Piyush Chitkara

GeT RekT!

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saVer

An award winning short film by Simon Gerbaud, where he has shown everyday objects  getting deconstructed. The film name has come from 2 Spanish verbs, which mean: to know and to see. The whole film was so satisfying to watch and the attention to details is phenomenal, the sound of waves and wind made it even more appealing. Also, it gave me this new perspective to life about appreciating everyday objects, which are a proof of our evolution.

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I think this is the closest to how the footage looked

This beautiful short film by Yuval Hameiri tells us how a story and storytelling alone can be impactful. Even if one does not have much high end tools they can create an amazing story and narrate it. The subjects chosen in the story defined how the characters were, which is like a hidden gem for first time viewers.

Also, it immediately reminded me of my childhood when I used to create stories with them right after coming from schools. Maybe I will try again not with the toys but something else.

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Importance of Individuation

The individuation concept is about self unconscious personality, our past experiences that makes us the way we are. There are mainly 4 elements in the individuation process:

Persona - This is the fictional character that we choose to become, it is not our real self. In short, persona is what we want people to see and perceive about us, also it is the face adapted by us to fit in the society. 

Animus and Anima - Animus is the male psyche in a female and Anima is the female psyche in the male. This very archetype sometimes helps us choose or lead us to our partner. Animus and Anima combined is known as the divine couple.

Shadow - This archetype means the dark side that no one gets to see, though it does come up at times, it can be greed, aggression, envy or anything that is not accepted by the society.

Self - It is the true side of one self, one which does not consist of persona or shadows or any filter. In fact, a mandala is a work of self, where the idea is to focus on yourself and see inside you for a deeper meaning.

All these archetypes have helped me look at my inner self and my past to understand myself better. 

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Carl Jung’s Archetype

Carl Jung used to work under Sigmund Freud but then he later on wanted to show and tell his own research and understanding, he further stated different psyche’s of a human, mainly conscious and unconscious. Unconscious side was further explored which will be explained below:

Personal unconsciousness - It is when we like or dislike something on the basis of our personal experiences or understanding, for example if I like a girl passing by then it's my personal unconscious.

Collective unconsciousness - It is when your ancestor’s history, their over the years of evolution of liking and disliking anything reflects on you. For example, humans have been scared of certain animals even though they have never seen them upfront, or another one could be, being aware of fire and staying away from it, or being scared of spiders/scorpions. They all may account under collective unconscious.

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The Work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction!

Walter Benjamin's essay about the reproduction of art and how it devalues art is truly a masterpiece. He talks about how a mechanically reproduced art could never compete against an original artwork in any time and space and that makes the original artwork unique and valuable. At the same time he talks about how reproduction of the artwork has allowed people to know about one’s voice. The value of art in a cult and exhibition is being differentiated.

If Walter Benjamin had been alive today he would have been much more amused by how things are, since the digital artworks are also there, the theories would have been more diverse. For example, an original artwork created digitally is printed for the first time, will that be the first original work or the digital file or both? I feel the digital artwork would be original but each of them hold its value, but then I wonder what Walter had to say in it.

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My Favourite Dish

Ingredients my mom uses to make my favourite dish, Pav Bhaji:

1. Potato

2. Cauliflower

3. Chickpeas

4. Onion

5. Garlic

6. Oil

7. Tomato

8. Capsicum

9. Pav bhaji masala

10. Salt

11. Butter

12. Lemon

13. Green coriander

14. Chaat masala

Well the list maybe having 14 ingredients but in reality there is so much more to it.

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Self-respect is the key

The Self Respect Movement Started in 1925 by Erode Venkatappa Ramasamy(also known as Periyar), who was an Indian social activist and politician. The aim of the movement was to help the backward cast to get equal human rights and also help them understand the concept of self-respect in the society of the cast system. This was started in Tamil Nadu, India, and was declared a genuine, nonpolitical freedom movement. Periyar even went against the ideas of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru and told the society that neither of their motives would help make India get rid of their problems. 

Some of the amazing principles and ideas from the movement were that there should no kind of inequality among people; caste, religion, varna attachments should be eradicated, and unity prevails among the people. 

Other than this, Brahmins were ruling in the high-level positions in the government, which resulted in biasedness and so Periyar wanted to change it which would allow non-brahmins to acquire the positions and make the government balanced. Other than this, the movement was considered to have deep feminist values because it promoted the idea of contraceptives and celebrating sexual and reproductive choices, which would allow women to have birth control, also allowing women to marry and remarry as many men as they want to which made the movement revolutionary. 

All in all, Periyar was way ahead of his time, and his ideologies seemed amazing but at the same time unachievable. Even today people are fighting for equal human rights and it seems impossible to eradicate the caste system and religion, because of the rising tensions and politics. One can only dream and hope that one day every human would be educated enough to understand and remove these boundaries, tags, and barriers that are being set upon us and be free.

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What's the bread called?

