Agog

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The medium is the message

The book “The Medium is the Massage” written by Marshall McLuhan is 1967. The book talks about how the media has taken over humans. The book is relevant to the current affairs till date, and it is way ahead of its time period. Some of the initial pages which we discussed.

In the chapter YOU from the book McLuhan the power of being YOU and its importance were talked about. Due to the mechanical technology the thoughts are your no more. It talks about how we are not secure anymore like before were secure without technology. McLuhan also talks about how there is no more privacy in our life, because telephone used which were being taped and anyone can gain anyone’s information. We can relate to our period where there is no privacy anymore in the internet and technology. It impacted everything, there was no concept of time and space due to the internet because anyone can connect anywhere for example a person can send a message to someone who is on another continent in a click. It also talks about work from home, as earlier people are dependent on livelihood but now due to the internet one can work alone without communications. The childrens have lost their childhood because of the internet as there is no line between adulthood and childhood. The Internet has totally changed education. We are never taught to believe what we should hear instead were taught to believe what we see. We are used to the fact that one has to ignore the unwanted when it hears.

Socrates believes the invention of writing will bring forgetfulness instead of memorizing people will depend on external writing by which the humans will think about themselves as they know everything about they have no idea about anything.

The name of the book was actually The Medium is the Message but due to the printing press mistake it became The Medium is the Massage but McLuhan didn't change the name back to its original as this incident conveys what the book wants to say.

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Ingredients of my favourite dish

Its really interesting that how it take so many things to make one ingredient on a recipe. Here is the ingredients of one of the dishes that I like.

Panner

Potato

Oil

Salt

Sugar

Tomato

Turmeric powder

Green Chilli

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Individuation Process

According to Carl Jungian’s book ‘The man and his Symbols’ it talks about the process of Individuation where it helps a human to find its different unique identities themselves self, by going deep into the unconscious and conscious mind one can accept its inner self. Both the mental and physical of a person has a healing effect by individuation.

Following are the process of individuation:

Persona - The way we show our appearance in the world is personal. Person creates a bridge between society and us so that we can fit in better. A person may have multiple personas at a time or sometimes no persona but if one identifies only one persona in his entire life he can become an overachieving persona.

The roles we play in our life is an example of a persona, for example a husband, good king.

Shadow - It is the unconscious part of the mind also known as the dark side of an individual which consists of different beliefs and thoughts. Shadow can be caused from negative comments from someone and cause concern in individuals. 

For example SharmaJi ka larka can be shadow, because according to our parents Sharmaji's son aces at everything, due to which our parents use him as an example.

Anima and Animus -  The anima and animus are the unconscious of an individual, it has the characteristics of both the genders, in the unconscious male one can find the expression of the female which is anima and in female the expression of male as the personality of masculine individuals which is animus. The anima is usually the cluster of a man’s mother or from his sister, aunt. The importance of animus and anima can be seen in relationships.

Self - The most important development in the process of individuation is the identifying the self, a person can lose his identity by over identifying himself with their personas. It is a process of combining one’s personality. A person who discovers self knows there is no use in bothering or teaching others. For Jung, the self is shown by the circle or a mandala.

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Carl Jungian’s Archetype

According to Carl Jungian’s archetype an individual’s impressions like the thoughts, behaviours , smell, thinking and emotions which have been rooted from its generation to generation through its ancestors, and it ends up in the individual’s collective unconscious. The individual’s personality has two sides: conscious and unconscious world, later the unconscious world can be divided into two parts - personal conscious and collective conscious.

Imagine you saw a dream having lunch with some people, and those people are your friends. You saw your friends in your dream because they are coming from your personal unconscious. Personal unconsciousness consists of personal experience and person’s own experiences.

On the other hand collective unconscious is something which has been passed on from generation to generation through a mental image or instinct subconsciously. That's why we understand certain things without a background. For example a good king, we don't have to tell you that what is a good king, it already has a mental image of what a good king is. But nightmares come from collective unconsciousness like fear, happiness.

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Roti Threesome

What is the difference between Roti, Chapati and Phulka? Looks like a simple daily life question but it's the most confusing thing around. I asked my mother about confusing triangle of Roti, Chapati and Phulka but due to language barrier my mother had no idea about this, in Assamese there is only one word for every Indian bread its roti, there is no name to differentiate between them , we just tell we want a roti with oil or without oil. So, I called up my old PG cook and got to know about the difference between Roti, Chapati and Phulka.

Phulka is highly cooked on the pan, while the person revolves the phulka in the pan with a cloth and sometimes dabs around the phulka gently. The one side of the phulka is cooked on the pan and the other side on the heat. It puffs up into a ball.And ready to serve.

Chapati is similar to a phulka but a little bit thinner than roti. There will be no steam inside while the chapati expands.

