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

[zainab at xtdnet.nl]

Dear Aditi and Dilip,
I think this has been a very interesting and useful interaction. To me, it
reveals issues about academia and methods, a discussion which I think is
important and useful for a list like this. Raising the questions that each
one of us has about academics, 'knowledge production', research, I
believe, gets me to question my own work as a researcher (if I may call
myself one, though the people I interact with call me a journalist.

Looking forward to more of this!

Warmly,
Zainab



> 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)
>


Zainab Bawa
Bombay
www.xanga.com/CityBytes
http://crimsonfeet.recut.org/rubrique53.html