Women's day
Piyali softly entered the room where Kate and me are sitting. When fed up with the tensed silence of the room upstairs she comes down to visit us: to chat about some heartening issues, to open the upper drawing of my desk and find there a precious pack of cashewnut cookies or at times to slightly reproach me for hardly showing my face upstairs. Piyali gave Kate a pink sheet of paper with text on both sides. The leaflet was devoted to the three-day political rally for 33% reservation for women in the Parliament. The other day Kate, at present writing a paper on political participation, mentioned to me that she would like to go to the demonstration at one of these days. My immediate response was a sort of indifference: not a single time I joined any social protect act and all in all has been skeptical towards such initiatives. Yet, Kate and Piyali started excitedly tell, vying with each other, how demonstrating has been an integral part of their student live once they both studied social sciences. Kate enthusiastically recalled how she used to join demonstrations in London now and then. Piyali explained that there is hardly any issue in the national and international politics that goes unnoticed by social activists in JNU and they go demonstrating for Israel, and later for Palestine, and then for Iraq and then against it. Shaken by the girls’ stories, my curiosity outweighed my skepticisms and I promised Kate to join.
The next day we left soon after lunch, therefore we had to explain to virtually everyone where we were leaving to and why. That was the third and the last day of the rally and therefore it had already got a decent coverage on the news channels. Therefore, people in the office knew. Yet, our willingness to go encountered different degrees of surprise. Hello!.. Is not that a gender institution we are working at? Is not the issue that our organization (personified in the director) has picked on and being lobbying for?
The whole way to the place Kate and me were discussing what it takes to work for a cause and actually support it, how to combine working for cause and making career, much hope is left for the development sector, etc. But the rest, I recalled how couple of months ago at a national convention of women NGOs we all raised our hands when a speaker proclaimed, “We’ve been demanding for 33% reservation for so long but our voice has not been heard. Enough! In the coming monsoon session of the parliament we all have to go to seat in front of the parliament and demand for 50% reservation” The whole conference room of a 5-star hotel got filled with the hands raised in the striking unity. Where are those women now? Where is the speaker? The question remains: what is more important - to make it happen and be there when it does or that it happens at all – no matter how and by whose agency…
It took us a while to find the place – we were misled by the anticipated scope of the gathering. Rather naively I thought that demonstration happens nearby the parliament indeed. Yet, all the forms of social protest in Delhi are doomed to be manifested at Jantra Mantra, a specially allocated venue. How convenient in fact: without being formally forbidden the constitutional right of freedom of association is effectively restricted. Imagine how powerful the image of women sitting in front of the very parliament and demonstrating could have been! Yet, we are left with a picture of women demonstrating in some quiet street in the city centre. Some 20 meters of fenced pavement with about 60-70 women sitting cross-legged on the podium and a handful of men staying aloof. Posters, agitating speeches and songs …
At pause as for how to approach the gathering we walked in the fenced area. Kate suggested we asked if we could sit with them. Women on the periphery of the crowd willingly agreed. We removed our shoes and took a seat at the podium. We looked around at the stands with pictures and information on the previous gathering on the same issue, at the women in the middle of the crowd singing agitation songs, at the women immediately around us who were also looking at us with a lot of interest. It did not take long to get approached by a lady who appeared to be the Secretary of the organization initiated the demonstration. She was very nice to answer all the questions that Kate had. (Later on just like that we met the General Secretary of the same organization who was also present at the venue). We got to know that women from different state rotate every day. Today in particular, these were women from Maharashtra and Assam who came. After some time the lady left us, excusing herself for some duties. Some men distributed cookies and tea among the delegates – small India routines that are invariably present in any settings. While waiting for our tea we got met a few women Maharashtra: a tiny old lady that was really keen on making contacts with us, a younger one who was constantly laughing, another one who was rather silently staring at us than participating. I had a good time observing how Kate was struggling with her non-existent Hindi vocabulary.
This is not to say mine exist, but rather I reconciled with the fact I do not get a word neither able to convey any a bit earlier. A habit of compassionate listening came after long practice of communicating with people speaking languages I have just a little clue about. Yet, two of us managed to establish some sort of rapport with the women and communication somehow carried on. We took some pictures, women wrote their names in Hindi and their postal address in Kate’s notepad.
