[Reader-list] The Indian Media - article from Tehelka

[Punam Zutshi]

Thanks for your response and no, I was not expecting ethnographic reasons ,
merely wanting as an ethnographer to understand what Delhi offered to
different people.I did wonder whether the universities in the city  would
figure in any way.

The "ethnographer self " was a qualification to ensure that I was not posing
a rhetorical question or being ironical.Which has not deterred Mahmood from
shooting off an e mail, to which I will respond separately!

Punam



----- Original Message -----
From: "Rana Dasgupta" <eye at ranadasgupta.com>
To: "Punam Zutshi" <pz at vsnl.net>
Cc: <reader-list at sarai.net>
Sent: Saturday, July 09, 2005 9:38 PM
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] The Indian Media - article from Tehelka


>
> > I am intrigued by your attraction to the vibrant intellectual climate
that
> > led you to settle in Delhi : what are the components of this vibrancy ,
my
> > ethnographer self is moved to ask.
> > Are you saying that there are enough people and institutions in Delhi
that
> > sustain the life of the mind but not any/many that allow this to be part
of
> > a public culture? Do you think the vibrancy reflects in some other
> > mode..say, of practice/s ?
>
> I don't know if I can answer this to the satisfaction of an
> ethnographer, because my entree into Delhi intellectual life was
> personal rather than ethnographical, and remains so.  That life, for me,
> has mainly been made up of conversations in apartments rather than
> participation in institutions.
>
> That said, Sarai is an inspiring institution to have around, one that
> has produced an amazing range of writings and ideas, and attracted to
> Delhi many people from the rest of India and the world who have added
> their thoughts to its debates.  Without such institutional nourishment,
> perhaps, those private conversations would be the poorer.
>
> Also: the fact that Delhi is the centre of the news media, documentary
> film making, national cultural centres, and publishing, and even the
> fact that NGOs and embassies are based here - these things do inevitably
> lead *some* people to come to the city with interesting questions.  As
> can be seen by the number of the country's leading writers and artists
> who live here, despite the city's reputation as a cultural wasteland...
>
> R
>