🎓DPhil International Dev
@UniofOxford
📖Gender, social policy, son preference in India
📚Hosting
@WGBookClub2023
🕊️Thoughts on academia, books & bollywood ❤️
Ended up going to the
@iihsin
library in Bangalore a few days ago. I know I *shouldn't* be surprised, but the fact that I could just enter, sit and start working in an air-conditioned, comfortable, well-lit space without paying A DIME caught me completely off guard. (1/4)
Remember reading his autobiography and I was floored with the dedication to his wife in the acknowledgments! To love and to be loved like that is a treasure ♥️
Would anyone here be interested in starting or joining a book club where we discuss books by women, on women, gender, sexuality and related? Fiction, non fiction, part academic or entirely philosophy everything welcome! The idea of discussing books read earlier could work too?
Netflix has released this absolute gem!!! Highly, highly recommended if you haven’t watched it yet. Shah is great but Jaideep Ahlawat’s acting is beyond beautiful here, portraying a kind, tender man who has a capacity to love and feel his emotions. 11/10 must watch. ❤️
Can’t keep calm because it’s A WHOLE YEAR since we started the Women & Gender Book Club, out of a serendipitous viral tweet, strangers’ generosity and so much love! Sharing a list of the books we read this past year- if you would like to join, DM me or email wgbookclub2023
@gmail
!
The gift that keeps on giving. Was gifted a subscription to a local bookstore for my birthday, where they send a curated selection of two surprise reads,bookmarks & postcards each month. The joy of unwrapping and getting excited each time doesn’t fade. Little things ❤️
Currently reading a laugh-out-loud book that is so surprisingly original and stereotype defying, it made me rethink my own ageist biases. Erotic stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaiswal. What a fun read!Quoted below, words of wisdom from a 80 yr old widow to a youngster😂
The idea of a public library is a treasure that runs so contrary to the notion of monetizing every single thing that a capitalist world normalises, that its existence itself feels revolutionary. A library is not a charity act. It is an expression of a fundamental belief (3/4)
So gratifyingly happy to have received such brilliant (100+!) recommendations on books around the theme of home/belonging- understood in so many different ways. Sharing a list of reccos, biased towards South Asian partition/diaspora lit but featuring many others. Enjoy! ♥️♥️
#BookTwitter
Now seeking recommendations for our August 2024 read for the
@WGBookClub2023
with the theme Home/Belonging :)
Seeking recommendations for books around the subject, particularly South Asian partition and migration/diaspora literature. Fic/Nonfic welcome :)
that every one has a right to public spaces. That a right to knowledge is a human right. How did we move so far away from this kind of a world view? Call me an idealist, but this small incident made me feel hope. An alternative world is possible- if only we envision it. (4/4)
Made me think of how we all love to love love but don’t like to admit it. Most days, hate is what gets people going, especially on social media platforms like Twitter. But to see love embraced and celebrated so wholly, unapologetically is truly beautiful ❤️
It's not like I haven't visited libraries all my life or enjoyed them, but it had been SO long since I visited a *truly* public library, where I didn't need to even be a member, buy a coffee, pay anything to just *sit and read* that the I had forgotten what that feels like! (2/4)
“Grief without ritual can be bewildering…Ritual helps you cope. The bother of abiding by it is also a form of suffering- it can ease the guilt.”
Words like a punch to the gut. In a world where we are taught to suppress feelings always, room for processing is powerful.
Don’t remember the last time I read a book in one sitting, first thing in the morning because I just couldn’t stop. Tears, anger, despair, hope- a rollercoaster of emotions while reading what felt like a diary that confesses things we are taught to forget everyday. MUST READ!!!
It really is high time the dictionary found a word for describing the death of a friendship. It's not fair that the pain of losing a friend is ranker lower than heartbreak.
Wrote a random little something today, thinking of an old friend. Don't share usually- so be nice, please?
Found perhaps my most favourite shop in Oxford today- Scriptum. A book store, stationery shop and magical world that felt like stepping into a different world. I could literally spend hours here!! A thread of pictures 🧵
Remember watching the ‘Great Indian Kitchen’ and going through so many emotions- especially anger that housework is invisibilized so easily in society. The teaser for the Hindi remake looks so promising!!
Highly recommend watching the original on Prime if you haven’t.
