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Monday, May 16, 2016
Knock Knock - Was it a case of mistaken identity? A short fiction by Revathi Raj Iyer, published in Woman's Era - May issue
Saturday, May 14, 2016
Was it a case of mistaken identity? Knock knock - a short story by Revathi Raj Iyer
Thank You Woman's Era for publishing my short fiction :)
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Destiny's child {a flash fiction}
“I
haven’t told you but I noticed the forlorn look on
your face each time we went to the gynaecologist. I simply don’t understand as
to why you are so close minded to treatments.”
Sumi looks at her husband and does not say a word as she gets into the car.
“What
is the matter with you, Sumi? You have to understand that I too feel
disappointed. Can we not consider options?” Kumar is unable to control his
irritation.
“Treatments are very expensive and there is no
guarantee that they will work. It could take a few years and we are not growing
any younger, says Sumi nonchalantly, staring at the young couple happily making
their way towards the car park.
“Okay
then. Are you close minded to adoption, too?”
Sumi
looks at her husband. This is music to her ears.
“Are
you sure?” She asks, her face lighting up instantly.
“Yes
of course! If that will make you the Sumi I courted, fell in love with and got
married against my parents’ wishes, then why not?” Kumar grins as he starts the
ignition.
Sumi
is unable to control her emotions. She sobs quietly. How else would she be able
to bring her little daughter, Maria, home?
Thursday, April 7, 2016
Swara Rangawali - a musical presentation by The Temple of Fine Arts at Esplanade, Singapore
Singapore, 27 Mar 2016:
“Swara Rangawali,” an outstanding musical rendition composed & directed by Didi Kalyani Puranik, daughter of Pandit Balakrishnabuwa Kapileshwari maestro of the Kirana Gharana and performed by the students of The Temple of Fine Arts (TFA), was held on Sunday, the 27th March, 2016 at the Esplanade Concourse, Singapore, as part of Esplanade’s “Holi - Colours of Spring” programme, to commemorate this popular Indian festival of colours and gaiety.
Inspired by HH Swami Shantanand Saraswathi, The Temple of Fine Arts blossomed in 1981, in the South East Asian region, with modest beginnings in 1982 at Singapore. It was established as a unique endeavour to enrich mankind through the arts, not in a religious sense as the name suggests, but rather as a place where art is nourished and revered as divine. To this objective, TFA is relentless in its efforts to promote art and culture not only in Singapore but all over the world through its centres located at Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Johor Bahru, Malacca, Perth, Colombo, Coimbatore, Chennai and New Jersey.
TFA has been hosting public performances to cover a wide genre encapsulating classical, semi-classical, folk and contemporary dance forms and music in leading art venues in Singapore. Adapting non-Indian themes in performances has also enabled TFA to reach out to the vast majority of the cosmopolitan Singapore public, whist reinforcing and nurturing strong foundations in Indian culture of music and dance.
The gala event to celebrate Holi is performed by the students of TFA, every year with renewed vigour, under the able guidance of Didi Kalyani Puranik, who has devoted her entire life for promoting and teaching music. True to the guiding spirit and motto of TFA – Art, Just for the love of it – this event is open to the public at no charge.
Holi, being one of the most popular festivals in the northern parts of India, is typically celebrated with unabashed smearing of colours on one another, songs and dances. In places associated with the birth and childhood of Lord Krishna such as Mathura, Vrindavan, Barsana and Nandgaon, one never fails to hear the beat of pakhavaj, a traditional percussion instrument, in street corners amidst merriment of music, dance, colours and delicacies. This infectious fervour has passed on over generations and has caught up amongst the Indian diaspora throughout the world.
“Swara Rangawali,” brilliantly captured the essence of Holi by this musical extravaganza wherein the Swars, Taal and Raag were finely combined and sprayed on the enthralled audience, in the traditional styles of Hori, Tumri, Phaag, Tappa/Dhamaal, Chaiti and Rasiya along with Rabindra Sangeeth from Bengal and folk music from Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan. A delightful Sufi rendition of Ghulam Mustafa Qadri sung by the great artist, Abida Parveen was also performed by the students. The percussionists added their wonderful touch to the show.
The musical medley comprising a portion of Madhurashtakam in Raag Des after the invocation of Lord Ganesha, and the various Raagas such as Sohni, Basant, Jhinjhoti, Khamaaj, Kaafi, Kirwani, Miya Malhar, Bhairav and the unique Pancham se Gara reflects the amazing talent of the students and the intense training provided by the faculty of TFA.
