Moti Zharotia does not require an introduction. His works are on display at the “Desi Canvas” under the theme “I.M.Print”. I conducted his interview over email, in order to find out about his journey so far, and his views on art and artists. Some inspiring thoughts emerged from the conversation.

Ashish: What is the story behind you becoming an artist?

Moti Zharotia (MZ): Well, there is no story as such; I believe that life has been an enriching experience for me, full of vivid situations and conditions. I was born and brought up in a very simple and not-so-financially-sound family. I was the youngest child at home and could comprehend my family’s conditions well enough. I always wanted to work early so that I could assist my parents in some way, more or less. Ultimately, one thing which became very clear to me was that whatever I would do, that work would not be inspired by materialistic urges, but rather by my creative instincts, which were god-gifted to me.

Ashish: What inspires you to put your energy into art?

MZ: Art itself inspires me and gives me inner peace. Since childhood, I was a seeker and a peaceful person and art filled me with inner peace. My drawing teacher in school was very happy with me as he liked my sketches and drawings. He used to encourage me a lot to concentrate on my creative talent. This made me enthusiastic to explore art and its horizons. I had a different curiosity in me to see the impression of designs on paper. So, I used to make small designs on a potato and then make its impression on a paper. Art is a creation and I began to love what I was creating. It filled me with immense joy and contentment and this is how art became a part of my being and life.

Ashish: What materials do you use in your paintings?

MZ: My forte has been silk screen printing and a variety of colours, tools and screens are used in this art. Profoundly, I make use of PVC inks, which are chemical based inks. These inks are diluted by a reducer and should be protected from extreme temperature. Screen-printing is a full-fledged procedure that involves different stages but the final work is worth seeing.

Ashish: How have you evolved as an artist? (your journey so far)

MZ: I was born in the year 1953. After completing my higher secondary education, I was fated to begin my journey in the creative arts and religiously pursued my graduation in graphics and paintings from the Delhi College of Arts, Delhi University, 1979. You would be surprised to know that I had a dream to become a lawyer at first and with this notion in mind, I graduated in Political Science (honours) from Delhi University. However, as I said, I was destined to become an artist, so I ended up doing graduation twice, first in humanities and the second time in arts. After successfully completing my graduation in fine arts, it was an initiation of a new odyssey for me.

I received the appointment letter to join at NIOS, Delhi, as a graphic officer. This career bestowed me with authority, eminence, and a rich experience; I gracefully completed my official tenure as an assistant director in the year 2012. I was fully occupied in administrative work but I somehow managed to pursue my art. I continued doing silk screen printing and extensively participated in national and international exhibitions. By the grace of God, I received many accolades, awards and scholarships. Besides art, I also love writing poems. I have been writing for the last 30 years and have been lucky to get those poems published in the year 2015, in my maiden poetry book with the title “Kacche Dhaage”. I have contributed many of my poems in different poem anthologies as well. For me, writing and art are both integral parts of life, and they are interconnected since both are expressions of my mind and soul. Presently, I am amply involved in exploring, experimenting and creating fresh silk screen printing works.

Ashish: Who is/are your favourite artist(s)? And why?

MZ: Honestly speaking, I am an admirer of every artist because I believe each artist is unique and has something unconventional to show to the world. To name a favourite artist is difficult for me. I adore the beauty of art. Every artist puts their creativity in their artwork and that itself is so beautiful to know and see. I do not judge art and do not indulge in favouritism. I just love art and fondly appreciate all the artists.

Ashish: As an artist, what do you think needs to be done in order to reach out to more people?

MZ: That’s a very good question you have put. An artist, for obvious reasons, wants their work to be exposed and acknowledged. They wish that their work reaches out to the masses, which is really encouraging. We are now living in a fast-forward world. Everything is so easily approachable. People are building their connections and networks. Earlier, it was little difficult to get exposure as people were less aware, but now exposure is widely given by social media, which I feel is immensely helpful. Just see, this interview is also going to reach so many readers, which is a good exposure for an artist like me. One more thing I firmly believe the masses should be made aware of is that art is not only limited to a few classes. Rather, art is an expression of one’s feelings. Even artists are game changers. With their artwork, they can bring change in the minds of people. Art has the ability to transform one’s thoughts and feelings and that is why art should be brought out in front of everyone. Exhibitions of artworks should be increased in numbers.

