[Sarai Newsletter]August 2002

[dak at sarai.net]

Contents:
I	Seed Grant Fellowship Presentations 
II	Films @ Sarai: Focus on the Documentary & 
			 Asian Film Cultures: Japanese Cinema
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I	Independent Research Fellowship Presentations
Independent researchers have continued to present their works at Sarai 
over the past two months. The June newsletter carried brief reports of 
some of their work. Below is a glimpse into a few more. 
1. 	GNU/Linux in India
	Reportage on the Free Software/Open Source Movement in India
	Frederick Noronha
Frederick Noronha is trying to explore the concept of Free Software 
and its implications, specifically in a South Asian or Third World 
context. He has started to document the contributions that are being 
made by Indians to GNU/Linux, including software innovations based on 
GNU/Linux. Noronha finds that contrary to the earlier pessimism the 
contribution is actually quite interesting...and growing. He has also 
been actively trying to forge communication links between Free 
Software or Open Source proponents, the ICT-for-development 
campaigners in South Asia and the development sector all of which, he 
says, "have strengths that could gain in a major way from one 
another."  
2.	Visthapiton Ka Shahar (The City of the Dislocated)
	A study of urban transformations related to the Metro in Delhi
	Naveen Chander
Naveen Chander has been exploring issues of public space, urbanisation 
and displacement with the process of modernisation in the 
dreamed"beautiful city" - as effected by the Delhi Metro Project. He 
has also enquired into the dynamics of labour behaviour. Through audio 
interviews and photographs of bottom level workers and of people 
displaced due to the project, he has  tried to draw different 
perceptions of the city and development. Naveen also travelled to 
Calcutta to be able to draw a comparative analysis with the Calcutta 
Metro project.
3.	Rickshaw wale ki jeevan yatra: shahar tak, shahar mein
	Study of the specific migrant experience of rickshaw pullers in Delhi
	Rajendra Ravi
Rajendra Ravi's study tries to document the everyday in the lives of 
rickshaw pullers in Delhi. He has looked into a number of issues 
relating to the nature of migrant labour; the process of initiation 
into the trade; restrictive policies with respect to ownership and 
their implications for the lives of rickshaw pullers; police violence; 
spatial issues including the absence of designated parking spaces and 
the need to see the relationship between owners and pullers of the 
rickshaw in complimentary terms rather than in an antagonistic one.   
4.	Neighbourhood Research Project
	Mapping the vicinity of the Jamia Millia Islamia Campus
	Students of the Jamia Sociology Department (Biswajit Das)
In an effort to map the neighbourhood of their institution, the Jamia 
Millia Islamia University, the students focussed on two areas: a study 
of organisations located in the area and a study of the locality 
itself. Four papers were presented. The organisations studied were 
Spectramind, a call centre that employs hundreds of young 
English-speaking people in Delhi and the Software Technology Park 
located in the Okhla Industrial Area. Studies of the area focussed on 
the emergence of cybercafes and the changing physical and cultural 
landscapes.
5.	Changing Face of Chiragh Delhi
	A study of the morphology of an urban village
	Ranjana Sengupta
Ranjana Sengupta has been enquiring into the the process of 
urbanisation in Chiragh Delhi, an urban village situated in the heart 
of Delhi which has now changed over from generations of agricultural 
activities to different professions. She has delved into 
the relationship of the village to the dargah, community relations 
within the village and how the residents of Chiragh Delhi (themselves 
quite heterogenous) interpret and resolve varying aspects of their 
history.
6.	Whose City is It Anyway?
	Reportage on Education, Law and Transport in select localities in 
Delhi
	Anjali Mody
Anjali Mody has concentrated her research in the Jamianagar area of 
Delhi - an area which houses a cross-section of people from different 
communities, classes, professions and also houses a large number of 
students. She looked into local print cultures and the relationship of 
the neighbourhood with the charismatic local MLA now in prison under 
POTA. Part of her presentation also discussed the status of urban 
reporting in newspapers. She plans to publish a series of articles 
based on her research in the near future.  
7.	Built Environment and Women
	Study of the gendered logic of housing structures, work and public 
spaces
	Vandana Khare
Women often encounter difficulties in dealing with urban spaces - both 
within the home and outside. Vandana Khare argues for the need of a 
gendered designing of city spaces. She is studying work spaces, public 
transport and housing facilities in Mumbai to enable viable solutions, 
especially for working class women,
8.	Slums in Delhi - Demolitions & Relocation
	Housing policy and land relations in Delhi
	Harini Narayanan
Harini Narayanan presented her findings from an ongoing research on 
slum policies and demolitions in Delhi. Two aspects were highlighted 
in her presentation.  First, the act of demolition is a process, as 
much as an 'event' so that to live with violence and housing 
uncertainty is the 'normal' way of life for most poor inhabitants of 
the city.   Second, she stressed on the general silence on the issues 
involved in slum housing, with the exception of the depiction of the 
'act' of demolition. She pointed out the marked differences in 
representation, depending on the kind of structures being demolished.  

