Category: Lookit!

Categories
Do

Bringing butterflies back to Mumbai

A new initiative by a city-based NGO, OASIS, hopes to attract butterflies – and colour – back to the city.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

In a city starved of green spaces and facing greatly diminished nesting areas for birds, any initiative that strives to welcome our feathered friends into the hustle and bustle of the city must be welcomed with open arms.

A few weeks ago, on June 5, World Environment Day, city-based NGO OASIS started a new initiative for Mumbai city, specifically targeting its public gardens, in an attempt to create ‘butterfly parks’ at various spots in the city. The initiative, called ‘Bring back butterflies’ aims to attract at least some of the 150 species of butterflies seen in Mumbai, to the city’s public gardens and parks.

Dr Puja SukhijaSpeaking to The Metrognome, OASIS’ (Organisation of Aware Saviours In Society) Dr Puja Sukhija (in pic on left), whose idea this initiative was, said, “In 2011, we had conducted a project on roughly mapping the flora and fauna of Mumbai. Under this, students took a survey of the birds in certain areas, and while the survey was being conducted, we all realised that we hadn’t spotted any butterflies.”

Cut to 2013. Dr Sukhija envisaged a plan to convert the city’s public gardens into butterfly parks, with the help of school children from the nearest schools. “The idea is to plant saplings of such nectar-rich plants as lantanas, that attract the Grass Jewel Butterfly and the Blue Mormon. The Grass Jewel is among the tiniest butterflies in the world, while the Blue Mormon is most commonly found in India and Sri Lanka,” she explained. “We submitted our plan to the Environment Department, State of Maharashtra, and they were very happy with the idea. We have been sanctioned Rs 3,00,000 by them to plant saplings in as many BMC gardens and public parks as possible. We already have upwards of 15 gardens and we are largely focussed on BMC schools’ participation.”

The initiative largely hinges on identifying the best gardens after contacting the BMC, then looking for schools in the vicinity and getting Sapling plantation drive at Kharstudents on board. “We first speak with the students in school, then we take them to the garden and show them the site,” Dr Sukhija says. The planting of saplings is done on pre-determined days, and monitoring of the outcomes is done regularly.

The funds generated by the Government are used for such activities as digging, paying labour, maintenance and purchasing saplings. “We also need funds to conduct educational talks in schools and create awareness. So far, the response has been great – children are extremely receptive to the idea. We are now looking at having college students enroll in the initiative, so that we can scale up the project to include data collection, monitoring and general maintenance,” Dr Sukhija says.

Would you like to be a part of the ‘Bring butterflies back’ project? Contact OASIS on 9820403344 or write to them at info@oasisngo.org.

 (Pictures courtesy commons.wikimedia.org, OASIS) 

Categories
Do

Baulish delights

A total fun weekend awaits Mumbai’s music lovers, as the Bauls of Bengal perform at various spots in the city.
by Medha Kulkarni

This weekend promises to be an absolute treat for music lovers across the city. From July 13 to 15, different locations across the city will play host to an introduction to the Bauls of Bengal with Lakshman Das Baul.

The word ‘Baul’ has its etymological origin in the Sanskrit words ‘Vatula’ (madcap), or ‘Vyakula’ (restless) and used for someone who is ‘possessed’ or ‘crazy’. The Bauls originally were a nonconformist people who rejected societal norms to form a sect where music was their religion. Baul is the name that is given to the genre of folk music developed by this sect.

baulsLakshman Das Baul is a disciple and the adopted son of renowned Baul master and composer Shri Shudhir Goshai of famous Joydev-Tamaltala Ashram in Birbhum District. He is a young performer well known for his magnificent energetic performances. He accompanies himself with Anandalahari and Dotara while he sings. He has performed in many parts of India. After the demise of Shri Shudhir Goshai, he has looked after the Joydev-Tamaltala Ashram, where he lives with his wife and son and the Mother (the companion of Shri Shudhir Goshai). He has been collaborating with the renowned master Parvathy Baul.

