Connected by a conflicted past, but also by the continuums of shared waters, language, cuisine, cultures, climatic conditions, fishing systems, art and dance forms - Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka have a long, shared history. Shared Tides is an attempt to relook at the very ideology/notion of borders, citizenship and identity cross shared by these two geographies.
As neighbours, who live and breathe within their respective borders, is there a way for these tides to be seen as a shared phenomenon - as a ground of shared realities, differences, yet hope?
Tides, symbolic of the highs and lows, as well as of the borders they touch, never exist in isolation. In that sense, they re-emphasise the nature of sharing, and that all our basic needs are all from shared sources. They also represent the commonality among the differences that have bound us together over time. Tides, carrying memories of the highs and lows, are reservoirs of the past. Stories, if heard closely, make us hear numerous voices about these shared voices and a life lived - like a lullaby of a father, the want of a fisherman, the longing of a lover, the anger of a mother and many more!