When asked someone what's the difference between Roti, phulka and chappati, they reply its the same thing just called differently at different place. But when I searched the reasons behind their terminology and the unique ways of making it, made me think about the different cultures that we Indians have, even in a small community. The differences are as follow:

Roti - Made on "tawa"(pan), on medium flame.

Phulka - Made on 'tawa" and then on direct flame, and later on some oil/ghee is being spread on it.

Chappati - The thickest of all, and at times the heaviest too. Made on tawa with loads of ghee and oil.

At times they even look the same, so you never know what you are eating.

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Palimpsest

It is any document or manuscript on which something has been written over, erased, or removed and written again, and the traces of older writings are still visible. 

This concept has mostly been used in context to old writings and manuscripts, but it shouldn't be limited to that only, the concept of palimpsest can be understood in other contexts as well. 

Starting with an easy example, a wall on which the paint is being removed, scratched, or painted over and over again, hard disks of our computers where data is again added, removed, and replaced, that way our very own brain can be an example of it where our memories and learnings are constantly changing.

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Importance of Ethnography

Ethnography is a branch of anthropology, which means the study of humans and their behavior. Ethnography is a type of social research by involving oneself in the target’s environment to understand it’s culture, environment, problems, and challenges. This helps to understand and see through the subject’s point of view.

This method helps in carrying out research with much more depth and makes it more complete in its context.

The danger of a single story

Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authenti

The above video helps us understand this better, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s speech ‘The danger of single story’ (2009, TED Global) talks about the stories that can create certain stereotypes about society, especially the one which talks about foreign states or things that we haven’t interacted with.

She talks about when she moved out of Nigeria for studies and went to the USA, her American roommate immediately assumed that the music they hear must be some tribal music, which was not the case. Chimamanda was assumed to have not so good English because people in Africa are poor and they probably are not fluent speakers, which was not the case.

She talks about the tradition of making stories on similar topics and different versions of the single story which isn’t the right thing to do, it certainly helps strengthen these stereotypes.

Since I have also been in the field for some other topic and another story, these two points help me understand the need and importance of ethnography in today’s time when no resource is trustworthy and the world is constantly changing.

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The Secret ingredients

This is the "namakdani/masala dani" which helps my mom create beautiful dishes everyday!

Starting from the spoon container(clockwise):

Salt

Lal mirch/Chilli powder

Jeera

Turmeric

Coriander powder

Garam masala

Ajwain/Carom seeds (centre)

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Culture Differences

Ladki Ladki Sheher ki Ladki (1996)

A 1996 song which describes how a “Sheheri ladki”(city girl) is, what she likes, what she means when she greets someone, what is her character like, and the usual generalization of all the above points.

Even though the beats and singers’ voice is great but the lyrics and video ruin it.

Considering the time it was made in, Bollywood had a huge significance in public and whatever was shown in the movies, it was adapted by the viewers to stay in the trend. Even the mindset shown was adopted without a question, which is the reason why such songs created a problem and have helped root the wrong image of Indian women.

“Teri machalti najar mera badan chume chume”, which means his eyes kisses her body through his looks; and ”Baahon mein jhume jhume jhume jhume jhume”, which means she likes to roam around in people’s arms. Such lines don’t set a great example, and makes one think that the city girl might like such actions which is not the case in reality.

In the video, it can be seen that all the people around her have picked her up and surrounded her numerous times, which is wrong and shouldn’t be encouraged but considering it to be a dance step it can be ignored.

The above shot looks a bit shady since Trump’s vanity van leaked recordings.

Another song

Billy Joel - Uptown Girl (1987)

This song is about a garage guy and how he wants the girl to want her because she is tired of her uptown and high life.

Throughout the song, the guys maintain a certain distance from the girl, which is what is expected. Even though Billi Joel seems to be extra possessive, from the lines, “And when she's talking, She'll say that she's mine”, “She's my uptown girl”, can be overlooked because of the following lines “She’s got a choice”, ”She’ll say I’m not so tough”, which tells us that the girl’s got a choice and a voice.

Conclusion

‘Uptown Girl’ which came 9 years before ‘Sheher ki ladki’ launched, tells us about the Bollywood thinking and how behind we were at that time. Also, how such songs might have created certain stereotypes in our society whose impact can be seen even in today's time.

(A fun fact, ‘Sheher ki Ladki’ song had a remake in 2020 sung by ‘Badshah’ which made the song even worse and objectified women even more.)

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Typology

Cadbury Bournvita's ad 'Monkey Bars' was aimed at parents,("Bache, to bacho wali harkate karenge" lines confirms it) to be specific mothers who worry about their child getting hurt from all the action/stunts he does around while playing.

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What’s in your bag?!

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Gullak

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Saw a leaf moving, then realised it was this...

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Precious

Finally got my hands on one of Kim Jung Gi's Sketch collection book. It costs more than ₹12,000 or $178 (costliest book that I have ever read.)