tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40860960491956332272024-03-27T14:52:37.822+05:30Smita Pranav KothariFreelance Writer – Brings out the <i>human</i> side in every story.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger31125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086096049195633227.post-46987907545387561612024-03-27T14:50:00.004+05:302024-03-27T14:52:02.727+05:30Managing the tricky art of breaking the news of a baby (Mint Lounge)<p> </p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijRheXGFBBDwkVVJYEEsUJq_dpmP3tSxn-vFnHbU_no32ooMdmXFuM7-HMEoZGz6R4t5uMn04NFM7KJ8aoDtfiz_tJ-SIYWM6Mu63eHJFh0_vkJuV6sjzzkJkfOx1icuznqXslbfe7x-N1iH_JtWJtl0-9aQCZlBDLw3ycv7Mkjp54onit6aB95H3mIuc/s1140/mint%20adoption%20article%202%20by%20smita.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="641" data-original-width="1140" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijRheXGFBBDwkVVJYEEsUJq_dpmP3tSxn-vFnHbU_no32ooMdmXFuM7-HMEoZGz6R4t5uMn04NFM7KJ8aoDtfiz_tJ-SIYWM6Mu63eHJFh0_vkJuV6sjzzkJkfOx1icuznqXslbfe7x-N1iH_JtWJtl0-9aQCZlBDLw3ycv7Mkjp54onit6aB95H3mIuc/s320/mint%20adoption%20article%202%20by%20smita.webp" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span face="merriweatherregular, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span face="merriweatherregular, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 16px;">“It’s a girl!”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: merriweatherregular, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;">Scratch that.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: merriweatherregular, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;">It wasn’t a surprise: We chose to have a daughter over a son.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: merriweatherregular, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;"> </p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: merriweatherregular, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;">“Born on …”</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: merriweatherregular, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;">Delete.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: merriweatherregular, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;">Who sends a baby announcement after 3.5 months?</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: merriweatherregular, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: merriweatherregular, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;">“Weighing…”</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: merriweatherregular, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;">Erase.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: merriweatherregular, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;">Our delicate darling’s kilos were nothing worth flaunting about.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: merriweatherregular, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;"> </p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: merriweatherregular, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;">I was making a creative on Canva to share the homecoming of our heart baby with select friends on WhatsApp when I realised that the templates for a baby announcement needed major tweaking for our kind of good news.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: merriweatherregular, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;">We had decided we would not broadcast our adopted daughter’s arrival but would share it with a handful of people, including close connections, fellow adoptive parents we knew, and my husband’s team members who will need to discount his dozing off during meetings.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: merriweatherregular, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;">We were hoping that our outer circle would come to know that we have a child when our daughter is 2-3 years old, which is past the stage of “OMG, Congratulations!” and a suite of questions about sleepless nights, timeline of my pregnancy and their memory of my bump.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: merriweatherregular, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;">But contrary to my plan, the word about our daughter got around faster.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: merriweatherregular, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;">The three of us were invited to a birthday party of a toddler whose parents we liked in our apartment building. While the hosts knew about the new addition in our family, other parents of children who lived in the same building and were invited to the party expressed their surprise on suddenly seeing us with a stroller and diaper bag. I had bumped into one of the moms randomly while walking downstairs on an average of two times per month in the last two years that we had been living in this community. She was the type who would check you out from top to bottom while saying the cursory “Hi”. At the party, she told me she didn’t notice that I was pregnant last year. I merely gave her the sweetest smile ever.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: merriweatherregular, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;">Then there is the naïve type who doesn’t know how to be politically correct. One woman I had crossed paths with while coming out of the elevator with the stroller, parroted multiple times that she never saw my bump, as if her saying the same thing repeatedly would eventually get me to open my mouth about it. I gave her the same harmless smile as if to say, “Interpret it as you please: surrogacy, adoption or some divine intervention.”</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: merriweatherregular, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;">There is also the suave sort who know how to mask their surprise with the right thing to say: “You don’t look like you delivered six months back!” I smiled and thanked her, adding, “I’ll take that as a compliment.”</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: merriweatherregular, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;">When we realised that there was no escaping people who live in the same apartment complex, we decided to throw a small “bless our baby” party, inviting a few fellow residents. Everything was going fine until a kid mentioned how much he loved the YouTube series <i style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Ninja Kidz </i>and added emphatically that one of the kids in it is adopted. An awkward silence ensued.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: merriweatherregular, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;">Comparatively, our adoptive-parent friends who brought their child home during covid had it easy. Opening the door of your house after the lockdown years and having two-and-a-half people emerging from it didn’t raise an eyebrow.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: merriweatherregular, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;">But our awkward conversations were not just because of being seen. Our absence also raised questions: An inquisitive acquaintance, who is part of a social group that my husband and I are also a part of, noticed that we have been MIA for a few months. She pushed us into a corner till we told her. We had to tell her how special she is to us that we were divulging this precious news to her and hardly anyone else. We figured she would find out at some point.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: merriweatherregular, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;">We were not only caught out by our physical presence or absence; even the online arena didn’t spare us. I didn’t post pictures of our baby on Instagram. However, I did ask for recommendations for cute beach-wear brands for infants on a women’s WhatsApp group that shares suggestions on everything from doctors to restaurants at exotic holiday destinations to tailors for alterations. In the fraction of a second, one of the girls on the group who I meet once a quarter at social events messaged me directly asking if I was expecting. I replied I have a 6-month-old, and left her wondering.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: merriweatherregular, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;">Our intent behind not broadcasting our adoption is not to hide that we became parents through this channel. It is to disclose about our baby only to emotionally sensitive and mature people who will not say a version of “She’s so lucky to have you both as parents” or “You did such a noble deed by adopting.” Considering the long wait from filing the papers to bringing your child home, it is clear that adoption is no charity.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: merriweatherregular, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;">So, I punched in to the Canva search bar “heart baby announcement”, and that displayed a template with a few hearts strung on a thread. We sent out the creative, hoping the recipients get the subtle reference. Those who don’t can keep deciphering it like they do my mysterious smile.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: merriweatherregular, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;">(Read the article on Mint website <a href="https://lifestyle.livemint.com/relationships/raising-parents/parenting-motherhood-baby-announcement-adoption-111711448511167.html" target="_blank">here</a>)</p>Smita Pranav Kotharihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02148630824845985709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086096049195633227.post-53754303974335196092024-03-02T10:29:00.002+05:302024-03-02T10:31:31.106+05:30A mother’s notes on what the endless wait to adopt a child feels like (Mint Lounge)<p><i style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: merriweatherregular, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: merriweatherregular, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUVqfEUKhWweOUWcQS00lpgr_RX4GHm_RVj-7YqLXXPQk-Y2BqLNYjsOrITc9Oei8jATUBOB5EzVYBHNZYMCgrsla7eCBbeCDp9b5NuNAJb9-3XGMhKoaBCW11lghjXTJB5OaeO2RnGhiowaQB2bhysmWWJl1sQckfiLbTFT7XVTelzsc2FvuC2A-JeTw/s1140/adoption%20article%20smita%20pranav%20kothari%20in%20mint%20.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="641" data-original-width="1140" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUVqfEUKhWweOUWcQS00lpgr_RX4GHm_RVj-7YqLXXPQk-Y2BqLNYjsOrITc9Oei8jATUBOB5EzVYBHNZYMCgrsla7eCBbeCDp9b5NuNAJb9-3XGMhKoaBCW11lghjXTJB5OaeO2RnGhiowaQB2bhysmWWJl1sQckfiLbTFT7XVTelzsc2FvuC2A-JeTw/s320/adoption%20article%20smita%20pranav%20kothari%20in%20mint%20.webp" width="320" /></a></i></div><i style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: merriweatherregular, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br />“Please describe the procedures you and your spouse used to reach a decision.”</i><p></p><p></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: merriweatherregular, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;">This wasn’t an inquiry raised by a psychologist during a couple’s therapy session, but a question in the Home Study Report (HSR). My husband and I were required to fill this as the preliminary step towards applying with the Child Adoption Resource Authority (CARA), which comes under the Union Ministry of Women & Child Development, to adopt our daughter. From assessing the quality of the marriage of the Prospective Adoptive Parents (PAPs) and the financial position to the motivation behind the adoption, the HSR interrogates everything. Since safety of the child is at the center of this due diligence, we responded to the questions even while squirming internally.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: merriweatherregular, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;">The online submission of the report is usually followed by visit of a social worker to the prospective parents’ home to validate the responses. During such a visit, people put forward their best selves forward to not get rejected on grounds of being physically, mentally and financially incapable of raising the child. On the day of our scheduled home-study, the house was vacuumed, our clothes were ironed, and freshly-baked cookies were laid out with tea. The social worker inspected every corner of our house while asking us the questions in the HSR, tallying the answers we had submitted. She went back pleased that we had mosquito mesh in our balcony and a common play area for kids in the apartment complex. </p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: merriweatherregular, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;">My husband and I finished the formalities after a friend, who had adopted, urged us to put in the paperwork, while warning us about the 1.5-2 year-long-waiting period between registering with CARA and getting the initial call for adoption. This was May 2020. My husband was feeling the void of a child during the covid-19 lockdown. I was done with futile IVF cycles. And that’s how we joined the waiting list.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: merriweatherregular, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;">Soon thereafter, our adoptive-parent friends added us to various WhatsApp and Facebook groups consisting largely of PAPs and a few adoptive parents who had been there, done that. On these groups, the communities shared steps to follow—from getting referral of a child to securing the final adoption order. Some even shared a checklist of things to carry when going to bring the child home. There was also general conversation on books and movies on adoption. The WhatsApp groups would buzz on referral days when CARA would match children in the adoption pool with parents in the waiting list. The PAPs would often guess when their lucky day would arrive based on their date of registration. Under the new system, parents would get to choose zones—east, west, north or south— instead of states. The age bracket and gender that parents mentioned as an option also added to the waiting period. For instance, for those who had ticked the age-bracket of 0-4 years had a longer waiting period—almost 3.5 years.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: merriweatherregular, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;">As we hit the three-year mark of our registration, my husband started charting referral dates of PAPs (as shared on the WhatsApp groups) on an Excel Sheet to codify when we would receive ours. But during some weeks, the CARA referral algorithm (which nobody has been able to crack) would throw the Excel formula off.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: merriweatherregular, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;">Anyways, just when my husband had convinced me that in any scenario, 2023 was perhaps not the year we would get our baby, my phone rang on Wednesday, 13 December 2023, around noon. I was almost not going to pick up the call from an unknown number, thinking it must be telemarketing. The man on the other side informed me that he was calling from the Specialized Adoption Agency (SAA) in Gujarat, where a child had been matched to our profile. I couldn’t believe it as I hadn’t received an email or SMS from CARA regarding the referral, which was the protocol. But the caller urged me to log into my CARA portal. When I did, it was indeed there: the passport size photo of the child, Medical Examination Report (MER) and Child Study Report (CSR). </p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: merriweatherregular, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;">I hadn’t heard my heartbeat clearer: Our 48-hour window to accept or let go of the referral had begun. I frantically called my husband who was travelling for work. We got on a Zoom call, quickly shared a moment of disbelief and excitement, and opened the list of pediatricians we had prepared to send the MER to. And so, by the end of the window, we hit the ‘accept’ button on the portal. We booked our tickets to fly to Ahmedabad the following morning and drive a couple of hours to the agency to meet ‘our daughter’. Needless to say, I was restless throughout the journey.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: merriweatherregular, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;">At the agency, when they brought her to the administration area to meet us and the petite damsel in oversized, mismatched clothes locked eyes with ours, we knew she was the piece in our hearts that was missing. We might have written in our HSR that we make our decisions by weighing the pros and cons of all scenarios, but here was a no-brainer. </p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: merriweatherregular, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;">(Read the article on Mint Lounge <a href="https://lifestyle.livemint.com/relationships/raising-parents/mother-shares-adoption-journey-paperwork-waiting-period-whatsapp-groups-111708930134221.html" target="_blank">here</a>!)</p>Smita Pranav Kotharihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02148630824845985709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086096049195633227.post-47716588745675440142023-02-07T17:41:00.003+05:302023-02-07T17:41:31.125+05:30Social Media Marketing <p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-size: var(--font-size-large);"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1cliwq2trPqBgDRtbJ_Mg7KQWoLli5BaI27ICHBKNr13RbNqFw9JowrQkSE-ehlqLd-ZfVtZrFHot_02-JZ8awp2c2K5O5Dx7mO_E0gKT51y6_qB-F6CQL6KWJqHNmXl-hF9VosYT_tK-RWjIzzfEfGd-JI3XpBPef6NgkzDo95T0JkE23ClpwvZ6/s4467/social%20media%20marketing%20img.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3241" data-original-width="4467" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1cliwq2trPqBgDRtbJ_Mg7KQWoLli5BaI27ICHBKNr13RbNqFw9JowrQkSE-ehlqLd-ZfVtZrFHot_02-JZ8awp2c2K5O5Dx7mO_E0gKT51y6_qB-F6CQL6KWJqHNmXl-hF9VosYT_tK-RWjIzzfEfGd-JI3XpBPef6NgkzDo95T0JkE23ClpwvZ6/s320/social%20media%20marketing%20img.jpeg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />I undertook social-media marketing (both strategy and execution) for<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-size: var(--font-size-large);"> </span><a data-entity-hovercard-id="urn:li:fs_miniCompany:2549986" data-entity-type="MINI_COMPANY" href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/gramvaani/" style="border: var(--artdeco-reset-link-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; font-size: var(--artdeco-reset-base-font-size-hundred-percent); font-weight: var(--font-weight-bold); margin: var(--artdeco-reset-base-margin-zero); overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: var(--artdeco-reset-base-padding-zero); text-decoration: var(--artdeco-reset-link-text-decoration-none); touch-action: manipulation; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline);">Gram Vaani</a><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-size: var(--font-size-large);"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-size: var(--font-size-large);">from April to October last year. Here are some of my top insights and learnings from the experience:</span></span><p></p><p class="reader-text-block__paragraph" style="--artdeco-reset-typography_getfontsize: 1.6rem; --artdeco-reset-typography_getlineheight: 1.5; background-color: white; border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-size: var(--font-size-large); line-height: 1.75; margin: 1.6rem 0px; padding: var(--artdeco-reset-base-padding-zero); vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline);"></p><ol style="border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; color: var(--color-text); font-size: var(--font-size-large); line-height: 1.75; margin: var(--artdeco-reset-base-margin-zero); padding: var(--artdeco-reset-base-padding-zero); vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline);"><li style="border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; font-size: var(--artdeco-reset-base-font-size-hundred-percent); margin: 0.8rem 0px 0.8rem 3.2rem; padding-left: 0.8rem; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline);"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If your organization’s accounts already exist on social-media platforms, audit the previous posts to gauge the tone and language that is set and also what kind of posts garner better engagement than the others. As much as possible, continue with the elements that work well for your brand so that the transition is least jarring for your followers.