The Platter

The ‘Acceptance’ Issue April - May 2017

Cover Story Exclusive interview with body positive Illustrator Sanne Thijs

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Contents

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Editor’s Note

4

From the Heart

8

Cover Story

10

Sartorial Digest

16

In a few frames

24

Playing the ‘part’

32

Film Culture

36

Travel Moments

40

The Living Space

44

Rants and Chuckles

48

Perspectives beyond 52 stereotype The non-binary

54

Thoughtful Reviews

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Editor’s Note Spring is here, and I’ve been at my best at observing, articulating and experiencing cultural spaces and developments. This issue is themed as the ‘acceptance’ issue, because I see the need for acceptance in the context of diversity in demographic identities, whether it is political, personal or related to the ‘self’.

Throughout my childhood, I’ve had the opportunity to experience different cultures as I grew in several different parts of the country which made me truly open to different ideas about culture and identity.

After I entered design school, away from the shelter of the protective home environment, I was introduced to many attitudes, perspectives and people from around the country put together in a rigorous course, and for me it was new but still something that I’m used to – new ideas and cultural perspectives, but there was something that irked me since the first day of school, which were my newly made friends’ obsession with a defined ‘body’ and ‘figure’ and how they would spend hours on defining what they lacked. Social consciousness and body shaming have been prevalent and it have been around us since prehistory in the form of the ‘preferences’ shown in their representation of the human body. Even today, we see that preference, but no celebration of the diversity, which is extremely sad.

The body positivity movement was a good kick-start to that, and putting it forward, here is our well-curated issue on many perspectives towards acceptance, self love and diversity. Have a great read ahead!

- Leena Jain Styled and Photographed

by Anubhuti Arya

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OwnYourBody

#OwnYourBody

From the heart

Loving the Self When was the last time you complimented yourself looking at the mirror? When the last time you saw what was good-looking about yourself instead of counting your flaws? When was the last time you wore that crop top without feeling conscious? When was the last time you wore the red-lipstick you love without fearing criticism?

Self-love is about believing in yourself, believing that you have the potential to be a great individual and you are one. There isn’t a reason to be hard on yourself, whether it is about your body, your looks or your mental state, you don’t ‘have’ to be a ‘certain way’ just by giving in to the pressure and expectations of the people around you, you don’t have to reach someone’s else’s standards as others don’t have a right on yourself as much as you do. Fitting in is a cliché, move out of it, be your own weird self – do what you want and own up to it, be fierce, be aggressive and be ambitious, but most importantly, love yourself and don’t be too hard on yourself for living your life the way you want to!

We have a constant need for apologizing in our culture, we say sorry for things that we can’t help or shouldn’t be sorry about, we feel guilty for caring about ourselves, but the truth is if you don’t care about yourself – how would you care about other people around you? We give in too much of ourselves in a relationship without giving ourselves the priority, and we expect others to do the same, we expect our happiness to be fulfilled through others and external fulfilments instead of internal satisfaction! Sometimes it’s okay to cut off and detox from whatever it is that makes you feel low, you can reduce the tab that you keep on social media for approval from the world, you can do things that you like instead of tagging along with every friend who approaches you for their taste of events, you can experiment by not saying sorry for an entire day or not talking to negative people in your life for a week – this would give you newer perspectives towards dealing with situations and bring in more positivity in life instead of the usual sulking and deprecating self-talk we often indulge in. Start right now. List down the quirks you like about yourself, and start from the positives, no negatives – self-esteem arises from within, not from the outer world’s approval!

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Cover Story

Talking about ‘body’ and ‘image’ in Art A short analysis and an interview with the body positive illustrator Sanne Thijs The human body has had many depictions since the prehistorical times, from the fertility figures like the Venus of Wilendorf which featured a heavy body type to the twenty first century magazine covers with zero figures. The representations of bodies and people have been varied in different eras, whether it was the athletic bodies inspired by mythological figures during the times of the Roman Empire or the Victorian era with its pressing corsets and the high ‘preference’ of the hourglass body type. Human beings have always depicted and represented ‘preference’ of one over the other instead of acceptance of a diversified body demographic.

Recently enough, the movement of body positivity has gained momentum, it started with plus-sized influencers feeling the lack of ethical representation in conventional art, fashion or media. These influencers, whether they are artists, designers, fashion designers, fashion bloggers came out with their representations of body types and the diversity that needs to be appreciated and embraced as a part of self-acceptance and selflove, because often these issues become the ground for people getting bullied or stereotyped. In today’s times there are discussions about self-love and acceptance with the downfall in mental health status around the world. Along with the plus-size movement of body positivity, now it is a movement that is inclusive of all body types, slim-sized or plus-sized, and inclusive of all ‘genders’, LGBTQ+ Community being a larger part of it.

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Here’s is an interview and discussion with the body positive illustrator Sanne Thijs, based out of Ghent in Belguim, who has a growing Instagram community of followers @full_of_ freckles_illustrations. You can also find her on Patreon and her very new YouTube Channel.

Leena – Hi, I am Leena Jain, and I am from India.

I stay in a place called Ahmedabad and study communication design with a focus in fashion. A lot of my work throughout these semesters has centred on Body Positivity, and right now I am authoring, editing and compiling a fashion magazine of my own under fashion journalism which is in the genre of Culture & Lifestyle. My theme of the issue is body positivity and I thought that would turn out to be a great opportunity to interview you!

