ZINES!!!

I confess I never knew what a ZINE meant! In fact, I even pronounced it wrong uttering 'Ziii-ne' instead of 'Zine' as in 'Magazine.' My very first Zine was from Bombay Underground. It's a non-profit organization that collects, stocks, sells, resells books, organizes second-hand book sales and a lot of other interesting things, one among which is publishing zines, in Mumbai. So, one August eve last year, I met my friend Shree just the next day after my gruesome exams at this cool place called The Hive. There was an exhibition and this place is located in Khar which was the basis of its appeal to both Shree and me. We entered The Hive and walked along this long tunnel-ish space adorned with black painted walls and some paintings. It gave way to a beautiful open space which had a small table with books spread on it, and a rack of books on the opposite side. The other corner across the room had a lovely Trellis covered seating space with a big table and small iron-back chairs. It seemed like a cove with just the stuff needed for a cozy evening- Books and tea. What else does one need?

Shree and me hungrily went through the book racks and the table and picked up dozens of Zines. Our excited high-pitched voices even made the guy in-charge there come out of his small office. Earlier he was just watching us through the glass partition. We kept beaming and giggling like small girls after discovering a wealth of beloved books. I know how infectious laughter is because we were soon joined by some other girls there. Shree and me literally divided the Zines between us. We kept reading to each other. Needless to say our reading reached a point where we finished reading all of them right there. It was crazy.

Civil Rights Movement, Woodstock Villa, Feminism, Bell Hooks, Black Panthers, Girl Power, Freedom Riders, War and everything that should be read about today. One of the Zines is about Education System and the rotten methodology that focuses on rote learning and credit systems without emphasis on knowledge, Of course, School education does not and is highly handicapped to equip students to deal with their lives, They are governed first by the education board that practises and authorizes bookish set of values instead of cultivating pragmatism in schools. Second, it fails to inculcate the mechanism to think. What it propagates instead is bygone era clutching and belonging! That's why Zines have appealed to me so much. I re-read them regularly. Usually they lift my spirits when I see the grave injustice and inequality still persistent; my troubles seem utterly tiny then. Someday, I am contributing my own verse to Zines. Not far from today.