Ruchira’s daughter Sanjukta shared my tribute on Facebook this week and called it amazing. She does not know me. Her mother did, through nearly two decades of this blog, and that a stranger’s grief could reach her family and land as comfort is the whole case for keeping BP alive. The original post is here, Ruchira’s obituary is here, and her daughter’s own tribute is here.
Rest in peace, dearest Ruchira.
In her honour I have started using “I” again instead of the impersonal “we”. I wanted to emotionally invest in this space the way she did in her interactions online.
Moments like this are what I want to cultivate here, so, two years after I revived the blog here from Chennai.
Admin: Agni and myself.
Authors: RNJ, 0M-3, formerly brown and Arkacandra.
It is a tight ship, I am constantly scanning for activity, and authorship is a privilege.
To the authorial cadre, a suggestion about how to spend that privilege. When Kabir argues that South Asians are not natural democrats, or that monarchy suits “a culture that is status and caste-conscious”, the response I want is a reasoned post, not a thread war.
The same standard runs the other way: the comment claiming Pakistanis/haaris are uniquely amenable to feudal domination, should be comprehensively rebutted. Sweeping claims about any community should get answered above the fold, with texture and context. That is the point of a humanities engagement.
The blog is very active, and thanks to Calvin it now has a captain of the Opposition. The divide is ideological, not sectarian, and I intend to keep it that way. Any drift back to sectarian lines or TNT relitigation will not be looked on kindly. This blog is concerned with the Indian subcontinent, of which India, that is Bharat, is the central and defining feature; the neighbours are covered sometimes in their own right but primarily in their bearing on the natural hegemon, India.
The Nicobar thread is the kind of discussion I most want here, since I care about environmental degradation as a general matter (maybe that is Western privilege; it is a privilege I intend to keep).
Here is to the next 15 years, and to a space that Ruchira would appreciate.
it would be nice if the Commentariat also left positive messages of support from time to time on positive pieces.
Absolutely!
Wonderful post XTM.
Calvin writes his comments in long form. Instead, request Calvin to consider writing a post on the environmental challenges in a developing country like ours. There clearly are many such projects that are been taken on w/o a thorough study. Madhav Gadgil is missed, though not as part of the NAC.
Having seen the degradation that limitless consumption can cause on pristine ecological treasures (flora and fauna), I’m personally inclined to err on the side of the environment, not development. Bangaram island in Lakshadweep has just a few cottages. Yet, when visiting a few years back, the impact of cruise ships thanks to the plastic rubbish that carried back to shore was horrifying, not to mention the oil trails.
Rumour has it that some folks close to the HM were putting up more cottages than sustainable on the island. Fibre optic cables were also being laid there for other purposes of course. The China Maldives play casting a long shadow over the other group of islands in the same archipelago clearly had something to do with it.
Clearly, hi-fi tourism and national security ought not to mix, be it here or Nicobar. Sometimes I wonder if the powers that be are indeed so short sighted that this obvious divergence is swept under the carpet.
Thank you yes – I don’t mind long-form comments since maybe I need to convert them into posts.
Couldn’t agree more. I am completely onboard with the transshipment port and military base in Nicobar but the township and tourism development are wholly necessary.
In India, we seem to be stuck between the devil and deep sea – one side wants to gain ‘personally’ while investing in and building out desperately needed infra, the other wants us to stay poor peasants so we can be rolled over by the Chinese like 62 again. Desperately need a third alternative. Unfortunately, CJP or AAP isn’t it.
yes Transshipment Port and Military base is essential but the rest seems unnecessary.
It is like the Education Minister should have immediately resigned.
If the BJP want to stay in power; they can’t become corrupt and have to be accountable.
I’d recommend the Commentariat read this excellent piece: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/iran-and-new-rules-global-power-pape?
Yes, thank you.
** In India, we seem to be stuck between the devil and deep sea – one side wants to gain ‘personally’ while investing in and building out desperately needed infra, the other wants us to stay poor peasants so we can be rolled over by the Chinese like 62 again. Desperately need a third alternative. Unfortunately, CJP or AAP isn’t it.**
This is exactly true! CJP is a born again AAP and the corruption in the BJP top honchos is no longer ignorable alas.
Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely comes to mind at the current state of affairs. Clearly nobody is immune to this.
Devil & deep sea haha
Yess its tragicomic, isn’t it!!
Thank you for kind words.
I will consider if some of the comments can become more general posts. But I am a bit doubtful.
Thank you for calling me the ‘Captain of the opposition ‘ but I dont want to be seen as someone partial to the opposition in our country. I am not a supporter or defender of our opposition parties and leaders.
I want to make this very clear since many seem to see my arguments and retorts as firefighting on their behalf which it is not.
Being acolytes of one or the other political party has what has ruined discourse and made talking about genuine issues very difficult.
I represent myself, and myself only, if it happens to resonate with some other groups or political party manifesto it is a pure coincidence not nevessarily a marker of support