con(fessions/fusions/texts)

blog has moved on... so should you...

2008-08-30T15:19:00.000-07:00

i have moved my blog from blogspot to wordpress... for ideological and aesthetic reasons :)

and wordpress is brilliant... you should move your blog there too... and i am not getting paid by wordpress for writing this...

so the new address is http://thisisnotriju.wordpress.com

plz update link to my blog, if you have any...

love

r i j u

sites and satrapi

2008-03-31T22:41:00.000-07:00

[self-portrait as cyborg, aref adib]

these websites i came across recently, and found interesting:

doing beyond gender
[not much archival richness yet, but promising]
cittaslow international
aref adib's photography site
alternative film guide

ps: go buy marjane satrapi's complete persepolis... brilliant... gloria steinem has this to say about d book: "You've never seen anything like Persepolis - the intimacy of a memoir, the irresistibility of a comic book, and the political depth of the conflict between fundamentalism and democracy. Marjane Satrapi may have given us a new genre"

pps: also go read donna haraway's celebrated piece - a cyborg manifesto...

atsushi tsunoda

2008-01-22T22:37:00.000-08:00

i have caught this 'urban-space' fever and it seems its gonna stay for some time... and i feel good about that :) so most of my time online is spent reading/looking up on urbanity (cultures, economies, spatialities, histories, architectures, genderednesses etc)... and came across this set of images by atsushi tsunoda, capturing cuban urbanity... beautiful pics... lotsa stories... gotta share... link

ecstasy II

2007-12-27T23:46:00.000-08:00

ecstasy

2007-12-12T02:51:00.000-08:00

i was taking some pics of mine recently... mostly of my room etc... also the question of 'body' has been rolling arnd in muh mind for some time now... and of masculinity... pretty inspired by this exhibition i went to see today... on 'exploring masculinities'... more on that (and hopefully some pics) is coming later... uploading of this pic is clearly inspired by tht...

i named it ecstasy... dont know exactly why... wht wud hav u named it?

vikram seth - dubious

2007-11-22T23:16:00.000-08:00

Some men like Jack
And some like Jill
I'm glad that I like
Them both, but still

I wonder if
This freewheeling
Really is an
Enlightened thing

Or is its greater
Scope a sign
Of deviance from
Some party line?

In the strict ranks of
Gay and Straight
What is my status:
Stray? or Great?

[it shudnt be unknown to u tht i hav ths thingi for vikram seth's poetry/prose... but mostly poetry... well, his prose is poetry enough :)]

[and how can u not love someone who says "agar maine Awara Hoon na gaaya hota, to main abhi tak economist rahta"... read it here]

as she bled...

2007-11-18T22:47:00.000-08:00

general equilibrium was existing
alive and kicking
following strict quasi-concavity...

under law of expectations iterated
the smaller info set dominated
and the rain came to capital city...

river yamuna got displaced
(and muddily rehabilitated)
on the outer ring road...

while the parrots declared finally
north of SSS that eight tree
as their sovereign aboad...

gin n' appy got drained down
samosas gobbled up
while peasants were raped
and nuke deals debated
a team won a cup!

crackers were cracked
and bharat (ka) mata ki' was jai-ed!
celebrations bright...

and dear reader, you are right
about the colour that tinted my sight...

the dye that has reddened:
the beaks of the parrots
the colour of water at outer ring road
the sindur of bharat ka mata
the point representing general equilibrium
tha rapists' hands' grease
gin 'n appy fizz...

[ths is somethng i wrote inspired by a frnd's piece - 'i bleed'... ths was writtn during the end of september - the mid-sem season - while her piece sat heavy on my mind and the world was appearing to me through the prism of her poetry...]

[vikram seth remains an inspi as always... esp kim tarvesh!]

msgs

2007-11-15T01:58:00.000-08:00

in a particularly vela moment (ones that dominate when the end-sem exams become scarily proximate) i was going through the inbox of my mobile phone... and felt that some of the msgs resting thr must be shared with you all... voila! here is the result...

>> a friend was sick and wanted to hear a story... i msgd her the following story...

"thr was ths princes,single,heard abt ths prince,good lookin,who has been kept captiv by ths dragon,big bad dragon,she pikd up a hurley & went to d dragon's lair

d dragon was havin a wintr aftrnoon nap,she woke it up & aftr a long conversatn convincd it to rip apart & throw away...

d socially constructed role of d 'big bad dragon',then she deconstructd ths captor-captiv binary and scolded d prince for unquestngly playin d given social role,coming out of d restrictin social roles d dragon and d prince lookd at each othr, and thr was L O V E in d air,they livd hapily evr aftr,and d prnces

rode her hurley out to d sunset, deconstructng evry prince,dragon etc on her way to glory."

anothr msg i sent...

