So much occurs in the blink of an eye!

The festive season was a blast surrounding Amma with the immediate family who came down from many corners of the world to congregate at Sauparnika and all the extended loved ones who make our lives so complete! From cooing over Mehran and beating each other in scrabble, to a host of other silly stuff that always brought about laughter and lively debates, creating a scenario of comforting sentiments that makes family holidays so priceless and memorable. Tucked into the itinerary was a day trip to Adalaj, Modhera and Pathan and a nights stay at the House of M.G in Ahmedabad,  along with the delight of going to the Calico Museum and the Sabarmati Ashram; and peering at the Sidi Saiyad Jali too. In Baroda a morning drive to Pavaghad and Champaneer was a must, and of course many sessions of  shopping at Fab India and Seasons, and stuffing ourselves with food treats that left us all a couple of kilos heavier; thus makes up the photo album of memories incredibly special and to last us till our next Christmas tamasha of togetherness occurs!

 The best part was having my adorable nephew Ashwin and his absolutely gorgeous wife Athene visit with us. Life has its own ways of providing opportunities for the tapestries of family histories to grow and develop. Family tradition has my cousin Sherna come over every Christmas since three years . She is the calm one in the family, and she gifts to the occasion each year the grace and wisdom of her quiet personality that is the perfect balance to the otherwise more vocal strains of merriment from us all!

Thankfully social media and the overall cyber world of communication technology keeps the reality of geographical distances slightly more bearable. As we whatsap each other and keep the everyday happenings a shared space, we plot and plan the next time to get the family together again.
Little Mehran, who currently celebrates monthly birthdays,  will hopefully grow up with the joy of all these memories as the space of his belonging. Yesterday a parcel arrived from Houston for us…from Ashwin, Athene & their four legged baby Daisy duke…..spilling over with love and tenderness that makes a family feel encircled and complete. Cheers to 2014…. I feel so blessed by the energies of my loved one….

Five star rating for What the Fi$# !

I will begin by saying that my rating of 5 stars for What the FI$#! is based on the total delight of being completely  biased and partisan.  This is because our son Mithun Rodwittiya  plays the character of Hooda,  a Haryanvi lout, who attempts to get his lover from Manipur (a boxer and a Mary Kom looker alike!) a professional deal;  and the iddar-uddar tamasha that occurs as a sequence of many events centred around the care taking of a home, a gold fish and a potted money plant, makes up the entire jig-saw  of this film.  This multiple narratives within this comedy has lovely little insights into the India of today, where urban practices and upward mobility leans into street smartness and the altu-faltu of our kismet culture and yaaro ways, and mixes together into the khichadi of metro life. What is refreshing different is that the film never comes across as a pontificating missive or trying to sell a message of any kind. 

The film cleverly allows you to believe you have the upper hand as the voyeur to it all because it lets you know the end right at the start, and then in the end gives it a slight twist,  to spice it up. This is a clever move on the part of the scripting team because it lets each tableaux that unfolds  have its moments of glory without any preamble. It also suggests the typical indian "aisa hota hai na" attitude packaged perhaps rather endearingly wherein you begin to get soft hearted recalling   incidents of irritation from your own back yard from precisely the muddled methods of our quick-fix existences!

Directed by Gurmmeet Singh and starring the affable Dimple Kapadia, this is a definite  must see film. Yes, certainly because you have to whistle loudly the moment Mithun makes his appearance on the big screen (that's mandatory!); but also because it is a film that comes from a type of cinema I want to see more of.  Quirky and with a simple story line, it allows a story-telling of the mundane to be engaged with,  and for cinema to be entertaining without vulgar budgets being involved and gimmicky techno effects to prop it all up. 

"What the Fish" provides vignettes from the everyday that could be anybody's story; and wrapped into the slap-stick humour are some wonderful flashes of what life is all about in the higgledy-piggledy of what makes India this terribly infuriating,  but equally lovable country we live in!

Congratulations to the the cast and crew….Encore! 

And to my Mithun……..

You've come a long way Bebo!

Matters of the Heart ….on at Sakshi Mumbai till the 31st of December 2013

The privilege of birth and the gift of education impacted itself upon me from a very young age. A much desired girl-child I have carried the legacies of a female history with a conscious alertness which led me, very early in my personal journey, to a space of belonging that formulated my feminist ideology and the spirit of deliverance of my energies.

