Life rules

noreply@blogger.com (Gauri Gharpure) — Fri, 14 May 2021 16:55:00 +0000

My life has changed 360 degrees in more ways than one and I am still whirling with the newness of fate, diving and keeping afloat, sprinting and slacking turn by turn.

The other day, I noticed a bunch of blood red hibiscus flowers in my garden and I borrowed something like hope and love from them. These little grey birds that flock about in groups rejuvenated me with their comical stubborn to find grub from the lawn.

Little things have begun to matter a great deal. Love matters a lot more than before. Whether one digs into the portion of love allotted on the plate or not is another story. I want to dig in.

Ever since I can remember, I have wanted to fall in love. I wrote many poems about the exercise only to realize now that I somehow mixed up the labels. It was not the love of my liking, not a manifestation of my earliest desires. Strange, how desires can take on the garb of nostalgia.

Nostalgia. Memories mixed with pain. And yet, so futile how many times we throw ourselves up to willingly get engulfed in memories that cause pain. It takes time to convince oneself that memories can be sorted and sieved, decorated or discarded, kept or thrown away. Memories are not objects, I know, but they clutter in the same manner. Over a period, I have undertaken an exhausting task of decluttering. I feel lighter, happier.

It is all in the little things. Meeting eyes. Saying yes. A squeeze of the hand. A hug. Being kind. Little things lead to love. I may be there. I have decided I am not going to be afraid. I have decluttered and I will dig in.

I published a poetry book!

noreply@blogger.com (Gauri Gharpure) — Thu, 04 Mar 2021 12:45:00 +0000

Order the collection here: https://t.co/Vbk19KXGAY (INR 300 + Shipping)

#WritingCommunity #amwriting #writing #poetrycommunity #poetrylovers #newrelease

Flowers imagined

noreply@blogger.com (Gauri Gharpure) — Thu, 04 Mar 2021 12:36:00 +0000

Available on Etsy

Red lotus

noreply@blogger.com (Gauri Gharpure) — Thu, 04 Mar 2021 10:38:00 +0000

For sale on Etsy

Houses on a hill

noreply@blogger.com (Gauri Gharpure) — Thu, 04 Mar 2021 10:25:00 +0000

For sale on Etsy

Updates from Meow Handicrafts

noreply@blogger.com (Gauri Gharpure) — Thu, 14 May 2020 08:50:00 +0000

We have collaborated with a school for special education and here are some products made by the students:

Watch this space for more work.

Be Meow!

Goodbye Meow

noreply@blogger.com (Gauri Gharpure) — Mon, 02 Sep 2019 11:51:00 +0000

On August 5, after months of painful visits to the vet, Meow succumbed.

He was a weak baby from the go. He also used to be unusually scared of the slightest of sudden sounds and movements. His fear gave him an uncanny aggressiveness and a sense of territory and I would like to believe that I was his punching bag as well as his most prized possession. He was mine. I treasured him in a way I knew I could never own someone; selfishly, unconditionally, fearlessly.

Two days before he passed, I got a feeling that the end was near and I escaped the house riding on a vague excuse. I was exhausted and believed that I needed distraction to prepare myself for the inevitable vacuum that would suck me in soon enough.

The day Meow died, it rained with an ardour that even this town hadn't witnessed before. Moments before he left, he kept looking at me, his piercing gaze questioning me and accusing me and seeking assurance from me all at once. Meow had been my saviour in more ways than I can define or will to share and in his last moments, I wondered if he wondered if I was at all equipped to carry on without him.

This has been a month of mourning. Of distracting myself with fleeting people and emotions. For all the times he fell sick and threw tantrums at the vet's making treatment all the more difficult and I lay awake imagining my loneliness without him around, I must say I am doing good.

Goodbye, Meow. Till we meet again!

Letters not sent

noreply@blogger.com (Gauri Gharpure) — Sat, 09 Jun 2018 15:07:00 +0000

The other day, I came across a bunch of sealed envelopes. There were stamps too! I recognized my writing even though it has changed since, like an old friend who has adopted new fashion trends, and thought about the time when I curled the letters and crossed my Ts differently. What else has changed, other than my handwriting?

I am still in touch with all the friends to whom I promised cards but did not make it to the post box, so that's a good thing for starters. As I pushed those cards away, I realized that I have not written a letter to anyone from around the same period that I did not post those letters. I used to love writing letters and I genuinely wonder what made me stop.