It was an enchanting performance that inspired several people to walk in and enjoy the melodies, as the evening progressed.
Report by: Revathi Raj Iyer, chirminey@gmail.com, with inputs from the Temple of Fine Arts, Singapore: http://www.tfasg.org
Published in Muse India on 4th April, 2016
Published in Muse India on 4th April, 2016
Thursday, March 17, 2016
An appeal from Women Center, Christchurch NZ
Dear past and present supporters
The Women Centre needs your help. We have been supporting the women of Christchurch for the past 30 years but our vital work is in jeopardy as we struggle to secure sustainable funding. With only 4 months of funding left we are reaching out to as many people as we can. As either current or former supporters of the Centre – whether as volunteers or paid staff – we humbly ask you to consider giving a little and/or sharing on this link to our Givealittle page to your networks - https://givealittle.co.nz/org/
Together we can keep the Centre alive and thriving.
Kind Regards
Ariane Hollis-Locke
Centre Co-ordinator
Monday, March 14, 2016
Book review of Yvonne Vaz Ezdani's "New Songs of the Survivors" {Revathi Raj Iyer}
Yvonne Vaz Ezdani
The Exodus of Indians from Burma:
New Songs of the Survivors
Non Fiction
New Delhi: Speaking Tiger. 2015
ISBN: 978-93-85755-18-7
eISBN: 978-93-85755-20-0
Pages 219 | Rs 350
Reminiscences of courage, faith, hope and human endurance by the refugees of Burma during World War II
The book The Exodus of Indians from Burma: New Songs of the Survivors is a sequel to Songs of the Survivors and depicts the travails of refugees, predominantly Goans, who had to flee Burma during the period 1941-42 when the Japanese mercilessly bombarded the nation to overthrow the British regime. Yvonne Vaz Ezdani has painstakingly and patiently reached out to various sources and assimilated information from across the globe, in order to bring out her first book Songs of the Survivors (Dec 2007) and now this revised second edition New Songs of the Survivors gives credence and visibility to the remnants of oral history which is fading away with time and passing on of the older generations.
The trauma, maladies and tragedies that prosperous and well entrenched Indians living in Burma endured when Japan bombed the nation, compounded by the growing resentment and fear of being attacked by locals as well as the Japanese, forced a vast majority of Indians to depart via the most arduous route in history coined as “A Forgotten Long March,” by historian Hugh Tinker. This forms the subject matter of the book.
Yvonne Vaz Ezdani grew up in Burma, graduated from Rangoon University, got married and had two daughters there. Her grandparents and uncles lived through the entire war period and have actually borne the brunt of it all and rebuilt their lives from scratch after the war. They have seen the sufferings of their friends, relatives and the dire situation that compelled people to resort to the last option of “probable survival amidst all odds,” the unchartered route across the mountains to reach the Indian borders. Yvonne Vaz Ezdani’s grandparents and uncles returned to India only in the 1960’s and her own family repatriated to Goa in the early 1980’s having lived through good and bad times. There couldn’t have been a better reason for Yvonne to collate, edit and bring to light stories of the Burma refugees. Of course, memoirs do have limited memory, especially since the older generations have not been maintaining a written record and most of the narrations are oral citations. Therefore, to some extent there could be a slight distortion of facts or events, but that does not in any way undermine what the refugees went through or the contents of this book.
The book also gives a cursory account of the Burmese history with a view to putting in proper perspective, the increasing racial resentment between Burmese and the Indians. The period from 1824 to 1886 witnessed three Anglo-Burmese wars and a steady flow of Indians into Burma for various key jobs. This influx continued in full force when Burma became an Indian province in 1886 thereby sowing seeds of hostility between Burmese and the working class Indian community. This racial animosity reached a crescendo during the dock strike in the 1930’s. The ensuing anti-Indian riots and the inability of the British to quell the rebellion resulted in bloodshed. This was perhaps the start point that led to the departure of a large number of Indians from Rangoon.
The exodus further escalated during the Japanese attack in 1941-42. The British did not expect Japan to invade Asian territory and hence their preparation for the war was seemingly inadequate. The terror stricken people were forced to leave the country practically leaving behind or losing their wealth, property, lifetime savings and near and dear ones. Apparently the “white route” which was relatively shorter and easier was earmarked for the Europeans and Anglo-Indians. Indians had to take the much tougher “black route”. There was an acute failure on the part of the Government to evacuate people who had adopted Burma as their homeland.