We gave our address too, promising to send the pictures. We took a leave. The granny walked us to the entrance. Almost on the way she introduced us to the lady who appeared to be General Secretary of the organization. She carried herself in a profoundly regal fashion. But still she was nice enough to exchange couple of words w us. “Ram-ram” - “bye-bye” and we left the venue.
he next destination of the night was IHC. From the masses of the captivating events the centre announces we picked one - a series of held conversations with women writers, "Words of Women". This month event was timed to the launch of the book by Maya Sharma. The lady is a feminist and an activist in the Indian Women's Movement. Being a lesbian herself she wrote a book “Loving women. Being lesbian in unprivileged India”. That much we knew when we entered a lobby of a cozy size and ambience nearby Casurina auditorium. The lobby was already fairly filled with people greeting each other, hugging, updating each other on the recent news, and helping themselves at the tea buffet. After all, the community associated with any sort of women cause is a small one – you ultimately get to meet with the same people at every new event. Even I spotted a girl I saw twice at the CSR arrangements. The notion of the small community got just reinforced when this morning Kate was sharing that she was struck by an article on political reservation she just came across and that talking to the author would not be such a bad idea. The lady in question, the author of the article, Nivedita Menon happened to facilitate the talk with Maya Sharma that evening. We could hardly believe the coincidence. After the introduction given by the excited publisher and editor, we got to see the author. Maya Sharma appeared to be a humble gray-haired elderly lady in a salwar-kameez. An appearance that one would hardly relate to the media-created prototype of a lesbian. Insightfully enough, Sharma was more confident with the written word than the spoken one. The language of her book is just beautiful which I can say after reading it. She actually confessed she dreamed the book could be done in Hindi and that the way the text is organized is partly a result of her thinking in Hindi and only then putting it down in English. Again, an amazing coincidence.. as just before the talk Kate and me were discussing the special flavor writings by non-native speakers have. Also, when answering the questions Sharma was largely using the material of her book hardly giving any information beyond that as if saying, as Lev Tolstoy did once about his “The war and the peace”, that to explain what the book is about she should write it again. Yet, from the scrappy comments in the conversation and later from the book itself as I read it I realized that the discussion of female homosexuality has relevance for virtually every women as it refers to the topic of control over your sexuality and freedom to express it, an issue of vital importance in India (as far as this is the country question) where many women, for instance, simply do not have control over their bodies, they cannot freely decide when to give birth, to whom give birth and how frequently. Placing the discussion of same sex relationship, as Sharma does, in the context of working women (this is what “unprivileged India” in the title of the book stands for) the author encourages us to rethink alternative sexuality as a urban westernized phenomenon with a huge political statement for a natural identity women from any strata may have. I guess the fact that people were nearly fighting to buy the book after the presentation just confirms that topics touched are relevant and intriguing for many.
Got home and found it full of girls – but the 6 of us leaving there we had 2 visitors. Discussed demonstration, lesbianism, gender relations in India... Perfect women’s day – no men seemingly needed.. Yet, think if none existed what happens to the concept of gender and what would fuel our discussions, creative outputs and lives?!
The next day we left soon after lunch, therefore we had to explain to virtually everyone where we were leaving to and why. That was the third and the last day of the rally and therefore it had already got a decent coverage on the news channels. Therefore, people in the office knew. Yet, our willingness to go encountered different degrees of surprise. Hello!.. Is not that a gender institution we are working at? Is not the issue that our organization (personified in the director) has picked on and being lobbying for?
The whole way to the place Kate and me were discussing what it takes to work for a cause and actually support it, how to combine working for cause and making career, much hope is left for the development sector, etc. But the rest, I recalled how couple of months ago at a national convention of women NGOs we all raised our hands when a speaker proclaimed, “We’ve been demanding for 33% reservation for so long but our voice has not been heard. Enough! In the coming monsoon session of the parliament we all have to go to seat in front of the parliament and demand for 50% reservation” The whole conference room of a 5-star hotel got filled with the hands raised in the striking unity. Where are those women now? Where is the speaker? The question remains: what is more important - to make it happen and be there when it does or that it happens at all – no matter how and by whose agency…
It took us a while to find the place – we were misled by the anticipated scope of the gathering. Rather naively I thought that demonstration happens nearby the parliament indeed. Yet, all the forms of social protest in Delhi are doomed to be manifested at Jantra Mantra, a specially allocated venue. How convenient in fact: without being formally forbidden the constitutional right of freedom of association is effectively restricted. Imagine how powerful the image of women sitting in front of the very parliament and demonstrating could have been! Yet, we are left with a picture of women demonstrating in some quiet street in the city centre. Some 20 meters of fenced pavement with about 60-70 women sitting cross-legged on the podium and a handful of men staying aloof. Posters, agitating speeches and songs …
At pause as for how to approach the gathering we walked in the fenced area. Kate suggested we asked if we could sit with them. Women on the periphery of the crowd willingly agreed. We removed our shoes and took a seat at the podium. We looked around at the stands with pictures and information on the previous gathering on the same issue, at the women in the middle of the crowd singing agitation songs, at the women immediately around us who were also looking at us with a lot of interest. It did not take long to get approached by a lady who appeared to be the Secretary of the organization initiated the demonstration. She was very nice to answer all the questions that Kate had. (Later on just like that we met the General Secretary of the same organization who was also present at the venue). We got to know that women from different state rotate every day. Today in particular, these were women from Maharashtra and Assam who came. After some time the lady left us, excusing herself for some duties. Some men distributed cookies and tea among the delegates – small India routines that are invariably present in any settings. While waiting for our tea we got met a few women Maharashtra: a tiny old lady that was really keen on making contacts with us, a younger one who was constantly laughing, another one who was rather silently staring at us than participating. I had a good time observing how Kate was struggling with her non-existent Hindi vocabulary.
