links for 2009-06-10

10 06 2009




links for 2009-06-09

9 06 2009




the germ of an idea.

1 06 2009

I have this idea, of starting a social design firm.
This comes after the repeated rubbing in of the ‘young and budding’ idea: that you’re never really going to do the kind of work you want to do unless you start off on your own.

After having seen how things are in the development sector one realises that there is a lot for scope for growth.I remember having this conversation with a friend, Nisha Susan, actually when she had just come back to Bangalore after a Mass communication degree at Symbiosis in Pune, and joined APSA, a group that works with street children in Bangalore; she told me about how she didn’t see herself working in any other sector,  ”after having you grown up in India, how can you not?”.I still see the wisdom in her words.

I find myself at varying spurts of energy, dulled sometimes by the deprivation and the poverty, spurred still by the resilience that comes from endurance which I have seen in all the people around me, and spurred some more by a rough idea of how things work in India currently.It’s a great highs great lows roller-coaster ride and that’s what I can promise… without the sentimentality and romanticism that could cloud our ability to see innovation in this sector.

So, what do we need?





links for 2009-05-27

27 05 2009




links for 2009-05-18

18 05 2009




links for 2009-05-14

14 05 2009




links for 2009-05-05

5 05 2009




Blogging Women’s day

8 03 2009

My day:

8:30 (roundabout) : Woke up to flatmates banging the door of our cinder filled kitchen.Bittersweet , bottomless bottomfull feeling.

9:30  stepped out to get meself items for a good  breakfast as well as the New Indian Express.My deluxe breakfast lasted a good hour with the newspaper.All in the kitchen.

11:00 Supervised the maid on washing my clothes.I’m used to doing this myself and need a machine.Usha,who does my washing and cleaning is an intelligent woman who runs her house and three kids on a pay-packet she makes out of working in some five houses.She also takes out the kachra in our building with her husband.

11:30  Conversation with flat-mates.Annie is a woman who left her home and husband with her child on her shoulder because he brought home another.She works as a house-maid too.She had a love marriage.She said that it wouldn’t have worked between her husband and her but that she still loves him.

14:30 Namaz.Stopped short by flatmate who is edgy about space.So it was the kitchen again.

15:00 Lunch.Bhajiya and rice with chutney powder.Long drawn meal.It’s hot in the kitchen with no fan.Snappy exchanges with Priya over lunch.My flatmates are worse off than I am.My relationship with Priya is the epicenter of lot of my woes against this world these days.

17:00 Sleep.Been a busy work week.

18:00 Namaz, and a two books.

18:30 Aida, in whose house I stay needs a clerical job.It’s the thing she does best.Does anyone know of one?

19:00 Some relays of telepathic voice chats: “Peice of Cake!”, “Whore!”, “We’ll see!”

20:00 Sleep.I have a feeling my grand-mother came to me in my dream.How of all things could a woman who was shy of even TV choose today to make this rare first appearance?I really believe in the power of this day.

21:30 Walk+Auto Ride to this blogging destination.

23:30 Thank You for surviving me.This was fun.





An Open archive.

13 02 2009

logo264
—————————————————————————————-pad.ma’, is an acronym for Public Access Digital Media Archive, whose name derives its origin from the Sanskrit term for a thousand petalled lotus, and also, they say, short for an adage, ‘paani saare dhaga ma’.

What this is for dummies is a non-commercial archival website where you can download, watch, learn about, use and add to documentary video footage from various sources, for free!

pad.ma is being developed by Majlis, the Alternative Law Forum, Point of View and Chitrakarkhana.

To know more, join us at a public discussion about the discourses that shape it.

Where: “Who Are We?” hall – inside the Discovery of India exhibition,
First Floor,
Nehru Centre,
Dr. Annie Besant Road,
Worli, Mumbai – 400018.

When:Monday, February, 16, 2009, 11:am to 7pm.

Participants:
Agaaz-Akanksha – Bombay
Ayisha Abraham – Bangalore
Desire Machine Collective – Guwahati/Shillong
GBGB Andolan (NAPM) – Bombay
Jan Gerber and Sebastian Lütgert – Berlin
Kaushik Bhaumik – Bombay
Lawrence Liang -Bangalore
Nida Ghouse – Bombay
Nilanjan Bhattarcharya – Calcutta
Priya Sen – Delhi
Ranu Ghosh – Calcutta
Sadanand Menon – Chennai
Sanjay Kak- Delhi

May the source be with you!

See you there!





thinking of you

3 12 2008

smita_patil3

Smita Patil (October 17, 1955 – 13 December 1986).