Life Beyond Us - Science Fiction & Essays

Recently I have read a very interesting anthology of Science Fiction writing with an euqally interesting twist - it also has essays about the science behind those SF stories. The book is titled "Life Beyond Us", it is edited by Julie Novakova, Lucas K. Law and Susan Forest (2023, Laksa Media).

It has stories by some of the well-known names of science fiction and is presented by the European Astrobiology Institute (EABI).

EABI on its website presents this book with the following introduction:

What would life be like if it evolved in a cold ocean beneath an impenetrable shell of ice? Or on a world whose haze obscured any view of the universe beyond? Is there a common template for life, or can we expect to find preciously fragile silicon creatures drifting in seas of liquid nitrogen? How would finding alien life change our society?

Life Beyond Us, a new anthology by the European Astrobiology Institute and Laksa Media, depicts the timeless quest for finding alien life in 27 science fiction stories and 27 science essays, aiming to imagine, inspire and illuminate.

I loved reading this book and would like to share some of its aspects which I found illuminating.

Science in the Science Fiction

SF is based on science and is different from fantasy. In SF writers can imagine the future or distant worlds, but they do so based on science or on scientific hypothesis.

However,understanding the science behind each SF story is not easy because it can come from different and specialised fields of expertise, from technology to physics to chemistry to medicine and innovation. I loved this book mainly because each story is followed by an essay which discusses the basic science behind that story. I loved some of the stories, but I loved even more some of the essays explaining those stories because they made me think in unexpected directions.

Below are some examples of the information in the essays which were new for me and which made me think.

Safety of Humans and All Aliens

Giovanni Poggiali in his essay about a SF story by Erik Choi wrote about the fears of humans to make sure that we don't import alien life forms to earth because we may not have immunity against them and they can decimate human and/or animal life. This is something we all understand.

However, I had never thought about the vulnerability of aliens to the pathogens from earth. When we send space-ships to moon or mars or to some other star outside our solar system, is there a danger that some of our bacteria or virus can go with them, and then infest and kill the alien life forms?

Poggiali's essay about ensuring the safety of all life forms on earth and on other planets, made me think about the difficulties of limiting contacts with our bacteria and viruses. We can't sterilise our intestines, also because our gut organisms are fundamental for our well-being and survival. In the long-term colonisation of other planets, I am not sure how this would play out.

Star-Forming Cocoons

Stefano Sandrelli in his essay about a SF story written by Renan Bernardo, talks of an astromical discovery by Bart Bok and Emily Reily in 1940s about a small black cloud which they called globule. They proposed that new stars were being formed inside that globule.

Sandrelli talks about Bok Globules to explain that the space is not empty and that approximately 2% of the total mass of our galaxy, the Milky Way, consists of low-density matter, mostly as a gas, called the interstellar medium (ISM). ISM is 91% Hydrogen and 8.9% Helium. However, 1% of ISM is made up of dust. I have always thought of space as being empty and this information was very unexpected.

Titan, Saturn's Moon

The essay by Fabien Klenner about a SF story by G. David Nordley explains that Titan is an iceball, with a thick atmosphere (4 times as dense as earth's atmosphere) and very low gravity (around 14% of earth's gravity). This information has been used to plan a Dragonfly mission to Titan in 2027 which should reach its destination in 2034.

On earth we have carbon-based life which needs water as a solvent. Titan does not have the conditions for a carbon-based life but it may have conditions for a nitrogen-based (azotosome) life.

Can azotosome based molecules create life and what kind of life it would be, is a tentalising question.

A Really Hot Venus

Sanjay is the hero of the SF story by Geoffrey A. Landis, who wants to go down from his space-ship to visit Venus. Dennis Honing, in his essay about this story explains that Venus is so hot that it cannot host earth-like life. It is hot because it is closer to sun and because it has a lot of CO2, a greenhouse gas.

He explains that on earth the long-term maintenance of climate is due to the carbonate-silicate cycle. CO2 in the atmosphere is dissolved in rainwater, forms carbonic acid, which interacts with silicate minerals. Its product, calcium carbonate, is deposited on earth in areas where tectonic plates converge. As it reaches earth’s interior, those carbonate sediments melt and CO2 is released back into the atmosphere. A main requirement for the whole cycle is the presence of liquid water on earth's surface.

I had read about acid-rain but it was the first time that I was reading about CO2 cycle and wondering if carbonic acid contributes to acid rain? Does this carbonic acid go into water bodies such as lakes and rivers? What impact does it have on the climate? It was a chapter, which left me with a lot of questions.