This is not to say mine exist, but rather I reconciled with the fact I do not get a word neither able to convey any a bit earlier. A habit of compassionate listening came after long practice of communicating with people speaking languages I have just a little clue about. Yet, two of us managed to establish some sort of rapport with the women and communication somehow carried on. We took some pictures, women wrote their names in Hindi and their postal address in Kate’s notepad.
We gave our address too, promising to send the pictures. We took a leave. The granny walked us to the entrance. Almost on the way she introduced us to the lady who appeared to be General Secretary of the organization. She carried herself in a profoundly regal fashion. But still she was nice enough to exchange couple of words w us. “Ram-ram” - “bye-bye” and we left the venue.
he next destination of the night was IHC. From the masses of the captivating events the centre announces we picked one - a series of held conversations with women writers, "Words of Women". This month event was timed to the launch of the book by Maya Sharma. The lady is a feminist and an activist in the Indian Women's Movement. Being a lesbian herself she wrote a book “Loving women. Being lesbian in unprivileged India”. That much we knew when we entered a lobby of a cozy size and ambience nearby Casurina auditorium. The lobby was already fairly filled with people greeting each other, hugging, updating each other on the recent news, and helping themselves at the tea buffet. After all, the community associated with any sort of women cause is a small one – you ultimately get to meet with the same people at every new event. Even I spotted a girl I saw twice at the CSR arrangements. The notion of the small community got just reinforced when this morning Kate was sharing that she was struck by an article on political reservation she just came across and that talking to the author would not be such a bad idea. The lady in question, the author of the article, Nivedita Menon happened to facilitate the talk with Maya Sharma that evening. We could hardly believe the coincidence. After the introduction given by the excited publisher and editor, we got to see the author. Maya Sharma appeared to be a humble gray-haired elderly lady in a salwar-kameez. An appearance that one would hardly relate to the media-created prototype of a lesbian. Insightfully enough, Sharma was more confident with the written word than the spoken one. The language of her book is just beautiful which I can say after reading it. She actually confessed she dreamed the book could be done in Hindi and that the way the text is organized is partly a result of her thinking in Hindi and only then putting it down in English. Again, an amazing coincidence.. as just before the talk Kate and me were discussing the special flavor writings by non-native speakers have. Also, when answering the questions Sharma was largely using the material of her book hardly giving any information beyond that as if saying, as Lev Tolstoy did once about his “The war and the peace”, that to explain what the book is about she should write it again. Yet, from the scrappy comments in the conversation and later from the book itself as I read it I realized that the discussion of female homosexuality has relevance for virtually every women as it refers to the topic of control over your sexuality and freedom to express it, an issue of vital importance in India (as far as this is the country question) where many women, for instance, simply do not have control over their bodies, they cannot freely decide when to give birth, to whom give birth and how frequently. Placing the discussion of same sex relationship, as Sharma does, in the context of working women (this is what “unprivileged India” in the title of the book stands for) the author encourages us to rethink alternative sexuality as a urban westernized phenomenon with a huge political statement for a natural identity women from any strata may have. I guess the fact that people were nearly fighting to buy the book after the presentation just confirms that topics touched are relevant and intriguing for many.
Got home and found it full of girls – but the 6 of us leaving there we had 2 visitors. Discussed demonstration, lesbianism, gender relations in India... Perfect women’s day – no men seemingly needed.. Yet, think if none existed what happens to the concept of gender and what would fuel our discussions, creative outputs and lives?!
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