Revival and Measured Thoughts

noreply@blogger.com (Gauri Gharpure) — Fri, 08 Jun 2018 17:14:00 +0000

The urge to write is nothing but the need to reach out. Authors who have books published to their name might have it easy, with readers actively reaching out to them, but for someone like me who writes mainly to create fellowship with thoughts, alleviate personal preoccupations, and find coherence as I type out each word, writing then becomes an exercise to understand oneself without the intervention of any gate-keeping mechanism. I am confident that my writing will soon pick pace and that this will again become a vibrant community that brought immense joy and creative expression to me. As I shared on another blog, the theme of the first two, or three, posts will be 'Measured Thoughts.' I have been away for a long time, a lot has happened, and yet, I do not wish to tell it all :) Let's see how this goes.

Sanitary pads on big screen

noreply@blogger.com (Gauri Gharpure) — Thu, 08 Feb 2018 07:14:00 +0000

Arunachalam Muruganantham revolutionised the production of affordable sanitary pads. The film Pad Man will depict his journeyArunachalam Muruganantham is a simple man. He doesn’t come from a privileged background. After his father died in a road accident, his mother toiled in the fields as a daily wager to feed her four children. Arunachalam took up jobs as a farm labourer, a welder, a yam dealer to chip in to the family’s income. When he got married to Shanthi, he was possessed with a deep sense of love and protectiveness. One day, the new husband saw his wife doing something rather suspicious. She was scouting for dirty rags on the sly. After much prodding, his shy young wife revealed that she used those pieces of cloth during her menstrual cycles. A shocked Arunachalam asked her why she did not use the sanitary pads available in the market. Pat came the reply. If she paid money for those, there wouldn’t be money to buy milk and vegetables.This conversation set the young man on a mission to impress his wife and find a way of making affordable sanitary pads for women in rural India. The journey was long and arduous. Arunachalam was stubborn and persisted even after his wife, mother, friends and family left him and he was told to leave the village.

His perseverance bore fruit and today, the pad-making machine he made sells for around Rs. 75,000 and is used in 23 states across India. His invention hasn’t just opened a market of sanitary pads and given employment to women, it has also been monumental in spreading menstrual hygiene in rural areas. Arunachalam has given talks at IIT Delhi, IIT Mumbai, IIM Ahmedabad and at Harvard University. His family reconciled with him, the village accepted him back. Now, a biographical film starring leading actors from the industry, is set to hit screens on Feb 9.

Akshay Kumar is playing the lead role – as Arunachalam – in the film Pad man set for release on February 9. The internet is viral with photos of celebrities and common people posing with a sanitary pad. The campaign reinforces the central idea of the film that the taboo revolving around menstruation needs to be wiped off from our society. During the course of his research, Arunachalam discovered to his utter disgust the women in villages, or even in urban areas for want to money, use newspapers, dry leaves and even ash during their cycles. Those few who use cloth don’t often dry them in sunlight because of shame and so there is no proper disinfection. While these details don’t make for an exactly pleasurable reading, remember that these are real grassroots problems that still trouble unprivileged women month after month. A 2011 survey by A C Nielson found that only 12% of women in India use sanitary pads.

A major barrier in spreading hygiene awareness is the taboo associated with menstruation in our cultures. Menstrual exclusion is still prevalent and often enforced. Most communities tend to exclude women out of the family’s daily routine for the period of the cycle. Strict rules are adhered to which leave the women feeling left out and lonely. In Nepal, menstruating women are expected to leave their house and stay by themselves in “menstrual sheds” outside the village. They are susceptible to unfavourable weather conditions, attacks by wild animals and vulnerable to assaults by men in such a situation. Age-old customs, enshrined in religious institutions bolster the taboo and exclusion of women.

In 2015, the issue of menstrual exclusion made national when a priest of Sabarimala temple in Kerala, reportedly talked to the media about a machine to scan if it is the ‘right time’ for a woman to enter the temple. The temple worships a celibate deity and doesn’t allow entry to women in the reproductive age. The open letter by a young woman called Nikita Azad and her Facebook campaign “Happy to Bleed” became viral. The Sabrimala controversy brought the talks of menstrual exclusion on a national platform. Women (mostly Hindu) are forced to follow strict rules for three days that often end up making them feel like outcasts in many families in rural and urban India. The life and struggles of Arunachalam and the recognition of his efforts in India and across the globe has helped change things. In 2016, Arunachalam received the Padma Shri to applaud his work in the field of menstrual hygiene and innovative product design that has made affordable sanitary pad manufacturing and sales possible.

Now, the film directed by the talented R Balki (whose past successes include Cheeni Kum and Paa) takes forward a crucial theme of Akshay Kumar’s body of work. Kumar’s last film was also on a topic pushed under the carpet – need of toilets. The government has made it a priority in its Swaccha Bharat mission, and many cynics wrote off ‘Toilet – Ek Prem Katha’ as an outright propaganda. It takes guts, however, to invest money and energy in a project that is guaranteed to be ridiculed and laughed off at the onset. I can’t think of other actors who could put themselves on the line like Akshay Kumar did by being a part of the film. The appeal of Bollywood still reigns supreme and this mode of story-telling gets a far bigger – and engrossed – audience than other media at least in our country. A film like Pad man, with lead characters that also include the talented Radhika Apte and Sonal Kapoor, may be more successful in facilitating introspection and change than public service advertisements.

