Well, here’s the rough draft of my write up which needs to be cut down and edited. But I thought I’d post it. It’s dry but provides basic details. Below this is more freestyle blogging:

On Saturday, August 30th the Tibetan Association of Ithaca (TAI) led a one- day, eight hour, hunger strike under the pavilion in the middle of the Ithaca Commons. The hunger strike was organized from afar by the Tibetan Solidarity Committee organized by the Tibetan government- in- exile from Dharamsala, India. It is the first act of political resistance for this community in the wake of the Beijing Olympics, as news of imprisonment, kidnappings, and killings continue to leak from the high Tibetan plateau and escape the media censorship imposed by the Chinese government. The hunger strike officially began at nine o’clock in the morning including sixteen participants, who were led by two monks from Namgyal monastery in the chanting of prayers.
The president of the Tibetan Association of Ithaca, Kunga Delotsang, hopes that this hunger strike will demonstrate the Tibetan community’s unwillingness to quiet down as the Chinese government’s rhetoric of equality and appreciation of diversity during the Olympics do not reflect their official and unofficial actions towards the Tibetan people. “We don’t hate the Chinese, but we are just showing that the Tibetans are denied their basic freedoms, and that the press is not even allowed inside Tibet”, Delotsang asserted. “We are going to continue to protest until something concrete actually changes”.
The current translator and former president of TAI, Palden Oshoe, explained how the Tibetan community in Ithaca also strives to bring a greater awareness of the Dalai Lama’s vision for non- violent change. He says that both members of the community and he himself find such a vision difficult to follow as years of exile and news of continued oppression inside Tibet only make their resentment “harden” to the point where they feel “soulless” without the ability to claim their homeland. But his own “emotion and anger” do not shake his faith in the belief that both the “oppressor and the oppressed must be brought to a place to think more reasonably”. He feels that Tibetan community in Ithaca is particularly privileged to live in a country where they can organize and exercise freedom of speech, although he expressed doubt at the effectiveness of public protest in the current American landscape. “Sometimes I feel discouraged when people simply read the signs and walk by us even though we have been demonstrating for several weeks,” Oshoe states.
Thirteen Tibetan families currently reside in Ithaca, NY. The North American seat of Namgyal monastery, His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s monastery located in Dharamsala, India is also located here. This small community has organized its own acts of protest since March 10th of this year, independent of the Tibetan government, such as weekly marches through town, three- day hunger strikes, and prayer vigils. March 10th is traditionally observed by the Tibetan community in commemoration of the Tibetan Uprising of 1959 that took place after the invasion of the Chinese army. However, in anticipation of the Beijing Olympics this year, March 10th, 2008 marked an explosion of more visible protests within Tibet and throughout the Tibetan diaspora.






***

I feel like I could have talked to Palden Oshoe all day. I think of all the interviews or conversations I’ve ever conducted with political demonstrators that one ranks in the top three. Palden has a daughter who’s about seven. As we were all sitting around the periphery of the pavilion, she was running around with a few other same age, second generation Tibetan kids (all sooooo adorable and fun, I could eatem up!). She ran up to us during the interview and whined “Dad! I’m sooooo hungry!” to which her father responded with a little scolding and direction for her to talk to her mother about getting a snack. I couldn’t help but giggle. I told him that watching these second generation children having fun at cultural community events reminded me of warm memories from my own childhood at Indian community events. Whether we were going the temple or to cultural song and dance show, I looked forward to playing with other kids the most. But then I reflected, “I wonder if it’s different for your daughter though. This isn’t a Tibetan cultural show or Tibetan New Year’s celebration. This is a solemn occasion acknowledging the reality of suffering and human struggle. Do you think your daughter can tell the difference?”.
He responded that his daughter looks forward to all these events in the same way. “You know she doesn’t distinguish between something like this hunger strike and a regular party we have with other Tibetan families. She just wants to come and play”. I was ready to jump in and state that even though it seemed that she is just playing, that she KNOWS deep down that something is different.
But he preempted my preaching and shared a story about how surprised he was one day when his daughter got up to ask a question at a lecture/documentary film event in Ithaca (I didn’t catch exactly what it was). But simply put, the documentary was political in nature and contained a few images of oppression. He was shocked to see his daughter crying. During the Q and A portion after the screening she got up and asserted at the microphone: “I just want to say one thing: Free Tibet!”. He reflected on how his daughter is at the age where she can still play and feel pain at the same time. “You know, when you get older like me, the pain you feel solidifies into anger and you become more serious and lose your compassion. [My daughter] knows something about this struggle deeply”.
I controlled my immediate response to tear up by reaffirming that his daughter knows the truth of suffering in a deep way and that his community, by continuing to engage in such ritualistic, politically demonstrative acts, are actively preserving that sensitivity in her. I thought to myself that she must also know by seeing and feeling her parents’ reaction when they receive painful news...

