Bits & Pieces

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HOME! and happy :)

Finally managed to wrap up another 25-30 page paper on Kashmir (Faultline Politics and Pathways to Peace) for my Identity, Rights and Conflict class. Huge sigh of relief! It turned out well, I think. I managed to bang out 10 pages at breakneck speed...and then I reached the bit delineating my so-called "pathways to peace"...and all inspiration left me. Go figure. But, finally I followed my natural instincts when doing research and found that really, it all boils down to universal values of insaaniyat (humanity) and insaaf (justice). And more inclusionary politics, an easing of Kashmir-based Indo-Pak nationalism construction, a demilitarization of J & K (in particular the Kashmir Valley) and democratic rights for the Kashmiris. So, yeah...Humanity and Justice :D

Now that that's done. Winter break starts....NOW.

Which means that I can officially start gearing up for our trip to India. Lots and lots of fun things planned - rickshaw riding, park prowling, gaane gaaye-ing (song singing), street store surveying, and all the un-planned/spontaneous madness that ensues when the Bhattacharya cousins & friends are reunited - for the 2 weeks. Spirit, confidence and faith have all taken a marvelous beating during the past semester. But it's nothing that family and India can't cure (thanks Natutu!) :D 4 more days!!
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Anyway, I did have a few more updates but I have been hogging my Mum's office computer non-stop for the last two days and I'm now starting to feel (slightly) guilty. Also, I want to listen to the new Trance Around The World episode which took...wait for it...a massive 5 hours to download. If you know me well, you'd know that it's the latter which is forcing an abrupt end to this post vs the former. Oh Trance, you have me enslaved...

MUCH more later. Have a lovely weekend, wherever you are in the world!
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Food for thought:
"The unimaginable sums of public money that are needed to keep the military occupation of Kashmir going is money that ought by right to be spent on schools and hospitals and food for an impoverished, malnutritioned population in India. What kind of government can possibly believe that it has the right to spend it on more weapons, more concertina wire and more prisons in Kashmir?"
- Arundhati Roy, "Land and Freedom" (courtesy of the Guardian UK, 22.08.2008)