these are our daughters

This is my baby girl  Tara when she turned one. Isn't she... precious? Irreplaceable? Full of potential and promise? Of course she is! There is absolutely no doubt in my mind and heart...but not everyone feels this way...There are millions and millions of little Indian girls exactly like her who will never see their first birthday..or who will never be born for that matter.

"How could fifty million plus women just disappear from a country in a period that spans less than a century? That number is about the size of the entire populations of Sweden, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium and Portugal put together. Occasionally one reads in Indian papers about baby body parts being found in a well in the compound of some clinic, or a young woman dying of burns under suspicious circumstances due to a supposed kitchen accident, but there is nothing in the news that suggests a blood-bath on the scale of a genocide. "

                                              -Rita Banerji from 50 million missing

(3 Tamil Women,watercolor and collage)

This is a subject so close to my heart...I can barely breathe when I start to think about it. I get equal parts...furious and a deep deep sadness; heartbreak. Gender based violence occurs all over the world...I am sure we are all aware of that. But in India (and Indian communities everywhere)...There is a silent genocide/gendercide going on right now. I wrote all about it in this post last year...right here .

There are facts , newspaper  articles, statistics...but what do we know of the millions and millions of lives lost...a genocide that leaves no footprint behind because it is so hidden...subversive...Murdering babies because they are girls; female infanticide. There are also sex selective abortions, dowry deaths...on and on. A conservative estimate is ...there are 50 million females missing. Just like that...gone!  Why are we so easily discarded? Do we have no value and worth? What is this hatred that murders our daughters and sisters in such large numbers? Who will bear witness to these untold stories, these unborn lives, this unimaginable violence? Who will speak up for these unborn girl babies? Anyone?

It's been 4 years since I did my art exhibition Shakti that focused on this very issue. I have to admit...while I am very aware of the situation...it can feel overwhelming. What can I-one person-do? What can any one person do against a culture, society and country so steeped in centuries old misogyny?

Well, that's where Rita Banerji comes in! When I first found out about her and the brave and tireless work  she does...I was in absolute awe. She is brilliant, outspoken...a powerhouse of  a woman. And she actually agreed to do an interview with me!! She started the 50 million campaign to raise awareness and stop this genocide that has no end in sight. Please stop by tomorrow when I will post the first segment of this amazing interview. In the meantime...you can go here to sign the petition against this massive genocide against us. Because it is against all of us women. These are our daughters...

Please sign the petition!

Memories of India

These past few days, in between working on my website, painting and taking care of Tara (!!!)...I have been sorting through things. I came across my India pics...When I turned 30, I spent 4 months in India, travelling by myself. I was born in South Africa but am of Indian descent. This was my first visit to the land of my ancestors...of mySELF. It was a pilgrimage that continues to gift me, even today. How can I even begin to describe what it all meant to me. How this experience changed me, blessed me, strengthened me and nourished me. This experience brought me face to face with mySELF. India was a mirror held up to me, reflecting everything I am. The first month was horrible! A mixed-up jumble of thoughts, sounds and smells, pollution and noise, blazing heat and confusion, malaria pills and adjustments. I felt a rage of emotions-guilt, frustration, confusion, anger, distaste, contempt, misery, euphoria. I realized that the ugly monster of mental colonization lived inside of me. I had to learn how to love India, learn to let go and trust the Universe. Then one day , suddenly, I fell in love with India! And once I did, I saw the whole of life unfold...I saw how life is mixed with death. I saw that change is the only constant; everything is in flux, non-permanent, in transition. Marigolds mixed with dung. In India, everything is surreal. Life is lived in the streets, out in the open, in technicolor. Humility and arrogance, temples and blaring music, ancient stone statues and Sanskrit chantings, stultifying poverty and the blazing sun. When I stood at the tip of India with Lanka behind me...I saw the whole of Mother India before me. This is where India begins...this is where I begin. I fell in love with India that day and in the process...with myself too...Here is the picture-I remember it as if it were yesterday.

(me at the tip of Mother India-Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu-1999)

Hope has Wings...

This post is very difficult for me to write...I have been struggling with it for some time. There is  a silent genocide/gendercide happening right now against Indian women. Over 50 million girls and women missing. Just gone, killed, disappeared. Entire generations and martilineal lines...vanished! That number is actually a very conservative one; a more realistic estimate is 60-100 million. How are we killed? Sex-selective abortions, female infanticide, dowry deaths, general neglect and starvation. Why are we killed? Because in Indian culture, females are not only devalued, we are considered an economic liability, a burden. Where is the Goddess now? But hope has wings...find out more about this atrocity right here, sign the petition (it just takes a few minutes). I am so thankful that I have all the freedoms I do, that my daughter will have access to an education, clean water, food, health, the right to vote...the right to live. Hope has wings...something has to change.