</span></li><li style="border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; font-size: var(--artdeco-reset-base-font-size-hundred-percent); margin: 0.8rem 0px 0.8rem 3.2rem; padding-left: 0.8rem; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline);"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Good content will do well organically. While promotions may bring those exponential spikes; the only sustainable approach is to create quality content consistently that connects with your audience at an emotional level.</span></li><li style="border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; font-size: var(--artdeco-reset-base-font-size-hundred-percent); margin: 0.8rem 0px 0.8rem 3.2rem; padding-left: 0.8rem; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline);"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Represent all your stakeholders in your social-media posts including donors/funders, partners, team members from CEO/founder to junior-most employees. And tag their correct account handles!</span></li><li style="border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; font-size: var(--artdeco-reset-base-font-size-hundred-percent); margin: 0.8rem 0px 0.8rem 3.2rem; padding-left: 0.8rem; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline);"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Social-media management requires a balance between content that’s current and that which is planned beforehand. While you can plan for communication on important days of the year for the thematic-area/s you work in and other posts which are not time-sensitive, there are many external events/news that will come up that you could not have accounted for when you charted the social-media calendar (for example, organization’s participation in a conference, an award conferred on founder/CEO, reaching an impact milestone etc.). Be agile.</span></li><li style="border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; font-size: var(--artdeco-reset-base-font-size-hundred-percent); margin: 0.8rem 0px 0.8rem 3.2rem; padding-left: 0.8rem; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline);"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Inculcate diversity in types of media accompanying posts from posters to short videos as well as in content buckets from human stories to big-picture impact numbers.</span></li><li style="border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; font-size: var(--artdeco-reset-base-font-size-hundred-percent); margin: 0.8rem 0px 0.8rem 3.2rem; padding-left: 0.8rem; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline);"><span style="font-family: inherit;">‘Social’ comes first in ‘social media.’ Social media is not just about posting content about your organization, it is also about responding to other’s comments on your posts and engaging with posts of people/organizations in your ecosystem.</span></li><li style="border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; font-size: var(--artdeco-reset-base-font-size-hundred-percent); margin: 0.8rem 0px 0.8rem 3.2rem; padding-left: 0.8rem; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline);"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Maintain the spirit of your organization and its work on your social-media. Don’t feel forced to adhere to sensibility of the platform (For example, Instagram is a casual platform but you have chosen to be present on the same because your audience/s are on the platform. You don’t have to create reels using playful filters and effects if that does not align with the ethos of your org). This also does not mean that your content/design has to be uncreative :)</span></li><li style="border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; font-size: var(--artdeco-reset-base-font-size-hundred-percent); margin: 0.8rem 0px 0.8rem 3.2rem; padding-left: 0.8rem; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline);"><span style="font-family: inherit;">No typos please. Spelling/grammar mistakes in your design copy and caption reflect poorly on the organization’s image.</span></li><li style="border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; font-size: var(--artdeco-reset-base-font-size-hundred-percent); margin: 0.8rem 0px 0.8rem 3.2rem; padding-left: 0.8rem; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline);"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Clean design in form of a relevant poster that conforms to your brand colours/aesthetic and communicates the message of the post succinctly or a short video or an infographic will help capture that fleeting attention span. Social-media (unlike email) is a very visual medium where people scroll as opposed to perusing every word.</span></li><li style="border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; font-size: var(--artdeco-reset-base-font-size-hundred-percent); margin: 0.8rem 0px 0.8rem 3.2rem; padding-left: 0.8rem; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline);"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Increase in the number of followers is one metric of success but what’s more important is who is following your account and what they’re doing with your content. Ideally, you want people/organizations in your TG to follow you and follow through your CTAs.</span></li></ol><p></p><p class="reader-text-block__paragraph" style="--artdeco-reset-typography_getfontsize: 1.6rem; --artdeco-reset-typography_getlineheight: 1.5; background-color: white; border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-size: var(--font-size-large); line-height: 1.75; margin: 1.6rem 0px; padding: var(--artdeco-reset-base-padding-zero); vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline);"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: var(--font-size-large);">Are you an NGO, social enterprise or CSR that needs help with your social-media strategy and execution? Reach out at smitapkothari@gmail.com</span></p>Smita Pranav Kotharihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02148630824845985709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086096049195633227.post-68529055106211347902023-01-14T13:36:00.001+05:302023-01-14T13:38:38.493+05:30Annual report for Akanksha Foundation<p><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" face="-apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGejkvgBDZoNyaN51H6y46N5gi03rY1-cr97kDpuukJOTjskJ2CugnYE2LZg7-MfGtVo58v7gbw5Qvjspl5s3G0rIIJkXhnrmHc_9MJYg6Aywx3tUTW0aYOJm0BxkEKqRWhtSn0jNmewtpTKl3BBRS5ueSR2tI9MoZq6iXxnI2QEtjWGfKZESxtQ9E/s1380/Screenshot%202023-01-14%20at%201.31.01%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="856" data-original-width="1380" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGejkvgBDZoNyaN51H6y46N5gi03rY1-cr97kDpuukJOTjskJ2CugnYE2LZg7-MfGtVo58v7gbw5Qvjspl5s3G0rIIJkXhnrmHc_9MJYg6Aywx3tUTW0aYOJm0BxkEKqRWhtSn0jNmewtpTKl3BBRS5ueSR2tI9MoZq6iXxnI2QEtjWGfKZESxtQ9E/s320/Screenshot%202023-01-14%20at%201.31.01%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />A few months ago, The Akanksha Foundation<span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" face="-apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"> took a bet on me to create their annual report for 2021-22. But I didn’t want to submit another PDF that just checks off the compliance box and that no one wants to read.</span><p></p><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" face="-apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"> </span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit;" /><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" face="-apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">So I turned all notions of a usual annual-report upside down:</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit;" /><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" face="-apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"> </span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit;" /><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" face="-apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">A typical annual-report relays information about the year gone by. I wanted to employ emotive storytelling and so we had a real Akanksha student give the audience a tour of the year at her beloved school.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit;" /><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" face="-apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"> </span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit;" /><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" face="-apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">A “normal” annual report is stuffed with exhaustive details about all the events that take place in the year. However, lengthy text is difficult to digest given limited attention-span. So I pushed for sharp bite-sized content sans jargons and edited it brutally to the point that each piece included was uber-essential.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit;" /><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" face="-apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"> </span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit;" /><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" face="-apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">A conventional annual-report, in its vertical scroll, often contains photos to give the viewers a window into the org and its work. I wanted to offer an authentic experience of visiting an Akanksha school digitally via horizontal design. The elements and backdrops you see in the report are all re-created based on actual photos of Akanksha school & classroom and so is Dhanashree – the Akanksha student who walks you through the report (literally!).</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit;" /><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" face="-apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"> </span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit;" /><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" face="-apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">After several doubts, content drafts, and design-challenges: we produced </span><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" face="-apple-system, system-ui, system-ui, Segoe UI, Roboto, Helvetica Neue, Fira Sans, Ubuntu, Oxygen, Oxygen Sans, Cantarell, Droid Sans, Apple Color Emoji, Segoe UI Emoji, Segoe UI Emoji, Segoe UI Symbol, Lucida Grande, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><a href="https://annualreport.akanksha.org/introduction" target="_blank">https://annualreport.akanksha.org/introduction</a></span></span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit;" /><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" face="-apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"> </span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit;" /><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" face="-apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">Kudos to leadership at the organization</span><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" face="-apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"> for supporting an idea as radical as Akanksha itself!</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit;" /><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" face="-apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"> </span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit;" /><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" face="-apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">Annual-report is such a powerful communication tool to showcase the happenings of the year to all stakeholders. Why should it be boring? What are some cool annual reports you have seen lately?</span>Smita Pranav Kotharihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02148630824845985709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086096049195633227.post-11202833813668745502023-01-05T18:19:00.001+05:302023-01-05T18:19:58.230+05:30Impact story workshop (training/capacity building)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8kXmk4HknekPvxY6mnBTUSJjHq1m_VqDXnog3KzM--hPQbh9SObtCBeW-V5Mjafv-vg2y7Pdx1xAV5uhZjeAlMy3Z6eObUgT3XGPOf38S1-OJMo3gJyCgGoUfYBh1bljDQ3UeKeudfNpLTUCU9mLn_SNhapXdOrECynFeAMt3I4GsveaNxpPKVpHp/s2856/Screenshot%202022-11-19%20at%206.35.13%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1270" data-original-width="2856" height="142" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8kXmk4HknekPvxY6mnBTUSJjHq1m_VqDXnog3KzM--hPQbh9SObtCBeW-V5Mjafv-vg2y7Pdx1xAV5uhZjeAlMy3Z6eObUgT3XGPOf38S1-OJMo3gJyCgGoUfYBh1bljDQ3UeKeudfNpLTUCU9mLn_SNhapXdOrECynFeAMt3I4GsveaNxpPKVpHp/w320-h142/Screenshot%202022-11-19%20at%206.35.13%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><div><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" face="-apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">These happy faces made one of my weekends last year!</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit;" /><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" face="-apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">A diverse cohort turned up for my impact-story workshop on a Saturday evening in late 2022 from :</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit;" /><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" face="-apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">🌏 Varied geographies like Canada, Australia, South Korea and of course, India</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit;" /><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" face="-apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">💟 Different cause areas from education to livelihoods to special needs</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit;" /><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" face="-apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">👩🏫 👨🏫 Representatives from non-profits, CSR and foundations</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit;" /><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" face="-apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">We discussed what an impact-story template/structure looks like, best practices to follow while writing the case study, how to customise your story for different audiences/stakeholders and more!</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit;" /><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" face="-apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">At the end of the session when I asked the participants to share their aha moment/key takeaway from the last 90 mins, one of them said that the entire session was an aha moment! That was my aha moment:)</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit;" /></div>Smita Pranav Kotharihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02148630824845985709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086096049195633227.post-86210515732175981882022-03-21T20:42:00.002+05:302022-03-21T20:48:16.580+05:30My Podcast: The Human(e) Story<p><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" face="-apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeWRCE27mpA1grLwK4pSinAZBsbJMua6-bCUHKTfStr5CGqmRMuatcTVJpCpxZ4j5mnt2K5tUzR8amqq4oFny2ke1WfTnex4cKGQR1YwXgy_g2RNb4ZilgbvJxyL3NLnsuoLp-aWG6pQW8WYFqws9VEYIxQpclShIuIKNXDB9ZSyac-b8KCTVgmm58/s1024/podcast%20art.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeWRCE27mpA1grLwK4pSinAZBsbJMua6-bCUHKTfStr5CGqmRMuatcTVJpCpxZ4j5mnt2K5tUzR8amqq4oFny2ke1WfTnex4cKGQR1YwXgy_g2RNb4ZilgbvJxyL3NLnsuoLp-aWG6pQW8WYFqws9VEYIxQpclShIuIKNXDB9ZSyac-b8KCTVgmm58/s320/podcast%20art.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br />I'm stoked to share my first podcast with you on heart-to-heart chats with changemakers: The Human(e) Story! <p></p><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit;" /><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" face="-apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">The Human(e) Story features my conversations with stalwarts of social impact in India like </span>Venkat Krishnan<span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" face="-apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"> of </span>GiveIndia<span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" face="-apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"> and </span>Anshu Gupta<span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" face="-apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"> of </span>Goonj<span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" face="-apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"> via six pillar questions including what drives them, which stories are special to them, and how should one contribute to the society. If you're interested in the Indian development sector either as a practitioner, aspirant or supporter; this series is for you!