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

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

[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

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

ecstasy

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

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...

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

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...