A Time To Reflect

charukesi November 30th, 2005

I hope some good comes out of this appeal for one rupee a day for Project Why. A few popular blogs had linked to the post as well (thanks Amit, Uma, Abi, desipundit); more people have seen Anouradha’s modest appeal, will they also act on it?

No one has responded with ideas on what we can do further with blogs for fund-raising for such causes. So here is my own idea: the next time there is a blogger’s meet in any city, can each of the bloggers put aside for a good cause the money they have spent on their coffee there. If each of us spends 50 rupees on coffee there and puts aside 50 rupees, at the end of the blogger’s meet, we have not just ten (or twenty or more) happy bloggers who have their next post ready, but a bunch of happy children - who possibly have eaten a meal or receive medical tretment with the money.

I am not personally invovled in Project Why (or any such project) yet - regrets. But as a blogger, I believe in the power of many. I can make a beginning this way… I also know that bloggers in Bangalore have been thinking about doing something together this way.

What do you think?

***

May be very late in pointing out this - but I recently came across the world community grid project. In the debate of leaving computer on v/s switching it off after each use, I side with the former. The project is an effort to use your computer in its idle time. This is from the site - World Community Grid’s mission is to create the largest public computing grid benefiting humanity. Our work is built on the belief that technological innovation combined with visionary scientific research and large-scale volunteerism can change our world for the better. Our success depends on individuals - like you - collectively contributing their unused computer time to this not-for-profit endeavor.

They have a new fight AIDS @home project for which I am going to start donating my computer time. Please sign up for that right now. (And imagine having this on your CV, ‘helped find cure for AIDS). Thanks!

• The World of Indsight , Society & Development
• Comments Off

charukesi November 28th, 2005

‘A time to reflect’ feels neglected. I have been busy elsewhere.

Read my piece on indibloggies The Great Indian blog bhelpuri (continued here). In this post, I have argued that for a blog to stand out amidst the clutter, it is essential to focus on content. In other words, be a specialist blog. And this is what I am attempting with my other blog(s).

On media musings is Disbelief and defensiveness : the SBI story.

And Mindspace continues to be regularly updated too. Latest post there - ease of googling.

So far so good.

• The World of Indsight
• Comments(3)

charukesi November 24th, 2005

But what I do? What can an individul do?

Anuradha at Project Why believes that not only do individuals matter but even single rupee contributions to a cause do.

Which is why this plea for a rupee day donors.

If you have not heard of Project Why, please read about it here and here. Pwhy is about a remarkable lady Anuradha Bakshi and her commitment to making a difference to the lives of hundreds of underpriveleged children .

First check out this pledge at pledgebank.

We keep talking about the power of the blogosphere and the differene we can make. Will the blogosphere please respond to this call for help?

This is how can help :

Please start with making your one rupee a day (or more definitely) contributions towards the cause.
Please spread the word around.
Please leave your ideas and suggestions on what else Anu can do in this effort. And how bloggers can help. Ammani had run this short story competition to raise funds for the effort. Any more ideas?

And if you are wondering why one rupee, here goes…

• Children and youth , Society & Development
• Comments(9)

charukesi November 22nd, 2005

Announcing my new blog Mindspace at wordpress. While regular programming will continue here as usual, Mindspace will have more focus on my work areas - qualitative research, ethnography, design and usability, innovations, new technology and such.

Do head there for a dekko. Suggestions and feedback welcome and if nice, much appreciated.

****

My first real post there was on the growing youth-mobile phone market and instant messaging. As I finished writing that, I saw this on BBC - Literary classics become txt msgs. And how!

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE : 5Sistrs WntngHsbnds. NwMeninTwn-Bingly&Darcy. Fit&Loadd.BigSis Jane Fals 4B,2ndSisLiz H8s D Coz Hes Proud. Slimy Soljr Wikam Sys DHs Shady Past.Trns Out Hes Actuly ARlyNysGuy &RlyFancysLiz. She Decyds She Lyks Him.Evry1 Gts Maryd.

• The World of Indsight
• Comments(9)

charukesi November 21st, 2005

21 MOST LIKELY QUESTION SETS STD - X SOLD HERE

I was passing by and I just had to stop at this shop window. And I just had to take out my mobile phone to take this picture.

In the course of research, I have come across students who believe that school is just a necessary evil - grin and bear it - whereas tuition is where the real action is. I have met teachers who frankly admit to not paying attention to class work because most of the students come for tuitions anyway. (As for those who don’t, well, tough luck for them). And parents who find school books a “waste” and goad their children into studying only using study guides and such exam “guess papers”.

This is the state of education in India.

• - Education
• Comments(12)

charukesi November 18th, 2005

Just a quick plug to say that Media Musings is up and running again after a longish break. Head there to read the latest post Television looking beyond Bollywood. For those new here, Media Musings is a blog that Harini and I author together. The blog is devoted to the media scene in India and we cover topics ranging from print to television to advertising and new media there.

Please check it out. And keep checking it out regularly from now - that will also keep us (Harini and me) on our toes

• The World of Indsight
• Comments Off

charukesi November 16th, 2005

Scary says Aparna of newsinlimerick - about this article in The Telegraph. Ants nibble at hospital patient’s eye.

I have just finished reading Meher Pestonji’s Sadak Chhaap, a hard-hitting account of the life of street children. And I thought of the book now because that is how the “hero” of the book Rahul first discovers the abandoned baby girl on the railway platform - wrapped in a newspaper with big-big ants all over her face. He takes the help of Aparna who runs Sharan, a shelter for street children and the baby is admitted in hospital.

