[Reader-list] Abstracts and Biographies: 2006 Sarai-CSDS Independent Fellows Workshop

[Vivek Narayanan]

Dear friends,

For those reluctant to go wandering among the blogs, this.

Please note that this is a long document: approx. 8000 words, or about 
22 printed pages long.

With warm regards,
Vivek

SARAI-CSDS INDEPENDENT FELLOWSHIP WORKSHOP

24-27 August 2006
29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110054

Explore the interim research postings, updates and individual blogs of 
Sarai research fellows since January 2006 via a consolidated blog (still 
updating): http://ifellows2006.wordpress.com/


Thursday 24 August


10.00–11.30
MICROCOSMIC VIEWS - 1

1. Dilip D'Souza, Mumbai
Village in the City: Bombay in Microcosm

I want to document not just the physical reality of villages in Bombay, 
but the little signs in them that speak of a possibly disappearing, or 
at least forgotten, humanity. I want to emphasize that I don't see this 
project as a paean to the past, nor as a mournful ode to a 
nearly-vanished history. I'm interested in making the case that life in 
a city is an experience made of these small interstices. Very simply, I
would like my essays to get my readers thinking about the people who
make up a city.

For the workshop, I will read a short piece written after a visit to the 
Magen Hassidim Synagogue in Agripada in Bombay.

[Dilip D'Souza, has a BE in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from 
BITS Pilani and a MS in Computer Science from Brown University. Only, he 
doesn't use either of those degrees now, professionally, except 
peripherally. He writes for his supper, mostly about political and 
social concerns, though also occasional travel writing. Dilip has won 
several awards for his writing, including the Statesman Rural Reporting 
Award, the Times of India/Red Cross prize, the Outlook/Picador 
nonfiction prize (for which he was also, earlier,runner up), the 
Sanctuary Magazine prize and more. He has written two books, "Branded by 
Law" and "The Narmada Dammed" (both Penguin). Contact: 
dilip.sarai at gmail.com ]

2. Abhinandita Mathur and Venu Mathur, New Delhi
My Building and the Shahar

The project presents a visual essay on our building, where about 100 
Mathur families reside. Shree Ganesh Group Housing Society is one of the 
many housing Societies in Patparganj that came up in the 80’s, defining 
a new way of life for middle class Delhi.
Through this assemblage of the present documentation and the archives of 
the past, this project attempts to map out the journey of the community 
and the city from the past to what it is today.

[Venu Mathur and Abhinandita Mathur moved to Shree Ganesh Group Housing 
Society in April, 1990.
Abhinandita moved to Bombay in 2002 where she works on research projects 
and takes photographs.
Venu Mathur works in a five star hotel where she heads the 
Tele-communication department. It is the first project of this kind that 
she has worked on. She continues to live in the Mathur Society. Venu is 
Abhinandita’s mother.

Website: www.mybuildingsociety.net
Contact: abhinandita @ gmail.com and venu.mathur @ gmail.com]

Mamta Mantri, Mumbai
Movie Theatres on and around Maulana Shaukat Ali Road, Mumbai

The 6 cinema halls on and around Maulana Shuakat Ali Road, near Grant 
Road Station, Mumbai-- Super, Nishaat, Royal, Alfred, Roshan and 
Gulshan-- have been a defining part of the neighbourhood for more than 
100 years. While the neighbourhood remains in/famous for its sex workers 
and gang wars, these halls remain a counter-balancing factor, allowing 
for a more relaxed space. The project considers the history and 
economics of the halls from both the inside and outside, as well as the 
emergent relationships between the halls, hawkers, neighbours and the 
area around them.

[Mamta has a Masters degree in History and English Literature from 
Mumbai University,and M.Phil in English Literature from S.N.D.T. 
University. She has worked as a lecturer in History, English and Media 
Studies at various colleges in Mumbai. She has also worked on 
independent projects such as translation, manuscript cataloguing, etc. 
Contact: bawree at yahoo.com]

11.30-11.45 Refreshment Break


11.45-12.45
The Return of the Region
Chair: Ravikant

Daljit Ami, Chandigarh
Celluloid and Compact Disks in Punjab

Two different trends have been noticed in recent Punjabi film 
production-- celluloid and digital video. These industries are both 
successful in Punjab, although they are quite different, not only in 
production format or length but also in terms of content and treatment. 
Celluloid is exploring global market with emotional dilemmas 
(emigration, relations) whereas digital video is turning out to be a 
kind of community cinema by focusing on social-economic crises. This 
study is an attempt to understand the different aspects of these twin 
trends of success.

[Daljit Ami holds a Master’s degree in Ancient History from Punjab 
University and writes for different newspapers about socio-political 
issues concerning Punjab, especially rural Punjab. He worked as an 
auditor in the Defense Audit for three years and then resigned to be a 
documentary filmmaker. He has made seven films, including one about 
agriculture labour in Punjab, "Born In Debt". Contact: daljitami 
@rediffmail.com]

Anil Pandey, NOIDA
Desi Filmon ka Karobar (The Business of Desi Films)

[Anil Pandey is currently a Principal Correspondent with the 
newsmagazine, Business & Economy. He has worked with Jansatta for five 
years as a reporter and has taught journalism for another five years at 
the Makhanlal Chaturvedi Patrakarita Vishwavidyalaya. Contact: panil3 
@rediffmail.com]

12.45-1.45 Lunch


1.45-3.15
Microcosmic Views - 2
Chair: Monica Narula

Parismita Singh, New Delhi
“6 O’Clock” – A Series of Comic Book Stories

The stories begin in a building in Humayunpur. They then spill out into 
the parks, streets and malls of the city. The various protagonists – 
seen and unseen - of these short pieces all experience the terror and 
ecstasy of the everyday.

At a stylistic level, central to the work is its engagement with words 
and language. The narratives also explore issues of speed, light and 
atmosphere.