Art is a process of transmutations. Where translations and transpositions trace the outer world to the inner consciousness and vice versa, thereby making an elaborate tapestry of contextualized belonging. It is a space where the recognizable alters to become the receptacle of new meanings, and where human experience then becomes the bridge of empathy that allows the viewer to find their connectivity.

I have often described the territory of my ideas as being like a small garden patch, much loved and faithfully nurtured. This is because I hold a consistent desire to examine the feminine space of survival, the spirit of endurance and the empowerment of pride and self dignity that centuries of feminist oral histories are infused by; and which cast their shadows for me to find my resting space within.

As an artist the most liberating lesson learnt is that ones own sense of belonging is held in multiple histories that form the stories of the world. And it is the curiosity of wanting to know about the unknown that beckons us through the doorways of many new discoveries. But like all sensible travelers each of us needs to carry along in this journey the memories of our own origins. For in doing so we will then never fear getting lost.

The assimilation of a personal language involves many influences gathered and many areas of teachings resisted; and between this tightrope act of balancing what to absorb and what to reject, an informed and critical aesthetical space is finally arrived at. Within this territory of the female world that informs my concerns, I observe the rituals of confronting daily life that require for us to measure our valor and vulnerability with wisdom. Each of us in our moments of reflection will know the value of this double-edged sword.

The energies that we place ourselves central to forms a grid, patterned by incidents and histories that demand our participation willingly or otherwise. As artists we often become the chroniclers of larger narratives that hold both the particularity of our lives as well as a wider world of information.

I believe that a pictorial language revolves around the engagement with re-examining tradition and modernity within the contexts of changing requirements. I delight in drawing and so lines define the shape within my work by out-lining the contours of the images blatantly or by the evoking the line from the starkness of shape itself.  Whilst painting, the magic of conjuring as the brush trails its mark on a blank surface holds both the edge of terror and excitement simultaneously.

The female figure, often in isolation, becomes the presence that bears witness to the passage of time. Embodied through the centuries with the energies that hold the continuums of being a life giving force, I place the female figure as the central focus to be encountered.  

The unflinching gaze and the frontal posture of the female figures demand that the viewer is obliged to participate in an engagement with its presence.  Stark and arresting in demeanor these female figures or large heads with their unrelenting gaze, are like protective guardians of the universe.

The photographic image reappears after I put down my camera twenty-eight years ago. A series of personal occurrences brought back the affinity I once had with the camera and I resumed taking photographs once again. The bodies of my female protagonists now become the site of retrieval of personal histories. Retraced like mapped terrains the contours of these figures are extracted from previous paintings, archived like from an archeological survey. The montage of images lace together to then become the second skin.

What I desire above all else is in fact the deliverance of my own honesty to myself.  Where my art and my life are seamed together and hold the image of representation uncompromised and unfettered. My art exits finally severed from the umbilical cord that initially defines its articulation; to be then placed in a space of interpretation and discourse, unmonitored by my protection.  It must hold the credibility that molded it, if it is not to be felled into wasteful oblivion.  I can exert no control over any external forces that act upon my work, but what I can do is remain accountable to myself at all times. 

There are hundreds of stories that each of us carry with us. These stories are often matters of the heart which are an amalgamation of truths and desires, memories and histories which in turn are fed each day by the pulse of our lives as we live it. As an artist it is from this ever evolving framework of energies that my ideas are born.

A day of deep shame!

What drives the desires of sexual transgressions of educated people is difficult enough to fathom, but the stupidity of conceit that the powerful have in believing that they can get away with such acts of sexual misconduct is unimaginably insane to even attempt to comprehend. The news of Tarun Tejpal's alleged rape of his junior employee, at an official event, left me feeling as though he had personally betrayed my trust. I of course do not know Mr. Tejpal personally, but my feelings of being aggrieved come from the identification that I have of him with the news agency Tehelka, which is an organisation I have held in high esteem from its inception. I  had always attributed and accredited its integrity for  high standards of accountability from public office,  and the desire to unearth any misappropriation of the truth despite all odds, to his leadership and vision at the helm. To therefore learn that he is capable of such gross abuse of power comes as a major shock to those of us who have been champions and supporters of Tehelka all these years. 

