The circus you read about as a child The one full of laughing, lovable characters, their biggest crime a little ‘untidiness,’ their caravans so colourful, their lives so pleasantly (not threateningly) exciting. The questions you ask yourself Where do they go to the toilet? How does sex work? What if they don’t make any money …
Tag Archives: priyadarshini john
Rituals and the Performance of Being
A wedding ritual I don’t often get to see the actual ritual of a wedding, in its entirety. One of the rare times that I did, I watched it in a rage, and towards the end I started to feel desperate for escape, almost like I was suffocating. The smoke, the chanting, the oppressive need …
A Personal and Mutable TimeLine of Ashtanga Yoga’s #Metoo ‘Crisis’
A lot more than a year ago There is a term now for people who practice yoga alone at home. It’s ‘home practitioner.’ Sounds straightforward, if you forget that once upon a time, a large number of people who practiced yoga in India did this, and there wasn’t a term for it at all. It …
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The Hostile State of the Balkans
Rationalizing revisiting The first time you visit a place, you know it by sensory perception – it feels like concrete, smells like grass, tastes like fermented fruit. The second time is like eating the entire fruit, pips and all, the hard skin, the bitter seeds, the juicy bits that disappear so quickly. Then it seems …
Permission to Work on the Street
Chapter 1: Of Streets, Statues and the Notion of Work What is a human statue? A human statue is an anachronistic presence, an unlawful occupation of time and space. An imitator of a statue or sculpture, a shadow with its own life. The statue is placed before a hat, on a street, and the tinkle …
Sculptures, Trees and the City: Explorations of Micro-Worlds
Katerina and I discovered a mutual fascination for trees, roots, sidelined sculptures, mini-explorations of micro-spaces, the transformation of urban worlds into tiny, transient bubbles. This made for a sudden explosion of collaboration that was also transient, as perhaps it should be. A magical sculpture-installation, a tree and transformation at CKP, Bangalore. A very brief interaction …
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Learning How to Leave Gokarna
Escape When I was nineteen, I made my first non-familial trips out into the world that was accessible with an overnight bus or train from Bangalore. Gokarna was the second place I visited, during that time. That first cutting of the thread, or cord, is one of the most miraculous things that happened in my …
The Killer Whale’s Guide to Going on Strike
A killer whale holds her trainer’s foot and refuses to let go There are many videos out there of Kasatka, a female killer whale owned by Sea World, doing a surprise attack on trainer Ken Peters. You can watch the long version, the short version, or the one with commentary. But they’re all the same …
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The Gnoose 