</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit;" /><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" face="-apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">Listen to the podcast trailer and episodes on:</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit;" /><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" face="-apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"><a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/3I4VYqqUOvusAjn6jB2bgq" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit;" /><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" face="-apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"><a href="https://bit.ly/36s8tYK" target="_blank">Google Podcasts</a></span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit;" /><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" face="-apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"><a href="https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/c405edbb-4a5d-479b-bd21-97e59692cb70/the-humane-story" target="_blank">Amazon Music</a></span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit;" /><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" face="-apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-human-e-story/id1615195341" target="_blank">Apple Podcasts</a></span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit;" /><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" face="-apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">This project is extremely special to me as it combines my love for creating something new from scratch in a new (audio) medium, emotive content, and checks off one more thing on my professional bucket list:) </span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit;" /><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" face="-apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">Do subscribe to the podcast on your favourite app to get notified when new episodes are added and please drop your thoughts/suggestions in the comments below!</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit;" />Smita Pranav Kotharihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02148630824845985709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086096049195633227.post-1437047760323714372020-03-28T13:42:00.002+05:302020-03-28T13:42:56.855+05:30Quarantine tales: How Bengalureans are coping with lockdown (The Hindu)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUyFK8ijB0mInRwn6UvBbWZjVV41d0mBRWPibFvghquqMqS1tCraybPFA8YW37XA00NqxfoIYeMl1SP09hGdNxFzjPq7oTtoWf_-cKR-Ecpkw3vEgrHwiXDfq_YpLiENyHpiPNtTBybXU/s1600/WhatsApp+Image+2020-03-18+at+18.56.57+%25281%2529.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="904" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUyFK8ijB0mInRwn6UvBbWZjVV41d0mBRWPibFvghquqMqS1tCraybPFA8YW37XA00NqxfoIYeMl1SP09hGdNxFzjPq7oTtoWf_-cKR-Ecpkw3vEgrHwiXDfq_YpLiENyHpiPNtTBybXU/s320/WhatsApp+Image+2020-03-18+at+18.56.57+%25281%2529.jpeg" width="226" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">At 6:07 pm on Wednesday, keyboard tunes to Kishore Kumar’s song <i>Yeh Shaam Mastaani…</i> (This fun evening…) reverberated in the quad of a gated community in Bangalore. The occasion: Self-imposed quarantine due to spread of COVID-19.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">It started as a call for ideas to keep one entertained during the quarantine on the Whatsapp group comprising residents of the apartment complex. “Balcony <i><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15853829032786437710288">antakshari</gwmw></i>” was a suggestion that amused many. The one who proposed it explained the novel concept in tweet-sized instructions: “We just pick a time, get onto the balcony facing the courtyard and play <i><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15853829053823314016331">antakshari</gwmw> </i>for a bit.” Another informed participant on the group posted a short video of how the Italian musicians were singing and playing instruments from their balconies. Yet another resident offered for her son to play keyboard attached to speakers. That sealed it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">And so it was decided: It would be a 20-minute session on Wednesday at 6 pm when people would come to their balconies that look into a common courtyard and croon. Many like me started hovering around the balcony a little earlier than the designated time in excitement! And then a few minutes past 6 pm floated the familiar tune that beckoned some who weren’t <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-3" id="gwmw-15853829105018462804346">on</gwmw> the Whatsapp group and some who were but had forgotten about the rendezvous. Young and young-at-heart, men and women gradually started popping in their balconies, some vigorously waving their hands at their long-lost <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15853829127082938464834">neighbours</gwmw>. One of the following songs was the apt and <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15853829137442998377585">relatable</gwmw> number <i>Mere Samne Wali Khidki Mein… (</i>In the window opposite to mine…). Very quickly, I realized that the intersection of my loudest and my suitable-to-human-ear voice could not travel beyond my balcony. I think many others who realized the same compensated with loud clapping at the end of each keyboard song-recital to make their presence felt and to appreciate the player’s efforts. And thus, “balcony <i><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15853829192045230652291">antakshari</gwmw></i>” turned into “balcony concert.” The keyboard player became the community hero and compliments and wishes for a bright future were sent his way in wholesale on the Whatsapp group. The concert for the evening had ended with <i>Chalte Chalte<gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-6" id="gwmw-15853829201447309666583">…</gwmw>Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna</i>… (Never say goodbye…).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Now that we were hooked, we <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-2" id="gwmw-15853828994492355473165">heeded</gwmw> to the advice. Next evening, a German lady whose father was an opera singer in Austria, offered to play his CDs from her balcony. And the day after that, a stereo blasted kids’ favorites like Prince Ali from Aladdin, Sunflower from Spiderman, and We Will Rock You by Queen from someone’s balcony.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Next up was <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-3" id="gwmw-15853828994535419432564">drinks</gwmw>. Another resident showcased on the Whatsapp group a cocktail she had concocted and christened Corona Cashaya. The professional-looking creative that left others on the group drooling, had the beverage served on the rocks with a blob of ginger and a whole lemon artistically placed next to the glass. The post was not meant to make others jealous. The drink-maker had bottled three of the <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-6" id="gwmw-15853829254959834867823">same and</gwmw> made them available free for grabs. “Will just drop at your door and leave,” she offered generously. “Important to keep spirits up!!” the post ended with a smiley. And thus began the auction on the group that lasted nine mighty minutes. This left some, who missed the window, enraged. And so, the next batch was promised.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Then came Sunday, March 22, when <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-6" id="gwmw-15853829288876485065623">PM Modi</gwmw> had urged everyone across the nation to follow Janta Curfew i.e. <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15853828994706337963872">to</gwmw> remain in their houses during the day as a drill for future lockdown. And the occupants <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-3" id="gwmw-15853829302142335679784">in</gwmw> my residential complex did everything prescribed which is to do nothing at all. Children didn’t play in the quad, garbage collection was paused for the day, domestic help was not allowed to enter <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-2" id="gwmw-15853829314907199662417">the premises etc.</gwmw> <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15853828994733947935396">etc.</gwmw><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_heading=h.gjdgxs"></a><span lang="EN-US">Such are the times in my gated community. <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-3" id="gwmw-15853829343012855343734">Usual measures</gwmw> like <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15853829343011926876670">sanitizers</gwmw> at the gate, recording temperature of the maids who come from outside, and closing access to common areas of the <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15853829343013524644535">club-house</gwmw> like gym and pool, were implemented like they were in my friends’ gated communities in different parts of the city. In addition, COVID-19 has helped discover music lovers, mixologists, and patriots in my community so far.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">(Here's the <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/society/heres-how-indians-are-coping-with-the-lockdown/article31173874.ece">link</a> to my article on The Hindu's website)</span></div>
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Smita Pranav Kotharihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02148630824845985709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086096049195633227.post-3020304078227972282020-02-01T16:09:00.001+05:302020-02-01T16:09:30.017+05:30Family Trees (The Caravan Magazine)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Shyam Sunder Paliwal was the <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15805534476423546604924">sarpanch</gwmw> of Piplantri, a village in Rajasthan’s Rajsamand district, between 2005 and 2010. His father helped a marble company establish a unit in the village. In return, the company <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-3" id="gwmw-15805534494418932063874">let</gwmw> his family sell its scrap marble, making them affluent. Over the years, excessive marble mining and sporadic droughts caused a severe depletion in the village’s groundwater levels. Water could not be found in the area, even by <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-3" id="gwmw-15805534514512943560366">drilling tube</gwmw> wells four hundred feet deep.</div>
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On 21 August 2006, Kiran, Paliwal’s 16-year-old daughter, died of dehydration after suffering from <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15805534530145886308926">diarrhoea</gwmw>. Devastated by her death and <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15805534540189843274184">recognising</gwmw> the urgent need to rejuvenate the water table, Paliwal launched the Kiran Nidhi Yojana, in 2007. The KNY mandates that the parents of a newborn girl plant 111 trees. The father or guardian of the girl <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-3" id="gwmw-15805534556612347995814">are asked</gwmw> to pay Rs 10,000, while Rs 21,000 is collected from other villagers and philanthropists. The total amount of Rs 31,000 is invested in a fixed deposit, redeemable when the girl turns 18 years old. The money is expected to be used to fund her higher education and wedding. In exchange, the parents are asked to sign an affidavit promising to take care of the trees and not marry off their daughter until she attains adulthood. After the wedding, the trees become the property of the <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15805534591385177539621">panchayat</gwmw>, with any income they generate being used for developmental activities.</div>
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<gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15805534606697163938381">Paliwal’s</gwmw> biggest challenge in implementing the scheme, he told me, was “to recover the government land that was encroached.” Convincing villagers, who saw the economic benefits of the scheme, <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-3" id="gwmw-15805534606697488931542">was</gwmw> relatively <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-3" id="gwmw-15805534606698172302068">easier</gwmw>. The KNY is now linked to the Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana, a central-government deposit scheme launched in 2015, as part of the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao campaign.</div>
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(Continue reading the remaining part of the article <a href="http://bit.ly/37QV8Vy">here</a>!)</div>
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Smita Pranav Kotharihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02148630824845985709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086096049195633227.post-56472166541703527382019-12-02T19:50:00.000+05:302019-12-02T19:50:09.951+05:30How some men want to change Meghalaya's matrilineal society (The Economic Times)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px;">(Smita in Smit, cultural </span><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752962747703271308151" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 16px;">centre</gwmw><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px;"> of Meghalaya, with King outside his royal hut!)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px;"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752795809755387918918"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752961435624501597820">Marbakynsai</gwmw></gwmw> Marbaniang, 37, guffaws as he recalls the time he moved into his wife’s mother’s house in Sohryngkham 10 years back. “Even the way you press Colgate is different,” he says. Before getting married, he used to press the toothpaste from the bottom. Now he presses the tube from the top.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px;"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752795832305105821217"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752961403453583896378">Marbaniang</gwmw></gwmw> is among some 1.7 million people belonging to the Khasi-Jaintia Scheduled Tribes (ST) of Meghalaya, who follow the <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752795832306056328907"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752961403457629629215">matrilineal</gwmw></gwmw> system. Unlike most of India, where a sobbing bride moves into her husband’s house, a man in<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/topic/Meghalaya" style="color: #024d99; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Meghalaya</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>“adjusts” in his wife’s house after nuptials. Apart from the Khasi-Jaintia tribes in the state, the Garo tribe, which comprises nearly 30% of the state population of around 3 million, also follows the <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752795865807855048833"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752961403920533894965">matrilineal</gwmw></gwmw> culture of passing down the family name and ancestral property through the female line of descent. “Clan’s lineage and custody of ancestral property are the nerve <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752795883539670947219"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752961404095638782124">centres</gwmw></gwmw> around which the <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752795883534333488942"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752961404092551262474">matrilineal</gwmw></gwmw> system exists in Meghalaya,” says Banrida Langstieh, associate professor at the department of anthropology at North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;">This way of life, dating back centuries, is facing challenges as some men say it is not working for them, and the centrality of the maternal uncle disappears. It is becoming common for people to pass on <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-3" id="gwmw-15752796095130295543970"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-3" id="gwmw-15752961404256015530153">acquired</gwmw></gwmw> property (as against inherited assets) to male children. The problems faced by the men in these tribes are not dissimilar to what women face in the patriarchal norm elsewhere, and shines a light on the centrality of inheritance in gender dynamics.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><br /></span></span></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;">There are close to 500 <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752796274550926436360"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752961458520977451284">matrilineal</gwmw></gwmw> societies in the world, with Minangs of Indonesia being the largest of them with a population of over 4 million. The common denominator among all of them is that lineage of its members is traced through the mother’s side of the family. Their cultural practices (for example, post-marital residence and inheritance of property), however, vary.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;" /><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;">In India, Nairs in Kerala <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752796295017163246489"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752961404823751427301">practised</gwmw></gwmw> <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752796295013355499733"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752961404827416097258">matriliny</gwmw></gwmw> till 1925 when it was terminated by law. In contrast, although 80% of the tribal folk in Meghalaya have converted to Christianity and the state’s <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752796311578496733427"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752961404996887191345">neighbours</gwmw></gwmw> <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752796311577988600286"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752961404998645535857">practise</gwmw></gwmw> patriarchy like the rest of India, <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752796311571757513554"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752961404997237167390">matriliny</gwmw></gwmw> is the norm among a majority of the tribal populace in Meghalaya. <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752796321532167321197"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752961405101912088113">Langstieh</gwmw></gwmw> says the <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752796321530735093290"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752961405106393337072">matrilineal</gwmw></gwmw> culture in Meghalaya is the only surviving system of the sort in India on this scale.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752796518708600034506"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752961472049001104707">Shariti</gwmw></gwmw> Syiem, 36, wife of Marbaniang, is the only daughter of her parents. The tribal tradition of the region prescribes that when a man marries the youngest (or only) daughter of a Khasi family, he has to settle in his mother-in-law’s house. “As Shariti is the only daughter, there was no escape for me but to join her family,” Marbaniang says.