Race within

I am writing this blog after three years post completion of my Doctorate degree. Life has changed a lot in this three years time. No more rushing of completing PhD research, no more relying on stipend money, no more a life of a student. Now I see myself where I always dreamed to be a Professor of Anthropology. I teach my students all those experience I have had through out my anthropological journey. It feels like a perfect lane with lovely small  plants nurturing them to grow. Feels like plenty of sunshine and hopes.

It was mid March relaxing with glass of wine over the weekend suddenly received a mail from my University that there is a call for Country level Lockdown to avoid spread of COVID19. The whole evening turn out to be a party night for the celebration. There was absolutely no clue of what waiting ahead for all of us. First one week went on following news and update on COVID19 and the politics behind the entire Pandemic. The growing chaos globally made me weaker day by day. I would seat on my couch for hours thinking where we human being have reached? After so much innovation and scientific discovery human race today in 2020 has failed to fight against a virus that has already killed half of human race. My thoughts did not restrict there itself. I was amused to see how fellow human being behave with one another in this difficult time of survival. Some of them discriminated fellow human being in the name of religion for the cause of spread of virus. Some of them discriminated in the name of class and power. Fascism of politicians were reaching heights by clapping, banging bells and lighting candles to gain world championship, without showing much of compassion to the poor minorities struggling to survive every single day. The endless discrimination goes without a pause on thinking there are also true pandemic warriors who are going beyond their capacity to help diseased to survive.

Today when I look back and see my journey I feel lame being a mere spectator being lockdown in a two bedroom flat. The entire lockdown period just echoed one thing 'we human being are the most selfish living being in this earth. The entire human race got paid for its unworthy life in this earth'.  I must say this lockdown has truly taught me to be compassionate towards every living being in this earth no matter how ugly it looks or how smelly it is every living being share this ecosystem.  Let human race learn to give more that they have ripped every bit of this ecosystem. 

Do we really recognize the contribution of housewife in our society?

 I am dedicating this blog to all the housewives whose contribution remain unnoticed in the society at large and in the family particularly.

The word housewife defined in the Oxford dictionary says ‘A married woman, whose main occupation is caring for her family, managing household affairs, and doing housework.' Nonetheless, the recent data published by National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) says that around 64% women are engaged in domestic work compared to 60% in rural areas among women aged 15. The number of housewives in urban areas is increasing that is because of the growing nuclear families having no extra family members to share the domestic chores, unlike in rural areas where the families are more joint or extended types. The topic draws attention towards, whether the housewives contribution in our Indian society been recognized or not.

Many of us in our daily lives say ‘we don’t want to be a housewife. It will make our entire life horrible’. The matter of fact is that we have least tried to understand the significance of a housewife or tried to recognize her contribution. The biggest misapprehension that many of us carry within us is the person’s monetary contribution to the society has more meaning than the non-monetary contributors. The housewife may not be drawing the salary or may not be having to fix working hours or working policy, but her valuable contribution cannot be overlooked. A woman as a housewife has a significant role to play for a stable society and has meaningful participation in the development process. The unending hours of work a housewife does have less valued by her own family members, the amount of pain she takes to nurture her child are less appreciated by her own husband and in-laws. In reality, she does multiple tasks from cooking to taking care of her husband office tasks without expecting any kind of reward. She supports all family members with immense tolerance, patience, and sense of responsibility.

Let me highlight the consequences of what the housewives go through when their contribution remains unrecognized in the family and society. My mother who is a housewife and been taking care of four daughters all her life to sacrifice all her dreams. After her marriage, she wanted to continue education in law and wanted to learn singing but her commitment to the family and nurturing four children lead her to sacrifice her dreams. She tried her best to give the world of love and care to all the four daughters and her husband. Her entire life went fulfilling her daughter dreams by sacrificing her own aspirations. She not only tried to see her dreams through her daughters but managed well to make it happen. Her unending support remains unrecognized by her in-laws for which time and again they raise a finger on her by saying ‘why educating so much to the girl child which will later be a problem for them to find the right match for marriage.’ This has never stopped her dreaming and sacrificing for her children.

Another example of my friend madhusmita (name changed) who is a housewife and married for last 10 years she has an 8years old daughter. When she first married and came to this family she not only brought valuable gifts for the entire family but she brought along with herself smile to all faces, hope, dreams, and responsibility. Gradually with her presence, the family start celebrating each and every occasion, she took care of everyone needs and tried her best to understand each and every family members. Time and again she failed because her contribution was not recognized and her effort was not appreciated by her in-laws. The unending love and affection for the entire family never stopped her to sacrifice her own health and go beyond her personal capacity to help the family members. Today when she tries to look back and see the entire journey of 10 years her heart ponder with tears. She still says to herself ‘I can, because my love for the family is priceless.'