[Parismita is a comic book artist. Her short stories, comic book pieces 
and translations have been published in The Little Magazine, Tehelka and 
the Katha Prize Stories 13. She has also been working in the field of 
primary education. Contact: parismitasingh @ yahoo.com]


Janice Erica Pariat, New Delhi
Writing the Notion of Home and Urban Space

This is a creative writing project that broadly explores the notion of 
Home. It is an attempt to understand how one forms an idea of home – not 
perhaps as a geographical space but a mental landscape; images, things, 
people, around whom narratives are woven in order to make them familiar, 
to make them one’s own. These pieces attempt to pick up on different 
aspects of the process of searching for and establishing (or not) a Home.

[ Currently based in New Delhi, Janice is a Project Fellow to Professor 
Makarand Paranjape at JNU. She completed her BA in English Literature 
from St Stephens College, Delhi University and her MA in Communications 
from the University of London. She is also a freelance editor for 
Macmillan Higher Education. Contact: janicepariat at gmail.com ]


Nandita Raman
Dilli ke Cinemagharon ka Badalta Swaroop: Ek Chhayachitran
(The Changing Face of Delhi’s Cinema Halls)

An outing and an entry into the unreal, cinema halls are a space where 
tangents meet. The millionaire’s daughter falls for a taxi driver, a 
Muslim marries a Hindu, a hero becomes a villain, a villain renounces 
the world and the rickshaw drivers and the CEO’s watch the same film in 
the same hall at the same time, one in the lower stall and the other in 
the balcony. Changing times transformed this equation and stepped in the 
swanky Multiplexes with expensive tickets. But tucked away in lanes 
there still exist the old. This project attempts to document this 
multi-dimensional transformation.
[ Nandita was born in Benaras where she did her schooling. From 
1998-2000 she studied visual communication at the National Institute of 
Fashion Technology, New Delhi and pursued a career in films and 
photography thereafter. Since 2004 she has been an independent filmmaker 
and photographer and has worked for organizations like DANIDA, CARE 
India and Max New York Life Insurance.
Contact: ramannandita @ gmail.com ]

3.15-3.30 Refreshment Break


3.30-5.30
Lost and Re-imagined Lifeworlds
Chair: Sarada Balagopalan

Debjani Sengupta, New Delhi
Colony Fiction: Refugee Colonies and Their Representation in
Post-Partition Kolkata

My presentation is titled ‘Colony Fiction: Refugee colonies and their 
Representation in post Partition Kolkata.’ It is an essay that tries to 
look at the refugee colony as a space in texts like Meghey Dhaka Tara 
and Bwadwip both novels that deal with the aftermaths of Partition. It 
also looks at memoirs and other nonfictional works that talk of 
colonies, their beginnings and their expansion. I also look at Bangla 
poetry of the post partition years to see how a new urban poetry is 
being written about an ever present reality of the city of Kolkata.

[Debjani Sengupta teaches at the Department of English, Indraprastha 
College, Delhi. She is the editor of Mapmaking: Partition Stories from 
Two Bengals, Shrishti Publishers, 2003. At present she is editing, with 
Selina Hossain of Bangladesh, a collection of South Asian feminist 
fiction. This monsoon, she has registered to begin her doctoral work on 
the Bengal Partition at the Centre for Historical Studies, JNU.

email: debjanisgupta @ yahoo .com]

Uddipana Goswami, Guwahati
City as Setting: Reflections of the Changing Faces of Guwahati in
Assamese Literature

The study is a personal/personalised look at Guwahati which has evolved 
in the last few years from a sedate, laid-back city to a fast-paced, 
upmarket metro. The pace at and the time span in which this has happened 
seems to have put everybody, especially its inhabitants off gear. 
Through the analysis of a few literary representations of Guwahati, I 
intend to look at sociological changes both in the city and in the city 
as a setting and to relate them with contemporaneous realities. 
Beginning with a questioning of my own imagination of my home, the study 
also qualifies the imagination of the city by the authors under 
consideration.

[Uddipana Goswami is a PhD fellow at the Centre for Studies in Social 
Sciences, Calcutta (CSSSCAL). Her focus area is indigenous-settler 
conflicts in Northeast India. She has done studies for the Centre for 
Northeast india, South and Southeast Asia Studies (CENISEAS), Guwahati 
and the University of Zurich. She has a Masters in English from Delhi 
University and worked with a number of major media houses, like India 
Today and National Geographic Channel (India), before turning to 
research. She contributes occasional articles to Assamese dailies on 
nationalism, assimilation and ethnicity. She is also a translator and 
creative writer.

Contact: uddipana at gmail.com]

Maitrey Bajpai, Mumbai
Cawnpore

Once hailed by India’s British colonial rulers as the “Manchester of the 
East”, the dilapidated city of “Cawnpore” in which I was born is nothing 
but shadow of its former glory. Now they call it an “Industrial 
Graveyard”. The closure of textile mills not only left the working class 
of the city jobless, but also ruled out any possibility of emergence of 
lower middle class in the city. My family, which was involved in the 
cloth trade since 1907, has also suffered the burn of the closure, and 
we are not alone, there are thousands like us.

This research is geared towards a documentary film. I will try to 
comprehend history of Kanpur city and its mills through the stories that 
its people have to tell.

[Maitrey Bajpai is a young (23) commerce graduate who recently took his 
fascination for films one step further, packing his bags and coming to 
Mumbai to learn filmmaking.
Contact: cawnpore at rediffmail.com]




5.45-7.30
Audible Traditions / Listening Lounge
Chair: Mahmood Farooqui

Brajesh Kumar Jha, Delhi
Hindi Cinemayee Geet aur Uska Bhashayee Safar
(The Language Journeys of Hindi Cinema)


Naresh Kumar, New Delhi
Festival of Music in the City of Sports: Harballabh Sangeet Mela of
Jalandhar