First appeared in The Goan Everyday

Sources:

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/meet-arunachalam-muruganantham-the-man-who-wore-a-sanitary-pad-to-break-a-taboo/padman-is-here/slideshow/58340285.cms

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26260978https://in.news.yahoo.com/women-happytobleed-then-problem-150500490.html

http://menstrupedia.com/blog/speak-against-menstrual-exclusion/

http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/10/17/449176709/horrible-things-happen-to-nepali-girls-when-they-menstruate-15girls

Decency trumps birth control, safe sex

noreply@blogger.com (Gauri Gharpure) — Tue, 06 Feb 2018 07:57:00 +0000

Given India's population surge, greater awareness is more urgently needed than debating questions of decency

The government, in an advisory issued by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry on Monday, strictly asked TV channels not to air advertisements selling and promoting condoms during prime time. The advisory invoked Rule 7 (7) and Rule 7 (8) of the Cable Television Networks Rules, 1994, banning an “advertisement which endangers the safety of children or create in them any interest in unhealthy practices or shows them begging or in an undignified or indecent manner.” It further states: “.. All TV channels are hereby advised not to telecast the advertisements of condoms which are for a particular age group and could be indecent/inappropriate for viewing by children. Indecent, vulgar, suggestive, repulsive or offensive themes or treatment shall be avoided in all advertisements."

The development reportedly follows a request made by the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) earlier this month to the I&B ministry to take a call on such ads and their telecast timing. Consequently, the ministry swiftly responded: “It has been brought to the notice of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting that some channels carry advertisements of condoms repeatedly which are alleged to be indecent especially for children. Such advertisements may be telecast between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. to avoid exposure of such material to children."

Population control and safe sex are an undeniable goal of the country teeming with hyperactive youth. A recent Times of India article quotes research published in The Lancet, a respected scientific journal, that claims that 1.6 crore abortions take place in India annually, with 81% carried out at homes, mostly with the help of off-the-counter pills. Take another example: In September, a new condom advertisement, released just before the Hindu festival Navratri, drew protests from a Surat-based group. The ad, featuring Sunny Leone, was displayed on hoardings and carried a message in Gujarati “play but with love” that obviously hinted at the nine-nights long dancing festival. Of course, cultural pride was at loggerheads with the messaging and a city-based group Hindu Yuva Vahini staged a protest; the particular ad was soon pulled back. So what next is on the cards - surrogate advertising for condoms?

Coming back to the advisory, if the issue was to "safeguard" children from indecent exposure, there is an ocean of information out there, other than television, which can evade all types of censorship unless a blanket ban and trip back to the pre-Internet era is on mind. These are the perils of having being technologically advanced and culturally adapted. Why just target condom commercials? Because they deal with the very pertinent aspect of pleasure and reproduction - and because discussing the same is still not considered kosher? Well, here's some news - advertisements of many other products are sensual in nature and put women as the object of desire even though what they are attempting to sell is a far take from something pretty useful as condoms - chocolates, mango juices, ice creams, deodorants, perfumes, underwear, soft drinks, even inverters and cement(!).

Given the examples above, the government's move, in targeting condom ads alone, is questionable. On the other hand, if it were to perform a sweeping censorship of whatever is deemed "indecent" based on its mysterious, subjective standards - and factor in the brutal crimes reported 24/7 from all parts of the country - we might have a drastically limited list of things to see on television. It is a rather ambiguous process of determining what is "decent."

India's population surge, spike in sexual assaults and child abuse cannot be denied. Greater awareness is more urgently required than debating questions of decency. Of course, a prime-time ban is not a solution. But, let's move away from the ban a bit and focus on the ads by themselves. Here's the thing, if we leave aside the moral-policing laced decision, and consider the type of advertisements that exist on Indian television - it is undeniable that most commercials in general - and condom advertising in particular - has focussed just on erotica and sensuality. The same issues and flip sides that are raised now to reject the ban, unfortunately, they aren't sufficiently raised by the commercials either.

When it comes to condom ads, there are hardly any glimpses of responsible messaging that promote the responsibility, safety and birth-control aspects. The need for being more open, by portraying women as choice-makers is also lacking. While contraceptive ads do picture coy women intent on respectful family planning, condoms have culturally and commercially been assigned a strictly male domain. This, when the product is by far the only popular scientific way to safeguard both partners from sexually transmitted diseases. Women are vulnerable from a health stand-point if they were only to rely on contraceptives. But, how many women do actually go and purchase a pack on their own. That would be too "indecent" even if it were at the cost of their well-being.

