Political scientist by training, highly educated factotum, building @prajnya, teaching @kreauniversity, founding member @WRNnews, chairing @ipsarc07.
Sep 21, 2020 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
Reading the tweets about the FCRA bill. Any government has a vested interest is stifling civil society but startling how much hatred and mistrust people have for those of us who choose to work in the larger interest.
Just six months ago, this government left the people of India to their fate and it was this civil society that stepped into the breach, turning compassion into practical help. For months.
Sep 8, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
A short rant about the vegetables I've been getting delivered during the lockdown. People romanticise Pazhamudir and other farm-table type shops but vegetables are awful. Dirty, half-rotten and degenerate within days. I've seen rot in carrots, brinjals, etc.
I just got a batch from a different store, hoping for better. The lauki are spotted. The carrots broken. The cluster beans discoloured and tough as leather. @Zomato@DunzoCare@swiggy_in if we leave feedback about your vendors, does it make a difference?
Sep 7, 2020 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
I have lost track of the relentless march of COVID19. I am not reading the numbers. I am not tracking the opening-closing. I am reading some of the sad stories.
I am very fortunate to sit in a cave, connected as I wish by a virutal bridge to the world.
I am isolated but not insulated from knowing and feeling the lived suffering of people everywhere. What I am not paying attention to are the daily details.
Therefore, I can say, what you probably can't: it's hard to say anything at all definitively.
Aug 23, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
I ordered a box of Samahan sachets for my aunt in Hyderabad and was pleased to see this this morning. @amazonIN
When my niece checked, however, this was in the box. @amazonIN
Aug 6, 2020 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
It's 75 years since the bombing of Hiroshima and we are forgetting that it was as much of a watershed moment as #COVID19.
35 years after I visited the Peace Park, the memory still fills me with a sense of urgency. bit.ly/2C0OyRJ #Hiroshima75
I wrote this for the 70th anniversary. bit.ly/2PqAiET
The Nobel to @ICANN apart, that we still need to talk about nuclear disarmament says something about our unwillingness to learn.
It's the kind of day when I want to have Siddhivinayak's web darshan live streaming on my desktop.
I cannot remember when we began going there, late 1960s probably. We would drive from Colaba, go to the temple, eat vadais and once in a way, wander through Century Bazar which was then shiny and new.
Jul 2, 2020 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
I read everywhere "Rest in Power" and it makes me very uneasy, very tired. For an embodied life that has just stopped, how utterly exhausting, this wish. I feel like we are transferring our anger, our guilt, our restlessness to someone who has stopped.
I have a request: When I die, if you feel moved to comment, do not ask me or wish that I 'Rest in Power.' Let me go. I will be quite done with the battles of this world, I assure you. No power, no politics, no words.
Jun 23, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
I am sure there are criticisms of @chennaicorp's work but I want to express my appreciation of their efforts here. It is not easy to safeguard temperamentally disobedient and wilful citizens and the legion of staff are doing a heroic job.
@chennaicorp The young man assigned to our building brings good humour and positive energy to our door, rings the bell, poised to charge through the building. Today he stepped in to take our temperatures and reassured us, "You are fine" before running down the stairs.
Jun 12, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
I need a separate bank account for a project, preferably current, but I suppose savings would work. I need it to be low-cost, low-maintenance. Any suggestions? Advice? Can't go out shopping.
I bank at HDFC, too expensive (what was I thinking?). I also have very old accounts at Bank of Maharashtra (my branch has underwhelming customer service) and Baroda (lockdown happened before I could contact).
A little lost.
Jun 5, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Just posted this essay, reflecting on what citizenship means when multiple constraints define your public engagement. bit.ly/3gVjfr4
I remembered a three-year old piece, written with greater energy than I now have, but along the same lines: 10 things to do in times of political upheaval. bit.ly/2Y4fqXX
I even made a poster that I gifted friends.
Jun 4, 2020 • 14 tweets • 5 min read
Just learned that Basu Chatterjee passed away. My 70s movie memories are not Deewaar and Sholay but Piya ka Ghar, Rajnigandha, Chitchor, Guddi, Bawarchi... sweet films about ordinary people like those I knew.
A #rajnigandha offering: bit.ly/2z5VR9s
"Kayi baar yun bhi dekhaa hai
Ye jo man ki seemaa rekhaa hai,
Man todane lagataa hai
Anjaanee pyaas ke peechhe,
Anjaanee aas ke peechhe,
Man daudane lagataa hai" bit.ly/2U96yza
May 16, 2020 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
Helping me hold things together on yet another exhausted morning, is the @stringsonline '30' album:
Oh, how well we have done...! We have done so much better!
For some, there is satisfaction in every minute and for others, nothing is enough.
Seemit samsaadhanon... Kyon seemit? Yeh savaal kaun poochhega, kaun sunega?
Apr 14, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
People who have been working on disasters and resilience for decades are missing from TV discussions and op-ed pages. Editors: Ask Prema Gopalan, Mihir Bhatt, Goonj and others to be on your panels and write your op-eds.
Your usual suspects don't know it all.
The contributors to this book are a who's who of disaster risk reduction practitioners in the region. bit.ly/1Wrzmzm
Ask them to write for you. Ask me how to reach them if you need.
Apr 5, 2020 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
India Today is so gung ho.
The more of this diya enthusiasm I hear, the more annoyed I am.
And the constant replay of the video message. What nightmare is this?
Now a psychologist explains why the lights are important.
Faking it till we make it... never.
Getting angrier by the minute.
Apr 3, 2020 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
I will give the PM credit for saying these words, whether they mean anything or not: You are not alone. At this moment, thousands do feel alone, immobile, without community, without active help. The words may mean nothing but they still comfort, when spoken.
On our political soapboxes, often we forget to say, live these words.
Villains or heroes, history shows us that those who organise to provide help in crises, build ideological and political support for themselves in the long run. Something to think about.
Mar 29, 2020 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Jogging your memory....
What an incredible cast!
Mar 25, 2020 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
Like demonetisation, this lockdown--whose logic I understand much better than demonetisation--is leaving me with anxiety and also a sense of scarcity that makes me consider every sip of water, every grain of food.
More people than you know carry memories of famine and privation in their hearts, and for me, the uncertainty about ordering supplies, being able to go and find them, are triggering those worries.
Mar 1, 2018 • 12 tweets • 3 min read
It's #March and one of the earliest pieces of advice I got after founding Prajnya was to a #fundraising drive in this month. Like most advice, it was well-meant but incorrect.
NGOs in India, especially those that have 80G exemption, are supposed to spend 85% of what they receive in a year, within the year. Failing that, we could lose non-profit status. So the Board has to resolve to spend the money within the year.