And with that, Rahul’s life changes. The ten year old sadak chhaap who has run away from his mother and home suddenly becomes a proud papa. Through the story, Rahul is driven by a sense of restlessness, of wanting something more but not quite knowing what or how to find it. And the only phase in his short life when that feeling is stilled is during the time he spends with baby Kajol.

Kajol is duly adopted, rechristened Tina by her new parents and Rahul moves on. To a worse life than he has known till then. There is no respite through the narration; the story gets darker as it progresses, with glimmers of light in between. With no rainbow at the end, however. In this journey, Rahul discovers drugs, faces abuse and harrassment, learns that making money is the important thing and not how it is earned; he also finds love and affection in the form of his attachment towards Kajol and the support of his friends from Sharan.

Sadak Chhaap is a story about life on the streets - harsh, unforgiving and ever ready to exploit the weak and vulnerable. It is a story of kindness - people like Aparna who run Sharan where street kids are given ministerial portfolios to make them perform their duties with a sense of pride. It is also a story of hope - of Victor and Shekhar who move out of the shelter to set up their own small business. But in the end, it is the story of Rahul who is so addicted to the life that brings in the money that he wants to go back to it, the life that his friends try desperately to make him give up - drugs and prostitution.

It is also a subtle lesson on the folly of making snap judgments about what is right and what is not. When Rahul steals a toy from a child to give it as a gift to baby Kajol, he is not doing anything wrong. When he “borrows” a bicycle for joy ride, he is perplexed when others think of it as stealing. All these are about survivial - and snatching happy moments duing this struggle for survival on the streets.

I read the book at one go. It is not a light entertaining read, but if you have ever seen children on the streets in Mumbai and wondered about how they eat and where they sleep, this is a must-read. I finished reading the book and thought to myself that Rahul was actually one of the luckier ones - he had friends and support… most of them don’t.

• On my bookshelf
• Comments(3)

charukesi November 14th, 2005

“Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for - in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it” - Ellen Goodman, American journalist (1941 - )

Talk of perspective.

• Pot-pourri
• Comments(9)

charukesi November 11th, 2005

I am feeling increasingly uncomfortable about all the “power of blogging” chest thumping going around. Look at our muscles, just look at how we bloggers have set the biggies to their heels. Atleast in India, bloggers are a very small, almost miniscule proprotion of internet users, who are a very small percentage of the population to begin with. Then, where is the question of making an impact. And on whom?

On the other hand, thinking about it, no denying that bloggers are making some difference. Take an uncontroversial situation, book reviews for instance. The Jabberwock’s piece in Business Standard says - Publishers and filmmakers are among those looking at web logs as tools of publicity — which could be the first step towards the mainstreaming of blogs. But limited connectivity is still an obstacle. Recently, publishing biggie Simon and Schuster approached a few Indian bloggers, including me - not the biggie lit bloggers - to have them read and review a couple of new titles on their own blogs.

Taking just the blogging world, such promotion is limited in its reach. Along with being cheap and effective. Then why does it make sense to use blogs for promotion and consider bloggers influential? Pardon me if I am stating the obvious here but bloggers are people too. We all have, well, most of us have lives beyond blogging (a fact that we seem to forget in this whole discussion about we the bloggers). And in that life, we meet other people who value our opinions and judgments, just as we do theirs. And what information I gain from reading other blogs, I pass on to people “offline”.

That is what the Power of Word of Mouth is all about. …that finds that consumers are “50% more likely to be influenced by word-of-mouth recommendations from their peers than by radio/TV ads. That was the idea behind this earlier post too - Shopping and advertising on blogs.

Taking a slightly more controversial situation, viz. the recent IIPM brouhaha, I see the issue as being larger than just we bloggers versus the rest of the world, specifically big bad IIPM. In the excitement of thinking about the impact that bloggers have made or can make with their blogs, there has been no mention of the power of negative word-of-mouth publicity that such an incident generates. One blogger tells ten other people (not necessarily bloggers) and each of the ten tells ten others… you get the drift.

• The World of Indsight
• Comments(9)

charukesi November 11th, 2005

We went back to the old age home last evening. They look for donations to buy provisions and we had offered to buy their sugar every month. Our point of contact earlier and yesterday was Sunaina. Sunaina is always neatly dressed, her sari pinned up and face bright and smiling as she welcomed us. She was sitting with the others on the sofa in the common area watching television.

As we handed over the sugar packets, Sunaina insisted that we stay back for dinner - we had refused on Diwali day since there was family waiting for us back at home. When we refused again yesterday, she insisted that we have some snacks - yesterday was a trustees’ meet at the home and there was batata wada in their honour. As we finished our batata wada and rose to leave, Sunanina said, thank you so much for accepting it.

They were sharing their food with us and they were thanking us for eating it.

She repeated her thanks for the sugar - the same words that had made us squirm in embarrassment earlier - thank you, sir, thank you, madam, it is very kind of you. She is older than my mother - she should not be calling me madam - for any reason. I held her hands - aunty, please don’t call me madam - I feel very bad - my name is Charu.

I had only seen Sunaina smile till then. As I said it, she had tears in her eyes. And she looked away. And I walked out swiftly - but I could not hold back my tears the way she did.

Sunaina - and each one of the women there - have seen better lives. They have led lives of comfort; that comfort which comes from material things, and more importantly, that which comes from caring for and being cared for by your family and children. They should not have to go through this. They should not have to ask people for donations to buy sugar. They should not have to call people much younger than them sir. They should not have to live so far away from their children, seeing them only in the sweets they send at Diwali and the presents they send on their birthdays. And the occasional photographs - see how tall your grandchild has become.

But then, what do I say? That they are better off than the others… others without a place to live, or those living in places like this…? Abandoned children still have hope, a future, a life to look forward to. Abandoned parents?

• Indiawatch
• Comments(8)