In Conclusion

The above are some examples of reflections and questions induced by the scientific essays in this book, written mostly by young European scientists. It was a long time that I had read a book like this one, which surprised me so much and made me stop and think so often!

If you like reading scinece fiction and are generally interested in science, this is the book for you.

*****

#sciencefiction #science #bookreviews #europeanscientists #anthologyofsciencefiction 

Writing Choices (1)

I am writing my second novel - it is in Hindi, because after trying for about 20 years, I found that I was more comfortable writing my books in Hindi. I still do not have a publishing house for my first book but I am keeping my fingers crossed.

It took me almost two and a half years to write that first book, and during that period, I rewrote it 3 times before finding a structure that I liked. It is about a young man who discovers that the woman he had thought of as his mother was not his birth-mother and then for the rest of the book he tries to find more about and locate his birth-mother.

I had a basic idea but once I started writing, new ideas came all the time, some of which I tried. The final structure of book and many of its characters and scenes, which came out in the final version, were very different from my initial ideas.

However, when I think back about the writing of my first book, I can hardly remember all those changes and the experimenting with different ideas.

It is the same with my second book. I am doing the second rewriting. It covers a long time period, more than a hundred years, and is spread across different countries. I think that I might need to do at least 2 more rewritings before I will have a proper draft. While I work on it, there are so many ideas which come to my mind and I try to incorporate some of them in my writing. 

So I have thought of occasionally noting down in this blog about my writing process. This book revolves around 4 generations of a family involved in a tea garden.

The first version of this book had alternating chapters focusing on different characters from different countries and time-periods. I wrote around 80% of it but felt that its basic premise of the story focusing on a woman of the 3rd generation was not working, it seemed kind of flat and not very exciting.

In the second version, I have grouped together the chapters according to the time-periods, to make it easier to follow. Now, its focus has shifted to 2 characters from the second and fourth generations.

I had started writing it with longer chapters and fewer voices telling the story. After writing about 70% of this version in this way, one day I changed my strategy - now the chapters are shorter and the story is told by a larger number of voices. I still have about 10% of the book to complete but I like this second approach more, though it probably has too many events all reaching their culminations in the last few chapters, so it is kind of chaotic.

My plan is to finish this version, read it and then decide if I prefer it with longer chapters and fewer voices or shorter chapters with more voices.

While writing, sometimes some characters suddenly take form, come alive and become more complex, sometimes asking for greater space in the story. For example, some old photographs taken in 1930-1940s played a key role in the story in the first version. In this second version, I have a French guy as the photographer and a few scenes with him. Then, a few days ago, while going for a walk, I thought about that French guy and I felt that he is an interesting character and thus, it is possible that he will have a bigger role in the third version.

I love writing my book. For a few hours every day I get lost in the worlds of my characters and their stories. It is an amazing feeling.

*****

#authorsunil #sunildeepak #sunil_book #writingprocess

Art, Books & Friends

 Our reading group in Schio in the north-east of Italy meets once a month to talk about a book. Our "reading season" starts in September and ends in the following June, because in the summer, many group members go away for holidays.

This year, Michela, coordinator of our reading group, proposed a different way to end our reading season - "Let us go out somewhere and do something different." One of our group members, Carla, suggested that we go to the house of her friend Lello, who lives on a hill in Malo, a few kilometres south of Schio.

Lello (Raffaello Rossi) is a retired physical-education school teacher. His house is on Montepiano mountain, at an altitude of about 500 metres. Parts of the road leading to his house are narrow, but it is a motorable road. The house stands at the edge of a precipice looking down at a valley covered with a dense forest.

Life and Works of an Artist: Sem Giovanni Rossi (M. Rinaldi)

Our group meeting started with an introduction by Lello about his father, Sem Giovanni Rossi, who was a painter living in Rome. Seventeen years old Sem had participated in the first world war and risked dying in an Austrian prison. A self-taught painter, Sem worked with oils and tried different painting styles and subjects. He became known for his sea paintings, which he produced in large numbers, and which are today scattered across continents, especially in Italy, Germany and USA, and are signed under a paseudonym, as "M. Rinaldi".

After the introduction, Lello took us around a tour of his home where he has a permanent exhibition of about 40 paintings of his father. I love looking at the art works through the eyes of the artists, as they explain the background stories about their works. In this case, we were looking at artworks through the eyes of a son, who had seen his father make those paintings and it was fascinating.

For example, one of the paintings has a young woman sitting and sewing. Lello explained that the young woman was Alina who worked in a sewing workshop next door to his father's art studio.

For another painting of a house at the Spanish Steps in Rome, he explained that it was the house of Giorgio de Chirico, who was a friend of his father and a well known artist and writer, "de Chirico wanted this painting but my father refused", he said.

