Monday, February 06, 2017

Attending the Jaipur Lit Fest

Some self promotion, for those of you who are not on Twitter. I made it to the Jaipur Lit Fest for two days--I was supposed to go for four, but had some misadventures. I wrote about it for Women's Web.

I attended the mansplaining and manels session which had Suhel Seth (just to troll us, I suspect):
Suhel Seth was asked a question on the HeForShe campaign and said, “I have no opinion.” Everyone wishes he would say that to all questions. (“Do you want sugar in your tea?” “I have no opinion.”)
I interviewed Ruchira Gupta on her work towards ending human trafficking, her views on the feminist movement, and on building a feminist workplace:
We have tried to have over-representation of women in our organisation, so more women are employed than men. We have also tried to feminise the workplace itself; in most of the offices there’s a bed with nice colourful rugs and cushions, so that women can bring their children and children can play there. Our work hours have become more flexible based on the needs of the women working there.
And my most personal piece, about listening to women:
Almost everyone I met or talked to at any depth (barring volunteers, service workers, and so on) was a woman. Most of the people I heard from on stage were women (not that there were more women speakers — on the festival website, I counted around 130 women and over 200 men, including six men called David). But I was amazed at the number of feminist voices around me.
Women warn women about skeevy men. There are things you don’t say in a larger audience, but are murmured to each other when women meet. Men of power and privilege who are sexual predators. Women warn each other with stories: this happened to a friend.

Sunday, February 05, 2017

Books I read in late December and in January


I took a month long holiday in Jan and traveled to four states. (It was more sedentary than it sounds: I focused on people rather than places and didn't travel a lot within the states. But it was an amazing break.) Pictures, if you are interested, are on Instagram.

Anyway, reading. Since I was staying at friends' and family's homes, most of these books were borrowed. (Very grateful for my friends' well-stocked libraries.) I read a lot, so am categorizing the books into literary, romance, and children/YA.