Monday, May 22, 2006
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Autumn in my neighbourhood
This weather is truly incredible. Cloudy and grey and introspection friendly. Just went for a walk.
The yellow leaves falling down Forrest Gump style making me believe I am actually in this British University during autumn walking to my French Literature class. The leaves are a dark dignified green and they cover the street lights . I am sorry to intrude on the imagery. You will however have to subtract the stubborn drone of traffic, the blood and death at K.V chicken shop, the dust from half constructed sites. This is Jayanagar after all ..
I was wishing I had a camera. (That pic wasn't taken today).
I’m always wishing that nowadays. Though when I actually have it I chicken out of taking all the lovely pictures of children laughing, men playing cards , a cow suckling its calf in the middle of the road with a silver building as background.
I chicken out because they might mind being photographed. (not the cow calf duo..) I don't yet know photo ethics.
I must study.
I must do a lot of things.
Sunday, May 14, 2006
Ten days of heavy 'internalizing' ahead....
It is that time of the semester when we have those ubiquitous things called university exams.
Now, ever since school, I haven't really written real exams.
University exams are a farce. You go in and are tested on grammar that is second standard level and you write as slowly as possible. If you finish too fast, you'll end up getting bored staring at the yellow walls of college and scared watching other people write pages and pages.
They ask you questions like ' What was the colour of the dress Princess Doro Boro was wearing?' for 8 marks.
How much can you write?
She wore a red dress that had pink frills. (ugly) .She was in a pensive mood . She also wore black shoes.Go on for a page. Take a break to dream about where to eat lunch. Continue.
(I think one is encouraged to plagiarize/ ’internalize’ as much as possible from bad guides. )
Six months later some sheets will be put up on the notice board. These are the results of an exam you have forgotten about.
Needless to say, more often than not, the numbers will have no connection to what you remember having written in the exam. The evaluators who corrected your papers could be non English speaking people sitting in Gulbarga or double PhDs sitting in Frazer town.
It will remain a mystery to you.
Yet, to satisfy and be part of the ( ahem..) system , we go write exams that have questions about how to make notes , write memorandums , dialogues , blah.
Intellectually stimulating eh?
Now when I think of how I consumed a thousand pages of chem in school and managed to get decent marks, I think I might have at some point been intelligent.
University education ruined me, methinks. :)
Now, ever since school, I haven't really written real exams.
University exams are a farce. You go in and are tested on grammar that is second standard level and you write as slowly as possible. If you finish too fast, you'll end up getting bored staring at the yellow walls of college and scared watching other people write pages and pages.
They ask you questions like ' What was the colour of the dress Princess Doro Boro was wearing?' for 8 marks.
How much can you write?
She wore a red dress that had pink frills. (ugly) .She was in a pensive mood . She also wore black shoes.Go on for a page. Take a break to dream about where to eat lunch. Continue.
(I think one is encouraged to plagiarize/ ’internalize’ as much as possible from bad guides. )
Six months later some sheets will be put up on the notice board. These are the results of an exam you have forgotten about.
Needless to say, more often than not, the numbers will have no connection to what you remember having written in the exam. The evaluators who corrected your papers could be non English speaking people sitting in Gulbarga or double PhDs sitting in Frazer town.
It will remain a mystery to you.
Yet, to satisfy and be part of the ( ahem..) system , we go write exams that have questions about how to make notes , write memorandums , dialogues , blah.
Intellectually stimulating eh?
Now when I think of how I consumed a thousand pages of chem in school and managed to get decent marks, I think I might have at some point been intelligent.
University education ruined me, methinks. :)
Monday, May 08, 2006
Blank Noise intervention-2
When I was travelling to M.G road, some men in a car blew kisses at me and were screaming. I had the courage to scream back at them. (Quite dramatically, I must add) which made them turn the car and speed off.
I would have never have done this earlier. I would have given them this mild (almost ) dirty look and walked off.
The girl who took part in the Blank Noise intervention was much more confident this time, almost aggressively so . To casually demand SPACE on leching zone, Brigade and M.G roads came naturally.
What we did was stand in the middle of the road in the line and give out testimonials from the blank noise blogathon to those who responded in some way to our gaze.
To reverse the gaze of ‘ starers’ and curious onlookers while handing them out the hand folded copies of the blank noise blogathon testimonials was easy. Some readily took it, some walked ahead, thought for a bit and came back to take it, some didn’t.
Most women were not interested. Some women looked me up and down and looked disgusted.