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;" /><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;">Among the Khasis, the youngest daughter is the steward of ancestral property, which had passed down to her mother from her grandmother and so on. But increasingly, acquired property doesn’t necessarily pass on along matrilineal lines. <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752796579717987976558"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752961406098315811224">Syiem</gwmw></gwmw>, who says she loves her son as much as her daughter, wants to give “something” to her son. <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752796611330305912327"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752961406261585657207">Syiem</gwmw></gwmw> runs a three-room bed-<gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752796611332897909954">and-breakfast</gwmw> (BnB) in Sohryngkham (a village in East Khasi Hills, some 21 km from the capital Shillong) on the same premises as her ancestral house where she lives with her family. “I’ll give the BnB house to my <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-3" id="gwmw-15752796622511634467972"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-3" id="gwmw-15752961406432249067806">son whereas</gwmw></gwmw> the ancestral house will go to my daughter,” Syiem says.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><strong style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;">‘<gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-3" id="gwmw-15752796707682768655251"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-3" id="gwmw-15752961503406035056874">They</gwmw></gwmw> Die at 40’</strong><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;">A men’s rights group called Syngkhong Rympei Thymmai (SRT), meaning a wedge that <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752796724173877817637"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752961503400025126626">stabilises</gwmw></gwmw> the shaking home, has been advocating equitable division of property <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-3" id="gwmw-15752796724178293878612">to</gwmw> all children irrespective of gender. Broadly, SRT has been striving to overturn <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752796734399552581744"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752961406571027522791">matriliny</gwmw></gwmw> and establish <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752796734399951907486"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752961406572425467234">patriliny</gwmw></gwmw> in the Khasi tribe since 1990. Keith Pariat, former president of SRT, argues that the Khasi men have been languishing because of <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752796769690569265214"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752961406748438894738">matriliny</gwmw></gwmw>, as they don’t have a sense of belonging either in their parents’ home or in their mother-in-law’s. “The Khasi boys drop out of school in Class V-VI, make merry with friends, drink and do drugs, play guitar, and die by 40,” Pariat says.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;" /><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;">The condition of Khasi men has degraded to such an extent, <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752796820101542371529"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752961407146671164869">Pariat</gwmw></gwmw> says, that Khasi women do not want to marry them.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;" /><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;">According to the National Family Health Survey 2005-06 data, 25% of Meghalaya citizenry marries inter-caste, compared with the national average of 10%. He says the tribal women of Meghalaya end up marrying immigrants from Bangladesh, for example, who may be lured by the income tax exemption accorded to STs under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India. Because of the union of Khasi women with non-Khasi men, the purity of the Khasi tribe is on the path to extinction, he argues.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;">In addition to the matter of property, SRT has also been demanding a change, which is at the core of <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752796976935060281936"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752961520485819578804">matrilineal</gwmw></gwmw> culture — they want children to take the surnames of fathers rather than mothers. <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752796999445538010576"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752961407965124614247">Pariat</gwmw></gwmw>, <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-3" id="gwmw-15752796999446762323959"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-3" id="gwmw-15752961407965715781257">who along</gwmw></gwmw> with his three sisters and two brothers uses his father’s title, reasons that a father would feel more responsible towards his children if they belong to his clan. Across the country, Meghalaya, with around 22% single mothers, according to Census 2011, records the highest rate of abandonment of women by their husbands. While this is not a taboo in Khasi culture, it has an undeniable impact on children — they are twice as likely to drop out of school to help their single mothers earn, compared with kids raised by two parents.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;" /><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-3" id="gwmw-15752797069206519282566"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-3" id="gwmw-15752961408500679733068">Sometimes though</gwmw></gwmw>, material considerations come in the way of ideology. A Khasi is deemed to be <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-2" id="gwmw-15752797089557700054454"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-2" id="gwmw-15752961408622195732647">one</gwmw></gwmw> only if the person takes the name of the mother’s clan, according to the Khasi Lineage Act passed by the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/topic/Khasi-Hills-Autonomous-District-Council" style="background-color: transparent; color: #024d99; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council</a><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;">. This is the key that unlocks reservation quotas for STs in jobs and education. “I allowed my daughter to use her mother’s title to collect the governor’s scholarship,” Pariat says. He adds that he also did not want his daughter to lose out on the ancestral property from her maternal side on account of using her paternal surname. <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752797139092518365368"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752961409389940933153">Pariat’s</gwmw></gwmw> son, however, retains his father’s title.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;" /><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;">SRT’s supporters are mostly concentrated in Shillong. The influence of the group’s ideology is limited in rural areas, which constitute 80% of the state. Smit, a village in the district of East Khasi Hills, is the cultural <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752797192281887836993"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752961410050165910702">centre</gwmw></gwmw> where the royal family lives. Arun Lyngdoh, 67, who dons a black Columbia Sportswear jacket, married the present queen mother 35 years ago (In Khasi royalty, brother of queen mother is the king). “In a Khasi family, a father may be the <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-3" id="gwmw-15752797222439205394874"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-3" id="gwmw-15752961411811902762267">head but</gwmw></gwmw> <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-3" id="gwmw-15752797222434840378695"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-3" id="gwmw-15752961411814198166010">mother</gwmw></gwmw> is the neck and the head turns wherever the neck turns,” he says. After marriage, Lyngdoh relocated to the royal <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752797236590447407414">wood-and</gwmw>-straw hut. Adjoining the royal residence is a brick-and-mortar house where Lyngdoh’s daughter lives with her husband. <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752797255493671999201"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752961412056983195440">Lyngdoh</gwmw></gwmw> listens to <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-3" id="gwmw-15752797255494820286046"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-3" id="gwmw-15752961412054229814510">transistor radio</gwmw></gwmw> in the royal hut, which has no electricity. But when he wants to watch TV, he visits his daughter’s house. “No, no, no shift to <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752797279700510617823"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752961412241837950236">patriliny</gwmw></gwmw> here,” Lyngdoh attests about the 5,000 subjects living in Smit.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;">When a movement for <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752797299286428480455"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752961539693606851696">patriliny</gwmw></gwmw> similar to <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-3" id="gwmw-15752797299283618870058"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-3" id="gwmw-15752961539696822634557">SRT</gwmw></gwmw> erupted in 1961 in Cherrapunjee, the epicenter of Khasi culture, the three-dozen men <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-3" id="gwmw-15752797299289335682498"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-3" id="gwmw-15752961539693010448538">of</gwmw></gwmw> the group were chased by women in the bazaar with knives, old-timers recall.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;" /><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752797309711243091219"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752961412318681659580">Langstieh</gwmw></gwmw> says there is no written script suggesting the origin of <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-3" id="gwmw-15752797309713782984909"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-3" id="gwmw-15752961412318910513697">matrilineal system</gwmw></gwmw> in the tribes of the region. However, she adds that folktales suggest that their tribal ancestors were warriors from<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/topic/Southeast-Asia" style="background-color: transparent; color: #024d99; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Southeast Asia</a><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>who fought feuds with other tribes. Since there was no certainty of men returning from these battles, they gave entitlement of land and lineage to the women (whom they had left behind) so that their identity did not perish.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;" /><strong style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;">The Vanishing Uncle</strong></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;">Moreover, the maternal uncle, who was a central figure in the original <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752797367182058821536"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752961551993630362900">matrilineal</gwmw></gwmw> structure, has been taking backstage in the region. Earlier, the maternal uncle would spend most of the day at his sister’s house, disciplining her children, and his earnings from cultivation would also go towards her household. However, as author and priest <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752797409036971935088"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752961412611698268001">Sngi</gwmw></gwmw> Lyngdoh wrote in the preface to the 1994 book The Khasis and Their Matrilineal System: “The present one is a system that has no root in history as a <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752797409030649603877"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752961412617745959573">matrilineal</gwmw></gwmw> system since the uncle as the <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752797409030411170312"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752961412613830125998">centre</gwmw></gwmw> of authority and economy, of discipline and of the government of the family as a clan, has disappeared from the scene… He does not live and work in his sister’s house anymore! He does not feed, clothe and look after his nephews and nieces anymore!”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752797422855094576102"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752961562475700892071">Marbaniang</gwmw></gwmw> is a farmer who works and stays at the state government’s tea estate near Shillong for half of the week. Back in Sohryngkham for the remainder of the week, his wife and kids are his priority. “On some Sundays when I have to get a haircut, I visit my mother’s house in Shillong as the salon is next to the house,” he says. <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752797479362478036192"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752961412970830425902">Marbaniang</gwmw></gwmw> has four sisters. Although in the Khasis, the youngest daughter is supposed to take care of her parents while staying in the ancestral house, Marbaniang’s youngest sister moved to Prague after marrying a Punjabi. Therefore, his other sister is tending to their mother.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;" /><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752797529490328589566"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752961413195221538088">Marbaniang</gwmw></gwmw> <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752797529492524266406"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752961413193808127837">realises</gwmw></gwmw> that like his sister, his nine-year-old daughter might also marry a non-Khasi one day and they (his daughter and her husband) may choose to live as a nuclear family in their own house. “In that case, <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752797539182882027577"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752961413279078556895">Shariti</gwmw></gwmw> and I are mentally prepared to move into an old-age home,” he says.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;">While his future son-in-law may not inhabit his wife’s house, Marbaniang wishes that his <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15752797621053889367195">six year</gwmw>-old son <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-3" id="gwmw-15752797621052667334948"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-3" id="gwmw-15752964041269198420034">follow</gwmw></gwmw> in his footsteps and conforms to the culture of their ancestors from time immemorial. “Now I drink with my father-in-law,” says Marbaniang, as proof that he has adjusted to his in-law’s house and that life for a son-in-law like <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-3" id="gwmw-15752797641693674138705"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-3" id="gwmw-15752961413344227252546">him</gwmw></gwmw> gets better after a while.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-3" id="gwmw-15752961616533783501898">(</gwmw>Here's the article on <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/how-some-men-want-to-change-meghalayas-matrilineal-society/articleshow/72309605.cms">ET's website</a>)</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
Smita Pranav Kotharihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02148630824845985709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086096049195633227.post-36213147246178940212019-06-01T14:03:00.003+05:302019-06-01T14:03:40.018+05:30Social Contract (The Caravan)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/z3bZeh_zv4owfSbK-lltjBkD5LStp37s-YFjxnpg5SXFuNmLos3RcKsn9kxLbu5qbhBNNxqJbtsliv6NYYvSO5BfBA=s400" /></div>
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The Hyundai Santro that picked me up last December at a bus stop at Oon, a small town in the Khargone district of Madhya Pradesh, had a bumper sticker that read, “musli ki kripa”—musli’s benevolence. Unlike the usual references on bumper stickers, musli was not some local deity. It was, in fact, an herb, a cash crop cultivated by farmers of the region, which is widely used for Ayurvedic medicines and sold at a price as high as R1,500 per kilogram. As we drove to the village of Raibidpura, Deepak Verma, who owned the car—he was the sole car owner among the farmers in his village—proudly claimed to have brought this unconventional crop to the village.<br />
<br />
It was not musli, however, that had brought me to Raibidpura. I first heard about the village, in 2017, when I learnt about how its residents were excelling at contract bridge—a four-player card game, generally perceived as a game of the urban elite. Located just over twenty kilometres from the district headquarters, Raibidpura was predominantly a village of farmers. Deepak told me that the majority of the farmers in the village, which has a population of around five thousand people, belonged to the Gurjar community, which is classified as Other Backward Classes in Madhya Pradesh.<br />
<br />
Raibidpura is not a typical Indian village. The farmers here have experimented with non-traditional crops such as musli. The crime rate is negligible. A significant part of the population consists of schoolteachers. Mass weddings are often held, to help lower expenses. And then, there is the obsession with bridge. The game, which is believed to have arrived in India in 1904, has been an integral part of Raibidpura’s culture for over five decades now.<br />
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(Read the remaining text of the piece <a href="https://caravanmagazine.in/lede/madhya-pradesh-village-obsession-bridge">here!</a>)<br />
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Smita Pranav Kotharihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02148630824845985709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086096049195633227.post-28188892297184217482019-04-09T15:16:00.002+05:302019-05-10T13:09:59.435+05:30Postcard from Mattur (The Indian Quarterly)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEittQf8Day1HCQWPwnrSUhG80PmOVUj7ffvTQlJTKP_BwpOyJgo6LRCqO3ehG1GmHpBJzA4j-grzmpGmws3l6fzrNhaxfVzqBf5ojxHtymBuBI3Z2mxGXG4_fyTuYOhQt4mSVTbCAQ5BKI/s1600/IMG_20190409_095302.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEittQf8Day1HCQWPwnrSUhG80PmOVUj7ffvTQlJTKP_BwpOyJgo6LRCqO3ehG1GmHpBJzA4j-grzmpGmws3l6fzrNhaxfVzqBf5ojxHtymBuBI3Z2mxGXG4_fyTuYOhQt4mSVTbCAQ5BKI/s320/IMG_20190409_095302.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">We
step down from Talguppa Express onto the platform of Shivamogga Town Railway
Station at 5am. Still adjusting to the light after a short night’s sleep, I
squint at the illuminated minarets of a nearby mosque.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">My
husband and I hail an autorickshaw to traverse the 10 kilometres to
Mattur—popularly known as Sanskrit Gram. It is Eid-e-Milad today. Shivamogga is
decorated with strings of tiny green bulbs twined over trees and networks of suspended
green prayer-flags which seem to bring crescent moons and stars closer to the
earth. The only constant sound is the vroom of our rickshaw. For the last few kilometres
to Mattur, the dark road becomes narrower, as if squeezed by the areca nut and
coconut plantations on both sides.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Our
destination, sans sufficient street lights and signboards, is at a missable
turn. We have a room reservation at Sanskrit Bhavan adjoining Sharda Vilas School.
