Conference in Lund

Two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to participate in an intimate circle of intellectuals from across the globe assembled by scholars Tatiana Thieme, Melissa García and Hannah Hillbrandt at the Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies in Sweden (LUCSUS). Together we discussed the intersections and inventions that take place across works of repair, climate change and informal living conditions in different geographies that the participants represented. We raised important questions including, but not limited to how uncertainties mould conditions of repair, what are the limits of resource and capacity, how do we imagine the social function of property, the dialectics between repair and resistance, how capital seems to capture 'repair', and many other thought-clusters. Through the exchange, we tried also, to build a history of the repair discourse as much ask asking how it has moved almost suddenly from "informality" to "repair" where the situation still remains the same in neo-liberal economies. The cohort put together the concepts that emerged across the cross-quadrants of space, scale, experience and techne and looked at the parabolic axis through which they begin to interact, resist, play and dance with each other, that are open to take new forms in the future.

The Final Peak by Kunwar Narayan - Translation

अंतिम ऊँचाई कुँवर नारायण कितना स्पष्ट होता आगे बढ़ते जाने का मतलब अगर दसों दिशाएँ हमारे सामने होतीं, हमारे चारों ओर नहीं। कितना आसान होता चलते चले जाना यदि केवल हम चलते होते बाक़ी सब रुका होता। मैंने अक्सर इस ऊलजलूल दुनिया को दस सिरों से सोचने और बीस हाथों से पाने की कोशिश में अपने लिए बेहद मुश्किल बना लिया है। शुरू-शुरू में सब यही चाहते हैं कि सब कुछ शुरू से शुरू हो, लेकिन अंत तक पहुँचते-पहुँचते हिम्मत हार जाते हैं। हमें कोई दिलचस्पी नहीं रहती कि वह सब कैसे समाप्त होता है जो इतनी धूमधाम से शुरू हुआ था हमारे चाहने पर। दुर्गम वनों और ऊँचे पर्वतों को जीतते हुए जब तुम अंतिम ऊँचाई को भी जीत लोगे— जब तुम्हें लगेगा कि कोई अंतर नहीं बचा अब तुममें और उन पत्थरों की कठोरता में जिन्हें तुमने जीता है— जब तुम अपने मस्तक पर बर्फ़ का पहला तूफ़ान झेलोगे और काँपोगे नहीं— तब तुम पाओगे कि कोई फ़र्क़ नहीं सब कुछ जीत लेने में और अंत तक हिम्मत न हारने में।

The Final Peak Kunwar Narayan How clear it would have meant to move ahead if all ten directions lay in front of us, and not around us. How easy it would have been to just keep walking if we were simply walking and everything else was still in my effort to grapple this convoluted world, often  thinking with ten heads and holding with twenty hands I have made it extremely difficult for myself. In the beginning, everyone wants  that everything should begin from the beginning But as they reach the end, they lose motivation. we become completely uninterested in how it all ends That which started with a bang upon our own will. After parsing inaccessible forests and crossing high mountains when one shall even win the last peak — when you will feel that there is no difference between you and the harshness of these rocks that you have conquered — When you will face the first snowstorm and not shiver — Then you will realise that there is no difference in winning everything and not losing hope until the end.