There is a saying, every relationship is balanced if it’s a give and takes, the person rises with positivity if he/she take along of what he/she gives. The point here that I want to make is that the case of Madhusmita is found in almost all Indian houses. Their sacrifice for the well being of the family need appreciation and recognition she gives herself best to all, but in return, she hardly gets anything back that makes her feel emotionally down and weak at times.

Let me now give you some facts and figure of the value of the amount that would cover the housewife work. According to the United Nations, the unpaid work done by women globally is estimated at USD 11 trillion a year. Globally, women own 1 percent of property overall and possess less than 5 percent of the world’s income. Yet women do a disproportionately high percentage of the work when also accounting for domestic work.

India has not left behind in counting the contribution of the housewives, according to the Supreme Court of India has upheld the economic role of a housewife. It is possible to apply opportunity cost in valuing a housewife’s services. For instance, the monetary value of cooking for family members could be assessed regarding what it would cost to hire a cook or to purchase ready cooked food, or by determining how much money could be earned if the food cooked for the family were to be sold in the locality. Alternatively, the time taken for housewives to produce these services could be compared with the time that is taken to produce goods and services that are commercially viable. This is because the non-financial benefits of housewives are the time spent in attending to children, family members, and the emotional-quotient, of traditional parenting and so on, which cannot be precisely measured.

According to experts, the effective way might be to recognize the contribution of housewives makes to the economy. "It's not about being paid," noting that the economic value housewives create remains within their home, "it's about being valued." If ever there was a time to include unpaid housework in GDP figures, it is now, they say. Working mothers have a stake in this, too: They still do most of the unpaid work in their homes. While society recognizes their role in the conventional economy, housewife stands hidden and unacknowledged in what is termed by Elson as the ‘Economy of Care.'

The society now going towards modernization but no one really tries to read the diary of a housewife. They are the one who works more without any pay and recognition. It is high time the society should remove the norms they have created for the housewife as ‘unproductive consumers' of the family. The family should understand her needs when she takes care of others need, she should also be appreciated for her effective contribution in positive ways, her presence should be recognized in the family as a sound decision maker. 

Wilderness at its best!

It was dream come true to travel to South Africa and Europe. I have always tried to make most of the opportunity that comes to me in any form, I can never lose an opportunity when it comes to travel! it was big chance for me to travel to some of the best destinations of the world the Cape Town, Belgium and Netherlands. In this blog I will have two separate sections of my travel to South Africa and Europe. 

My travel to South Africa was the best ever journey in abroad. Started with academic activities and ended with wonderful road trip with my South African friend (Catherine Townsend) and her beautiful family. South African's have big influence of the dutch communities. They have largest Cape Malay communities having dutch affiliation. I was amazed to experience the Cape Malay food. I find Cape Town to be less African culture, it is rather mixed culture with Asian and European communities as well. The city was surrounded with one of the large mountain called the Table Mountain, it has its own history and one of the best tourist attraction place of Cape Town which enlighten the entire city. Ohh yes, how can one miss the opportunity of visiting Nelson Mandela, the great freedom fighter who was imprisoned for 18 years in Robben Island  The Island which is one of the important UNSECO world heritage of South Africa has it own history of many political prisoners. To reach the island one has to take ferry from Waterfront cape town to Robben Island which is about 12km. I felt each site in the island have engraved with pain and victory of freedom. We were all touched with the narration of the history by one of the political prisoner who works as tourist guide in the island. 

The academic activities remain the best, meeting scholars from different parts of the world, having close research interactions on various topics and team work in summer school was eye opener. We were put up in a halls in the University of Cape Town called the 'All Africa House', I was surprised to see the kind of facilities they provided us. The houses were beautifully equipped with cooking areas, decent bedrooms and eating areas. The stay with different research scholars and working together each day gave me so much of motivation. The academic activities ended with a international conference of presenting my research findings. 