Ashish: What differences do you find in the audience of India and abroad?

MZ: In my opinion, Indian audiences take little interest in art and the audience is small. It can also be put a little differently. The Indian audience for art is limited to selected classes of people who admire it. Whereas, during my international exhibitions abroad, I observed that audiences were very keen and admired all types of art. They felt amused to see the profound expressions of an artist and showed their interests to know what made the artist create such an artwork. I feel art resides in everyone, but in India, generally, the focus of people is rather more fixed on fulfilling one’s basic needs. Here, people do not consider art as a medium of communication and change in society. Its admiration is only limited to select classes. Nevertheless, I respect and welcome all the audiences and the viewers.

Ashish: Is art limited to some classes in India? if so, what are the reasons behind it?

MZ: Yes, it is limited to only some classes as I have already mentioned. Reason behind this, in my opinion, is the Indian mentality that is restricted to earning livelihood and survival. In India, more than half of the population is struggling with basic life issues and social issues. There is so much of poverty and unemployment. How can one expect such a group of people to look into what art is? They would be least bothered to know and admire art. But I wish people do change this thinking towards art.

Ashish: How do you see the economics of art in India?

MZ: I feel the economics of art has been underestimated in India. Artists do feel a scarcity of funding and financial assistance. As the new generation is also joining in, the number of scholarships must be increased. It will work as a booster. I believe that the economics of art in India has become better. Promotion, exposure, scholarships are also being given. All we need to focus on is that art does not remain limited to only rich people. Art is for all. An artist is never biased towards any group of audience.

The post ‘Art Gives Me Inner Peace’ appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz, an award-winning online platform that serves as the hub of thoughtful opinions and reportage on the world's most pressing issues, as witnessed by the current generation. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to find out more.

Tomas Transtromer was a Swedish poet and the Nobel Prize winner for literature in 2011. As is the norm, everything about him became newsworthy the minute he won the prize (which many claimed he should not have) – but we will come to that later.

As a child, he collected insects. An exhibition was organised by the Museum of Natural History, Stockholm (which also is the poet’s hometown), where his insect collection was displayed. Accompanying it was a guidebook which featured beautiful essays on his collection. And preceding it was a quote by Charles Darwin. It read: “It seems therefore that a taste for collecting beetles is some indication for future success in life.” 

Darwin was right here. Whether or not his interest in insects had much to contribute to the kind of poet that Transtromer became, the imagery that his poetry brings to life is certainly inspired from the days spent observing nature and looking for those creatures worthy of his collection. The imagery, the reflection of nature’s beauty, its stillness and solitude are the key aspects of Tomas’ poetry. He is indeed the poet of silence.

It is hard to say if poetry comes to you or you go to poetry. I’d like to believe you always live with it like a lonely companion in the dark. You discover it only when you need to say things that can’t be said, or hear things that can’t be heard. For Transtromer that discovery happened rather fiercely while he was working as a psychologist at an institution for juvenile offenders. But to say that it was his ‘job’ as a psychologist that impacted his poetry would be an assumption. When at a poetry reading, someone asked him how his work had impacted his poetry, his response was, “Well, what’s strange is that no one has asked me how poetry affected my work.” We can visualise the impact alone in the following lines. But as for who is impacting who – that I leave to the listener’s discretion.

The sick boy

Locked in a vision

with his tongue stiff as a horn.

He sits with his back turned to the picture with the cornfield.

The bandage round his jaw hinting at embalming.

His glasses are thick like a diver’s. And everything is unanswered

and vehement like the telephone ringing in the dark.

After an Attack” from “Selected Poems”

It isn’t hard to place Transtromer in the poem and a surface reading brings to mind the image of an epileptic boy. But is epilepsy simply a medical condition? Is any illness merely medical?

Transtromer was criticised by contemporary poets in the 1970s. His poetry wasn’t political enough, they said. Jorge Luis Borges too harboured a similar grudge against Neruda. But he was careful to not get his poetry involved in the mudslinging. “I think of him as a very fine poet, a very fine poet,” said Borges. “I don’t admire him as a man, I think of him as a very mean man.“

Not the poets who criticised Transtromer though. “In the late ’60s and early ’70s, there was this very strong pressure to write about society, to write political poems and so on,” says Transtromer. He was, at the time, much criticised for not writing explicitly political verse. His response to which was as understated as his poems. “I felt more free than most of my colleagues because I was working with these issues as a psychologist, so I didn’t feel very guilty about writing poetry.” 