You cannot dress up a criminal act to become something that you pass off as a casual gesture of inebriation, and then proceed to atone for your actions by deciding what punishment you deserve; and all the while evading the mechanisms of legal recourse  required by the mandate given by the supreme court, to follow the Vishaka committee guidelines against sexual harassment in the work place; pretending that it is all being done in good faith and with a heavy heart of remorse. For an organisation that has stringently called attention to issues pertaining to rape and sexual harassment, it seems ironical and quite farcical if I may bluntly state, that when it is in your own back yard then it gets handled with a different set of rules and expectancies.

What is imperative to note is that no personnel in any work space, however senior or junior,  should ever succumb to the idea that they can act upon their assumed notions that someone may be interested in their sexual advances,  without duly clarifying (without any physical contact) a solid basis to substantiate that they are receiving the correct signals that may then allow them to move forward by mutual consent, to a development of intimacies or a relationship. However, I for one hold rather strict views which do not prefer romances or any dalliances that involve top management because I believe it will always hold the space of power and compromise.

I also advocate that anyone who has even the smallest public platform should learn very quickly the responsibility of behaving with accountability; and comprehending that their actions will always be viewed with greater scrutiny. Whether inebriated or not, the personal politics that structures our ideas on life and determines the person we desire to be, will always guide our actions. Insisting that misjudgement of a situation was the only reason for any form of imposed sexual misconduct with another person smacks of hypocrisy, and that too coming from an individual who has founded his professional career upon exposing people who indulge in corrupt practises.

It should also be considered that no person offers an unconditional apology for an "alleged" act of sexual impropriety, especially someone with a grasp of legal knowledge,  unless they have committed it. So therefore the law now is obliged to take its course and file an FIR and investigate this allegation of  sexual  molestation/rape because Mr. Tejpal has implicated himself by offering an unconditional apology to the victim against the accusation levied on him of outraging the modesty of a woman colleague. Does every story have two sides….well as a theory perhaps, but then we also know that not to be the case always. So instead of Mr. Tejpal trying to "atone" with the falsities of pretence, he will now have to be judged by the same yardsticks he and his organisation have insisted on all these years from others with allegations of similar improprieties; and be exposed to the censure of a nation that will certainly hold him accountable for his actions and demand  for disciplinary legal action to be taken against him.

A touch of class…..!

I am not someone who owns much jewellery but I am certainly a great admirer of the craft and designs of ornamentation; and from the many design studios and private jewel shops that dot every city and town of India,  I have for years been very impressed with the Tata brand store Tanishq because they have consistently offered quality and value and attentive client service as their calling card.

But today I believe this company has taken their brand-name to another level of excellence. I was completely wowed by their recent add that holds me riveted every time I chance upon it being aired on my television screen. The dusky bride with her little daughter, and the metrosexual debonair man who scoops up his stepdaughter and walks around the marriage fire, talks of the progress of liberal thinking at a time when right wing conservative rhetoric deafens me as the national elections draw nearer. So kudos to the think-tank behind this delightfully subtle advertisement,  that holds the dynamic punch of an imaginative idea that captures both the beautify of pure aesthetics along with the relevance of a social message.

I personally never felt the stigma of being a divorcee and a single mother till Mithun was six years old, but amusingly it was often others who felt the stigma for me! Brought up to always be an advocate of liberal ideas and  taught the value of resistance and the importance of descent to protect ones liberty and constitutional rights, I have protected the wings of my freedom from being clipped by the opinions or attitudes that demand blind subservience to conformity or slavish attitudes towards out dated traditions. It is indeed sad that I still however encounter the desires of some parents to find their educated daughters "suitable boys" the moment they complete their university courses; or that women who are choosing to be single are viewed with suspicion and pity. The space of the woman's voice to arbitrate her future and her right of choice to determine her life is  a theoretical debate that now needs to be the lived and practised norm for all the millions of females across the globe.

That we are opening our newspapers to read about how a father raped his pregnant daughter and also invited his friends to rape her too as a punishment because she eloped and married against his wishes -  and then killed her, seems horrific enough. However that he then went off  to get drunk and boast about it publicly is perhaps indicative of the real malaise where women are thought to be dispensable! These frequent occurrences of depravity and violence against women who are  independent   should indicate to us that gender politics and the comprehension of equality and humanism needs to be addressed urgently today. We took way too long to formulate legislature against the abuse of sex determining  tests that led to thousands of female foetuses being aborted,  and we continue to witness even today propaganda that perpetuates incorrect  gender stereo-types that insist  on objectifying women.

