Ban city

(Pic: The Hindu)
No dancing. No live music in places that serve alcohol. No partying beyond 11:30. No smoking in restaurants and bars. No very loud music.

Welcome to Bangalore, 2008.

Here's a story that Lalitha Kamat and I wrote, on the moral politics behind the protests and the laws, and how they take place upon the imagesof women's bodies, but also looking at the urban politics framing the background to the issue:

IT, BT and Bangalore's Moral Economy

A bit here:

The suggestion of a Shanghai-Singapore framework as a discretionary model that presumably discourages "sleazy girlie bars" while retaining the "stylish," "hip" nightclubs is another step along the pathway that has carved out the growth of Bengaluru along a deepening faultline. Since the liberalisation policies of the 90s at least, Bangalore has grown unevenly along a cleavage situating the Information Technology and Biotechnology (IT and BT) "corporate" boom on the one side, and the slower, older, more staid city on the other. The issues surrounding the imposition of these regulations are poised along this crisp divide, and occurring repeatedly in different ways with varying permutations (of class, dress and occupation) are images of women, stuck in this very verbal and angry tussle between various interest groups.

Bell Bajao

Breakthrough is a fantastic group that uses media for advocacy on rights issues and their new campaign, Bell Bajao, asks you to speak out about domestic violence. Go to their site and write something... here.

The site is becoming an incredible archive of material as well... I went to post on their blog right now and found YouTube clips, discussion on the law, thoughts on popular film, poetry and free-wheeling speech.

I posted. You should too.

Upper caste-lower caste

Pratiloma unions: the woman is of a higher caste than the man
Anuloma: Upper caste men are permitted sexual access to women of their own or lower castes

I read a fascinating article by Mary E. John in a question of silence? called 'Globalisation, Sexuality and the Visual Field' in which she says that pratiloma relationships tend to "be introduced through 'eve teasing' sequences, where class and gender are played off one another". About anuloma, she says "'Happy endings' demand that the heroine has learnt to subdue her 'uppity' ways, while the hero has his family and bloodline, and therefore also, fortune and respect, restored to him. In other words, if anuloma can appear as legitimate, even progressive love, pratiloma is approached through sexual harassment. Where the latter creates a certain sexual disturbance by rendering the play of power visible, the former more easily lends itself to the kind of idealisation of conjugality that is being currently promoted on a number of fronts".

Media and technology

Some stories on how media/technology is being used outside of IT/corporate offices.

1. Story from Hunsur:

A camera, a mike and new confidence

2. Story on history education for kids using film:

History in the Making: Young Historians series

Children play historians, documenting the history of their families, their villages and their state. They learn that history can be shared by different kinds of people, and document the recounting of history from diverse groups including poor old women (early lessons in subaltern history?) and professional archaeologists.

3. Story on Dalit women farmers in A.P.:

Small, diverse and beautiful

and finally,

4. Story on community film-makers, from Adateegala:

The stories you missed on primetime

Philosophy

The 'Philosophy' section of Landmark bookstore is bursting with Krishnamurthi and Teaching of the Buddha books... ensconsed within them, a Vandana Shiva book on patents.

?

And then I read the entire title:
'Patents: Myths and Realities'.