{"id":111,"date":"2016-03-20T22:59:59","date_gmt":"2016-03-20T22:59:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/misfitsforchange.org\/site\/?p=111"},"modified":"2020-06-20T03:15:33","modified_gmt":"2020-06-20T03:15:33","slug":"test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/misfitsforchange.org\/site\/2016\/03\/20\/test\/","title":{"rendered":"Farewell to our grandparents: Rebuilding the Libraries"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>By: Pratheeba Kanaga \u2013 Thillainathan<\/strong>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n
\u201cWhen an elder dies, it is as if an entire library has burned to the ground\u201d<\/h1>\n
\u2013 an old African proverb<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Beginning:<\/strong><\/p>\n
Arranged behalf of the Nuit Blache<\/a> 2010,\u00a0 \u201cfragments is a site-specific modern memorial to the tens of thousands of Toronto residents who have experienced atrocities. More than 500 object artifacts belonging to survivors including relevant articles of clothing, personal photographs, identity cards, prison or medical reports documenting violations, was displayed at Lamport stadium on King Street in a rowed queue of podiums. These objects represent the fragmented memories of survivors\u201d <http:\/\/www.fragments.ca\/Site_14\/Fragments.html<\/a>>.<\/p>\n
And with those memories, the boxes placed in the stadium, resembled the graveyards of martyrs; and, the people looked as if paying a tribute to them.\u00a0 The place where onlookers who by interest or by chance driven in to the memory of violence, war and death, they were kneeling down before some boxes, some reading and some passing them without, and some moving the bicycles in between the boxes and walking, not having much time for 1000s of those memorials. 1000s of violations around the world trapped in each little boxes, as a memory, so in ready to share its history.<\/p>\n
Similar is the urge behind exhibiting the things related to our late grandma.\u00a0 After her death, we were left with her remains.\u00a0 They were everywhere; tangible and not tangible, speaking to us very intensely.\u00a0 That brought the idea to put those remaining together in one place and organize an exhibition<\/a> with her memories, where these things relate to the dead one, would move you before you realizing it. \u00a0 I spread everything that connected to her in a small mat she has made with dry coconut leaves\u2013 the mat which was in the the size of a space, in an IDP camp \u2013 given to one family.\u00a0 That image of an IDP camp made us want to do an event that is beyond personal grief; an event that could\u00a0 be related by others too.<\/p>\n
It is that, such thoughts during War, thoughts regarding what War have taken away from us and keep on taking away from us.\u00a0 It has abolished our history in many direct and indirect ways as it could.\u00a0 One is the loss of oral history of our elders\u2019 in the war torn Tamil regions along with other social, linguistic and political loss.\u00a0 Our elders were dying, while displacing weak and vulnerable, and dying because of age everywhere \u2013 in exile and in the land, without their children.<\/p>\n
In the post-war era: its about time to focus \u2013 also \u2013 on matters that are considered a-political, but they are when it comes to anthropological point of view. \u00a0Be it recording the great folk songs our grandmothers sung to us, or the numerous oral stories they have told us, we have to record each of them as a contribution to \u00a0preserve the oral heritage as well to enrich and honor each linguistic ethnic history.<\/p>\n
Event:<\/strong><\/p>\n
\u201cfarewell to our grand-parents\u201d was organized by \u2018misfits-For-Change<\/em>\u2019 with the purpose of honoring our elders oral history\/ heritage, and possibly engaging dialogues on steps towards documenting them. \u00a0It is a very small get-together to talk about a not so hyped matter. \u00a0To talk about the history\/herstory we are losing with each of the elders\u2019 we have lost.<\/p>\n
With an expected small [and thoughtful] number of audience it did meet its purpose. Though, there was no set goal for the conversations that took place, we do have a set goal to \u2018do\u2019 something to document our grandparents\u2019 \u2018his\/her-stories. \u00a0The continuity (and the positive moving forward of what had been discussed there) would be, screening or publishing or Documenting of our elders\u2019 oral stories. and continue to influence many people to honor the elders they have known, by engaging in dialogues with them on their past [which we never had seen nor lived] and finding ways to creatively documenting them.<\/p>\n
Contributions:<\/strong><\/p>\n
$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n
I wouldn\u2019t forget that weekend, while we were sleeping, the writer & artist Melichchi muththan called to bring the invaluable Painting of our late grandmother which I have asked him to sketch for the exhibition event. It was near 9 a.m and we are not the early risers especially over the weekend. But he brought her home, her -our dear one, and she was smiling in the canvas in a bright orange sweater and green background, praising the artist\u2019s power of observation and the details of each lines of age on her face. \u00a0How interesting the fact that he has never \u2018seen\u2019 our grandmother in person. \u00a0I was stunned by this artistic possibility, to bring her life, with oil paint on canvass.<\/p>\n
It was such genuine enthusiasms and artistic contribution that I would like to thank, as behalf of the misFits<\/em> \u2013 because it is that presence of such artistic expressions [as Sketches, Painting, Photography and Poetry] made the event creatively unique and honored our special theme.<\/p>\n
