Meeting Jacques Lacan

I was introducced to the works of Jacques Lacan a few days back. Lacan is a French psychoanalyst who made significant contributions to the field of psychoanalysis after Sigmund Freud. He started off the 'return to Freud' movement where he reemphasized the importance of Freud's concepts discussed under dreams, slips of the tongue and jokes revealing more about a person than he intends to. Freud talked about how the unconscious slips into our consciousness at our most unguarded moments like the ones mentioned above.
Lacan introduced the concepts of the imaginary, the symbolic and the real. His concepts evolved right through his life, so it is very difficult to come to a single definitive statement regarding those. He introduces the unconscious as a language. He talks about how a baby first becomes aware of itself when it sees its image in the mirror and later when it learns language.
He also talks about the Theory of Dialectics where there is unity in opposites and everything exists only with its very negation (popularly understood today as the yin yang concept). He introduces the concept of how the self is nothing but the lack of the other, and that we are all aware of the self only when we know the other. He talks about oedipal complex and how nature and culture go hand in hand. That the primal desire for incest, is suppressed by laws and by society adn this forms the very basis our being.
The real for him, is that which cannot be symbolized. Something which is there even before we know it, and which cannot be expressed or suppressed. The real is that which is non existent, or atleast cannot be explained.
The concepts are fascinating, but extremely confusing and difficult to follow. These are very few of the basic concepts that I could make sense of. Still reading...

Festivals and Festivities

Today we had a very interesting lecture on Festivals, festivities and beliefs. It was followed by an hour long documentary that was screened after lunch- on Mayilaralingayatra.

Mayilaralingayatra is a festival followed in certain districts of Karnataka, where the head priest is led to a huge pole by a procession of people and he climbs onto the pole, looks at the sky and predicts the future for the clan and falls down to the ground in a trance. Following this, there are episodes where the believers pierce their legs with a 'trishul' and run a long string through the pierced hole in their leg. The worst is when they put a thorny stem of a plant through the same wound. Such self flagellations are something I just fail to understand. But obviously there are way too many people who truly believe in these rituals. There are people who walk on fire and proudly show off the burns on their feet.

Is it a way to please the gods? Is it to cleanse themselves of their sins in this world? Is it to transcend the laws of nature and to feel superhuman by going through such self inflicted pain?

I hope someone knows why they do it.

Mahabharatha Therukoothu

Therukoothu literally means 'street theatre/ dance' and is performed in northern Tamil Nadu during the post harvest season. The artists perform stories from the Mahabharata. This is part of the month long Mahabharata festival that takes place as an all encompassing event in different parts of northern TN. For about fifteen days there are recitals from the epic during the afternoons and after that there are night long performances. These performances are not restricted to the stage, sometimes they are on stage, sometimes across streets, sometimes through the entire village. Different rituals have evolved over the years and somewhere the lines between ritual, performance and reality merge. There is a particular episode where the artist enacts 'Arjuna's penance' and while doing that he throws out rice and grains to the audience. It is believed that if married women catch these rice grains they will be blessed with a child the next year. The actors are sometimes worshipped. The performances are sometimes seen as rituals. The entire village takes part with such fervour in this month long festival that one really cannot decide which is the performance and which is reality or rituals.

We watched one such Mahabharata therukoothu off its context, on a stage in Kalakshetra. Of course we missed out on all the mad following and beliefs, still we did see one such performance.

Ramayana, Vishnu & Shiva

On realising how ignorant I am about Indian mythology, I set out to read as much as I can on the same. A professor of ours declared one day in class, that anyone who calls himself educated should have read the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the entire works of Shakespeare, Greek tragedies.... and many other such!

I read C. Rajagopalachari's 'The Ramayana'. It helped me get things in perspective, and to put together bits and pieces of this epic that I had heard over the years.

