Life-en-treats

In 2017, I was a panelist at a day-long symposium on Comparative Literature in the 21st century at Jain University in Bangalore . I was glad to share space with Ipshita Chanda and E V Ramakrishnan, both scholars I had met in different conferences over the course of the decade I spent as an academic in India. Chanda is now at EFLU, the place where I did my Masters. And EVR is a star in the field of Comparative Literature. These scholars, along with the illustrious and industrious Mythili Rao made for wonderful intellectual company. My own presentation was on Digital Humanities. The question-answer session was quite charged and one of the questions I fielded was on Rupi Kaur. I had not read her at that point of time but had read the plagiarism controversy she had gotten herself into. One of the students asked us about how we viewed Rupi Kaur who writes beautifully but was accused of plagiarism. My answer was 1) that in the west, things are very straightforward and unlike in India, the...

In June, this year, I had the wonderful opportunity to speak at the Women's Studies Department, Bangalore University, thanks to my friend, Sudeshna Mukherjee. Sudeshna has been there for many years now, is a seasoned scholar, and steers the department beautifully. I spoke about my own research and how I had made some unconventional choices, quite fearlessly, stated what my worries were, and what prices I had paid and so on. I encouraged the students to list these even as they were doing their MA or PhDs. To know what is at stake before taking important decisions about one's work is definitively empowering. It was an interesting afternoon session, with students hailing from LSE to nearby villages. They had interesting questions for me on ideology, interpretation and feminism. I thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with Sudeshna--her insights into classroom dynamics, recruitment issues nowadays that plagues the Social Sciences and Humanities, and the surprises teaching Women...

California is a car country. Remember that Kannada film song, "Car car car car, elnodi car." (Car everywhere!). One cannot step out to fetch milk from a store without a car! So I have my car and its an absolute necessity. But just that other day, the headlight stopped working and I had to take an UBER. My first in the 6 and half years that I have been in the US. My fellow pooler was shocked that this was my first ride; he chuckled, said wow and really and hmm. My two drivers to and fro were so so so cool. It was like they were competing in a kindness project. 1.  I had to get somewhere by 9 am so I was wrong in choosing a Pool ride, but I somehow got confused and had chosen it. The driver didn't pick another ride just so I could get to my destination in time. 2. Back home, driver asks me if I need chilled water (it was a super hot day) and chips that are in the back. Makes pleasant conversation. Hoo! Bowled over.  

In the spate of buying a new home in the US, and renovating and decorating it,  I have heard one phrase all too often, consistently, without fail, over the course of the last five years. No, its not to do with HGTV, Magnolia Homes and flipping or flopping! Do not take your guess in that direction at all! Wherever we went as a couple and asked questions about a certain a product or plan, we were given detailed descriptions and instructions, which would all finally end in the expert saying: "let your wife choose." "Go for what she likes." "She is the better half." "She knows all." "Happy wife, happy life!" I would giggle or chuckle, my husband would laugh big and we would leave, only to meet another person concluding their enlightening remarks on home construction, decor, kitchen design, bathroom vanities and the like with, well, you know what. I would giggle so as to not wholly embarrass the person who thought he was cracking a joke...

Anthropology Review Database is not up on the web anymore. It was a free and open website hosted by the University of Buffalo with thousands of reviews in the field of Anthropology and related disciplines. It does not look like a maintenance issue and could be a funding issue. And that is not good at all! Well, this has been the general trend in the Social Sciences and Humanities for quite some time now. I do hope it gets back online! I wrote two book reviews and three film reviews for ARD and felt kind of attached to that space. It was a place I would go to when I had run out of things to write about academically.    

My last post on the blog was in 2015. And hey, that's not so long ago! Yes, but I was only re-posting writing published elsewhere. So, I suppose, it does not count. Here is a quick update on what I have been doing since then and a bit before. I moved to the USA in 2012 and since then have written journal articles and book chapters, which is a change from my earlier stints at freelance writing, book reviews and editing. I attended conferences and edited a couple of books and also translated some fiction. I also wrote some encyclopedia articles, opinion pieces, features and started translating Akka Mahadevi's Yoganaga Trividhi . Some vachana translations were also published in Indian Literature . I now want to do more freelance writing and take it really seriously. A small change in direction? Well, kind of. But I am still an academic essentially! Here are some links: http://www.womensweb.in/2017/08/wives-on-h4-visa-deal-with-depression-dependency-causes/ http://jagger...

In 2013, I translated Kannada writer, L C Sumithra's short story, Kanivemane.com. We sent it to the Sahitya Akademi journal, Indian Literature and forgot about it, for the most part. Indian Literature had published an earlier story I had translated by Sumithra, "U-Cut," so somehow we got placid, I suppose. Once a year, I would think of the story, its pending status and ask about it when wishing Sumithra: Happy New Year! Then I woke up again earlier this year and thought: enough waiting now. I realized there was  Out of Print , a magazine I knew about since I first wrote a story on Lekhana, a literary festival in Bangalore that launched in 2012. Out of Print is run by the charming writer, Indira Chandrasekhar who received the story, wrote super-prompt replies and finally chose to publish it! So yay, the story is published. I was thoroughly impressed by Chandrasekhar's keen eye and was happy to work with her. Out of Print is dedicated to the short story form an...

Nearly a decade ago, sitting in a cosy little apartment in France, I started this blog. I am now in San Diego, USA, another part of the world, far from India, where I was born and raised, and finally, I reviving this blog! What a journey it has been from 2006 to 2018! I first started the blog to get myself into the writing habit; I was then doing my PhD. I didn't share it with anyone and it was meant for just me. Blogs are generally an anathema for academics. I am not sure any of my peers have one. So the idea of a blog is something that is still new to me. And then, in the last decade, I got busy writing for PhD, finishing it, getting married, moving continents, buying a home and having a little one and the blog fell to ruins. Occasional posts on Facebook replaced my blog posts! But here I am and hoping to stay on and make Life-en-treats public! P.S. No idea why I called the blog Life Entreats anymore. Hah! Happens guys, I am preempting midlife. But yes, life has been ent...