We are welcomed by an illuminated statue of the Goddess of Learning, poised and
decked-up for our early morning arrival. The Bhavan houses four spartan rooms
(named after Sanskrit scholars: Vyasa and Valmiki with attached bathrooms, and
hot water facilities, Panini and Chanakya without amenities). The village is
otherwise devoid of any hotels or restaurants.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Mattur
is a hamlet in Karnataka inhabited by about 350 Brahmins who live in a
designated cobblestone square. The Brahmin men wear their traditional white
cotton, two-part attire; long tuft of hair on crown of head; three horizontal
white lines (tilak) on forehead; and walk mostly barefoot in their quarter. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Message Header"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Salutation"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Date"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Block Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Hyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="FollowedHyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Document Map"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Plain Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="E-mail Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Top of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Bottom of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal (Web)"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Acronym"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Address"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Cite"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Code"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Definition"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Keyboard"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Preformatted"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Sample"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Typewriter"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Variable"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal Table"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation subject"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="No List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Contemporary"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Elegant"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Professional"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Balloon Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Theme"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" QFormat="true"
Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="List Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="List Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="List Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">I sit with one such man—Lakshmi Upadhyay—on the ghat
by the river Tunga. Upadhyay is a Kul Purohit (family priest by lineage), invited
by people in villages and cities alike to perform rituals for life events such
as birth, house-warming, marriage and death. “We are like jokers in a pack of
playing cards who are common to all and who can be joined with any item,” he
says, referring to how they are prerequisites to various family occasions.</span><!--EndFragment-->
<br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Read the full article in April-June issue of IQ available at your nearest bookstore! The online version is <a href="http://indianquarterly.com/postcard-from-mattur/">here</a>.</span></div>
Smita Pranav Kotharihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02148630824845985709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086096049195633227.post-81330289578190576632017-09-01T09:13:00.001+05:302017-09-01T09:29:22.787+05:30Arms and the flag (Reader's Digest)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifgh5i1VddcbBc_M0aRg7RXZ5ZFG_-nVrQv8GNcbukvzRsdVo8nJi1SNifTtTot9l0_lD7SxQ3RCIRLZ0KhGcchKlQ0qEcxpMxC3LPkv8cMw5zCK4eXP6nTRW-XFU2VarTcfXlHEnXJR0/s1600/moz+flag+with+gun.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifgh5i1VddcbBc_M0aRg7RXZ5ZFG_-nVrQv8GNcbukvzRsdVo8nJi1SNifTtTot9l0_lD7SxQ3RCIRLZ0KhGcchKlQ0qEcxpMxC3LPkv8cMw5zCK4eXP6nTRW-XFU2VarTcfXlHEnXJR0/s1600/moz+flag+with+gun.png" /></a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">
Alex Tivane was angry. The Mozambican tourism professional opened the Paint application on his computer and erased an element from his national flag. That element was an AK-47. "I painted the best approximation of the background colour over the gun," Tivane, who has been using the revised image as his profile picture on Facebook ever since 2013, recollects. According to vexillologists, Mozambique does not have a flag code (a law that lays down a description and specifications of the flag).</div>
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It is the only country in the world that showcases a modern firearm on its flag. The other elements on the tricoloured flag include a hoe representing agriculture, with it crossed against the firearm and superimposed on an open book symbolizing education, and all three overlaid on a star, which stands for international solidarity. Flag expert Bruce Berry at the Southern African Vexillological Association (SAVA) specifies that 4 per cent of national flags depicted weapons on their flags in 1999, according to the paper 'VEXISTATS: A Statistical Overview of the Colours, Symbols and Designs of National Flags in the 20th Century' that he presented at the XVIII International Congress of Vexillology. However, he adds that all the weapons on flags except AK-47 (which has been in use since 1949) are antiquated; for example, a spear on Kenya's flag, dagger and sword on Oman's flag, and arrows on the US Virgin Islands' flag. "Mozambique's flag is the only one to feature a modern automatic weapon," Berry says.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">
The AK-47 on Mozambique's flag is symbolic of the war for its independence, which was finally granted in 1975, in which the Russian firearm was used. However, the gun on the flag does not just remain as a souvenir of the past; it is very much relevant to present-day Mozambique. Two years after the country became free from Portuguese rule, a civil war between FRELIMO (Mozambique Liberation Front) and RENAMO (Mozambican National Resistance) broke out, which lasted for more than 15 years.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">
Aly Sattar remembers a specific day during the civil war as if it was yesterday: 14 February 1991. It was the day he lost most of his family to the bullets from AK-47 -- his father, infant sister and toddler brother. They were travelling in a convoy to neighbouring Malawi to escape the war. The incident, however, did not turn Sattar against the weapon that killed his loved ones. He says, "The AK-47 is a sign of victory from the Portuguese colonizers, it can or will not be removed from the flag."</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">
While the civil war has officially ended, FRELIMO, which is the ruling party, and RENAMO, which is the opposition party, continue to fight for power -- harming many civilians like Tivane. His work entails promoting tourism in Mozambique. When the unrest escalated in 2013, Tivane says, tourism in the country was severely affected. As a consequence, Tivane's clients -- hotels, lodges and resorts -- mothballed their properties, closed down or stopped paying him. He wants peace in his country for his business and the tourism industry to resuscitate. "We can't have peace if we revere arms," Tivane says referring to the AK-47 on his national flag.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">
The AK-47 has been a part of the Mozambican flag since 1975. (The current design was adopted on 1 May 1983, and bears close resemblance to a FRELIMO flag.) FRELIMO, which led the war for Mozambique's freedom with AK-47s, has been the ruling party post-independence till today. In 2005, the government initiated (with a push from RENAMO) a public competition to redesign the country's flag, especially to take down the gun from it. While allowing leeway for creativity, the submissions were mandated to<br />
incorporate the following themes in the design: the blood shed in the struggle for independence, national unity, peace, democracy and social justice, and the country's wealth. A jury was appointed, 169 entries were received and a winner was chosen.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">
The winning entry, among other changes, replaced the AK-47 with a red ball to represent the bloodshed. Jose Forjaz, architect and graphic designer, who designed it, says, "We were given a theme that fixed the motives to be represented in the flag: the blood of our heroes, the riches of the land, the sea and peace. I interpreted those elements designing the black profile of Mozambique's coastline, the green of the land and forests, the blue for the sea, the red ball for the blood of the heroes, the golden stripe for our mineral richness and the white stripe for peace. This was too abstract for our members of parliament … even if the jury declared it the best submission. I felt that I could contribute to a progressive image of the country." The parliament with FRELIMO in majority did not give its approval.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">
The contest could not change the flag of Mozambique, but it could have subconsciously influenced Tivane to make the change, at least on his computer. He has put up the flag that he designed (sans the AK-47) as icon of the 'Travel Safe in Mozambique' page on his portal.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">
(The article is featured in September issue of Reader's Digest. You can read it online on RD's website <a href="http://www.readersdigest.co.in/story/arms-and-the-flag/1/124415.html">here</a>!)</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
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Smita Pranav Kotharihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02148630824845985709noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086096049195633227.post-15336902969063510162016-10-10T21:08:00.000+05:302016-10-10T21:08:32.209+05:30The Persian Way (Travel+Leisure)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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happened to be a fellow Iranian. At the end of the ride, she offered to pay but
the driver refused to accept the fare saying that he cannot charge her as
Rastegar belonged to his country and that she had just arrived at the new city.
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">Even
if Rastegar had moved to Tehran, Iran, she would have most certainly
encountered a similar episode. However, if Rastegar was aware of her culture’s
particular aspect at play here, she would have recognized that the taxi-driver
was merely practising tarof.</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">(Read remaining article in October issue of Travel+Leisure (India & South Asia) magazine!) </span><!--EndFragment--></div>
Smita Pranav Kotharihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02148630824845985709noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086096049195633227.post-11407998231980219132016-08-08T09:07:00.001+05:302016-08-08T09:07:54.890+05:30In this country, a no means yes (Conde Nast Traveller)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvSKo1WAU9lDxoieMzTodtF7ueXrvL_bQZ_NZ1P9Q1Gly8WGF1DTcEWpmsY-vH_bx3cLMOjTLur3dS5hWYsNpdmgAHcm_TB0pQ84HHerIOHvPOOUb2o6a3WWaXp1MAUkZvKFkszPEZLYk/s1600/Bulgaria+img.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvSKo1WAU9lDxoieMzTodtF7ueXrvL_bQZ_NZ1P9Q1Gly8WGF1DTcEWpmsY-vH_bx3cLMOjTLur3dS5hWYsNpdmgAHcm_TB0pQ84HHerIOHvPOOUb2o6a3WWaXp1MAUkZvKFkszPEZLYk/s320/Bulgaria+img.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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A random day in December 2003 in Sofia, Bulgaria: Justin Chapmans was waiting for a minibus to take him to the Hadji Dimitar district. When the bus arrived, he asked the driver for his destination to which the driver signalled him to board the bus. In response, Chapmans shut the door and the bemused driver drove away.</div>
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Chapmans, an engineer and real estate professional, had recently moved to Sofia from Canberra, Australia, and wasn’t familiar with the local language. He thought he could get by with some body language. Big mistake!</div>
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For most of the world, a head-shake from side to side denotes a ‘no’. Bulgarians, however, do that to convey the affirmative. Strange, perhaps, but there’s a reason. Some version of the following tale explains how Bulgarians reversed the meaning of the head-shake: during Ottoman rule in Bulgaria, the Turks were forcing locals to accept Islam by placing a sword on their necks. In this situation, nodding up and down to accept the conversion could mean a slit throat. So, to affirm, they shook their heads sideways.</div>
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Read rest of the article on CNT's website <a href="http://www.cntraveller.in/story/in-this-country-a-no-means-yes/">here</a>!</div>
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Smita Pranav Kotharihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02148630824845985709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086096049195633227.post-64488246637827146042016-07-22T21:17:00.000+05:302016-07-22T21:17:05.757+05:30Why everyone in Ethiopia is seven years younger (Conde Nast Traveller)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Upon landing in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Emma Southey joined the queue to get her tourist visa stamped. Southey remembers the process being very efficient and, within no time, she was officially in the country. However, when Southey, a travel consultant at Outposts Travel Africa, looked at the date on the receipt, it read 26 July 2008. She thought to herself: “Am I going crazy? I’m sure when I left the UK it was 2015!”</div>
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Neither did Southey travel back in time nor was the date on the visa receipt inaccurate. It was because Ethiopia follows a calendar that is years behind the Gregorian calendar that most of the world follows. “Ethiopia is really the only country with a Christian calendar whose count is 7 to 8 years different than the Gregorian calendar,” says Dr Jonathan Ben-Dov, researcher of calendars in antiquity at Department of Biblical Studies in University of Haifa. </div>
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(Read <a href="http://www.cntraveller.in/story/why-everyone-in-ethiopia-is-seven-years-younger/">rest of the article</a> on CNT's website!)</div>
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Smita Pranav Kotharihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02148630824845985709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086096049195633227.post-12347105468670054602016-06-03T09:44:00.000+05:302016-07-22T21:18:02.334+05:30What's in a name? A dad, a gran or maybe an aunt (Conde Nast Traveller)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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When Kjartan Ólafsson applied for an apartment in New York, his application raised a few eyebrows at the co-op board. Ólafsson had just graduated from Harvard Business School and wanted to move to the city with his wife, son and daughter. His financial status was never in doubt—but names on the application raised a few eyebrows.</div>
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The application showed Ólafsson’s wife’s last name as Guðmundsdóttir, his son’s as Kjartansson and his daughter’s as Kjartansdóttir. “Here was a woman who had two children with two different men and was now married to a third,” Ólafsson explains the board’s quandary. The confusion was a result of the Icelandic naming convention, whereby the person’s last name is the father’s name suffixed with –sson (‘son of’) or -sdóttir. Thus, the last names in Iceland are not family names but are based on father’s name. As you’d imagine, this often trips the rest of the world and as a result, Icelandic families invite suspicion everywhere, from hotel desks to immigration counters.</div>
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(Continue reading on<a href="http://www.cntraveller.in/story/whats-in-a-name-a-dad-a-gran-or-maybe-an-aunt/"> CN's website</a>)</div>
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Smita Pranav Kotharihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02148630824845985709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086096049195633227.post-10215198932919279252016-05-14T19:11:00.001+05:302016-05-14T19:11:55.653+05:30The dark custom of 'night hunting' (Conde Nast Traveller)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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It’s a custom almost every Bhutanese knows about, but would rather not discuss. An old courtship ritual that—depending on who you ask—is “predatory” or just “misunderstood”.</div>
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Bomena, as ‘night hunting’ was originally called in the Bhutanese tongue, literally means ‘going towards a girl’. “…this courtship involves a boy stealthily entering a girl’s house at night for courtship or coitus with or without prior consultation,” Dorji Penjore, a researcher at Centre for Bhutan Studies and GNH Research, writes in his book <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Love, Courtship and Marriage in Rural Bhutan</em>. “(<em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Bomena</em>) is an institution through which young people find their partners and get married… Ideally, the process culminates in the morning, with what is locally called <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">jai da jong </em>(meaning ‘coming to the surface’) when the boy is found on the girl’s bed, which is an indication to declare them husband and wife,” he writes.</div>
