• Please join us on April 11th, this coming Saturday for a exhibition of the work coming out of the Techno Biographies course. We have been making use of the archives and resources that the Constitutional Observer has built.

    1. A Techno-biography of Urban Dengue Surveillance Mechanisms
    2. A Techno-biography of e-ASHA and other technologies of the Accredited Social Health Activist

  • I was a few hundred meters from the Sita river in Kundapura, a few kms from the sea…We were walking towards the bank. Somewhere inbetween two cows stood on the path, grazing, held loosely by a man. Us walking seemed to have disturbed one cow’s peace, and was shaking its head mildly. The man pulled the rope, made it move onto the orchard on the side. The cow got down…and then ran. ran like it was frolicking around. This was the first time I’ve seen a cow not run in fear, or force. Where can a cow run? Have you ever seen a cow run? We have only seen them as slow, lazy walkers in the midst of our dusty roads. They eat the decomposing tomatoes from the plastic covers. They do all this with heavy, tired udders. Or they run in fear.

    Will you let a cow run in joy? It brought me great joy to see it run.

    Just before it started running
    My young friend and guide in the village

  • My time in bangalore is now filled with things to do on the computer. To be away from the place I live in, appears to the primary function of my life at home. I have not been to lal bagh in all the 5 and something years I have lived here continously.

    The joyous families of lal bagh. A watchman is the center of my attention whose sole job appears to be to prevent children and families from playing using balls.
    The city from the lal bagh rock. It is quite ominous, looking at all the skyscrapers from this sanctuary.
    A kapok tree at cubbon. I learn that the
    A kapok tree at lalbagh

  • We were in Mysore for a day, where we visited the Kukkarahalli lake. It was beautifully maintained, and we spent the sunset staring at birds and dragonflies. Tender coconuts are now 60rs! And mosambis too, so is a goli soda at Lal Bagh. It seems we must adjust to the new normal.

    Our bodies have ridiculous abilities. One moment, or rather for a few hours, you are staring with a blank mind, observing the dragonflies, and the calm birds sitting on the reeds. The sun begins to set and you have to get going, and so you get up. Dust your pants, take the ants out of the helmet, stretch your back after sitting for 2 hours…and sharply you feel yourself breathing fast, an anxiety that you are afraid to attribute to its origins, genuinely so, because you don’t know where it is from. It will take some time, it will take conversation and sometime gazing at the sunset behind the canopy to return to normal, only halfway, still better than the fast breathing.
    The canopy at sunset, inverted. On the right side of this canopy, it opens to the sky. It is a vast space above a wetland, bats set off as we find ourself stopping to try and take the sound in. We also tried to take a photo, but I quickly realised how much the photo disease has spread inside me.

    There is one old man who looks after the house-turned-museum of R.K. Narayanan. I have not read anything set in Malgudi, nor was I aware of his literary popularity, other than of Malgudi. It is set inside a very well off locality, and the house is grand, in its own simple way. I went around slowly, reading accounts and excerpts that were part of the exhibition. They include only one critical account: of his priviliges and worldview in a corner.
A Jal Jeevan Mission tap at an affluent house in Kundapura, in the corner.

  • It has been a difficult time at work, but I am happy that there is a gum that is holding many things together through this. Throughout all the difficult feelings and words that come up in times like these.

  • Indira Gandhi says in a speech at a dinner hosted in honour of Yasser Arafat in New Delhi, 1982:

    You are the symbol of a people afire with the spirit of freedom. We welcome you as a gallant fighter for a just cause. Your vision, courage and determination have galvanised the Palestinian movement. Your leadership has given it dynamism and strength. We are glad you were able to come once again in our midst.

    …Over decades, he people of India have consistently supported the Palestinian people in their struggle to regain their land. As long ago as 1920, before many around this table were born, Mahatma Gandhi spoke up for the people of Palestine. Jawaharlal Nehru wrote about the Palestiniar cause and the Indian National Congress repeatedly affirmed its solidarity with the aspirations of the Palestinians. In 1936 the Congress Party observed a Palestine Day. Support to Palestine was a plank of our foreign policy. In the United Nations. newly independent India opposed the partition of Palestine.

    Since then much to our satisfaction, your struggle has gathered considerable international support. Two years ago, it was our privilege to accord full diplomatic recognition to the PLO. But the Palestinian lands are still occupied and your people remain uprooted from their homes and are subjected to many kinds of deprivation.

    The denial of rights to any people is an affront to the rights of all others. The plight of your people constitutes a challenge to human dignity. That is why India and the entire Non-Aligned Movement have supported your fight. The Non-Aligned Bureau, which met in Kuwait recently, has rightly decided to redouble its endeavours in the United Nations to find a solution.

    We express our strong opposition to the organised repression of the Palestinian inhabitants of the West Bank through large-scale attacks on the civilian population, through the dismissal of popularly elected mayors, and by the economic exploitation of the region. How can there be peace at the expense of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people?