Sanne – Hey! Nice to meet you, I am Sanne, and I stay in a small place called Ghent in Belgium, a small country near Germany in Europe and I am a freelance illustrator.

Leena – So what’s your day like? Walk me through a day in your life?

Sanne – Being a freelancer, I don’t have what you would call a steady schedule, which might sound lazy but that’s one of the major advantages of being a freelancer, so instead of a daily schedule I’ll tell you about my week.

So, on Mondays I usually do all my planning work, new ideas, brainstorming, checking emails, laying out my goals, creating and checking out my schedule and everything else. I go to the gym twice every week, because fitness and health is important to me, and my work doesn’t call for much physical movement. With my illustrations I am pretty chaotic or the right word would be spontaneous, whenever I have a high creativity period, I would do a lot of good work, and I like it to stay that way!

Leena – So when did you start practicing art professionally, and how have you evolved as an artist?

Sanne – I started off while I was still in college, some commission work, and I got my first big assignment when I was 24 years old, it was to illustrate a children’s book, and from there on I began my journey. For a few next years, I didn’t do illustration and was busy in other creative endeavours, but I returned back to illustration.

Now I earn through whatever commissioned projects I get, but I don’t like them as much as I like Full of Freckles and so I am trying to make full of freckles which is what I am really passionate about also my source of income.

Leena – What is it that keeps you driven?

Sanne – The most obvious fact about this is that I love drawing and that in itself keeps me driven, and I get a lot of messages every week from people who are looking at my work, saying, “Oh you just made my day” or “I was really low today, but you brought a smile to my face”.

Making that difference in someone’s day even if it for that moment is what drives me and keeps me doing these illustrations!

Leena – What is your take on body shaming which is prevalent in movies, cartoons and books?

Sanne – I think it is indeed sad, it has no or negative representation of plus sized people, and when children or people are exposed to it, it can have extreme psychological repercussions. They could start being extremely under confident of how they look, what they think and what society and media expects from them, media is a very powerful in creating opinions. When these children look around themselves, they see a diversity in bodies, but when they look in the media only certain body types are given preference, and that would make them question if there is anything wrong with them, and that’s where the problem is. Media needs to re-think what they’re doing and what they’re up to.

Leena – Who inspires you the most?

Sanne – I think my own experiences and my moods inspire me the most, on days when I am feeling really low, my illustrations don’t come out pretty, but on days when I am high on creative energy, inspiration comes in from all areas of life – whatever I feel like drawing or if anyone has pitched what they’d like to see, it makes me happy to make others happy!

Leena – What does self-love and body positivity mean to you?

Sanne – I myself had to learn how to love myself, so when I was 10 years old, I started growing big, and that wasn’t about getting fat, but it was my built, I had broad shoulders and since then people started teasing me and calling me out on how I looked and bringing me down.

When I look at my pictures from back then, I wasn’t really fat, but that’s what people would keep telling me, and it somehow stayed with me, slowly I learned how to let that go and love myself and the way I was.

Body positivity to me is an acceptance and tolerance of diversity of the plus sized people as there are no great representations of ours. I didn’t see myself represented well in my childhood and that’s why I chose to represent the many like me.

Leena – That’s the reason why you now have your own patreon and upcoming YouTube Channel?

Sanne – Well, yeah that’s coming, I am a little hesitant about making videos and editing them, there is so much to learn, but I am hoping to do it soon!

Leena - So tell me something about yourself?

Sanne – I love to draw and I’ve been drawing since as long as I can remember, and then I went on to study art in university. It has been quite a journey, last year I began doing Full of freckles, and I did not expect it to do what it is doing and I am quite happy. I feel like there is a lot of creative energy and scope that’s to come in the next few days! I became a freelancer after moving out from my parents’ house and started living off my own.

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Leena – What is fashion to you? What do you think about fashion?

Sanne – Fashion is something I had to really learn but I’ve always been complimented on what I wear and my choices. I never really gave it much thought, except for the fact that every time I would go to buy clothes, it was a never ending conflict in my head because it is very difficult to find clothes for plus sizes, especially when I was a kid. I love colours and I like wearing clothes with bright colours, but all I would get were blacks and greys, and it was really sad. Soon after Full of Freckles, I’ve understood how fashion plays such a great role in body positivity and the fact that there aren’t many choices available for many people especially the plus – sized.

Leena – I think that’s something that stands true for people like me too, who are extra small and I wouldn’t get the type of clothing I wanted quite often? What are your views on body positivity even for the slim body types?

Sanne – I completely agree with the ideology that body positivity exists for all body types, and there shouldn’t be any defence on what type of body you have, acceptance and tolerance are the key, but of course there is a constant debate among people as the movement began because of the unfair or no representation of plus sized people in media and fashion.

Leena – Two quick questions! Who is your favourite illustrator? And which are the movies you like the most?

Sanne – Well those are not quick, indeed tough questions! I admire the work of many, but my favourite has got to be fiep westendorp, a dutch illustrator who created interesting, colourful and simple illustrations.

I have a lot of favourite films, mostly they are life stories of artists, and that really makes me inspired and instantly after I watch these films, I get an extra creative boost to create something! My favourite has got to be Frida, Finding Neverland and Beatrix Potter.

Leena - Anyway, moving on, I would like to ask you an advice for all the people out there who are conscious about themselves and are struggling for acceptance?