Roti is thicker than a phulka and chapati, there will be steam inside while the roti expands

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Self Respect Movement

The self respect movement was started to break the brahmanical hegemony, to bring equal rights to the backward classes and for the women in the society. The movement was led by E.V Ramasamy regarded as ‘Father of modern Tamil Nadu’ also popularly known as Periyar. Perityar believed the principle of individuality, he questioned Nehru and Gandhi’s concept of independence as there was self respect in their iota of self individuality.The movement carried an ideology to eliminate caste system and brahmans.

Self-respect Movement was one of the important social changes that occurred during the movement, where one can get married without the presence of a brahmin priest, encouraging inter-caste marriage and widow remarriage. The movement also had a feminist  ideology which wanted a society where women had freedom for their choices and aimed for rights like remarriage, divorce  and child care. The sign boards of store were charged from ‘ Brahmin’s restaurant’ to ‘Vegetarian restaurant’

I believe that it was one of the most unique movements due to which everyone respected and supported them. It helped us to understand individuality and gender roles.The ideology of self respect and the feminist root help them from a different point of view to look at the common people’s problem. There is no individuality without self-respect, which gives power to fight for the inequality in the caste system.

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Ethnography

Ethnography is one of the most useful research tools which allows you to be with the participants environment which helps in better understanding and observation. Ethnography provides useful insights which other research tools like interview, deconstruction may not be able to provide.

The narration in the story in ethnography about the individual experiences helps better. It helps to understand and study the cultural practices and challenges which helps in further process. There are ethnography, auto-ethnography and nethnography. Auto-ethnography is something where the person writes and observes its own journey and nethnography is when a person combines ethnography with online communication. Multiple interviews with the same individual can help gather more insights.

In a session by PhD candidate Aditi Dey Sarkar she told us how ethnography helped her in her journey and the challenges she faced and how she overcame it during her research. She also speaks about a book “The Interpretation of Cultures”, written by anthropologist Clifford Geertz. In the book there is an essay "Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight '' in this essay Clifford Geertz talks about the challenges he faced in the Balimese community when he went there to observe the famous cockfight and tells about his experiences like how the people were smiling but no conversation. 

Ethnography helps to break the stereotype, in this case Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is Nigerian woman who was born and brought up in Africa and later went for higher studies to the USA. Ethnography helped her to break the stereotype about African people. She tells her about how she couldn't relate to the books until later when she discovered the African books. She also tells her how her mother used to scold her about wasting food by giving examples of the poor condition of African people. Later when she went to college, in which she met her roommate. Her room mate had a perception of how African people are poor and about their music, her roommate was shocked when she heard Chimamanda fluent english and the music genre she listens to.

This session helped me understand and go back to my previous project and understand more about how things went and how to face the challenges, in my ethnographic based research project ‘Odissi: Traditional to Contemporary, where i saw similar types of stereotypical elements in which doing the ethnographic tools helped me a lot like observations , interview and sketching them.

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Palimpsest

A page or document from a manuscript which has been washed off and later used for writing but the impressions are still there on the page of previous writing. It is not restricted to manuscripts, palimpsest is everywhere. Anything that has been has multiple layers of information and evolved from the previous formation is palimpsest. Palimpsest and time both are subjective. The ram mandir and babri masjid case in which it was written over again and again is one of the examples of palimpsest.

Examples of palimpsest:

Overwriting things on currency notes.

Erasing and writing in harddisk.

Updates on application.

White wash over graffiti.

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Embracing Stereotypes

Stereotype is a particular type of an idea/perspective of a person or thing which has been emerging and doesn't break for centuries and runs through generation to generation. But the idea/perspective can be true in reality or it just can be a reel. Stereotype is not culture nor it can be a source for research as evidence. By accepting stereotypes it can be a fun source of entertainment.

Jordindian - Smoke Shisha Play Fifa - Stereotype of rich sheikh

Smoke Shisha Play Fifa is a music video which is based on the stereotype related to the life of a rich sheikh. The video starts with the lavish life of a sheikh in the pool telling his indian immigrant friend “ This is the life! habibi” which shows the stereotype of the rich sheikh lifestyle that everyone dreams to achieve. “Smoke Shisha Play Fifa” depicts the stereotypical life of a rich sheikh because they only like to play fifia and double apple smoke shisha. The video showed how confident and desperate to win fifa against people. ‘Hamus’ and “don't worry about hahal” shows the attributes of stereotype. The Indian immigrant turns like the seikh under their influence. The pets of seikh are usually extravagant such tigers and cheetahs, in the video they depicted it by cat. The south indian immigrant is also shown in stereotypical ways by adding words like ayyio, vainko!. And how a indian middle class goes to the Gulf for a better future who is still scared of his father.

