யாழ்பாடினி

  We were taught that if we were good kids, we would be loved by others. We were made to think any form of punishment in the name of love was okay because it was for our good. We were taught to love God, others, animals and objects. We were motivated to love doing service to society. However, we grew with the impression that self-love was selfish. And, the love between two adults mostly remained a sacred (or secret) topic in our culture. The love stories I knew stopped with marriage. What is then? What is outside of it? What is real? Is love real? Now that I am an adult, I love talking all about love with people who are ready to have that deep, beautiful, sometimes uncomfortable but important conversation. I didn't know the existence of bell hooks until the news of her death. It's a shame! Several colleagues and a few friends shared how she inspired them to think, act and write. I went and bought this book of hers. bell hooks deconstructs the popular culture, patriarchal societ...

  Audre Lorde. What can I say? Admiration ❤️ A few favourite lines from her essays: “For women, then, poetry is not luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence. It forms the quality of the light within which we predicate our hopes and dreams towards survival and change, first made into language, then into idea, then into more tangible action.” “For women, the need and desire to nurture each other is not pathological but redemptive, and it is within that knowledge that our real power is discovered. It is the real connection which is so feared by a patriarchal world. Only within a patriarchal structure is maternity the only social power open to women.” “Any discussion among women about racism must include the recognition and the use of anger.” “Revolution is not a one-time event.” The most favourite quote by which I was introduced to Audre’s work, “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.” ✊🏽

“Aak ngamparam yimanang wunan” sand talk took us-two for a long walk while connecting with me and challenging me with a right dose of satire. Indigenous thinking offers a sustainable platform for radical ideas, meaning-making and a way of being in a complex world. Reading the book itself is revolutionary. In my thirties, I have started to see the world around me through a different lens. I am always on the lookout to break the vicious cycle of wealth, growth, greed and power. I struggle to express my complex thinking and connect with people. It’s not fun to sit and watch while patriarchy unfolds drama in terms of masculinity and femininity in social gatherings. It’s not easy to fight with your own self against colonial legacies, patriarchal tendencies and classism instilled in you through generations. It’s rare to find people who would be genuinely interested to have a deep conversation about complex things without complicating the relationship. I am hungry for those conversations. Nev...

Archie Roach’s ‘Took the children away’ opened the door for me to listen to the soulful songs of our First Nations singers. I can repeat the lyrics along with Archie whenever I hit it play on Spotify. When I saw this illustrative songbook, all I wanted was to bring it home because the lyrics speak a lot to me. So on this #naidocweek2021 , I am celebrating Archie’s music and life. As we live on this peaceful land, we need to make a serious effort to learn and celebrate the people of this land. “Oh, you know I love this country Every rock and every tree The grass lands and the desserts The rivers and the sea Well you know I love the people Wherever they are from Yes, I love all the people Who call this land their home Let love rule Let it guide us through the night That we may stay together And keep our spirits calm” (From his song ‘Let love rule’) 🖤💛❤️

I weep with them as I listen to their voices through their narratives. I see them. I see how forgiving, understanding and resilient most of them are. I virtually hug every soul that had to suffer because of the racist policies of a settler-colonial government. It shouldn’t have happened. I am stunned as I read the reason why the Prime Minister of that time, John Howard, refused to apologize on behalf of the nation when the report ‘Bring them home’ was out in 1997. He said that the Australians of the present cannot be guilty for the actions of the past. How absurd that was while indigenous communities having to live with inter-generational trauma! I’m sorry. A must-read for those trespassing indigenous lands.

  “ ‘ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL, BUT SOME ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS’ After that it did not seem strange when next day the pigs who were supervising the work of the farm all carried whips in their trotters. ” What would have happened if the majority of the pigs had stood against the atrocities in their own backyard? I think the problem is we have more than one Napoleon, a lot of Squealers on social media, and too many sheep.

“We tell ourselves that good people can’t be racist. We seem to think that true racism only exists in the hearts of evil people. We tell ourselves that racism is about moral values, when instead it is about the survival strategy of systemic power..............The covert nature of structural racism is difficult to hold to account.” Thank you @renieddolodge 🙌🏼💪🏼👏🏼 I couldn’t agree more with Reni on her wise words about structural racism. It’s the system that pressures us to meet its standards so that we can be accepted as one of ‘them’. We attend universities, go to work at posh places, acquire wealth, eat what they eat, dress what they dress, speak what they speak and live how they live. And we think we are free of racism without even realising that we have been assimilated into a racist system. We never question who created these standards in the first place! Working at a university and working with well-educated, usually kind professionals, one thing I remind myself that I shou...

“In a way, the world-view of the Party imposed itself most successfully on people incapable of understanding it. They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was demanded of them, and were not sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening. By lack of understanding they remained sane. They simply swallowed everything, and what they swallowed did them no harm, because it left no residue behind, just as a grain of corn will pass undigested through the body of a bird.”  Thoughtful words from a book first published in 1949, which could be still applicable to the political engagement of citizens. Aren’t they? Orwell’s prediction of the nature of the current war is a stroke of genius.