As Sarai fellow I have been working on Harballabh Sangeet Mela of 
Jalandhar, a 130 years old festival of national character that 
concentrates on Hindustani classical music only and doesn’t allow any 
light music to be performed on its stage. Its evolution, different 
phases, organizational aspects patronage networks, local audience etc 
will come in this study. In addition to this my focus would be on how 
the festival is taken in memories and what factors make this sammelan so 
unique that for organizers, performers and for the common people it is 
thought as something ‘divine’.
[To earn his bread and butter Naresh teaches social science in a 
government school at Delhi. Listening to Hindustani classical music is 
one of his weaknesses and he also possesses some theoretical 
understanding of it. He is a student of history and is presently working 
on the early phase of gramophone industry with special reference to 
classical music. The history of listening in twentieth century north 
India is going to be the topic of his future research. Histories of 
domesticity, gender studies, and disability studies are his other areas 
of interest.
email: naresh.rhythm @ gmail.com]


Budhaditya Chattopadhyay, Kolkata
Story of a Forgotten Melody: Restoring the Sound of Bishnupur Gharana

My job is to assist the memory of some lost sounds: lost from a 
community of singers, musicians and musical practice. For my project 
with SARAI, I am locating, documenting and restoring the recordings of 
the exponents from Bishnupur Gharana to make an audio archive for 
everybody. It can be used as the resource for any further research work 
on the gharana system itself, or as the basis for future works.

[Budhaditya is a student of Sound Engineering at the Satyajit Ray Film 
and Television Institute, Kolkata. He has been working in the area of 
audio restoration for the past two years. He also produces experimental 
sound art, and one of his works was recently included on CD for 
commercial release in Germany.

Email: budhaditya.chattopadhyay @ gmail.com
budhaditya_chattopadhyay @ rediffmail.com]


Friday 25 August

10.00-11.00
The Telephone and the Mobile Phone
Chair: Lokesh

Girindra, New Delhi
Pravasi Ilaqe mein Telephone Booth Sanskriti
(The Culture of Telephone Booths in Migrant Communities)

delhi ke prawsi bhaul illakon mandawali aur wazirpur aur bihar ke ek 
gaun shreenagar(purnea zila) ke telephone boothon ke adhayan ke dauran 
kai booth mere samane aaey.delhi me telephone booth ne prawasion ke 
bhasa ko badla hin sath me booth se zore log-bag bhi badle.delhi sahar 
me telephone booth ke roop aur kriakalap saaf badal chuka hai. lekin 
gaun ke boothon me koi khas badlaw nahi ayaa hai.wahan aaj bhi booth 
office ki tarah kam kar raha hai.sabse alag baat gaun me yeh dekhne ko 
mili ki wahan booth ke madhyam se aarthik soshan ho raha ha.lekin itna 
to sach hai ki es sanchar kranti ke yug me booth ne prawasion ko gaun se 
zora hai.

[Girindra Delhi vishwavidhalay se asnatak hun aur wartaman me dainik 
akhbar VIRAT VAIBHAW delhi me reporter ke roop me kaam kar rahey hain.
Email: girindranath @ gmail.com]


Rama Rao, Bhopal
Ladkiyon ke College ka Sarvajanik Telephone aur Ab Har Hath mein Mobile
(Then and Now: The Public telephone in Girls’ Colleges and the Mobile Phone)



Rama Rao graduated from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in 1999 
and has since then worked with Muskan in Madhya Pradesh in the area of 
urban poverty and with Vishakha in Rajasthan on violence against women.

Email: ramaraovedula @ yahoo.com

11.00-11.15 Refreshment break


11.15-12.45
Non-Metropolitan Trajectories
Chair: Sadan Jha

Prabhat Kumar, Delhi
Yuvak Sangh aur Yuvak: 1920 ke Dashak mein Bihar ka Bauddhik Parivesh
(Yuvak Sangh and the Yuvak Magazine in the Intellectual Public Sphere in 
1920s Bihar)



Rinchin, Bhopal
Tracing the History of Girls' Education in a Small Town through the Eyes 
of Its First Woman Teacher

The research attempts to capture the life of a 90 year old school 
teacher, who taught in the first school for girls in a small rural town 
in the malwa region of Madhya Pradesh. The attempt is to use a personal 
biography to capture the history of the town in the context of girls 
education. The study will be bilingual and will use pictures, sketches 
and written narratives.

[Rinchin currently lives in Bhopal and works in and around the state of 
Madhya Pradesh with local peoples groups and organizations. She 
completed her graduation in Philosophy and then her MA in Social work. 
Since then, she has been working primarily with women on issues of 
health, violence, gender, sexuality through community based informal 
adult learning and training programmes. Writes sometimes on related issues.

She has had a continuing association autonomous peoples’, womens’ and 
queer groups and has felt at most at home there.

Contact: rinchin at gmail.com ]


Mrityunjay Tripathi, Allahabad
Allahabad ki Chhatra Rajniti(Student Politics in Allahabad)

Mrityunjay Tripathi is pursuing his PhD on the Hindi novel from the 
Department of Hindi, University of Allahabad.

Email: tripathi_mrityunjay at yahoo.co.in


12.45-1.45 Lunch


1.45-3.15
Local Strategies, Regimes and Ramifications
Chair: Shivam Vij

Rakshat Hooja, Jaipur
Urban Stakeholder Activism and the Role of Resident Welfare Associations

In many of the metropolitan cities of India, Resident Welfare 
Associations (RWAs) have become important social institutions that play 
an increasingly significant role in the lives of the residents of these 
areas. In New Delhi the RWAs have become very active and over time most 
of the RWAs have been registered under the Societies Act. The Government 
of Delhi has also launched a “Bhagadari” scheme where the authorities 
form partnerships with the local RWAs for carrying out many activities. 
The purpose of my continuing study is to try and understand, or figure 
out, what makes the RWAs tick. The plan is to document the activities 
and functioning of a few select (selected not randomly but deliberately) 
RWAs in order to understand why they are successful or not successful.
[Rakshat holds a Masters degree in Sociology from Jamia Millia Islamia, 
Delhi and a M.Phil in Social Science (Science Policy) from, Jawaharlal 
Nehru University, New Delhi. At present he is working towards his PhD on 
the "commodification" and de-facto privatization of water in urban 
areas. He has done research and published on a number of topics 
including the history of video games, watershed development and 
management, livestock management, open source/FLOSS software, urban 
water supply etc.

email: rakshat @ gmail.com]


Amit Rai, Wardha
Harsud aur Media (Harsud and the Media)


Amit Rai is pursuing his M.Phil in Ahimsa And Peace Studies. He is a 
researcher at the Mahatma Gandhi Aantarastriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya, 
Wardha(Mh.), also working as Research Associate of Hindi Suchana Vishwa 
Gyankosh, funded by U.G.C.

