Int'l Women's Day

March 8 is Int'l Women's Day.

To mark this day, students, activists, social workers and womens' groups assembled in the capital and walked down the streets with placards, chanting slogans, and singing songs. My favorite part of the procession was the women who sat on the back of the truck in mid-day traffic and sang songs with a tambourine in the typical dholak fashion that one typically sees at something like a wedding. This was a nice inversion of what is expected...

In India, the rising price of food has already been the source of protests. Basic staples like rice and lentils have become really costly...too costly in a country where about 40% of the population falls below the poverty line and where a third of the global poor reside. So, this year's placards and songs included phrases not only about freedom from more conventional forms of violence but also freedom from the rising cost of living...