Finding Soho

This post is a bit academic, and is taken from something I'm putting together today, so I may as well leave in all the in-text references for greater coherence. One of the interesting things about globalization theory is the wide range of opinion on it (Held 2000). While several critics (Tunstall 1977; Schiller 1976; Fejes 1981; Golding 1983; MacBride 1980, etc.) have argued that globalization necessarily implies a Westernization of developing societies, and hence a form of cultural imperialism, several others have also called it an inevitable by-product of the process of universal and simultaneous modernization, thereby undercutting the idea of intentionality or its relation to "imperialism" (Tomlinson 1991; Barker 1997, Giddens 2002). In academic theory, there is growing consensus that the multifarious processes of globalization imvolve complex interactions between the global (mostly understood to mean Western) and local (mostly non-Western), emphasizing hybridity,...

Thousands of migrant workers and students from the north-east are fleeing the southern cities now, particularly Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai. For the past few days, there have been stampedes at railway stations crammed with multitudes of people desperately waiting for a number of specially scheduled trains to take them back to Guwahati. Every such train that arrives at Bangalore railway station precipitates a virtual stampede, with thousands of panic-stricken passengers, with or without tickets, pushing into overcrowded compartments. Railway platforms have become veritable makeshift camps, with stranded passengers anxiously waiting to board the next train, uncertain about the possibility of making it in time. To ameliorate the situation, the railway authorities have arranged for additional services but these are nowhere near commensurate with the sudden and tremendous upsurge in demand. Yesterday, there were 7,500 ticketed passengers boarding four Guwahati-bound trains in ...

Pagoda Street, Chinatown I haven't updated my blog in a while, and so I thought I'd write about my recent transit week in Singapore. Singapore is a truly beautiful city, but its beauty can so easily be miscontrued as clinical modernity and organized perfection. The drive to the city from the airport is deliberately designed, unlike many other places, in such a way as to astound the visitor with its overabundance of greenery and sense of endless space. The moment you leave the airport, you're sold. But the city itself is so much more fascinating for its absolutely pragmatic and yet aesthetic conception of space and access. Chinatown, for example, is a thriving historical and artistic amalgam of European and Chinese architectural elements that commingle so effortlessly and yet in such a planned and deliberate manner. The lines of brightly coloured buildings are punctuated by temples and concrete complexes hou...

Stress can be quite tough to handle. A very few people have the capacity to endure difficulty without much mental agony, and most people suffer immensely. There's very little you can do when something terrible happens and it's completely out of your control. There's a lot of pressure that comes with feeling powerless to change things. In a system where you are not afforded protection against the effects of arbitrary events and occurences, you are bound to feel more stressed and pressured than if you had a sense that events beyond your control wouldn't impact you. Yet they do. There are many things that will damage or hurt you, directly or indirectly, and you will need to be strong to overcome them. Many times I have heard it said that one should remain calm in the face of difficulty. I have come to realize that I cannot be calm or at peace; that I am highly prone to pressurizing myself, and that's just who I am. It's least helpful but stress comes to me al...

Finally read Amy Chua's Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother at one go till three in the morning last night. It is a simple yet stupendous work that inspires you at so many wonderful levels, your mind is left buzzing with infinite questions, perspectives, doubts and convictions. More than anything else, it is a tale of love, commitment and hardcore determination. It is a tale both of success and failure. It is a story that inspires an abundance of warmth, trepidation and courage all at once. Amazingly, it is also a book about music - the most important theme that pervades the novel. The way in which music flows through her memoir on parenting is fantastic. There is an incredible lot that one could say about the Tiger Mother, but one thing is for certain - she is brutally honest, forthright and brave. The book teaches you the value of discipline and the power of commitment. It demonstrates the arduousness of raising children, and it celebrates the triumph of solid foundational values. ...

My earliest memories of Bivar Road go so far back, they now belong to another world. I was there even before I was born. I've been told the story of the earthquake that shook Shillong at the time of my mom's pregnancy innumerable times. The house shook with trepidation then and I vicariously shared that moment with its inhabitants. From our earliest days, Arnav, Pilty and I spent every summer in the house. The long, tortuous and then painstaking drive from Guwahati (the roads weren't any good those days) involved hours of suffering through a miasma of diesel fumes and exhaust from factories (our cars didn't have air-conditioning then), but once the car drove past Mawlai, fresh, pine-filled bursts of Shillong air washed over our faces. Somewhere around the cantonment as you entered, a weeping willow hung sorrowfully on the side of the road, and Mom usually pointed it out, 'See that tree? It's called a Weeping Willow.' Nana moved to Bivar Road after his re...

Sampurna Chattarji's Absent Muses covers a wide swathe of experiences and sentiments. Reading her collection is a journey through the poetic consciousness as it encounters, contends with and finally captures the many different experiences of the writing subject. It is, as it were, a collection of collections, a collage of the different images we map onto the world. The recognizable characters that crowd her everyday reality are the muses that inspire poetry through their absences. Their conversations are like "alms" clutched tightly in the hand. She says she must read them later in open palms, even as sometimes they are swept clean by time, memory and, as it becomes acutely evident, geography. Chattarji's poems are strongly embedded in the dynamics of human friendship and relationships. Some of her poems directly speak to or about friendship and relationships but many are about their absence, or the shadow of their overwhelming former presence. In 'Translations...