Contact: raiamit14 @ rediffmail.com


Tushar Bhor, Mumbai
Water Lenses: Prelude for a New Imagination for Urban Water in Mumbai

The paper investigates the modes of negotiation related to water 
resources in the city Mumbai and attempts to formulate a new imagination 
for popular discourse on the water resource acquisition, allocation and 
consumptions, which also represents a case for most of the third world 
cities. I will look at stories of informal water distribution in the 
city of Mumbai, which, on the one hand, operate in an illegal manner but 
on other hand the supply the very daily needs and related enterprises of 
certain communities. Various players will be investigated ranging from 
political and bureaucratic players, big and small water related 
enterprises, plumbers, informal water vendors, etc. and stories will be 
written about the players and the related water systems in the context 
of Mumbai.

[Tushar Bhor completed his formal education in Architecture (2003) from 
Mumbai and then pursued his fellowship (2004) from the same college i.e. 
KRVIA, Mumbai on the Water Management. He presently works in a NGO - Aga 
Khan Planning and Building Service, India and holds a position of 
Program Officer. He is also part of Mumbai Fort Forum (MFF) a group of 
young professionals, struggling with government agencies with an 
aspiration to do some work in conservation of built environment.

Email: tushar_bhor at yahoo.com]


3.15-3.30 Refreshment Break


3.30-5.00
Subjective Sexualities
Chair: Aarti Sethi

Akshay Khanna, Delhi
Apni Jagah, Zarah Hut Ke: A “Staged Ethnography” of Space and Sexuality

The project explores the relationships between space and sexuality from 
‘Queer’ perspective. The tentative suggestion is that all space can be 
considered to be sexualised in one way or another; that the ’sexualness’ 
of a space is something that we can, and considered from a Queer 
activist position, should, study in explorations of the politics
of space. Using the examples of trains, public parks and courts, it 
argues that these ‘everyday’ spaces are organised in terms of 
heteronormativity. The paper also examines the relevance of abstractions 
of space – such as ‘national’, ‘global’ and ‘local’, that are regularly 
brought into play in the negotiation of imaginaries of the sexual self.

[Akshay spends time finding ways to transgress norms of gender and 
sexuality. (S)He is a founder member of Prism, a queer activist group 
based in Delhi. Eariler a lawyer, he is now pursuing a PhD in Social 
Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh, exploring Queer movements 
in India, and the emergence of sexuality as a political object in 
people's movements and civil society formations.

Email: s0454533 @ sms.ed.ac.uk]


Sheba Tejani, Mumbai
Queer Cityscapes: Exploring Mumbai Cityscapes through the Eyes of Two
Queer Women

I am attempting to create a fictional narratives of the city of Mumbai 
through an audiovisual medium that is structured around the 
conversations of two queer women. The conversations will work as a voice 
over on a visual narrative of the cityscape and will explore issues/ 
experiences such as using public transport in the city, communities and 
family, housing and rentals, through a queer lens. Four separate 
conversations will be scripted and shot, though they will form a part of 
a single visual essay, with the characters providing a sort of continuity.

The idea is to capture queer “encounters” with the city, or tap into the 
continuous processes of dialogue and acts of interpretation that enable 
a multi-layered connection to the urban space, or even produce it in the 
first place. This allows queer women, for instance, to live in and take 
the city for their own and in turn be alienated by its
homophobia and inequalities. In either case, a simple victim narrative, 
one hopes, would be impossible from this position. The attempt would be, 
rather, to capture moments where it is not only the city “seeing” the 
queer, but the queer seeing the city.

[Sheba Tejani has an MA in economics from the New School for Social 
Research, New York. She lives in Bombay and works at the Economic and 
Political Weekly.

Email: shebatejani at gmail.com ]


Sidharth Srinivasan, Delhi
A Photoroman Feature Film: A Love Story Intertwined with the Myth and
Folklore of Delhi's Heritage Sites

My research is towards the completion of a screenplay for a photoroman 
(a film comprised entirely of still images) titled Beeti Bahaar. Beeti 
Bahaar is a love story intertwined with the popular myth and folklore of 
Delhi’s heritage sites, a meditation on the possibility of an impossible 
love set in and against the backdrop of spaces frozen in space and time. 
Delhi’s ancient ruins, mosques and mausoleums, tombs and temples, remain 
an abiding haunt for clandestine lovers. Yet there is an inherent 
contradiction in the fact that these public spaces in the heart of an 
urban metropolis have become synonymous with secret romance and 
star-crossed love…

[Sidharth Srinivasan is an independent filmmaker based in New Delhi and 
Mumbai. Sidharth graduated from St. Stephen's College and studied Still 
Photography at the Triveni Kala Sangam. His debut short Swamohita 
premiered in competition at the Venice Film Festival and his subsequent 
DV feature Divya Drishti won 4 awards and was screened at numerous 
festivals internationally.

Email: sidharth.srinivasan @ gmail.com ]


5.15-6.15
Play Reading / Performance
Chair: Shuddhabrata Sengupta

Averee Chaurey, Delhi
“The Song of the Baul”

My project entails an attempt to understand the performance tradition of 
the Bauls, the singing minstrels of Bengal .Throughout history , Bauls 
have remained an enigma .As a performer myself,it has been a lifelong 
dream to know more about them. The output of the project will be a play 
script and a performance.

[Averee Chaurey has been associated with theatre since her college days. 
At Jadavpur University, Kolkata for my graduation, she was part of one 
the foremost groups of Kolkata, Bohurupee, working with Shombu Mitra and 
Tripti Mitra. She has acted in many plays in English, Hindi, and Bengali 
and worked with Habib Tanvir, Amal Allana, Rajendranath, Feisel Alkazi, 
and Tripurari Sharma. She has also worked as an announcer, newscaster, 
and actress in TV serials and feature films.

