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“Saver”

Simon Gerbaud in his video “Saver” uses a beautiful and meditative deconstruction process to convey his message to us. He deconstructed several objects with different transitions. Some objects deconstructed as melting icebergs, while others as sand dunes, as crackers, as waves and wind. 

Like all the objects are made with the combination of all the elements on earth and at the end it becomes a part of the earth. It also shows that when we use these objects in our daily life,we only see the outer part of it. We should respect what we have and always remember what goes behind making these things which make life simpler.  

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Vow Shaped Mythology

Before I learned how to speak, write, and read, I learned how to join hands and bow in front of idols. I grew up as a religious person, I started taking interest in Hindu mythology like Ramayana and Mahabharata.

There was a time where October became my Ramayana month. As a kid, it means rides, icecream, “Tarika Wadh”, Dussehra, collecting bows and arrows, and idol masks.

Little did I knew that I was accepting the faith of Sita, Surpnlakha, decisions made by King Dushrat and Ram-Lakshman.

It seems like vows were taken too seriously in earlier times, no matter how nonsense it sounds or how partial it is. I noticed the same issue when I was watching Mahabharata. In both, the stories men are so saint that they can hardly see what is right and what is wrong. Ramayana shows biases and racism towards other religions and cultures. It shows that the people from Lanka look like the devil, with dark skin, long nails, and eats non-veg. When Surpnlakha reach Ram and told her feeling to him, instead of saying no they cut her nose.

Chirharan in Mahabharata shows another case of women harassment where Draupadi was undressed in front of the assembly. Men were sitting and watching it as nothing wrong is happening.

I think that these stories were not made to be seen as a benchmark for morality and proper living. Instead, it was made to teach that what can happen if you take wrong decisions. I have heard many versions of the same stories. I think whether we need to change the storyline according to today’s world or it needs to be taught and seen from a different perspective.  

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“I think this is the closest to how the footage looked” Yuval Hameiri

Yuval Hameriri expresses his emotions by using the objects. He created the abstract of the video which he lost by mistake. In this video he uses a pale yellow color tube to show his mother whereas an angel figure to show his sister. He shows himself as a doorknob and his father as a rigid wooden box. Even though the video is very appealing still it caters to a particular type of audience.

In the video he shows handycam which was present back in 2000. New generation and coming generation will never understand what is that object in the video majorly due to technological shift. For instance, on youtube, people show landline and payphone to young kids, but kids have no clue of the device. Same way handycam is used by a certain population, so only that part of the population will be able to relate with the video. It also shows that we should never take the assumption factor for granted and that is why empathy exists.

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The medium is the massage is the book written by Marshall McLuhan which is futuristic. According to him things which we build to shape our society are shaping us back. For instance, earlier only potters and sculptors used to make statues and sculptures whereas now with the help of softwares and 3D printers anyone can make their artwork. It's like you are becoming a creator. Following the above instance, if the same person clicks the photo of his work and posts it on facebook or instagram, then it can also mean that he has the power of broadcasting.

The medium is the massage was written way back in 1964, at that time there was no internet. It's astonishing to see that even after all these years it's still relatable and makes so much sence.  

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Individuality

Since I became conscious of myself and things around me, my parents, and relatives started telling me about society. Like, how important it is to think from the perspective of society before doing anything major. Society became so important that I forgot who I am, for whom I am living. Humans are social animals. A person can't live alone, we need someone to interact, someone to take care of us, someone to hold back. But the question remains the same. “Who am I”?

Am I the code from Aadhar card?

Am I someone who lives in Delhi?

Am I someone whose nationality is mentioned in the passport?

Am I my profession or degree that is held?

One thing which was missing is “individuality”.

According to Carl Jung Individuality is “self-realization”. It is something that makes someone unique from others. To study the personality of self or others, one can follow the individuality process. The process is divided into Persona, Shadow, Animus/Anima, and “The Self”.

Persona is a bridge between us and society. Shadows are fears, unfinished aspirations that bind us to shell of hesitation. Animus is masculine side of female whereas anima is unconscious female side of a male. Learning about “Self” is very important. People who are aware of themselves will never impose there fears or ambitions on others.

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Veg Biryani

Ingredients

Spices Bay leaf Cinnamon Caradamom Cloves Cumin seeds Stone Flower Green Chili Salt Garam Masala Red chilli powder Turmuric

vegetables Potato Peas Carrots Cauliflower baby corn Green capsicum Red capsicum Yellow Capsicum Soya Chunks Coriander leaves lemon Tomatos Ginger

Cottage cheese Ghee Rice

Ofcouse with “Rayta”

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Age of Mechanical Reproduction

Last summer I was watching the “Friends” series on Netflix. In one of the episodes,” Rachel buys an apothecary table from Pottery Barn for her and Phoebe's apartment, she learns from Monica that Phoebe hates Pottery Barn and its mass-produced products, because she believes there is no symbolic history behind them”. It was fun to watch, but I never questioned myself why it is so important for someone to own something with the history.