In a series of Haiku called Scattered Congregation, he writes:

We got ready and showed our home.
The visitor thought: you live well.
The slum must be inside you.

“The slum must be inside you,” comes out as a commentary on the invisible, the injustice against those living on the margins, those unheard voices and those unseen faces. And if this isn’t political, nothing is. Transtromer had visited Bhopal soon after the gas tragedy and took part in a poetry reading session with poets like S. Sachidanandan outside. 

And why must, I wonder, the burden of society fall always on the shoulders of a poet? Is it not enough that he writes from the margins and not from a position of privilege? Transtromer’s poetry, simple, interspersed with cinematic imagery, leaves you with a frustrating sense of helplessness. It doesn’t end with a bang but passes you by as whimper – a YouTube commenter says this about the music of Arvo Part, an Estonian musician, whose music is much like Transtromer’s poetry. It is still, slow, silent, even when it is pacing. I have Teju Cole, the Nigerian-American writer, to thank for the introduction to Part. He was the one to have first compared the music of Part to the rhythm of Tomas’ poetry. I simply witnessed the phenomenon on my laptop last night, only after being pushed by Cole.

It is hard to disagree with Cole when he says that Tomas’ “poems contain a luminous simplicity that expands until it pushes your ego out of the nest, and there you are alone with the Truth. In a Tranströmer poem, you inhabit space differently; a body becomes a thing, a mind floats, things have lives, and even non-things, even concepts, are alive.” Consider these lines for instance

Nicodemus the sleepwalker is on his way to the Address.
Who’s got the Address?
Don’t know. But that’s where we’re going.

What do you do if you don’t surrender yourself to this stillness? There is mobility, but, you could say. They are going somewhere, after all. But where are they off to? Aren’t you helplessly tied to this unanswerable question that won’t let you move? Even in all this commotion?

And if that hasn’t left you exhausted already, listen to these lines.

I dreamt that I had sketched piano keys out

on the kitchen table. I played on them, without a sound.

Neighbours came by to listen. (From “Grief Gondola #2”)

Can you hear the music of silence in these lines? Those piano keys that he drew in his dreams, and those neighbours who came by to listen, all seem to be a part of this silent lullaby. There is so much beauty, and so much quiet in these lines. You can hear what isn’t being said, can’t you?

I have been instructed to fill in some biographical details in this article. It is necessary, I am told. And so I feel pressured to give you a brief rundown of boring, easily accessible data that you might not go to on your own. If that happens, you have my (lack of) capabilities as an orator to blame. Without taking that risk, let me tell you a few things quickly. Transtromer was the first Swedish national in 40 years to win the Nobel Prize. His name would get nominated year after year, and international press would gather in front of his house in the morning, waiting for the news that finally came in 2011. It is why I find the international surprise and outrage in response to his victory, strange and hypocritical. If they were landing on his doorsteps each year, drinking and eating the tea and biscuits served by Monika, Tomas’ wife, then how could they not know who he was?

A severe heart stroke that happened in the year 1990 left him half-paralysed and without speech, before his eventual death in 2015. The poet of silence, you could say that he lived by silence. After the stroke, he turned towards music in a way others have turned towards religion. I say this because he has been a pianist all his life, but music then became his voice, his mode of communication. While researching on Tomas, when I read about his stroke, I thought how incredible it is that he should find music at the departure of speech. And then I thought, did he really ‘find’ music? Was his work not always music? Can poetry survive without music at all? I imagined Tomas silently laughing at my ignorance. Why indeed could I not question music’s existence without poetry? Why must poetry always bear the brunt and why must the poet always suffer?

The post Tomas Transtromer: The Nobel Laureate Who Showed Us The Poetry In Silence appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz, an award-winning online platform that serves as the hub of thoughtful opinions and reportage on the world's most pressing issues, as witnessed by the current generation. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to find out more.