Sanne – All I would say is to start with small bits. Look at yourself into the mirror every day and point at one thing that you like about yourself, “Aah! that’s very cute” or “That looks nice”, be grateful and accept that part of you as something you like, slowly you will realize that you are beautiful, what you look like and what you look at every day is beautiful. Also that comes with surrounding yourself with positive people and keeping your social media feed also positive, what you read and what you see can affect you a lot, so subscribing to a few body positive groups, you’d be able to look at yourself in a different way and gradually start loving yourself. When you love yourself, that’s is only how you’d be able to love others with a much more honest and truthful manner, because when you love yourself, you understand that the responsibility of your happiness is on you and not on someone you love, and that’s very important, so loving yourself and your body is the best feeling and that inculcates happiness and confidence on its own!

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Sartorial Digest

Embracing the ‘flaws’ Analysing beauty trends The beauty industry has thrived and survived for decades on creating insecurities and curing them, whether it is aging skin, marks and wrinkles- which could also have been embraced, every mark on your skin, every small spot is a memory of something you lived through, whether it is your age, or the horrific fortnight of chickenpox that you suffered in your early teenage years, but beauty products only claim of getting rid of these lines, wrinkles and spots.

No one ever questioned their motive behind this, and the society then created the beauty standard as the spotless fair skin. Everything else, all the beautiful diversities that exist, were put through a traumatization of ‘becoming fairer’ or ‘removing the aging lines’ or ‘removing the bruises’. This exists, both in the International context and the Indian context, with different connotations ofcourse. However, recent developments how beauty preferences are being questioned is a great start towards embracing the percieved flaws by the society, but in reality, these quirks make one unique, diverse and beautiful.

Nandita Das’ ad campaign about ‘Stay UNfair, Stay beautiful’ also questions the preference of fair skin over the dark complexion, even though our natural complexion is that of the golden wheat. Our complexion depends on the temperature and demographics we grow in and the story that it narrates, if everyone would be fair, what would be the unique quality about someone from a sunny side of the Earth and someone from the snowy? Why is it so difficult to understand?

The recent advertorial by The Times of India on it’s matrimonial page is that of great mention which said, ‘apologies to a country that only wants fair girls’, ofcourse some points in the advertisement were still catering towards some normalizing towards the existing fair-skinned preference. Instead of just completely neglecting the preference and talking about educational qualifications, they should’ve also added the fact that everyone has their own set of demographicc stories, and that comes out through appearance, everyone is beautiful - fair or dark!

Remarkably, many have spoken about these standards - Abhay Deol’s recent pinning on twitter about celebrities endorsing fairness creams(in the Indian context) to 17

Spring Summer 15 was the first ramp show when faux freckles were featured, brought into picture by Make-up artist Val Garland Featuring Anubhuti Arya in a freckled look Photography - Leena Jain

James Charles, beauty blogger First male to be on the cover for Cover Girl magazine

Trend Report But first let me draw some freckles!

The faux freckle trend

In the Spring-Summer of 2015, Val Garland, a renowned make-up artist created the freckled look for a sport-themed fashion collection, which caught eyes, but only in the Spring of 2017, did this trend become a sensational internet trend, from celebrities embracing their natural freckles to beauty bloggers and enthusiasts drawing in some fake freckles to be a part of the trend. Some going to the extent of using bold colors, sparkle and glitter. The internet is a crazy place, it is filled with remedies of getting rid of freckles as well as on tutorials on how to get the freckled look. Freckles were seen as ‘dirt spots’ and people with freckles were often bullied and made to feel inferior based on their looks, and this trend has embraced the natural look of freckles.

This is a very small step towards embracing our small quirks and not creating a beauty standard, but we’re still far in making the beauty industry one that helps people embrace their natural and unique quirks instead of showing a percieved image of an unrealistic beauty standard.

Beauty bloggers across the globe creating varied styles for embracing the faux freckle trend - using glitter, galaxies and color

Emma Watson embracing her natural freckles

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Featuring Alice Vanvi Thing Industries’ hooks(boob hooks) are a big hit

Trend Report

Gravel and Gold’s adorable bath towel

The ‘boob’ trend The recent trends in body positivity, and all the debate around the female bodies are being addressed in a rather hilarious manner.

The female body has always been an issue of debate, and often these debates have a very limited female say and representation, because of which movements like feminism, women’s empowerment and ‘free the nipple’ movement took place. Women’s bodies are often put to scrutiny and the patriarchy often decides, what is ‘modest’ and what isn’t or how much right does the woman have on her own body, and this is prevalent across the world, where in the United States women are fighting for their right to birth control or in India where the term ‘Marital rape’ is ‘normalized’ to a great extent, such that it is not termed as rape.

The women’s empowerment struggle and the ‘free the nipple’ movement in the essense mean a lot of things, from the fact that women are and should be treated as equals and their bodies should be left to their own without the usual buzz around it and the constant objectification. Fashion has revolved around this grave objectification, more often than not. Vogue UK came

out with a ‘trend’ report that ‘the cleavage’ is out of trend, which seemed like a joke for plus size women. It’s a part of their body, not something that can be thrown away or put back in.