As Lello talked about the still-life, the old-walls, the old men sitting and the tiny rays of light illuminating corners of mostly dark and malinconic paintings, it said something about the time gone by, about his relationship with his father and his understanding of his father's art, that was at once very moving, deeply personal and intimate.

Walking and Talking About Books

After the visit to Lello's home and talking about his father's artworks, we decided to go for a walk along a mountain track. For this walk, Michela had prepared sheets of papers for the group members, with brief extracts from the books we had read over the past year.

As we went out, we stopped occasionally for someone to read aloud his/her paper to the others, to try to guess the name of the book and sometimes to talk about the experience of reading that book. The extracts chosen for this exercise were very different, some funny and light-hearted, some emotional and touching.

We started from a tiny church dedicated to San Valentine and then entered a mountain path, initially lined by mulberry trees, loaded with dark and inviting mulberries, full of tasty juices which coloured red our fingers and mouths.

It was not a long walk, perhaps a couple of kilomteres and did not have big altitude differences, so that everyone could do it.

Reaching back at Lello's house after the slow and lingering walk, it was time for drinking and eating. Some of our group members had prepared cakes and snacks, others had brought drinks, so we sat down to eat while Lello shared some other memories about his arrival in Schio, some forty years ago.

Friendships and Connections

As the evening arrived and we prepared to leave, I was thinking about the afternoon spent in so many intense experiences - the beautiful terrace overlooking the green valley, covered with vine trees with budding grapes, Lello's stories about his father's artworks, our walk between the mulberry trees, the taste of fresh mulberries, and the pleasures of listening to the words from the books we had read, evoking memories of their story-worlds.

A key part of the beauty of this experience was made up by the conversations, sometimes long and sometimes brief, we had with friends in the group, as we walked or sat around, sharing about our lives, our plans, our big or small sufferings and challenges. Memories of this afternoon will remain with me for a long time.

***      

Understanding and Promoting Empowerment

I have been involved in Emancipatory Disability Research (EDR) initiatives in different parts of the world. The goal of Emancipatory Research is to promote empowerment of marginalised people. Therefore, it is important to ask ourselves what is empowerment? Can it be promoted? If yes, how?

This post talks about some ideas of empowerment and how it can be promoted. It includes ideas from some of my discussions with young persons with disabilities in Mongolia during 2017-2020, who had taken part in an emancipatory research.

Emancipatory Research (ER)

Normally the main goal of a research is to gain new knowledge or new understandings. The main goal of a Emancipatory Research (ER) is to help marginalised persons to gain understanding about factors which cause or worsen their marginalisation.

ER can be done by individuals (IER) or by groups or communities (CER) of marginalised persons. My professional experience relates mainly to ER conducted by groups of disabled persons.

From my experiences, my understanding is that each kind of marginalisation and thus, each specific group of marginalised persons (for example, persons with mental health issues, sex workers, persons with alternate sexualities, persons with disabilities, etc.) is associated with specific kinds of barriers - such as attitudinal, social, economic, legal, cultural and physical barriers. Each kind of marginalised group also also needs to understand its own internalised barriers (barriers located in the persons themselves).

 

I would like to see more research in this area of differences and similarities in barriers faced by different marginalised groups.

The ER process can help in promoting a systematic collective examination of the different barriers in understanding how they affect their individual life-experiences. The ER process conducted jointly by a group of persons facing similar marginalisations can also help in finds ways and strategies to overcome those barriers.

Apart from its impact on the barriers, this whole ER process is also expected to promote empowerment of the participants. I asked a group of 34 young persons with disabilities in Mongolia about the meaning and significance of empowerment for them. The following ideas came out from these discussions.

Meanings of Empowerment

Empowerment can be at individual level and collective level (of groups of people or communities) and of their organisations and institutions.  Empowerment of an individual usually means taking control of his/her own life, having opportunities and abilities to make their own life-choices, and, the capacity of speaking out and making their voices heard.

However, persons from different cultures can different expectations from their empowerment because they may make very different life choices. For example, in an individualistic culture, living independently and ability to say whatever we wish may be seen as an important (or even the most important) part of empowerment. In other cultures where family values are seen as more valuable, empowered persons may still prefer to stay with their parents or listen to their elders, instead of insisting on making their own choices, and empowerment may be perceived in their family status and roles.

Zimmerman (1995) proposed that empowerment is both a process and an outcome. He identified different contributing factors of empowerment, such as - control and access to resources, participation with others, and critical understanding of socio-political environment.