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(Continue reading <a href="http://www.cntraveller.in/story/the-dark-custom-of-night-hunting/">here</a>!)</div>
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Smita Pranav Kotharihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02148630824845985709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086096049195633227.post-26222168085005355962016-05-12T22:37:00.000+05:302016-05-14T19:13:27.632+05:30In praise of the toilets of Japan (Conde Nast Traveller)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Winter, 2005, Tokyo: As soon as Aatif Misbah entered the bathroom of his Shinagawa Prince Hotel, the toilet seat lifted and kindly welcomed him. It was Misbah’s first trip to Japan, and he had no idea what the toilet was saying. Bemused, he pushed a couple of buttons on the toilet’s control panel, he says, only to be assaulted by water from multiple directions followed by a warm jet of air. Eventually, he spotted a button, with a music key on it. He pressed it and the toilet stopped talking. But then it started playing music.</div>
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The phenomenon was a fully-automated toilet, versions of which have been installed in more than three-quarter of homes in Japan. Integrating a bidet with the toilet seat was only the beginning. Today, you will find toilets that come with seat warmers, deodorizers, blow dryers, water-jet adjustments and even a ‘sound princess’, which simulates flushing to mask the noise made while urinating. It doesn’t end there: some variants also measure sugar and hormone levels in the urine, which the toilet can email to the doctor over Wi-Fi! Very helpful for women trying to conceive.</div>
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(Here's the <a href="http://www.cntraveller.in/story/in-praise-of-the-toilets-of-japan/">link</a> to CN Traveller to continue reading!)</div>
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Smita Pranav Kotharihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02148630824845985709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086096049195633227.post-73558580744673544752015-09-19T00:02:00.000+05:302015-09-19T00:11:19.268+05:30Editing books<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="s1"><i>Testimonial for my editing (left), editing credit (top right), and book 1 cover (bottom right)</i></span></div>
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You must be wondering where I disappeared for a year. Here is the answer: My yearlong editing project has now culminated into publishing of two books. The books document the journey of a voluntary organization/NGO named Blind People's Association (BPA) from managerial perspective. One of them is penned by a professor at Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA) and the other one by a veteran HR manager. The books are now out in bookstores!<br />
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Smita Pranav Kotharihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02148630824845985709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086096049195633227.post-7261447491207888992014-07-18T18:04:00.001+05:302014-08-01T08:19:44.766+05:30Possible impact of SEBI's proposed crowdfunding model (WSJ/Mint)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">When Manish Kumar, 32, saw Menstrupedia’s crowdfunding campaign, he says it touched his heart, leading him to contribute Rs.500 to the project in exchange for a handwritten thank-you note.</span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“I have two sisters and hence I found a personal connection to the larger problem addressed by the project,” says Kumar. Menstrupedia aims to educate young girls about menstruation through a comic book and a website.</span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Currently, in India, crowdfunding—financing a proposed project online through relatively small sums from a large number of people—is restricted to a reward and donation model. Here, contributors to a project in the domain of, for example, design or technology, receive some reward ranging from a thank-you note to the product itself, based on the contribution. In some social-cause projects, there are no rewards for the donation.</span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">However, recently, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) proposed a crowdfunding framework for India in a consultation paper, on which it had invited public comments by 16 July. The introduction of a potential investment model of crowdfunding, where contributors to a project will receive an equity share of the company, will cause a paradigm shift in the constitution of sectors within the industry and in the profile and psychology of contributors: broadly from heart to head.</span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">According to Abhishek Maitra, executive director of the National Crowdfunding Association of India, the investment model will turn the tables around completely. “People would no longer contribute based only on their emotional urge as they currently do in reward and donation models. Most of it would be based on logic, their understanding of the market the projects are based in, their risk appetite, their ticket size, and most importantly, their desire to make the right choice and gain maximum profits,” he says.</span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">One reason for the above change would probably be a change in the profile of contributors under the reward model and the investment model. Anshulika Dubey, co-founder of Wishberry, one of India’s largest crowdfunding platforms that hosts reward-based projects across categories, says that about 70% of contributors to a project on an average are family and friends of the campaigner. However, Maitra says that under the proposed investment model, contributors would comprise mature investors who make decisions on the basis of company valuation, revenue and return on investment.</span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Satish Kataria, formerly a venture capitalist who in 2010 introduced equity crowdfunding in India in association with a European crowdfunding platform, Grow VC, seconds Maitra: “Following US’s JOBS (Jumpstart Our Business Startups) Act, which has been inspiring equity crowdfunding regulations across the world, Sebi has proposed to allow only accredited investors to put their money in investment model crowdfunding projects.” Sebi’s definition of accredited investors includes institutional investors, companies with a minimum net worth of Rs.20 crore, high net-worth individuals, and financially secure and informed retail investors.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Kataria was able to operate an equity crowdfunding platform escaping Sebi’s purview by limiting the number of investors to 49. (The maximum number of investors allowed in a private company was 50 then. The new Companies Act now permits up to 200 investors in a private company.) Hence, unlike the reward model where there is no upper curb on the number of contributors, there would possibly be a restriction on the number of investors under the equity model. Moreover, the funding goals are also much higher under the equity model.</span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Kataria, in 2013, started Catapooolt, a crowdfunding platform for hosting creative projects like movies and music festivals. He estimates that Rs.10 lakh would be the starting funding goal of equity crowdfunding projects in India, a point which forms the maximum raise for their reward counterparts.</span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Tim Wright, a Scotland-based consultant on crowdfunding, says that statistically, the average investment size in the equity model tends to be higher than the average contribution in the reward model.</span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Expectation of reward or return—a parameter for presence of logic in the contribution decision—is directly correlated to the amount of contribution irrespective of the crowdfunding model. Except in cases like Kumar’s where the contribution amounts to a few hundred rupees for a cause very close to the contributor’s heart, people do expect tangible rewards even from social projects.</span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Varun Sheth runs a reward and donation crowdfunding platform, Ketto, for social-cause projects. He agrees that projects with rewards have a higher probability of being successfully funded than their donation-based counterparts. “Rewards act as the incentive for larger donors to contribute to X project rather than to Y.” Thus, although the reward-based model is not as pure as anonymous donations, it is relatively more heart-centric than the equity model.</span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">One reason for this is that it allows contributors to give smaller amounts. Apart from the contribution amount, expectation of reward also varies across project categories. Product-based projects that offer the end product as reward—for example, technology projects—engage the head of contributors more than their hearts. When Mahima Kukreja contributed Rs.250 to Printajoy, a printing solution for Instagram photos, she did not care so much about the intangible or non-monetary reward: a shout-out on Facebook. Instead, she thought she got a “good package” (20 prints at Rs.250 which would later be available for Rs.279). Thus, people may contribute small sums to support girl education or a budding artist, but when it comes to a technology product at offer, they tend to think less emotionally and more logically.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Currently in India, a majority of reward-model crowdfunding projects are in the social and creative space. There are very few technology projects, making it a more heart-based contribution scenario. However, Maitra predicts that under the proposed equity model, technology would be the first sector to catch up. “Everything from online technology companies to hard-core technology companies are booming in India and that’s the sector most investors understand,” he reasons.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Lastly, a shift from heart to head is also demonstrated by the fact that contributors in the reward model lay a lot of emphasis on the campaigner or team behind the project, whereas investors in the equity model focus on the business plan. For example, Chandan Shanbhag, a software engineer, contributed to Lawtoons, a project that intends to spread legal awareness through a comic book, merely because the campaigner is his friend. This puts him in the 70% inner circle mentioned by Wishberry’s Dubey. But even for Kukreja who did not know the Printajoy campaigners personally, it was important to trust the team behind the project after finding the concept attractive and before making the contribution. “I read their blog from which I got good vibes about the campaigners. They seemed passionate and down to earth,” she says.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">On the other hand, Ryan Caldbeck, co-founder of Circle Up, an accredited investor crowdfunding platform based in the US, advises companies to talk about market, growth prospects, historical financials, projected financials, planned use of capital and such in their online elevator-pitch. Dubey reasons, “The reward model is primarily for product launch and the audience does not care about project scale, whereas an investment model will heavily depend on whether a project has scale or not.”</span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The only reference check that Kumar did before contributing to Menstrupedia was that the campaigner was a friend of his friend. He says, “The project was endorsed by my friend and that lent credibility to it.”</span><br />
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Read on Wall Street Journal/Mint website <a href="http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/Hsfr6LggQaIHFj4dWXiZiJ/The-possible-impact-of-Sebis-proposed-crowdfunding-model.html" rel="nofollow" style="border: 0px; color: #7b539d; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">here</a> </span></div>
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Smita Pranav Kotharihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02148630824845985709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086096049195633227.post-41970606504776926502014-06-03T15:43:00.003+05:302014-08-01T08:20:39.064+05:30Eyes on the Road (Caravan)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">It was nearing 2am on a winter night last year in
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Agrawal, who is twenty-four years old, is a spotter of super-luxury cars, which, by definition, cost upwards of Rs 1 crore. By his unofficial tally, there are twenty-five such cars in Ahmedabad: nine Rolls Royces; four Bentleys; two Lamborghinis, two Ferraris, two Hummers and two stretch limousines; one Nissan GT-R, one Aston Martin, one Maserati and one Audi R8.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Agrawal makes it a point to also track down these cars’ owners—“It’s like police investigation,” he said—since his interest in their cars is fuelled by a desire to learn about their financial interests. As a businessman himself—Agrawal currently manufactures packaging materials for fertilisers and cement—he said he wants to build his business “around [the same] sources of revenue,” in the hope that this will enable him “also to buy luxury cars.”</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In recent years, Ahmedabad has become a hub for luxury-car dealers, and so an ideal place for Agrawal’s hobby. Rolls Royce set up its fourth Indian showroom here last year, and the city also boasts dealerships of luxury brands such as BMW, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar Land Rover and Porsche. The Indian custom-car maker DC Design also opened a showroom in Ahmedabad last year, where it plans to soon begin sales of the Avanti, the first Indian-designed sports car.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">When a new car catches his attention, Agrawal first checks its license plate to make sure the car is registered in Ahmedabad, and then keeps an eye out for where it might be parked—often at posh hotels and country clubs. However, Agrawal said, in a quirk particular to the city, these incredibly expensive cars are just as often found parked by the side of the road while their owners indulge in <em>paan</em>, chai and street food, all available for under a hundred rupees.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Chirag Patel, a real-estate and construction tycoon, is one such owner. Once a week, after dropping his daughter off at her school-bus stop in her favourite supercar—a black, convertible Mercedes-Benz SLK—Patel drives to a tea stall on University Road to grab a sixteen-rupee <em>bun maska</em> (buttered bun). And, he said, every night for the last fifteen years he and his wife have driven to a specific stall to fetch paan prepared “<em>kalkatti sada</em>,” just the way he likes it. Whether he is going out for roadside Jashuben’s pizza (a Gujarati take on the Italian classic) or dinner at a fine restaurant, Patel said, “I don’t pick the car based on where I am going.” In addition to his Mercedes-Benz SLK, Patel owns a whole fleet of luxury and sports cars, including an Audi TT, a Porsche Cayenne and a BMW 7 Series.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Such cars are increasingly common at Bhukkad Gali (Hungry Lane), a road in central Ahmedabad famous for its nightly fast-food market. Swapnil Patel, who runs a falafel cart there, remembered an automotive encounter from a night in January last year. Amid the clanking of iron utensils, Swapnil heard the vroom of a supercar, and looked up to see a black Aston Martin drive past. A minute later, a customer appeared at his cart, exchanged greetings and ordered a snack. “I only realised that the customer was owner of the same Aston Martin when he walked back with his falafel to his car parked at a distance and reversed it to take it out,” Swapnil said.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Roadside vendors like Swapnil are essential sources in Agrawal’s quest for information. To identify the owner of the Hummer he had spotted on the highway, a few days after the encounter Agrawal visited a paan shop near a lane the car had turned into. The paanwalla, he said, “tipped [me off] that the car belonged to someone living in a house in that lane itself.” Agrawal deduced that there was only one homeowner in the area who could afford such a vehicle: Pankaj Patel, who heads a pharmaceutical company and is currently thirty-sixth on <em>Forbes</em> magazine’s list of India’s richest people.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">A few months later, Agrawal was invited to brunch at Pankaj Patel’s residence. Eager to verify his guess, he checked out the cars parked near the house. The yellow Hummer was there, but standing next to it was an even more prized sight: a sleek blue sedan, with a distinctive front grill. “While tracking down the Hummer,” Agrawal said, “I landed upon a Rolls Royce.”</span></div>
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Read article on website of <a href="http://www.caravanmagazine.in/lede/eyes-road">Caravan</a></span></div>