Contact: avereec @ hotmail.com]


Saturday 26 August

10.00-11.30
Generic Journeys
Chair: Ravikant


Kamal Kumar Mishra, New Delhi
Hindi Hridaysthali mein Jasoosi Upanyason va Inkey Paathakon ka Ek
Samajik Itihas (A Social History of Detective Novels and Their Readers
in the Hindi Heartland)

This paper tries to look into the issues related to publishing,writing 
and reading of the hindi jasoosi upanyas( detective fictions) from their 
beginnings in Hindi in the late 19th century. How did 
professionalization of the writer-publisher create a regular demand in 
terms of readership and ensured supply? How did this genre help 
professional writer-publishers to negotiate or comprehend their present 
and the ever-changing publishing scene?

[Kamal K Mishra is a student of history, currently doing his M.Phil. 
from Delhi University. He is a translator and the areas of his interest 
are commercial publishing and the Hindi belt.

Email: kamal_bhu @ rediffmail.com]


Piyush Pandey, Delhi
News Channelon ka Satyakathakaran
(The ‘Satyakatharization’ of News Channels/On the Compulsive Crime
Reporting on TV)



Indu Verma, Mumbai
Society and the Soap Factory

The project aims to look closely into the relationship between the T.V. 
Soaps & the Society. It is a close encounter with the soap factory, from 
an actor’s point of view. I am trying to find the motivations of the 
actors (including myself) who play these characters on daily basis. The 
material I plan to submit includes analyses, reports, photographs, audio 
recordings & transcripts of interviews, clippings of the actors / soaps, 
etc.

[After a master's in commerce from Rajasthan University, Indu Verma 
learnt acting at the National School of Drama in Delhi. She has acted in 
a number of TV serials including Awaz Dil Se Dil Tak, Kitte Party, Time 
Bomb, Agneepath, Joshilay, Achanak, 37 Saal Baad, Kabhi Aaye Na Judaai, 
and Siddhant. She has also acted in films including Tere Naam, Paheli, 
Rising, James, 9/11 The Last Fall, Humraahi (yet to be released), and 
White Noise.

Email: induverma_virgo @ yahoo.co.in]



11.30-11.45 Refreshment Break


11.45-1.15
Creative Genealogies
Chair: Lawrence Liang

Dripta Piplai, Delhi
The Hegemony of Calcutta Music Schools in Tagore Songs: Towards an
Archival Preservation of 'Multiple Traditions in Rabindrasangeet'

The paper has tried to focus on the different varieties of 
Rabindrasangeet which are co-existent, and tried to find out the nature 
and effect of power relation involved in it. I give a brief account of 
the emergence of Rabindrasangeet as a brand in 19th century Bengal, 
establishment of its practice-performance centric institutions, etc. 
Then, with the help of the avialable Akarmatrik notations (published by 
Viswa Bharatio Music Board and recorded notations from other sources), I 
have focused on the power relations between different schoolings. I will 
consider the claim of ‘originality’ and the Santiniketani-gharana versus 
the popular trend of Rabindrasangeet in the culture industry as central 
to the power-game in the domain of Rabindrasangeet.

[Dripta Piplai is a Research student of Linguistics, pursuing an M.Phil. 
from the University of Delhi, with a specialisation in 'Language in 
Education' - especially the language curriculum for children. She is 
also an independent researcher and performer of Rabindrasangeet, trained 
from Gitabitan Shikhshayatan, Calcutta.

Contact: dripta @ hotmail.com]


Rajesh Mehar, Bangalore
Exploring Notions of Creative Ownership Among Contemporary Musicians

This research project is geared towards exploring how musicians in India 
relate to their own creative output. Over the last two decades, with the 
economic liberalisation of India, musicians in India are having to 
negotiate, in a day-to-day manner, the implications of a system of 
ownership of creative material that is new to them. Do they look at 
their creative work as merely property? Or are there other relational 
perspectives at work between a musician and his art?

[Rajesh Mehar is a musician and writer living and working in Bangalore. 
He writes on topics related to music and musicians, especially rock 
musicians in India.

Email - rajeshmehar @ yahoo.com]


Rudradeep Bhattacharjee, Mumbai
Freedom in Cyberspace in the Context of India: A Video Documentary

How do we preserve the Net’s core values and open architecture without 
encouraging anarchy yet at the same time not allow cyberspace to be 
smothered by superfluous and numbing regulations? The proposed 
documentary, the first attempt of its kind to understand the issues 
related to freedom in cyberspace in the context of a developing country 
like India, asks this critical question and tries to seek answers to it. 
The documentary will also be a reminder that while we debate these 
issues, we cannot lose sight of the fact that a huge digital divide 
exists in our country and all notions of technological freedom and 
individual empowerment are superfluous while it does.

[Rudradeep Bhattacharjee is an aspiring film-maker living in Mumbai. He 
has a Post-Graduate Diploma in Film and Television Production from 
Xavier Institute of Communicatons, Mumbai. He describes himself as a 
generalist. He does not have any hobbies.

Email: bhatt_rudra @ yahoo.com ]



1.15-2.15 Lunch


2.15-3.15
Ambiguous and Emergent Transitions
Chair: Ravi Sundaram

Sudipta Paul, Asansol
Response of the Labour Force to the Changing Urban Formation in the
Asansol Industrial Area, West Bengal

Capital has gradually liberated itself from the welfare cloak and by the 
last decade of previous century it has once again returned to it’s 
original business of profit maximization in the form of so called 
liberalization. Looking back at this trajectory is necessary to 
understand that this liberalized economy is not only a liberation from 
the welfare cloak but also a conscious effort to pre-empt social and 
political opposition. The process, at least in our country, is still 
evolving. To explore and analyze multifarious aspects of this phenomenal 
development are both challenging and exciting for any social researcher. 
Presently, though, I do not intend to arrive at any comprehensive 
analysis but will only look at the changes for last 15 years taking 
place at Asansol region, the pre-eminent industrial area of West Bengal.