I feel that empowerment is a never-ending process and it relates to different facets of life, so that while we may be more empowered in one life-domain, we can still be less empowered in other life-domains. It also means that our life-circumstances can lead to a reduction or strengthening of our empowerment. For example, finding a job or receiving pension and improving our economic independence may strengthen our empowerment.

Meanings of empowerment for Persons with Disabilities

Different groups of marginalised persons may have different ideas about empowerment. For example, for persons with disabilities, physical and material barriers such as lack of wheel-chairs, lack of ramps and lifts, lack of sign language translation, and lack of Braille materials are a very significant barrier and findings ways to overcome these barriers will play an important role in their empowerment.

 

For an Emancipatory Disability Research (EDR) project in Mongolia conducted during 2017-2020, I asked its participants (young adults with moderate to severe disabilities of different kinds) about the meaning of empowerment and what were the barriers to empowerment for them. 

For some of them, empowerment meant overcoming fear of the negative views and opinions of others, in their families, among friends, among peers and in communities. For them the biggest barriers to empowerment were the negative attitudes in the family and in the community.

Others looked at positive qualities to define empowerment, such as having self-confidence, having courage, and to be able to hold responsibility. One person said, “We have to first recognise our own skills and show our skills to others. If we change, we can change attitudes of the society, like Stephen Hawkins did, even if he can’t speak or move.”

For most of them, making independent decisions was a key to empowerment. Most felt that having a work and being financially independent helped in the process of empowerment.

Some persons shared their life stories to explain how they had fought against family attitudes to assert their need for making their own life-decisions. This raised the question about the links between personalities of the persons and their empowerment. Some persons are born fighters, they do not give up and insist on following their decisions, so they are naturally empowered. Others do not have fighting personalities and need help in developing their empowerment skills.

For some persons, parents' love and protectiveness were the barriers to their empowerment. One person said, “Barriers are also inside us, we are sensitive and feel hurt. Lack of accessibility restricts us, forcing us to depend upon others. Going to school is important for empowerment, not only to learn to read and write, but it is an opportunity of meeting others, talking, expressing ourselves, and having friends.”

How would you define empowerment?

Some Questions

One question in my mind is: does collective empowerment automatically lead to individual empowerment? If a group of persons undertakes a joint action to correct an injustice and through their efforts they manage to change the situation, I think that it will promote feelings of value and self-confidence among all members of the group. Thus, it will promote both collective empowerment and individual empowerment. However, I feel that those persons who play a more active role will gain more self-confidence and become more empowered. Therefore, group action may promote different levels of empowerment among the group members.

On the other hand, I think that when unjust situations change, this may help other persons to become empowered by showing that a change is possible, even if they did not take part in the fight to change the situation.

Another question I ask is: does individual empowerment automatically lead to collective empowerment? If a group of empowered persons agree and come together to fight, then they can be more effective in changing the unjust situation. However, if persons are individually empowered but do not agree with each other, and do not come together to change the situation, then probably there will not be any collective empowerment. I see collective empowerment as a process of inter-action and exchange between persons.

Conclusions

Empowerment can have different meanings for different groups of marginalised persons and across different countries and cultures. It is not a question to which you can answer with a yes or no - it is a process. It starts when we become aware that we can also make our own decisions. It is easier for us if we are economically independent and educated, but that does not mean that without education or financial independence we can’t be empowered.

Empowerment means not just getting respect for your decisions, but also respecting the others by listening to them and allowing them to make their decisions. It also means accepting that sometimes, some of us can also decide that we do not wish to make our own decisions.

 

 

Meeting others, learning from their life experiences, sharing our doubts and fears are all steps towards empowerment.

As Zimmerman (1995) wrote, “asking why” is a key part of promoting empowerment. Emancipatory Research (ER) approach facilitates groups of marginalised persons to come together, ask questions and understand the reasons behind their life situations, to discuss how to overcome the obstacles they face and thus promotes empowerment.

*****

"Eliminating" Infections In India

In today's FirstPost, an online newspaper from India, there is a cover story on Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) by Kalikesh Singh Deo, "a member of the Biju Janata Dal party. He is the Convenor of the National Coalition on Neglected Tropical Diseases and Malaria".

I have some concerns about the use of term "elimination" for reducing the number of certain diseases like Kala Azar and Lymphatic Filariasis, under the guidance of the World Health Organisation (WHO). I hope that bodies advising the Government of India would have discussions with stakeholders to ensure a reduction in the negative fall-out from the use of such terminology.

Let me explain why I think that using terms like "elimination" in such campaigns is a double-edged sword. (The image below presents some ASHA workers from Maharashtra, India - all public health programmes reach people through these front-line workers in India - without them no campaign or programme can work).