By Vikram Singh for Witness on Al Jazeera English:

Indian musician Taru Dalmia is convinced his reggae sounds can play a role in political activism, and decides it’s time to act when a wave of protests erupts at universities across India.

To take his music into the hearts of rallies and communities, he raises money to build a giant sound system and hits the road.

Taru hopes his hand-built stack of speakers can support protesters alleging that free speech is being suppressed under Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government.

But he’s uncertain how local artists and activists will react. Will they embrace his Jamaica-inspired music, or see him as a naive outsider out of touch with the country’s politics?

The post Watch: A Rebel Musician Is Defending The Right To Dissent Under The Modi Govt. appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz, an award-winning online platform that serves as the hub of thoughtful opinions and reportage on the world's most pressing issues, as witnessed by the current generation. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to find out more.

It is a great tragedy that Irrfan Khan is not the biggest star in India. Over decades, the man has brought life to his roles, stayed away from embarrassing caricatures, and has been bold enough to call Bollywood out on its bullshit.

It pains me that Irrfan still has to act in smaller budget films, competing with headache-inducing monstrosities like “Half Girlfriend”.

But a few minutes into watching him on screen, I was glad he wasn’t a mega superstar.

“Hindi Medium” drives home a topic that we are all aware of. English prejudice.

The Britishers took away not only our resources but also our pride in our native languages. This thought pains me for two reasons:

1. As a comic, most English stand-up in India is limited to elite, urban spaces. In most shows, half the jokes are on poor English. We are so comfortable with our privilege that we mock those without it.

2. As someone who grew up in a lower-middle-class household, English helped me enter social circles that my economic status wouldn’t. It’s something I am guilty of.

I walked into the hall with this baggage, only to have Irrfan Khan blow my mind in the first few minutes. There is a gentle casualness about Irrfan’s acting. Unlike most of our stars, he is not loud, striking, or garish. He does not require the showmanship of a lion or the exhibitionism of a tiger. Irrfan has the lazy elegance of a cheetah. He does not roar or leap at you through introduction shots. He waits and he purrs, and he traps you and then snarls. Such is his conviction in the role, that he mutters his punchlines, sometimes whispers them – and still has the audience laughing hysterically. What a joy it is to see this man on screen!  

Director Saket Chaudhary and writer Zeenath Lakhani give him the best lines, and the field to play his shots. It helps that Irrfan is surrounded by a stellar cast of actors. My perennial crush Tillotama Shome plays an education consultant with such aplomb, Irrfan himself takes a backseat.

Deepak Dobriyal, who appears on the screen to hoots and whistles, walks a tightrope on a role that could so easily slip into caricature. And yet, he steers his role so well, you cheer him on as he takes sharp turns on the bend.

And finally, Pakistani actress Saba Qamar brings from across the border an unbridled feistiness to her role. She is petty and high-strung and lovely and strong and vulnerable at the same time, and is an absolute joy to watch. It’s a good thing they didn’t cast an Indian actress, for most Indian heroines have stock expressions to scenes.

When they come together, this fantastic ensemble of actors elevates this story into an immensely watchable film, even if the writers let the story run wild.

If there is any grouse against the film, it is that the director and writer allow the film to meander about like a drunk cow in the second half. The plot points shift without giving the audience any notice, and it is up to the actors to amp up their performance in reaction. This could partly be due to the fact that the film has already been made twice before, in Bengali and Malayalam, and perhaps the writers were staying true to the original story.

“Hindi Medium” also left me wondering if the Indian practice of adding an interval in the middle of the film is the reason our films are so bad. Imagine the plight of the writers – they have to create an engaging story, only to have a 20-minute break where people buy cola and popcorn, and children run to the toilet, and ads of Vicco Vajradanti play on the screen!

The writers then have to draw the audience back into the story, and this is where most Indian films falter. People walk out of the theatre, mouthing brilliant lines like – “First half mast hai. Second half tatti hai (The first half is awesome. The second half is shit).” But they will not let go of popcorn and coca cola for 15 minutes in the film!

Be that as it may, the actors of “Hindi Medium” elevate the story with their honest performances. Go watch the film to see Hindi cinema’s finest leading man paint a canvas for you. Watch him play audacious shots, and touch risky notes.