The next book I picked up was the result of me doing a palm leaf engraving of the images of the 10 different avatars of Vishnu. I chose a book on Vishnu. Now I know a tad bit more about his different avatars, his symbolisms, his different names, references in sacred texts, and so on.

It followed very naturally to pick up another book on Shiva. This one leaves me thinking Shiva is a very cool god in Indian Mythology. :) And I am particularly interested in the Ardhanarishwara (half male half female/ half Shiva half Parvata image), the Nataraja image where Shiva is doing his Tandava with one leg over the Apasmarapurusha( the demon who stands for laziness and ignorance) and the Harihara image (half Vishnu half Shiva).

3 movies

Spring, summer, fall, winter... and spring by Kim Ki-duk.

A Korean movie about the different stages in the life of a Buddhist monk. Beautiful cinematography. Pictorial and multimodal metaphors that make you ponder hard. Spring shows a boy who is training under an old monk. Summer is about the same boy in his teens encountering a young girl who is brought to the old monk's monastery. Fall is where he goes get married to the girl, lives with her for a while, but later murders her as she cheats on him with another man. Winter is about the same monk returning to the monaster after a long time to undergo rigorous training to be a buddhist monk on his own. Spring again shows him as the head of this monastery with an abandoned baby as his apprentice. The cycle is complete.

The Illusionist by Neil Burger.

Beautiful treatment. The magician is shown in his full glory with the help of the medium, cinema. It leaves you wondering what is real, if everything in fact is an illusion.

A short film about love by Kieslowski

A film about obsession and voyeurism. Where a nineteen year old boy observes an elder woman through his telescope. He watches her, gives her blank calls, makes random excuses to come in contact with her and finally confesses that he s been watching her. A very different take on how people react to conventionally right and wrong things.

Objective abandoning of the 'i'

One of the most interesting statements- objective abandoning of the 'i'.

How the 'i' or in other words, personal biases and views cloud our reporting or narration of events. Even anthropologists find it difficult to stick to just reporting or noting down observations. Observations themselves are biased, as we observe from our point of view, with our already existing points of view.

There was an interesting lecture where we tried to understand the objective abandoning of the 'i' and from there we went to how Buddha tried to kill sorrow by killing desires, and to kill desires he tried to abandon the 'i' in our everyday life. To be detached. To create an emptiness in our minds. And we were shown a montage where we saw the importance of constantly creating emptiness so that we provide space for newer experiences.

3 plays

One day in Ashada, the first play I watched in Chennai.

This city has something about it, very very different from the rest of the cities I have been to. The plays are more real, they are conceptualised better, even the plays that are not made here are received better by the audience here. Or atleast I feel so.

One day in Ashada (done by Madras Players) was about the life of Kalidasa. I rate the play very high, some amazing performances, a great mix of music, dance and drama. A play about a playwright. Great lighting and sound effects. References to Kalidasa's works in between the play in a way that is not at all jarring. Dance performances in between, again not at all jarring, absolutely in sync with the rest of the play.

The next play I watched was Antigone, by Motley, was an absolute disappointment. Even Naseeruddin Shah could not save the play. It was so sad to see a story of such magnificence as Antigone treated in such a bare manner. It seemed like a half hearted attempt, and one that was done because it had to be done. Some very 'potentially powerful and beautiful scenes' were reduced to mere orations, just because Naseeruddin Shah can speak well. No lighting or sound effects whatsoever. All in all a very major let down.

Cinematograph's Hamlet- The Clown Prince saved the Metroplus Theatre Festival in Chennai. Total laughter riot. Rajat Kapoor's direction leaves nothing to ask for. Atul Kumar's performance was awesome. The clowns left the audience in splits right through the play. I am so glad I went for the play. (was down with fever, but i got well with a vengeance, only to catch the play!)

A visit to Kalakshetra

Apart from hearing loads about Kalakshetra from two of my batchmates who have done their graduation in Bharatanatyam from there, we also did get to visit the place for Swanubhava'09.

