I was live tweeting (seems to be one of my favorite pastimes nowadays!) and below is the Storified version.

I also enjoyed seeing Elie Wiesel and hearing his philosophies. He lamented that nowadays, people don’t know how to wait; for him, so much pleasure in life has come through the waiting and anticipation.

There were lots of other stars around yesterday; pictured below is Randi Zuckerberg, Derrick Ashong & Mandy Moore.

Check out 92Y’s Social Good Summit: Recap of Day Two with video clips!

The concept of Chindia has taken on a new relevance for me since arriving in the US. On Saturday I visited Flushing, Queens for the first time. As I stepped out of the subway, I felt as though I was stepping into Hong Kong–tons of hanging signs in Chinese, crowds. Yet as I walked further away, I was walking towards an Indian section of temples. And as I returned to the subway, I could see a strip of Indian shops followed by Chinese ones.

In keeping with the Chindian-themed day, I selected “Eat, Drink, Man, Woman” as our evening entertainment. It was a wonderful movie in many ways, and I was struck by how similar Chinese culture is with Indian, especially when it comes to family.

The movie’s actually set in Taiwan, but the family is of Chinese origin. Three daughters are concerned about who will take care of their aging father; and they each have their own romantic sub-plots which deserve big announcements only when absolutely necessary at their ceremonial weekly family dinners.

The story of China and Taiwan’s economic development is drastically different than India’s, and that fascinates me. (Not to mention countless economists). It’s shocking to think that the “Asian Tigers” had similar levels of poverty as India back in the 50s.

Also I found it interesting that women’s roles in the movie were portrayed pretty differently than what I’ve seen in Bollywood movies, though I honestly haven’t watched too many of them. They were professional, independent, and modern in their approach to life despite having a deep sense of responsibility towards their father.

I know it was just a movie, but it really got me thinking about where the world is headed. There have been lots of predictions about who will end up on top; now we’ll have to wait & see…

Enjoy this opening scene from the movie!

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(My 2nd Youtube video!!)

Yesterday was Gangaur, a holiday celebrating marital bliss, and for once I went out to see what the festivities were all about! And of course, some more bliss is always welcome.

Actually, the holiday is mainly for women–those who are unwed wish to be blessed with a husband, and those who are wed wish for their husband’s wellbeing. So it got me thinking about women and several things I’ve read recently about women & technology.

Janet Fouts asks, “Why aren’t there more women in open source?“ Rachel Happe of The Social Organization discusses the cultural barriers of women entering tech leadership in her recent post. She mentions a piece from TechCrunch, “Why Women Rule the Internet,” which I also had read and made me cringe (it’s actually more about online shopping being dominated by women, and marketing to them!).

I also came across a couple posts by Allison Fine where she explores women’s role in leadership and in Social Media. Juxtaposed against Mashable’s survey on How Women Really Feel About Their Facebook Friends, the picture isn’t so rosy and describes women in particularly catty terms who see their contacts as mostly irritating.

Yet, a key theme running throughout these discussions is that something dramatic is shifting due to the opportunities presented to women by technologies. Certainly for me personally, the sense of empowerment I get through the use of ICTs on a daily basis is pretty much unparalleled.

Yes, getting educated was also empowering; but just refer back to those sorry statistics that are mentioned in the above posts which point to the lack of women’s leadership despite their levels of education. They speak for themselves.

This post is dedicated in gratitude to all of the wonderful women in my life. I feel so lucky to have known so many strong, intelligent, talented and truly beautiful women. Happy women’s day to you all!

I know it’s not Mother’s Day, but I feel the urge to thank my mom who sent me the info on the above film. She has an insatiable thirst for knowledge and I must owe my own to her…

Thanks to my grandmothers, whose hard work and dedication to family were remarkable.  They both went to law school well before it was a common thing for women to do.