WHO's Definitions

In 2016, WHO produced a document about the use of terms like "elimination". According to this document, the following terms have following meanings for the infectious diseases (page 3):

Control: Reducing the number of cases of a disease

Elimination: Reducing a disease to zero new cases (incidence) in a country or an area

Eradication: The causative organism has been eradicated from nature and laboratories so that it can not cause any new infection

In addition, there is a 4th definition, which is called "Elimination as a Public Health Problem" - this means reducing the numbers of cases of a disease so it is no longer a problem for the health services.

Advantages of Using terms like Elimination

In his article, K.S. Deo explains: "By December 2023, the Government of India plans to reduce kala-azar cases to less than one per 10,000 people at the block level and, by 2030, to eliminate haati pao as well."

Reading the strategy and such explanations, the readers feel that the problem is going to be solved. In this article, he does not use the term "elimination as a public health problem" because he understands that this won't make much sense to ordinary readers.

There are different advantages of using words like "elimination", including getting more resources from the Government and greater commitment from health services and health personnel.

There are real gains on the ground as well. For example, Deo writes: "10 February 2023, India will conduct Mass Drug Administration (MDA) rounds in Mission Mode in 10 affected states". This means that a large number of people will receive medicines to treat and to prevent new infections.

Disadvantages of Using Terms like Elimination

The first time the term "elimination as a public health problem" was used was in 1991, when WHO had launched its Leprosy Elimination Strategy (LES) - to reduce leprosy by the year 2000. At that time I was a member of the the medical commission of the International Leprosy Associations Federation (ILEP) and many of our members had concerns that people will not understand the term "elimination as a public health problem" and will think that the disease has been eliminated, they will believe that it no longer requires resources and services.

The LES had a huge impact in India. In most of north India very few public health services were reaching leprosy patients and most of them were being treated by older lesser-effective medicines. For example, due to LES, by 1998 even states like Bihar and UP managed to provide almost 100% coverage with newer and more effective anti-leprosy drugs to all those who needed them.

The problem came after India had reached the LES goal (in 2005). Many states reduced their support for leprosy services. It was not only decision-makers or general population who had thought that leprosy will be actually eliminated and there won't be any more new cases, even doctors and public health specialists believed it.

For example, 4 years ago, Dr Madhukar Pai, director of McGill International TB Centre and a well-known and influential public health specialist based in Canada, in his article "Failures of Public Health" wrote the following:

In 2005, India declared leprosy to be eliminated and scaled-back on its leprosy programmes. Today, according to WHO, India harbors 60 percent of the world’s cases, with more than 100,000 new diagnoses each year

I can tell many anecdotes of people coming up to me with questions about why governments had declared "leprosy is eliminated" when they still had the disease. I have even seen a sociology thesis from a country in Africa, which had a theory about the LES declaration and a national conspiracy to marginalise the poor persons for the benefit of the rich.

Conclusions

I think that it will be good if Mr. K.S. Deo and his team will bring together different stakeholders, including representatives of leprosy-organisations to find ways which allow us to use the term "elimination" for the advantages it provides and at the same time, find alternate ways to mitigate the damage caused people's expectations that these diseases will disappear.

For example, it might be important to use some other word and not use the word "elimination" in the local language translations about the campaigns.

18 years after Eliminating Leprosy as a public health problem in India, it continues to be a public health problem and is a part of NTD strategy about which Deo has written. LES had an impact, the number of new cases of leprosy in India has been halved (partly this may be due to covid-related reduction in services, so that many new cases were not detected) but the disease is still there and it requires services. It is crucial to avoid mistakes of the past.

*****

Theyyam: When Gods Descend on earth

India has many rich religious traditions during which the Gods are supposed to come down to the earth and express themselves through some persons. Examples of similar traditions can be found in different parts of India.

This post focuses on one such tradition called Theyyam, which is celebrated in northern Kerala in south India.

Gods Speaking Through Humans

Hindus believe that the Divine is present in each living being as universal consciousness. At the same time, they have a pantheon of a huge number of Gods and Goddesses, one for each of life’s different forms. The Gods, animals and plants are all inter-linked through the sacred stories and myths.

The religious ceremonies in which Gods speak through humans has 2 main functions – (i) as a part of celebration of specific religious and social events; and, (ii) to answer questions and to give blessings to people.

 

All over India, especially in small towns and villages, there are persons who are known in the communities as “carriers of God”, who can go into a trance, and invoke a God spirit to come and speak through them. In north India this process is called “Devi ka aana” (arrival of the Goddess). Usually they do it by sitting down in meditation with their eyes closed and then go into trance. The arrival of the God in their bodies is marked by signs like convulsive shaking while their voices turn rough. After that others can ask questions or ask for blessings and make an offering. This role can be played by both men and women.