2024 is 20 years to the release of Veer Zaara. Still two years away from when Veer got out of jail and was reunited with his love. This is what Zaara looks like today- vs what the movie imagined. Can you blame Veer? 😂 Good day to revisit a favourite ♥️
Today’s achievement: assembling a cheap, sturdy, DIY study desk for myself, alone and in 90 minutes. Made me so happy and proud of myself lol. Now if only I could use the desk for its actual purpose and get some studying done! 😂📚📚
#phdlife
New book picked up: Miwok Kawasaki, Breasts and Eggs. A book long on my TBR shelf, a story of intergenerational conversations between three women, their relationship with their bodies, anxieties and hopes for the future. Hoping that it is worth the anticipation!
#BookTwitter
Adding a book that I personally enjoyed very much on the subject of becoming a “man” in “New India”.
@ShannonKPhilip
‘s excellent, incisive ethnographic work on the changing meanings of masculinity and its interconnectedness with patriarchal norms is a must read!!
One of those reminders of all the things good writing can make you feel. Picked up Jhumpa Lahiri’s new book, Roman Stories, and surprised by how familiar yet newly enchanting her work always is. In recent memory both whereabouts & this have evoked strong feelings. Recommended!❤️
Just finished watching “My SO has got depression”- a Japanese movie about a couple fighting the disease together, overcoming shame, and finding ways to support each other through grief. So tender despite its simplicity- and so powerful in its message. (1/6)
📢📢Announcing the Women&Gender Book Club picks for April 2024 on the theme of gender & caste. Join us as discuss Hansda Shekhar's "The Adivasi Will not Dance", in conversation with Mahasweta Devi's "Draupadi" this month
📅April 28, 2024
⏰5 pm IST, online on Zoom
DM to join!
Sharing a small collection of books I recently purchased that I’m extremely excited to read in the coming year- some old, some new. Might be of interest to the Gender Book Club members!
For a fantastic read on how complex cultural norms intersect with women’s tendencies to not take their health seriously, especially with lifelong lifestyle diseases like diabetes,
#RecommendedRead
for today: Sugar and Tension by Leslie Weaver. Insightful, rich ethnographic work!
Worrying but unsurprising trends. As a nation we need to take this rising disease burden much more seriously esp considering the long term impacts of Diabetes. Also imp to think about disproportionate gendered burdens on women who suffer acutely by placing their health last.
A day to remember an old favourite. Stellar verses by Amrita Pritam. Linking here a favourite being read out in Gulzar’s voice: Main Tenu Fir Milaangi (I will meet you again)
You know the dreaded moment when as a researcher you find that the book you wanted to write has already been published by someone else? Today years old when I realised SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR wrote a 4-part autobiography, the first of which is basically my entire PhD thesis??!🤯🤯🤯
Anyone else remember the time when class 10 board exams were a mystifying creature, an unknown behemoth to be tackled in a war-like situation? Whenever I want to feel inspired to work hard for my PhD, I try to summon whatever form of sincerity I had back then... (1/5)
Currently reading “Yaari”- a heartwarming collection of stories, reflections, thoughts and anecdotes woven together through the theme of female friendships. The book is like a hot cup of cocoa on a wintry night, enveloping you in its warmth. Smiling through it all as I read. ❤️
What a beautiful review of an engaging & non-judgmental analysis of single women in India! Highly recommend reading Sarah Lamb’s excellent ethnographic work discussing specific cultural conundrums for single unmarried women in India & changing ideas of care. Thankyou
@chowkhani
My review of Prof Sarah Lamb's fab book 'Being Single in India: Stories of Gender, Exclusion, and Possibility' is out in the Journal of Anthropology and Aging!
📣📣📣*BOOK OF THE MONTH: NOV 2023*- Join as we read INVISIBLE WOMEN by Caroline Perez together for the Women and Gender Book Club!
📚Invisible Women, Caroline Perez
🗓️November 19
⏰11.30 AM BST/5 pm IST
🏡 ONLINE, on Zoom
DM for more details or email WGBookClub2023
@gmail
So disgusted that I’m short of words. A mixture of incel culture, violent fantasies, objectifying & demeaning women to the sum of their orifices- literally. The larger question is how did we reach here? To have this big a chasm? For men to want to re-assert their power like this?
