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JAB WE METJab We MetEver since the Writers’ Meet we organised at Kashid beachresort in 2008, SPARROW has been thinking of organisinganother writers’ meet. This time we decided to organise adifferent kind of meet and wanted to work on an idea we have beenhaving for quite a while now. The idea was to have a Dalit WomenWriters’ Meet. We felt that there was a great need for exploringself and expressionProfileofrom a gender and caste perspective. Even whilewe were working on this idea, the Tagore Commemoration GrantScheme was announced. We felt that it would be interesting to setthis meeting in the context of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore’swritings which centred on gender and caste issues. We decided tocall the Meet, ‘Voices from Silence.’3-D MEETWe worked out a very different concept of the Meet. We decidedto plan the Meet more as a camp to bring together Dalit writers0.2at opening up of their life and expression possible and situatingtheir life and expression in the context of Tagore’s works Chandalikaand Laboratory and their resonances.The 3-D methodology was intended as one that would dissolvetensions of interacting with one another and generate a camaraderiethat would open up dialogues. In an atmosphere where the Indianwoman is being defined in specific ways, it was important to revealIndian women in other cultural contexts, functioning, thinking andacting differently. We strongly believed that if this was not done,there was the danger of marginalising other cultural contexts thatare very important for broadening one’s view of life, women, historyand politics.The methodology proposed is one of arranging a different kindof a meet and linking with it a process of sharing, learning andcommunication. This is an open method that allows sharing andlearning at various levels and is a participatory method. It is also amethod that combines several aspects and unifies them as a reading,Jab We Metfrom various regions. It was conceived as a 3-D (Dialogue, Debate,and Develop) Camp, which would create a space for communicationand sharing. While the purpose of the camp was to bring togetherwriters from many regions, some regions and some languagesbecame pivotal in the actual Meet.The reason for making the Dalit writers and the languages theywrite in the pivotal area in this exercise was that we decided thecore subject for discussion and dialogue will be caste and gender, asubject chosen with inspiration from Tagore’s works Chandalikaand Laboratory.Women writing from the position of caste and their lifeexperiences and expression have not received the attention theyshould in terms of tracing contemporary literary history and thecontext of that history. The aim of the camp was to make an attemptwriting and sharing experience that creates awareness in the processof execution.We decided to link many activities with the camp so that it becomesa multi-layered one. Theatre performances, screening of films,readings and discussions, meeting writers and publishers in andaround Pondicherry were included in the camp programme. Inthis context, we felt that the participants—about 12 in number—must be those who feel that this expression camp would be animportant dimension of their creative work. There would be nopressure to have results or obvious declarations of transformation.The idea was to create a space for sharing.We wanted to structure the camp in a way where meals wouldbe provided in a common dining room and independent living roomsprovided. The venue must be in a surrounding where nature walks,
0.3Jab We MetAdishaktiCampusreading facilities with a small library of select books and journalsand film-viewing facilities would be possible. There would be aroom to work in with writing tables. The daily sessions would beplanned as talk-sessions, read-sessions, write-sessions and sharesessions.The talk-sessions would be an extended breakfast sessionwhere some chosen people every day would talk about writingand being a writer and comment on Tagore and his works includedfor this camp. Every talk session would be followed by a readsessionwhere there would be readings from the works of thewriters. The share-session would be an extended dinner sessionwhere some select invited guests would share their work andideas with the participants and interact with them. The eveningswould be free time for the writers to go for nature walks or goaround the city. One evening, however, was set aside for a theatreperformance.A SPACE TO BESpace plays a very important part in the lives of women.Given a certain space, women can bring out from within, whatthey never knew was there. Maybe one does not want to breakinto poetry or colours or music but would like a space to just be— to look out of the window and stare at a flower or a squirrel.Creating such a space can create dialogues, communication anda sharing which may not otherwise be possible. The idea of ashared space even while having a private space to retire to wasthe notion that was at the heart of this extended and exploratoryactivity structured as a 3-D camp. This camp was planned as afive-day camp and we thought we would do it in March 2012.In our plans space was very crucial. The Adishakti campusseemed to be the ideal space to have our Meet. It was simpleand elegant with a beautiful auditorium and it had a team ofprofessionals who were warm, friendly and efficient. VeenapaniChawla, the Director of Adishakti, was most willing to cooperatewith us to make the Meet planned as a camp a great success.Once the venue was decided we were all set to contact the writersonce the grant from Sahitya Akademi (Ministry of Culture) camethrough. But there were surprises in store for us.DEALING WITH FURIOUS CYCLONES, CLONES, FAMILAMILY ANDFLIGHT SCHEDULESThe grant did come through. But along came the Thane cycloneon 30 th December 2011 that devastated the Cuddalore andPondicherry area. It looked like it would take at least three months forthe Adishakti campus which was hit badly by the cyclone, to be putback to shape.Although we considered changing the venue and tried to look atother venues elsewhere, the advantages of holding the Meet in theAdishakti campus were far too many for us to think of another venue.It looked like it would take at least three months for Adishakti to be putback in order. The last week of March seemed a good time to hold theMeet.So we began to contact several writers over the phone. The initialresponse was heartening but March did not seem to be a good timefor many. Children’s exams for some, teaching commitments for others,family functions, project deadlines for some others… It looked like wewould never arrive at a date for the Meet! Finally April 19 th to 23 rdwas arrived at which seemed to suit everybody.At the outset we had almost twenty writers who were going toparticipate. But at the end we had 12 writers from 6 languagesparticipating in the Meet. Including the organisers there were 16people on the whole.Train tickets were practically not possible for it was holiday seasonand the tickets had been booked three months in advance. So wethought we would stretch our budget a bit and book flight tickets forthose who were travelling long distances. And that is when all hellbroke loose! We booked some Kingfisher tickets only to cancel them in
Page 1 and 2: Voices From Silence....
Page 3: SPARROWSPARROWSOUND & PICTUREARCHIV
Page 7 and 8: 0.5 Jab We MetRavikumarYazan AathiK
Page 9 and 10: 0.7joined the Public Works Departme
Page 11 and 12: 0.9 Jab We Metthat plunge in like s
Page 13 and 14: 1.1PhotosConcluding session & discu
Page 15 and 16: 1.3It’s an inalienable part of my
Page 17 and 18: 1.5shop, and in Kaka’s shop she b
Page 19 and 20: 1.7nauseating. She went to the publ
Page 21 and 22: 1.9 Book ReviewTamil Dalit WritingT
Page 23 and 24: 2.1 HomageIndira GoswamiNovember14,

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