A lot of girls (college types ) had bemused expressions and were like 'what the hell do they think they are doing? ' .
Two women who asked me what it was all about read the testimonials and seemed interested. One of the women had just experienced 'eve teasing' and the two had been discussing it when I gave them the testimonial.
Another middle aged man read it intently and came and asked me what I wanted. I asked him to 'think about it'.
( I wasn't allowed to engage in conversation with them.)
Most people were extremely curious about what it was all about.
Personally I think it has helped me a lot. WHen I walk on the roads now I am not as rigid and scared as I used to be.
I think however to make a greater impact and to ' transform the nature of the place' we need a LOT of women. As far as eve teasing is concerned M.G road is friendlier .
Brigade road is narrower and gives ample opportunity for anonymous gropers to get away with whatever!
And if these interventions are carried out more often, it is going to make people think. The same people frequent these places: Brigade Road, M.G road, Majestic bus stand etc.
Apart from everything else it is interesting to stand on a street you walk on so often and observe people. It makes you realise how diverse Bangalore is and eavesdropping on the variety of conversations is fun. :)
I would have never have done this earlier. I would have given them this mild (almost ) dirty look and walked off.
The girl who took part in the Blank Noise intervention was much more confident this time, almost aggressively so . To casually demand SPACE on leching zone, Brigade and M.G roads came naturally.
What we did was stand in the middle of the road in the line and give out testimonials from the blank noise blogathon to those who responded in some way to our gaze.
To reverse the gaze of ‘ starers’ and curious onlookers while handing them out the hand folded copies of the blank noise blogathon testimonials was easy. Some readily took it, some walked ahead, thought for a bit and came back to take it, some didn’t.
Most women were not interested. Some women looked me up and down and looked disgusted.
A lot of girls (college types ) had bemused expressions and were like 'what the hell do they think they are doing? ' .
Two women who asked me what it was all about read the testimonials and seemed interested. One of the women had just experienced 'eve teasing' and the two had been discussing it when I gave them the testimonial.
Another middle aged man read it intently and came and asked me what I wanted. I asked him to 'think about it'.
( I wasn't allowed to engage in conversation with them.)
Most people were extremely curious about what it was all about.
Personally I think it has helped me a lot. WHen I walk on the roads now I am not as rigid and scared as I used to be.
I think however to make a greater impact and to ' transform the nature of the place' we need a LOT of women. As far as eve teasing is concerned M.G road is friendlier .
Brigade road is narrower and gives ample opportunity for anonymous gropers to get away with whatever!
And if these interventions are carried out more often, it is going to make people think. The same people frequent these places: Brigade Road, M.G road, Majestic bus stand etc.
Apart from everything else it is interesting to stand on a street you walk on so often and observe people. It makes you realise how diverse Bangalore is and eavesdropping on the variety of conversations is fun. :)
Friday, May 05, 2006
okaaaaaaay then!
| The Movie Of Your Life Is A Black Comedy |
 Your best movie matches: Being John Malkovich, The Royal Tenenbaums, American Psycho |
If Your Life Was a Movie, What Genre Would It Be?
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Marketing Strategies for elections-Unit 1
An election ,like everything else that involves power and money and people needs some sort of marketing strategy.
It needs to recognize a target audience and their needs.
What young girls in Tamil Nadu need more than education , health facilities and a status equal to that of their brothers is gold.
Voila.
Promise to give all unmarried girls four grams of gold.
Girls must be a burden to the grandparents , parents and brothers so , yes the whole population is targeted.
With the gold prices increasing it is so hard to accumulate a dowry. Thank God ,the government is so compassionate.
Now that the target audience has been dealt with.
Think about the enemy, the fellow contestor . Buy a bit of media and trash him on it as much as you want.
If there is any unwanted news ,dispose it in favour of more important news, advertising all the goodies that people will get when they vote for you.
After all ,your enemy is doing the same.
It needs to recognize a target audience and their needs.
What young girls in Tamil Nadu need more than education , health facilities and a status equal to that of their brothers is gold.
Voila.
Promise to give all unmarried girls four grams of gold.
Girls must be a burden to the grandparents , parents and brothers so , yes the whole population is targeted.
With the gold prices increasing it is so hard to accumulate a dowry. Thank God ,the government is so compassionate.
Now that the target audience has been dealt with.
Think about the enemy, the fellow contestor . Buy a bit of media and trash him on it as much as you want.
If there is any unwanted news ,dispose it in favour of more important news, advertising all the goodies that people will get when they vote for you.
After all ,your enemy is doing the same.
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