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In India, many people believe that mental ailments are caused by bad spirits or sorcery – an explanation that is generally accepted and avoids the negative stigma associated with mental illness. Temples or shrines with reputed miraculous powers to heal people with mental ailments are well-patronised, and some of these attract hundreds of people each day.
In 2001, a fire occurred at the highly popular Erwadi Sufi Muslim shrine. The fire killed 25 people who had been chained up in the surrounding boarding houses. Sensational media reports portrayed healing shrines as ‘backward’, and revealed that psychiatric services were in a…
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In India, protests are often dramatic and reach a ‘high point’ when public property is destroyed. A new initiative called Blow Up which offers a highly visual non-destructive way for protesters to vent their anger and still get media coverage. It was started by advertising exec Emmanuel Upputuru and photographer brothers Hemant & Dushyant Mehta – who were sick of the devastation of beautiful buildings that they had witnessed in their home state of Kashmir.
Listen to my ABC Radio National piece here:
Watch video of Blow Up here:
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The colour-throwing festival of Holi is one of India’s most popular celebrations. While Delhiites will gather in a friend’s garden to celebrate in a controlled environment, devout pilgrims head to the towns of Vrindavan-Mathura, the stamping ground of the mischievous god Krishna.
The Holi festival in this area is famous, as people relive the myths of Krishna and Radha with playful and feverish devotion over ten days in the villages of the surrounding areas .
Whilst Holi is a harvest festival that welcomes Spring, it’s also a chance for devotees to express their love and…
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Marriage and love in rural Tamil Nadu can be a complicated matter, especially when values and material expectations are rapidly changing. Arranged marriages are still the norm in India, where parents find a ‘match’ for the ‘girl’ and the ‘boy’ – for this is how the bride and groom are always referred to, regardless their age.
Ramu, a 30-year-old man from a village near Pondicherry, cannot ‘find a girl’ (as a wife) despite looking for one year, even though he is acknowledged by his peers as ‘of very good character’. Born into a poor family, Ramu is considered a somewhat…
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The Adishakti Performing Arts Laboratory recently held a Ramayana festival in its beautiful grounds near Pondicherry. For seven days, we local and visiting culture vultures were exposed to world-class interpretations of this epic.
Curated by Kolkata-based theatre director Rustom Barucha, the festival aimed to explore the pluralist dimensions of the Ramayana, through performance, music, visual traditions and critical dialogue with artists and scholars from India, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and USA.
The epic is said to stem from India in approximately the 4th century BCE, before spreading to other parts of Asia. It tells the story of Rama, a king’s son and incarnation of…
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India made international headlines last year, when it was claimed that the country has more people with mobile phones than toilets. The articles highlighted slums in Mumbai without running water, but where families have four or five phones. Whilst the continued uptake of communications technology in urban India is predictable, how has its ready availability and affordability affected life in villages?
As mobile phone providers move into rural areas and improve services, the technology has been embraced by the majority of villagers, and some have even struck it rich by leasing their land to mobile phone companies for transmission towers.…
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Diwali, Hindu festival of lights, is said to be the equivalent to western Christmas and new year. After a long lead up of shopping, card parties and hand-drawn rangolis on entrance floors, families celebrate Diwali with food, friends, gifts and lots of crackers. As Delhi filled up with noise and acrid smoke from en masse bungers, I headed out of town to spend Diwali with a friend in Vrindavan.
Vrindavan is three hours drive south of Delhi, and is known as a pilgrimage town for Krishna devotees. The town is believed to have been the stomping ground of the mischievous…
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Recently I bought a cycle so that I could avoid taking the hellishly dusty and bumpy share auto-rickshaw journey to the main road in south Delhi. The plan was to cycle the pleasant back route through farmhouse lanes and not be choked by pollution and traffic. The cycle was duly delivered and my apartment block’s young chowkidar (watchman) Subodh excitedly helped to strip the packaging, adjusted the seat, tried the lock a few times, and then advised a spot in the shared garage to park it.
The previous chowkidar, Karthik, had been given the sack a few weeks before, for…
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Judith Lucy is currently in India filming for her six part ABC series, Judith Lucy’s Spiritual Journey. Somehow, I got roped into being filmed chatting with Lucy on her arrival in Delhi about what she could expect to find on the trail in India. I initially resisted the suggestion of an interview, because – although I’ve always loved her humour – I thought the programme was probably going to be a piss take of foreigners on the spiritual trail in India. Not that I don’t enjoy the odd laugh on this topic. But it turns out that she is…
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As we pass the half-way mark of the CWG, it’s interesting to note the shift in attitude in Delhi towards the games. Much of the negativity associated with the preparation phase has dissipated, to be replaced with varying degrees of nationalist fervour as India’s medal tally rises, and as the benefits of the city’s new infrastructure become apparent.
Elements of the Indian media previously hypercritical about their government’s mismanagement have softened up. Front pages are replete with stories of India’s medal count and successes in various events, whilst the negative stories of ticketing problems, low audience numbers and other issues…
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