A couple of days ago watched this gem on the recommendation of a friend- Astitva, starring Tabu. The movie released in 2000, but tbh felt time-agnostic. What bowled me over was the clear, unashamed articulation of a married woman’s desire for intimacy, handled so maturely. (1/6)
Really excited to be presenting a chapter from my thesis on the contradictions of marriage and good daughterhood in India. If you’re going to be there, say hi or drop a comment and would love to meet up ♥️♥️
King's India Institute is delighted to host the annual
@BASASofficial
conference on September 9, 10 & 11, 2024.
Over 200 scholars from South Asia will present their research.
Find out more below:
Nothing makes me happier than learning about adults who got into hobbies and pursued them, enjoyed them and became amazing at them for their own sake at a time when anything not monetized is considered a waste! So inspiring ♥️
Today years old when I realised that the cover of 'Pinjar' by Amrita Pritam I picked up has a self-portrait of Deepti Naval?? What in the multiverse of amazingness! She also played Pritam in a play when she started theatre decades after being a film actress! Love it! ♥️
Brilliant quotes in the replies here. Reposting for everyone’s benefit. My current favourite?
“All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his.”- Oscar Wilde
Yes yes
#HappyWomensDay
- a commercial bonanza where all women will be reminded how strong they are (as if they have a choice) and be sold cosmetics, washing powder and dishwasher soap in the name of “empowerment” while gender equality is 286 years away. Congratulations to us.
📣📣📣THRILLED to announce our next book club meeting, where celebrated author Volga joins us to discuss her seminal work “The Liberation of Sita”
📆March 31, Sunday
🕰️5 pm
🏠Online on Zoom
DM to join the book club/attend this meeting. Emails to follow soon!
Have always maintained that a lot of success in PhD applications abroad is about having more information about the system. Paying it forward by partnering with
@ProjEduAccess
as a panellist on a workshop demystifying PhD applications in the UK! Details-
📢Hoping to have an amazing discussion on this thought provoking book- Invisible Women by Caroline Perez, as part of the November Book Club discussion, 12 pm BST/5.30 pm IST, online on Zoom
The discussion is free and open to all- DM or email WGBookclub2023
@gmail
.com for the link
If you haven't yet had the chance, highly, highly recommend watching the malayalam movie The Great Indian Kitchen on the subject of food and gendered violence. Eye opening to the banality of everyday evil.
🎉🎉Happy New Year people!
Really pleased to announce “The Day I Became a Runner” as the book of the month for 2024 to start the year!
📆 28 Jan 2024
⏰5 pm IST
🏠Online, on Zoom
Come join as we read a book celebrating women’ strength, sport & spirit ❤️
DM for details!
**Call for Abstracts** South Asia Day Workshop at
@ODID_QEH
♦️Theme: The Many Lives of Money: Exploring Familial, Social, Political Relationships in South Asia
📅Date: 06 June, 2023
🏠Department of International Development
📌Deadline: May 20, 2023
Details attached!
So we could have a future different from our mothers, and grandmothers, and all those women who live their lives vicariously through us. This theft needs to end
📣📣BOOK SELECTION- FEBRUARY 2024
In the month of love, who better to discuss than the king who rules our hearts?💖💕💕
THRILLED to announce “Desperately Seeking Shahrukh” by
@BShrayana
as our book of the month.
📆 February 25, 2024
🕰️ 5 pm IST
🏠Online on Zoom
DM to join!
Couldn't help but put up a new poster because of how excited I am about our panel discussion and author meet this Sunday!!! Come join us as we have the fabulous editors and authors of Yaari and Why Loiter join us to discuss all things love, friendship and resistance!
📢📢**Call for participants- ONLINE FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSION**
If you are interested in contributing to my DPhil project, JOIN as we discuss changing eldercare practices and evolving role of daughters within the family in MC India- Online on Zoom, this SUNDAY, Oct 29, 5 pm IST
📢📢BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT FOR JULY!!!!
❓What: Women and Gender Book Club Event
📚Book: All About Love, by bell hooks
📅Date: Sunday, July 9, 2023
⏲️Time: 11.30 am BST/4 pm IST
🏠Venue: ONLINE on Zoom!
**DM for details or fill the pinned google form!
JULY Book Club Reading: All About Love- by bell hooks!
Join us as we ponder all things love with this searing treatise- discussing not only the place of love in today's world but also its politics, gendered burdens, and the notion of love as an ethic for life.
