[Reader-list] Re: Christianity and disappointment

Tue Apr 12 21:36:37 IST 2005

This mail suggests that if Zambians reverted to another pre-Christian method of marking time, it would be less disappointing. Perhaps less marked by colonialism as well. While the historical links between the arrival of Christianity and colonialism should not be erased, does the association of everything Christian exclusively signify the absence of authenticity?
This seems to suggest that the arrival of Christianity is always and necessarily to be interpreted as a disappointing erasure of authentic identities. And that a new year marked by the Gregorian calendar is distinctively unIndian. I deduce this from the single inverted commas around the word Indian. Perhaps we can look forward to an authentically Indian new year, in a time when the 'really Indian' communities get together and decide on an appropriate date and time of year.

Message: 4
Date: Tue, 12 Apr 2005 13:49:23 +0530
From: Vivek Narayanan 
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Happy New Sindhi Year
To: Anand Vivek Taneja ,
reader-list at sarai.net
Message-ID: <425B848B.8030002 at sarai.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

Why thank you for asking about Zambia. Hardly anyone does. But, since 
Zambia is a largely Christianized nation home to over seventy self- and 
anthropologist-identified linguistic communities, the new year falls, 
rather disappointingly, on January 1. As does the "Indian" new year.

I suppose a lot depends on why someone posts a given message to the list.

If such a message was a nearly-unintended side-effect of pressing the 
"send all" button in your address book, then I ask, as a fellow-member, 
to please, please, kindly desist. Nobody likes gratuitous email; some 
would even call it spam.

If the message was meant as an assertion of community, an attempt to 
reach out and hello to Sindhis whether they be in Panama City, Monaco or 
Saigon, then surely there would be other forums where that message might 
be more efficiently conveyed?

If the message was a way of announcing the sender's presence and 
identity on the list, of greeting non-Sindhis and making common cause, 
then I find it most welcome! But with just a little bit of extra 
annotation, please. What is the specific reason for posting it to a 
discussion of media and the urban? What does the day mean to you, what 
resonances does it have? This would be most appreciated.

And as for me, I believe it can be scientifically proven that every new 
day is also a potentially new year. 

Time to make some more resolutions,
Vivek

Anand Vivek Taneja wrote:

>it would be interesting to take this beyond cynical sniping into an
>informed discussion on calendars, and real and mythological 'times'
>and their passing; and the disaporic connection to 'time' in the era
>of climate change, and the 'global' prevalence of the gregorian
>calendar.
>
>amartya sen had an interesting piece on various indian calendars in
>one of the fist few issues of the little magazine.
>
>i too, would be interested in knowing about the Zambian New Year. Or
>rather, what those we call 'Zambians' think of 'New' and Year', among
>other things...
>
> 
>
>On Apr 12, 2005 12:20 PM, Shivam Vij wrote:
> 
>
>>Oh yes, of course, thanks! April 13, no? Happy Punjabi New Year,
>>whatever that means! Tell all Punjabis to celebrate in their inherited
>>(or mythical, if geographically partitioned) agricultural lands. Wear
>>only yellow, eat khicdi. And let me know when the Zambian New Year is.
>>Shivam
>>
>>On Apr 12, 2005 12:09 PM, Aman Malik wrote:
>> 
>>
>>>Punjabi new year is on Baisakhi...
>>> 
>>>
>>>On Apr 12, 2005 9:31 AM, Shivam Vij wrote:
>>> 
>>>
>>>>But I am not a Sindhi. And when is the Punjabi new year?
>>>>Shivam
>>>> 
>>>>
>>>>On Apr 11, 2005 4:05 PM, Zulfiqar Shah wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>
>>>>>Happy New Sindhi Year Chetti Chand April 10
>>>>> 
>>>>>
>>--
>>"I may not agree with what you say, but I shall defend to death your
>>right to say it." - Voltaire
>>http://www.bloglines.com/blog/Shivam
>>_________________________________________
>>reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
>>Critiques & Collaborations
>>To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in the subject header.
>>List archive: 
>>
>> 
>>
>
>
> 
>

------------------------------

Message: 5
Date: Tue, 12 Apr 2005 14:16:37 +0530
From: Vivek Narayanan 
Subject: [Reader-list] searching for free libraries on the net
To: reader-list at sarai.net, commons-law at sarai.net
Message-ID: <425B8AED.8090609 at sarai.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

Hi,

I'm trying to put together a list of links to free books available on 
the net; we all know about Gutenberg and Bartleby, but I'm specifically 
looking for books published after 1930 or so, which might have gone up 
as a result of initiatives by university presses or other groups. Large 
excerpts are good, but entire books are better. And I'm especially 
looking for links to sites with a number of books on them.