II	Films @ Sarai
All screenings are on Fridays, 4:30 pm, at the Seminar Room, Centre 
for the Study of Developing Societies, 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi -110054. 
The films are listed in the order of screening.
Focus on the Documentary
	August 2, 2002
	Apoornathakal (The Incomplete), 2001, 23 mins
	Directed by Salil R. Aluvila
	Colour, VHS, English subtitles
What is friendship? And how do you deal with the loss of a loved one, 
especially when there are indications that the death may not have 
occurred under natural circumstances? Apoornathakal is the story of a 
young man trying to come to terms with the death of his childhood 
friend - a friend with whom he shared intense love. It is the memory 
of moments spent together, of shared conversations and hints of 
intrigue surrounding the death that continue to haunt the living. 
Apoornathakal is based on a true story. 
Asian Film Cultures: Japanese Cinema
We return to Asian Film Cultures Series this month with three films 
from Japan that engage with the post-war Japanese city, a city that is 
invariably connected with crime and a quest for criminals.
Critics have often remarked on Kurosawa's films as quests, and much of 
Stray Dog is taken up with the desperate attempts by Detective 
Murakami (Kurosawa stalwart Toshiro Mifune) to retrieve his gun, which 
is being used to commit murder. Murakami spends much of his time in 
literal frantic pursuit, chasing his quarry and accomplices through 
the ragged streets of heat-drenched, occupied Tokyo. 
Like many a noir hero, Murakami is a good man drawn into a criminal 
demimonde, here the squalid world of postwar profiteering, corruption 
and murder. And like these heroes he has an unsettling link to that 
world in the form of his gun, which makes it impossible for him to 
return to normal life. Kurosawa uses his quest to explore a series of 
seedy tableaux, from opium dens to western-style grindhouses, and the 
social casualties that populate them. The montage sequence, where 
Murakami takes to the streets to find the pickpocket, is remarkable 
for the neo-realist recording of life on the teeming city streets, 
whilst maintaining the pace of Murakami's desperate search. Kurosawa 
even provides a classic doppelganger for Murakami in the form of the 
thief: much is made of their similar backgrounds and very different, 
but inextricably joined, fates. 
Kurosawa returns to the police procedural thriller again in High and 
Low. Using big-city slums (low/hell) in direct contrast to the 
privileged world of a powerful businessman (high/heaven), High and Low 
is the very human story of a misfired kidnapping and its consequences 
on all concerned. Bit by bit the shattering impact the crime has on 
the victim, his family, the police, and the kidnapper are slowly 
revealed as the police doggedly pursue every scrap of evidence. 
Kurosawa presents his characters' ’struggles as not only a suspenseful 
and clever detective story, but also a moral battleground where "good" 
has to pay a heavy price to win out over "evil" if in fact it is 
possible at all. 
The film is at once a procedural crime story, a social commentary on 
the casualties of industrialization and the redemption of a man's 
soul. The low lying squatter hovels, addict-infested Dope Alley, and 
red light district basement bar provide an incongruous foil to the 
prosperity and seeming order of modern Japan. While not one of 
Kurosawa's master works, the film, with its grim reality and moral 
ambiguity stands as a superb example of film noir at its best. 
Tokyo Drifter has free for all neon jazz characters jiving to the 
boogie woogie backdrop of 1960's industrial Tokyo.  A yakuza film of 
the purist form, Seijun Suzuki presents us characters of extreme 
brightness and colors that match the environments around them. Suzuki 
uses a lot of incongruous jump cuts, like the beautiful shot of Yoyogi 
stadium that comes up, to create a kind of travelogue view of Tokyo 
that is used under the credits.