The idea of "decency" is in play with the notion that it is alright, even macho, if men get into a pharmacy to buy a pack of condoms. But, more often than not there are scandalised judgements if a woman does so. A YouTube video captured the comments and discussions that followed a woman's attempt to buy condoms. The sexist comments, which bring up the question of decency time and again in the conversation, completely overlook that fact that sex involves two people and both have equal rights to ensure their safety.

- First published in The Goan Everyday

References

Advisory PDF - http://mib.gov.in/sites/default/files/Advisory%2011.12.2017.pdf

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/govt-bans-condom-ads-from-6-am-to-10-pm-because-they-are-indecent/article21461765.ece

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/12/world/asia/india-condom-ad-ban.html

http://www.news18.com/news/buzz/dear-govt-heres-a-list-of-not-condom-ads-that-were-quite-inappropriate-for-children-1601497.html

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-42320856

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/guwahati/Condom-vending-machines-on-NH-37/articleshow/7688747.cms

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(16)30047-X/fulltext

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/1-6-crore-abortions-a-year-in-india-81-at-home-study/articleshow/62030066.cms

Dignity for senior citizens

noreply@blogger.com (Gauri Gharpure) — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 09:59:00 +0000

Even with the help of 248 NGOs engaged in 314 projects, only 18225 elderly people benefitted from welfare schemes

A news item had a stressful, unsettling effect on me last week. Of all the news pouring in, this news hit me the most, because of the sheer emotional corrosiveness that it depicted. A 36-year-old man pushed his 64-year-old ailing mother from the terrace of his building in Rajkot, Gujarat, in cold blood because, apparently, “he was fed up of her illness.” A video clipping, that was graphic in its own way, shows how Sandip Nathwani calmly walks his wobbling mother out of the house, nudges her up the stairs. Moments later, is seeing returning alone; he nonchalantly removes his slippers outside the flat and enters in with stomach-churning aloofness. It was as if he had just thrown a garbage bag out and came dusting dirt off his hands.

This episode made me dig deeper into the kind of welfare services that the state can provide for people with children they hoped they never had. Unfortunately, because of the social stigma, family prestige and the general social fabric of our country, many elderly continue to stay in abusive, life-threatening conditions instead of walking out and seeing help. This attitude may have started a vicious cycle of shedding responsibility because the state-supported welfare units are few and far between. The number of beneficiaries is abysmal.

According to Population Census 2011 there are nearly 104 million elderly persons (aged 60 years or above) in India; 53 million females and 51 million males. A report titled Elderly in India – Profile and Programmes 2016 released by The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation throws light on the demographics of the senior citizen population the country. It also talks about various government schemes available for them, however, the statistics provided regarding the number of beneficiaries highlights serious concerns about the efficacy and outreach of the programmes. Indeed, one particular observation made in the introductory section of the report is objectionable in its insinuating tone that, in so many cleverly masked words, reduces senior citizens as being an economic and social liability. The said paragraph from the report is reproduced below:

“Social security spending of Government also increases with the increase of old age population. Due to increased longevity of life, pension bills increase. On the other hand, lesser people of working age means lower number of working people leading to lower tax base and lower tax collection. Economy grows slowly as less money is available for spending on things that help economy grow. A sizeable portion of money is spent on meeting requirement of old age population. Government, thus, has to face the double whammy. On one side the resources are shrunk, on the other, expenditure is increased.”

The above paragraph reads like a list of expenses that are a burden to the government. It is as if the state is rather doing the citizens a favour by even trying to do something for its elderly population in the first place. I was shocked by the tone of the above paragraph. If nothing else, it clearly shows a lack of commitment to bring dignity and comfort to the lives of our elderly. Statistics provided in reference to the various welfare schemes reaffirm the alarming state of affairs.

The National Policy on Older Persons (NPOP) was announced in January 1999 to reaffirm the commitment of the State to ensure the well-being of the older persons. The Policy envisages state support to ensure financial and food security, health care, shelter and other needs of older persons, equitable share in development, protection against abuse and exploitation, and availability of services to improve the quality of their lives. On paper, the list of projects carried out under NPOP is exhaustive: maintenance of old age homes; respite care homes; running of multi service centres, mobile medicare unit, day care centres for the elderly with dementia, centres for old widows, physiotherapy clinics, help lines and counselling, forming senior citizen associations, volunteer bureau for elderly – the list goes on. The question is, how many of these nice-sounding services are actually made available and how many elderly benefit from them. The figures are disappointing.