In many parts of India, there are also elaborate make-up, costumes and rituals linked with this tradition. For example, in North Dinajpur district of West Bengal, persons manifesting the Gods wear colourful wooden masks during the sowing of fields – this tradition is known as Gomira. In East Burdwan district of West Bengal, the men invoking the Gods, paint their bodies with blue colour and transform into Shiva – this tradition is known as Shiva Gajan. Satyajit Ray's film Devi can be seen as one representation and exploration of similar ideas.

While God-manifestation roles are mostly enacted only by men, usually they are about Goddesses, the different forms of Shakti. In some places, persons of other religions, especially Muslims & Christians, are given specific roles to play during these ceremonies image below with Muslim characters in a Theyyam), which could be linked with specific historical events and indicate processes of religious inclusion.

Theyyam Tradition in North Kerala

The word “Theyyam” probably comes from “Devam” (God). This religious tradition is common in villages of northern Kerala, especially around the district of Kannur and surrounding areas of Kerala and Karnataka. Between October to March, every village holds one annual Theyyam at the village temple. In each temple, there can be different Gods/Theyyams, depending upon the presiding deity and his consorts. Bhagwati is one of the principle deities of the Theyyam.

The persons playing Theyyams usually belong to specific lower castes in villages. The responsibility belongs to specific families and is hereditary, so that male children watch and learn from their fathers and uncles putting on the make-up, making specific ritualistic dance movements and conducting specific rituals in the temple. For the duration of the Theyyam, persons of all castes, bow in front of Theyyams.

The ceremonies continue day and night for 3-4 days and are usually carried out in the open courtyards around the temple. During the celebration, sometimes there can be an occasional animal sacrifice, especially a hen. After their rituals and dances, each Theyyam receives devotees who pay obeisance, and ask questions or their blessings.

Visiting Theyyam ceremonies

I had seen a few Theyyam dancers in a cultural festival in Guwahati some years ago and had been struck by their elaborate make-up and costumes. Then, a few years ago, in a museum near Fort Kochi, I had seen the masks showing specific make-up face-patterns for different Theyyams, which had greatly intrigued me.

It is easier to see Theyyam performances as part of cultural shows, but I was interested in seeing them as a part of a living religious tradition of a village.

In February 2018, during a visit in Kerala, I had gone to Kunnur, where I had hired a local Theyyam guide. You can find online the calendar of Theyyam celebrations in different villages. However, more specific information is available only in Malayalam. Finding and reaching specific villages where the celebrations are being held is not very easy unless you know the local areas. Thus, a local guide can make things easier.

With my guide Chandran, I had visited Theyyam ceremonies in 2 different villages and seen different Theyyams, each with their special make-up and costume. As you can see from the pictures, both were colourful ceremonies filled with beautiful rituals, dances and faithful. Even elderly persons touched their feet and asked for their blessings.

 

 

In my opinion, they are not just a rich and colourful tradition, they are an expression of people’s faith. I found the ceremonies emotionally moving. Unfortunately, with changing times, some young persons feel that these are just old superstitions and are dismissive towards them. Though the Government is supporting some of the families engaged in Theyyam by making them a part of cultural festivals, I feel that to see them as part of people’s living traditions and faith, is a completely different experience.

Conclusions

In one of the villages I visited, I watched a young man patiently lying on the ground for a couple of hours, while the make-up of God Narsimha was being put on his face. While he was getting ready, his uncle, Mr. Narayan, who was one of the drummers and had come home from Delhi, especially for this ceremony, had explained to me the significance of different steps of his preparation.

The most beautiful moment for me had come when after getting ready, the young man had moved away from the group and walked up to a small hill (image above). There he had bent down to touch the ground and then stood there with his eyes closed in a silent prayer. When he had opened his eyes and turned towards people, there was a subtle difference in him – he had transformed into Theyyam. Moving with a feline grace, he had walked to the courtyard of the temple, a God descended on earth.

That transformation had touched me deeply. Gods and humans, together and separate, are bound together in the sacred stories of human imagination - Theyyam is an illustration of this bond.

*****

Note: Post originally written in 2018, updated in 2023

Celebrating Dalit Struggles & Pride

Ever since the advent of metro network in Delhi and surrounding regions, I have started to explore unfamiliar parts of the city and NCR. Every time I visit Delhi, I try to visit some new places. In 2019, I decided to visit the Dalit Prerna Sthal Park and Okhala Bird Sanctuary, near the eponymous metro station on the Magenta line of Delhi metro.

