SPARROW

Events

• Release of the Book: BEING CARRIED FAR AWAY ...More...	• One River, Many Streams ...More...
• SPARROW inaugurates the Dr. Neera Desai Memorial Library ...More...	• Release of Dr. Neera Desai's book ...More...
• Release of the Book: HOT IS THE MOON ...More...	• Women’s Expression Camp ...More...
• Women's Words, Women's Lives ...More...	• Marching on the Roads: Making Oneself, Making History –Photo Exhibition on Double-Decker Buses ...More...
• SPARROW NEW NEST ...More...
Outreach and Expansion Plans
• Power Museum A Museum of Women's History and History of Women planned as a Power Museum set up with electronic equipments reproducing events in women's history and stories of individual women as film strips, electronic images, games, puzzles, sound and visual recreations. A museum, which the public can visit, where history will be absorbed in an entirely novel way. • Website & Newsletter To inform and dialogue • Film and Cultural Festivals, Exhibitions and Writers’ Camps To educate, to provoke, to stimulate, to express and share ideas.

RELEASE OF THE BOOK : BEING CARRIED FAR AWAY	GO TOP
On 28th January 2010, the launch function was held at Crossword, Linking Road along with Pen India to introduce the book to the public. BEING CARRIED FAR AWAY is the second in the series of five volumes to be published by SPARROW supported by Prince Claus Fund. This volume is a literary journey into Assam, Bengal, Manipur, Meghalaya and Mizoram. The book teaches that one's geography lessons are never complete, not to talk of one's knowledge of Indian literature. It is not just a matter of learning about unknown flowers, trees, food and dresses. It is also about the people and the languages that emerge from these surroundings. The experiences narrated in the interviews and the poems and stories become a gallery of paintings of still life, nature and portraits drawn with dexterity in exquisite colours that begin to invade one's mind as one goes along. Dr. Mitra Mukherjee Parekh (Post-graduate Department of English, S N D T Women’s University) released the book. SPARROW’s Founder Trustee and Director, Dr. C S Lakshmi, made a presentation on SPARROW and the editor, Shoba Ghosh, gave a talk on her experiences of editing the volume. Malsawmi Jacob, one of the writers from Mizoram and also working in SPARROW, read her poems. We give a few photographs below taken by Priya D’Souza.

Dr. Mitra Mukherjee Parekh releasing the book with Dr. C S lakshmi, Malsawmi Jacob and Shoba Venkatesh Ghosh
A LIBRARY IN THE MEMORY OF DR. NEERA DESAI
Dr. Neera Desai (September 23, 1925-June 25, 2009) Dr. Neera Desai was involved with SPARROW long before it was registered as a Trust in 1988. The founder of India’s first Women’s Studies research institution, SNDT’s Research Centre for Women’s Studies, Dr. Neera Desai was a passionate advocate for women’s history and the preservation of the records necessary to write that history. After many years of discussion and efforts to find a university willing to develop a Women’s Archives, Dr. C S Lakshmi, with the help and support of Dr. Neera Desai and Dr. Maithreyi Krishna Raj, conceived of SPARROW (Sound and Picture Archives for Research on Women). The plan to develop a women’s archives that would house visual, audio, and print materials about Indian women was not consistent with the 1980s emphasis on developemnt as a means of addressing women’s issues. Dr. Neera Desai, however, was fully aware that knowledge about women’s lives and experiences was important not only to enrich our understanding of women’s history but also to guide public policy decisions. She became one of the founder trustees of SPARROW in 1988 and became an enthusiastic champion of SPARROW projects. This meant participating in fundraising events such as the 1992 Painting Exhibition, sharing stories from her youth at the 1994 workshop on Communal Harmony, and monitoring projects. Until the last days of her life, Neera Desai helped guide and inspire SPARROW. Neera Desai passed away on the 25th of June 2009. To commemorate her work with SPARROW and honour her contribution, the Trustees of SPARROW, Dr. C S Lakshmi, Dr. Maithreyi Krishna Raj, Dr. Divya Pandey, Dr. Roshan G Shahani, Dr. Usha Thakkar, and Dr. Shoba Venkatesh Ghosh, passed a resolution on July 24, 2009 to name the library at SPARROW The Dr. Neera Desai Memorial Library. The Dr. Neera Desai Memorial Library was inaugurated on her birthday on 23rd September, 2009. Pushpa Bhave, the well-known political activist, inaugurated the library and spoke a few words of her association with Dr.Neera Desai and SPARROW. Sonal Shukla and Kumud Shanbag, Dr. Vibhuti Patel, Dr. Chhya Datar and Dr. Govind Shahani attended the simple function. We give a few photographs below taken by Priya D’Souza. GO TOP