"if a guy is ths playful wid words i wonder wht was he like in bed?
guess who am i talkng abt?"
[derrida]

>> these r some of the msgs i got...

"i really don't want to go to school tomorrow... i want to get drunk and have choco orgasms again..."

[abt ppl who use pomo as a curse word] "At least they r hnst about there fascist outlk"

"Philsophy has ruined me. I am writing an essay defending Kant. Even able to argue against a non eurocentric approach. I scare myself."

"Buddhababu aajkal kebal chem hub aorachchen... janata onar nam diyeche HABUDA"
[tr: Buddhababu (cm of wb) is talking only abt chemical hubs ths days... people have named him HABU-DA]

ps: end-sem exams start from 24th...

rethinking marxist theory of value

2007-07-11T21:26:00.000-07:00

Globalisation can be analytically viewed as the era when rent extraction, inevitably relying on PCA, has become the predominant means of extraction of surplus by large capital, which is global. I had suggested that global capital not only extracts rent through acquisition of property rights over land and other natural resources, but it also extracts rent on the basis of acquisition of sole rights to knowledge and markets, and through the imposition of immobility on labour. All these it manages through various international laws and regulations. One could club all these uses of the discriminatory powers derived from the same legal framework that is deemed by the faithful to be non-discriminatory, and so impersonal, under the common theoretical rubric of PCA without violence to the fundamental theoretical propositions of Marx.

- pranab basu - globalisation and pca

primitive capital accumulation (pca) denotes the moment at which the legal/property-relation structure tht determines and governs the flow of rent, is established... since the property-relation structure concerned for all possible properties can not be constructed at a single moment (for pragmatic reasons, as well as the reason that 'property' as a category evolves with time)... hence primitive cannot be read as 'temporally initial' but shud be read as 'logically initial', 'logic' being the logic tht governs the extraction of rent... once the logic/property-relation is in place the underlying structure of violence that forms the basis of such logic/property-relation is gradually normalised/rationalised by the ideology which determines and is determined by that structure of violence... accumulation of capital under the dominance of such ideology cannot be differentiated from 'normal' (read non-primitive) capital accumulation... rent extraction must depend logically on pca but does not require the co-existence of pca... however, cracks/fissures in such normalisation is commonplace, and normalising projects are often rejected - partially or entirely... an obvious example is the experience in west bengal... where despite much efforts by the state government the normalisation of the violence carried out to acquire land for tata/salem groups' factories has not been possible... i differ categorically with prof basu regarding calling "all these uses of the discriminatory powers derived from the same legal framework ... under the common theoretical rubric of PCA"... all the instances of surplus/rent extraction as justified by the structure of private property rights must not be understood as an instance of pca... that expands the term so much tht it loses its very meaning - the importance of 'primitive'... pca, in clearer terms, must be understood as the accumulation of capital where the 'logic' that governs and justifies it, is not yet in ideologically dominant position... it however, once performed and re-performed, enforces the ideology concerned in a dominant position and thus transforming it into 'normal' capital accumulation...

prof basu calls for a rejection of exchange-value and a return to use value with the word of caution/clarification that "fundamentally in all spheres one must try to revitalise the community content of use value at the cost of the subjective, individual use values"... but individual, subjective use value was always already polluted/determined by social requirements/dictums... further, "direct heterogeneous social relations" re/produce hierarchies as necessarily as does "homogeneous relations mediated through commodity exchange"... the theoretical problem here however predates prof basu... the project of deconstructing marxian theory of value has been wrongly premised upon the binary of use-value an exchange-value... the very fact that an object hav use-value, implies that it also might hav use-value for somebody else and/or for the same person at another time... the former requires stock decision about exchanging that object wid somebody else - 'property-exchange'... the latter requires flow decision regarding inter-temporal 'use-'exchange' of that object... both implies the always already presence of exchange-value for that object... marx found use-value to not to be of his interest, as he regarded it as a pre-exchange economy relic... much similar to the way saussure dint bothered to further consider 'referent' in his theory of linguistics, as he found it to be a 'pre-linguistic' relic... both 'pre-exchange' and 'pre-linguistic' however are impossibilities... thus making both the categories use-value and referent poor in theoretical content... this so-called binary of use-value and exchange-value was mis-identified... the frozen play lies elsewhere...

marx however was convinced that money is a repository of exchange-value, thus money-price hav a direct/non-arbitrary correspondence with exchange-value... it has been believed that the money price of an object necessarily reflect its exchange-value... even is determined by the latter... which i call upon for re-consideration... a fitting analogy is that of the relation between signifier, signified and referent... while the signifier-signified was seen as forming one entity, its relation with the referent was understood by saussure to be 'arbitrary'... the direct/certain relation between signifier-signified was only deconstructed later by derrida and thus declaring the advent of the post-structuralism... i suggest we see money-price as the signifier of the signified exchange-value... the so-called direct correspondence between them requires deconstruction... and let the arbitrariness of their relation be taken as the preferred entry point into the marxian theory of value...