The number of NGOs assisted in 2012-13 was 296; number of projects assisted was 496 and there were 30775 beneficiaries. In 2013-14, the number of NGOs assisted dropped down to 255, number of projects fell to 413 and the number of beneficiaries reduced to 27913. In 2014-15 even though the number of NGOs engaged (248) remained more or less the same as the previous years and 314 projects were assigned for the welfare of senior citizens, the number of beneficiaries showed an alarming drop – the services reached only 18225 elderly people in the entire country.

Only 18225 elderly people – out a demographic of 10.4 crore elderly persons (assuming the population is same as in the population census of 2011) - translates into the welfare schemes reaching only 0.02% senior citizens. How shameful is this? Talks of Indian culture, where the elderly are supposed to be treated with respect and tender care all vanish in thin air. What a shame that officially, on paper, the government has admitted that it reached out to only 0.02% of the senior citizen population? Agreed, that not every old individual may be in need of state aid, but even after factoring that in, the reports clearly indicate that there is a huge vacuum in providing services for the elderly.

This column first appeared in The Goan Everyday in January 2018

Jihad against love, actually

noreply@blogger.com (Gauri Gharpure) — Sun, 28 Jan 2018 15:03:00 +0000

It is not just inter-faith marriages that are riddled with scrutiny from outsiders. Inter-caste marriages still meet with staunch opposition

On Saturday, members of a Hindu fringe group called Hindu Yuva Vahini beat up a Muslim youth and his two brothers, allegedly in the premises of the Baghpat court in Uttar Pradesh. Video footage shows the men dragging Kaleem outside the court, roughing him up even as police stand by in mute mode, and later rejoicing after packing off the Kaleem and his alleged girlfriend into a police jeep. The woman, who hails from Punjab, is reportedly a Hindu and had eloped with Kaleem, following which, her parents had filed a case of abduction. Hindu Yuva Vahini members have indulged in cases of moral policing in the past. They also take pride in their active roles against "love jihad" and saving the pride of Hindu girls who they say are "lured" into relationships for religious conversion.

Filing an abduction case is often a classic strategy even if the woman is a major and it is evident that she has left of free will. A case of abduction is promptly registered. Once the couple is caught, the police often happily takes up the role of marriage counsellors - the man is probably roughed up and the woman shamed in the name of family's prestige. Such a scenario is commonplace all over India. The case of Hadiya, a young Hindu woman from Kerala who converted to Islam, made headlines for a better part of December last year. The idea of a 24-year-old being returned to her father's "custody" by a high court raised questions about patriarchal leaning even in the judiciary.

There are legal provisions for inter-faith marriage where in there is no religious conversion for either spouse. In spite of legal provisions, there are instances when either spouse converts to accept the other's religion before marriage. Whether this is under social pressure, like many argue it is, or by free choice, religious conversion shouldn't throw doubts on the intentions of either the bride and the groom, because the conversion also points to a conscious choice to remain together and that the couple puts personal preferences over religious obligations. Far-right groups cannot tolerate such choices. As soon as they get a whiff of an inter-faith affair, they take it upon themselves to separate the couple.

According to a recent Times of India report, these fringe groups have a widespread network of informers and "depend on a large and intricate mesh of informers, from bus drivers to waiters, advocates, farmers and sometimes even labourers to alert them on inter-faith affairs." There is rampant hooliganism which makes for good visuals that are promptly picked up and repeatedly telecast by news channels.do these fringe groups engage in such activities just for the sake of footage and free publicity? As they say, any publicity is good publicity. But, at what expense? Which religion says that separating two people who have made up their mind to be together is an honourable act?

It is not just inter-faith marriages that are riddled with scrutiny from outsiders. Inter-caste marriages still meet with staunch opposition. Cases of honour killings abound. The 2016 Marathi film, Sairat, dealt with the issue and was a resounding hit. With the rise of love vigilantism more and more tales of love end up being ruthlessly silenced. An optimist would like to believe that there would never be anything that would go against the honourable principles of love. But, such a utopian world doesn't exist. Even in the most civilised of kingdoms, discrimination and persecution has existed when it came to accepting the exercise of free will of two human beings in being drawn to each other and consequently, deciding to stay together (The iron-walled institution of marriage, and the concept of 'forever and after' as they dreamily say, is a relatively recent innovation in the human species).

History shows that the act of two individuals falling in love has always been the subject of opposition, criticism, wicked plots of subversion, revenge or murder. In fact, folklore and legend the world over thrives on such tragedies. Take the legend of Heer Ranjha popular in Punjab. Heer fell in love with Ranjha, and predictably, her family opposed. The couple continued to meet in secret. A river separated their villages. On the night they were to elope, Ranjha waited for Heer at the other end of a river. Heer didn't know how to swim and was to get across the river by floating with the support of an up-turned earthen pot. Heer's sister-in-law got to know about their plan and changed Heer's earthen pot with an unbaked one. That night, when Heer tried to cross the river, the unbaked pot began to give away. Clumps of mud dissolved in the river and Heer drowned. Ranjha waited at the other end, not aware of Heer's fate, and is believed to have died waiting.