Briju Maharaj gave a performing lecture, explanations interspersed with a few short performances. He is brilliant and I guess it is indeed an honour to be able to watch him perform and listen to him talk.

The other major attraction was watching Mahabharatha Therukkoothu. It literally means 'street play/ drama'. It is a popular rural art form especially in the northern districts of Tamil Nadu and they adapt social issues into the performance and thus keep the audiences' interests alive.

Kalakshetra has a beautiful campus, some amazing buildings, very green surroundings and scary big ants that bite you if you are not extremely careful!

So... what is this year all about...

So... what am i doing this year? I am learning Art History and Cultural Studies.

There are lectures on Indian Art History, Western Art History, Temple Architecture and Cultural Studies this semester. We also get an opportunity to try out different crafts at Dakshinachitra and to do an online module on semiotics, social movements, cultural studies, etc., at the National Folklore Support Centre.

The subjects that I have taken a fancy to are Mythology and Semiotics in particular. So on my own I am doing a lot of reading in these areas.

This year is also about watching plays, dance and music performances, some good cinema and travelling to different parts in and around Chennai.

Silappadikaram & Manimekalai

The first two books I read after coming to Chennai. I had already heard so much about these in the first ten days, that I grabbed the translated (and abridged) version when I found it at the library.

Silappadikaram (for those who do not know) is a story set in Kaveripoompattinam, where Kovalan, the son of a rich merchant marries Kannagi, the daughter of another merchant from the same place. They live happily for about three years till Kovalan attends the dance performance of Madhavi, and decides to marry and live with her. Kannagi is the epitome of the loyal and chaste wife who waits for her husband patiently. Kovalan and Madhavi have a daughter, Manimekalai. After many years of spending all his money on Madhavi, he finally realises Kannagi's worth and returns to her, penniless. She in turn, accepts him back with open arms. They decide to start a life afresh in another city, and thus sets off to Madurai.

In Madurai, he tries to raise some money by selling off Kannagi's anklet, which was the only possession they had at that time. In a conspiracy, he gets accused of stealing the queen's anklets and the King orders for him to be put to death. On hearing of Kovalan's death, Kannagi is furious with anger and marches to the palace with the other anklet which formed the pair, to prove her husband's innocence. She proved his innocence and in her anger burnt down the entire city. She died with sorrow and was reunited with Kovalan in heaven.

Kannagi was deified as the goddess of loyalty and chastity.

Manimekalai, on the other hand, is the story of the daughter of Kovalan and Madhavi. After Kovalan left her, Madhavi renounced dancing and spent her life in repentence. Her daughter too did the same. She was taken by the sea goddess after whom she was named, to follow the path of dharma. She is shown going on a journey to learn about the dharmas, and in the process goes through many adventures. She is given the amudasurabi, or the bowl that is never empty, to feed the poor and the deprived. She finally becomes a Buddhist Bhikkuni.

Silappadikaram( The Jewelled Anklet) and Manimekalai (The Dancer with the Magic Bowl) are two of the five great epics of tamil literature, the others being Sivaka Sinthamani, Valayaapathi and Kundalakesi.

These two epics also portray the three different roles they assigned to/ expected from women- the chaste and loyal wife like Kannagi, the sensuous dancer like Madhavi, or the ascetic like Manimekalai.

The story has been the subject of many concerts, dance performances and poems. There is the famous Kannagi statue in Marina Beach which was recently erected as well. Kaveripuumpattinam is also known as Poompuhar or Puhar. These places and characters are often quoted in Tamil circles.

guzaarish

A ten day workshop which covered everything from Black Magic amongst folk groups, specific tribal groups, marginalised communities, issues of the transgender community, a visit to the Narikuruvar settlement and many documentaries and films, kickstarted my one year of learning.

This is my effort to learn more about our culture... and to read up about some interesting concepts that come my way... to immerse myself in some things that were so far away when i was too busy in the corporate world.