the signifier 'money-price' is believed to signify the signified 'exchange-value'... directly and with certainty... but the concept of exchange-value is far older, it existed in a market-realm without money... in gift economies... in barter economies... it also need to be emphasised that in a system of fiat money, money itself is not any more defined upon the amount of a particular commodity it represents, but only in terms of itself... reading the rbi gov's declaration on any rupee note will clarify this... thus money no longer 'reprsents' value... it represents itself... rather the category of 'value' has been substituted by the interplay of money-prices... the proliferation of money among many a things has extended the deferral/differal of value... it has gradually taken up the role of determining exchange-value itself... its no more that a commodity is expensive because its production require much 'socially necessary labour', but much 'socially necessary labour' is produced and expended for the production of a commodity because it is of great 'money-price'... this is how the circuit of money and commodity defined by it, goes on to determine 'socially necessary labour'... thus redefining 'social' and 'labour' on its way to further and greater M'... and such redefining is exactly what is denoted as pca above...

thus, we may construct a revised marxian theory of value, where money plays the central role in determining value, as well as social relations... and not simply is something tht represents exchange-value... the latter itself must be understood as produced through the interaction of money-prices... the value of the commodity is only expressable/acceptable when it is communicated in terms of money... it does not matter how much abstract labour it embodies... a taj mahal or great wall of china is regarded as of 'wonder'ful value only because it is supported by money spent in terms of sms-s and e-mails and advertisements... interestingly the great pyramids failed to do so...

note: what i hav written in this post, at best can be described as a conviction... tis no more well-informed or theorised than that... but it seems to offer something, which might be a dead end too... futher studies/understandings/reflections are needed before writing more about this.. also i shud thank dear sir-ji for that wonderful discussion last evening, where i first presented these ideas... we talkd abt many other related things... which will be communicated as they concretise...

in continuation...

2007-07-10T02:24:00.000-07:00

i was planning to upload two favourite pieces of cartoon for some time now... there they go... in continuation of the mood set in by the previous post... both these cartoon are wonderful illustrations of pretty heavy-duty theories - the arbitrariness of signifier/signified and the construction of the 'uncanny'/'other'... but does that in a delightfully hilarious manner... the second one can be further read in terms of 'civilisation' and 'madness'/'monstrosity'...

gloria steinem - if men could menstruate

2007-07-10T00:16:00.000-07:00

for some time now, i have been in luv wid gloria steinem in general and wid this essay titled "if men could menstruate" in particular... and just discovered that the essay is available online! here is the link... also check out this interview of gloria in feminist.com... the essay is one of the finest piece of writing in feminist tradition i hav read... it superbly engages the reader in a discussion of one of the most taboo subjects - menstruation - and that too in a hilarious manner with a piercing theoretical undercurrent... i cannot think of a better illustration of how power/knowledge function, and tht too without a trace of the jargon baggage of the usual academician...

note: a dear friend mailed recently depicting her experience in a newspaper (where she works) editorial team discussion about whether to allow female soldiers in combat role... and there came a host of 'logical'/'scientific' reasons why the female body is physically and psychologically unsuitable for combat roles... reading her mail remineded me again of gloria's essay... read it, you'l know why... btw, reema, forward ths essay to your women-cant-fight-coz-they-menstruate friends... and lemme know their reactions... cheers...

racoon/dream and hobbes...

2007-07-08T00:01:00.000-07:00

: hey!
: hey!
: u a dreamer?
: yeah
: havnt seen too many around lately... thing been tough lately for dreamers... they say dreaming is dead... no one does it anymore... its not dead its just hav been forgotten... removed from our language... nobody teaches it, nobody knows it exists... the dreamers is banished to obscurity... i am tryin to change all tht now, hope u r too... by dreaming... every day... dreaming with our hands and dreaming with our minds... our planet is facing the greatest problem it has ever faced... ever... so whatever u do, dont be bored... its absolutely the most exciting time we can possibly hope to be alive... and the things are just starting...

- waking life

but what hapns when the dream/racoon die? do u wait for another dream/racoon? or do u wait for the same one to come back? or do u look for another dream/racoon while deep down waiting for the old one to come back? or do u just say - "what a stupid world!" and take a shower, eat lunch, get the bicycle out and go cycling to nowhere cause tis a luvly breezy rain-washed sunny day outside... irnoy clearly is the bitterest of feelings... drives u harder than caffeine... u long for the racoon/dream to be around even more in a day like today...

btw, u always already know tht the dream/racoon is not really dead... tis out there somewhere... but not with you... and that makes it dead to you... the knowledge of presence, though un-felt/un-touched heightens the sense of loss...

u wish tht some dreams/racoons will stay around for alwys... calvin got hobbes... but what about hobbes? who does he got?

is hobbes bi-curious?