The music of the Bauls is not only a stunning art form, but is also an oral documentation of history as the Bauls are storytellers at heart. The nomadic people travel the country singing and performing and enthralling and entertaining, but it is an art that is unfortunately increasingly under the threat of extinction. This is a wonderful opportunity to experience this art and also to support it and ensure it’s survival.A rich repertoire of knowledge, this art promises to mesmerize it’s audience.

Here is the itinerary for this event :

July 13 7 pm to 8.30 pm, Vivekananda Auditorium, Ramakrishna Mission, and Khar West.

July 14 11 am to 12.30 pm, New Acropolis Centre, A-0 Connaught Mansions, opposite Colaba Post Office, Colaba AND 6.30 pm to 8.30 pm, Sangeet Mahabharti,10th Road, Opposite Amitabh Bachchan’s Bungalow, Juhu.

July 15 6.30 pm to 8.30 pm, Comet Media Foundation, 301 Meher House, 15 Cawasji Patel Street, Fort.

(Pictures courtesy ushaharding.blogspot.com, epaper.timesofindia.com)

Categories
Watch

Let the world in, today

Volume II of the two-part film project ‘To Let The World In’ will be screened at the Films Division today.
by Medha Kulkarni

‘To Let The World In’ is a project that revolves around a significant period in the history of contemporary Indian art over the last three decades. The film feature three generations of some of India’s most iconic artists who share ideas, memories and concerns about their work.

M F HussainVolume I was screened last week and Volume II showcases MF Hussain’s 1967 film Through The Eyes of a Painter. The conversations are intimate and the interviews are conducted by renowned art historian and curator Chaitanya Sambrani, and have been filmed by Avijit Mukul Kishore. The works are a visual documentation of some of the most important moments in Indian art history from the 1980s to the present day. Volume II explores the changing contexts in art production and the connections between art and political history and the evergreen questions of patronage and recognition.

The film starts with the volatile context of art practice when India was on the brink of economic liberalisation juxtaposed against the re-assertion of religious fundamentalism in Indian politics. The artists featured in this volume are Anju Dodiya, Archana Hande, Benitha Perciyal, Sharmila Samant, Parvathi Nayar, Riyas Komu, Tushar Joag, Shilpa Gupta, Josh PS, Gargi Raina, Sumakshi Singh, TV Santhosh, Nataraj Sharma, Anandajit Ray, Gigi Scaria, Reena Saini Kallat and Jitish Kallat.

The screening will be followed by a Q & A session panelled by Abhay Sardesai, art critic and the editor of Art India Magazine.

The film was produced by Art Chennai, to accompany the show ‘To Let The World In: Narrative and Beyond in Contemporary Indian Art’, curated by Chaitanya Sambrani, held in Chennai in 2012.

Head to RR Theatre, 10th floor, Films Division, Pedder Road, at 4 pm.

(Pictures courtesy www.thenational.ae, gulfnews.com)

Categories
Read

Angrezi chhori in an Indian car

British journalist Vanessa Able drove the Tata Nano 10,000 kilometres all over India, then wrote her first book ‘The Nanologues’. We speak to her about her experiences and about putting the book together.
by Vrushali Lad

Vanessa Able read up on the Tata Nano, the ‘world’s cheapest car’ and decided to take the car on a test drive in 2010 – across 10,000 kilometres, starting from Mumbai, on a circuitous route from the South to the East to the North and back to Mumbai. Vanessa’s trip lasted three months, and in the interim, she had a host of adventures with the car (she lovingly named her ‘Abhilasha’), had a run-in with several crazed Indian drivers on the roads, drove through the Naxal corridors with some trepidation, and at the end of her travels, even met Ratan Tata at his Mumbai office.

We interviewed Vanessa over email about her book, The Nanologues, which chronicles her journey and which was culled from a blog she maintained during her travels. Do look out for an excerpt from the book at the end of this piece.