We are debted to the Photographers: Nishant Ratnakar & Bharani.D; Artists: Nila Tharshayene L & Melinchchi Muththan, Poets: mayoo mano, Natkeeran & Thanya, for the permission to use their works and wishes for the event; and thanks for dear Kones for booking the centre and to our Speakers Parvathy Kandsamy and Mathy for putting their inputs, as well as all the eager participants (especially few who came earlier than us!) for all your inputs and time.<\/p>\n
Thank You all, for your support for this small event.<\/p>\n
$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n
End Note:<\/strong><\/p>\n
When writing on a photograph he took of his grandma, Nishant Ratnakar wrote, in his blog post \u2018to amma\u2019<\/a>:<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of the times when left alone, she would get into a cycle of singing prayers. A prayer would be followed by her joining hands and bowing to the almighty. And this cycle would continue until somebody interrupted and diverted her attention. It was during one of those prayer sessions by the window, I stepped into the room with my camera. By then I had clicked portraits off Ajja and others in the house. But seeing Amma in the viewfinder, I somehow couldn\u2019t shoot her picture. The face of Amma one has in their minds is from her healthier and jovial days. I was stuck in a dilemma. I began to wonder if it would be rude of me to document her in this state. But, I had to have Amma\u2019s picture in my album. So, in that moment of dilemma I framed a silhouette of what Amma did the most in her later years\u2026\u2026 pray. A prayer in her own world.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
$\"10519183_280811935437093_8796279828261779911_n\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n
I think the artistic integrity lies in such moral question. And with the photographs myself and my sister took during the last days of our grandmother, I have realized how she always wanted to look \u2018good\u2019 in the photographs. she doesn\u2019t want to be photographed during the times when she is ailing in health, or when her beauty [\u201cpride\u201d] is leaving her. Though the urge to record her journey was a hunger that drove us, we would remember that, wanting to talk about the \u2018rosy\u2019 side of their life is their \u201cright\u201d like all of us who doesn\u2019t want to talk about our humiliations and breakups!\u00a0 The history which is shared with us in that manner, sure leaving a tremendous challenge for us to find out the taboos and secrets from their wor(l)ds, with their self-censorship.<\/p>\n
As another note to his grandparents\u2019 house, Nishant wrote:<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026After grandpa\u2019s death at the age 103, people stopped living there. \u2026\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I imagined the possible chronology of events (personal and political) happened during his grandpa\u2019s lifetime, a century, plus 3 years! I thought of the extinct words from his vocabularies.\u00a0 and history of his village, family, culture, language during those last 103 years\u2026 The house of his grandparents became the symbol of unwritten history and a witness without its tongue.<\/p>\n
The 30 some years of Sri Lankan civil war has displaced, exiled and killed that particular generation along with others. Whoever left there are the assets to know our past, they are the living libraries, waiting to fall.<\/p>\n
Dearest ammamma, dearest elders;
\nYou gave us everything. We read and forget or we do not read them thinking that one day we would have time to read them, but you are gone now. Indeed, a library burned down with the books we didn\u2019t read and the books we forgotten.<\/p>\n
We will sure figure out ways to recollect, and honour you, and your life, which holds part of our history.
\nMeanwhile: Thank You, for all the things you gave amidst our ignorance.<\/p>\n
$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n
And Yes:<\/p>\n
*You are the thousand winds that blow,
\nYou are the diamond glints on snow,
\nYou are the sunlight on ripened grain,
\nYou are the gentle autumn rain.<\/p>\n
When I am awaken in the morning\u2019s hush,
\nYou are the swift, uplifting rush
\nof quiet birds in circled flight.
\nYou are the soft stars that shine at night.<\/p>\n
[No] We do not think of you as gone \u2013
\nYou are with us still \u2013 in each new dawn.<\/p>\n
============================<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
[*modified version of the old Native American prayer, which consoles the family who has lost a loved one.]<\/em><\/p>\n
Review on the Event: Dec 4 2010 \u201cfarewell to our grandparents\u2019\u201d<\/a>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n
Event photographed by: Sathya, Kavusala Kandiah, Mathy Kandasamy<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By: Pratheeba Kanaga \u2013 Thillainathan \u00a0 \u00a0 \u201cWhen an elder dies, it is as if an entire library has burned to the ground\u201d \u2013 an old African proverb Beginning: Arranged behalf of the Nuit Blache 2010,\u00a0 \u201cfragments is a site-specific modern memorial to the tens of thousands of Toronto residents who have experienced atrocities. More […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":223,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/misfitsforchange.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/misfitsforchange.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/misfitsforchange.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/misfitsforchange.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/misfitsforchange.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/misfitsforchange.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":471,"href":"https:\/\/misfitsforchange.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111\/revisions\/471"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/misfitsforchange.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/misfitsforchange.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/misfitsforchange.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/misfitsforchange.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}