April
1-3, 2004
Massachusetts Institute
of Technology
Speaker Profiles
R Raj Rao
Ghalib Shiraz Dhalla
Harjant Gill
Ruth Vanita
Elizabeth Abraham (Moderator)
R Raj Rao
Professor and Writer, Pune, India
R Raj Rao was born in Bombay, India. He studied in India (PhD in English from the University of Bombay, 1986) and received the Nehru Centenary British Fellowship for his post-doctoral research at the Centre for Caribbean Studies, University of Warwick, UK. In 1996, he attended the International Writing Program, Iowa. He is the author of Slide Show (poems), One Day I Locked My Flat in Soul City (short stories), The Wisest Fool on Earth and Other Plays and Nissim Ezekiel: The Authorized Biography. He has also edited Ten Indian Writers in Interview and co-edited Image of India in the Indian Novel in English (1960–1980). A professor of English at the University of Pune, Rao is also one of India’s leading gay-rights activists. He has traveled extensively, to read from his work and conduct writing workshops, in several cities in different parts of the world.
Six poems from Rao's BomGay collection were the basis of Riyad Vinci Wadia's path breaking film – BomGay (1996), India's first gay film. The Boyfriend is Rao's first novel and the first gay novel from India. It was released with fanfare by Penguin India all over the country in 2003 and acclaimed as one of the year's finest books. Full of irreverent, dry humor and devoid of sentimentality, the novel is a tragi-comic love story from the jumbled up heart of Mumbai. In the process, it also examines with unsparing irony the realities of caste, class, religion, masculinity and the gay subculture in India.
Ghalib Shiraz Dhalla
Writer and Banker, Los Angeles
Los Angeles-based writer Ghalib Shiraz Dhalla was born in Mombassa, Kenya where at age 5 he discovered his true calling and began writing his first novel. It wasn't until he was 13 years old; the aspiring young novelist published his first article on infertility in a national magazine. Since then he's written for various publications including Genre, Instinct, Detour and Details where he covers film reviews, celebrity profiles and spirituality.
Dhalla first started to write Ode to Lata as a series of vignettes. He was inspired by his love of Bollywood film music (especially the playback singing of renowned Lata Mangeshkar) and his desire to understand issues closest to his heart - the complexities of familial ties, the Indian diaspora and how art is the ultimate director of our pathos. The novel freely moves back and forth between time and continents, painting a compelling picture of love and longing across three generations.
East Indian in heritage and a passionate activist, Dhalla co-founded the South Asian program for AIDS intervention for the Asian Pacific Aids Intervention Team in L.A. and continues his outreach and education efforts through Trikone Los Angeles. Currently, he is working on his second novel The Two Krishnas and has completed the screen adaptation of Ode to Lata, which has been optioned for a motion picture.
Harjant Gill
Filmmaker and Student, San Francisco
Originally from India, Harjant Gill moved to the U.S. at the age of 15. Now 21, he is studying Cultural Anthropology and Filmmaking at San Francisco State University. He identifies himself as a social activist, working primarily on the issues surrounding the gay community. In the summer of 2001, Harjant worked on a film called As If It Matters. He worked with a group of gay youth to come up the concept and create this film, which addresses issues surrounding the gay youth community. The film won the 2002 Golden Gate Youth Project of the Year Award. Last year, Harjant worked on a collaborative video installation with Teaching Inter-media Literacy Tools addressing the impact of globalization on different aspects of our lives. Possible SIDE EFFECTS may include...was displayed at the San Francisco Arts Commissions Gallery.
Everything, Harjant's short film, screened at numerous film festivals, including the 2003 International Asian American Film Festival and the 2003 DC Asian American Film Festival. His current film projects include an ethnographic film about the lives of two Transgender Latina women and the issues they have to deal with and Mission Movie, a feature film exploring the diversity of life and relationships in the Mission district of SF. Harjant is currently servings as a member of the board of directors for TILT and is also the co-director of Earth Train’s media literacy program in Panama. In the future, Harjant hopes to become a Visual Anthropologist and continue working as an activist to encourage change in the community.
Ruth Vanita
Professor, writer, editor and translator, Montana
Ruth Vanita is Professor of Liberal Studies and Women's Studies at University of Montana. She taught at Delhi University for many years, and was founding co-editor of Manushi women's magazine from 1978 to 1990. She is the author of Sappho and the Virgin Mary: Same Sex Love and the English Literary Imagination (1996); coauthor of Same-Sex Love in India: Readings from Literature and History (2000), and editor of Queering India (2002). Among her translations are Strangers on the Roof (translation of a Hindi novel by Rajendra Yadav;1994) and Dilemma and Other Stories (translation of fiction by Vijay Dan Detha; 1997). Vanita has been awarded an ACLS-SSRC-NEH fellowship for 2003-04 to work on a book on same sex marriage and its antecedents in India.
Elizabeth Abraham was born in Mombasa, Kenya to Malayalee parents, and currently resides in the Boston area. An artist, activist and entrepreneur, she is active in many New England organizations, including Girls Inc., Cinemascope, and MASALA. Her writing has appeared in Shaktee Kee Awaar: Voices of Strength, and her photography has been displayed in several Boston area venues. Elizabeth is active in organizations that build community, encourage girls to pursue the sciences, and work towards ending violence against women.
A founder of the Freeboard Consulting Group, she has held senior executive positions in several international software and services companies.
For further information
on the event, contact Parmesh Shahani
via
email (parmesh@mit.edu) or phone
(617.899.6495)