Happy Republic Day!
Let me give a few related updates first!
@SamvidhanBot got a huge content contribution from @AnuAnu120- Debates by Women members of the Constituent Assembly. It was interesting to learn their perspective on Equality, Uniform Civil Code, Feminism etc., and how we still fight on defining the very things. Please reach out if you want to contribute as well :)
It was irritating that people are sharing preamble of the “original” constitution (without secular, socialist words). Kashmir had special status in the “original” constitution. Are these people fine with reverting abrogation of special status because it is so in the “original” constitution? Hypocrisy. The constitution as it stands today is the original constitution.
I got a t-shirt with the preamble printed on it :) Anusha customised it for me with her beautful handwriting!
I met Ameya Paleja at HydLitFest (HLF) today. He runs a science blog called Coffee Table Science where they write fun science blogs. I told him about my Anvikshiki blog and asked him how can I further improve it. He adviced me to work on the relevance of the blogs, not just concepts. I had believed that reducing jargon would be sufficient to gain relevance, but it doesn’t seem so. He suggested that I read @kaul_vivek to learn how he uses cricket, cinema to make his writings relevant to audience and then backload the economic concepts that he wants to share. I should try something similar.
I also stole a few nice bookmarks from the lit fest :) They are themed on women farmers growing mushrooms.
I read short stories of Manto and Chugtai. My favourites of them are Frozen (Thanda Ghost) and Quilt (Lihaaf) respectively. Frozen because, I performed a monologue based on it :)
23rd was Netaji Jayanthi. Obviously a lot of people tried to appropiate him without ever reading him. I wanted to share a few of his quotes at least. Surprisingly, there were none on Goodreads. I uploaded my highlights from his autobiography “An Indian Pilgrim”. You can find them here: Subash Chandra Bose Quotes
I wrote a blog on Religion, from an Artist’s perspective.
My mental health was not great this week. I always knew there are toxic people but felt they are distant devils. This week, many came out of the closet from closer circles. There is so much hatred and polarisation. Often people hate words without even knowing meanings of these words. So I was arguing a lot. A twitter friend reminded me of my unhealthy social media behavior. It helped to disconnect, focus and meet good people. HLF too helped in that regard.
I’m attending a couple of workshops at HLF over the weekend. Let me know if you’re around!
Bye Bye!