the light chronicles.m4v

upside down,inside out, it's difficult to sum up a life,however short,in a page,or a photo,but give me a video any day!! This short film charts the course of a life full of extremes,the speedbreakers came but only made me enjoy teh scenery ever more.Dedicated to my late sister;whose thrill for life,surpassed many,Harry,beyond teh stars we will meet again..

Hibiscus Sherbet

a young friend from udaipur ,rajasthan,who is visiting chandigarh as part of his swaraj journey,volunteered to teach me how to make hibiscus sherbet,only there weren't any hibiscus around to make any sherbet of. so a community participation plan was hatched, which i feel is an extension of activism and real life politics. so, out came a green bag from his pocket with the earnest words,we'ill simply circle the neighbourhood and any plants we see with flowers on,we can talk to the owners,this way even their curiosity would be aroused and we will have more of a community participation,albeit arbitrarily.so off we went merrily along the path on an evening walk,and wow,the houses we discovered,quaint single storied,ground floor houses,with beautiful,unkempt gardens.some grape vines here,some fairy fences and yellow gates and coloured stone walls there..wow it was such an enchanting neighbourhood,i hardly knew.in the end,we had more than 70 flowers in the green bag and then it was down to some lemon juice (1 kg) and the flower petals(remove the green and inner bits) are soaked overnight.In the morning we juiced out the petals through a muslin cloth and mixed 1/2 kg powdered sugar,and the hibiscus sherbet concentrate is ready.
it tastes lemony and very summery!

a peace-full life

a dear friend Peter Adams, who practices wood sculpture work,engraved a carved bench of his , with the quote "tongues in trees, sermons in stones, books in brooks".

social satire : Chandigarh turn'd Corrupt-garh

work has begun on a social satirical piece.It's a fiction piece,docudrama,where people are re-enacting not having enough clean clothes and having to wear dirty clothes instead.
Besides highlighting the DOOR-DAsha (because none of the media are running the exploited dhobhi's  story ) , this satire serves as a silent protesting against 'cleanly dressed politicians'  , who make decisions ,sitting in fancy hotels,air-conditioned cars, in expensive and dry cleaned clothes, and implement them without a so much as a second thought to the feasibility of their policies and changes on ground.Are they really conscious of the effects of their policies?  how would they ? have they ever stepped out of their air conditioned cars onto the heat of the tar road? my guess is as good as yours...

The analogy is to discover and re-question where all the clean-ness (pun intended /metaphorically speaking ) of this city disappear, 

"There was a time, when clean- streets and clean clothes , existed"

The subtext is of course the impending decision of Chandigarh Administration to replace all traditional and age-old dhobhi-ghats (washer women's & men's clothes cleaning and drying spaces) with Laundromats.The actual people who have to bear the brunt of the Administrations' decision,were never consulted or involved in this decision.It was a decision taken to save these Dhobhi's from their poor and deplorable condition.

The assumption here,that the Dhobhi's need to be saved and the solution proposed to their hardship,is feasible ,lacks any form of social responsibility on part of the Chandigarh Adminstration.The pilot project in Sector 15,failed,proving the inefficiency of washing machines in indian context.Here in India,hand wash is the oldest tradition in every practical job and washing is the most important of them.

What Sector 15 Laundromat,which replaced the traditional dhobhi ghat,witnessed was that ,people refused to pay the expensive cost of the washing.This came to pass,after dhobhi's had to factor in cost of electricity,owing to the usage of washing machines and Tumble dryer's.Further the greatest of bone of contention being ,clothes ,which are the central kirdaar(character), in this entire drama,were being left dirty,and hence there were in the end,dissatisfied  and angry people.One would then assume,or logically (I.M. Copi) conclude,the cost of the pilot project's failure,would have at least paved the way for safe keeping of  future generations of dhobhi ghaats and dhobhi's profession would not be in any jeopardy,having had proved their resourcefulness,so brilliantly ,in face of such threatening and annihilating circumstances,almost ,ironically.Alas,the Chandigarh Adminstration,far from learning from falling,are racing with fresh follow up plans,of replacing all Dhobhi Ghat's from the city of Chandigarh,under the facade of necessary modernity and Development.
the Dhobhi, can now rightly say, na Ghar key ,na Ghaat key...

From the Right to know
and the duty to enquire
flows the obligation to Act.
Sandra Steingraber