Tuesday, January 19, 2016

New year, new things

It has truly been kairos, going back to Cal. Meeting family and friends, watching plays, etc. Enjoyed seeing the Ashtavinayak temples when I came back to Pune. They were all so different and inspiring. Ganesh ji was sometimes in warrior mode, and sometimes genial. It was truly a road trip- we spent most of the 2 days on the road, the 8 temples each took about 15 minutes. Just the one in the Buddhist caves took an hour, as we had to climb 100 steps to reach it.

Enjoyed Hannah Silva's talk in Pune. British Council got her when she came for the Tata litfest in Mumbai. Deconstruction in action- she plays around with words as sounds, using them as echoes to create new meanings.

Just from this one statistic- 40% of those who are amputated in war go back to war, she created a chilling performance piece, with the refrain It's a positive thing, ringing in my ears still.

Sometimes leaving out vowels, sometimes consonants, her staccato speech pressured language to explode in new realms of what is possible to express thoughts.

Also did some local sightseeing- Vohuman Cafe was a serendipitous find. Also went to Fergie- reminded me of College. Did University today- scored some beautiful trees, in dramatic poses near the Performing Arts Department :-)