This post is about my adventures while trying to visit these two tourist venues located in NOIDA (UP) close to the Delhi border. I take this opportunity to also reflect on caste discriminations in India.

While independent India opted for laws against caste-based discriminations and affirmative action for persons from lower and backward castes, I thought that continuing deaths of persons asked to clean the sewers was a big blot on nation's dignity. It is only in 2023 that Government of India has decided to allocate specific funds to stop manual cleaning of sewers - I hope that efficient action will be taken on this point and make sure that no one dies due to this act anymore. 

Rashtriya Dalit Prerna Sthal

RDPS or the National Inspiration Memorial of Dalits was commissioned in 2011 by Ms. Mayawati, a Dalit leader, who was at that time the chief-minister of UP state. The word “Dalit” literally means “Downtrodden” and denotes persons belonging to the so called “lower” castes in India, who have been marginalised and exploited for centuries by persons of other, so-called “higher” castes.

Before Mayawati, dalits have had some other famous representatives, who have left a mark in Indian history. Dr. Ambedkar, one of the most important dalit leaders during the independence struggle, is considered the father of the Indian constitution. Babu Jagjivan Ram, a dalit leader belonging to Congress party, had been a famous minister in the Indian national government for more than a couple of decades. Another dalit leader from Congress party, K. R. Narayanan, had become vice-president of India in 1992 and president in 1997.

After the independence of India in 1947, gradually Dalit population groups had also started organising themselves politically. A dalit leader, Mr. Kanshi Ram, had founded a political party called Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in 1984 to represent their political aspirations. Mayawati, a leader of BSP, formed the state government in UP in 1995, the most populous state of India with more than 200 million population at that time. After more than a decade of coalition governments, Mayawati formed her first majority government of dalits in 2007. By becoming a symbol of Dalit power and visibility, Mayawati has represented the collective rise of dalits.

Construction of the Dalit Prerna Sthal (Dalit Inspiration Memorial) in NOIDA close to Delhi, was a way to remind the people about this transformational journey of marginalised dalit people. For this reason, many persons also call it Dalit Garv Sthal (Dalit Pride).

Reaching Dalit Pride Park

The first Delhi Metro station had opened in 2002. Since then it has grown into one of the biggest metro network in the world with more than 250 stations and covering about 350 kms. The Magenta line going to Okhala Bird Sanctuary station had opened in 2017. It connects Janakpuri in west Delhi to Botanical Garden in UP in the east, covering a little more than 38 kms with 25 stations.

Check the latest metro map to see how you can reach Okhala Bird Sanctuary metro station from your home/hotel.

My Adventures in visiting Dalit Pride Park

My first motivation for this visit was the Okhala Bird Sanctuary. It was January and I had read about thousands of migratory birds visiting the Okhala area around the river Yamuna. On the Google map I had seen that Dalit Pride Park was very close so I had decided to visit both these places.

My journey had began in Gurgaon and I had taken the magenta line from Hauz Khas, reaching Okhala Bird Sanctuary Metro Station in a little more than one hour.

Getting out of metro station I had my first encounter with the reality – the exit stairs crossed a wide and busy road, full of fast traffic, and came down to a narrow platform in the middle of the road. There were no signs about how to reach the Bird Sanctuary or the Dalit Pride Park around the Metro Station. Crossing the road to reach the sidewalk was my first dangerous adventure. There was no sidewalk and the shops occupying the area, were not able to tell me how far was the Dalit park, except to indicate the general direction.

A 20 minutes of walk, with an occasional sidewalk that was covered with garbage in places, including a bridge over a canal carrying foul smelling refuse waters, finally brought me to the gate of the Dalit Park.

My satisfaction was short-lived, as the children playing there told me that this gate was locked and to enter the park, I needed to walk to the next gate. Another 15 minutes of walk brought me to the next gate, but it was also closed. Resigned I walked to the successive gate, where a young man selling the spicy fruit-chaat explained to me that all the park gates were closed and the only gate open to public was gate number 5, another half-an-hour of walk away.

By that time, the sun was up and it had become warm. I had been walking for more than one hour and was already tired. I tried looking for an auto but after 10 minutes gave up the idea. Finally, deflated and defeated, I started my walk back to the metro station.

Along the outer wall of the Dalit Park, there were narrow openings from where I could look inside and take a few pictures. It looked green and lovely with a lot of columns in a pink stone, with elephants at the top, which are the electoral symbol of BSP. In the centre of the park there was a monument with statues of Kanshi Ram, Mayawati and other Dalit icons. Through the narrow openings, the pictures have not come out so well and all the statues looked grey or black.