Do send me any links you have, and I will compile and repost the link 
collection to this list.

As a starter, I offer this, UC Press's public archive:
http://texts.cdlib.org/ucpress/authors_public.html

It's a very nice collection, including such classic recent stuff like 
Timothy Mitchell's Colonising Egypt, the collected essays of Robert 
Creeley, south asian regional stuff, and so on.

Looking forward to hearing more-- let's map this thing out.

Vivek

------------------------------

Message: 6
Date: Tue, 12 Apr 2005 08:21:28 +0100 (BST)
From: Amit Basu 
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Walking the Station with the Girls
To: zainab at xtdnet.nl, reader-list at sarai.net, urbanstudygroup at sarai.net
Message-ID: <20050412072128.79838.qmail at web8501.mail.in.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

This is an interesting piece, dense and thought provoking.
amit

zainab at xtdnet.nl wrote:

Walking the Station with the Girls
(Practices of Marking at a Railway Station)

This evening, I have an appointment with Sushanti and Suparna. They are
home guards at a railway station in the city. I have known them for
sometime now. Earlier in the week, I had requested them to allow me to
walk the railway station with them. �Sure, we can show you around the
railway station, but anything outside the railway station, we don�t know
much.�

Through some days now, I have been examining practices of marking at
railway stations in the city. Marking takes place on the criteria of
religious affiliation, economic class, criminality/non-criminality,
abnormality/normality, traveling without ticket versus traveling with
ticket and profession. Ticket Checkers indulge in marking; they need to
determine who is traveling with a ticket and who is traveling ticketless.
Home guards need to mark drug addicts and criminals and miscreant men.
They also mark women, though that is not part of their job. Why is the
railway station a site of marking in a city?

I landed at 8:30 PM at the railway station. Neelam, another home guard, is
standing on the entrance of the first ladies compartment of the local
train. As usual, I approach her to ask for Sushanti and Suparna. Neelima
is married and has children and she tells me that she tries to balance
home and work. After walking around the station a bit, we manage to find
Sushanti and Suparna. Today is Gudi Padwa, the Maharashtrian New Year.
Suparna excitedly comes and greets me, �Happy New Year.� I wish her the
same. Sushanti tells me, �Today is a good day. There is less rush at the
station because of festival and plus, today is Saturday. On a regular day,
this station is madness personified. Till 8:00 PM, we keep standing. The
rush of women drops after 8 PM which is when we take a little rest by
sitting on the flooring of the trains that arrive here. Our work timing is
from 4:00 PM until 11. By 11, this station is silent. Since all of us
girls live in the same area, about ten minutes away from each other, we
travel together. My father comes half way through the road to pick me up.
We have been here since nine months and have not faced any untoward
incident at night.�

Sushanti and Suparna are proud of their job. They feel this is desh seva.
�There are so many facilities at the railway station, all for ladies.
First, you had the GRP (General Railway Police, a force of the State
Police) which used to patrol the station. Then, with the rape case in the
train, GRP guards were made to travel in the trains with the ladies. Last
year, the Deputy Chief Minister got 500 home guards to stand on the
railway station and make sure that women don�t get harassed. All of this
for ladies only.�

We start to walk the platform. Sushanti takes me to platform number 7.
�This is the most danger area. On weekdays, during the peak hours (i.e.
5-8 PM), ladies are running like mad to get inside the train. All
long-distance fast trains halt here. Even before the train has halted,
these ladies will jump inside the train to get seats. It is so dangerous.
Even the males are wonderstruck when they watch the ladies jumping like
this in the trains. We have fun watching the women jump. That�s our only
source of entertainment here.� We start to walk towards the end of the
platform. �This is also a very danger point. The danger is because the
thieves and the drug addicts stand right here and in the crowds, they use
their blades to slit the bags and steal. Once, one of our GRP men got hold
of two druggies stealing. They had a major fight. The druggies slit the
hands of the guard with their blades. You have to be very careful of their
blades. You can get AIDS.� Suparna adds, �Poison � the blades are
poisonous. You have to be careful.� Sushanti concludes, �So, on a
platform, we have the first point, middle point and the last point
(corresponding with the first ladies, middle ladies and the last ladies
compartments). There is too much stench around platform number 7. Very
dirty there! That is the place where the druggies reside.�

I am going to eat dinner with Sushanti and Suparna. I am also embarrassed
because I am not carrying tiffin with me. Hence I have nothing to
share/contribute in their dinner fiesta. �We will eat dinner late,�
Sushanti tells me, adding, �let us take the train and go to some stations.
You ask us whatever questions you want. I don�t know what you would be
interested in knowing from us.� I nod. We get inside the train. �How do
you feel doing this job? Do your parents and family members support you?
What about your social life? Do you have a life beyond the railway
station?� I ask them as we are riding the trains. Sushanti tells me, �I
feel tired at the end of the day. It is not easy to keep standing all the
while on the platform. I have backache. But I take care of myself. After
8, I take rest on the station. Parents don�t have much problem with my
work. You see, more than family members, it is the neighbours who like to
gossip and question �where is this girl going? Why does she come home
late?� For us, as long as our parents trust us, it is fine. Our parents
are assured that our daughter is not doing anything wrong. Till then, it
is fine. As for social life, I don�t know about others, but I personally
take out time to be with friends. It is important for me.�

As we are riding the trains, two of their colleagues, male GRP guards,
inquire about me. When we get off the station, Sushanti introduces me to
them. �You tell them what you are doing.� I try to explain to one of the
colleagues. He asks, �Are you Christian?� �No,� I respond, clarifying my
religious affiliation. �Okay. I have only started patrolling the stations
since a month or so hence I have not much experience to share with you.
Yeah, but I remember that some days ago, a woman was walking on the
platform when a man from the general compartment, looking at her, said,
�kya maal hai?�(i.e. sexy thing). The lady saw that we GRP guards were
sitting there. She took riks (i.e. risk) on our basis and slapped the man.
The man started saying that he did not make the remark and that the other
fellow had. She retorted angrily. In the meanwhile, a bhaiyya (from Uttar
Pradesh) bhel-puri hawker was showing his 32 white teeth and smiling at
the woman�s plight. Hamne danda liya aur kaan ke neeche baja diya usko (We
took our stick and gave him solid beating). These are two memorable
experiences of recent times.� Sushanti added, �That�s true what he said.
Because we guards are around, ladies take riks (i.e. risk) and are able to
retort to the men. But there are times when ladies will ask us to threaten
the men eve-teasing them. When we ask the ladies to come with us to the
men, they will want to scamper away. How can we simply go up to a man and
threaten him if the woman is not coming forward with us as witness and
victim?�

Sushanti then introduces me to the home guard at the station we are on.
Her name is Vijaya. �Meet Vijaya,� Sushanti tells me, �She is very
fearless. She will stay alone at this station. This station becomes very
silent after 9 PM. But she holds guard.� Vijaya excitedly shakes hands
with me. �I don�t fear anything except for ghosts and uparwala (i.e.
god),� she says. �But where are the ghosts?� I ask her. �Oh,� she says,
�the lane where I live becomes very silent at 2:30 in the night. I feel
afraid to venture there at that time. That�s when I feel there are ghosts
there.� Vijaya is married. Her husband tells her that as long as she can
pay equal attention at home, she is permitted to do this job. �I have
always loved serving people. Since my youth I have been engaged in this
kind of activity. Sometimes I defy my husband and come to perform duty
here. I have three children. But I manage to balance home and work.

=== message truncated ===

---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
 Yahoo! Small Business - Try our new resources site! 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050412/c6bca100/attachment.html 