2007-07-07T04:03:00.000-07:00

i was going thru some calvin and hobbes strips... fueled by serious velapanthy... and lo! is hobbes bi-curious? well he clearly hav a thing for susie... lol... see this... and ummm, can u see what i see in this strip? well before u get ur fingrs on keyboard, plzzzz, dont tell me hobbes is innocent ;) lmfao...

wow! me got a helluva character!

2007-07-07T03:21:00.000-07:00

me pretty ecstatic reading abt ppl wid whom i share characteristic traits... constantine, death, jack sparrow, vincent vega, dwight and nancy... am i supposed to freak out? is it okie if i dont? :P
btw i am tweety too... i tink i taw tupid tuizzes... i did i did... i did taw tupid tuizzes... lol lol lol

further velapanthy (and some interesting results!)

2007-07-06T22:54:00.000-07:00

a series of further character quizzes i went for out of serious velapanthy... check out d last 2 results, both d same... tis interesting to say d least... tht constantine one is interesting too... and dont miss the sin city results ;)

Which Harry Potter Kid Are You?

Which Gritty No Nonsense Comic Book Character Are You?

You are John Constantine. John has a strong knowledge of the occult and at times he appears to wield strong magical powers but he has also become known as something of a con-man, more likely to talk himself out of trouble than pull a rabbit out of a hat.
Take this quiz!

ummm who is ths guy? anybody heard of him?

Which Superhero Are You?

Hey, You're the friendly neighborhood Spiderman!!! You're cool cuz you're nice, you try to please everyone, and above all, you are humble. Those powers of yours are for good only.No messing around.
Take this quiz!

took the watchmen character quiz and the verdict was:

you are the silk spectre or the comedian.

You're law enforcement material! Whether it's working vice or for the CIA, you have all the tools. You're brash, tough, and resilient. You could go far!

You'd do well on the "other side" of the law too. Consider organized crime, pornography, politics, or the tobacco industry.

lol lol lol... pretty intriguing... here is the link...

also among the cartoon characters:

You are Tweety.

You are cute, and everyone loves you. You are a best friend that no one takes the chance of losing. You never hurt feelings and seldom have your own feelings hurt. Life is a breeze. You are witty, and calm most of the time. Just keep clear of back stabbers, and you are worry-free.

here is the link... and am very happy wid da result... ;)

Which Sin City Character Are You?

You are out of your mind. You are very protective of those around you and you will throw yourself into harms way to protect those that yo card about. You are Dwight.
Take this quiz!

The Sin City Character Test

Your Score: Nancy
You scored 100% Morality, 44% Killer Instinct, and 0% Insanity!

You are sweet, but your job as stripper makes you less than innocent and your longing for Hartigan coupled with the fact that you were kidnapped as a child by a homocidal paedophile probably knocked some screws loose somewhere. Still, you're every guy's wet dream, right?

Which Sandman Character are you?

You are Death! You are cheerful and pleasant, but you have a deeper meaning. You are optimistic, and can irritate people by this. However, you can also be firm and thoughtful.
Take this quiz!

Which Neil Gaimans Sandman character are you most like? (pics)
Death, Teleute Youre kind, beautiful, intelligent and a smiling person... Youll be the last who leave the universe and turn off the lights of all existence... Youre the one who better understands human nature
Take The Quiz Now!	Quizzes by myYearbook.com

surviving a tornado with a post-structuralist

2007-07-06T06:38:00.000-07:00

lol lol lol... read this...
surviving a tornado with a post-structuralist

a continuation of non/articulated discussions

2007-07-06T05:58:00.000-07:00

this post was brewing in my mind, in context of recent discussions i had wid ths frnd, a document written by her that i commented upon a month back, an old letter (dated 21st march 06) and post in her blog... it was aided by the fact that i was ill for last 3 days and it was raining all the time, and i cudnt go out, and i am very disturbed by the things happening in jnu and abt lotsa other things...

i shall try to make it short and simple, as much as the content allows... lemme quote from tht old letter - coming out of tiss she reflected back upon the time spent in presidency college, calcutta:

In these two years the understanding that maybe Presidency college canteen conversations on Foucault and Russian revolution was lots of dreams and sensationalization; all of this ideology still holds me back but at the same time you also come to realize the academic and theoretical approach would not help the community based organizations who have evolved from the ‘93 Bombay riots and have struggled to ensure that communal harmony is the premise of development, their conditions are-one day of work missed to make a visit to the BMC(Bombay Municipal Corporation) means one day’s wage and therefore one meal less. I have learnt it is our faith and belief in what we do that makes it worth struggles of this kind and more.

