M: A…Which tree is this?
M: The bats like it… There is the short nose fruit bat, see?!
A: Hmmm…. Cherry! This is the Singapore Cherry Tree
Malaika has been quizzing me on the Singapore Cherry for a while. I have learnt to recognise it with its jagged leaves and the white flower. Harsha asks me seriously while at S’s farm in Bidar: “You should be able to recognise it!, you have seen it before…take the leaf, smell it, see the flower…” I sensed the disappointment that I could not distinguish between the Drumstick and the Custard leaves at the beginning. He insisted I try and recognise it.
My concern in the previously week note was also perhaps overly and irrationally concerned about Capital, to the point that I was thinking of creative work and reasoning based on what the ideal pathways would be. Since last week, I have been reading Gustavo Esteva’s writings on ‘Development’. It made me realise that much of the history I have read, learnt, and listened to (except in Bidar, because of the unique narrators I hear from) had led me to uncritically consume history outlined by capitalist and economical concerns. Gustavo makes an argument that modern hunger and scarcity are created by ironically, the imperialist term ‘development’.
“There is not enough wheat. We are short of food. Men, turned into thieves, loot their neighbors. People want to run, and they can’t even walk. Children cry. Young people stumble as if they were old. Their legs falter and they miserably crawl. Their souls are empty, filled with air. It’s all over.” A few centuries before Abraham, a pharaoh carved on stone his cry of desperation.
Such a dramatic testimonial has been used, with many others, to show the ever-present hunger and scarcity, “old companions of men”. I intend to dismantle this ideological operation. My contention is that the situation of these men, who lived and died very close to today’s Ethiopia, has very little to do with modern hunger. The habit of colonizing the past with our present perceptions has cast a veil that prevents us from imagining the conditions suffered by such men. That same veil covers and distorts our current perceptions.
People and vehicles whiz past us in the Jalahalli Metro Station. The development indicator in bangalore is the amount of flyovers we have.
We launched the website of Manesiri. Manesiri is a women producer company that is based in Channapatna and Bidar. Manesiri has launched with millet based products, and will soon have fresh and seasonal products that will be made by the women. Please visit and try the dosa mixes out. I personally enjoy mixing the Millet mix with Chappathi dough. Visit at Manesiri.org
Animals are common on our streets. Cows are common because there are still dairy farms within the city. Did you know donkey dairy is also present in bangalore? The Bangalore Mirror appears to have mistakenly called them Wild Asses in this article.
Donkeys probably from the Malleshwaram Dobi Ghat, in Sadashivnagar.
- I have not had Jamuns before! I have had a lot in just the last few
weeks though.
I wanted to attend the Cockroach Janata Party protest on the 15th. I was unable to, but a dear friend shares this flyer from the protest with me.
- We took a walk in Yelahanka Old Town. There are a lot of Pawn shops, and hand embroidery shops. There are cow-sheds within, and there are quite a few wet-land like areas