An interesting book, authored by Jennifer Jacquet, discusses the different roles of guilt and shame in a market economy. Jacquet points out how businesses take advantage of our green guilt and argues that shaming can be an effective tool to hold those businesses accountable for their actions. She also sheds some light on the drawbacks of digital shaming.

"If eternal inflation is the correct description of our universe, it will be the artists, philosophers, theologians, novelists and musicians, alongside the physicists, who explore its meaning. What does it mean if the existence of our universe is inevitable? What does it mean if we are not special in any way? What does it mean if our observable universe, with all its myriad galaxies and possibilities, is vanishingly small leaf on an ever-expanding fractal tree of the universe? What does it mean if you are, because you have to be?". I loved every bit of reading this book, including a few pages I got stuck for days, blame it on astrophysics. I fell again in love with this exponentially expanding universe 😍 Wish I could post a copy of this book to those fighting ugly over some piece of land, fences and chickens. After all, aren't we made of up quarks, down quarks and electrons? 

It's not easy to be an immigrant who looks in the eyes of others different...like an alien landed in a utopian society, which is obviously a delusion. I was constantly reminded to live up to some invisible standards in the first couple of years of my life as an immigrant in Australia. From the academic environment to the train compartments, I wasn't comfortable being myself. The good thing is that I never stop fighting over these invisible standards to just be myself. Here I am today proud to be different in all aspects. Well, I am done trying to justify my place at the table.  There is no unique identity in society. Every one of us is unique and our differences make a society vibrant. Let society embraces your differences. There is no non-immigrant in this world. Migration is an important part of human history. Let the old immigrants do some homework and accept the differences of new immigrants. It should be bilateral. Don't lose your identity in becoming a good immigrant....

  What would you do if you suddenly realise that you are no longer the talkative, funny, outgoing person you thought of you? I thought it was just because I migrated and living in an alien environment. I pushed myself too much and got frustrated. After a couple of years of struggle, one day, when I was in my thinking mode, I figured out that I was never an extrovert. It's just that my family, friends and well-wishers made me feel like I was one 😅 It is okay to be yourself- not having a big group of friends, not enjoying parties, spending much time yourself, being a good listener rather than a speaker, having book companions, wondering all alone, working behind the doors, texting instead of calling, and talking about life and universe with your besties for hours rather than talking about fashion and movies.  This book is a comfort zone for introverts and ambiverts. My thought is that it may be one phase of our life. We may change. But, it's perfectly alright to be different......

Huxley's Brave New World- what a classic! 👏 Thought-provoking and intellectually stimulating utopian/ dystopian novel with an interesting combination of science, philosophy, politics and literature. Have you ever wondered about the concept of social stability? Huxley's writing makes us reflect on some of the characters and social practices in the novel. Wouldn't you like to be free to be happy in your own way than everyone else's way?

'Behind the beautiful forevers' is gripping non-fiction, based on Katherine Boo's investigation on the heartbreaking events that took place in the lives of Annawadians between 2007 and 2011. Annawadi is a slum that is closer to Mumbai's international airport. The powerful narrative depicts the vicious connection between poverty, corruption, injustice, inequality and the life, desires, dreams, hopes and death of Annawadians amidst tragedies. On one side is the author's braveness in reporting and on the other side couple of questions that left me wondering- What does give us the right to judge these people's lives? How do sharing their stories and have them exposed to the glares of the outsiders make a change in their lives?! Behind the beautiful forevers by Katherine Boo - a must-read.

I deliberately chose the research essay topic for my final assessment of this semester on understanding Sustainability and Sustainable Development in the context of Indigenous Cultures.  To start with, I wanted to learn and understand the Aboriginal way of life and their worldview from Aboriginal people instead of learning from a third person who writes a report on her/his research subjects within a conventional academic framework.  My quest led to Uncle Max's 'My People's Dreaming'. Reading left me with admiration, respect and connectedness. This book brings out the richness of the Aboriginal way of life, their way of sustaining the environment, and glimpses at how the invasion of Europeans changed their lives forever. The book is full of meaningful narratives and beautiful pictures. I wish the Australian government could introduce this kind of texts to school children so that would be with better outcomes than merely delivering annual speeches on the Sorry Day!  ...

"I wish that more people could see the Afghanistan that I am seeing. This is such a contrast to the version of this country shown in the Western media: images of a country filled with ruthless terrorists, corrupt leaders and helpless victims. Instead, here is a room filled with public servants enthusiastic about learning all they can to do their best for their country and for the people they serve" by Marianne Elliott in 'Zen under Fire'. Marianne's bold and compassionate writing depicts the multifaceted nature of the conflict in Afghanistan, including its human heart. Her courageous battle to find her inner peace among the chaos is inspiring! A must-read for young humanitarians/ development practitioners.

'Our Struggles Our Stories' Edited by Shreen Abdul Saroor: A must-read for those interested in gender equality, women's rights and feminist movements in North and East of Srilanka. We (including me) tend to seek inspiration outside of our community and fail to acknowledge the courageous souls within our own community. This book has documented the actions and experience of some brave women activists who fight against patriarchal norms, violence within family/ society, militarization and discrimination. Read their stories as they are!