Also, watch the film for Saba Qamar’s terrific performance.

But mostly, watch “Hindi Medium” because as you read this, the film is losing out to “Half Girlfriend”.

A version of this post was previously published on the author’s blog.

The post Review: ‘Hindi Medium’ Proves Irrfan Is Hindi Cinema’s Best Leading Man appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz, an award-winning online platform that serves as the hub of thoughtful opinions and reportage on the world's most pressing issues, as witnessed by the current generation. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to find out more.

I have worked across many parts of the country as a photographer, sometimes with NGOs and sometimes for my own projects. And I’ve photographed many children across the country. But I have always avoided clicking street children.

It is very easy to click children on the streets and post it on Facebook or Instagram. Photographers often even pay them ₹10 or ₹20 to pose for photos. Personally, I do not support this. I am surprised and disgusted with such photographers. After all, when you click a street child, do you even think about their privacy or their future? No. Mostly, you do not even ask their names.

But when this assignment came along, I decided to take it up. Almost two years on, I went to click photos of street children in Kolkata. The idea was to capture the city through the experiences of children on the streets. On the positive side, it is challenging to find “street children” in my city. The situation has certainly changed compared to a few years ago, and it feels great to see changes through my lens.

On the downside though, there are no official statistics on the number of children in street situations, in the first place. It’s difficult to officially gauge whether the situation has improved then, or just better camouflaged. Their tendency to be floating characters too, gets in the way of making official estimates. And without official estimates, it is impossible to address this issue. Because the city is not just lacking empathy, but in situations, can be absolutely hostile towards children, especially girls.

That numbers, situations and perspectives are important, cannot be disputed, then. And to this end, this is my attempt at capturing the most impressionable moments of their lives:

With these photos, I have tried to capture the perspectives of children on the streets. Seen through their eyes, it’s a big, scary world- too large, full of hunger, hard labour, begging and danger. And one that needs changing, with more intervention to rehabilitate each and every one of them to safer living situations. Because until we reach every last child on our streets, our work remains incomplete.

*All names are changed.

The post 11 Hard-Hitting Photos That’ll Bust Your Myth About Living In The City Of Joy appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz, an award-winning online platform that serves as the hub of thoughtful opinions and reportage on the world's most pressing issues, as witnessed by the current generation. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to find out more.

Arnab Goswami – the man who was perhaps the sole reason why the national news channel, Times Now, enjoyed top viewership for years. However, one fine day, he chose to move on.

Today, he is the driving force behind his own channel – Republic TV. His contributions to media have been unique and manifold. But, his aims to build a global news channel out of Republic TV and promote open and transparent journalism are commendable, yet ironic.

They are commendable for the perceived idealism – but ironic for the lack of it, when it comes to action. While Arnab Goswami is a great TRP-magnet, and hence, a great businessman, the same cannot be said about his style of journalism.

Sorry Mr Goswami, you do business and not journalism – and there is indeed a big difference between the two!

Anybody who views Mr Goswami’s show knows that his style of journalism involves picking a target and (on the pretext of an interview) shouting and shrieking at the person till he/she gives up – but our illustrious host does not. This style of journalism has gained popularity very quickly and has garnered a large viewership among Indian audiences.

While watching Goswami’s show once – and having witnessed the repeated, unwarranted badgering of a ‘guest’ in a manner a mother would probably chide her son – I wondered how this rude drama can be popular. My thoughts took me all the way back to a marketing class on ‘consumer behaviour’, during my MBA course. Consumer behaviour, as the professor read out, is defined as “understanding the needs of a group/organisation and providing them with a service/product that satisfies their needs and wants.”

I believe that apart from being a journalist, Mr Goswami has also mastered this lesson in business. After all, he makes sure that his audience is glued to the TV.

But, what exactly is he giving to the audience that is satisfying their needs and wants? The answer to this lies in the fact that negativity sells and drama entertains. Besides, voyeurism is a basic human instinct. It is the very instinct that makes us want to eavesdrop on the domestic disturbances of neighbours, or gather in groups and derive vicarious pleasure from watching a street-fight or a subway-altercation.

