#amita kanekar

[infantisimo]

"Thus, the new hostile designs would not cause surprise among those they are targeting, nor, definitely, anger among the educated. The latter never question why some people need to take shelter in the open; we just accept the situation as normal and natural, that the poor deserve no better, and that public facilities are ours alone. When the society is itself hostile to the weakest, hostile architecture seems – not monstrous – but the perfect solution.

India is not likely to see such protests, nor even such a great psychological impact. Because we hardly have any concept of really public spaces anyway, and never had. There were no public spaces, open to all, till the Europeans arrived. The nationalists like to blame European rule for all India’s problems, but it was under their rule that the growing cities were provided the first designed public open spaces, and also the consciousness that these are important for public health. But the Indian governments that have followed have been uncomfortable with such things. Because caste society doesn’t believe in equal access to anything. Hierarchy is the norm here, and public spaces don’t go well with hierarchy. Thus, even pavements (which are used by all, but more by the poor) are seen as a waste here. And Bombay, India’s richest city, which ranks very low in per capita public open space among the world’s cities, and whose streets are full of people sleeping rough in the dead of the night, figures in lists of the world’s most hostile architecture.

The public that is considered worthy of having public facilities here is just the so-called ‘middle class’, which cannot afford the private recreation spaces of the super-elites, but is not much less elite itself, belonging as it does to the top 10-15% of the population in wealth and privilege. That’s why bus stops will have pipes as seating, but not airports – the ‘public’ in the two kinds of public transport is different. That’s also why public open spaces in Indian cities are so few, with none at all in villages – they are aimed at just this 10-15%. And it is this urban educated ‘middle class’ which demands that public spaces charge for entry, and unashamedly asserts that only this will keep unwanted/dirty/rowdy people out."

[the-literata-letters]