Many families who went back to Burma after the war to re-establish themselves had to finally come back in the 1960’s through the 1980’s due to restrictive migration policies of the Government and issue of citizenship. It is praiseworthy that India welcomed back the refugees, at all stages and allowed them to freely settle down in different parts of the country like Belgaum, Nagpur, Goa and Chennai, to name a few.
The vivid description of the walk where several people died of disease, exhaustion and starvation, lack of medical aid, relief camps and so on is appalling to digest. Almost every person who reached India was in skins and bones and immediately hospitalised. They are the survivors whose stories have reached us.
In order to complete the picture, Yvonne has also included excerpts and bravo stories of other communities which truly capture one’s hearts. I would like to mention one such excerpt titled “White Butterflies” by Colin McPhedran where he narrates his family saga about his long trek to India. His account of the bombing of Myitkyina airport where people scrambled into the last flight hoping that it would take them to safety, but which instead goes up in flames, shows the sheer urgency and desperation to escape. It is horrifying to imagine the plight of not only those who were in that plane that exploded but also those who saw the charred bodies thrown out of the aircraft.
As a whole, this book speaks volumes about mixed emotions that war brings with it – utmost devastation, hatred, fear, looting, merciless killings, camaraderie, optimism, pessimism, hope, courage and above all fortitude and spirit to embark on the journey to safety.
Amitav Ghosh has aptly summarised the book in the Foreword as: “It is, so far as I know, the first attempt to write an oral history of the ‘Forgotten Long March’ drawing on the recollections of survivors and their descendants. Indeed the book is much more than an oral history: the manner of its telling is such as to allow the reader to witness the events as they unfold, giving the narrative the vividness and momentum of a novel.”
Yvonne has very nicely and carefully edited and placed each and every true life story in such a way that makes this book an interesting read from the start to the finish and touches one’s heart. A well thought out development from the “Songs of the Survivors.” This book is to be appreciated as it has given space to the voices of the refugees and a chance to reach out to their progenies. Yvonne’s efforts in this direction are laudable. I recommend that this book be understood in its true spirit – whatever history books do not teach us for want of recorded details is best learnt from oral tradition.
New Songs of the Survivors
Non Fiction
New Delhi: Speaking Tiger. 2015
ISBN: 978-93-85755-18-7
eISBN: 978-93-85755-20-0
Pages 219 | Rs 350
Reminiscences of courage, faith, hope and human endurance by the refugees of Burma during World War II
The book The Exodus of Indians from Burma: New Songs of the Survivors is a sequel to Songs of the Survivors and depicts the travails of refugees, predominantly Goans, who had to flee Burma during the period 1941-42 when the Japanese mercilessly bombarded the nation to overthrow the British regime. Yvonne Vaz Ezdani has painstakingly and patiently reached out to various sources and assimilated information from across the globe, in order to bring out her first book Songs of the Survivors (Dec 2007) and now this revised second edition New Songs of the Survivors gives credence and visibility to the remnants of oral history which is fading away with time and passing on of the older generations.
The trauma, maladies and tragedies that prosperous and well entrenched Indians living in Burma endured when Japan bombed the nation, compounded by the growing resentment and fear of being attacked by locals as well as the Japanese, forced a vast majority of Indians to depart via the most arduous route in history coined as “A Forgotten Long March,” by historian Hugh Tinker. This forms the subject matter of the book.
Yvonne Vaz Ezdani grew up in Burma, graduated from Rangoon University, got married and had two daughters there. Her grandparents and uncles lived through the entire war period and have actually borne the brunt of it all and rebuilt their lives from scratch after the war. They have seen the sufferings of their friends, relatives and the dire situation that compelled people to resort to the last option of “probable survival amidst all odds,” the unchartered route across the mountains to reach the Indian borders. Yvonne Vaz Ezdani’s grandparents and uncles returned to India only in the 1960’s and her own family repatriated to Goa in the early 1980’s having lived through good and bad times. There couldn’t have been a better reason for Yvonne to collate, edit and bring to light stories of the Burma refugees. Of course, memoirs do have limited memory, especially since the older generations have not been maintaining a written record and most of the narrations are oral citations. Therefore, to some extent there could be a slight distortion of facts or events, but that does not in any way undermine what the refugees went through or the contents of this book.
The book also gives a cursory account of the Burmese history with a view to putting in proper perspective, the increasing racial resentment between Burmese and the Indians. The period from 1824 to 1886 witnessed three Anglo-Burmese wars and a steady flow of Indians into Burma for various key jobs. This influx continued in full force when Burma became an Indian province in 1886 thereby sowing seeds of hostility between Burmese and the working class Indian community. This racial animosity reached a crescendo during the dock strike in the 1930’s. The ensuing anti-Indian riots and the inability of the British to quell the rebellion resulted in bloodshed. This was perhaps the start point that led to the departure of a large number of Indians from Rangoon.