After reading “Age of Mechanical Reproduction” by Walter Benjamin, I was able to relate with Phoebe’s character. In earlier times text was mass produced in the form of posters, books and newspapers so that it can reach masses.So the people can react together around the world.  But they started mass producing other things like art. Which changes the meaning of art and its distribution but mostly it’s authenticity. Earlier Art was produced for its individuality and now it is made for reproducibility.

Today, almost each and every product we use is mass produced from comb to a laptop. Even though the product is mass produced the object is not a 100% replica of the original product which makes it unique. In this perspective, we are surrounded by art and in this run-of-the-mill life we forget to acknowledge the art unconsciously.

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Ethnography

It is the biggest tool for research practice, instead of doing interviews, deconstruction,or searching on the web, it allows you to do all it within the participant’s environment.

Ethnography helps you to understand the goals, culture, problems, thoughts and beleifs. For instance, if a luxury sports car company wants to open its showroom, but they forget to do ethnography and end up opening its showroom in a non-develop area. Choosing the wrong location leads to less visitors and huge drop in sales.

Ethnography helps to study cultural practices, challenges which further helps in developing better interfaces and laws. Writing about individual experience and interviews also helps to narrate a better story. Apart from cultural practices, ethnography also helps to break the stereotype.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is Nigerian women, ethnography helped her to break the stereotype about Africa. My opinion on Africa lifestyle was also based on the movies that I watched on Tv. Movies like Blood Diamond and series on Net Geography only show the dark and underdeveloped side of Africa. Not only the movies and documentary, books from British authors “ John lok” show that African are black, ugly with less hair, they are illiterate and live in the wild.

When Chimamanda moved to the USA for higher studies she was shocked by the behaviour of her classmates and professor. People assumed her to wore tribal clothes and listen to tribal music and speak broken english. In her speech “The danger of single story”, she talks about their own stereotype about Fide’s family. It is not about only African people but we have stereotypes almost for everyone. Facts need to be checked before taking into consideration.  

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Self-Respect Movement

In Varna, being born as a Scheduled caste is a curse. People since Vedic period are living with this curse. Many politicians, social activist and writers have tried to stop this discrimination.

EV Ramaswamy Naickar left the congress in 1924, saying that it is nothing but a Brahmanical upper class organisation. He added that the congress is not working on the problem like social discrimination and untouchability.

EV Ramaswamy Naickar was also known as Periyar. In the defence, he started the Self-Respect Movement. 

“One may live without esteem but the quality of life will also decrease. Life without pride means losing your own identity.”

According to his ideology, before fighting for self rule one must fight for self-respect. He was often called anti-brahminist. The movement mostly occurred in Madras. His idea was a bit similar to Dr Ambedkar ie, Welfare of “Dalits”.

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Being born in an Indian family, I was taught never to get angry at food or refuse to eat, even if you are not in a good mood. One thing I can say for sure is that “Roti” is like my all-time side dish that fills my empty stomach. Even in sociology when you read about basic human needs, it will say “Roti, Kapada Aur Makan”. It never says Biryani or Pulao.

When I was growing up I was introduced to some other words like Chapati and Phulka. First time I heard the word “Chapati” in my English textbook. And I heard the other word “Phulka” in my Punjabi neighbor’s house.

Even though I feel both “Chapati” and “Phulka” are the same, I still decide to ask the difference between the two. It would have been obvious to ask this question from aunty and helpers, as they cook meals for their families, but to make it more interesting I decided to include my friends. It was difficult to ask this question to my friends, as I was worried they might not take it seriously. Still, I asked the question and I was amused by the replies.

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According to Oxford dictionary “a manuscript or piece of writing material on which later writing has been superimposed on effaced earlier writing.”

But in other words (metaphor) its meaning is much bigger and wider. Palimpsest exists everywhere as everything we see is a superimposed/impression of its earlier form. For instance, in ancient times kings used runners to deliver their message from one to another kingdom. And as the evolution took place letters transform in telegram, telegram to landline, landline to mobile phones, phones to AR/VR. If we look at this evolution, we can witness that the primary objective was to send one's message to others.We can say that palimpsest is more like an upgradation of a pre-existing resource.

Following images show examples of palimpsest:

Impression of an Old house.

