We’re back!

But not here. Ultra Violet has a new home on the web. Do check out the site and give us your comments on the new look and feel. Oh, and please change your bookmarks to ultraviolet.in and tell your friends.

As promised, there have been some changes. For starters, UV is now an independent entity and no longer part of Hengasara Hakkina Sangha (HHS). There are also other changes in terms of focus, content and mood. For more on the new UV, click here.

To know more about HHS, you can visit their website.

After a week or so, this domain will redirect to ultraviolet.in.

Thank you and see y’all at the new place. 🙂

Slowness

Things have been slow here at UV and there’s a good reason for it. There are lots of changes on the anvil in terms of thrust and design and we’re taking this month off to implement these. New, (improved) programming will resume next month. Watch this space.

Until then, browse the archives, comment on old posts if you feel like, and write in if you want to contribute to the new edition.

Take care.

Let’s not forget

WE WILL BE continuing with regular programming but the Mangalore issue remains important and we don’t want to sideline it. So we’ll post updates as and when we receive any and links to those posts will also be available under “Read. Visit. Do.” at the top of the right sidebar. Thank you for all the support so far and please continue to send those names and messages in.

Regarding Expectations

I JUST GOT BACK from a break to discover the flurry of comments around Meena’s post. There’s lots of accusations about it not being well thought out / clear etc and I would like to clarify, yet again, that UV is a space to share informed opinion  but also feelings, angst, even rants. Quite simply, it’s a space where women can voice things. Not all those things have to be perfectly logical little pieces of social / cultural critique. Not all of them have to come with their five-point solution for saving the world. If you don’t like that, don’t read. If you want to make it better, contribute. Guest posts are always welcome.

and another birthday thought…

UV’s BIRTHDAY? Usha and I looked at each other, our eyes saying ‘you mean it’s been a year?’

Actually, at HHS, we can’t believe that a year has passed. Amidst our other work, the blog has been such an alive and vibrant platform. In the past, we had tried different ways for people to get together and engage with feminisms.

It’s A Birthday…!

ULTRA VIOLET completes a year today. 70 posts over 12 months. In the last year, UV has had  16 women writing about what it means to be a woman in India today. What affects us, what makes us angry, what moves us or devastates us — and what leaves us cold. There have been posts on identity and destination, sexuality and marriage and motherhood, caste, land, politics and education, religion, taxes, law, sexual harassment, morality and a myriad other aspects related to the way we view and live our womanhood.

‘Feminism Remixed’

AN UV UPDATE: Ammu Joseph challenges the notion that feminism is passé on Verve and talks about UV in her story…

The ongoing change is evident in India, too. Take, for example, Ultra Violet, a blog initiated last year by young feminists across the country wishing to express themselves on a wide range of ‘issues, challenges, and triumphs’ relating to women today. According to them, ‘Ultra Violet provides a place to explore and understand the ways in which young women in India are challenging, negotiating and transforming unequal power struc–tures. It is also a space to celebrate women’s histories, wisdom, creativity, laughter and love for life.’ (http://youngfeminists.word press.com for interested readers).

The feisty young women make it very clear that theirs is a feminist blog and not ‘just another space for women.’ ‘Feminism is a much misunderstood and maligned word,’ they explain. ‘Over the years, its true meaning — the advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of sexual equality — has been distorted and defiled by many. This blog is both a reclaiming of the term and a clarification of what it means to us, today.’ The fact that women coming of age in the new millennium wish to reclaim feminism and make it their own is, I think, a fairly clear sign that it is alive, kicking and, more importantly, evolving. It certainly contradicts the common assumption that young women have no time or use for feminism.

Mixing It Up

ABOUT A MONTH back, we had an editorial meeting. Which is to say that the three of us sat around over chai and rusk at the HHS office and talked about UV, feminism, being women and other such. We took some decisions and tentatively started implementing them. Then some time back, we were approached by someone writing a book on international public relations who wanted to feature UV. Also, noted feminist writer Ammu Joseph informed me that she has written an article for Verve in which she has talked about UV — all good news that I was keen to share with you. This also gave me the impetus to share some of the changes that we’re hoping to make around here.

Things Have Been Slow

…AROUND HERE lately. It’s not because we’ve run out of steam after the initial burst of energy but because we’ve been tweaking things a bit.

Firstly, we’ve picked a new template that presents the different sections a little better. We’ve added some new sections — an RSS feed of women-related news at India Together, a section called Feminist Reading that links to to our account at Library Thing, and a Resources section.

Launching Ultra Violet

IT’S A TIME of intense and rapid change in India. Women are stretching their wings, exploring new spaces and testing the boundaries of old ones. With more women working, traveling, living on their own or managing high-powered careers, new challenges have emerged. Some women are coping with increased independence or living alone. Others are trying to find new ways of balancing work and home or to negotiate parenting and child care.

Then again, in some ways, the country has not changed enough. The sex ratio remains abysmal and female foeticide is routine despite the laws banning sex-selective abortion. Dowry deaths are common. Violent, heinous crimes against women abound. Women across class, region and religion become victims to domestic violence, acid attacks, sexual assault and rape.

Despite the onset of MTV culture in some areas, sexual rights remains an area shrouded in mystery and suspicion. Many women still do not have knowledge or awareness about their own bodies. Sex education is denied in schools and girls grow up largely ignorant of both the pleasures and the perils of sex. Alternative sexuality is still largely unacceptable and lesbians face horrifying levels of social stigma and discrimination.

Ultra Violet will give voice to what young Indian feminists feel about life in these times. It will be an interactive space for us to discuss feminism in the context of its relevance to our lives. It will be a place where we talk about the things that are important to us — both in our personal lives and in the larger world around us — and the ways in which we can react, respond, negotiate or protest.

We hope to be informative, enlightening, provocative, inspiring, and (sometimes!) fun. Do drop in.

More about us here.

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