well the key sentence to me is "the academic and theoretical approach would not help the community based organizations who have evolved from the ‘93 Bombay riots and have struggled to ensure that communal harmony is the premise of development"... i, as u might know, would rather argue that the theoretical approach definitely has lots to contribute to any grass-root movement... i am not so sure what she means by academic approach, if 'academic' is understood as institutionalised produced-in-university knowledge, well clearly i dont believe it to hav any primacy in knowledge hierarchy... but 'theoretical knowledge' thats something else... the rest of this post deals wid what to me is the most important aspect of theoretical exercises in context of political praxis (is there any other kind? well, a development professional just might say yes lol lol lol)...

by theoretical exercises i refer to various usages of largely post-structuralist theories... the reasons being - (i) coz that is what i practice when i do so ;) (ii) such theories are also dealt wid by most thinking precidencians (as apparent from her mention of 'foucault') (iii) they are usually cited as the most esoteric brand of all wretched theories, as a love toy for 'happy narrators of tragedy' sitting in ivory-towers/coffee-houses... among various terms/jargons to be found in post-structuralist theory literature, the two that i consider to be the cornerstones are 'deconstruction' and 'genealogy'... to explain in my naive/vague words, the former is the analysis of hierarchies (among binaries) till the moment of its crumbling or deconstruction; and the latter is the study of how that (crumble-prone) hierarchical order came into being in the first place, and what things made it appear invinsible? a note should be added, genealogy as a method does not attempt to find the 'origin' of hierarchical and/or hierarchising order, but rather the environment, the constellation of events, interaction of orders and meer accidents that led to their formation...

now what does this blah blah blah has to offer to one caught up in praxis? well it allow one to be self-reflexive in a very systematic manner... it allows one to be cautious and critical about the hierarchies in one's mind (and presumptions) that necessarily underpins any form of praxis... i should not claim that being cautious implies negation of all presumptions and un-deconstructed hierarchy of believes regarding what-constitute-'good'-praxis... in fact all praxis must necessarily be based on some presumptions and priority/hierarchy of issues/interests... this theory allows one to be aware of such ideological choices... the very fact that our perceptions and experiences are socially contsructed, it is natural that our praxis shall be informed by immediate experiences/perceptions which cannot be claimed universal/absolute in any sense... deconstruction and genealogy allows one to be aware of one's theoretical limitation and hence the limitation of the praxis... to be aware of one's experiences, perceptions, desires, fantacies, frustrations, oedipal-what-nots etc that lead one to believe in the specific form praxis... being aware also does not help at times... but at least one stay aware... in this post in my frnd's blog she expresses her wish to be a 'nobody'... as i understand this 'nobody' of her reflects a desire to have a self that is pure, absolute, defined-entirely-by-itself-only-
and-not-in-relation-to-'other'-orders-or-entities(say hinduism)... the nobody is 'no'body because it houses within itself all that is required to define it, and thus doesnt require to be a 'some'body to an 'other'body for its identity... this desire for absolute presence is, however, not one to be fulfiled... the impossibility of being a nobody makes it even more important to understand what constitutes one's own body... and deconstruction n genealogy are what allows one to do that...

self-reflexivity, however, requires one to be both the analysing subject and the analysed subject - an act that irreconcilably fragments the self... coming in terms wid the fragmented self aint an easy thing... some findings turn up to be particularly disturbing... anyway, tis easier to use those tools on texts other than one's self... for example the earlier sentence - "the academic and theoretical approach would not help the community based organizations who have evolved from the ‘93 Bombay riots and have struggled to ensure that communal harmony is the premise of development, their conditions are-one day of work missed to make a visit to the BMC(Bombay Municipal Corporation) means one day’s wage and therefore one meal less." tis apparent that a particular theoretical approach, the entire category of which has been written off, actually underlined the functioning of the community based organizations concerned - that a community based approach struggling for 'communal harmony' will be appropriate praxis for the situation concerned... this clearly is a theoretical position informed by individual/collective expreiences... an example closer to my heart is the mode of protest carried out by students in jnu during recent movement asking for provision of stipulated minimum wage and working conditions to workers in jnu... the movement was based on the understanding that the labourer 'individual' has the 'right' to be provided with minimum stipulated wage and working conditions... irrespective of who the employer is - a public enterprise or a contractor working under one... a very different take could be that the very arrangement of 'contracting out job' is practiced to put the unorganised labour as a sub/class in a weaker bargaining position... suddenly the aim of the praxis (movement) turns from one attemting to claim what is 'rightfully' there, to struggling to attain a better bargaining position... let us not evaluate the differences in the praxis as emerging from underlying theoretical differences but simply recongnise that there emerges some differences, which might play a big/small role in the actual effectivity of the movement...

which character am i?

