, sometimes a space where one could quietly let loose a 
discreet provocation. All of this has been important to me, and I am hoping  
that it has been so for others as well.

I have enjoyed listening in on the debates that we have had, and have been 
grateful for the space that the list has created to share what I think and 
feel. I wish everyone on the list peace and happiness in the new year.

Last night, going home just after midnight I witnessed a city full of 
revellers, and watching the revellers were armed policemen behind sandbags, 
in improvised checkposts. The nervous edges of joy and fear intersected when 
the revellers  stopped at checkpsosts. Bomb scares and celebrations mingled 
in a way that I suppose we must now count on as being routine. At a friends' 
house, someone said, "lets look at the news", and then someone else said, 
don't bother, "they won't declare war on new years eve". 

Lets hope that war does not come knocking on our doors, even once the new 
year has begun to acquire the tarnish of a few days.

For those of you who are in Delhi, you can see a fragment of the list 
archives have an offline life today at the SAHMAT commemoration at Safdar 
Hashmi Marg, off Mandi House Circle. Two computer terminals have been loaded 
with a selection of the forwards and original postings  (33 postings) on the 
aftermath of September 11 that were made on this list between September and 
December of the last year. One of these computers is connected to a printer, 
and anyone can take printouts of the postings that have been archived. 

And so, our  List has taken a small step out on to the streets of Delhi.

Cheers, from a troubled city in a troubled time

Shuddha