Sometimes the contrast between women’s roles and lives in India and the US seems so stark, but then when I really think about it they both pretty much boil down to the same thing: well-being for the family and community. It’s just that in the US, we’ve gotten accustomed to the luxury of being able to think about ourselves, our desires and our independence.

But wherever we are, being a woman is a complicated affair. And being able to go through it gracefully with head held high, and make a contribution to people’s lives, is a commendable deed.

As I see my relatives and peers becoming mothers, I can’t help but wonder at the tremendous amount of patience and courage they have. What a gift they are giving of themselves.

Being a woman is the opposite of delicate; it demands fierceness and fortitude. A steadfast commitment to compassion. Just like the Devi, Linga Bhairavi…

Not only was untidiness both cause and effect of inner chaos, but it was also a surefire argument catalyst. At times of utter despair, I was ready to call in the reserves of more senior domestic goddesses (aka my mother & mother-in-law!). Anything but take on the task by myself.

(image from plokta.com)

That’s not to say that my husband wasn’t willing to help. But sometimes his habits would so exasperate me that I would rather just do the job alone. Apparently this is common amongst couples: women take cleaning so seriously that, if the husband helps, he has a hard time living up to their high standards. Yes, I’ve read this before online at the height of my troubles, but I don’t feel like digging up the links myself right now. If you’re interested, google it! I did find this from my previous post:

A recent article on Alternet by Vanessa Richmond perfectly illustrates the trend, at least among American women, to shun cooking as an “unliberated” act.

My grandmother would tell me how impressed she was that, when I was younger, I was so well-organized and I would try to help her tidy her kitchen when I visited. That was probably my parent’s influence, which has obviously since loosened its grip–or has it? I really wonder if my disdain for orderliness has its roots in adolescent defiance, which then became compounded by feminist theories. Or perhaps I just didn’t feel like devoting my attention and energy in that direction.

Sadhguru’s Huffington Post piece from last week, If the Feminine Ruled This Planet, Life Would Be About Living, really struck a chord with me. Firstly, a caveat:

When I say feminine, I am not talking about it in terms of male-female; I am talking about it in terms of masculine-feminine.

Yes, but women certainly are implicated. The feminine is under threat, not just by patriarchy and social norms, but from women ourselves. We are not choosing to speak out against the systems which suppress the feminine.

So today, there is a danger that the female is giving up the feminine because survival has once again become the dominant factor. Survival has been pushed up to a demanding scale like never before. In earlier times, survival meant just gathering the day’s food. But today, survival means a BMW, the latest technological gadgets for your children, a summer home, etc. That is very challenging. So as this happens, as the demand for this type of life increases, there will ultimately be no room for the feminine to find any place in society.

There is so much pressure on women to compete like men in the workplace, and then still maintain the household. When I was growing up, my mom worked, but I had friends whose moms were housewives and I envied them. However, nowadays it is a rare luxury if families can afford to have a stay-at-home mom.

So something needs to happen for the feminine to flower within each human being. The feminine should be nurtured right from the start. As many children go into science and technology, the same number should also go into music, art, philosophy and literature. This must happen. If this does not happen, there will be no room for the feminine in the world. So celebrating the feminine is very essential. It is not about “woman,” but rather the “feminine.”

I struggled with the division of disciplines as I was younger. I enjoyed most of the subjects, but found math really challenging. I longed to pursue music, dance, and theater, but it was difficult to accommodate everything. When it came to college and professional choices, it was obvious that intuitive, artistic pursuits could only serve as hobbies, whereas my career would have to be based in the logical aspects of life. A lot of feminist research has been about quantifying the “care economy,” and calls for better remuneration of the jobs that women typically fill.

The very nature of this continual quest for survival is masculine. The masculine is always about conquering something. The feminine is not about conquest. The feminine is about flowering, about relaxing, about living – not about getting. So what’s needed is a shift. If that shift does not happen, we will exhaust the planet too fast. If the feminine ruled this planet, there would be no ecological problems because it would not be one mindless, endless conquest – it would be about living.

What do you prefer: conquering or relaxing?

