City of Women

by Samyuktha Varma

A couple of years ago, Radhika and I had the great privilege of visiting SPARROW and interviewing its founder, the writer and oral historian C.S Lakshmi. At the time we were working on an episode for In the Field, our podcast about India and development, and trying to find a different way to talk about what we were learning about female workforce participation — which had been stagnating at the time. Having worked in NGOs, we were familiar with the frustration of feminists and women’s organizations with having to constantly make arguments that quantified women’s contributions, so that they would be deserving of loans or healthcare or welfare. As long as the value of women were going to be tied to these instrumentalist arguments, what kinds of aspirations were they even allowed to have? This was the question we were left with.

One of the last interviews we did for that episode was with CS Lakshmi. We wanted to find a way to talk about stories. And how important they were for dreaming, especially for women’s dreams. As we talked we learnt about her story — about why she started the archive, a decision not to work in rural development, as many of her feminist colleagues did at the time, but to become an archivist. And then she told us this:

Once a Maharashtrian family here, approached us and they said “We have an old grandmother in the house. And in the Second World War she walked from Burma and crossed the border and came to India. And she would like to record it. Will you come?” So of course we went and we recorded. She was an old lady, she spoke in Marathi about how she came and then a lot of my feminist friends asked me “So what is so feminist about walking from Burma and crossing the border and coming to India?” I said that “Crossing the border and walking all the way from Burma and coming to India may not be feminist, but wanting to record it is feminist.”

A big part of the idea for City of Women, our new show came from this moment — from thinking about the power of story, and our hunger for stories of women doing things. And we wondered what we would want to tell stories about.

We found ourselves talking about Bangalore, the city we were from, and how we inhabit it. How our own ideas of public space were shaped, from being discouraged to go out and explore the city by ourselves when we were young, to all the messages about safety and ‘good middle class’ values. To the moments when these ideas changed — when the necessity of college or work took us to unfamiliar places, alone, all the times we tagged along for the ride and regretted it, all the times we were the instigators of adventure. We talked about what we learnt through those experiences.

And as we continued to explore we were inspired by others who have also taken on these questions about women and space. Books like Why Loiter, Rebecca Solnit’s writing, feminist utopias like Sultana’s Dream and The Book of the City of Ladies, art projects like Blank Noise, and movements like #pinjratod, and #iwillgoout.

But was there a show there?

As the idea evolved, it became about navigating two places — the physical world, the city and its streets, and the mental map made up of the things we’ve been taught, ideas we’ve nurtured and experiences that have shaped us. There had to be a way to tell the stories at the intersection of mind, body, and street. Everyday stories from everyday moments that are rarely given the privilege of having a listener.

Months later we applied to be a part of the Google Podcast creator program with our idea for City of Women. We were selected to be a part of their second cohort, and we were thrilled to receive the support of Google and PRX to help make this show.

City of Women is about the calculated strategies, the backdoor negotiations and the sometimes absurd lengths women go to have fun and feel free in their city. The show is part interview and part tour, through which you hear a story, learn about a life, and go on a small adventure in the city.

We launched the City of Women trailer just before International Women’s Day at an intimate, live event at the Bangalore International Centre. You can listen to the trailer here and subscribe to the show here, and if you have a story you’d like to share with us write to team@vaaka.in

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