This same human instinct fetches Arnab Goswami his viewers. He uses this basic human characteristic to increase the viewership of the channel. He tries to usurp the supposed ‘discussions’ and instead sells his opinion as the ultimate opinion of the country. But, does this earn respect for his journalism, or improve the knowledge-quotient of the average viewer? Well, that is debatable.

Had Arnab been in any other business, I am sure he would have built a billion-dollar empire in no time. But unfortunately, he is a journalist. A journalist’s job is to be a watchdog and question the government or establishment, unearth and publish facts fearlessly. I believe a TV news channel cannot be a profit-making entity with the sole purpose of attaining and increasing viewership.

How can it be acceptable for a journalist to term someone as ‘mentally unstable’ or a ‘lapdog‘ on a national news channel – while the same behaviour elsewhere is unacceptable and punishable?

Arnab is a businessman disguised as a journalist, who, when questioned about the company’s investors, yells vaguely, “Funding is in the public domain”, without a proper answer. On the other hand, the company’s investors are known to be Mohandas Pai and Rajeev Chandrashekar – and isn’t Chandrasekhar supposedly affiliated with the ruling party of the country? While it is okay for a news channel to accept investments from anyone in the country, I find it hypocritical of someone not admitting it fearlessly, when he claims to be a ‘fearless’ journalist.

Please do not mistake my words as a lampoon of Mr Goswami’s personal traits. As a matter of fact, people who work for him have said that he is a professional and kind employer, who treats his employees and colleagues with the utmost respect. But, his style of journalism is disconcerting, especially when his vision is to make his channel a global news channel.

How does this paint India on the global journalism map?  How many times have we seen such unprofessional behaviour on a BBC channel? As an Indian, I am afraid that the reputation of India will be tarnished if this style of journalism is introduced at the global level.

I believe that journalism is about exposing the truth, questioning the merit of an argument and shaping an informed viewer. Not following any media ethics or basic conversational etiquette to garner viewership and bringing out the worst in the public does not qualify as good journalism.

Sorry, Mr Goswami – I can only admire you as a crafty businessman, but not as a journalist!

_

Image Source: Kapil Mishra/Facebook

The post Dear Mr Goswami, I Admire You As A Businessman But Not As A Journalist appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz, an award-winning online platform that serves as the hub of thoughtful opinions and reportage on the world's most pressing issues, as witnessed by the current generation. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to find out more.

Prasanta Kalita is a renowned Indian artist. His works were on display at the “Desi Canvas“, part of “The Drifting Canvas”. On a telephonic conversation, he talked about the complex nature of the economics of art in India:

Prasanta Kalita: First of all, I would like to make it clear that art is not an industry, it is a creative space. It cannot act like other industries. Creating art cannot be commodified. We don’t work for the purpose of selling or buying. It is for our own satisfaction and to reach out to people. Generation of livelihood is not the primary motive. It does not mean that we don’t want to sell our work. The intention is to focus on creating what we feel like should be brought to the public. We should never have the intention to earn money from creating these works. Historically, people have created art for themselves, and for the people. The culture of galleries in India has turned works of art into commercial things. It has never happened in the west.

Appreciation of works of art is lacking in India. Art is limited to certain classes. Our schooling has moulded us into thinking in terms of the monetary value of everything we do. When I was in class 9, I told my parents that I wanted to become an artist. The first question my parents asked was if I would be able to earn a livelihood from it.

Becoming an artist is a gradual process. The question is very relevant. I have faced many difficulties due to my decision of becoming an artist. We can survive without focusing so much on the commodification of everything, but then I want to ask everyone, is it possible, at any point of history, to have a society which does not have art and culture as its integral parts? Some of my teachers spent their lives roaming around, creating works of art. I do not think they ever thought of making money from their works. We admire these artists.

If there is no value attached to our work, how will we survive? Everything has become expensive today. But again, that does not mean we start putting our values to making money. In India, we do not get support from government or private organisations, unlike western countries.

A few years back, buying work directly from the artist was stopped. Rajiv Lochan, former director of National Gallery of  Modern Art, was the one behind this decision. It was more like helping some of the art-lobbies. Even today, they do not have any collection of Indian contemporary art. What options are we left with? Going to private galleries? Their strategies are very different.

In each country, appreciating art is considered important. In India, there is so much politics involved in everything that art promotion has become a thing of the past. How will artists survive? For the last 12-15 years, NGMA has not been able to sell much. It is a pity.