DM for details
This place will never cease to surprise me. Outside my library today, free copies of Kafka’s writing to publicise an event. Come in, pick & leave. Someone rightly said, those who read don't steal, and those who steal don’t read. So much to gain from spreading the joy instead! ♥️
#BookTwitter
Now seeking recommendations for our August 2024 read for the
@WGBookClub2023
with the theme Home/Belonging :)
Seeking recommendations for books around the subject, particularly South Asian partition and migration/diaspora literature. Fic/Nonfic welcome :)
Elated to announce our book of the month for July 2024- Cobalt Blue by Sachin Kundalkar, translated by Jerry Pinto!
Come join us as we read this beautiful work on the 28th of July, 2024, 5-7 pm IST online on Zoom, hopefully in conversation with the authors! For more details, DM!
BOOK SHORTLIST- July 2024, Pride theme!🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️🌈⚧️♥️ A little late to the party, but celebrating July at the
@WGBookClub2023
by reading works featuring LGBTQIA+ stories & authors! Here is the list of our 11** shortlisted books! Voting by members currently underway, results tomorrow
The flowers are beginning to blossom, the sun shining a bit brighter, the air slightly crisper. Doesn’t matter how many times I see it, the turn of weather and newly blooming flowers will always enthral me. Love is always in the little things.
#oxford
So excited to see a trailer featuring such stunning women- who are NOT talking only about men! The movie surely passes the Bedchel test, and here's hoping it's a treat for viewers as well! Love to see it <3
When I was ten, I remember DEVOURING all of Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers books, pleading with my mom to send me to a boarding school just like Darrel Rivers. While I never went, pictures like these remind me of those faraway, beautiful dreams of a school nestled in the mountains❤️
Thinking of putting out information/discussion threads and/or conducting an online session on demystifying the PhD application process for global south students, especially to the UK. Any interest?
Side note: Follow
@ProjEduAccess
@EklavyaFoundat2
@BahujanEcon
for helpful leads!!
My article in the Times of India on the Supreme Court’s refusal to permit abortion, and the glib assertion that the Indian legal position on this is a liberal, pro-choice one. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Someone pinch me, it's real! Out live- in conversation with
@BShrayana
on all things books, romance and Shahrukh Khan. Here's to new beginnings!🥂🥂
More to follow soon!
Happiness is redeeming an Oxford University Press voucher because you participated in a library survey, which allows you to buy ANYTHING you want from their collection. PLUS they throw in a children’s classic as a gift. So much childish joy!! 🎁 Thankyou
@OUPAcademic
♥️♥️
📢📢📢EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT! 💷💷💷
Thanks to the generosity of IndOx
@india_oxford
, we are now offering bursaries towards covering travel within the UK and/or one-day accommodation to selected participants if needed!
📌Send in your abstracts by May 20th 2023!
@ODID_QEH
**Call for Abstracts** South Asia Day Workshop at
@ODID_QEH
♦️Theme: The Many Lives of Money: Exploring Familial, Social, Political Relationships in South Asia
📅Date: 06 June, 2023
🏠Department of International Development
📌Deadline: May 20, 2023
Details attached!
Words encapsulating the unsaid truths of academia. How does one reconcile the smallness of their project with the expectation that each project be field changing? & If each project is such, what coherence does the field entail anyway?
#phdlife
#AcademicTwitter
#AcademicChatter
Only in
#Oxford
can you see a pair of Penny Farthings unironically parked by the side of the road. This town is amusing to say the least.
Ps. Don’t miss the velvet hat!
#Oxford
#OxfordLove
#Oxforddiaries
Just sent out an email to everyone on the Women and Gender Book Club reading list for book selections for the month of August. Join as we read South Asian Partition Literature celebrating stories of women during Partition, written by women. Really looking forward to this one!
Now reading: Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider. Collection of writings. Blown away by ‘the transformation of silence’ speech.
“I was going to die, if not sooner then later. Whether or not I have ever spoken myself. My silences had not protected me. Your silence will not protect you.”
