Baroda Again

"The place is really magnetic; so, you will be in Gujrat again". The sentence of which I was 'an another end' reverberates in my mind almost a year later in Baroda. The purpose this time is different: primarily, it is for research and cultural understanding. It is a time when many people are in festive mood. The festival, Tihar in Nepal, thus sounds and smells at my back and compelsme to suppress the desire without knowing when it bursts.

Ist Day
Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) always casts skepticism when I enter; the ghost of delay has been a part of my flight experience. So, I had the fear, and it happened. Flying in the sky almost 2 hours late, I frequented the crew to avoid being stranded in the airport in Delhi. And, they did their part to comfort me - assured my transport from International to National airport; and when they knew that there is no possibility to fly, they gave two options: first, fly up to Ahmemdabad and contact airlines office for further travel; and second, wait for the next flight and rest in a hotel. I chose the second.

Second Day
Set for the airport at 8 in hotel reception, the taxi arrived only at nine: you can imagine traffic in Delhi- it is really awesome, and the receptionist was soothing my anxiety. Fine that I did not miss the plane. It took off in time to land in Baroda at 1:00. Then taxi, and hotel, and the Centre; I joined a day late.

Report Submitted to the Centre

Prologue: Imagine a person who is retired and yet actively reading continuously for hours; a person who is a living encyclopedia and yet eagerly listening to young scholars. Statement I am attempting to make here is - If there are scholars in the pure sense of the word, one of them surely is Prof. Prafulla Kar. I am afraid at this point that words might not accomplish their assigned role; hence stop here

Just to restate a few things Prof. remarked that always sounds in my ear:
Teachers these days are more activists than academicians.
You can be a scholar; you can be a human being; but to be both a scholar and a human being is not easy.

The Report

Introduction
The following is the report submitted to the Centre for Contemporary Theory on the completion of Scholar-in-Residence scholarship. The report consists of the activities and accomplishments during the stay (October 31, 2010 to November 29, 2010) in the Centre in particular and the visit for cultural understanding to different locations in India in general.

Discussion

Commitment and Commencement
The goal of the visit was twofold: the first was to read through all the available books on Trauma in the Centre as this is my area of Ph. D. dissertation and the second was to share traumatic rendition of Nepali Maoists’ insurgency. The first goal also consisted of studying the books on violence and insurgency.

Achievements
(Related to the Activities inside the Centre)
During the stay of a month, the following texts, which I read between the paragraphs, provided food for thought. For the convenience, the books are enlisted thematically under different rubrics.

Books on Trauma (Theory)
Cathy Caruth, Trauma: Explorations in Memory; and Unclaimed Experience: Trauma, Narrative, and History. Robert Fine and Charles Turner, Eds., Social Theory after the Holocaust. Didier Fassin and Richard Rechtman, The Empire of Trauma. Daphne Patai and Will H. Corral, Theory’s Empire: An Anthology of Dissent. Ann Chetkovich, An Archive of Feelings: Trauma Sexuality, and Lesbian Public Cultures


Books on Testimony and Memory
Shoshana Felman, Testimony: Crisis of Witnessing in Literature, Psychoanalysis, and History; Writing and Madness: Literature, Philosophy, Psychoanalysis; and The Juridical Unconscious: Trials and Traumas in the Twentieth Century. Ulrich Baer, Spectral Evidence: The Photography of Trauma. Michael G. Levine, The Belated Witness. Andreas Huyssen, Present Pasts: Urban Palimpsests and the Politics of Memory. Michael Rothberg, Multidirectional Memory: Remembering the Holocaust in the Age of Decolonization. Michael Rossington and Anne Whitehead, Eds. Theories of Memory: A Reader

Books on Violence
Herbert Christopher, War of no Pity. Tarun K. Saint, Witnessing Partition. Piya Chatterjee et.al. (Eds.) States of Trauma: Gender and Violence in South Asia. Veena Das et.al. Eds., Violence and Subjectivity

Books on History/ Holocaust
Ernst van Alphen, Caught by History: Holocaust Effects in Contemporary Art, Literature and Theory. Naomi Mandel, Against the Unspeakable. Jill Bennet, Empathic Vision: Affect, Trauma, and Contemporary Art. Theodore Adorno (Rolf Tridemann, Ed.), Can One Live After Auschwitz: A Philosophical Reader. Dominick LaCapra, Representing the Holocaust: History, Theory, Trauma; Writing History, Writing Trauma

Interaction
Along with the readings of textbooks in library, another significant opportunity the Centre provided for is interaction with the Centre staffs on various issues: with Dr. Bini especially about alternative approaches to historiography; with Dr. Mary and Mr. Nishat on collaborative research possibilities.

The most significant of all is scholarly insight from Prof. Prafulla Kar: I found in him fountain for inspiration to young scholars, concern for existing pedagogical reality especially at the juncture when academia is more politically dominated than scholarly guided, anxious of the quality of education when libraries are not attracting substantial number of knowledge seekers, and the need for intertwining scholarship with ‘being a human being’.

Devendra deserves especial thanks for his readiness to assist us whenever required. His promptness along with Nishat’s sense of responsibility, it seems, deserves more scholars’ frequency in the library.

Presentation
Presentation on Trauma Rendition: A Need for Alternative Framework followed by the scholarly observation from Prof. Prafulla Kar and the Centre members counts as another achievement. The presentation deserves especial mention due to Prof. Kar’s insightful input: Prof. Kar’s ontological concern on trauma, “Can happiness not turn traumatic?” put me in an epistemological challenge and has propelled me to widen the scope of my inquiry.

(Related to Activities outside the Centre)

Cultural / Historical Understanding
The sky that perpetually radiated and blasted in Baroda during Diwali festival not only influenced but also surprised me with differences in the ways the festival is celebrated in Nepal and India. The sky in Nepal witnesses such scenes in Diwali only at the possible risk of police surveillance and punishments.

The visit to EME Temple, ISCON Temple, Shiv Sagar, however, reminded me of the similarities that exist between Nepal and India in many respects. Not only are the idols identical but also the devotees and their ways of worshipping are similar. A special mention in the list of places visited is Swaminarayan Temple – the grandeur of the architecture along with the sense of awe that I felt inside must be a microcosm of the all the devotees’ experience. But the question that reverberates in my mind is whether commercialization will dominate the sense of religiosity that these places deserve.

The visit to Mahatma Gandhi’s ashram imparted a reinvigorating sense of his contributions to India and the World compelling me to ponder if his non-violence is still relevant. This issue carries pertinence to me as I belong to a nation which has been trying to come out of the grip of insurgency and counter-insurgency.

Bombay, a place of more fascination to my friend Ashok than me, delighted less with its magnificent structures and the residence of film stars than with the Elephanta Cave. The World Heritage Site provided the sense of both religiosity and cruelty. On the one hand, the majesty of the cave along with the carvings of the Gods’ figures pushed me into the world of the ancient people’s sense of theism, but on the other, the truncated figures of the Gods oscillated me to think of the opposite extreme.

Impression
Remarkably, the Centre will occupy my mind as an appropriate zone for scholars; and Gujrat as the place with amiable people; easily accessible restaurants with hot, spicy and oily food.

Conclusion
Leaving aside the plan for narrating stories of Nepali Maoists’ insurgency among the students and delivering lecture on my area of specialization, the scholarship accomplished all the planned activities. The knowledge acquired due to the provision of scholarship shall always oblige me to acknowledge its director Prof. Prafulla Kar and the Centre family.