Book Release: HOT IS THE MOON GO TOP On 11th February 2009, a pre-launch function was held at Kala Ghoda Festival to introduce the book to the public. Hot is the Moon that contains excerpts from interviews, stories and poems of writers in four languages- Tamil, Kannada, Konkani and Tulu was launched at a function at Crossword, Grant Road, on 25th February, 2009. Shanta Gokhale, writer, translator and theatre critic, released the book. SPARROW’s Founder Trustees and Director, Dr. C S Lakshmi, made a presentation on SPARROW and the editor, Arundhathi subramaniam, gave a talk on her experiences on editing the volume. We give a few photographs below taken by Priya D’Souza.
Arundhathi Subramaniam at the pre-launch function held at Kala Ghoda festival	Reading by Mithra Venkatraj, Kannada writer from the book at the pre-launch function held at Kala Ghoda festival
Shanta Gokhale releasing the book with Arundhathi Subramaniam and Dr. C S Lakshmi at Crossword, Grant Road	L to R: Tulasi Venugopal, Mithra Venkatraj, Suneetha Shetty, Shanta Gokhale, Dr. C S Lakshmi and Arundhathi Subramaniam at the book release at Crossword, Grant Road
WOMEN'S WORDS, WOMEN'S LIVES GO TOP Although the bomb blasts in the local train in July disrupted SPARROW activities somewhat, we picked ourselves up quickly and proceeded to work on the events we had planned. The first event was the SPARROW film festival held in collaboration with Mahila Vyaspeeth (Y.B. Chavan Prathisthan) Vijaya Chauhan, the Secreatry of Mahila Vyaspeeth, was the one who first suggested such a festival of SPARROW films. The festival called Women's Words, Women's Lives was held on 3rd and 4th November 2006. Urvashi Butalia, Director, Zubaan, inaugurated the festival and Kalpana Sharma, Chief of Bureau, The Hindu, Mumbai concluded the festival. The festival attracted an appreciative audience. The project support for the festival came from The Global Fund for Women. We give some photographs below:


ONE RIVER, MANY STREAMS GO TOP The second event, a cultural festival, held in collaboration with the National Film Archive of India along with venue collaborators, Fun Cinemas, was a meticulously planned one with films from the North East and Orissa and paintings and arts and crafts from Mizoram brought by artists Zaithanpuii Vuvangtu and Klanghro Khuma. It was held from 26th January to 30th January 2007 with project support from HIVOS. The festival was called One River, Many Streams and was an attempt to present the multicultural aspect of our nation. Directors and actors from the region were invited and eight award winning films from the region were screened. On the inaugural day there was a Manipuri dance performance and on the concluding day there was a music recital by a singer from Assam. Actor Shabana Azmi inaugurated the festival and Jarjum Ete, Chairperson, Arunachal Pradesh State Commission for Women, concluded the festival. Unfortunately, Mumbai did not show much enthusiasm for the festival. We give a few photographs below:
Special Guests, Concluding Day	Special Guests, Inaugural Day
Arundhati Subramaniam Compering	Shabana Azmi Inaugurating the Festival
	Klanghro Khuma and Zaithangpuii
Jarjum Ete on the Concluding day	Students from Manipuri Nritya Kendra
	Sunita Bhuyan performing
Release of Dr. NEERA DESAI'S Book GO TOP The third event, a much-awaited one, was the book release function of Dr. Neera Desai's book, Feminism as Experience: Thoughts and Narratives. It was held in S.N.D.T University's mini-auditorium on 14th March, 2007. The venue collaborators as well us supporters of the event were, of course, the Research Centre for Women's Studies, S.N.D.T., Juhu Campus. Dr.Vina Mazumdar came all the way from Delhi to release the book to an extremely appreciative and warm audience who were there to express their solidarity for the subject and the author. We give a few photographs below:
Dr. Vina Mazumdar releasing Dr. Neera Desai's book	Dr. Vina Mazumdar receiving a gift from Dr. Neera Desai
Readings from the book by Dr. Roshan G Shahani and Dr. Shobha Ghosh
GO TOP
PHOTO EXHIBITION ON DOUBLE-DECKER BUSES A Non-gallery Based Photo Exhibition SPARROW has been involved with the work of alternative methods of narrating women’s history. Throughout the history of the nation, women have been out there on the roads fighting for the nation, demanding their rights, raising their voice against injustice, fighting for human dignity and demanding a world without war. Unless constant efforts are made to remember this history, it will be forgotten, hidden and ignored. In March, 2006, SPARROW decided to celebrate 8th March, International Women’s Day with an unusual celebration. On four double-decker buses running on four important routes through the city of Mumbai, SPARROW put up a photo exhibition of women marching on the streets from 1931 onwards fighting for various rights. The exhibition was entitled Marching on the Roads: Making Oneself, Making History. SPARROW also printed one lakh photo posters with the same photos and distributed them along with newspapers in Mumbai. GO TOP