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Smita Pranav Kotharihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02148630824845985709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086096049195633227.post-45460942466410235352013-11-01T20:29:00.000+05:302013-12-09T21:16:48.146+05:30Bhutan: Now and Then (TimeOut Explorer)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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9 am: Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck (in colour), 33, and his four predecessors (in black and white) --the kings of The Land of Thunder Dragon-- greet immigrants at the Paro airport in their full-length photographs. Accompanying them is the Scottish whisky-maker, Johnnie Walker, brandishing its merchandise.<br />
3 pm: Kencho Dorjee, 25, slips out of the chanting room at the Thimphu Stupa and surreptitiously takes out his cell phone from under his maroon monk’s robe to talk to his family.<br />
9 pm: Dawa Drakpa, 21, lead guitarist and vocalist of the Baby Boomers band rocks to Beatles’ “Twist and Shout” at Thimphu’s Mojo Park night-club donning a black t-shirt with the batman emblem.<br />
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Today, this is how a day looks like in a place stereotypically associated only with prayer flags and withdrawn lamas, pursuit of happiness and all things the modern world is too busy for: Bhutan. But when ara (traditional rice-brew) has given way to Johnnie Walker; women’s customary attire, kira, is fitted to make them look sleeker and stylish; youth relate more with guitar and less with dramyin (Bhutanese musical-instrument); and monks zip past in Mercedes (Maybe, Bhutan’s economy cannot afford a Ferrari yet), is our distinct neighbor losing its cultural identity?<br />
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Bhutanese authorities believe that their culture including language, artisan skills, socio-cultural participation and driglam namzha (code of conduct) provides identity to its people and thus is a source of happiness. They, therefore, incorporate cultural preservation as one of the four pillars of their signature measure of prosperity-Gross National Happiness (GNH). Sangay Dorji, program officer at GNH Commission, says, “there is a strong sense of co-relation between well-being (happiness) and sense of your identity and evidently culture is the building block of our identity.” However, the supposedly righteous concept itself is one of the culprits behind the adulteration of culture. Carol Graham, researcher at the Brookings Institution and author of several books on happiness, says, “GNH is very little about happiness and much about a forward-looking development-strategy. But development is, in the end, modernization which also clashes with the cultural heritage that the Bhutanese want to protect.”<br />
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Other than development, Graham adds, there is a huge influence on local culture of TV, Internet and other technologies through which Bhutanese youth are connected to the world.<br />
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At the age of 14, when children decide what they want to be when they grow up, Drakpa saw a documentary about John Lennon on Fox Channel and found his role model. Inspired by Beatles, he formed his rock-band and named it Baby Boomers in honor of the period to which the popular group belonged. Never having played Bhutanese folk-songs or instruments, the foursome bob their heads to guitar chords with ease. “Rock-music defines us,” Drakpa says.<br />
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Other than career decisions, mass media also guides everyday clothing choices. Chimi Demand, 19; wearing leopard-print hair-band, fitted pants, and boots; chats with her college friends at Thimphu’s clock-tower square before heading for picnic. Ask her the inspiration behind her sartorial statement and she coyly says, “Movies and music videos.”<br />
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The lure of television has engulfed not just the worldly. Lobzang Choda, 24, has been a monk from nine years. He does not know what night-clubs are and does not wear pants, but he yearns to watch football and wrestling on TV (Bhutan’s national sport is archery). Although monks are barred from watching television at Dzongs where they live, he confesses that he catches glimpses of his favorite sports when he goes to the grocery stores in the city.<br />
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Although mass media has a great influence on popular culture; penetration of TV, Internet, newspapers and other technologies is also dependent on development of the country. In her book Cosmopolitan Communications: Cultural Diversity in a Globalized World, Pippa Norris, Professor at Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, writes in the chapter ‘Poverty’: “Processes of economic development do gradually expand public access to the mass media more broadly throughout societies.” She mentions lack of investment in telecommunication infrastructure by the government and problem of affordability among the people as limiting economic factors for mass media to penetrate rural, under-developed markets. “If modern ideas and images from Google, Disney-ABC television, or the Murdoch newspaper empire do not actually reach poorer people living in isolated places such as Timbuktu and Thimpu –regardless of any effects arising from state restriction on freedom of expression, trade barriers, or social psychological filters—then the multinational media corporations are unlikely to pose an immediate threat to traditional life-styles, values, or beliefs in these communities,” Professor Norris concludes.<br />
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A lot has changed in Bhutan’s capital, Thimphu, between when Professor Norris published her book in 2009 to now. Having access to the national channel (Bhutan Broadcasting Service) and international channels like CNN and NDTV on television, 12 national newspapers, seven radio channels, Internet and mobile connectivity; Thimphu is not isolated any more. On the other hand, in the rural southern and eastern parts of the country, radio still remains the most prevalent form of mass media.<br />
One such village in south Bhutan is Dekiling where Indira Rai, 19, receptionist at Thimphu’s Jumolhari Hotel belongs to. There people grow paddy, guava and orange for a living. The majority of population in her village, Rai says, is illiterate and “religious” who depend on radio as the only source of information. Rai finds cultural differences between her village and the city: “In the village, I wear kurta and long skirt at home whereas in Thimphu, I wear jeans when I’m not working,” says the soft-spoken damsel. In Bhutan, it is compulsory for citizens to wear national dress (gho for men and kira for women) at work, school and college, monastery and other formal institutions. “Also, in the village, my parents don’t allow me to go out with friends while here, my aunt I live with is modernized and doesn’t mind me going out with boys,” Rai chuckles.<br />
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However, in the last five years, Dekiling like many hamlets in Bhutan was electrified and connected by road under government’s national urbanization strategy. While TV was introduced in Bhutan’s major cities in 1999, its villages got their share of the world in a box only in last few years. Handful of households in Dekiling own TV sets.<br />
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“I hear they are planning to build a factory too,” Rai adds, suggesting government’s proposed project in her village. Graham explains how development affects the parameters of culture, namely artisan skills and language, included in GNH. “As production techniques modernize, they often crowd out traditional ones, such as handicrafts, both in terms of efficiency and in changing taste and demand for products.” GNH takes into account Bhutanese people’s interest and knowledge in 13 arts and crafts like weaving, carpentry and bamboo works. Graham adds, “As economic activity becomes more global and requires usage of an international language like English, local languages become less relevant.” The cultural component of GNH also considers people’s fluency in their regional dialect, with Dzongkha being Bhutan’s national language.<br />
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Villages have been put on the development path by initiatives like that of Tourism Council of Bhutan to develop tourism, country’s second largest revenue-aggregator after hydro-power, in rural eastern parts of Bhutan. Their urban counterparts like Thimphu and Paro started on the development path before five decades.<br />
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The story of development in Bhutan started in 1960s when culture was not proclaimed so much for fetching happiness to its people as a tool for national security. Sandwiched between two super-powers, India and China; naïve, peace-loving and economically-feeble Bhutan had its cultural identity as the only weapon to protect itself from being swallowed. To shield its prized asset from outside influences, the kingdom remained in isolation for ages. This thwarted its development which manifested in high poverty, illiteracy and infant-mortality rates. Therefore, Bhutan’s fourth king, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, opened the country to the world for development to step in. However, along with development, some inevitable enemies of culture like consumerism and modern notions also crept in which clashed with the Buddhism-influenced non-materialist culture of Bhutan.<br />
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In 1980s, the fourth king vocalized his preference for Gross National Happiness (with four pillars: development, culture preservation, environmental protection, and governance) over Gross National Product (pure economic-development indicator). Under nascent democracy institutionalized by the king in 2008, which some believe is just nominal change of power, the governments (both ruling and opposition) pledge allegiance to GNH. The philosophy of development with consideration for culture is apparent in policies like that of tourism corporation to charge a high daily-tariff from visitors to attract only responsible tourists who would not harm their culture. But this is an illustration of curtailing outside influences. Can intrinsic cultural changes due to urbanization, for example, ushering in villages like Dekiling be leashed if development is to sustain? Graham is skeptical.<br />
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Thus, if either development or culture can exist; Indra Adhikari, Bhutanese journalist who thinks that democratic government has ended monarchy’s role in politics, says that the government as opposed to monarchy is pro-development. “Monarchists were pro-culture. But now there is reduced influence of monarchy on government to concentrate on preservation of culture,” he says. “Now, more concentration is on development,” Adhikari adds.<br />
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Sibi Mathew, General Manager of Hotel Taj Tashi in Thimphu, testifies: “Over the last four years, Thimphu is gradually beginning to be much more like a concrete jungle with lots of businesses having set foot and is beginning to loose its natural charm,” he says.<br />
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Another characteristic of democracy that affects culture, in addition to focus on development understandably due to accountability to the public for a term, is freedom of choice. Contained in Bhutan’s constitution, freedom of choice prima facie seems contradictory to the code of conduct (driglam namzha) mandated under the development philosophy’s (GNH’s) cultural component.<br />
Karma Tshiteem, Secretary at GNH Commission, says “People are most happy when they make choices themselves.” Nevertheless, Adhikari says, freedom of choice has not fully translated into practice as the government enforces driglam namzha under GNH. For example, in Bhutan, it is required to maintain uniform façade in all forms of architecture in terms of multi-colored wood frontages, small arched windows and sloping roofs.<br />
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Many believe that the benevolent kings never imposed culture on the people of Bhutan and that people willingly followed the traditions. Under democracy, people understand they have right to choices (including cultural), but neither does the development-oriented government expect them to behave differently nor do they mind juggling both: culture and modernization (offshoot of development).<br />
Drakpa of Baby Boomers says that the rock music his band plays does not contradict with traditional Bhutanese culture. “Bhutan is a free democratic country after all,” he says. Yet, when his band performed on BBS before two years; as they unplugged “Oh darling” by Beatles draped in gho, it seemed Drakpa was addressing his traditional culture when crooning: “I’ll never do you no harm.”<br />
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Smita Pranav Kotharihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02148630824845985709noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086096049195633227.post-83037329296942174712013-08-12T20:48:00.000+05:302014-01-31T18:15:33.703+05:30Pursuit of Happiness (Forbes)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Money and happiness have been married and divorced umpteen times by economists. A recent study by University of Michigan professors Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers united moolah and mirth after Richard Easterlin, an economist and professor at University of South Carolina, separated them in 1974. While the Easterlin Paradox stated that rise in income does not necessarily increase happiness, the new research refutes it by proving that higher the income or the GDP (Gross Domestic Product), more happy the person or the country is. No conditions apply.<br />
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Between the two polar studies, several researchers tried to bring money and happiness together by establishing a threshold till which they hold hands before parting ways. For instance, in 2003, British economist Richard Layard set $15,000 as the point beyond which money does not fetch happiness. In his 2005 work, Layard reset the point at $20,000.<br />
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But on a macro level, what does the country’s GDP say with regard to the happiness-meter of its citizens?<br />
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Carol Graham, who is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a nonprofit public-policy organisation based in Washington DC, and author of several books on happiness including Happiness Around the World: The Paradox of Happy Peasants and Miserable Millionaires, says GDP is a comprehensive indicator of happiness. “GDP per capita captures country- level unobservables such as freedom and governance, public goods, environment, etc, all of which matter a lot to well-being (economists’ term for happiness),” Graham says.<br />
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However, Terry Babcock-Lumish, a professor of social sciences at West Point, thinks the contrary. she says GDP rarely considers components of quality of life like pollution, crime, or how unevenly goods and services are enjoyed by a nation’s citizenry.<br />
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Perhaps for this reason, Bhutan, the first country to introduce Gross National Happiness (GNH) as a measure of prosperity, considers three factors besides socio-economic development to compute GNH: Cultural preservation, environmental protection and good governance. Sangay Dorji, programme officer at Bhutan’s GNH commission, says, “GDP is heavily biased towards increased production and consumption, regardless of the necessity or desirability of such outputs but continuously inducing people in labouring for higher income at the cost of relationships, peace and ecological stability.”<br />
For Babcock-Lumish, GNH is a useful indicator as, along with other metrics like GDP and Consumer Price index (CPI), it provides a more textured understanding of an economy. However, Graham says that of the above pillars, the top priority for the Bhutanese government is to boost the country’s economy as it will be the key to reducing poverty and improving health and literacy. “GNH emphasises environment, governance and culture but half their game is not that far off Gross National Product,” she says.<br />
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Many organisations conduct surveys across the globe and rank countries on the basis of happiness or aspects of it, calling them emotional well-being, prosperity and so on. Gallup World Poll (used in most happiness surveys like Legatum Prosperity index, UN’s World Happiness report etc) measures emotional well-being across 160 countries by asking its citizens five questions like “did you smile or laugh a lot yesterday?”<br />
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Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton, scientists involved with the poll, define emotional well-being as “the emotional quality of an individual’s everyday experience”. in their article, “High income improves evaluation of life but not emotional well-being”, the duo mentions that traditionally well-being was limited to life evaluation (what people think about their lives).<br />
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In 1974, Easterlin measured life evaluation in his study, basing his research on open-ended questions on what people want out of life—what they would need for their lives to be completely happy. [The recent Stevenson and Wolfers research also measures life evaluation but they base it on a more closed question like “how does your life fare on a 10-point ladder where 1 is the worst and 10 is the best?]<br />
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According to Graham, open- and close-ended questions generate different responses. “Closed question is framed in relative terms for the respondent and answers to this question correlate more closely with income within and across countries than open-ended life- satisfaction questions,” she says.<br />