Painting over a painting.

Updation of phone software

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Stereotype

A stereotype is an impression or a belief,  created by mass, which reflects the character of members of a large social group.It is called “stereotype” because it has no justification or any kind of evidence to prove the facts. The character/thoughts might not or might be true, but it does not define one's culture/identity. Stereotype is a negative word when it is taken seriously and it becomes positive when used for entertainment purposes. 

The following videos show how stereotypes can be fun and entertaining when used in the correct manner.

Dilli De Sardarboys (Starboy Punjabi Version) ft. Aparshakti Khurana & Singhsta || TVF CoCan Studio

“Dilli De Sardarboys” was released in 2017 on youtube by TVF CoCan studio. This video is a combination of as many stereotypical thoughts one can have about Delhi sardar boys.

 Video starts with a wedding scene, which shows both groom and bride's name is “Jasmeet”,which is typical in punjabi families, as the names are similar for both genders.Video shows how partying at parking areas is a part of weddings, as all secret daru parties occur in the parking area.

Video also reflects the other aspects of being sadar and how sardar’s are above the traffic law as they don't need to wear helmets. 

Further it shows how punjabi families name their kids. Which is totally hilarious.

As a viewer, you will notice every single person dancing in this video on dhol beats, which shows thier passion and immense love toward bhangra.

Jordindian - Smoke Shisha Play Fifa - Stereotype of rich sheikh

In this video a rich Sheikh and Indian immigrant talks about how playing fifa and smoking shisha is a big part of their stereotypical lifestyle. Not only it shows how someone expects a Sheikh to look like, wearing white hawb and slippers and  from driving a luxury sports car to owning big cats in an abstract way.

It also shows that going Dubai is an aspiration for Indians and once they reach there, they get influenced by their obsession of playing fifa and smoking shisha.

Instead of showing big buildings and modern infrastructure the video shows desert and camel riding, which is another stereotype about Dubai.

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29 year old Masala Daani (spice box)

-Haldi (turmeric)

-Lal mirch (red chilli powder)

-Jeera (cumin seeds)

-Ajwain (carom seeds)

-Dhaniya (coriander powder)

-Methi dana (fenugreek seeds)

-Rai dana (mustard seeds)

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Bollywood is a big industry and has made marks on the international platform. Where it has given us movies like Mother India(1957) and Masaan(2015), which aims to empower women and uplift the perception of society, on the other hand, Bollywood is infamous when it comes to portraying of women in love stories. This initially became one of the Bollywood stereotypes.

A man(Indian) in Australia was arrested because he was accused of stalking two women. But in his defense, he said that he learned this from the Bollywood movies. The judge let him go, saying that what he did is part of their “culture”.

Traces of such influence can be found in many Bollywood movies.  The song “Shehar Ki Ladki” from the movies Rakshak(1999) is evidence of such influence. Song lyrics impose the identity of a city girl. According to the lyrics, a city girl seduces with eyes contact, and make more physical contacts. 

The visual shows that a city girl is fashionable, wear makeup, expensive clothes, and change their hairstyles every day. The city girl walks by herself to places like deserted roads, dark subways, railway tracks, construction sites, etc. Background dancers were inappropriately touching the actress throughout the video. The costume of the background dancers with the black helmet can be described as chain snatchers in the city.

But the irony is that the song was super hit when it was released and was played in the city cafes and bars. In a way, it became perspective of a mass toward the city girl.  

Another song about an “Uptown Girl” was released in 1987 by Billy Joel. In his lyrics, instead of objectifying a city girl as a sex symbol, he aspires to date her.

In his lyrics:

“You know I can't afford to buy her pearls

But maybe someday when my ship comes in

She'll understand what kind of guy I've been

And then I'll win”  

it is visible that a boy is fantasizing and knows his limits.  Even visuals are calm and elegant, the women have the freedom to walk away or dance in the video.

My learning: For a very long time women have been objectified in the male dominant society. It took years to understand equality. Even though it is 2020, Bollywood still leaves such traces in the movies to ruin women’s image and become hinder in the way of transformation.

links:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/02/02/a-man-in-australia-accused-of-stalking-women-blamed-it-on-bollywood-his-case-was-dismissed/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=vk4Yg1s0WSk&feature=emb_logo

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Fevikwik: Phenko Nahi, Jodo!

Typology: This advertisement is targeted to the middle-class teenage population in India who don’t have the luxury to afford new products on frequent basis. And if something breaks, instead of throwing it away tries to fix and reuse it.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcfZqA_R7Tc

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#collegebag

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Some wildlife photography

#photogarphy #baby #elephant