Some people like Aakshat and you have taken an initiative to help us reach out to the masses. I keep receiving messages from different groups and individuals that will help us sell if I pay some money. It is like a circle, a manipulation. Personal interests are taking over real appreciation.

So, I would say that the economics of art in India needs to be redefined and also needs major reforms.

The post Noted Artist Prasanta Kalita Explains Why Art In India Isn’t Flourishing appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz, an award-winning online platform that serves as the hub of thoughtful opinions and reportage on the world's most pressing issues, as witnessed by the current generation. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to find out more.

Shikhant, aka Choorma, is a young, self-taught artist working in different media – from paintings and illustrations to comics and graphic design. Primarily an illustrator, he derives his inspiration from the ironies of life that we tend to overlook and mostly from the things that matter in our current day and age.

You can see his works here and here.

Ashish: What is the story behind you becoming an artist?

Shikhant Sablania (SS): I was studying to become an engineer from one of the ‘good’ colleges of our country. Then, during my 5th semester, I decided that engineering was not my thing. I was curious and I was interested in creating. But the field of engineering did not interest me enough. So, I started doing what I loved the most — drawing. And then moved on to graphic design, illustration and painting.

Ashish: What inspires you to put your energy into art?

SS: Everyday things, the beauty of everyday absurdity, the mundane, the exciting – everything related to life and the environment that we live in. It’s inspiring. It motivates me to put it on record, bend it, transform it, and try to develop a meaning out of the idea of existence.

Ashish: What materials do you use in your paintings?

SS: Whatever is readily available and seems interesting. Acrylic, watercolour and ink, mostly. Oil is something that I used to work with, but not much anymore. Then there are digital illustrations. I make a lot of digital illustrations these days.

Ashish: How have you evolved as an artist? How would you describe your journey so far?

SS: It’s not a long journey. As of yet, I don’t think it’s even worth describing. But if you ask, I think I have evolved to see the absurd in the mundane, and maybe try to find a meaning or the utter loss of it in the world that I see around myself.

Ashish: Who is/are your favourite artist(s)? And why?

SS: I don’t know anymore. The artists I used to like are not my favourites anymore. No-one comes to mind, currently.

Ashish: As an artist what do you think needs to be done in order to reach out to more people?

SS: Create more work. Bombard people with so much content that they cannot ignore you. Of course, quality should not be compromised with. We are living in the Internet age — utilise it to the fullest capacity.

Ashish: What differences do you find between audiences in India and abroad?

SS: We are still a developing economy — art is really far down on our priority list of relevant things. People are still adapting to the fruits of the free market economy. The ones who can afford have their priorities slightly dislocated. It will take time, but the art market will still be limited to a certain class.

Ashish: Is art limited to some classes in India? if so, what are the reasons behind it?

SS: One is affordability. The price of an art piece has many determining factors – economical, emotional, personal, political. Some of these factors are abstract and make it difficult to access by every class.

Another is the myth around modern art that it is unrelated to all classes and that only people with a refined taste in art can observe and/or critique it, which automatically alienates lots of people.

Ashish: How do you see the economics of art in India?

SS: I see it changing with lots of online stores selling affordable art. I’m not sure if the business is growing and by what rate, but I do see more stores online and offline selling art, and the upper-middle class of India, which has recently started fancying art, is attracted to these stores. Another place is pop art, art merchandise – the digital art market that has grown considerably in the last few years. That again is still very small — we are still reproducing similar content.

There are people who would buy art if it was affordable, and there are artists who make affordable art. The thing that’s missing is the link – the bridge between them. There needs to be more community oriented and communication-based art, and more discussion to bridge the gap. But I guess with the growth of the Internet and with social media, more such channels and avenues are being created. We just have to keep drawing.

The post Meet The Engineer Who Became An Artist To Find ‘Beauty In The Absurd’ appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz, an award-winning online platform that serves as the hub of thoughtful opinions and reportage on the world's most pressing issues, as witnessed by the current generation. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to find out more.

Vikas Nair is a friend and consultant at “The Drifting Canvas”. After his studies at IIM (Bangalore), he worked in different sectors in India and abroad. Over the last few weeks, we spoke about the complex nature of the economics of art in India. These discussions happened over our tea breaks in the backyard of the travelling exhibition, “The Drifting Canvas”, in New Delhi. This is what he had to say.