Excerpts from the interview:

First of all, congratulations on an excellent and entertaining book. I’m not even a driver and I still loved reading about your adventures. How has the response to the book been?
Thank you. It’s been great. Which is quite surprising for me, as a foreigner. I was never sure how people in India would receive the writing, but both the blog and the book seem to have gone down well so far.

Can you describe the general feeling in the UK about the Nano, when the car was first launched?
I’d say that most people in the UK, although they’ve heard about the Nano, tend to not know so much about it. For sure Tata as a company is on the British radar, especially after their acquisition of Jaguar and Land Rover, and the innovation of the Nano has contributed to many people’s view that India’s engineering industry is on the rise.

Mostly, I think people are excited at the prospect of a similar car being brought to Europe, though in reality that still seems to be a way off.

You mention that you planned your trip using a Lonely Planet guide book and a map. What other research did you conduct before deciding on the trip?
Very little. I was more interested in letting the road and the trip itself lead me. I knew that as I drove, the places I wanted to go and the things I needed to do would become apparent.

How have your driving habits changed after your India tour? You give an account of how you loved to cut across other cars and toot your horn when cars took too long to move out of your way? What is it like now?
Well, since getting back to Europe, I’ve had to tone down my Indian habits a bit, as the English don’t take too kindly to being honked at in traffic or being mercilessly cut up at junctions. Having said that, my husband and I now live in Rome, Europe’s most notorious city for reckless driving. In my opinion, it has nothing on India, but I have to say that my training in the likes of Mumbai and Delhi certainly primed me for Rome, which is a cakewalk by comparison.

Has anyone written to you asking for help/tips on undertaking a similar road trip?
Not really, no. And I don’t blame them 😉

Say Abhilasha had actually given you the kind of problems drivers don’t want to encounter out on the Indian roads. Did you have a backup plan in place?
None whatsoever. I have a lot of faith in the spirit of the moment.

You mention a (quite hilarious) meeting with (journalist and former editor-in-chief of Time Out Mumbai) Naresh Fernandes in Mumbai. Post your trip, did you get the chance to meet him again?
We’re Facebook friends now, and we chat from time to time. He’s a great chap with a wicked sense of humour. I hope to meet him again next time I’m in India.

Did you ever face problems from men in India, seeing as you were an unaccompanied white female?
None. I’m not sure if it was pure luck or the aura of my naiveté. I know that many women in India do face dangers when they travel unaccompanied, but then that’s also a global phenomenon. My advice to my sisters is to always be cautious, but not to let fear get in the way of doing what you want to do and going where you want to go. An empowered woman has an energy about her that is more likely to put off predators.

How long did it take for the blog to translate into a book? Were there any revisions/rewrites required?
About 3 years! Yes, it required a lot of revision. The blog was a visceral account of the adventure, whereas the book required a lot more in terms of structure and narrative. And I discovered that the editing process can be long, much longer than the writing part.

How many photographs and videos did you shoot during the trip?
Thousands, literally.

You were in Mumbai twice, at the start and the end of your journey across India. What were your impressions of the city?
Mumbai makes my head spin through its sheer size and the implications of so many diverse people living together in one metropolis. As a foreigner, the city only gets interesting to me when I’m able to penetrate the surface through the friends that I have there and the other people I meet. But for sure I’d like to spend more time there and get to know the place better.

What is your next project? Are you working on a new book?
I’m still working on the UK and US editions of this book. It’s a never-ending job. It’ll be released at the beginning of 2014 under the title Never Mind The Bullocks, a play on the name of the Sex Pistols album.

Would you say an Indian on the road is a very different animal than the Indian at home?
I’d take a chance to say that, yes. But I think that people in general are very different behind the wheel to how they are in person. Driving depersonalises people: the vehicle becomes an avatar and gives us the courage to behave with previously untested vigour. Road rage is an excellent example, and I’ve experienced it myself. I would never act in front of a human being the way I do when they’re in their cars, but somehow when you’re driving, you never see the person, you only see the car.

If you hadn’t teamed up with Abhilasha, which car (in retrospect) do you think you would have chosen on a trip like this?

I’d like to see if an Ambassador could take the pace. Or a nice jugaad.

