The second performance of ‘The Eagle Story’ was held at the Audio Visual room at Amdavad ni Gufa, Ahmedabad, at an event called ‘Sach Ki Yaadein, Yaadon Ka Sach’ (Memories of the Truth, the truth about Memories) , remembering the genocide of Gujarat 2002 and marking 5 years since then.
This performance is accompanied by a video projection, called ‘Choosing Life’.
Credits: Performer:Raheema Begum, ‘Choosing Life’, music from Soundtrack of ‘The Hours’ by Philip Glass.
Date: 28th February 2007, Photos by Sneh Bhavsar.
This work is open and in progress. If you have a space where you would like to have it shown, e-mail me at theunderscoredhood@gmail.com.
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Acknowledging Hiren Bhai Gandhi, Aman Samudaay, Shanti Abhiyaan, Prashant, Himmat and all organizing groups of the event ‘ Sach Ki Yaadein, Yaadon Ka Sach ’ ( Memories of Truth, The Truth about Memories ) , bravely working towards hope, reconciliation and re-establishing democracy in Gujarat.
Also thanking film-makers Anand Patwardan and Rakesh Sharma for their courage, the conscientious depth and critical insight in their work .
‘Sach Ki Yaadein, Yaadon Ka Sach’ was a six day event held at various venues in Ahmedabad, to remember and address the State’s vindictive denial of justice, livelihood and human rights to the victims of all the violence that followed the burning of a train in 2002.
(Gujarat 2002 witnessed an estimated killing of 2000 people, rape of approximately 400 women, property damage worth Rs 3800 crores, around 1100 restaurants destroyed, 563 religious places (302 dargahs, 209 mosques, 30 madrassas, 18 temples and 3 churches) destroyed or damaged. About 2.5 lakh people were directly displaced…
The happenings of 2002 form the larger backdrop against which the events continue to unfold. How do we then pursue, an honest admission of truth and moral responsibility through a collective and public exercise as well as state’s responsibility for the acts of its organs or agents and for its own failure to prevent or adequately respond to the commission of gross human rights violations, remains the challenge.
One continues to demand for the right to fair and adequate compensation; the right to restoration of the situation existing prior to the violation; the restoration of dignity and the right to a guarantee, by means of appropriate legislative and/or institutional intervention and reform, that the violation will not be repeated.
A crucial aspect in all this is the symbolic reparation, especially in the backdrop of the gravest threat of ‘erasure from memory and history’, encompassing a process of remembering and commemorating the pain. It aims to restore the dignity of victims and serve as a continuing reminder. As we know, post-holocaust Germany is an example of that.
It is in this spirit that this six-day event is being organised. To serve as a platform where all of us stand together for preserving the ‘memory’ against ‘forgetting’.* Organizer’s note)
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k i s k a J i s m / w h o s e b o d y? 
Here’s wishing you all the best
Comment by Abdul March 20, 2007 @ 2:23 amShukriya!
Comment by Screen Sifar March 21, 2007 @ 11:42 am