2007-07-04T21:12:00.000-07:00

i am pretty amused by all ths 'which ... character are you?' quizzes u get all over net... so i took some of them... very interesting results... and am totally at loss in understanding which character am i... well the whole exercise is based on the weak premise that i might be like one of those characters in pulp fiction, friends etc... anyway, see the results and go figure out... lmao

The Pulp Fiction Character Test

Your Score: Vincent

Smooth as vanilla, you try not to open your mouth when you talk. You often do stupid things from not paying attention, like blowing up some guy's head. A heavy smoker, and an excellent dancer.

What Pulp Fiction Character Are You?

You're cautious, a bit paranoid. You left the scene for the suburban married life, but somehow, touble seems to follow you and piss on your mornings. You are quick to share your point of view, but have no problems with giving in to the requests of wives and wolves. 
What LoTR Character Are You?

You are most like Elrond. Although you are very serious, you're not above having a good time. It's just that your definition of a good time is pretty different from other people's. You're very smart, so use your knowledge to help others! At least your not so pessimistic. People may think you're hard nosed, but all your friends know better.

which Friends character are you?

you're monica...a perfectionist who's ALWAYS cleaning.  there's no one you love more than your friends...unless they spill cookie crumbs on the couch.
Take this quiz!

Pirates of the Caribbean Personality Test

You Are: CAPTAIN Jack Sparrow! You're funny, charming, and you have a lot of tricks up you're sleave. You tend to be mischevious as well as dishonest. You charm the ladies...in a way...and, might I say, you get slapped a lot. But otherwise you're just one hott pirate! Go you!
Take this quiz!

umm i think tis outrageous to claim tht i am like vincent vega or jack sparrow... also tht claim is further problematised by the fact tht i absolutely admire both the johny-s ;) tis not surprising tht i am like monica... though guess am bit of ross too... i am pretty much happy wid d fact that the johny depp character i am most likely to be is j.m. barry from finding neverland... the result of that quiz cannot be pasted... so find d quiz here... further among jedi warriors, i am closest to obi-wan kenobi... here is the link to the quiz... am also pretty content being elrond and jimmie dimmick... the latter was played by tarantino himself... me pretty proud lol lol lol

what does the powerless do?

2007-07-04T07:08:00.000-07:00

recently read joe sacco's palestine and watched ararat made by atom egoyan... palestine is a work of political journalism using the medium of graphic novel... genre-bending stuff... great work of art... very interesting compositions... what attracts me most probably is the highly self-reflexive manner of narrating... as joe moves through the locales tis always in his mind that he is gonna draw ths thing, so alwys thinking abt how to get an interesting angle - in reporting as well as visually... tht makes him to stand in a certain place when a strife breaks out between israeli soldiers and palestinians... joe clearly suffers from what probably every conflict-zone journalist suffer from - the naturalisation of violence... he gets stuck betwn two worlds one in which riju is shocked and pained and dunno-wht-elsed by knowing tht pen refills are shoved inside penises to make ppl talk and sign things, and the other world in which a muslim adult male who hasnt sufferd ths is probably an informer to israeli army... such incidents of violence gradually becms commonplace for joe too and he slowly loses interest in documenting such incidents... rather the subtle moments of resistance tickles his curiosity... moments which he initialli though laughable and childish... he signs off pondering over the question "what does one do when s/he knows s/he is powerless and the opponent is omnipotent?"... now thats a question very close to muh heart ths days... but thts a subject for another occassion... ths post however will deal with my little-informed theorisation of the palestinian conflict...

the film ararat is quite a complex once and deserve a dedicated post... anyway, the issue from tht film which i want to cite now provides the film with its immediate context - mass killing of armenian population in turkey during the formation of tht nation-state... the central issue of the film i feel howver is a different one - the necessity of believing in something even if it is false, or the unbearable lightness of being witht Truth - which i shal deal wid later... anyway, coming bak to present context, armenians argues that the mass-killing was carried out by a state on its own population - a genocide... while the turkish ppl see the killing as a war agnst the armenians... the turkish argument is that having a sizeable ethnic 'other' within the boundary of the nation-state constitute a clear threat to sovereignty and hence the 'war' agnst the ethnic 'other'... ths argument follows directly from the european idea of nation-state as defined upon a certain ethno-cultural-linguistic group... whereas the armenian position is that there were no war, the state killed a part of her population citing religious difference (armenians are christian)... like any other section of the population, armenians depended upon the turkish state to defend them agnst 'external' threat... and wasnt prepared to take on the onslaught of tht very state... the denial of the genocide as practiced by turkish state however is follows structurally from the very premise of nation-state in european sense...

