Curtain Raising Event

When does the boat rock?

"Men have all the stakes,
Men have what it takes,
Men don't have heartbreaks,
Men are just drifting rakes,
No. Men are masculine fakes."
Anon

So, what does it take to be a 'melancholy manly man'? All the stakes? A conquering mentality? The 'alpha' patriarchal quest? Are all these roles that men take on because they are endowed with masculinity? Or are some of these just postures, and others forced and fake? Are these the same for all men? Or are they hierarchical? Do they not engender violence that ranges from physical and sexual to verbal and psychological abuse? Are men and boys just perpetrators of such violence, or also equally its victims? Will such violence ever end unless men and boys are made active agents in its prevention?

UNDP, UNIFEM and UNFPA in the Asia region has initiated a networking, consultation and programme formulation process for a regional programme on gender-based violence prevention. As a result of this process, an Asian regional joint programme is now being finalised for 2008-11. The expected result of the joint programme is a reduction in the incidence of men’s violence in Asian countries through a focus on the roles and responsibilities of men and boys in prevention. The programme will be launched over the 16 Days of Activism in 2007 in a curtain raising event in New Delhi, India (as well as additional locations across Asia by combining the launch with other planned events). Aakar, a Delhi based Trust is designing and coordinating the launch of the joint programme.

This curtain raising event is being hosted across various venues in December. Apart from policy discussions, it will include:

• The release of a demand by a thousand (maybe more!) children for a violence free world during the Panel. 7 Dec, 2007
• The panel preceded by four videos made by children from different economic.backgrounds on their experience and understanding of gender based violence. 7
  Dec, 2007
• After the Panel, a music concert by musicians from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Nepal. 7 Dec, 2007
• The opening of an art exhibition on masculinities…curated and with a catalogue…the opening will have a solo performance by an experimental dancer who will interpret through his/her performance the works on display. 4 –14, Dec, 2007
• Reaching Men and Boys on GBV: A space with material developed on the theme of masculinities: the UNIFEM exhibition/blown up panels of the little book which are ready/other stuff from MASVAW and various other sources and a book sale on gender and allied areas. 3-5, December, 2007
• Inauguration of an international film festival of documentaries on masculinities. 3-5 December, 2007
• A literary evening of readings from south Asian poetry/literature on gender based violence/masculinities. Participants will include prominent writers and poets. A moderated reading with discussions and comments. 8 Dec, 2007
• A theatre performance on masculinities and gender based violence. 10 Dec, 2007

Musings... Memories of a Male Hostel- Part 1

"For seven years, I dwelt in the loose palace of exile, playing strange games..."
Well, not really, but I did dwell (and for seven whole years) in the hostel of an all boys, all boarding public school.

Come to think of it, it was exile as the axis of my existence shifted from mother and father to matron and master and from home to Colvin House.

The horroreality of departure really struck me when the black trunk arrived. Its front announced my name and destination in bold white letters. I still remember that the hinged top alternated between raised black slabs and troughs, also black. Into this trunk went drab uniforms in sorted rows of safas, jodhpurs, white pants and gray shorts. There was also striped peppermint toothpaste, a red toothbrush, a kit bag for used clothes, smelly red hair oil, Feradol, Lifeboy soap and plenty of tears accompanied by a strong vernacular accent. I was as ready as an eleven year boy could be for exile.

Being a somewhat absentminded and forgetful lad, I soon parted company with many of the uniforms and sundry other possessions. These were inadvertent losses.

Two things I learnt to lose deliberately though- the tears and the vernacular.

For if there were any rules to the place, they were, "Little boys who are going to be big men- DO NOT CRY (at least in public)." And , "Only LOCALS and those lower in the social order speak in vernacular." Hell, public schools must be the only places on earth where even Bongs converse with each other in English and not Bangla!!

This was my first encounter with upper middle class male morality.

A laid back macho ethic permeated the place. It is beautifully caught in one of the immortal legends of the school, which goes thus:
Parents of a new boy were lost somewhere in the huge school campus. They came upon a lad resting under a tree. Hesitantly (in Hindi) they asked for directions to the Principal House, Central Ground or wherever it was that they wished to go. Our hero (allegedly the head monitor) spat out the stem of grass that he was chewing and from his reclining position drawled, "I don't know nothing maan. I'm just a lonesome cowboy."

Huh. And here I was in this land of dandies, knowing nothing and without any directions or map as to how to navigate in this alien territory. But I learnt enough to survive seven years, even thrive in some ways....

I can't say I ever became adept at the law of public school survival - strut and stride, abide or hide (or lose thy hide). I just managed to bungle my way through this boy jungle.

(To be continued)

Test Post

This is a test in more ways than one,
by the end I hope to discover whether
I'm a natural or man-made sun-of-a-gun.
Meanwhile it does not really matter
as I'm writing this nonsense verbiage for fun.