rachelbrule.blogspot.com
Rachel's Blog: June 2008
http://rachelbrule.blogspot.com/2008_06_01_archive.html
Sunday, June 29, 2008. As of tomorrow morning I pack my bags and kiss Lucknow goodbye (for now). Having just enjoyed a luxurious evening with an extremely gracious Indian Administrative Service Officer and his family, I feel my feet just briefly touching the ground in this strange city of contrasts. The Bhagavad Gita (2.45) councils freedom from the sorrows of contradiction ("the sorrow of the pairs of opposites") but that implies a detachment I have yet to achieve. Thanks to hard evidence. Of Haryanavis...
rachelbrule.blogspot.com
Rachel's Blog: A fond farewell to Yamunanagar
http://rachelbrule.blogspot.com/2008/08/fond-farewell-to-yamunanagar.html
Friday, August 1, 2008. A fond farewell to Yamunanagar. My spirit drew itself up as I reached Yamunanagar this Thursday. Despite the four hour wait on the railway tracks just minutes away from the city, my return was sweet because I was coming home. The monsoon rains knit a grey veil around the city that lowered around me as I disembarked, but I found help at every stage of my journey. So who finally dispersed the heady crowd? If all goes well, Monday I should arrive in Pratapgarh, UP via Lucknow, where ...
indofieldwork.blogspot.com
Indo Fieldwork: April 2008
http://indofieldwork.blogspot.com/2008_04_01_archive.html
Wednesday, April 23, 2008. Result of the Week: Women are nicer. It is one of the noble duties of social science to quantitatively prove the obvious. In the Ultimatum Game. Subjects are asked to divide a sum of money between themselves and a partner. The partner then has a choice: they can accept the proposed division, in which case it’s carried out (and the players really get the money), or they can reject it, in which case both players get nothing. When testing for risk aversion, women do actually exhib...
indofieldwork.blogspot.com
Indo Fieldwork: July 2008
http://indofieldwork.blogspot.com/2008_07_01_archive.html
Wednesday, July 30, 2008. Result of the Week: Siblings and Hegemony. In the “West,” while people usually enjoy bossing their cute little 65 year-old siblings around, they also tend to try and maintain some of the younglings’ dignity, pretending to give “advice” rather than orders. Here it seems to be different. A friend in Yogya, for example, finds it necessary to boss a (fully grown) younger sister around, refers to her as ". And short for ". 8220; Who else would tell her what to do? In other games we s...
rachelbrule.blogspot.com
Rachel's Blog: Minor revelations from a wandering ascetic
http://rachelbrule.blogspot.com/2008/07/minor-revelations-from-wandering.html
Saturday, July 26, 2008. Minor revelations from a wandering ascetic. These past few weeks have provided great fodder for speculation on why the world is the way it is. However before reading any further, please do take what comes with a grain of salt. This advice is especially important if you're in a hot climate - dehydration is a constant threat. What have I learned from this august position, you might ask? So whereas I thought that Indians were blind to the absence of soap, running water, and clean fl...
rachelbrule.blogspot.com
Rachel's Blog: Storming the fortress gates
http://rachelbrule.blogspot.com/2008/08/storming-fortress-gates.html
Friday, August 8, 2008. Storming the fortress gates. Well, this makes one working week in Pratapgarh, but it certainly hasn't been the work I expected. Let me first give you a sketch of a man who embodies the district. This is thanks to an interview by Prem Panicker:. Kunwar Raghuraj Pratap Singh. How does one classify you? A raja, with the princely 'Kunwar' tag to your name, seeking votes from your 'subjects'? What are you, monarch or democrat? You know how courts are - ten years from now, they will sti...
rachelbrule.blogspot.com
Rachel's Blog: Divine incompleteness
http://rachelbrule.blogspot.com/2008/08/divine-incompleteness.html
Monday, August 18, 2008. My thoughts stem from the sense of incompletion that seems endemic to field research, and is clearly illustrated in my own work. This summer's last big journey was. A trip to Ayodhya with the Singh family. Thanks to the hard work of Mr. Jaynardan Singh, I made it inside the contested site of the Ram Janambhoomi Mandir (birthplace of Ram)/ Babri Masjid. Around the Mosque/Temple complex, expecting an elaborate palace at Lord Ram's birthplace similar to the Kanak Bhawan. Please forg...
rachelbrule.blogspot.com
Rachel's Blog: Taking a breath from Haryana's slow suffocation of the fairer sex
http://rachelbrule.blogspot.com/2008/07/taking-breath-from-haryanas-slow.html
Monday, July 7, 2008. Taking a breath from Haryana's slow suffocation of the fairer sex. Okay, I know fieldwork is supposed to be unpredictable, but I'd be perfectly happy if I could maintain some small illusion of control. To begin at the beginning, I didn't expect Haryana to be a perfect haven of progress given its skewed sex ratio. Yet given its high literacy rate, wealth, and an appreciation for new technology (the green revolution), I hoped life would be much smoother than in other Indian states.
rachelbrule.blogspot.com
Rachel's Blog: August 2008
http://rachelbrule.blogspot.com/2008_08_01_archive.html
Monday, August 18, 2008. My thoughts stem from the sense of incompletion that seems endemic to field research, and is clearly illustrated in my own work. This summer's last big journey was. A trip to Ayodhya with the Singh family. Thanks to the hard work of Mr. Jaynardan Singh, I made it inside the contested site of the Ram Janambhoomi Mandir (birthplace of Ram)/ Babri Masjid. Around the Mosque/Temple complex, expecting an elaborate palace at Lord Ram's birthplace similar to the Kanak Bhawan. Please forg...