***

I left the hunger strike at about 1pm and on the way back drove through a McDonald’s for a large fry and diet coke. (This used to be the second half of my ritual when I drove down for the weekly marches back in March and April: Dunkin Donuts on the way down and McDonald’s on the way back). I justified the consumption of grossness by the fact that I needed to eat something before heading the State Fair for the African dance demonstration. I headed straight for my African dance teacher Biboti and his wife Jill’s house. I was dressed in jeans and a t- shirt, thinking that I was simply going to observe Biboti demonstrate the dance. I was so upset to see Jill and Maira (the other two dancers) dressed in their african clothes. OF COURSE I WANT TO DANCE! but i misunderstood.... Anyway, I ended up dancing in my jeans anyway, wishing I had invited people to come watch. Even at five o’clock in the evening, the sun was unforgiving. We performed, played for about an hour at the WCNY booth, whose DJ, (Bill? Bob?), was absolutely talented at dragging shy members of the crowd onto the “stage”. We congratulated ourselves with funnel cakes, curly fries, lemonade, and chocolate milk and a fabulous conversation on the ride home about how the “grass is always greener for some people” argument is a bullshit dismissal of how some people simply aren’t afraid to keep trying new things and journeying through this unpredictable life with their eyes wide open.

Thanks to my lj buddies for the encouragement for writing. I am currently working on my newspaper blurb that I've already pitched to a couple of newspapers... I'll post that tomorrow morning along with other more intimate details of my experience today.

That'll be my refreshing Sunday morning activity at Starbucks...

As for now, I'm dead tired. And I want to go down to Metro on Westcott in about an hour for a cocktail and to watch Grupo Pagan play. I've never heard them, although their percussionist, Josh Dekaney, is the leader of the Brazilian Ensemble at SU (in which I play drums and sing, if you didn't know). So i'm calling it a day in terms of "work".

So excited, but hoping that I'll see a friend or two who might want to share in a drink???

Hi all,

I decided once and for all tonight that I need to write something just to get me started with this livejournaling thing. It's around 9:00 pm on a Friday night and I'm using it to just breathe and organize myself after what has been a FULL week-- in ALL aspects-- work, stress, joy, friends, activity, love.

But more importantly, I think it's important for me to take this Friday night "off" and gear up for a day long hunger strike taking place in the Ithaca Commons tomorrow. The small Tibetan community (about 15 families total) and the monks of Namgyal monastery --(the North American branch of the Dalai Lama's temple in Dharamsala India which is the Indian "branch" of the original in Tibet)-- will participate. Despite the fact the Olympics are over, the Tibetan community continues to voice their protests. The truth is, they always have. And having attending the protests against the Olympics in New York City, it struck me how and why they mobilize so effectively (in terms of sustaining their social movement for more than five decades and through second or third generations in exile and within Tibet itself). But this is something i'll have to write about in a later entry... (I've been frustrated by my limited time these days... been meaning to write about that New York City trip for a couple of weeks now).

Tomorrow's also going to be a full day because when I return from Ithaca, I will catch a ride with my West African dance teacher, Biboti, to the New York State Fair, where he will be conducting a beginner's dance workshop. Yea!

Stay tuned. more to come if i'm not completely burnt out. :)

Thanks for the livejournal idea. It was a great one. but i suck. I can't even keep up with the required journal i'm supposed to be keeping everyday in tamil. (I've been the worst slacker this summer and I'm proud of myself for it ;) ). Feel free to cut and paste pieces of this email and others to my livejournal if you feel inclined....