Dilli De Sardarboys- Stereotype of Sardar of Delhi

The song depicts the stereotype of things which are related to the sardar's living in Delhi. The music videos touches every aspect of stereotype like always being late to events or things, tripling on scooty, not caring about the police, buying and wearing knockoffs like Rayban sunglasses and Armani from Palika Bazar, always buying Iphone, the way they abuse in every line, drinking lots of liquor and partying in parkings. Without eating momos from butter chicken they cannot survive. The stereotype of prefix and suffix in sardar names. Lastly in the video showed how sardars are emotional and soft hearted and drink a lot after that but always keep their personality on top and always want attention. Accepting the facts about stereotypes can bring a hilarious turn.

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The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction

In the essay “The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction” by Walter Benjamin focuses on original art and its reproduction. The essay talks about how work of art is now being reproduced with the help of photography, lithography. But earlier it was only access to few people but now it is available to all.

Benjamin believed that mechanical reproduction has lost its aura because it was very difficult to trace out its presence in time and space. For example the sketches i make won't give the same feeling from the original sketch done with graphite. According to him it was different to develop an understanding of the technique of the artist art which are created in past and contemporary art. But due to the aura being destroyed there are new experiences like motion and sound in film and photography being improved, due to which people are able to explore new areas in art. Benjamin’s aura works on traditional art but now in the digital art era we can understand the art of artists.

According to Benjamin, work of art has two types of values - Cult Value and Exhibition Value. Cult value is what exists in their life and not their being able to see it and exhibition value is something which has more duplicates and greater value of people can enjoy it. Art exhibition value is important,  Mechanical reproduction focuses on exhibition value. Mechanical reproduction is transitory and original art is permanent.

Benjamin mentioned that now art is proved to be political rather than theological. Art is being sold to all common people as a product. The essay gave me different points of views, I agree that the exhibition value helps people to be known and spread art and message with art with the help of duplicates and more people can see it. But the value of art may reduce in mechanical reproduction.

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Ingredients in Masala Dani

Red Chilli

Cumin Powder

Garam Masala

Cumin Seeds

Panner Masala

Coriander Powder

Masturb Powder

Poppy Seeds

Turmeric Powder

Salt

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Popular Culture in Music Industry

In 1996 and 1987 two music videos released, one was the “Shehar ki ladki” and the other was “Uptown Girl”. Both songs had a different perspectives towards women and culture.

“Shehar ki ladki” is the name of the song from the bollywood movie Rakshak which was released in 1996, it was one of the most hit songs during the decade and inspired a lot of young minds to follow the traits as shown in the song’s video and the lyrics of the song but the direction of the song and video kinda took them to a different way. Ironically the name of the movie is ‘Rakshak’ which means protector, but the girl didn't seem to be as protected. In the music video the girl starts as an actress in bollywood set with men lurking around her, the girl is being objectified in the video it is shown that the girls changes costumes rapidly to impress the men around her and shown as an easy girl who is rich and from a city. The background dancers of the actor were wearing helmets and black jackets during the video which looks petrifying and a gang robbers. Everyone stalks the actress along the actors and touches her without consent, which was provoking the young minds to use these kinds of tactics in real life, in same a kind of case where an Indian man was “not guilty” according to the judge in an Australian Court, as judge stated that it was a normal behaviour in their culture which was inspired by bollywood. In the songs some of the lyrics were like “Aankh Ladake Poochhe Hi How Are You” “Hath Milake Poochhe How Do You Do” which depicted that a girl doesn't need consent to touch and you can seduce her with eyes. The Choreography in this song won the Filmfare Award for Best Choreography in Filmfare Award for Best Choreography which inspired more people to come up with these kinds of music videos. This song was played all over the Pubs and Bars during that time. Later in 2020 Badshah made the remake of the same song with the more derogatory lyrics.

In the music video by Billy Joel - Uptown Girl which was released in 1987 during the same time as “Shehar ki ladki”, which was totally opposite of the bollywood video. The video was about how a downtown boy tries to impress a girl. The girl was called an uptown girl could be for two reasons: first one was as she is rich and unaffordable by the guy who runs a mechanic store and the second reason could be she visited the cosmetic store called uptown cosmetic near the garage. The boys looked confident to impress the girl, rehearsed how they would impress the girl with the help of the girl in the magazine. The boys knew their boundaries and respected her choices and maintained a decency with her and no one was touching or used derogatory lyrics in the video. They boys tried to win her in various ways from roaring their bikes to dancing for her. 

By these two videos we can see the cultural difference and how a woman is treated and seen.

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Men will be Men - Imperial Blue ad

Typology - This ad is for the consumer married men who are in their middle age and wants to be good shape and be fit. Men who are in 9-5 jobs and who also wants to feel the same how young bachelors with good body feels around a women.

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What’s in my bag.

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you were.

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