Looking from outside, I did not see any visitors in the park except for a few uniformed men sitting in the shade near the locked gates, looking bored.

Back at the metro station, frustrated and tired, I half-heartedly asked persons about the way to the Okhala Bird Sanctuary. They pointed vaguely towards the bridge on the river. To reach that part, I needed to cross a wide road full of fast-moving traffic without any place for pedestrians. In the end, I thought that it was time for me to lick my wounded pride and retreat from this visit. My only consolation was that I had seen some parts of the park from the outside.

Need for Dalit Pride Parks

Caste is a huge and deeply rooted issue in Indian society. Caste related reservations in educational institutions and government jobs are sources of resentment among persons of "higher" castes. Proposed as a temporary measure at the time of India's independence, it has now grown into a multiple-headed hydra with different caste groups claiming backwardness and right to reservations.

On the other hand, in spite of the equality guaranteed by the Indian constitution, marginalisation and oppression of Dalits continues to be a serious issue in many parts of India, especially in small towns and rural areas.

Yet, there is no systematic way of promoting discussions on this theme in India. During my school years, the only mention of caste discriminations had come during discussions on Mahatma Gandhi and perhaps during the lessons on medieval bhakti poets of India. There was no lesson on how caste discriminations work systematically across our daily lives and nothing about continuing inhuman treatment of specific "lower" caste groups even today. For example, manual scavenging was declared unlawful long time ago, yet there are still places where human beings are forced to carry excreta on their heads and unprotected men are forced to go down in the gutters and manholes to clean them manually, even in the national capital. Many educated Indians growing up in big cities feel that caste discriminations was something belonging to the past because they do not believe in caste distinctions, and have no idea of its continuing terrible impact.

In such a situation, I feel that Dalit Parks can play important roles in promoting public discussions on castes and its negative impacts. For example, they can help in informing public about the reality of caste discriminations through testimonies, films, art and sculptures. They can also showcase important contributions made by dalit leaders to create positive role models. School children should be taken to these Dalit museums, to learn about India's history, its continuing social disparities and to make a vow to fight these.

To Uttar Pradesh Tourism Board

Metro is an accessible public transport that brings tourists to different parts of the city. UP Tourism Board should make an effort to make it easier for persons reaching the Okhala Bird Sanctuary Metro Station to visit the Dalit park and the bird sanctuary. It will be good if a tourism department official actually travels by Metro to understand how difficult it is for people to come out of the metro station and to visit these 2 places.  

Allowing only one gate of the park to be open and choosing that gate which is most far away from metro station for this purpose, seems not only illogical, but also against poor and middle class persons, who do not have their own cars or vehicles for travel.

The tourism board should also put relevant sign boards at the metro station to guide the interested persons. Finally, if they can also make arrangements to facilitate visits by persons with disabilities and old persons (like me), it would be wonderful.

I can guess that the reason why only one gate of the Dalit Park is kept open for public, is to sell tickets and control entry. However, if you check how much money this park is earning from the visitors and if it is a small amount, make the entry to Dalit Park free so that more persons can visit it, experience what it means to be Dalit and face caste discriminations and learn about the pernicious effects of caste-system in India.

Conclusions

I believe that visiting Dalit park and learning about discriminations and inhuman treatment of dalits in India is a great idea – similar to visits to holocaust sites and genocide museums in Europe and monuments to Black-resistance sites in the USA. Often, people and government seem embarrassed to accept that India still has caste-related discriminations. Instead, we need to openly talk about it, make it a prominent discussion point and highlight all that which has been done by national and state governments as well as, by activists to fight it. I hope that UP Tourism Board and Government of India will wake up to its importance and make it an essential part of visits for tourists coming to India.

 

 

Hiding our difficult past and the uncomfortable parts of our present reality because we feel ashamed of it, does not help us in tackling it. We need to talk about it openly, so that we can understand it better and find ways of overcoming it.

There are still many aspects of caste-related exploitation that are not well understood. For example, while oppression and exploitation of “lower” castes by “higher” castes is a big problem, I feel that hierarchies and intra-caste inequalities and discriminations among the “lower” castes is also an issue. Unless we talk about these aspects, how can we hope to transform India into an equal and progressive society?

Our Upanishads, the ancient Hindu sacred texts, say that there is the same universal consciousness in all living beings. Similar messages from all different religions of India also need to be celebrated in the dalit parks to promote a change in mentality.

Like the queer communities across the world celebrating GLBTIQ pride parades, perhaps one day all cities of India will have colourful and joyful dalit parks and dalit pride parades, where people can learn about our social history and express our pride in our identities.

Note: Post originally written in 2019 and updated in 2023

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