The exodus further escalated during the Japanese attack in 1941-42. The British did not expect Japan to invade Asian territory and hence their preparation for the war was seemingly inadequate. The terror stricken people were forced to leave the country practically leaving behind or losing their wealth, property, lifetime savings and near and dear ones. Apparently the “white route” which was relatively shorter and easier was earmarked for the Europeans and Anglo-Indians. Indians had to take the much tougher “black route”. There was an acute failure on the part of the Government to evacuate people who had adopted Burma as their homeland.
Many families who went back to Burma after the war to re-establish themselves had to finally come back in the 1960’s through the 1980’s due to restrictive migration policies of the Government and issue of citizenship. It is praiseworthy that India welcomed back the refugees, at all stages and allowed them to freely settle down in different parts of the country like Belgaum, Nagpur, Goa and Chennai, to name a few.
The vivid description of the walk where several people died of disease, exhaustion and starvation, lack of medical aid, relief camps and so on is appalling to digest. Almost every person who reached India was in skins and bones and immediately hospitalised. They are the survivors whose stories have reached us.
In order to complete the picture, Yvonne has also included excerpts and bravo stories of other communities which truly capture one’s hearts. I would like to mention one such excerpt titled “White Butterflies” by Colin McPhedran where he narrates his family saga about his long trek to India. His account of the bombing of Myitkyina airport where people scrambled into the last flight hoping that it would take them to safety, but which instead goes up in flames, shows the sheer urgency and desperation to escape. It is horrifying to imagine the plight of not only those who were in that plane that exploded but also those who saw the charred bodies thrown out of the aircraft.
As a whole, this book speaks volumes about mixed emotions that war brings with it – utmost devastation, hatred, fear, looting, merciless killings, camaraderie, optimism, pessimism, hope, courage and above all fortitude and spirit to embark on the journey to safety.
Amitav Ghosh has aptly summarised the book in the Foreword as: “It is, so far as I know, the first attempt to write an oral history of the ‘Forgotten Long March’ drawing on the recollections of survivors and their descendants. Indeed the book is much more than an oral history: the manner of its telling is such as to allow the reader to witness the events as they unfold, giving the narrative the vividness and momentum of a novel.”
Yvonne has very nicely and carefully edited and placed each and every true life story in such a way that makes this book an interesting read from the start to the finish and touches one’s heart. A well thought out development from the “Songs of the Survivors.” This book is to be appreciated as it has given space to the voices of the refugees and a chance to reach out to their progenies. Yvonne’s efforts in this direction are laudable. I recommend that this book be understood in its true spirit – whatever history books do not teach us for want of recorded details is best learnt from oral tradition.
{Published in Muse India - March/April issue}
http://museindia.com/regularcontent.asp?issid=66&id=6452
Wednesday, February 17, 2016
Deceit
He was in my bed, the space that I ought to
share with my husband. I was guilty as charged but did not feel that I was the
wrongdoer, until that night when….
“I have just finished school and you are already looking for a suitable boy?” I asked piquantly.
“I have just finished school and you are already looking for a suitable boy?” I asked piquantly.
“Sh…be quiet said my papa. He never failed to
check the daily matrimonial.
I looked pleadingly at ma. She continued
braiding my thick black hair yanking it even harder. I winced. This was her way
of saying “Sh….be quiet.”
The following weekend our entire household
was busy with various activities; cleaning, dusting and washing, cooking and
trimming the garden. I was stunned to see all my relatives in one place.
“All this was for a ‘suitable boy’ for me?”
I was bewildered.
The more questions I asked
I was shushed, as if that was the only word in the dictionary. That evening mother
adorned my hair with jasmine flowers and draped me in a sari. Pritam arrived
and instantly agreed as if I was a pack of instant noodles and in no time I was
a bride.
“Diya, shall we sleep
now?” asked Pritam.
I agreed happily. But this
went on the next night and the night after that until the day I confronted him.
“Why are you not
asserting your rights as a husband?”
Pritam hesitantly
replied, “I don’t know how to tell you this but do you understand the meaning
of impotent?”
I nodded.
Time flew and I was coined as sterile. I was disgraced and taunted. I retaliated by shamelessly sleeping with men on the sly, until that night when Pritam saw me in bed with this stranger. He looked away with a painful expression but remained silent and that's when I knew he loved me.
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