Is human race sadistic when it comes to love? When there is an opportunity to let love blossom, we turn away, resist and even obstruct the union. But, years later, we epitomise these same lovers made miserable by the same prejudiced mindsets that existed then, as they exist now. Stories of unrequited love abound. Nobel Laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez has famously noted that it is not happiness, but unrequited love, that is the basis of all literature of the world. Honestly, I would just prefer happy couples than having grumpy writers plagued by unrequited love churning one soul-stirring tragedy after other.

*This column was first published in The Goan Everyday

Meow Handicrafts updates

noreply@blogger.com (Gauri Gharpure) — Sun, 18 Jun 2017 14:00:00 +0000

The Meow Handicrafts has collaborated with Mineral Foundation of Goa and Keshav Seva Sadhana's School for Special Children to come up with unique products that, in the process of being made, provide occupational therapy to 10 students. We also engage five women of a self-help group. Our small team of 15 will make tailor made products for your company, or for individual use.

As of now, we are ready to take bulk orders for

1) Christmas cards

2) Diwali cards

3) Invitation cards of all types (social functions, corporate events)

4) Wedding invitations

5) Customised visiting cards

6) Bookmarks

For queries, email meowhandicrafts@gmail.com

Here are some photos of work-in-progress

And yes, the search for publishers continues. But let's not mix businesses up :-) Be Meow!

So it goes

noreply@blogger.com (Gauri Gharpure) — Tue, 02 May 2017 08:49:00 +0000

Just when you think all is perfect, comes the next big thunder and the screech of a massive blinding lightening. So it goes.

You, my blogger friends, have been with me since 2006 and so it is apt I share that I have been working on a book for what seems like forever now and this jolt seems the necessary finishing touch.

Am looking for publishers, in India and abroad. Consider this a note to whomsoever concerned who believe in good writing and who also equally believe in paying good for good writing.

On the Meow Handicrafts front, after much thought, I have collaborated with Keshava Seva Sadhana's School for Special Children and Mineral Foundation of Goa to build a sustainable and profitable business module that employs marginalised sections -- we have started small with ten special children and five women.

Rest all best, do drop in a hello when you can. Much love, always. Be Meow!

Aavkaro meetho aapje By Dula Bhaya Kag - Translation

noreply@blogger.com (Gauri Gharpure) — Fri, 15 Jul 2016 05:47:00 +0000

This is one of my favourite songs by Dula Bhaya Kag. Our teacher used to set tunes to the poems we studied and we would all sing together. Such memories. I mentioned this song in a recent column and I regret that I wrongly attributed it to Jhaverchand Meghani, another great Gujarati poet.

હે જી તારા આંગણિયા પુછીને જે કોઈ આવે રે, આવકારો મીઠો…આપજે રે જી…

હે જી તારે કાને સંકટ કોઈ સંભળાવે રે, બને તો થોડું… કાપજે રે જી………

માનવીની પાસે કોઈ….માનવી ન આવે…રે……(૨)

તારા દિવસની પાસે દુ:ખિયાં આવે રે -આવકારો મીઠો…. આપજે રે….જી…. ૧.

કેમ તમે આવ્યા છો ?…એમ નવ કે’જે…રે……(૨)

એને ધીરે એ ધીરે તું બોલવા દેજે રે -આવકારો મીઠો… આપજે રે….જી…. ૨.

વાતું એની સાંભળીને…આડું નવ જોજે….રે……(૨)

એને માથૂં એ હલાવી હોંકારો દેજે રે -આવકારો મીઠો… આપજે રે….જી…. ૩.

‘કાગ’ એને પાણી પાજે…સાથે બેસી ખાજે..રે….(૨)
એને ઝાંપા એ સુધી તું મેલવા જાજે રે -આવકારો મીઠો…
આપજે રે….જી…. ૪.

If someone comes calling at your door, give them a warm welcome,

If someone shares grief with you, if possible try to cut it the way you can.

How sad it is that these days men don't seek help from men!

If in your good times people come to share their sorrows, give them a warm welcome.

Don't ask, "Why have you come to me?"

Let them speak at ease.

Don't look the other way after listening to them,

Nod your head and show them support, give them a warm welcome.

"Kag" offer them water to drink,

And sit them and share your food,

See them off by walking till the gate,

Give them a warm welcome.