Soon after the conference me and my friend took road trip to Eastern Cape Town, crossing some of the beautiful beaches which is rather termed as 'bays' than beaches such as the Jeffreys Bay, Mossel Bay, Cannon rocks...it was breath taking experience going though the beautiful landscapes of rocky mountains, fruits orchards, rivers, forest and animal herds. The stay in George, Cannon rocks and Cango caves was best learning experiences. The drive inside the Addo Elephant Park was the most amazing encounter with the wild life's the Zebras, Kudu, Elephants, Jackals. The Cango Caves and Big Tree was another beautiful world heritage we visited. The Ostrich farms at Oudtshoorn was lovely to watch the big birds. The road trip ended with long drive from Oudtshoorn to Cape Town City with my stunning beautiful kids Zola and Lindi. The journey of wild Africa didn't end in Southern Africa, on my way back to India I stayed a day at Addis Ababa i.e. falling in North

of Africa . It was great to feel the real Africa in Ethiopia. The people were found to be fond of Indian cinema and traditional Ethiopian music. I could get the essence of India in Addis. It was amazing short stay experience in Ethiopia, I would never regret of missing the flight and staying in a country which was not in my travel list. I was not only taking some of the stunning African stuff with me but a whole bunch of wild Africa experience along with me to India, murmuring to myself  "WILDERNESS AT ITS BEST"

Let me now take you to Europe which was another breath taking travel experience, although it was not a very long stay but learned a lot from Brussels and Amsterdam city. I find Brussels as more commercialized place having big multinational companies and the country with robust economy in the Europe. The place is rather a major center for international politics. The well preserved world heritage point the Grand Place and Manneken Pis has its own beauty to unwrap history of Brussels. The love for seeing the country of windmills and traditional houses been long awaited visit to Amsterdam. The Dancing houses  and canals were the spot of attraction in the city. It was fascinating to know that people do swimming competition in summer in those canals where many big Hollywood celebrities have already swam. The entire city seems to be traditionally preserved and lively, people seems to be enjoying riding cycles and having beer bike party on the street. The Anne Frank house  house was another world heritage place to experience the history of Jewish people escaping from Nazis in the world war. Although I could not visit Paris and other historical places but I was very much satisfied with my small Europe trip to Belgium, Netherlands and Frankfurt.

Being Single

I often question myself, do we really need someone to be loved and feel special? In hunt of meeting that special someone, time and again we miss ourselves in the journey. It’s not just about the chemistry between the two opposite sex or mentality match or how long you know each other for. Many of us waste so much of time looking for a right match that in the entire period we missed to know ourselves more and what we really want?  We tend to see only what we want to and never try to ask ourselves that do we really fit into the box. Let me confess that remaining single has been really fun and it indeed taught me many things in life especially travel all across, working for my own needs, exploring new things each day, pampering and loving myself every day. This is not the end, there are many more good things to come along. Today I completely agree that it’s perfectly fine to be SINGLE.

Place where I completely find myself single

Joy of field work

I am been questioned by many of my friends and colleagues that ‘what I do in the villages? What for I travel a lot in tribal areas?’ my only reply to them is ‘field work’. The word engraved in me since my college days, when I first started knowing the subject Anthropology. My foremost field work was in the village named Raghurajpur, Odisha in the year 2001 where I studied the marriage system of the people in the village. Since then the journey had never stopped, field work has its own charm and the rich experience has its own beuty. I have travelled many parts of the country for field work it indeed has taught me the best things in life. Let me share my recent field work experience in Chhattisgarh and Mayurbhanj 

among the Baiga and Khadia tribes. The villages were distance of where I was staying and there were transportation problem as well. The roads were muddy and slippery I literally had to hold my breath to walk the roads to reach the villages and having experience falling on those muddy roads. It was certainly one of the best experiences with Baiga and Khadia tribes, spending entire day with them and having their traditional food made me feel like one among them. The Khadia tribes in Mayurbhanj taught me their language and food habits. I also took stroll around the local weekly market to understand their livelihood. One thing I learned from both the tribes that weekly market is one of the main source of social networking with people from distant villages, it is also a source of entertainment for many. Most commonly thing observe was people enjoying the weekly market days with country liquor, food and colourful attire. However, festive period is one of the best times to visit the tribal villages one can indeed get to see colourful attire, locally knit ornaments, tribal folk songs and dance. My feet could not stop to join the young girls dancing on the festive songs, though it is the time when the young boys and girls choose their partner, well I got narrowly escape for being someone's bride while dancing with those young girls in Mayurbhanj!! Field work not just remain my research but also a public speaker. Some organization and village leaders invited me to their local village meeting to aware the village people of the things I know and educate them

One of the best moments was of having food in a tribal hut on one rainy day. Yes the food that was cooked whole heartedly by one of my tribal friend named Ranga who was my true inspiration. She had inspired me in many occasion and the bonding I have with her is truly heart wrenching. Nothing tastes best than the indigenous food. Apart from my research work the entire field work has taught me the joy of living simple life. While narrating the experience I long to go back to those villages, my heart goes on singing

The little feet’s of children running to stand in front my camera

The wrinkled old faces smile on funny questions of mine

The young girls shying away on my questions to them

The young boys question of my visit to their village

The smell of drenched earth, green trees, muddy roads

The hot food on veranda of tribal  hut and playing with kids

My heart goes on singing, life is so beautiful!!