reading list - historical fiction

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☐  AKILAN – Vengayin maindan ☐  ALENCAR, José de – Iracema ☐  ALENCAR, José de – O Guarani ☐  ALLENDE, Isabel – La Isla Bajo el Mar ☐  ANDRIĆ, Ivo – The Bridge on the Drina ☐  ATWOOD, Margaret – Alias Grace ☐  ATWOOD, Margaret – The Blind Assassin ☐  BARICCO, Alessandro – Seta ☐  BOYDEN, Joseph – Three Day Road ☐  BOYDEN, Joseph – The Orenda ☐  BUCK, Pearl S. – East Wind: West Wind ☐  BUCK, Pearl S. – The House of Earth Trilogy ☐  BUCK, Pearl S. – China Trilogy ☐  BUCK, Pearl S. – Dragon Seed & The Promise ☐  BUCK, Pearl S. – Pavilion of Women ☐  BUCK, Pearl S. – Peony ☐  BULGAKOV, Mikhail – The White Guard ☐  BURTON, Jessie – The Minaturist ☐  BUTT, Razia – Bano ☐  CAREY, Peter – Jack Maggs ☐  CAREY, Peter – Oscar and Lucinda ☐  CAREY, Peter – True History of the Kelly Gang ☐  CARPENTIER, Alejo – El reino de este mundo ☐  CATHER, Willa – Death Comes for the Archbishop ☐  CATTON, Eleanor – The Luminaries ☐  CERVANTES SAAVEDRA, Miguel de – El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha ☐  CHATTOPADHYAY, Bankim Chandra – Durgeshnandini ☐  CHATTOPADHYAY, Bankim Chandra – Anandamath ☐  CHEVALIER, Tracy – Girl with a Pearl Earring ☐  CHOY, Wayson – The Jade Peony ☐  CHOY, Wayson – All That Matters ☐  CLAUS, Hugo – Het verdriet van België ☐  CLAVELL, James – The Asian Saga ☐  COETZEE, J. M. – Waiting for the Barbarians ☐  CONIGLIO, Angelo F. – La Ruotaia ☐  CONRAD, Joseph – The Rover ☐  COOPER, James Fenimore – Leatherstocking Tales Pentology ☐  COSTER, Charles De – La Légende...d'Ulenspiegel et de Lamme Goedzak... ☐  CRANE, Stephen – The Red Badge of Courage ☐  DAVIS, Lindsey – Falco series ☐  DeLILLO, Don – Libra ☐  de MADARIAGA, Salvador – El corazón de piedra verde ☐  DICKENS, Charles – A Tale of Two Cities ☐  DOCTOROW, E. L. – Ragtime ☐  DONALD, Angus – Outlaw Chronicles ☐  DRUON, Maurice – Les Rois maudits ☐  DUMAS, Alexandre (père) – The DÁrtagnan Romances ☐  DUMAS, Alexandre (père) – Le Comte de Monte-Cristo ☐  DUMAS, Alexandre (père) – La Tulipe Noire ☐  ECO, Umberto – Il nome della rosa ☐  ECO, Umberto – I'isola del giorno prima ☐  ECO, Umberto – Baudolino ☐  ECO, Umberto – La Misteriosa Fiamma della Regina Loana ☐  ECO, Umberto – Il cimitero di Praga ☐  ELIOT, George – Romola ☐  ELIOT, George – Middlemarch ☐  ENDŌ, Shūsaku – Chinmoku ☐  FARRELL, J. G. – The Siege of Krishnapur ☐  FARRELL, J. G. – Troubles ☐  FAST, Howard – Spartacus ☐  FOWLES, John – The French Lieutenant's Woman ☐  FRASER, George MacDonald – Flashman ☐  GEDGE, Pauline – Scroll of Saqqara ☐  GHOSH, Amitav – Ibis Trilogy ☐  GOLON, Anne – Angélique series ☐  GRAVES, Robert – I, Claudius ☐  GRENVILLE, Kate – The Secret River ☐  HAGGARD, Sir H. Rider – King Solomon's Mines ☐  HARRIS, Robert – An Officer and a Spy ☐  HELLER, Joseph – Catch-22 ☐  HIJĀZĪ, Nasīm – Khaak aur Khoon ☐  HILL, Lawrence – The Book of Negroes ☐  HOLLAND, Cecelia – City of God ☐  HOLLAND, Cecelia – The Lords of Vaumartin ☐  HUGO, Victor – Quatrevingt-treize ☐  HUGO, Victor – Les Misérables ☐  HYDER, Qurratulain – Aag Ka Darya ☐  IBÁÑEZ, Vicente Blasco – Los cuatro jinetes del Apocalipsis ☐  IRVING, Washington – Tales of the Alhambra ☐  JENNINGS, Gary – Aztec ☐  JENNINGS, Gary – Aztec Autumn ☐  JENNINGS, Gary – Raptor ☐  JIN YONG – all works ☐  JOAQUIN, Nick – The Woman Who Had Two Navels ☐  JOHNSTON, Wayne – The Colony of Unrequited Dreams ☐  JOSÉ, Francisco Sionil – Po-on ☐  JUAN MANUEL, Don – Libro do los enxiemplos del Conde Lucanor et de Patronio ☐  KADARE, Ismail – Gjenerali i ushtrisë së vdekur ☐  KANEKAR, Amita – A Spoke in the Wheel ☐  KAYE, M. M. – The Far Pavilions ☐  KENEALLY, Thomas – Bring Larks and Heroes ☐  KENNEDY, William – Albany Cycle ☐  KIDD, Sue Monk – The Secret Life of Bees ☐  KINGSLEY, Charles – Westward Ho! ☐  KRISHNAMURTHY, Kalki – Parthiban Kanavu ☐  KRISHNAMURTHY, Kalki – Sivagamiyin Sabatham ☐  KRISHNAMURTHY, Kalki – Ponniyin Selvan ☐  LEONARDOS, George – Palaiologan Dynasty series ☐  LITTELL, Jonathan – Les Bienveillantes ☐  LISS, David – The Coffee Trader ☐  LOWRY, Lois – Number the Stars ☐  MALRAUX, Georges André – Les Conquérants ☐  MALRAUX, Georges André – La Voie Royale ☐  MALRAUX, Georges André – La condition humaine ☐  MANTEL, Hilary – A Place of Greater Safety ☐  MANZONI, Alessandro – I promessi sposi ☐  MARTINEZ, Tomás Eloy – Santa Evita ☐  MASTOOR, Khadija – Aangan ☐  McCORMMACH, RUSSELL – Night Thoughts of a Classical Physicist ☐  McCARTHY, Cormac – Blood Meridian ☐  MEHTA, Nandshankar – Karan Ghelo ☐  MICHENER, James A. – all works ☐  MIKSZÁTH, Kálmán – A fekete város ☐  MIN, Anchee – Wild Ginger ☐  MITCHELL, David – The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet ☐  MITCHELL, Margaret – Gone with the Wind ☐  MORANTE, Elsa – La Storia ☐  MORRISON, Toni – Beloved ☐  MORRISON, Toni – Jazz ☐  MULTATULI – Max Havelaar ☐  NEWTON, Nerida – The Lambing Flat ☐  NINH, Bảo – Nỗi buồn chiến tranh ☐  OKSANEN, Sofi – Puhdistus ☐  ONDAATJE, Michael – In the Skin of a Lion ☐  PATTERSON, James & GROSS, Andrew – The Jester ☐  PENNER, Sarah – The Lost Apothecary ☐  PÉREZ-REVERTE, Arturo – Captain Alatriste novels ☐  PÉREZ-REVERTE, Arturo – Falcó novels ☐  PÉREZ-REVERTE, Arturo – El maestro de esgrima ☐  PÉREZ-REVERTE, Arturo – La Reina del Sur ☐  PÉREZ-REVERTE, Arturo – El pintor de batallas ☐  PHILLIPS, Arthur – Prague ☐  PHILLIPS, Arthur – The King at the Edge of the World ☐  PILLAI, C. V. Raman – novel trilogy ☐  POPE, Barbara Corrado – Cézanne's Quarry ☐  POPE, Barbara Corrado – The Blood of Lorraine ☐  POPE, Barbara Corrado – The Missing Italian Girl ☐  PRAMOEDYA, Ananta Toer – Buru Quartet ☐  PRESSFIELD, Steven – Gates of Fire ☐  PRESSFIELD, Steven – Tides of War ☐  PRESSFIELD, Steven – The Afghan Campaign ☐  PRUS, Bolesław – Faraon ☐  PUZO, Mario – The Godfather universe ☐  PUZO, Mario – The Family ☐  PYNCHON, Thomas – Gravity's Rainbow ☐  PYNCHON, Thomas – Mason & Dixon ☐  READE, Charles – The Cloister and the Hearth ☐  RENAULT, Mary – The Last of the Wine ☐  RENAULT, Mary – The Mask of Apollo ☐  RENAULT, Mary – The King Must Die ☐  RICHARDS, D. Manning – Destiny in Sydney ☐  RIZAL, José – Noli Me Tángere ☐  RIZAL, José – El filibusterismo ☐  RUSHDIE, Salman – Midnight's Children ☐  RUTHERFURD, Edward – Russka ☐  SABATO, Ernesto – Sobre héroes y tumbas ☐  SANGHI, Ashwin – Chanakya's Chant ☐  SANKRITYAYAN, Rahul – Volga Se Ganga ☐  SARAMAGO, José – Memorial do Convento ☐  SATYANARAYANA, Viswanatha – Veyi Padagalu ☐  SCOTT, Sir Walter – Quentin Durward ☐  SCOTT, Sir Walter – Tales of the Crusaders ☐  SCOTT, Sir Walter – Ivanhoe ☐  SHAN, Sa – Porte de la paix céleste ☐  SHAN, Sa – La Joueuse de go ☐  SHAN, Sa – La cithare nue ☐  SIENKIEWICZ, Henryk – The Trilogy ☐  SMILEY, Jane – The Greenlanders ☐  SOMOZA, José Carlos – La caverna de las ideas ☐  STEPHENSON, Neal – Cryptonomicon ☐  STIFTER, Adalbert – Witiko ☐  STYRON, William – Sophie's Choice ☐  TOLSTOY, Leo – War and Peace ☐  TOMASI, Giuseppe (di Lampedusa) – Il Gattopardo ☐  TREMAYNE, Peter – Sister Fidelma mysteries ☐  UNDSET, Sigrid – Kristin Lavransdatter ☐  UNDSET, Sigrid – Olav Audunssøn novels ☐  VARGAS LLOSA, Mario – La guerra del fin del mundo ☐  VARGAS LLOSA, Mario – La Fiesta del Chivo ☐  VIDAL, Gore – Narratives of Empire ☐  WALLACE, Lew – Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ ☐  WALTARI, Mika – Sinuhe egyptiläinen ☐  WALTARI, Mika – Mikael Karvajalka ☐  WILDER, Thornton – The Bridge of San Luis Rey ☐  WOOLF, Virginia – Orlando: A Biography ☐  YERBY, Frank – Goat Song ☐  YOURCENAR, Marguerite – L'Œuvre au noir ☐  ŻEROMSKI, Stefan – Wierna rzeka ☐  ZIMLER, Richard – The Warsaw Anagrams ☐  ZIMLER, Richard – The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon ☐  ZUSAK, Markus – The Book Thief