Do you plan to undertake another journey, with say, another route, in India?
I’m coming over for ‘Literature Live’ in November, so I might be tempted to go for another spin then. Perhaps through the centre of the country.

Where is Abhilasha now? Have you sold her yet?
I sold her on to a friend who lived in Auroville, near Pondicherry. The last I heard, the lady in question moved to France and left Abhilasha with her son in Chennai.

____________

An excerpt from The Nanologues:

‘A horn parped from behind and a motorbike appeared in my side mirror, squeezing itself through the space between the Nano and the Ashok Leyland. Ten tiny fingers and then a larger pair of hands walked their way across Abhilasha’s back window, steadying the bike that was already wobbling under its hefty load. From what I could see, the vehicle was being steered by a five-year-old girl with braided pigtails, gripping the handlebars from between the legs of her father who was deeply involved in some kind of transaction via his cell phone. Behind him sat a woman, presumably his wife, who was holding a baby to her chest, recognizable as such only by the appearance of a set of minute toes that peeked out from under a blanket. The woman was wearing a pink-and-yellow sari that flapped around her and beat against the number plate, while the tail end of the fabric danced teeth-clenchingly close to the spokes of the back wheel.

She was sitting side-saddle with a look of nonchalance more appropriate to the resigned boredom of a doctor’s waiting room than to moving among large vehicles along a main road with nothing to hold on to, wrapped in five metres of hazardous fabric. The hands that should have been clutching her husband or a pillion bar were instead occupied with clinging onto her newborn child with the kind of relaxed composure I could only replicated embedded in an armchair, sleepily thumbing a remote control. They were like a campaign family for suicidal bike riding.’

 

 (Pictures courtesy Vanessa Able)

Categories
Event

You can now study the Aryan problem

Sathaye College launches three beginners’ courses on ancient Indian culture, Buddist Studies and Sanskrit in collaboration with Vikas Adhyayan Kendra.
by Shubha Khandekar

To a lay person, the historical ‘Aryan problem’ means only two things: one, the Indians who claimed this identity and composed the Rig Veda in the hoary past and two, the ‘Aryan race’ that became the chief intellectual weapon of Adolf Hitler for unleashing World War II.

Aryan ProblemBut as Dr AP Jamkhedkar, former director of the department of archaeology, Maharashtra state and vice president, the Asiatic Society of Mumbai,  explained the genesis, development and the current status of “The Aryan Problem”, the audience sat, rapt, at Sathaye College as the multidimensional nature of this centuries old academic challenge unfolded before them.

He was speaking at the inaugural function of three beginners’ courses launched by the Sathaye College in Vile Parle on Saturday, July 6, which also happened to be his 74th birthday. Professor Gauri Mahulikar, head of the department of Sanskrit, Mumbai University presided over the function.

The three independent but organically inter-related courses are Ancient Indian Culture, Buddhist Studies and Sanskrit, in collaboration with Vikas Adhyayan Kendra. They will be run as part time one-year courses during weekends and the only qualification for admission, as announced by the principal Kavita Rege is, “the passion to learn”. Sanjay Kelapure of Vikas Adhyayan Kendra revealed that the Kendra is engaged in creating an India-centric world view by promoting Sanskrit even in the neighbouring countries of the subcontinent.

It would be rare to find an archaeologist in India who has not been tickled by the ‘Aryan problem’ at some stage in his Aryan Problem, cartoon by Shubha Khandekarcareer. Tracing the emergence of the theories about the original homeland of the Aryans from the Arctic Circle to Scandinavia to Central Asia to India, Dr Jamkhedkar meandered through the contributions of the linguists, anthropologists, historians, archaeologists, mythologists and many others towards an identification of the elusive Aryans. The crux of the problem is, that although the Rig Veda constitutes the oldest extant corpus of hymns composed by people who proudly declared themselves to be Aryans, they seem to have left behind no archaeological remains anywhere in the world that can be unequivocally correlated to the Rig Vedic narrative.