In a resistance to that, designers, brands and the runway came to a good mix of the greater movement in mind with the fun element, whether it was a ‘free the nipple’ movement based ‘sheer’ wear on the ramp with Gigi Hadid as the show stopper or the many illustrators on Instagram and tumblr drawing the female body in all its forms, body positive models and photographers who portray bodies in all forms. Textile designer Cassie McGettigan started the line of these products drawing unique pairs of breasts, then, brands like Gravel and Gold, Group partner and Thing industries create a series of quirky, interesting and funny body positive and body empowering products that add essence to the movement in the form of apparel, accessory and home decor adding the ‘lifestyle’ element to the movement.

Group Partners’ ‘my body, my choice mugs’ with a scuplting of the breasts out of a tank top could be my office mugs for sure!

Gravel and Gold’s boob collection is all the rage - tshirts to shower curtains to pillows!

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MAY 7, 2017 THE CUCKOO CLUB, BANDRA, MUMBAI

Visit Instagram @francescannon for inpiration For prints, paper, tattoo tickets and other products visit francescannon.bigcartel.com

In a few frames

Theatre Back‘Staged’ The actors are great at deception, they make us go through a million of emotions in one performance, in one dialogue, in one expression or in their absence itself. You would have wondered what lies behind their expressive craft of deception, but have you ever wondered what lies behind making the performance as impressive as it is, what drives you to the emotions apart from the great ability of impersonating the character? There is an army of people backstage to get the act going, and here’s our big cheer to this wonderful team, that stays ‘backstage’, in a few clicks we have ‘staged’ those who are often left behind the stage!

The Playwright 25

Often we forget the ones that put all the hardwork into the making of the act, the ones who wrote the story that took you to immense laughter or grave tears, we forget the ones who put up the stage in a way, that the stage doesn’t look like the stage, it looks like life, and the characters don’t look like characters but people who are playing their roles in reality, we forget the ones that make the fiction seem like reality, the ones who slog for months before the final curtains rise for an hour, let’s credit those for what they do!

Lighting Expert 27

There is no audience, and there is no viewer that looks at the effort they take to pull off the show, they don’t complain when at the end of the show the major credits go to the actor and the director, they know their worth, they are self sustained and secure about what they do.

They aren’t attention seekers, they are the onws who would go without the credit for years together but know the true meaning of struggle, and also know the truest essence of ‘the show must go on!’.

Costume curator 29

They don’t ask for luxurious rooms and services when behind the stage, nor do they throw tantrums when things go beyond their control, they are the ones to take action and get things into their control, they take charge, they procreate. They are experts at what they do but never arrogant. They’ve reached heights in every successful play that came along whether they were congratualated or credit is not their lookout, they don’t expect fan following or flattery, all they expect is working in good faith and good humor.

Prop curator 31

Playing the ‘part’

Narratives around a city Staging Outer ‘Dilli’ I hail from many cities, born in Indore, brought up in Chennai, Raipur, Nagpur, Mumbai and Gandhinagar ; I’ve seen many cultures, people and perspectives – but all of this from the shelter of my folks, never exposed to certain harsh realities that exist outside of our social realm. Then happened the 2012 incident of Nirbhaya in Delhi, like everyone else, it shook me inside out. Sexual torture and murder, was the crime, and even so, in the banned documentary ‘India’s daughter’, the accused have been bold enough to say it was the victim’s fault to be out at ‘indecent’ hours of the night, is 9:30 pm indecent?

Since then, there has been an uproar in all the metro cities, urban and rural tier towns and cities about the curfew time for the women of the family. We are training our women to ‘not get raped’ but we aren’t training the men to ‘not rape’. However, rates of sexual abuse at home or by the most trusted people around has been on the rise, what exactly is going wrong?

A good eye opener for me was a theatre group Atelier ACT’s play called ‘Outer Dilli’. The National Capital Region or popularly known NCR is infamous for being the most unsafe part of the country, rooting from the patriarchal behaviour we’ve had since time immemorial.

The play featured a story about illegal settlements, and people staying in these places, their economic status’ and social status’ and a documentation of their attitude towards developments around them.

The stubbornness towards ‘change’ is inevitable, the first important change that was starting here was the construction of public toilets to prevent open defecation, because it not only was a health hazard but also a concern for safety, which wasn’t ‘accepted’ easily.

As the play went forward showing the approach and mere frustration of the newly turned ‘city-men’ there is a sense of pity that I went through. An all-boys school was one of the major parts around which the lives of the protagonists’ revolved. There was major disconnect between communication among the opposite sexes and that created a lot of curiosity and insensitiveness at the same time. These boys had a major patriarchal upbringing and the urban attitude of women in the same space made them insecure of their status instead of accepting the ‘equality’ factor. Insecurity is the reason why there is no acceptance of change especially when it is about uplifting the social status’ of women. In the western context, we talk of immigrants and acceptance but in our own very country, we discriminate against migrants coming from the underdeveloped states of the country, and that’s what the situation of outer Delhi is.

We preach a lot about acceptance, but here at home we see our own mentality of not being able to accept new people and their perspectives. Acceptance, just like Charity, begins at home, and it is majorly about keeping an open mind and a sense of acceptance towards differences.