Translation (C) Gauri Gharpure

Dula Bhaya Kag: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dula_Bhaya_Kag

Jhaverchand Meghani: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jhaverchand_Meghani

Song courtesy: short stories.co.in

Halim recipe

noreply@blogger.com (Gauri Gharpure) — Sat, 02 Jul 2016 05:07:00 +0000

Am back to the blog after long and it is somehow always food that works as a comeback post most of the times. Here is a halim recipe I tried this week. I referred to many online recipes, including Sanjeev Kapoor's chicken halim recipe, but changed a lot along the way to get the taste I like.

I prefer halim to be slightly bland, with flavours of the lentil and meat as the stars, and pulling up the dish with garnish. It is garnish of fresh coriander, green chilli, onion, lemon and ghee that brings that simple flavours to another level.

Here goes:

3/4 cup each - Broken wheat (dalia), mung dal and chana dal

1/2 cup - Arhar dal

1.5 inch ginger - Crushed and use the juice

8-9 green cardamom - Crush and just use the seeds ground with little water

Garlic - 2-3 pods, finely chopped

Red chilli powder - 2 spoons (adjust according to taste)

Jeera powder - 1 spoon

Haldi / turmeric - 1/2 spoon

Hing / Asafoetida - 1/2 spoon

Lemon - 2

Salt to taste

Mutton on bone - 300 gm

1) Marinate mutton overnight with red chilli, jeera, turmeric, hing, juice of half a lemon.

2) Wash broken wheat and the lentils well in two-three changes of water and soak overnight.

3) In a heavy bottomed vessel (I used a cooker), put marinated mutton and the lentils with two cups of water and start cooking on slow flame. Add cardamom extract. Cook for about two hours.

4) Once meat starts falling off the bone, remove the pieces out and de-bone. Grind in a mixer and add to the lentil mix. Add salt. Adjust spices if required. Add garlic. Cook for another half an hour. The mix should be creamy and smooth.

5) Garnish with coriander, finely chopped green chillies, and fresh onion. Add a dollop of ghee.

Most recipes use chat masala/Garam masala as well but I like the taste as is. Experiment along the way as per your taste.

Halim is a popular dish, especially in Hyderabad, cooked during the holy month of Ramzan.

Friday Column

noreply@blogger.com (Gauri Gharpure) — Tue, 23 Feb 2016 09:02:00 +0000

Hello!

Hope you have been good and dropping in once in a while to check for updates. Since June 2015, I started writing a weekly column for The Goan Everyday. Sharing links of some published pieces.

Back to square one

The goodness of a breakup

One love and nothing else

How old is still young?

Farewell to a soldier

Keep in touch!

Dal Dhokli / Gavar Dhokli - Gujarati food

noreply@blogger.com (Gauri Gharpure) — Sun, 29 Mar 2015 04:16:00 +0000

This is a simple one-pot Gujarati dish with the elements of chapatti, dal and veggies all in one.

Ingredients:

2 small cups of whole wheat flour / atta

1 cup tuvar / arhat dal

100 gm Gavar beans

1 tomato (Optional)

3 tablespoons of oil

Pinch each of - Mustard, Cumin, Asafoetida, Turmeric for tadka

Salt, cumin powder, coriander powder, red chilli powder

1 medium-sized ball of tamarind soaked in a cup of water

1-2 tablespoons of jaggery

Method:

1) Wash dal properly in two-three changes of water, let it soak for 5-10 minutes

2) Chop the tomato and cook it along with the dal in the pressure cooker

3) Make tight wheat flour dough using very little water, a tablespoon of oil, salt, chilli powder and turmeric and asafoetida. Cover and let it rest while the dal cooks.

4) Chop Gavar in 1-inch pieces.

5) Heat oil well. Add mustard, let it splutter. Then add cumin. Add asafoetida, turmeric in that order and add chopped Gavar. Let it sauté for 3-4 minutes.

6) Add 4 cups of water, cover the lid and bring the water to boil.

7) Roll the dough into a slightly thick, big round chappati and cut it into pieces diagonally to make dhokli.

8) Carefully add these pieces in the boiling water. Lower flame and let it cook for 5-6 more minutes.

9) The Dhokli will change colour and come to top of water when cooked.

10) Next, add cooked dal, jaggery and tamarind paste. Add more water to adjust consistency of dal if required.

11) Add salt, chilli powder, cumin and coriander powder to taste.

12) Simmer for another five minutes and switch of the gas.

13) Garnish with chopped coriander, add a spoonful of ghee while eating.