Unfortunately i haven't been taking many pictures this summer. but fortunately the rest of my class has. and we've been compiling pictures on the shared computer and will be making copies.. so many pictures to come!!!

So it's great to hear that the apartment is fine... I look forward to coming back and finish unpacking. I was actually thinking of changing my flight and leaving India later than i planned. But i've realized the past few days that my sanity and adjustment back to syracuse might be more important than a few more days in the mountains. (And i have to start thinking about comps! yuck!).

Today is a holiday. This month is called "Aadi maasam" in the Tamil calendar and it is both a very auspicious (i.e. starting a business) and inauspicious (i.e. don't get pregnant) month. So we have a "holiday" today. So far I've spent it speaking to a mediocre/half-assed astrologer. I demanded that he pay more time and attention to my chart, so i'll see him again sunday. We are spending Saturday in a village... Not sure for what, but will find out. Yesterday a eunuch came to speak with us as the monolingual guest speaker... the most blantant exercise of "othering" I have witnessed, tongue in cheek, so far.

So yes, as i type this i realize that everyday there are so many stories. Had a lot of fun for most of the summer, but to be honest I really need down time now and enjoy those moments when i'm just sitting on my roof in the gentle breeze and in the moonlight. Nothing, I've decided, is more important for me in my life than those moments... Patiently waiting for the rest to fall in place...

Hello Everyone,

I hope everyone is still doing well!

It's about a couple of weeks after our midsummer break and it looks like this program is going to be over before I know it- the thought of which makes me very sad. As you can guess, the workload feels heavy at this point especially with the final paper coming up. I've decided to write on astrology and look forward to get my predictions done by different kinds of astrologers as part of my "research" :).

Other than that, I spent a bit of time in Kodaikannal (in the Western Ghats, mountain range) which was a great escape from the heat and a relative escape from the pollution. Most of us loved it so much that they're thinking of moving part of the program there...

Thanks for sending the updates on your lives and summers...

I will try to send one more email before I leave, but if i don't, then i'll see you soon!

Love,
Sangeetha

This week's been crazy and i've been feeling unusually fatigued. I was supposed to leave town for the weekend, visiting some temple towns that i wanted to see again. But i decided to recuperate this weekend and sleep as much as possible. The heat has been really tiring and i've been having a hard time energy wise. And with the group being so much fun, it's hard for me to resist social activities. On top of that i haven't really gotten to see much of madurai itself. and so i'm going to do that with another girl who also decided to stay behind.

Other than that: The program is pretty intense as far as a large workload is concerned. I almost get killed on my bicycling trip to school everyday. the food is great. i sweat buckets constantly. I love being around my classmates. my hosts are the sweetest old couple... will hopefully spend more time with them this weekend....

anyway... more adventure stories to come on my livejournal :)

Hello loved ones,

I hope all is well with everyone!

I've been in Madurai for two weeks and getting here went smoothly. Everything is going great and we pretty much jumped into classes right away. It was really wonderful to see many familiar faces when I arrived. There are eight of us and I feel really lucky (again) to be with such a fun group :) We have classes for four hours in the morning and are pampered by an excellent cook for breakfast and lunch. I'm also taking Carnatic music classes twice a week (and today we looked into group bharathanatyam classes :) ).

There are a lot of scheduled field trips as well. Saturday we went to Palani (a temple town about 112 kms from Madurai) which is believed to be the place where Lord Muruga lived an ascetic life (to make a long legend short). The temple is located at the top of a moutain. Usually pilgrims climb the six hundred something steps to get to the top. but they build a "sky lift" (like the kind at six flags- how excited was I) a couple of years ago to take people to the top. Not exactly the same experience as climbing, but we did get a breathtaking view of the landscape.

Miss you,
Sangeetha

hi. i'm your new livejournal page. :) poke around here & feel free to delete this entry, of course. but i wanted to play w/it so you could see what it looked like when played with.

hi, sangeetha!!!!!!!

*hug*
--♥ from tyratae