SPARROW flies high

Author and researcher C.S. Lakshmi talks about Sound and Picture Archives for Research on Women and the “Songs of Sorrow, Songs of Joy” raffle to be held in Mumbai next week to raise funds for the institution. 

“When SPARROW was started in 1988…it was in my bedroom. So there was a great need to rent space. And, you know, in Mumbai, renting is very expensive.”

The voice quavers slightly as C.S. Lakshmi, (known in the world of Tamil literature as Ambai) writer and director of SPARROW (Sound and Picture Archives for Research on Women), describes its beginnings. Dressed unostentatiously in a cobalt-blue salwar kameez, with a matching bindi and a halo of short silvery hair, Lakshmi exudes a passion for her cause. “In 1992, we organised a painting exhibition where we invited several artists. From this exhibition we raised some money… not much. It was the first time we organised an exhibition of its kind…The artists were very generous; they donated very generously.”

Need for funds
Things have come full circle; there is a need for funds once more. “Recently, in 2008, SPARROW acquired a building of its own and we have spent the entire corpus that we had. ‘Songs of Sorrow, Songs of Joy' is a charity raffle in aid of a corpus fund for SPARROW to be held on March 8. I have a friend who owns a gallery and who is also an event manager, Anupa Mehta, who conceived the idea of inviting only women painters… she contacted the artists and arranged everything. It is basically a way of artists coming together to support a women's organisation.”

Full report here The Hindu

Past Perfect

I was invited to the launch of Kaifi and I, a book written by Shaukat Kaifi. I pondered over the thought of going to the other end of the world (the suburbs) during peak traffic hours and then decided to go. On the dias sat Shaukat Kaifi, Shabana Azmi, Tabu along with the publisher, Urvashi Butalia - a pioneer of feminist writing in India from Zubaan Publication, and Nasreen Rehman, a scholar from Cambridge, who translated the book from Urdu to English. Excerpts from the book were read out, highlighting the rich emotions.

The book throws light on the character of Kaifi, who had a progressive and dynamic mind, and was clearly fighting discrimination against women at a time when they did not dare be out of their purdah. As young people, Shaukat and Kaifi fell desperately in love with each other.

Even though Kaifi was a card-holding communist and a poet with no source of income, Shaukat's loving father brought the lovers together putting his daughter's happiness over society’s expectations. The book reflects on life in 'another time.' It also gives a lively depiction of a section of the history of India and its culture and charm, which were part and parcel of it.

Full report here Mumbai Mirror

Speaking of women

The setting up of feminist publishing house Kali for Women in New Delhi in 1984, was a watershed in many ways. 25 years later, Anita Roy retraces the journey.

In the early seventies, a trio of young, wild-haired women — Harriet Spicer, Carmen Callil and Ursula Owen, got together in London to launch a feminist publishing house. They chose the name Virago — meaning ‘a fierce or abusive woman’ , according to the dictionary. The munched apple logo on Virago’s book spines became synonymous with women who — from Eve onwards — have wanted to taste forbidden fruit, a Biblical reference also echoed in the pioneering British feminist magazine at the time, ‘Spare Rib’. The Women’s Press came along a few years later, its name, and distinctive logo — an upturned iron — played on the idea that ‘women’s work’ is domestic and mundane. Another important publishing house, Pandora, promised to lift the lid and unleash women’s words on the world. During the next decade, several feminist publishing houses sprang up across the world: Spinifex in Australia, Flora Nwapa and Co and Sritti ya Sechaba in South Africa, Domes in Japan, Cuarto Propio in Chile, Le Fennec in Morocco. In South Asia, there was Simorgh and Shirkat Gah in Pakistan, Asmita Women’s Publication House in Nepal, and in India, there was Kali for Women, set up in New Delhi in 1984 followed six years later by Stree, set up Mandira Sen in Calcutta.

Full report here Business Standard