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Performing Arts - 101 Weekend Workshops

by Shantanu Gosavi, Sat-Sun, 10 am to 12 pm Natarani theatre, Paldi Ahmedabad 382008 Gujarat

Manthan (1976)

Film Culture

The film set in the 1970s is about the great White Revolution in India, (predominantly Amul) in the rural areas – there is harsh social commentary when it comes to acceptance of the fact that the power was distributed among all instead of the existing ‘zamindaari’ system prevalent, it also held to show the messy situations, including the caste system, the debt system or the very existent issue of ‘introducing a new concept’ – the fact that it takes time to embed a new system, it has its own problems, and it is well defined in the film. The movie is a great watch even if you are trying to understand system thinking as a process.

Fire (1996)

A Still from Naya Daur

Indian films with powerful social commentary With underlying themes in acceptance, diversity and social framework.

Acceptance comes with social commentary, a powerful one - acceptance of diversity among people for different opinions, communities, races, genders, castes, professions, sexual preferences and ideologies. India is like a platter itself - full of tastes and influences from different parts of the world, whether it is the colonial influence on our culture or the Mughal influence on our aesthetic and food, our unique cultural fabric is warped with diversities within ourselves and those incorporated from foriegn lifestyles. Having said that, cinema has influenced our way of thought and idea throughout, and acceptability begins with normalization of ideas through mental stimulation. While a lot of hindi films have catered to normalizing ‘stalking’ and ‘eve-teasing’, here are a few that have indulged in extensive social commentary on our society, systems and have shown the struggle for initiative and justice. These five films are highly recommended for anyone who wants to observe, study and investigate Indian Society.

Naya Daur (1957) A film set in the post – industrialization period in India held a strong social commentary against the machine movement on the lines of the ‘craftsmanship’ philosophy of William Morris. It is paralleled against the world where machine – made goods had entered and started gaining more popularity, leaving the hand-skilled unemployed.

It also somehow has led to the way we think today where we have started giving the hand-skill a new level of importance, although machine-made is still popular, fast fashion still is growing – handmade is now a niche category, which is considered highly exclusive and important. The film is excessively high on the emotional content like most Indian films are, but the emotions are placed logically to generate the commendable commentary on the Indian society of those times and the stigma with hand-work often seen as ‘gadha-majduri’.

This one from Deepa Mehta’s trilogy caused a lot of smoke and fire across the right wing groups in India.

A story about circumstances that make two women in a household fall into a homosexual relationship, and factors surrounding that narrative. The narrative comments highly on the Indian mind-set of what is right and what is wrong, it deeply states through the name ‘fire’ and the protagonist’s name ‘Sita’, the critical examination of a woman’s character through the ‘agni-pariksha’ in the Ramayan to the modern context. It will make you question and rethink the definitions of modesty, womanhood and homosexuality, all in the Indian context. It was quite risqué and bold for the period it released in, but was soon banned due to pressure from right wing groups across the country. It demands viewership and in reality shows our society’s framework towards acceptance.

Rang Rasiya (2014) A movie set on the story of the great artist Raja Ravi Verma and his life, the major social commentary in this movie not only runs around art and how it was often challenged in the Indian context in the beginning of the 20th Century, but also how women were depicted in art – especially the paintings of Raja Ravi Verma. He believed in depiction of stories from ancient India, especially from mythology. His paintings were highly inspired from renaissance movement in Europe, they were realistic, they were as they looked, there wasn’t much implied, rather more was shown, and some images were such that required the portrayal of a nude female body, it created a havoc in the ‘newly’ created ‘colonized’ version of Indian modesty. The one who modelled for the reasons of art as a woman was scrutinized for various reasons, one for her caste, and the other that she had modelled for something of that sort – this commentary in the modern context of ‘slutshaming’ is prevalent in various forms even today, everywhere around the world, and that powerful social commentary is what shows the reality of how we think!

Highway (2014) A coming of the age genre, this film released with mainstream names, but has an offbeat feel with a thrilling social commentary on women’s safety and child abuse at home. It showcases what is often put behind shields, the protagonist finds peace and safety under someone who kidnaps her instead of at her own place, where she has been through terrible experiences during her childhood. It exposes the reality of the statement that women or girls are safe at home, it shows how traitors are often the deceptive ones, and also critically points out at the fact that no one speaks against this, not even the closest of the people to the victim, out of societal ‘dignity and respect’. A must watch, this movie is an eye-opener for our perceived notions.

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hoto

Art

Celebrating women over the years by recreating paintings using techniques of photography, digital imaging and tasteful makeup.

Benazir Naved

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Ganesh Meena

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Inaugration 12th May - 6:30 pm Dates - 12th May - 19th May, 10 am to 7 pm Kanoria Gallery for the Arts Near CEPT University Ahmedabad 380009 Gujarat India

Kishor David

Travel Moments

Looking beyond the calmness of Dharamshala The story of Tibet’s exile

Last summer, I got an opportunity to study and articulate the spiritual essence and the crafts of Tibetan Buddhism. The hub of Tibetan Buddhism is no more ‘Tibet’, it is the winter capital of Himachal Pradesh, ‘Dharamshala’ and Upper Dharamshala or Mcleodganj.

It was the vacation season for the rest of the country, and being placed at a higher altitude makes these cities a place for tourists across India. The Buddhist vibe across the cities gives the positive perception of the calmness these cities dwell in, but somehow during our period of study, my experience and understanding of Dharamshala and Mcleodganj were completely different from the perceived ‘calmness’.