[Sudipta Paul is a Post Graduate in Electrical Engineering. She is a 
certificate holder of RTP (Research Training Program) of the year 
2004-05 in Centre for Studies in Social Science and Culture, Calcutta. 
She was the principal investigator of the project entitled 'Collection 
of Oral History of Coal Workers with special emphasis on Impact of 
Outsourcing' at the V.V. Giri National Labour Institute.

Email: sdipta_paul @ yahoo.com]

Kaushiki Rao, New Delhi
Transplanting the Urban Aesthetic in a Resettlement Colony in Delhi

Kaushiki Rao has a MA in Social Science, with a focus on Anthropology 
and Political Theory, from the University of Chicago. She writes on 
issues of social justice, policy and governance. She currently works at 
Pratham — an NGO that works in the area of primary education - and lives 
in New Delhi.

email: kaushiki.rao @ gmail.com


3.15-3.30 Refreshment Break

3.30-5.00
The City and Its Discontents
Chair: Smriti Vohra


Syed Mohd. Yunus and Syed Mohd Faisal, Delhi
Asahay Mahanagar: Helpline Karyakartaon ke Nazariye Se Dilli Shahar ka
Adhyayan(Helpless City: A Study of Delhi from the Perspective of
Helpline Workers)

The research, “Asahaye Mahanagar” – “Helpless City” -- is a reflection 
of the unexplored ‘parts’ of the city by helpline workers themselves, 
linking them together and showing as voices of the city. It explores the 
new work of help lines and the perspective of the city they allow by 
presenting their encounters with it. It also describes the various 
issues for which city ‘calls’ for help. It explores the multiple 
meanings of a simple telephone ‘call’ for a helpline worker. Several 
innovative methods have been used in this research like transit walk, 
participant observation, photography and the most exciting ’sting 
operation’ telephone calls.

[Yunus is a development communicator, born and brought up in Delhi, with 
Social work background. He has worked on child protection issues as 
Project coordinator in a child help line of Delhi. Has worked with Self 
Help Groups of women with another NGO in Rajasthan. And has just 
completed his Postgraduate diploma in Development Communication, from 
AJK Mass communication and research center JMI.

Contact: delhi.yunus @ gmail.com ]

Peerzada Arshad Hamid, Anantnag
Exploring the Space of Psychiatric Hospitals in Srinagar

This project will study the functioning of lone psychiatric hospital of 
Srinagar in the strife-torn Valley of Kashmir where thousands of people 
are suffering from post traumatic stress disorders (PSTD). The 16 years 
of turmoil in the state has resulted in a sharp increase in stress 
related disorders especially the PSTD. The armed conflict in the state 
has affected the society at large. The continued violence has made a 
vast population of psychiatric patients. The research will seek to 
detail the strains and pressures in the conflict ridden society leading 
to the psychiatric problems among the population. It will also look into 
the needs and remedies required to provide solace to the battered 
population.

[Peerzada Arshad Hamid, is a Srinagar based freelance journalist. He has 
written for Tehelka, Midday, and other papers, focusing on in-depth 
research-based human interest stories. He holds an M. A. in Mass 
communication and Journalism.

Email: peerzadaarshad @ gmail.com]


Udaykumar M, Delhi
Unravelling a 'Real' Media Incident in Trivandrum

This is an attempt to study a real incident in its own singularity. 
Considering the incident as an excellent gauge of available conceptual 
apparatuses, the project seeks to open up the posssibility of a few 
themes in a new fashion. Despite the heavy emphasis on conceptual 
aspects, a major part of this undertaking is concerned with 
reconstituting the event in order for anyone to address the questions 
concerning the conceptual distinction between an incident and an event; 
the relationship between spectacle and spectator;and the intricacies 
involved in event management by media and so on.

Udayakumar M.’s basic academic training training was in Political 
Science and he completed a masters degree in the discipline from Kerala 
University in 2001. Soon after, he started working as a researcher at 
the Folklore Society of South Indian Languages. He worked at the society 
for nine months. Since then he has been trying to maintain a sustained 
engagement with several fields of knowledge which broadly come under the 
rubric of Human Sciences.

Email: uk_ps at yahoo.co.uk



5.00-10.00
Launch of Sarai Reader 06: Turbulence / Dinner


Sunday 27 August

10.30-12.30
The “Foreigners” and the “Locals”
Chair: Iram Ghufran

Farhana Ibrahim, Gurgaon
Maritime Histories: Merchant Networks and the Production of Locality in
Western India

Based on fieldwork in old port towns in Kachchh and some research at the 
Maharashtra state archives, this paper proposes to think about the idea 
of the ‘cosmopolitan’ as we know it today, and to think through late 
modernity’s idioms of rootless-ness, movement, and flexible citizenship 
from the point of what we know about similar sorts of movement in the 
past, to locate the ‘global citizen’ across space and time. Second, the 
paper asks whether the fact of mobility or travel always implies an 
inclusive consciousness; whether in fact mobility does not sometimes 
more effectively and decisively seal the boundaries between us and them, 
self and other?

[Farhana Ibrahim has a PhD in Sociocultural Anthropology from Cornell 
University. Her dissertation research, conducted in Gujarat state's 
Kachchh district, examines the production of national political cultures 
through the conceptual prisms of religion, state-formation and 
settlement along the borders of modern nation-states. She is currently 
Assistant Professor at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Bombay.

Email: ibrahim.farhana @ gmail.com ]


Ayesha Sen Choudhury, Kolkata
Locating Sexuality through the Eyes of Afghan and Burmese Refugee Women
in Delhi

Premised on the rationale that men and women while sharing similar 
circumstances of persecution may have differing perceptions of 
displacement, this is a depiction of feminine spaces through the eyes of 
Burmese refugee women in Delhi. Refugee situations may present new 
challenges for a woman to negotiate with while probably fulfilling 
various roles of a mother, a daughter and a wife to name some. It is an 
attempt to identify understandings of violence, pain, pleasure, 
humiliation, and empowerment through daily existence in conditions of 
displacement, migration and hostile environments.