SELECTED!! Dear all, very happy to report that after a tremendous response to the shortlist of books for next month's reading club, popular vote has chosen bell hook's 'All About Love' as the book we will read together next month, July 9! (1/n)
Reading Sara Ahmed’s work and ‘Complaint’ and ‘Kill Joy Feminist resonated so deeply with the idea that women take up too much space to exist, & their legitimate voicing of disaffection with how they are treated is often seen as ’s to owning being a killjoy
Just started reading ‘The Day I became a Runner’ this morning, in an effort to pick up something to read rather than scroll my phone first thing in the morning. Blown away in the first 4 pages. The intensity of emotions expressed in the simplest words is astounding.
In the midst of so much overwhelming and crowding the senses, was still feeling lonely. Found company ironically in the solitary act of reading a second hand book, with scribbles on its margins- almost like a conversation with someone, sharing thoughts as read together. ❤️
On a day when JNU has come out yet again, as the highest ranked Indian university in global ratings, good day to remember what it has gone through in the last decade, and continues to, even today. I can only wish for a better education for those who don’t see its value.♥️
#JNU
There have been concerted attempts to portray JNU in a certain way. The film JNU: Jahangir National University is just another product of the same propaganda machinery, writes Iqbal Abhimanyu.
#JNU
#Propaganda
Got a picture of my gift from far away- another month, another new set of surprise books from
@ChampacaBooks
, this time on the theme of “Stage”. The distance from these books does not erode the pleasure of receiving them! ♥️
Season of the favourite colour is here. Will never tire of purple and how astonishing it is on flowers all around here! Much happiness in silly things 💜💜💜
Just finished watching 'Three of Us' starring Shefali Shah. What a stunning, beautifully evocative movie. Slow, nostalgic & an ode to the complexity of human emotions. Shah was great as usual but the star of the show was Ahlawat for me. Stunner. Watch it♥️
If this beautiful book cover doesn't make you want to pick up this book right away, I don't know what will. What a treasure this book is- so glad that it finally got a second print run!
@arpitayodapress
Thank you! We would absolutely love it if you joined us in our event today!
Little wins in life: am able to read 60% of this with accuracy given my baby steps learning Urdu. Disproportionately proud of myself, lol. (FWIW, it’s a tough language okay?)
On that happy note, Eid Mubarak! 🌙 ✨
Picked up something I’d been wanting to for years. Learning to read & write a new language- one I’ve admired for its calligraphic beauty for decades. Made me deliriously happy to join a
@UniofOxford
introductory course last year, & trying to continue with
@rekhtalearning
now :)
For someone struggling with immense time blindness in the midst of an unstructured PhD life, is my yearly ritual of buying TOO MANY planners a form of ‘cruel optimism’ (Berlant 2011)? 😂
{sorry about the sad inside joke!}
#phdchat
#PhD
#AcademicTwitter
#academia
SO THRILLED to announce that for the first time, the
@WGBookClub2023
will have a PANEL of authors joining us for our book discussion! Profs Shilpa Phadke, Sameera Khan, Nithila Kanagasabai will join us for a Q&A and informal chat to discuss the fabulous books
@whyloiter
&
#Yaari
!
Had such a brilliant session on “The Liberation of Sita” in conversation with the author, Volga ma’am. Such profound insights, warmth and wisdom from her. Felt like an Intergenerational transfer of love and light, inspiration for fighting the good fight. So grateful for it! ♥️
Currently reading Partition Literature, the horrors of carnage, communalism and bloodlust, one of the most striking aspects is how easily one can switch loyalties, how simply turn from friend to foe. And how most often, men’s battles are played out on the body of women.
#Pinjar
Finally getting around to posting all the lovely conversations we have had as part of
@WGBookClub2023
- From March 2024, Liberation of Sita by Volga- in conversation with the author, who made us feel so loved and encouraged, reminding us of the strong shoulders on which we stand!
📢📢SO happy to announce our new pick for the Women and Gender Book Club May read- "The Last Courtesan" by Manish Gaekwad
Our first memoir read- Open for all. DM for more!
Details:
📅Sunday, May 26, 2024
⏲️5 pm IST
🏘️Online on Zoom
Hoping to have
@manishgaekwad
join us as well❤️
BEYOND EXCITED that we may actually have
@BShrayana
join us for our little book club chat!!! Absolutely loved her interview with
@amitvarma
on the ‘loneliness of the Indian woman’ and I CAN.NOT.KEEP.CALM that we may get to chat with her and discuss all things Shahrukh!!❤️❤️❤️