During all the various interviews that I did on the grassroots level, whether it was one with the artisans making Tibetan carpets or the while having a conversation with the monks and other refugees from Tibet during the conversation classes at the Tibet World(A Non-Governmental Organization where I volunteered during the period of my study) or just while roaming around the street markets for a plate of steamed momos, there was a constant sense of ‘unbelongingness’ in the dialogues of the refugees from Tibet, whether they have recently shifted their base or if they are ‘second generation’ here. There was this sense of loss, the loss of their country that they call their motherland, I only wonder. While Indian tourists are busy getting selfies with the monks and Tibetans during their visits, I caught up in a conversation with an old couple who were visiting the monastery with their

granddaughter. They were disturbed with the fact that every other tourist wanted a picture with their granddaughter, and the general quiet functioning of the monastery was disturbed by the noisy visitors only busy clicking selfies. Later when I visited the museum, there were stories that made my heart cry and weep for nights, stories of the traumatization of Tibetan monks, nuns, men, women and children by the Chinese.

The Chinese have captured all the monasteries that existed in Tibet, making them into areas for disposing nuclear waste, and the scriptures used as soles of shoes.

Anyone in Tibet who follows Buddhism was beaten, electrocuted or tortured to death, many have gone missing and were never found. Paschen Lama, a young Tibetan monk who was declared to be the next Dalai Lama went missing at the age of 12, never to be found again! Women were tortured to an extent of naked electrocution.

The constant sense of sadness and loss is the depression that these ‘refugees’ are going through because of the past memories and loss of the loved ones. It is sad, while many of us look at Dharamshala with an eye for a great destination for a vacation, and the red and yellow hues of Tibetan Buddhism, there is a need to understand the underlying sadness and trauma faced by the Tibetans, who had to escape their own country, start living and earning out of a new country among new people who have still not ‘accepted’ them in essence by neglecting their pain and only dwelling on the outer beauty that they are here to offer.

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The Living Space

When the obsolete becomes the treasured How vintage objects sourced from the thrift have become a part of modern decor I walk into a cafe on a lovely friday evening, wait for a friend and all around me I see objects from the past hung on the walls - whether it is vintage lamps, bottles of used alcohol that have an interesting form or even a typewriter. Suddenly I am quite interested in how these ‘vintage’ or actually ‘obsolete’ objects became a part of modern decor, how did we end up utilizing old objects that were out of use in a modern set-up where we also have IKEA and utility arrangements. Being a curator myself, my personal collection is made up of objects from the past related to my present, whether it is the typewriter, the collection of old art, fantasy and fiction books or even the interestingly embellished old monk, everything under wooden crates. The fascination of the old objects is immense, the chase to find them is extraordinary, I have gone miles to find the apt typewriter, the interesting slides and the vinyl disks that I own. Suddenly, the entire world is going crazy over these objects, people are using them in brand windows, cafe interiors, home decor - everywhere! The concept of sustainable living and using all you own to create a beautiful space is what apparently the point of inspiration and I am completely in love with how spaces with these objects look, reminiscent of the past.

Photography by Prachi Sethi

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Rants and Chuckles

Is stand up comedy the new platform for intellectual discussion?

Stand up comedy has seen an enormous rising throughout the world, it was largely popular in the United States, and is getting a lot of fame in the indian context too, and recently it has started addressing social issues in a much more effective way compared to what the ‘serious’ media has been doing!

Is the comedy movement just a bunch of funny lines put together or something beyond just laughing on weird situations in the life of the comedian or is it a social commentary on the society in a manner that is tricky, funny and yet something that pinches your conscious or makes you process those words later and introspect?

This new wave of ‘intellectual’ comedy has been in since a lot of time, where comics have identified the ways to create an impact through a good verbal script and an impressive physical demeanour.

We are a generation that cares the least, with attention spans closer to those that stay for seconds, we don’t care much anymore - addicted to our smartphones, we are a generation that needs instant gratification and constant reactions. The social media is one story after another, to another - some would talk about deeper issues like the Syrian war or the US elections, we look, we like, we comment or share, but we think nothing beyond. With all of these in existence, there is the world of comedy, everyday a new person enters this domain with a YouTube channel or at an open

mic performance, trying to be funny, nice and sarcastic- some fail, their jokes are ones that you’d find on your personal chat accounts with your family groups, some go to a greater extent of creating a meaningful impact with what they do, what they say and what they believe in.

I am not trying to say that comics are the most intellectual people on the face of the earth, all I am saying is, a lot of time the way we feed information and sensitization to ourselves may come from ways we never perceive them to. A comedy night is always meant for fun, a hearty laugh and some good chat, but it is also a stage to rant, to grin over or laugh at our frustrations, or our misery. There are some great comedy groups and independent comedians across the country who are well known for their tough, humorous and crisp social commentary with an apt comic timing, the one that had a great impact on me was Daniel Fernandies’ set on ‘marital rape’ – an honest critique of the Indian mind-set and cultural built on how we treat our women at home not just the street. Another one was a recent Netflix show called ‘Abroad Understanding’ by Vir Das, his commentary on racism, acceptance and differences was a great commentary on everything happening around in the world, the

perception of racism could also be one of curiosity and the later an acceptance of our differences, he puts that out well. Similarly, comics have begun doing general awareness and news sets on their YouTube channels as well as mainstream TV, where they comment, criticize and analyse what’s going on around the world with a comical bent of the tongue but a very effective impact on the brain. From All India Bakchod’s ‘On Air with AIB’ to East India Comedy’s ‘Outrage’, fantastic review of the society.