[Ayesha is a lawyer with aspirations of engaging in discourses relating 
to gender and displacement. I'm a graduate from ILS Law College, 
University of Pune, and currently working with Women's Rights Initiative 
at the Lawyers Collective.

Email: ayeshasc @ gmail.com]


John Patrick Ojwando, Bangalore
An Exploration of the Experiences of Afro Students in South Asia

The South Asian subcontinent has been host to a slew of youngsters in 
pursuit of their academic goals, many of them drawn from far flung 
continents, Africa, the Middle and far East, Asia and in the recent 
past, a sizeable number from Europe. Most of them seem to have been 
taken by the county’s rich traditions, diverse customs and professed 
hospitality. All seemed to be going well in the past but there is a 
growing disenchantment slowly creeping in that could have far-reaching 
consequences. Though not entirely out in the open, a sizeable number of 
these students are becoming increasingly frustrated with a society they 
believe is insensitive to their concerns. The paper will focus on the 
experience of Afro students in India.

[John Patrick Ojwando is a Kenyan national who can also claim a little 
of Indianess: he did his schooling in Kenya, then pursued his entire 
higher education in India. His received his BA from Mohanlal Sukhadia 
University, Udaipur and his MS in Communication from Bangalore 
University. Currently, he is in the final stages of his doctoral 
research program at the Department of Studies in Communication and 
Journalism, University of Mysore, as a self-financing research scholar 
under the guidance of Dr. N Usha Rani.

Email: ojpatrick at yahoo.com]


Mallica, New Delhi
Identities and Aspirations of Tibetan Youth in New Delhi

My research report titled ‘Identities and Aspirations of Tibetan Youth 
in Delhi’ is a sociological exploration of the said issue and builds 
upon my Ph.D research titled “Education of Tibetan Refugees in India: 
Issues of Culture; Ethnic Identity and Opportunity” in ZHCES, Jawaharlal 
Nehru University, New Delhi. I have looked at this issue through 
exploration of secondary literature; discussions and semi-structured 
interviews with Tibetan youth, pursuing their Graduation from Delhi 
University and residing in a hostel, called the Tibetan Youth Hostel in 
Rohini, New Delhi. Their identities and aspirations, seem to be living, 
processual entities as well as part of a product of their past 
socialization at school and/or families or both. The youth, seen as a 
heterogeneous group, seem to want to preserve their core cultural values 
and ethnic identity, while, at the same time, being influenced by waves 
of globalization and Mcdonaldization in the city of Delhi.

[Mallica is a Ph.D research scholar at the Zakir Husain Centre for 
Educational Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She has 
worked as Social Worker (for UNHCR, India); Gender Trainer (for Center 
for Social Research, New Delhi) and Consultant (for Institute of Social 
Studies Trust, New Delhi).She has written and published papers on issues 
of education; refugee children and street girls in Delhi.

Email: mallica_jnu at yahoo.co.in]


12.30-1.30 Lunch


1.30-3.00
The Endurance of Print
Chair: Rakesh Singh

Arshad Amanullah, New Delhi
Journalism in Madrasas and Madrasas in Journalism

Through the content analysis of more than a dozen magazines interspersed 
with the insights from interviews of around 30 editors and scribes, this 
paper seeks to explore the fascinating world of the madrasa journals. 
Apart from their thematic concerns, it brings in issues like 
geographical reach and the social composition of their consumers. 
Experiences of the editors and their approach to journalism also 
constitute a significant part of the paper. Moreover, it helps in 
developing a proper understanding of the process of bringing out wall 
magazines in madrasas. It also tries to grasp new trends in the domain 
of the madrasa journalism.

[Based in New Delhi, Arshad Amanullah is an independent filmmaker and 
researcher. He has an M.A. in Mass communication from Jamia Millia, New 
Delhi and has also studied for around 10 years in the Salafia Madrasa, 
Varanasi. He has published two books and several papers, and directed 
and scripted a couple of documentaries.

Contact: arshad.mcrc @ gmail.com ]


Ram Murthi Sharma, Una, Himachal Pradesh
An Analysis of Magazines in Braille

Ram Murthi Sharma has worked extensively in the field of education with 
Eklavya. He prepares educational content and trains teachers and 
provides consultancy. He holds a postgraduate degree in history from 
Punjab University, Chandigarh.


Izhar Ahmed Nadeem, Delhi
Muslim Mahilaon ki Urdu Patrikayo ki Duniya(Urdu Women's Magazines:
Their Impact on Muslim Women)



3.00-3.15 Refreshment Break


3.15-4.45
In Search of Form - 1
Chair: Vivek Narayanan

Rajesh Kumar K, Trivandrum
An Ethnography of Teyyam Performance from a Practitioner’s Point of View

This study attempts to analyse how long-term social transformation 
reflects on the life of a community in terms of their adherence to the 
Teyyam performance and their traditional social position as legitimate 
artists/workers of the Teyyam. The purpose of the study is to understand 
the predicament of marginal communities in the larger stratified 
society. Historically, marginalized/indigenous communities have been 
relegated to the conditions of existence of the most backward 
communities in the hierarchical social structure of India. This study 
intends to investigate social meanings, and aesthetic practices of 
cultural production in the contexts of Teyyam; a spirit medium ceremony 
performed by lower castes and Adivasi communities which can be say as a 
revenge against oppression by the dominant groups in the northern 
districts of Kerala State, India. The analysis will be an ethnographic 
and folkloristic discourse on behalf of the communities. This study will 
have an advantage of an “insider perspective”, as the researcher himself 
is an active performer of the Teyyam and will be able to combine 
individual experiences with the social, cultural and economic aspects of 
the community.

[Rajesh Komath is an artist and researcher. Rajesh did his Bachelor 
Degree in economics, Nirmalagiri College, Kuthuparambu, Kannur; 
completed his Post Graduation in Development Economics, Dr.John Matthai 
Centre, University of Calicut and travelled a long way to the capital of 
Kerala—Trivandrum to do his MPhil and PhD at theCentre for Development 
Studies, affiliated to JNU, New Delhi. His research is on Social 
Development of Teyyam Performing Community and change. "As I have been 
born into a community of Teyyam performers, traditionally belonging to 
North Malabar, this form has become, since childhood onwards, my life 
itself."

