A paper abstract I wrote a long time ago...

This is a paper abstract I wrote for the 'ISTR Sixth International Conference' which was held in Toronto between July 11th and 14th, 2004. This paper was selected for a poster presentation, but as I was not given a travel scholarship [they were magnanimous enough to offer conference registration scholarship] and I was not too keen on spending money from my own pocket for a trip to just show some papers, I did not participate. For that matter I did not complete this paper either for various extraneous reasons [which certainly seems to be the story of my life these days]. Anyways, thought I'd post it here to live off past glory for a few more moments...

Cultural Exclusion and Social Capital – An inclusive role for Third sector
(A case study of Tibetan refugees at Bylukuppe in the state of Karnataka)


"Nowadays, the young generation hardly takes any interest in Tibetan music. They want rap and techno. They prefer electric guitar to traditional instruments like the dranyen," - - Dorjee Rapten ( Jay Shankar, AFP, Published by the Canada Tibet Committee, Friday, July 27, 2001)

Nothing can be more despairing for the developing world, when cultural exclusion comes from within. Economic marginalization, cultural exclusion and political alienation have compounded the problems of refugee communities. The number of refugees has grown exponentially over the years, all over the world. From the malnourished African countries to developed western countries, refugees have been created because of economic, political and racial reasons. Their problems continue despite efforts by International agencies. To make matters worse, these refugees lose their identity continually vis-à-vis their counterparts from their land of refuge.

The main reason for economic exclusion is the blind implementation of western development paradigms by cash starved developing economies without any thought as to whether such a model is sustainable in the particular region it is being adopted. Sustainable and eco-friendly methods followed by the natives are considered “traditional” and hence primitive and naïve. Emphasis is on the western or euro-centric vision of modernization rather than on “traditional” models of sustainability.

Huge subsidies are offered by developed economies to their own farmers. They are also adopting protectionist measures like import restrictions on agricultural produce from the developing economies. These measures have led to the marginalisation of farmers in developing countries, resulting in the exodus of the rural poor into the cities in search of work. These people are refugees in their own land, driven away from their ancestral homes and heritage and thrown into the great unknown – the urban ghettos.

Refugees fleeing their native lands due to political and racial persecution usually choose a country which they consider better suited for their survival. But more often than not, they end up in camps set up exclusively for them, monitored and constantly policed. These camps, where people from the same political and racial affiliations are put together, are usually the breeding grounds for strong and often militant political underground, working against their erstwhile oppressors. On the positive side, they also form closely-knit societies rooted in their culture and history. The problem of the displaced is in their inability to get assimilated into the mainstream of their chosen land and the lack of opportunities for them to be self-sufficient.

More than 100,000 Tibetans live in India as refugees after their failed 1959 uprising against Chinese aggression, and their government-in-exile is in Dharmashala.

Lugsung Samdulping, situated in the town of Bylakuppe, 225 kilometers (140 miles) southwest of the Karnataka state capital Bangalore, was the first Tibetan settlement in India, formed in 1960. It now spreads over 3,000 acres (1,200 hectares) and is the home to more than 36,000 Tibetan refugees living in five settlements in and around Lugsung Samdulping and has monastaries, nunneries, primary health care clinics and hospitals.

This settlement is different from the usual refugee camp models as the people here enjoy the same freedom and facilities as the native Kannadigas ( people of Karnataka ) do. The refugees here are involved in agriculture, leather industry and garment industry selling their produce in the nearby tourist attractions like Bangalore, Mysore, Coorg and Ooty. By studying this camp, this paper attempts to study the impact of cultural exclusion on the development of social capital. The paper makes an attempt to understand how a focused third sector involvement could help in developing a positive social capital.

come into my lair...

An unfinished sketch which I never got around to finishing... Was trying to copy the artwork from the CD Sleeve of "In the Court of the Crimson King" by King Crimson. Since I do not know how to paint, I've to rely on pencils, pieces of papers and charcoals to get the shading... Hope I finish this sometime.

Why Opal got kicked, got wild and got corn[y]ered...

She is not sleeping, not eating.
- Steve Ross, Sr. Veep, pub fisher, Clown

McFarty was not the conscientious Don Corleone types, who did not peddle drugs. McFarty wrote puerile literature, which was the opium of the mindless adoloscents who'd copy even their peers' exam papers simply because the others never noticed. No one knows how many actually read the books McFarty wrote. But they were bought and random checks suggested that her books carried around by lots of kids, almost as if it was a proof of literacy.

Among those teeming millions of boys and girls with nothing between their ears, there was a clever one called Opal [not the gem, but opaque nonetheless]. What was between her ears was packed so tightly that sometimes they just froze up due to lack of adequate blood circulation and did not recognise their own from someone else'. Opal thought [since neither McFarty or her publisher know what she is writing about and what they are publishing, the kids are buying without knowing why or what they are buying and everyone is acting like a winner] : 'let me find a lamb, whom I can feed at some swanky restaurant and promise a hefty commission for a book contract. There is always Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V.'

The deed was done and champagne flowed as 1,00,000 of the very same McFarty readers now started to read Opal's literature. Unfortunately, Opal forgot that very common species : A local page 3 reporter. [remember that story about a murderer being the postman and no one noticed because he was such a common sight?] Being new to celebrity-hood, she ignored the first law - Never forget the yellow jounalists from your local papers, grease their palms, feed them well and oil their innards with expensive liquor. She'd pay for the oversight. Boy, would she pay.

McFarty chose to go on a diet. She decided that she had to get out of her overeating and oversleeping disorders that she had got into in the first place by writing teeny pop novels which were bought by 4,00,000 high school students who had excess pocket money and wanted to show that they were in the loop [not the one advised by the Indian family planning Commission]. She had so much money that she never had to work ever again in her life. Till someone stole her words and consequently her identity [which she never knew she had], sleep and hunger. The real reason she woke up from her big sleep, just like kumbhakaran during the war, was she could actually smell the lamb when her agent said: "There is a nice juicy lamb, let's take it to the slaughter". The words juicy lamb and slaughter kindled a burning fire inside the belly which roused her from her deep slumber. She realised if she was going to face a fight from the lamb,she needs to limber up and become atleast fit enough to not let the lamb run away.

The tightly packed grey cells turned liquid and loosened up. The lamb bleated "He was definitely invading my personal space, as I had learned in a Human Evolution class last summer, and I instinctively backed up till my legs hit the chair. That just made him move in closer, until the grommets [dont ask me what they are] in the leather embossed the backs of my knees, and he finally tilted the butcher's knife toward me." It continued in it's best imitation of SRK's patented bleat, unmindful that he could sue it and claim huge royalties and undisclosed damages : "It was a very hard process and there were endless attempts to clean me up, I am the first person in the family - aunts, uncles, cousins - who has ever shown the slightest inclination to be creative [the others were unimaginative, but hard working, fit and lean], but a fat lot of good did it do to me... well fed, unfit and lazy, I'm now cornered with that guy who has invaded my personal space breathing heavily down my neck, either to kill me or in desperate desire... you kids will have to wait to read what happens in the next part - IF I SURVIVE"

Disclaimer: This work is pure f[r]iction, any resemblence to people living or dead is [un]intentional. I apologise if I have internalised the language and words from books which spoke to me in a way few other books did.