Advertising is a platform that commands the attention of millions of people. When a company understands its power to influence and uses this responsibly, then we have a clear winner where  a product calls attention to focus on significance and purpose.

The Tata brand store Tanishq is a sure winner all the way this time round!

Happy Birthday Mithun!

Having little Mehran at home brings back all the wonderful memories of Mithun's infancy. Today is Mithun's birthday. Born on the 2nd of November which was my fathers birthday too was perhaps the ideal gift any daughter could give to her father! Though thirty-five years have gone by,  for a mother the vividness of every stage of her child's life requires no great effort of recall. That little Mehran bears a strong resemblance to his daddy makes the space of my nostalgia even more heady.

Mithun as a child was exposed to a wonderfully different upbringing. Devoid of religious affiliations and not pegged within regional belongings, we grew together as mother and son,  attempting to find new pathways to define our personal politics with a twenty year age difference bridging our respective journeys. A staunchly feminist mother with a growing little boy with bulging muscles….yet both with heart beats that held a similar rhythm for all that mattered the most.

It was always the small things in life from where bigger lessons were learnt. To hold value for the privilege of birth and education and understanding the  need to know how vital legacies are to uphold and carry forth, is perhaps the litmus test that showcases perceptions that offer deciphering of greater meaning. And to know that each day we need to learn in humility that the universe which contains us is vast and holds lessons for us to comprehend.

Mithun will have to stand taller everyday of little Mehran's life hence forth. I knew that if I had to be able to truly love Mithun then I could never cut corners on any areas of accountability for the unseen or the observed in my life for as long as I live. It is a taxing way to live ones life but one which is hugely rewarding. Today as Mithun looks deep into Mehran's tiny ink black eyes that look up at him with trust and belonging as he holds him close, he will do what I did thirty-five years ago,  without stopping to question the consequences. He will pledge his whole life to this tiny little being who however grown up he gets will always remain Mithun's little Mehran to be loved and protected and nurtured forever, fiercely and passionately. 

Happy Birthday Bebo!

Grand Disaster!

There are some decisions you make which you wish you hadn't .....and seeing Grand Masti was one of them! With time on my hands and nothing to do I decided to catch a movie....and because of the suitability of the timing and having heard that it was shot in Baroda, my city, I bought my pop corn and a bottle of water and settled into my seat believing I would be seeing a slap stick comedy...

Well instead what hit the screen in techni-color was a soft porn film that looked like it had been dredged  out of the era of the 60's with its dated feel about it. With cheap innuendos that scripted the entire film and heaving bosoms, I watched in horror as Vivek Oberoi transformed from being an actor of such potential in his early film debuts into this fat obnoxious caricature of a buffoon who contributed his terrible non acting skills to make this debacle passing off as a cinematic offering.

Perhaps what really disturbed me was that Samarjit Gaekwad allowed for the Laxshminivas Palace of Baroda to be used as the central location of this crude and atrocious film. The city of Baroda is so proud of its heritage and most specially of the educational legacy that the Gaekwad's vision gifted to a nation. And then we have (for the commerce of it all!) the Baroda Palace rented out to be used as  (and please don't miss the irony of it!) a college,  referred to as the SLUT university! Call me overly sensitive but this just made me so very sad. What a come down to the prestige of the legendary Gaekwad state. 

If comedy is about sheer vulgarity than this director certainly made a successful film. A film that debases women and further steers the ideas of sexuality down the road of lust and depravity is certainly what we need as "entertainment"in this age of sexual violence and rape that we are confronting. We have the urban woman portrayed in figure hugging/revealing/boobs pooping out of attire,  and with give-me-sex stamped all over their pretty pouts ( because thats all the mouths do!). So wow!  This is indeed the great maturity of Indian cinema that packages modernity as promiscuity and we are all expected to just all line up and laugh! Wow again!

But the most bizarre aspect of it all was to see the three male lead actors whom I would have imagined desiring to aspire to standards of greater achievement as individuals in cinema, selling  their crotches for a quick buck....Wow for the umpteenth time.....what a come down indeed.....excuse the (h)corny pun!