[Reader-list] Dilip D'Souza, first posting

[Aditi thorat]

Thanks for this detailed response Zainab and Dilip, for your comments. I
apologise if I sounded too harsh, as well. Its just that the hierarchies
between what is conventionally considered valid academic exercise (such as
understanding of systems, interlinkages etc , along with extensive
intellectualising) as opposed to other forms of recording- whether that is
oral history, story-telling, music, folk etc, jars with me. I believe that
these forms very often reveal as much, if not more and they speak for
themselves as well, we do not need to intermediate with interpretation.

Anyway, keep the discussions alive!
Aditi


On 1/22/06, Dilip D'Souza -- Sarai <dilip.sarai at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Dear Zainab and Aditi,
>
> Thank you for the welcome exchange on my proposal, something I didn't
> at all expect! First of all, Zainab, there's no need to apologize, and
> I am quite happy for you to project your ideas on my proposal.
>
> Let me say this: I've never been much good at posing the larger
> research or academic questions (I think I first realized that when I
> failed my PhD exams). What I think I can do reasonably is write the
> stories of people I meet, and use those stories to ask questions or
> touch on broader themes. When I look back on the stuff I've written,
> this is the pattern I see, and it's the only way I know how to write.
>
> So my proposal to Sarai was, in essence, this:  I want to write those
> stories -- about Bombay's villages, in this case -- so will you give
> me the funding?
>
> no facetiousness meant.
>
> What questions those stories will pose when I write them, we'll have
> to see, and my readers will have to tell me.
>
> As for humanity: perhaps I used the word for want of a better one. I
> have no use for the romantic view of people's interaction, for the
> assumption that we are all really good-hearted do-gooders at heart.
> Though two things interest me in that vein: the dark things that
> people do, and the way people survive and live through them anyway.
>
> But with this project, what I hope to get some handle on is what makes
> up those large issues -- secularism, poverty, development, those
> things. We debate them, but how do they translate into everyday lives
> (or do they translate at all)? Again, when I look back at my writing,
> it's the times that I've had conversations with ordinary individuals
> when I've gained some better understanding of themes. Not the papers
> I've read, or seminars I've attended. So I hope to keep on with that
> over the next six months.
>
> I don't know if I've done anything better than a stream of
> consciousness reply to you both, nor if it has clarified anything. But
> I thank you again for thinking about what I wrote and for letting me
> know your thoughts; for giving me things to think about. Any other
> thoughts always welcome.
>
> cheers,
> dilip.
>



--
Aditi Thorat
Officer on Special Duty to Chief Minister
Government of Rajasthan
0141-5116629 (Tele/Fax)
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