i saw ths film after reading palestine... what occured to me immediately is tht ths ethno-linguistic unity based concept of european nation state is at the heart of the palestine-israel conflict... whereas from a non-european perspective it seems obvious that jerusalem being the center of three religious worlds, cannot possibly be part of a state in european sense... neither possible is a vatican city like solution... its unfortunate that jews who hav faced the burnt of being the ethnic-religious 'other' within european nation states most terribly, themselvs practice similar oppression in the name of sovereignty of the same form of state... of course i am not ignoring the intricate real-geo-politik is associated wid the conflict... but tis unfortunate tht the discursive justificatn is based on tht same european idea of state which has produced anti-semiticism by its own obvious logic... once that label of 'uncanny'/'other' is imposed on the palestinians by israeli invaders, once israel adopts that european form of nation-state, the possibility of a dialogue within a democratic framework necessarily breaks down... militant stuggle becomes the only path... be it pieces of rocks thrown at israerli soldiers to answer their percussion grenades and tear-gas shells and automatic rifles...

btw, in construction sites inside jawaharlal nehru university daily-wage labourers are paid 60rs where the minimum stipulated wage for unskilled workers in delhi is 128rs... when some of them asked for a 5rs hike in wage-rate, they were sacked... when students protested agnst that and put up posters, the jnu administration ignored them and torn down and washed away the posters... next day students agitated outside the admin block and gherao-ed the registrar... the admin retaliated by suspending the students who led the agitation... in an university general body meeting students gave the verdict that the suspension has been totally unjust and shud be repealed immediately... the admin remained silent for some time... and two weeks ago it has rusticated the student leaders... an indefinite hunger strike is underway in jnu agnst ths totalitarian decisions of the jnu admin to protect its corrupt core... well, i hav lotsa criticisms abt the whole mode of protest carried out by the studnts - from lack of theoretical understanding to more pragmatic issues - but leaving that apart, the incident (which is still going on) is a very disturbing one to say the least... the question is the same one - how one intervenes when s/he is powerless against an omnipotent opposition? it is apparent that s/he does not stand still entrapped in powerlessness, s/he always intervences (be it by throwing stones or putting up posters)... but how tht can be bettered? made more effective? and applying to good senses of ppl is not an option... thr aint anyone wid tht in jnu admin... in any admin i guess... well, if one gazes into the admin, the admin too gazes into him/her...

visual dna

2007-07-03T03:47:00.000-07:00

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

the birth

2006-09-07T00:59:00.000-07:00

for no certain reason this blog took birth today... is there really no certain reason? wait... going back almost 9 months and 2 weeks (!) i reach the end of november 05... now what does that mean?

well i think it means something... but am not too sure... as i am with every other events/situation/feelings i engage with day in and day out...

so bear it with me...

ps: i had a blog... which is lying dormant since last 14th feb :) the next couple of entries are originally from that blog... am pasting them here to save them from getting thrown into the bin of unwanted bytes...

nigel gray - the letter

2006-09-06T12:29:00.008-07:00

If there is no letter from you
it means maybe
you no longer love me
(I am afraid of losing you)
I am child given a balloon

(a balloon doesn't stay full-round and shiny long)

maybe you met someone since you wrote
(three days after all is a long time)
this morning there was no letter
(weights were hooked onto my belly
dragging it down)
there was a letter from South Africa
James has been arrested
(I felt ashamed of the pain in my belly)

L.NGUDLE DIED IN CUSTODY IN PRETORIA
SUICIDE BY HANGING

it is fear that James might be the next to die
(my pain persisted)

B.MERHOPE DIED IN CUSTODY IN WORCESTER
CAUSES UNDISCLOSED

James has been in prison three months
(three days is a long time)

J.TYITYA DIED IN CUSTODY IN PORT ELIZABETH
SUICIDE BY HANGING

without you I am as vulnerable as a mouse
my imagination has the claws of a cat
my fantasies are as spiteful as fragmentation bombs
I torture myself with the thoughts of
what men might be doing to you
(giving you pleasure perhaps!)

