A tête-à-tête session with women professionals moderated by educator Theyiesenuo Keditsu under the theme “Working in a Man’s World” underway at the second day of the ‘Cultures of Peace’ at Hotel Acacia Dimapur on November 10. The panelist - Abokali Zhimomi (entrepreneur), Sophy Lasuh (filmmaker) and Dolly Kikon (Anthropologist) - dwelt on their profession, gender roles, challenges in work places and women’s role in different professional fields. (Morung Photo by Soreishim Mahong)
Morung Express News
Dimapur | November 11
The need for a culture of dialogue, new voices and a conscious choice surfaced prominently at the recently concluded ‘Cultures of Peace’ organized by
Zubaan in collaboration with
The Morung Express and
Heinrich Böll Foundation,
India.
In a panel discussion on ‘Cultures of Dialogue’, the panelists shared stories and experiences of resolving conflicts woven around dialogue and conversations.
Tungshang Ningreichon, a Human Rights activist talked about the possibilities of co-existing. She asserted that ‘to be different does not mean confronting’ and that we should work collectively towards a ‘shared future’. She stressed on the importance of sharing ‘human stories’.
Kalpana Sharma, a senior journalist pointed out that ‘culture’ is a very politically loaded term which inhibits people to question. Often, culture is exclusionary in nature, she asserted. To break out of this, and for the ‘new to be born’, we need to question culture. Culture should be a value system that unites people rather than divide.
Xonzoi Barbora, Dean, School of Social Sciences and Humanities at TISS Guwahati shared how culture is created by everyday lived experiences and new ways of looking at the world is being constantly created and re-created.
Urvashi Butalia, founder of Zubaan stressed on the need to start looking at possibilities rather than difficulties. She stated ‘We focus too much on the difficulties that we often forget to look at the possibilities’.
The moderator, Yengkhom Jilangamba, an Assistant Professor, at Guwahati campus TISS in his concluding remarks pointed out that we need to inculcate ‘a habit of imagination’ and to dream to make the impossible possible.
In a session, ‘The Stories We Tell: A Roundtable with Women Editors’ moderated by Xonzoi Barbora, women editors and authors talked about their experiences and their struggles. Writing what they write and saying what they think have never been easy and yet it is a conscious choice they make.
Kalpana Sharma recounted her experience as a young woman when she made the conscious choice of focussing on the stories not told and the perspectives not brought in. She started writing a piece on Mumbai municipal elections by talking to poor and homeless people on the streets instead of interviewing political bigwigs and experts. Such efforts would make people label her as a feminist’.
Parismita Singh, an author and graphic novelist shared how everyday life of common people, especially women is so full of stories and meanings and yet such stories are not present in traditional or mainstream literatures.
This view was shared by Tongam Rina, Associate Editor, The Arunachal Times who pointed out that ‘when we talk about communities, the lived experiences of women come to the forefront and yet all the narratives are built around men’.
For Lanusangla Tzudir, publisher of the Heritage Publishing House, ‘every book is a campaign’. The challenge for her, as a publisher, is ‘to keep the stories of her people alive’ risking marketability and readership of the literatures she publishes.
She revealed that, until very recently, the literatures coming out of Nagaland have largely been about our political struggles and history and in a way, a colonial reconstruction. There is a new and refreshing wave of creative literature and women writers are at the forefront, she added.