Time for a Change!

Being a Ph.D scholar for more than two years in an institute like NIT where life tends to be too monotonous with hectic research works. Many of us have fixed schedule of going to the department on time, working on research papers, and meeting with supervisor, restrict to the hostel dinner and lunch timing. We hardly get scope to mingle with other department research scholars to discuss what is happening in and around the campus. It was late May of this year, some of my female colleagues with strain faces disclose me the nasty sexual harassment going on in the campus. Each word was expressing the pain and injury of the victims that they had gone through for many years from the hands of a security officer.  Next day the person who was a whistle blower of the entire issue gave detail accounts that ignited the entire mass to start protest against the nasty sexual harassment events going inside the campus. With different slogan against the sexual harassment we marched the entire campus and demanding immediate action against the guilt.

The peaceful protest went for nine days with vigorous pressure on the director to suspend the guilt, demand to lodge an FIR against him and bringing changes in the administrative system. Constant hard work in hot summer of meeting media person, local politicians, spreading the words through different mode such as social media, consulting lawyers, meeting women activist and many more. The most heartening task was to persuading the victims to come out to lodge FIR on the nasty acts done to them. In no time with support of woman activist, the victims with full courage lodge FIR against the guilt. The agitation ended with an open house discussion with all the students, faculties, deans and director. The meeting did have a larger impact on many as they were unaware of the issue and reason of the agitation by the students.  Most aspects of the issue were discussed and explanation was given by director. Though many of his explanation was not encountering the questions asked by the faculties and students. The demand of full activation of the sexual harassment cell in the institute and formation of student body was strongly put forth by the students in front of the senior authorities. Although we officially called off the demonstration but our words echoed and reached many ears, on the next day we were called by the MHRD official for the meeting to discuss on same issue. On the same time we observed about 50-60 tribal and dalit women groups shouting slogan inside the director office. This was enough to bring smile on each of our face, my mind was echoing with ‘satyamev jayate’ on the very moment…

The entire protest taught me many things. Being an anthropologist by practice I may have worked on similar kind of issues, but never got an opportunity to experience it so closely, the nine days protest inculcates a new person in me.  I met many new faces they carry similar thought of bringing change in the society. We became like family by spending hours together in brain storming to address the issue. Each day certainly had something to teach such as addressing mass and controlling them, understands legal aspect and its guidelines, facing media person and having control over our speech in front of camera, meeting with higher authorities, preparing appropriate placards for display and most importantly staying united with the group.

Time for change

Such kind of nasty acts must be happening in many educational institutions the victim could be anyone. It’s time for many of us to learn our rights provided to the student and understand the legal aspect before anyone hoodwink us. The first thing an institute should do is to bring awareness of their rights to the students through workshops. There has to be sexual harassment cell for all the students and workers working in the institute. The committee members contact details has to be display in the institute website and in the ladies hostel information boards. Second most important thing an institute like NIT or IIT should have a student union body. May it not be politicize the academia but a body that should be there to hear student voice and work together to bring solution to student problems?

The bottom line is we research scholars engrossed ourselves in the institute curriculum that we keep no room to work for the social cause happening around us. They say charity starts from home, we being responsible and educated citizen must take first step towards evolution. I am proud to say that I have taken the first step for a cause and many more to take!! 

Realization..

Life takes different twist and turns, they say it’s like roller coaster journey. Sometime we commit mistake while choosing the path in the journey. Some path appears easy to take but teaches us the toughest and best things in the journey.  Whilst some paths look tough but gives us the most comfortable journey. My journey of life has been a mixed one, while walking on those paths I have done number of mistakes and learned many things from it. Sometime we tend to ignore our mistake and never realize that it may hurt our fellow passengers. They say the older you grow the wiser person you become. The word realization may appear to be simple and nice but it has a deeper impact in our life. It doesn’t come often, it may take a minute, a second, a day, a month or a year to come but when it comes, it evolves a better and wiser soul in you. It is the most beautiful thing to realize how much you love some people? Realize how much you care for them? Realize you can walk the toughest path along with them…

The best part is when you ‘Realize’ it internalized in you the kind of person you are. I ask for forgiveness to all my fellow passengers whom I have hurt in anyways in my journey. I will always praise and thanks them to make me realize and evolve to be the person I am today.