S.SALODJEE DIED IN CUSTODY IN JOHANNESBURG
HE FELL FROM A SEVENTH FLOOR WINDOW
DURING INTERROGATION

I can't imagine what men might be doing to James
what forms their torture takes

N.GAGA DIED IN CUSTODY IN THE TRANSKEI
FROM NATURAL CAUSES

They are capable of everything

P.HOYE DIED IN CUSTODY IN THE TRANSKEI
FROM NATURAL CAUSES

maybe they tell him his wife is fucking white policemen
(maybe you are fucking white policemen)

James is in pain
(so am I)
(I am ashamed to say it)

J.HAMAKWEYO DIED IN CUSTODY IN PRETORIA
SUICIDE BY HANGING

James might be the next to die
I am doing what little I can

H.SHONYEKA DIED IN CUSTODY IN PRETORIA
SUICIDE

it takes time
(three days is a long time)

P.LIN DIED IN CUSTODY IN PRETORIA
SUICIDE BY HANGING

after beatings a man might take three days to die
men maybe dying now

A.YAN DIED IN CUSTODY IN PRETORIA
SUICIDE BY HANGING

my pain is clearly not important
I feel guilty about it
(yet it persists)

A.MADIBA DIED IN CUSTODY IN AN UNDISCLOSED
PLACE
SUICIDE BY HANGING

if I were to lose the ones I love
it is possible I might want to die

J.TUBAKWE DIED IN CUSTODY IN PRETORIA
SUICIDE BY HANGING

but I can't imagine I would want
to be hung by the ankles from a tenth floor window

N.NKGOATHE DIED IN CUSTODY IN PRETORIA
HE SLIPPED IN THE SHOWER

even if I felt I would welcome oblivion
I can't imagine I would welcome
being beaten to death with iron bars

IT WAS DISCLOSED IN PARLIAMENT IN SOUTH
AFRICA THAT AN UNNAMED PERSON DIED IN
CUSTODY IN AN UNDISCLOSED PLACE ON AN
UNDISCLOSED DAY

(it has never been disclosed
that many more people have died in similar circumstances)

S.MODIPANE DIED IN CUSTODY IN AN
UNDISCLOSED PLACE

HE SLIPPED IN THE SHOWER

in every city centre there should be a tomb
for the unknown civilian
where a flame should burn till the torturers have been stopped

J.LENKOE DIED IN CUSTODY IN PRETORIA
SUICIDE BY HANGING

we can't do anything for them now
meat can't be made to sing
nor bones to dance

C.MAYEKISO DIED IN CUSTODY IN PORT ELIZABETH
FROM NATURAL CAUSES

it is impossible to make mutilated minds and bodies whole
we can't turn heroin to poppy resin
or fascist papers into tree

M.SHIVUTE DIED IN CUSTODY IN AN UNDISCLOSED
PLACE
SUICIDE

pehaps we could stop torturing each other
perhaps we could put an end to unnecessary deaths
but I don't know how

J.MONAKGOTLA DIED IN CUSTODY IN PRETORIA
THROMBOSIS

I do not know that sleeping without you
is like lying in an ice box
on a bed of nails

IMAM HARON DIED IN CUSTODY IN CAPE TOWN
HE FELL DOWN STAIRS

James is forced to sleep without his woman
(I can't bear to sleep alone)
(I wonder if they let him sleep)

M.CUTHSELA DIED IN CUSTODY IN AN
UNDISCLOSED PLACE
FROM NATURAL CAUSES

James will found himself alone each time he wakes
(I can't bear to wake alone)
(I wonder if they will let him wake)

A.TIMOL DIED IN CUSTODY IN JOHANNESBURG
HE JUMPED FROM A TENTH FLOOR WINDOW
DURING INTERROGATION

(it doesn't really matter does it
whether they pushed him
or whether they filled that small cube
with so much pain
that two and a half seconds of freedom in space
was worth taking in exchange for life)
James's cell might be slowly filling now
with pain like liquid that will drown him
even if treads water till the very end
till his human skull is pressed against
the lifeless concrete of the interrogation room ceiling

J.MDLULI DIED IN CUSTODY IN DURBAN
CAUSES UNDISCLOSED

I don't know what to do
James might be the next to die

M.MOHAPI DIED IN CUSTODY IN KEI ROAD
SUICIDE BY HANGING

I would not change places with him if I could
if it were you
I might
( you are more important to me than James )
( James's woman is more important to him than I )
James would understand

L.MAZWEMBE DIED IN CUSTODY IN CAPE TOWN
SUICIDE BY HANGING

James might be the next to die.

*this was posted in my earlier blog on 16th oct 2004...

nigel gray - come close

2006-09-06T12:29:00.001-07:00

i can't write love poems
images keep
shouldering their way
between me
and my love
like pigs on a demonstration
images
of butchering
of mutilation
of an unkind word
like a
SLAP
across a child's face

in me
where the love should be
there is
a bloody
hole
like a quarry
where year after year
more and more
is gourged out
by mechanical grabs

yet there is something still
that is warm
(like a paraffin heater
in an empty barn)
if you are cold
you must come
very close

*this was posted in my earlier blog on 14th feb 2005...