Monday 25 February 2013

THE PETTICOAT JOURNAL

READ MY ARTICLE ON SAFETY OF WOMEN FOR THE
             PETTICOAT JOURNAL HERE





ABOUT THE PETTICOAT JOURNAL-

We beg not to be confused for a soft, polite and submissive platform just like you want your women to be. We are not even suggesting rouges and mascaras for women. We are here with the after-story. The story after the woman is decked up and all set for life. Does the world stand by her? Does she have the courage to go it alone? Does she get derided on the way?

You say, "Huh! What world are you talking about? You may be living in a time warp. We've come far from those days when all these questions were relevant." Well, we would love to believe you. But even as we were gathering the mindset to believe you, we came across official reports about professional, educated women being subjected to atrocities, verbal and physical, by men in their families. Men would not necessarily be husbands. They happen to be fathers-in-law, brothers-in-law, brothers, fathers. As we turned the pages of the reports, we realised that after all the grassroots work by various well-meaning organisations, women in villages consider rape and violence a part of life which they have to tolerate no matter how painful.

A lot has changed over the years. Thanks to activists and social workers and the handful of men and women who believed in change. But there are a majority who consider such change disastrous...to their hegemony, to their egos and to their personalities. It's here that the change is stuck. It's this filter that suspends change.

It's no wonder then that we deep in our hearts we keep the lowest of low opinions about women and nurture lowest of low feelings about their characters. It's so fragile that we start doubting a woman's character without instigation. No? Consider this.

How does the world react to a decked up woman waiting for her family in the middle of a market place on their way to a family function? We know what's the very first thing that hits people's minds!
What does the world think about the woman walking late evening along a lonely footpath on her way back home from office? SUVs and sedans slow down to ask her what she'll charge for a night. A submissive woman may just be pulled into the car without even the courtesy asking her charges. Then, the next morning, we read about her raped, bleeding, abandoned body found in a jungle.

What does the world think of a woman who mixes with men in offices or gyms or other places where she is a regular like any other man out there? That she is a nymphomaniac...that she's interested in men.
What does the world think of a woman who is the female version of a Casanova? Err there's no female version of Casanova!! We only know of sluts!
The world is changing. but the thinking isn't. Women are moving out and striving to make a mark and break free. But men and some other women are going regressive. They want to pull the charging women back. The Petticoat Journal is for them as much as the women who have begun the fight to raise their status from a doormat to a human being.
We bring you the Doormat Revolution! Join us!

Wednesday 13 February 2013

UNBOX FEST'13


Isuri Dayaratne, a 27 year old illustrator from Colombo, Sri Lanka who joined several other artists, designers and master craftsmen  at the UNBOX FEST'13 shares his experience and illustrations at Writerspoint.

Explore Isuri’s art and quirky characters here.




UnBox Festival is an annual celebration of interdisciplinary thought & work through a series of seminars, performances, exhibitions and talks
Held over four days from February 7-10, UnBox Festival took place at Zorba, New Delhi this year. My first time at this annual event, it was truly an experience for me, where I had the opportunity to showcase my illustration work and collaborate with some amazing artists.

UnBox Festival, being a celebration of different platforms of art, gave the artists as well as the participants a chance to fully  discover and engage in the workshops, music performances and talks that took place over the four days. There were multiple stages, work rooms and open labs that were available to all of us, as well as all day bars and cafes that brought out a community atmosphere.



Throughout the festival I was invited to work at the Print Lab where I had the chance to collaborate with BLOT and Levi’s. Although it was my first time experiencing screen-printing techniques, I got the hang of things by the second day and was even helping out participants make custom t-shirts. All the artists who were working at the Print Lab had pre-made fabric screens of their own artworks and the workshops held over the four days gave participants and artists a chance to work together and experiment with a lot of designs.


Best part of the festival was that all of the events/workshops that were happening around Zorba gave everyone the opportunity to meet a lot of people who came from various backgrounds, be it from art and design to music.