Email: rkomathcds @ rediffmail.com, rajeshkumar @ cds.ac.in]


Aman Sethi, Delhi
Seeking Alternative Ways and Means of Representing “the Poor and the
Oppressed” by Studying Informal Networks at Labour Mandis in Delhi


Aman Sethi’s fellowship, titled “Gareeb admi ka kaun dekhta hai: 
Alternative means of representation of ‘the poor and oppressed’“ 
focusses on building a new narrative to question existing media ractices 
on representation. Using a literary-journalism, or new-journalism 
format, his work seeks to configure existing hierarchies of state, the 
media and the “oppressed”.


Aman Sethi is a Delhi-based reporter with the fortnightly newsmagazine, 
Frontline. Contact: aman.am @ gmail.com


Rahul Pandita, Delhi
Byte Soldier: The Life and Times of a Metro TV Reporter/A Graphic Novel 
in Hindi

Rahul Pandita is a Delhi-based Freelance writer and journalist. He has 
formerly been a correspondent with Aaj Tak and Zee News television 
channels and has reported extensively from conflict zones like Iraq, 
Kashmir and India's Northeast. His articles have appeared in Outlook, 
Deccan Herald, Daily Pioneer, Northeast Sun, Sahara Times, Strategic and 
Defence Magazine and Finnish magazine Ihmisoikeus and Ydin.
In 2001 the National Foundation of India awarded him the Northeast Media 
Fellowship. His buildungsroman, Chinar In My Veins, won an e-author 
award. He is presently working on a second novel, based on the 1947 
tribesmen attack on Kashmir. He is a member of World Comics India and 
has been working on using comics as an alternate mode of communication.

Email: rahulpandita @ yahoo.com


4.45-5.00 Refreshment Break


5.00-6.30
In Search of Form - 2
Chair: Priya Sen

Nirupama Sekhar and Sanjay Ramchandran, Mumbai
Urban Stories: A Collection of Graphic Essays on the City of Mumbai

Urban Stories (working title) seeks to explore the myriad hues and 
dimensions of the culture of the city through a collection of stylized 
visual essays. Woven around Mumbai, the graphic essays will address a 
host of urban issues from the aesthetics of colonial architecture to the 
politics of postmodern identities. A visual experiment of sorts, Urban 
Stories will employ such diverse genres as collage and typography, 
illustration and photography. The resulting collection will emerge as a 
unique narrative of Mumbai, its pasts and presents, peoples and places.


[Urban Stories' is a collaborative project between Nirupama Sekhar and 
Sanjay Ramachandran. Alumni of the Symbiosis Institute of Mass 
Communication, Pune, their previous collaborations include the short 
film 'The 45 days around it' (DV; 8 min; B&W) screened at the British 
Council Digital Film Festival 2004. Both are based in Mumbai.

Sanjay works in television production and is currently employed with 
Channel V, Mumbai. His interests include making music and illustrations.

Nirupama also works in television production and is currently with 
Contiloe Films, Mumbai. She enjoys pursuing independent projects in the 
visual arts and graphic design.

Email: ramachandransanjay @ gmail.com, nirupama.sekhar @ gmail.com]



Lakshmi IndraSimhan and Jacob Weinstein, New Delhi
Vending as Vernacular: Depicting Street Sales and Services through
Sequential Art

In our project we conducted interviews with various streetside vendors 
and craftsmen in New Delhi. Due to language and other difficulties we 
were unable to achieve the level of detail we had originally envisioned 
as the basis of our work. We spoke to a wide range of vendors, aiming to 
document their skill sets, the tools and rules of their trade, 
methodology, income, personal history, etc. The results of our research 
are still in the process of being turned into a comic, but one that has 
become increasingly fictionalized, though they still use the 
conversations as basis for a series of visual narratives.

[Lakshmi IndraSimhan grew up in Kuwait, India, the Philippines, the US 
and Japan. She graduated with degrees in Political Philosophy and Fine 
Arts from Bryn Mawr College in 2002. Now she writes, draws and spends 
much time in her flat. She collects textiles. This summer she will have 
a short artist's residency at Point Ephemere in Paris. She lives in 
Delhi. lindrasi @ yahoo.com

Jacob Weinstein was the art director of The Philadelphia Independent. He 
is currently the designer of The Common Review. He was recently awarded 
an artist's residency at the Cite Internationales des Artes in Paris. He 
lives in Delhi. jacobmweinstein @ gmail.com]


Anjali Jyoti, New Delhi
Home Street Home: A Street Child Survival Guide for Delhi

Delhi is considered to have a fairly high population of street children 
and there exists an extensive formal support network for them. However 
lots of localized informal arrangements and systems have also evolved 
over time to facilitate survival on the streets. The aim is to cross 
communicate, that is to prepare a guide which makes a street child more 
aware of all the formal facilities available for him in terms of work 
options, health, education, shelter etc and compile a reverse guide for 
the likes of us, to make us more aware of the undercurrents of life on 
the streets so that the systems developed to facilitate the children of 
the street can be more effective.

A booklet containing maps and pictorial information about NGOs, what 
they provide for, government hospitals, educational facilities, bus 
routes, rights etc. A take on street life as I have gathered over the 
past 11 months, to get an idea of how wide a gap exists between what is 
required and what is being provided for. Archival material to be 
submitted (apart from guide): Photographs, maps/sketches made by 
children, film footage on the process of map making, feedback on the 
guide, etc.

[Anjali is an architect, working in Delhi for the past four years. 
Presently, she is site architect and part of the project management and 
LEED certification team for Development Alternatives Headquarters 
building (under construction). She has dabbled in photography and film 
making, and recently took pictures for a DUAC exhibition on Delhi. She 
is currently working on a film on street children and their relationship 
with the city, based on my research for Sarai.

email: anjalijyoti at yahoo.com ]

6.30-7.30 Closing Statements / Feedback Session