First off, apologies for not updating the blog since a long time. I feel like putting up an "under construction" sign. Something like:
"The author of this blog is undergoing a radical change in her thought process and her writing abilities. Any inconvenience caused is regretted."
Since college has started, not a single day goes by when a new thought doesn't enter my mind. Not even a new thought, a new thought process, a new way of thinking. Either it is planted, or created. I have never been in an environment where my thoughts have been given so much importance. In an engineering college, knowledge is just drilled into you. As opposed to that, in a journalism college, especially in a good one, the aim is to open your mind. Not just in one direction, but in all directions possible.
From wondering about the role of English in India today, to critiquing a gut wrenching documentary on the Dalai Lama, each day is unique and wonderful and completely unpredictable! It was on one such day that Bittu Sahgal came to our college to give us a lecture on "Save the Tiger". He is the editor of the Sanctuary magazine and has worked on Tiger projects in India. I am ashamed to admit that when he came in, I didn't know who he was. Post lecture, I spoke to my friends and they told me all about him. In a way, it helped me look at him and his message (and the delivery of the message) in a very objective manner. At the risk of sounding pompous, there are ways to improve his lectures on the subject.
The gist of the matter was, we not only need to save the tiger, but also our ecology. Mainly, our forests, or else the whole water balance would get disturbed and the consequences so on and so forth. We were all so moved at the end of it, that we were desperately asking "What can we do to stop this!" And he said, just do your bit, don't waste water, don't waste paper and most importantly, as journalists, spread the message! So that's what I'm doing when I strongly suggest you visit the sanctuary website. Not because you are an environmentalist, or because you care about global warming. Simply because "global warming will not affect the 'earth'. The earth will exist long after we've gone. It's humanity that needs to be protected against global warming, You and me.. "
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why not have another blog url - which will talk about ur take on current matters...
ReplyDeleteI've been thinking along the same lines since a very long time now.. The reason I didn't go ahead was, I didn't think I had enough stuff to write on both blogs and already, updates are so slow. I guess it makes sense to separate the "journalist" stuff from the idle musings... ;) Will set it up soon..
ReplyDeleteThe gist of the speaker's message to the general public is something that I have been wondering for about 16 yrs and that influenced my decision to leave India. How much difference can a handful of dedicated people make in a nation like India? A place where half of the people are concerned only about surviving the next day and the other half are concerned about protecting themselves from the earlier 50%, who will dare to do what is right instead of what is easy? The Rang De Basanti chain-smoker said, "Desh ko badalna hai toh khudko badlo..." Fine, maine khud ko badla, aspass ke logonko badalna 8 saal try kiya lekin desh aur ganda hota gaya. Kitna frustration sehna padta hai jiske baad you are allowed to give up and go to some other nation where educated people are not treated like stray dogs?
ReplyDeleteThe GenY in India is very savvy about computer gaming, both boys and girls. How about some of the mera-bharat-economic-superpower type IT professionals getting together and creating an open-source wildlife simulator game to highlight the plight of tigers? Similar games have been created by Sanctuary Woods Inc (this company went bankrupt in 1999 probably due to reasons mentioned in my previous post), namely the ones titled 'Wolf' and 'Lion'. Spreading the message is not the job of just journalists - with a little brain storming, people from all professions can chip in
ReplyDeleteNo matter what you do, it always feels like less. Is it enough to just not waste water? What about keeping quiet when a neighbour is throwing water from a pipe continuously for an hour during Holi? How much can you change other people.. It seems like a hopeless battle. Even if people from all professions educate other people about this, what next? Do the "babus" who have the decisions in their hands listen? I hope the day will come when that happens... I admire Jairam Ramesh who sticks to his stand even when he is wrongly accused of standing up against progress. He too could do more, though..
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