Works on quality, value, ideas of good, education, caste. Always on the lookout for good ethnographies.
Joined January 2024
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My first attempt at publishing a journal article is now out. It is a tiny piece from my PhD - not as original- as I wanted it to be. But I am glad I started here. I had a good editor and neither of the reviewers were the dreaded ones.
Deepti Sreeram retweeted
My mind was blown when I found that the same Ravi who had composed for films like Waqt, Do Badan, Ek Phool Do Mali, Hamraaz, Nikaah etc also composed for such iconic and so typically Malayalam soundtracks of Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha, Vaisali, and Nakhakshathangal
10/10 BOMBAY RAVI — My absolute favourite, saved for last. Ravi Shankar Sharma became ‘Bombay’ Ravi to all of us and he too was introduced to Malayalam by Hariharan. Some of those films live on perhaps only through his music. Picking one song was impossible but here’s one
youtu.be/3tu0qol8-vk?si=HGhT…
Deepti Sreeram retweeted
A moving passage in, of all places, Harvey's introduction to his companion to Marx's Grundrisse:
Happy 91st birthday to @profdavidharvey. Like thousands of others, I made it through Capital through his lectures. Beyond his brilliant scholarship, he’s one of the kindest comrades in the socialist movement. A true legend.
I always felt this touch from Hindi films in this song but had not clue it was Laxmikant Pyarelal.
2/10 LAXMIKANT-PYARELAL — The duo defined Hindi film music in the ’70s and ’80s. In 1997, they made music for this little, kinda unwatchable Malayalam film #Poonilamazha. The Seychelles-shot song was the soung of the season — and it now has 19 million views.
youtu.be/-lCxfOsLqLM?si=k_O2…
This is possibly the most thoughtful take I have seen on this.
Many of my Dalit friends reject the Left, and interestingly, they also reject Abhijit. Some even say that Dalits can never become like Neha or Neha Bora. I disagree with all these arguments — not only on facts, but also as a follower of Baba Saheb. I cannot reject someone with whom engagement is still possible.
At the outset, one point must be made clear: for Baba Saheb, it was always about engagement, never about rejecting anyone. He even went to the extent of giving a lecture to hardcore Hindus. So, even on an ideological level, outright rejection is not right.
On the argument for rejecting Abhijit: when the entire nation was scared to utter a word against the Chief Justice’s remark, it was a Dalit, Abhijit, who came out openly against it and started a party. When he landed in Delhi, he came with the Constitution and Baba Saheb, and people accepted him. He formed a team, protested, and his first demand was achieved. There is no reason for Dalits to reject him.On Neha and the Left: Dalits may have reasons to be critical of the Left, but when Bojja Tharakam was asked the same question, he said that if there had been no Left, Adivasis would have been wiped out long ago. Dalits have hardly addressed Adivasi questions. The Left is a problem, but we can still engage with them by criticising them. There is no point in rejecting them. For example, if Dalits say the Left has done harm, don’t we know that among Dalit castes, castes have done worse harm to each other? Yet we continue to engage. At the end of the day, we can only engage with those with whom engagement is possible. Therefore, I do not find any reason to reject Neha or the Left. And we need to embrace Abhijeet, What is needed is critical engagement with them.
Min Jin Lee has such compassion for the parents and children in American Hagwon. I almost feel the gentleness as I read. I was worried that the novel would make me anxious about the cram school system instead it is reminding me of resilience and grace.
This model is now prevalent in most new private unis especially Ashoka. And so it is not surprising to see a first year undergrad already worrying about their CVs and summer plans- already planning to secure their “futures”- and utterly anxious.
Wonderful thread.
Today is Kerala Piravi 🌴
For the last eight months, I've been making a Malayalam podcast about all things Kerala.
It is called Sora (as in സൊറ പറയുക), hosted at @IeMalayalam.
A few worth your evening? 🧵
Deepti Sreeram retweeted
These are violent times. Still nothing prepared us for the two classroom horrors. Have been criticised for running down Kabir Singhs & Animals. Restating that my point is about not about portrayal of misogyny but its celebration, not about toxic characters but their glorification
Deepti Sreeram retweeted
so now political parties are "us". an absolute mockery of the anti-caste ideology by conflating the people and the political class of the marginalised group as one and the same. I'm sorry this is like kindergarten level political understanding.
What Neha Bora must understand is that there is no need for us to “go to the slums”, “go to the protests” , because we actually live in the slums . We are from the slums . We are still connected to the slums and the epi centre of the protests is us !
The seed for the rebellion is our own lives ! Our Dalit lives!
Unlike the Communist Savarnas who “visit” the slums for mobilising cadres for their protests and movements, we stay there. Live there . And we have First class experience in solving the issues . Unfortunately we do not get that limelight what media gives to these Savarnas like Neha .
Politics is not different from our lives so that we chose to do something out of the ordinary like Neha and others .
Our life itself is political. Our individual personal life is more political than any political party out there.
It is not Neha but we Dalits who must be saying “ we know better than you “ , so stop appropriating our struggles in the name of communist politics.
Your party is sustaining only because of us . If we say FO and show our middle finger to the left, your whole communist eco system will crumble.
This place is so bad with understanding people as flawed humans. NB was absolutely wrong with how she said what she said. At the same time- there should be many such activists from different locations on ground- working- and none idolised.
This imagination of a pristine activist coming from the left or even anti caste spaces will spell doom.