Moreover, Graham adds that the ladder question used in the new study is the most common life-evaluation question and is linked most closely to income.<br />
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The new study utilises Gallup data on the life-evaluation question and not queries on emotional well-being. Interestingly, Gallup rankings based on the latter parameters show that money doesn’t impact happiness, results that are contrary to the new study. (Latin American countries like Panama top the rankings in the 2012 Gallup Poll, while singapore languishes at the bottom. However, on basis of their GDP per capita, CIA World Factbook ranks Singapore at 7, while Panama is way behind at 89).<br />
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Graham adds that life-evaluation questions that consider a longer time-period in a respondent’s life correlate more closely to income as it includes people’s ability to do what they want to do with their lives. in contrast, emotional well-being questions incorporate a shorter time- period (daily experiences) and are less associated with money because, after a point, money can’t make you smile more. This is probably why the study by Stevenson and Wolfer with the life-evaluation question, and that too a closed one, as its basis proved that money is married to happiness.<br />
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Read article <a href="http://forbesindia.com/article/briefing/the-correlation-between-money-and-happiness/35847/1">here</a> on Forbes website</div>
Smita Pranav Kotharihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02148630824845985709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086096049195633227.post-43599173262125349512013-04-11T13:41:00.000+05:302014-01-31T18:17:33.672+05:30Seva Cafe serves generosity on a platter (Forbes)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The milieu at Shantivan, a garden in Mumbai’s tony Malabar Hill area, on February 17 was like a hangover from Valentine’s Day. Placards displaying messages like ‘Love is all we need’ were tied to tree branches and hearts were chalked with 8 bounty throughout the green sprawl. Except that it wasn’t an ode to Cupid. The occasion was the second monthly lunch hosted by Seva Café.<br />
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Omnipresent at the venue was a bespectacled man in khadi kurta-pyjama. He, along with other volunteers, was welcoming the guests and explaining the concept of the café— here, patrons aren’t charged for the food they’re served, instead they are free to pay whatever they want. Or, they can walk out without shelling out a single penny.<br />
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Meet Siddharth Sthalekar, who was orchestrating this “generosity enterprise” with ease. About three years ago, he was the co-head of the derivatives trading desk and the head of algorithmic trading at Edelweiss Capital. A typical day for this financier then would begin when the gong woke up Dalal Street at 9 am. That was when he would appear on CNBC, dressed in a crisp, formal shirt and tie, and share his expertise on accumulating stocks.<br />
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On one such morning in 2010, even as he was offering investors advice on what stocks to buy and sell, Sthelekar had the hint of a smile on his face. So much so that the cameraman asked him what’s brewing. Little could he explain to him then that the decision that he had taken—to throw it all away—had lit up his poker face that morning.<br />
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For some time, the 31-year-old Mumbaikar had been contemplating quitting his cushy job to explore if there is an alternative to the premise of accumulation that seemed to drive individuals in the corporate world. When he finally took the plunge, he set out to travel across India with his wife Lahar, a freelancing interior designer who graduated from the Center for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT) in Ahmedabad. Over the next six months, as they visited several non-profit organisations, they woke up to the concept of gift economy where goods and services are extended without any formal quid pro quo. This motto formed the cornerstone of Moved by Love, an incubator at Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad, which carries out various projects.<br />
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One such project, Seva Café, was in hibernation. Sthalekar, an IIM Ahmedabad graduate, and his wife became its core volunteers and helped reopen it in September 2011. Seva Café practises giving, the antithesis to accumulation. At the café, volunteers cook and serve meals every week from Thursday to Sunday for free.<br />
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What is Sthalekar’s takeaway from the experiment? The proof that customers have kept the café running by paying up even when they could have got away without it. That there are enough people not governed by greed—something he had set out to test in the first place.<br />
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However, Sthalekar admits that the transition in his mind from market to trust economy did not occur overnight. “Initially, I used to put price tags on customers as they walked into the café,” he says. That’s in tune with the rationale of profit maximisation that business schools teach and the corporate world practises. So, Sthalekar often spent more time at the table of a potential Mr 3,000 compared to the table of a tea-stall owner, who was in his perception Mr 100. Then, his “noble friends”, including his wife and other volunteers, stepped in and pointed out the flaw in his approach, prompting a course correction.<br />
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However, running the café till eternity is not the objective of this entrepreneur. In fact, it’s quite on the contrary. Sthalekar says the ultimate aim of this gift-economy project is to shut it down. “If the aim was to keep the café open forever, we would have gone with a presentation to the Bill Gates Foundation and asked for a corpus.”<br />
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The idea, he says, is to trust the assumption that every individual, irrespective of his economic standing, can be generous. Seva Café provides a space for people to practice generosity by recognising the selfless giving of the volunteers. But, in the long term, Sthalekar hopes that people will develop the habit of being generous even outside the café—in all environments and circumstances. When this would happen, Sthalekar would lock the doors of Seva Café and put the sign ‘Mission Accomplished’ on it. “When there will be enough generosity in the world, there would be no need for the café,” he says.<br />
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Although Sthalekar doesn’t know when this will happen, he says he is optimistic as he is coming in touch with more and more people who are generous. The other situation in which the café would close, he says, is if it does not receive enough support from volunteers and/or customers. This has not happened for seven years, even from before he joined the project.<br />
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In the beginning, Sthalekar confesses, he could not fathom the motive of gift-economy projects. Given his background, it was a huge deviation from the aim of multiplying revenues manifold. He recollects that when he was at Edelweiss, he used to entertain clients with lavish dinners and alcohol at five-star hotels to extract the best deals from them. He doesn’t deny that he enjoyed the high life and his work per se, but instances like those made him question the morality beneath his work. “The contradiction of charging my corporate card for an expensive bottle of champagne when I knew there are hungry people on the street did not align with my values,” he says.<br />
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That led to a constant struggle in his conscience. At one level, he was carrying the stern face expected of a financier. But the realisation that the efficiency which money provides is skewed took him closer and closer to the decision of moving on. “It was brewing inside me,” he says. He found moral support from some unexpected quarters—his boss at Edelweiss. When he told him that he would quit, his seemingly-capitalist boss opened up to him about a secret desire that he nurtures in his heart: He wanted to build an ashram for old people. This reaffirmed his conviction that people are generous by nature, but they act in correspondence with the space they are in.<br />
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There are days when he has his doubts about the choices he has made. “On some days, I do feel ‘what I am doing here, travelling on a train when my friend owns a BMW?’” he says. Nevertheless, his experiment of living on people’s generosity affirms to him that it is possible to sustain oneself by giving. “The litmus test of this experiment is that if I create value for the society, the society will support me,” he says.<br />
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Even though Sthalekar’s ultimate dream is to shut down the café, for now, he wants to open more Seva Cafés across the country. It pops up once a month in Pune and Bangalore. In January, he decided to try his luck in Mumbai. He was apprehensive, unsure of how the financial capital would react to a pursuit completely non-material. “We decided it would be a one-off experiment. But because the response was overwhelming, we served Mumbai in Feburary too and are scheduled to hold another gathering in late-March,” he says.<br />
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On both occasions, Seva Café served about 100 guests comprising an eclectic background—from professionals to slum children. Although they had anticipated serving about 60-70 patrons, the participation of a dozen-plus volunteers from the city came as a bonus and helped them enhance the scale of hospitality by a notch.<br />
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However, for Sthalekar, opening more cafés is just the means to the end: The day when people will make giving a way of life and these spaces will become redundant. It is hard to believe that the images of Sthalekar Google juxtaposes are of the same person: One clad in a loose khadi kurta, sporting a French beard and wearing a hearty smile; the other a snapshot of him in the CNBC show. Ask him and he’ll tell you that maybe they aren’t the same person. Today, if Siddarth Sthalekar were to appear on the CNBC show, he would advise investors to give all their stocks away.<br />
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Read article <a href="http://forbesindia.com/article/changing-lanes/seva-cafe-serves-generosity-on-a-platter/35019/0">here</a> on Forbes website</div>
Smita Pranav Kotharihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02148630824845985709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086096049195633227.post-8050876675136014702013-03-23T11:09:00.000+05:302014-01-31T18:17:09.665+05:30The school on GB Road (Times Crest)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Kat-Katha can easily pass for a typical school for slum children: Six students from age 3 to 17 sit on a floor mat supervised by a teacher busy explaining place value on an abacus when we go in. Two bedsheet- covered computers are perched on a table in the adjacent room. The dilapidated walls are covered by sketches made by the students. </div>
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However, at the entrance of the school, on the same wall that displays a chart of 23 enrollments, hangs a curious vending machine which makes it apparent that this is not a typical slum school - a condom dispenser. The space was once a brothel and the students are the children of sex workers and brothel owners. The teacher, Gitanjali Babbar, 26, is the founder of Kat-Katha.</div>
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Kat-Katha, which translates into 'story of puppets, ' originally intended to provide life choices to sex workers. Before establishing the centre, Babbar was working at the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO), the body that had put up condom dispensers at brothels including the now dysfunctional one at Kat-Katha.</div>
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However, when some of the sex workers urged Babbar to think beyond condoms, the idea of Kat-Katha came up. "Kat-Katha was first conceived to equip women who do not want to be in the sex trade with skills like tailoring, dancing, literacy, etc. so that they could pursue alternative livelihoods, " Babbar says.</div>
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Babbar began operating from a youth centre but as soon as she started bringing prostitutes there, the owner of the space who had donated it to the centre asked her to vacate the premises. Thereafter, Babbar quit her job and along with some volunteers entered the brothels and began to educate the sex workers.</div>
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It wasn't smooth sailing in the beginning. "The didis (Babbar addresses every sex worker as didi) used to abuse us because they thought we were a part of some NGO that would make big promises and then manipulate them, " Babbar says. But slowly, she gained the confidence of the women and their children too joined the classes. Finally, the children ended up absorbing most of the time and attention at Kat-Katha though about 25 women still come to the centre to learn dance, to study, or to simply chill whenever they feel like it. </div>
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Kat-Katha is located on the infamous GB Road in Delhi that houses more than 3, 500 female sex workers and their 1, 500 kids in about 77 cage-like brothels. It is 1 pm and on the ground floor, the shops selling hardware, paints, mobile recharge and such have already done half a day of business. Babbar clambers the narrow, steep and sneaky staircases between the shops which lead her to her students. The sex workers have just woken up and are idling around. Some are having brunch, while others are getting ready for their 'day trade' in deep-necked spaghetti tops, lips painted a bright red.</div>
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Babbar heads for the rooms where she knows that she will find children who are regulars at her class. She asks them to rush to her "school" as if she were a school bell. Babbar cajoles Nisa (name changed), 6, to bathe before leaving for her class. Nisa pleads for a compromise: She will change clothes but will not bathe. Babbar does not give up. In another brothel, a shy boy lying on his stomach, hears Babbar's call and pops his head down from a dark space similar to a dingy storage in a footwear store.</div>
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Passing a few brothels on both the sides of one such staircase, she reaches Kat-Katha. One by one the students start coming in, some loaded with a school bag, others just with their curiosity and amusement. Randhir (name changed), 11, is the first one in. With the air of one who owns the space he heads straight to the computer room, uncovers a machine and shows us a PowerPoint slide he made: It is a picture of a house in the countryside pasted from the internet and superimposed with the caption: "My name is Randhir. "</div>
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"We will structure the curriculum and activities but first, I want these kids to enjoy the freedom that they have always been deprived of, " Babbar says. She points out that these children and their mothers never step out of the brothels for fear of being abused.</div>
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A sex worker, 42, peeps into the room to see what's happening. Babbar encourages her to find the letters of her name, Sita, from the bits of paper printed with Hindi alphabets. She looks on as Nisa assembles Sita's name on the floor. This is probably the first time Sita has seen her name written. As Babbar coaxes her, Sita reluctantly copies her name in a notebook.</div>
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Babbar plans to open another centre dedicated to imparting vocational training to sex workers as and when funds come in while reserving the current space for kids. Some sex workers have requested Babbar to find jobs for their grown-up children above 17 who have become pimps. But because these children are uneducated and are past school age, Babbar wants to train them. Thus, Babbar's idea of Kat-Katha has organically evolved to incorporate the people associated with the brothels of GB Road.</div>
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It is 6pm. The children at Kat-Katha refuse to go home from this space which has no closing time and operates all seven days of the week. In a couple of hours, the cramped brothels will be transformed. There would be bright lights and the strains of filmi mujras will be heard through the windows. Randhir has seen his mother step out every day when it's dark, wearing seductive clothes. He says he is determined to take her away from GB Road some day.</div>
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Babbar says she has plans to spend a few nights at Kat-Katha. "It's good bonding time with the kids who then understand I am not a visitor from an NGO, " she says.</div>
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Read article <a href="http://www.timescrest.com/life/the-school-on-gb-road-10020">here</a> on Times of India's Crest edition website.</div>
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Smita Pranav Kotharihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02148630824845985709noreply@blogger.com0