Dr Jamkhedkar described how linguistic similarities were noticed by early Europeans who stepped into India and thus evolved the concept of a common Indo-European ‘mother language’ in the past. “As evidence piled up from across parts of Europe and Asia, it became necessary to search for corroborative archaeological proof of the Aryans,” he said, describing how the Bogaz Koi inscription dated to 1380 BCE, the Avesta, the Andronovo culture of Western Siberia, the domestication of the horse – an animal so highly extolled in the Rig Veda, and the soma plant – all were harnessed towards the identification of the Aryans – to no avail!

“A search nearer home yielded some clues in the form of recent archaeological material from sites in Haryana as well as those in West Asia. Records found in West Asia, which are contemporary with the Indus-Sarasvati civilisation, considered pre-Aryan, have about 40 to 50 names of Sanskritic origin! This could mean that the Indus-Sarasvati civilization was not Dravidian in character as has been claimed for long by many scholars. And it could also turn on its head the earlier theory that the Aryans were neither the destroyers of the Indus-Sarasvati civilization, nor immigrants pouring in peacefully in groups after groups, but were in fact part and parcel of the Indus Sarasvati civilisation!”

AryanHome_01Many scholars in India, particularly Dr MK Dhavalikar, have proposed, on the basis of circumstantial archaeological evidence, that the so-called Late Harappan people, the residue of the glorious Indus-Sarasvati civilization, were in fact the composers of the Rig Veda, and hence, by inference, the Aryans.

To unlock this ‘riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma’, a description that Winston Churchill had used for Russia, but could well fit the ‘Aryan problem’, Dr Jamkhedkar said that a thorough knowledge of Sanskrit has emerged as the main key. “For this reason, the courses on Sanskrit and Ancient Indian Culture started by Sathaye College become complementary and integral to each other,” he said.

Dr Mahulikar pointed out that since a lot of Buddhist and Jain literature is composed in Sanskrit, “political biases should not be allowed to stand in the way of acquiring knowledge of this classical language, which is crucial for unravelling the secrets of the past.”

Admissions are open till Saturday, July 13, 2013. Contact Suraj Pandit on 9930830834/surajpanditkanheri@gmail.com, or Sandeep Dahisarkar on 9930774241.

(Pictures courtesy Siddharth Kale, cartoons by Shubha Khandekar)

Categories
Event

‘Accessible Arctic’ comes to India

An exhibition of photos from the Arctic starts today and ends on Saturday, at High Street Phoenix. Don’t miss it.

Accessible ArcticIn May this year, India was granted ‘observer status’ in the Arctic Council – a high-level intergovernmental forum that addresses issues faced by the Arctic governments and the indigenous people of the Arctic. With this admission, India will contribute its scientific expertise, particularly its polar research capabilities, to the work of the Arctic Council.

Now, to welcome India to the Council and to celebrate Canada Day (July 1), the Consulate General of Canada in Mumbai will host Accessible Arctic, a photo exhibition at High Street Phoenix from July 3-7 as part of its World Wednesday initiative. “To many, the Aurora Over Fish Creek YukonArctic is a distant and mysterious place. We are excited to bring the incredible people and landscapes of the North closer to Mumbaikars.  The timing of this exhibit marks India’s newly-granted observer status at the Arctic Council. Canada as Chair of the Arctic Council welcomes India to this important global body,” Richard Bale, Consul General of Canada in Mumbai, said.

Assembled and curated by the Canadian Museum of Nature, the photos are the property of the Royal Canadian Geographic Society and feature a cross-section of photographers who have contributed to Canadian Geographic, a magazine which showcases the natural beauty and diversity of Canada’s Arctic. ‘Accessible Arctic’ has photographs published in the past 80 years and range from flowers to fields of grazing caribou to icebergs and polar bears.

Accessible Arctic is on from July 3 to 7, 11 am to 8 pm at the West Court Drop Off, 2nd Floor, Palladium, High Street Phoenix, Lower Parel. For details contact 022 43339994.

 

Exit mobile version