Happy New Year, btw

noreply@blogger.com (Gauri Gharpure) — Tue, 20 Jan 2015 03:44:00 +0000

I forgot the last time I updated the blog it was already the new year. Happy happy for 2015! May you have much hope, faith and a sound sleep :-)

- Gauri

Meow Handicrafts Updates

noreply@blogger.com (Gauri Gharpure) — Wed, 14 Jan 2015 13:56:00 +0000

Here are some latest products made by us:

Happily Unmarried - 'Beware of the Wife' Doormat exemplifies sexist psyche

noreply@blogger.com (Gauri Gharpure) — Thu, 23 Oct 2014 13:30:00 +0000

Just saw these "talking doormats" by a brand called Happily Unmarried advertised on my Facebook newsfeed. Disgusted.

What is the joke here? That you can belittle your better half right on the doorstep by announcing to the world that she speaks her mind? Or that the product will serve as a tongue- in-cheek reminder to the woman of the house that no matter how many times she raises a point, she will remain just that, a doormat? Or rather as a passive-aggressive challenge for the wifey to suck up the sexist humour and prove she is a sport?

Someone got humour really wrong at the Happily Unmarried design team. And I hope someone pays for this.

Whether they are married or not (we don't care about their happiness in either case) whether they are men or women - the Happyily Unmarried team needs a lesson or two on what qualifies as design and on what differentiates humour from gender stereotyping.

Michhami Dukkadam

noreply@blogger.com (Gauri Gharpure) — Fri, 02 May 2014 17:27:00 +0000

Micchami Dukkadam means asking for forgiveness for hurting in the past, knowingly or unknowingly. It is also an unconditional owning up to the human nature to err, and asking for forgiveness if one may inadvertently end up hurting in the future.

This idea of Jainism appeals a lot, it is one of the most noble, sweet little ideals that a religion could inculcate in its followers.

Just like flowers hold no grudge against the child that uproots plants in an impulsive fit, may God also give me the strength to forgive those who have wronged me. It is a very tough call. Anger, hate and envy are more persistent than calm, love and appreciation. Everyday, each disappointment brings with it the potential to push up to either set of emotions. I want the strength and blessings to accept the latter set, the positive.

For all my anger and my bluntness, for the times I act selfish...

Khamemi Savve Jiva

Savve Jiva Khamantu me

Mitti me Savva Bhooesu

Veram Majjham Na Kenvi

Michchhami Dukkadam

I forgive all living beings.

May all souls forgive me,

I am on friendly terms with all;

I have no animosity toward any soul.

May all my faults be dissolved.

Meow Handicrafts - Updates

noreply@blogger.com (Gauri Gharpure) — Fri, 02 May 2014 17:23:00 +0000

We took up a stall at Goa's happening Saturday Night Market in December. The experience was amazing, encouraging, learning, at times a little too exhausting, but on the whole quite worth it.

For those who have come late to the party, Meow Handicrafts is my venture to sell paper and bead jewellery and a lot of other interesting stuff that I make. It's named after my cat, Meow. We are working to update our collection on Etsy. A whole new range should be up soon, watch this space for news.

Here are some photos of work in progress :

Modern Meditation / Meow Handicrafts (C) Gauri Gharpure

Meow on my mind

A dog's life

noreply@blogger.com (Gauri Gharpure) — Wed, 23 Apr 2014 15:50:00 +0000

Last night, Lali, our dog of twelve years, died.

She was playing till the last. Indiraben had just let her go out of the house for her night stroll, and about half an hour later, when she went to fetch Lali back, Indiraben found her lying motionless in the middle of the road outside our house.

First we thought a speeding vehicle had knocked her down. We checked her body, but she had no signs of injury whatever. She was still warm, and we thought she moved her ears and eyes. But she was definitely dead; Indiraben and I were only resorting to last-ditch death-defying hope. As I lifted Lali up to remove her to a safer place, her tongue spilled out. It was bluish-grey, pretty much off colour. We concluded a snake bite. A small consolation is that Lali died near us and that we had time to mourn her, to arrange a proper burial.

Sheeba, her sibling was all confused this morning as they took Lali away. We thought Sheebu would go first, what with her numerous health problems. When Sheebu was recuperating from a surgery some months back, Lali surprised us by pushing in bits of bread for Sheebu through the iron gate every evening. It was as if she also wanted her share of nursing Sheebu back to health.

Lali's death was sudden as sudden death is.

In spite of having to digest that dreadful news many times, every time someone dies, the swiftness and the aloofness of the process never fails to amaze me. It makes me feel infinitesimally smaller and helpless. Some people might be put off by likening human death with animal death - I agree both have huge differences - but there are also similarities. When you hold in your hands a dead bird, or a squirrel, a puppy or a dog, the helplessness and strange spiritual anger and disbelief is similar to the devastation and rage on losing a human.

Lali enriched our life with her constant, unconditional presence quite like a good friend or a loving relative. It was definitely not a dog's life.

Lali (L) and Sheeba in December 2009