Even the sketches by these groups, particularly, the one about the LGBTQ+ community featuring Imran Khan by AIB was one of the greatest eye-openers.

Another one is where they show the inadequate sex-education in the schools across India – the fact that these videos catch attention and have a good retention among audiences because of the clever script and twist to the brain. One among the recent is about mental health issues, where the script is how would it be like if people treated physical illness like how they treat mental illness, and the irony makes it funny, the way it is portrayed makes it funny yet impactful – it is shared, commented on and has great retention. Maybe this is the new platform for making an impact, making a point and creating some valuable retention for people to remember and act on it!

Daniel Fernandes

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Perspectives beyond stereotype that I am looking forward to in this realm of the digital medium, what if sex is shown in a meaningful manner instead of just degradation? What if it is shown as fantasies of both the partners involved equally? The new term for this is ‘feminist porn’ and a great mention would be Erica Lust, an erotic filmmaker who creates pornography with responsibilty of what message it gives to the one viewing it, she makes sure that there is always a sense of consent and emotion along with fantasy and documents sexual encounters that are organic and have a meaning to them. Recently she did a crowdfunded series on fantasies, which were chosen from people who sent her their sexual fantasies and she made erotic films out of those. She believes in being close to reality, and also that a lot of people depend on pornography for ‘sex education’.

Feminist erotic filmmaker Erica Lust

Viewing (feminist) porn as sex-education What’s the solution to inadequate sex education across schools around the world, what do teenagers and young adults actually look up to? It is all about creating content with responsibility.

It might come as a shock to many, the fact that I even am thinking about this, it maybe a bizarre idea, but it has gone around for a while now. I had an adequate sex-education class at school when having sex-ed class is rare in most Indian schools let alone making it adequate. The mentors talked about things openly, all I know about sexual interaction, LGBTQ+ community or even the STDs come from that end. But many of my friends who weren’t attending the same school as mine, had deep curiosity in their head about sex, and whoever they turned to were people who would rather than giving them meaningful answers, drive them away saying abstinence is what keeps you pure or sex is bad - sex is a taboo to talk about, especially in the Indian context! Most people learn about sex through the internet, the porn industry is huge, and it is growing everyday, available on all digital platforms. But most of the pornography available is extremely degrading especially towards women, statistics suggest that

about forty to fifty percent of what is searched in online porn has the keywords ‘forced’ and ‘teen’. Yes, we live in the digital age, and whatever we want to view is available on the platter, and some one out there is doing that because some one out there wants to view it, but porn is no more just an outlet for fantansies and pleasure, but in turn has become a platform that creates fantasies and educates people. That’s where we have to responsible as people who make media, and people who have a broader vision, because there will always be an audience for anything you post, but what you watch and post is your responsibility. Most people in the porn industry have just turned adults, and are mostly in it for the money, and soon that results in degradation of their self which is not through consent, much of what we see is ‘documented’ rape or forced ‘facial abuse’, and that isn’t moral. Sex can be documented in a much more meaningful manner where the partners involved are shown as equals and consenting, that is the new trend

Probably we need to understand the system, through thinking holistically, and creating solutions that are effective, sex is a natural part of being a human being, it is as natural as drinking water or taking a dump! We’ve grown as a culture, we are discussing themes like body positivity, feminism and being against the taboo, sex is a natural activity, our forefathers when we talk of the Indian context created the Kamasutra, we shouldn’t be really treating ‘sex’ as taboo!

Sex is a beautiful act of making love, it is pleasing when done with consent, it is responsible when done with protection and understanding, and in this digital age, it is necessary to document it, in its most natural and organic manner, instead of making it a ‘cringe-worthy’ or a degrading experience.

That’s what intrigues me, isn’t that the most effective manner to create sexual awareness when it is most required, during puberty? Teenagers and young adults from across the world with internet connectivity have peek-a-booed on porn sites, many are constant users - without adult supervision, of course. The porn they see is degrading, but I believe that can progress, it is a long road, but it can. What if people start making pornography responsibly, what if it still has an aesthetic value, sense of consent and emotion, isn’t that what we want our coming generations to be aware of? Doesn’t it make it easier for awkward parents across the globe who aren’t able to move ahead of ‘pollination’ and ‘birds and bees’ while talking about sex to their young teenagers? Showing sex with protection as a natural process?

Showing diversity in cultures, body types and in sexual orientations?

Won’t that be true awareness and education instead of preaching abstinence to a bunch of teenagers who will do the act whatsoever and maybe without adequate protection?

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The non-binary

The rise of the Indian Queer Culture From being invisible to growing visibility, from unidentification to pride parades, we’ve come a long way. From taboo to acceptance, the Indian society is progressing and so should our governments.

The hindu culture as we see on the outer structures of temples or inside the great scriptures has been quite liberal about sexuality and gender, there are themes of homoeroticism, queerness and gender fluidity.

While we criticise the Indian Penal Code Section 377 as it violates the right to privacy for the entire country, for each person, male, female, straight or gay. But, the rule doesn’t stop people from loving someone, it doesn’t criminalise someone from being gay, lesbian, transgender or bisexual. That’s the major catch, it is a draconian law passed duing the British Raj as the Catholic world looks down upon homosexuality, but the Hindu world is quite accepting of homeosexuality if we go by the book, especially when we talk about countries like Nepal, one of the most friendly and accepting countries for the queer.

