Apu’s World

An excellent gender-wise analysis of the Indian blogosphere by Preeti - do have a look. She uses it to explore the larger question of whether women’s interests are too narrowly focused - on home, parenting, relationships - and if that is a problem.

What do you think? By ceding the ‘big issues’ such as politics, science, law or technology to men, are we doing ourselves a disservice? I am in two minds - on the one hand, one cannot say that the personal is unimportant, and men can definitely do better at articulation in that space; however, one cannot say either that politics or technology is unimportant - these things drive change and will shape the way the world looks 10 years from now. Are we not interested or just not interested enough to focus on them single-mindedly, or are there female bloggers and writers in this area that have been missed? (I am talking Indian specifically).

Go read and do share your comments. It is a post that a lot of thought has gone into, and I think, a topic much worth discussing.

apu Women & Feminism

Since moving to Chennai, we have had an abundance of bird-sighting. The area that we are living in is on the fringes of the city; there are still open lands here and coconut and banana groves. There is a lake fairly close by, plus marshlands, which support over a 100 species of birds. Standing on the terrace of our house or on our little street, I have in the last 15 days already sighted chestnut-headed bee-eaters, white-breasted kingfishers, a rufous treepie, purple sunbirds, ashy prinias, the Indian pond heron and a few other species that I haven’t identified yet - besides mynas, doves, bulbuls and of course, crows!

A large plot of land next to our house is lying vacant and this is is a haven for many of the smaller species. It has already been identified for building by a flat developer. I can’t help feeling sad about this, and indeed, many of us love to wax eloquent about the forests being destroyed for development, ecosystems being wiped out and so on - but what we do not realise is that the ecosystem does not exist in a remote forest comfortably away from us. Our backyards and cities are also part of an ecosystem and we are all complicit in driving away every other species from it except - homo sapiens.

We are the ones who buy the flats - for which the land is cleared.

We are the ones who use mobile phones - and their towers that drive birds away.

We are the ones that want a ‘lakeside’ property - where access is denied to fishermen who have used the lake for generations because we don’t want ‘outsiders’, especially poorly dressed ones, in ‘our’ neighbourhood.

And we are the ones breeding in numbers our country cannot sustain. Yes, you and me, netizens may protest that we don’t have more than 2 kids each, but even then, ours will be the kids that eat more processed food, use and throw electronic items every year, want larger houses with more privacy for everyone and 24 hour ACs to shut out the heat - in short, consume energy and resources like an American does today.

Those metals and minerals have to come from somewhere, don’t they? And while we protest the jungles being cleared for the bauxite mining and the coal plant, we can’t live without the things they make! We protest the process, but clamour for its results. Most politicians know this, which is why no one (ok, make that few, out of some respect for Jairam Ramesh) takes environmental objections seriously.

I don’t know really what the solution is. Live more simply, yes - but easier said than done? Honestly, it is difficult to weigh the consequences of each and every small decision. Should I gift this friend’s child yet another cheap plastic china-made toy made probably with toxic materials? Or an ‘authentic’ wooden toy that still needed some part of a tree? Or is there something more sustainable? Do I need one more outfit? If I were to be absolutely honest, I ‘need’ very little of what I have. Yet, it is all very exhausting and rarely do I continue this chain of thought to any logical end.

I did buy recently Ramachandra Guha’s ‘How much should a person consume‘, and I’m hoping that it will set me thinking a little more deeply on the subject and perhaps act on it, even if in my own small way.

What do you think? How much should a person really consume?

apu Other Social issues in India

For generations, women’s achievements were rarely visible. Because women did their stuff within their homes and communities, their lives and courage stayed unsung. Mothers, cooks, home economists, farmers, grandmothers, oral historians, wipers-of-tears, queens-behind-thrones and singers-of-lullabies - yes, women were all these. Many took on the mantle of ‘head of the family’ in adverse circumstances. Today, women’s deeds are more visible, but we can still do with a lot more support.

This year, the 100th year of celebrating Women’s Day, we can all celebrate women by bringing to light the stories of women that we know.

That’s what the FemInspiration contest is all about. If you haven’t seen it already, check it out!

How can I support FemInspiration?

1. By participating and adding your voice to the cause of celebrating women (on your blog or on FB - please go to the contest URL for details)
2. By spreading the word to others who may like to participate

Looking forward to hear all your stories soon!

apu In General, Women & Feminism

Yes, yes, I know I promised to write more regularly, but the last month has been busy! Besides trying to identify new tech vendors for Women’s Web, working on some ideas to generate revenue and keep up on the content, I also managed to squeeze time out for 2 day trips - to Vedanthangal bird sanctuary and Pulicat lake, two excellent bird-watching sites within easy distance of Chennai.

With the mercury already beginning to rise, we had to go soon, since the migratory birds that assemble at these places in large numbers, will soon start the return trip to colder lands. Vedanthangal is pretty much geared for tourists, with a well-maintained path from which one can see the barringtonia mangroves and lake which support all those birds.

Pulicat lake is entirely another story. I hear that the southern part of the lake, which is in Tamil Nadu, has some sort of an island with a snack bar and a children’s play area and hence suitable for a family picnic. The larger northern part of Pulicat, in Andhra Pradesh, which we were told has better bird-sightings, looks like a Martian landscape on the edge of a small, perfectly ordinary south Indian town (Sullurpet). With the lake bed somewhat dry or marshy in places at this time of the year, it has an otherworldly feel to it. Nor are there any ‘hotels’, chai-shops, ice-cream vendors, cotton-candy carts or anything else at all. Not too many people either, for that matter - except a few fishermen at the water’s edge and the occasional vehicle on the road, on its way to the Sriharikota township that lies at the other end of the road to Sullurpet.

Note, I am not complaining. If anything, the isolation of the place is splendid and unusual in an over-crowded country like ours. At one point, we kept going on this village road off the main road from Sullurpet, and we must have travelled for at least 3 kilometres without seeing a soul, with just cracked earth and occasional swamp all around us, and endless, endless sky above. In the shimmering heat, it was easy to imagine oneself as an intrepid explorer navigating the Sahara. Seriously though, for a moment I felt as if my heart would burst with a sudden awareness of the beauty and immensity of this planet we call home.

As for the bird-watching - given that we are pretty new to it and not too knowledgeable, we had a wonderful time. We sighted at least 20 different species, with around 15 that we could identify - among them, the spot-billed pelican, a pond heron with lovely fluorescent green legs below its dull plumage, painted storks, open-billed storks, the black drongo, a highly comical looking purple moorhen, black-winged stilts, egrets and many types of ducks and geese.

Nelapattu sanctuary, a few kilometres away from Sullurpet is worth a visit too, though fairly similiar to Vedanthangal and with the advantage of a pretty good information centre that also has a good, slim handbook that is helpful in identifying the birds of the region. If you are new to bird-watching, go there first and pick up this booklet before you head to Pulicat.

As for me, I will be going back definitely - perhaps during the monsoons when the waters fill up and more wader species abound, but perhaps just to enjoy the remoteness and silence.

apu Travel Tales