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[Author: Shivani Chaudhry | Date Published: 12 September 2009] September 12, 1977: The day Steve Biko, a thirty-year-old, anti-apartheid activist and leader of the Black Consciousness movement in South Africa was murdered in a prison. In memory of Biko, I wrote this piece, a while ago... Even though we might occupy different social political geographic spaces, and might have different histories, I think (through a philological understanding) there is something in each of us that Biko speaks to... Remembering Biko ~ Shivani Chaudhry ~ he was named "bantu" an isiXhosa word meaning "people" but it is a rare individual who can live up to such a name stephen bantu biko was not just a person but a collectivity, a movement, a legacy the spoken conscience of a people that lives on 32 years after his cold blooded murder in a south african prison. 32 years later biko, it's still a cruel world. just life, not a just life. the politics of exclusion h...

मल्हार में मेघा धीमे आंसुओं की बरसात में गरजना धड़कते दिल का मिलन में बहार धुंधले  सपनों  का करीबी में  फ़ासला  ज़ालिम  जुदाई का इश्क की चांदनी में तरसती हूँ  तुम्हारी  इक बूँद के लिए

COR DO  CORAÇÃO ~ Shivani Chaudhry ~ A dor do coração não sabe palavras nem tempo Tal como o amor São cores da mesma pintura Claro, escuro, às vezes Quem determina E´a luz do coração Que esta luz não se apague Que o coração sonhe sempre Que continue a amar com a força Do vento, do sol e do mar Que a dor desapareça Na alegria do sol A cada dia, cada manhã Depois da longa noite, a madrugada A esperança e a fé no amor Nasçam nos raios do sol ~~~ [Image credit: Elizabeth Chapman]

[Author: Shivani Chaudhry | Date Published: 8 August 2009] Brazil makes me incredibly happy. It also makes me sad. You can't have the ecstacy without the agony, can you? Because then it wouldn't be life. It wouldn't be real. And Brazil is life. It is real. More than real. And here, in this land of passion and pain, I find myself swaying in the narrow space between the two... The warmth of the people, their affection, and their ability to live life to the fullest is what keeps my soul singing. The vibrance, the love, and the music make my spirit smile. But there is much suffering here. Much violence. Much heartbreak. Like everywhere else. But here it's different. Everything seems more intense. The joy and the grief. Because Brazil is intense. Brazilians are intense. And all my experiences here are intense too. Deep in my heart there's an alegria , an intense joy. But a deep feeling of saudade too.... How do I explain saudade in English? I can't. It has no trans...

[Author: Shivani Chaudhry | Date Published: 29 June 2009]                                         Brazil flows in my blood. All the time. Even when I'm afar. A Brazilian rhythm beats in my heart, always... And when I arrive here, in this land of love, passion, hope, faith, struggle, beauty, and abundant affection and warmth, my heart sings and my veins throb with the passion of being alive... For that's what Brazil is for me. Living without repression, feeling without thinking, expressing without fear. Touching hearts. Being touched. Being overwhelmed. As the Italian photographer Alex Magoli so rightly said, "People go to psychologists, I go to Brazil..." Because Brazil has this incredible ability to heal... to restore... to revive... to give... to be... It's where you find beauty in pain, music in melancholy, warmth in strangers, passion in every moment. Where every ...

[Author: Shivani Chaudhry | Date Published: 1 June 2009] Another street-associated child who I knew and was fond of, passes away, leaving me deeply grieved and dismayed. I don’t know who to blame anymore. Pradhan , a twelve-year-old boy, succumbed to injuries on 6 April 2009, after being hit by a truck at the Moti Bagh flyover in Delhi. No child should have to die at twelve. No child should have to be on the streets. I couldn’t believe it. I wept. It couldn’t be happening again. Radhakrishna , a boy who sold newspapers at the same traffic light, passed away on 4 October 2005. His death changed my life. And even though I tried, I wasn’t able to change the lives of the street children around me. Radhakrishna’s untimely passing away shook me deeply. In an attempt to process my grief, I wrote an article on him in the weekly newspaper - Tehelka.* In his memory, I set up a fund for the education of street children around Moti Bagh. The short piece I wrote on Radhakrishna in Tehelka received ...

Published by Women’s Feature Service; also at  Boloji.com [Author: Shivani Chaudhry | Date Published:  15 March 2009] It is now over four years since the tsunami wreaked its havoc. For most people in India, the tsunami is a closed chapter. The national media no longer considers it important to talk about rehabilitation or the status of the tsunami survivors. After all, a four-year-old story is not 'breaking news', is it? No news is good news, one assumes. Not in this case. Nothing can justify the current mess, nothing can pardon the government's egregious lapses, nothing can condone the fact that survivors are still living in tin sheds, unsuitable for cattle habitation, in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. On the one hand, is the sheer neglect and failure of the state to provide adequate rehabilitation and its direct role in abetting human rights violations of survivors. On the other, is a more planned political agenda of using the post-tsunami climate to maximize ...

[Date Published: June 2009] Prose may contain poetry. Prose could be poetic. But prose can’t really be poetry… at least not for me! So, after writing some prose, thought I’d post a poem, for a change. I wrote it after returning from a trip to Hyderabad, to visit a dear friend, in June 2005. Could it really be four years ago? But a poem’s soul is eternal… so how does time matter?

[Author: Shivani Chaudhry | Date Published: 10 February 2009] Exactly a week ago, I visited MIHAN near Nagpur. I thought Mihan was the name of the area. But no, it stands for Multi Modal International Hub Airport at Nagpur. I’d heard of the project and read about it some time back, but nothing could have prepared me for what I saw. I’m still finding out the facts and details but because what I saw shocked me so much, I was overcome with an urge to write immediately. What I’ve learnt so far is that this Rs. 2, 581 crore project is being promoted by the state-sponsored Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC). Under Mihan, the MADC will acquire a total of 4,354 hectares (ha), of which 1,278 ha have apparently been earmarked for the airport, and 2,086 ha for a Special Economic Zone (SEZ). This includes 500 ha for IT parks, 955 ha for manufacturing units, 60 ha for a “health city” and 200 ha for a rail-cum-road terminal. I read that companies that have already booked land in MIHAN, i...

[Author: Shivani Chaudhry | Date Published: 9 February 2009] Tired of mainstream media monopolizing information, news, images, and controlling what you should and shouldn’t read, and what you should and shouldn’t write, and how you should and shouldn’t write, i choose to step into the virtual world of free words. Freedom is never absolute, but at least i have an uncensored voice in this virtual ink medium…where i can say what i want, how i want. Where i seek to join others floating in wordisms, thoughtisms, languageisms and non-isms… Just being who we are and writing what we feel, not worrying about syntax and form and rules and structure. Not bothering whether anyone’s reading, whether anyone’s responding… Just finding space to share our thoughts our feelings our musings on the worlds – within and beyond… And so, here i am inaugurating my own blog. Not so much out of a desire to be read but more out of a desire to seek free space to express myself… which is why i opt for a non-secure,...