The Queer culture in India has been on the rise for a while now, we’ve gone from a huge revolt at the release

A still from LOEV, 2015 (Netflix 2017)

of Fire in 1996 resulting in a further ban, to releasing films like ‘Aligarh’ in 2016 and getting mass acceptance for it. Not just in parallel cinema, the normalization of homosexuality is reflective in mainstream cinema as well, films like ‘Love you zindagi’ or ‘Kapoor and Sons’, a few showing just a hint, a few have their storylines based on the theme, but it is coming into visibility. You wouldn’t see this happening in the 90s when everything was stereotypical. Soon to launch on Netflix is the film ‘LOEV’ starring Shiv Pandit and Dhruv Ganesh, a great love story revolving around the theme without stereotyping, a great start towards gaining the acceptance and normalization in the Indian mindset, it is much more than gay cinema, it is now a part of mainstream - the internet medium is now mainstream.

The youth is only on the digital platform now, whether it is through snapchat or netflix, that is the new mainstream. And the bold content available on these themes is doing unimaginably great to get over the

taboo and create awareness! The major issue here is of awareness, most people are blinded by what is fed to them through politics and religious leaders, when we talk about the elderly and the middle aged in India.

While the young go to attend stand - up comedy events and poetry sessions that talk about how normal queerness is, the elderly are still dependent on the ‘interpretations’ of the ‘dhongi babas’ of religion who are charged for cases as brutal as rape, molestation or even murder. This is the reason of the existing generation gap, the elderly are conservatives and the younger are liberal, while our forefathers were always liberal in thought and action.

As Indians, we are among the most non-intolerant nations of the world, we understand diversity, every kilometre in our country, we have a new dialect and a new community, and we’ve been able to stay in peace and harmony with an accepting attitude, I don’t see a

reason why we wouldn’t accept gender fluidity when it is so organic and natural and even mentioned in texts that the majority in the country follows, I see hope everyday, whenever there is a notification to me saying, Queerabad(I stay in Ahmedabad, Queerabad is a community for LGBTQ+ community and allies in Ahmedabad) is doing this event in conflictorium about conflict in transgender bodies and photography or when there is a poetry session in Natrani, the great theatre of Ahmedabad. Other cities in India including Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai to name a few, have seen their own liberations in the gay movement, and have online platforms, magazines and columns that are just to cater to the LGBT Community. The community is now visible and has become a part of the mainstream, although the laws are still draconian, the mindsets aren’t.

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An evening of poetry with poet-activist Alok Vaid Menon 11th May, 2017. 6pm onwards Tickets available on bookmyshow

Thoughtful Reviews

Book-store visits are pretty frequent for me, whether the visit is to the next block Crossword or the next click Kindle, but my latest one was at an Art & Culture Exhibition, Kala Ghoda Festival in Mumbai. The Stall by MARG, (The Magazine of the Arts) took my fancy, and I went through the catalogue of themes they’d worked on in the past, the most fascinating was the 2011 edition on ‘Framing Women in the Colonial Archive’.

The book binds together perspectives about women in the colonial times in India, and also how British ideologies impacted the Indian way of living and the ‘Indian Woman’. The ancient and medieval imagery of women in the Indian context when compared to the imagery after ‘photography’ and ‘film’ came in is very different for the advent of the colonial rule. The British identified for a bourgeois woman where the imagery of a respectable woman created negative imagery for the ‘tawaiffs’, calling upon them as ‘bazaari’.

Framing Women in the Colonial Archive

How to be a BAWSE

by Lilly Singh

MARG - The Magazine of the Arts Volume 62, Number 4, June 2011.

Book Release - 27th March, 2017

The magazine edition catches upon the various issues that women have dealt with, especially the ones in the public sphere of performing art – whether it is theatre or film or how the importance of an ‘aristocratic’ man was needed to sustain life during and post the stage.

The issue of how women were treated as mere sex-objects when it came to the movies, and how nudity (especially in art) became a moral disgust instead of purity. Also the perspective of an influential woman artist of the time, Amrita Shergil has been discussed upon, and that depicts yet another ideology about women which is completely different from the others as the other ideologies were portrayed by men.

A good read in the times where we are questioning gender roles constantly, to see when, why and how they developed, and what was the aim over such moral identification of the ‘women’. You can order the archive online at MARG’s official website.

Lilly Singh is an internet sensation, her YouTube Channel and persona - II Superwoman II has a huge fan base. She is Canadian sikh with an Indian ethnicity, which makes her a global star.

Her remarkable videos on her channel are about random lists, things that people do put together in a humourous way in the manner of a motivational pep talk. Her energy and vibe is just crazy and immensely positive, and anyone who has seen her videos, her music video or been to her tour knows her tone and the way she speaks. ‘How to be a bawse’ is her first book where she talks about her experiences in the form of a motivation for many, whether it is about ‘how to conquer your mind’ or ‘how to achieve your goals’ in the authentic Lilly Singh tone, while you’re reading the book you start imagining her talking to you in person.A good book for someone who has watched her videos for inspiration and needs an

upliftment in the mental space for accepting oneself or anyone who needs a pep talk.

The way the book is designed works well for kids, teenagers, millenials and adults - the graphics are creative and bold, they run throughout the book making it a very interesting experience altogether.

The photographs though are slightly pretentious, but they do justice to the way the book is laid out.

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