Not all of Jaipur looks like this...

Recently, I keep starting out my posts with numbers. Perhaps it helps me to establish the landmarks, to measure my success on this uncharted path. For me, these three years are the longest ever time that I’ve been settled in one place since I graduated from high school in 1999. I’m discounting the four years of college because I moved a lot from year to year.

True, I haven’t been in Jaipur for three years straight, either. I have left for at least 2 months every year to visit family, and last year I was hardly home since I spent almost half the time at the ashram or travelling. It’s probably the only way I could’ve survived.

Nonetheless, three years with my stuff in the same apartment, with or without me. Three years of having Jaipur as home base, ready for me when I return. Three year of having pigeons as my closest neighbors.

It was in April 2007 that we came here. I want to be able to say something very insightful about my experience here, a neatly packaged byte of wisdom. But in my stupor of disbelief that I’ve made it here this long, I’m struggling to make much out of it.

Actually, perhaps the real motivating force behind writing this post, behind even the realization itself that I have been here for that long, is that we are most probably leaving Jaipur. I hesitate to give more details because that deserves its own post. But the impending departure certainly has made me recognize how settled I’ve become here, and dare I say it? Attached.

To be honest, I can’t think of things off the top of my head that I particularly like about this place, but to do Jaipur some justice, I will put some effort in and make a list:

1. Central Park
2. seeing Nahargarh Fort from my window

Ok, the list idea is pointless. It’s sounding horribly negative, which has nothing to do with Jaipur in itself–it’s more to do with my own perspective and judgements.

While now I can say that I’m in a positive frame of mind, much of my time here has not been spent in that way. Furthermore, I can say that I’ve come to terms with my previous negativity, and have reached more of a state of acceptance of life, of being here, all the pros and cons included. It’s been a sacrifice, but has held certain advantages. They’ve pretty much cancelled each other out.

Pros include low cost of living, nice apartment, being close to in-laws, being close to Delhi. Cons: difficulty in going out (weather & logistics combined), weather, lack of social circle, weather, being close to in-laws, weather…

Dear Jaipur, you’re too hot and I can’t think properly. You’ve made life difficult for me, but I forgive you.

For my dissertation at LSE, I wrote about a UNICEF project for girl’s education and questioned its assumption that education was automatically empowering. A contact of mine currently at the LSE, Layla, has posted some very interesting research–conducted by the LSE, no less–that again brings these questions to my mind:  Cleverest women are the heaviest drinkers

Those with degrees are almost twice as likely to drink daily, and they are also more likely to admit to having a drinking problem.

“Reasons for the positive association of education and drinking behaviours may include: a more intensive social life that encourages alcohol intake; a greater engagement into traditionally male spheres of life, a greater social acceptability of alcohol use and abuse; more exposure to alcohol use during formative years; and greater postponement of childbearing and its responsibilities among the better educated,” says the report.

The article doesn’t mention stress–and that alcohol happens to be society’s most acceptable and easiest available antidote. What would be helpful to look at is how women’s involvement in “traditionally male spheres of life” is inherently stressful; even more helpful would be examining methods to eliminate stress so that this kind of abuse need not happen.

Granted, this research is from the UK with notoriously high rates of alcohol consumption. But still, it’s quite tragic to think that the most educated and qualified women are wasting their potential by getting sloshed.

Is it because they cannot handle the pressure of being in such high positions in society and conforming to roles with which they are not comfortable? Is inebriation a more empowering alternative?

Chennai is already facing chronic water problems with fast depleting surface and ground water sources. This event is organized to ignite awareness among all citizens to make everyone save, recycle and reuse water. A 6km Walk/Run from Besant Nagar beach (Elliot’s Beach) through adjoining roads, highlights the fact that 6km is the average distance many women and children in the world walk every day to secure the minimum requirement of water for their families.

After the walk, live beats from ‘Sounds of Isha’ and other renowned artists will entertain participants on the Beach–Webstream available, check for details!