India, with its myriad of cultural differences and diversity, is steeped in the appreciation of art. Every household – be it the rangoli in front of the house, or the art decorating the walls in one’s home – reflects the affinity of the owner to the deep-rooted tradition of art, transferred on from generations.

This affinity, however, does not traverse into investing in art or its masterpieces. Artwork collection has always been perceived as an activity limited to the elite. This skewed perception transcends into every stratum of the Indian population. This belief system tells us to invest in gold and real estate, which has tangible inflationary benefits, and therefore, helps in generating liquidity in times of need. Artwork, on the contrary, would not help in such cases.

This approach, unfortunately, has created a vacuum of opportunities in the traditional and contemporary art scene in India. The affected include the artists, the galleries and the general progress of Indian art.

The Artist

With a plateaued development of art, the artists are mainly the ones who are affected. They start out with pure passion and vitality towards their pursuit of creativity. But this vigour slowly diminishes due to the lack of platforms, their perceived value of their masterpiece contrary to the buyers’ perceived value, and lastly, an inadequate system of government support.

In order for these differences to be bridged, a governmental support mechanism, which involves a mentor/mentee system, educating the young artist in the economies of scale, and making them understand the dynamics of marketing and their creativity, needs to be undertaken at the earnest.

The Galleries (Physical/Digital)  

Galleries contribute to the bulk of the sales of large volumes of artwork in India. This power allows them to choose the artists of their choice and market them effectively. More often than not, the more established and renowned artists are given more preference which helps in a greater outreach. Coupled with exorbitant commission charges, the ones who lose out are the vast majority of budding talents.

This may seem like a pure business strategy but the losers (artist and their art) far outweigh the winner.

Another by-product of this strategy is creating an elitist feel to all these spaces, which creates an aversion for the common populace to go there. The general belief that art galleries are boring stems from this approach.

Governmental Influence

The Indian government is a crucial slice of the art pie. To reach out to a greater audience, to generate an international appeal (for Indian art), and help develop an Indian talent base is where the governmental machinery can play a vital role.

‘Make Art in India’, in conjunction with the greater ‘Make in India’ campaign, can be established by the current government, which could entail creating an entire ecosystem encompassing the artists, the galleries, the curators, the media and a governing body, which would oversee the entire network.

Giving tax breaks on purchases of Indian art above a certain limit would be extremely beneficial for those in the middle-income range to gradually get involved with the procurement of artworks.

A relook at the pedagogy of the creative institutions and their syllabus needs to be undertaken at the earliest to make practical sense of the theoretical discourse.

The Way Forward

China is a market leader in terms of art auctions. The main reason, until a couple of years back, was the massive influx of capital in their market. India is now riding that economic wave, and therefore, it is in an ideal situation for High Networth Individuals (HNIs) to move their capital from sectors such as real estate, energy, stocks and finances into the collectables market. Over a period, the massive infusion of both foreign and domestic money will boost up the prices for not only classical artwork but also contemporary masters.

The Chinese and European story has also taught us that a collector will have a greater affinity towards artefacts from his own land, and culturally, they tend to support their own artwork more. This could very well be a pointer for the new millionaires and billionaires to start looking within our country and investing in art here, rather than going abroad and investing there. It is high time that the Indian industry and the general population rediscovered and supported homespun talent.

Another important area which needs to be focused on is the formation of alternative art galleries with formats like “The Drifting Canvas”, which could help in making art fun and therefore, generate a mass appeal at the same time. Its digital paintings strike a chord with a younger audience and eventually helps them purchase something for their homes.

Conclusion

Indian Art and its development is a cultural legacy, which needs to be driven passionately, If the recent cues are to go by, we are surely at the tipping point. This is the moment of reckoning, where future generations will look back at us and either applaud or loathe us. Let us leave a legacy which the coming generations can cherish.

Ideas are cheap. Inspiration is everywhere. Initiatives are rare and implementation is everything.

(Vikas Nair is an Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore alumnus and currently, a consultant to “The Drifting Canvas”. He can be contacted at vikasnair80@gmail.com) 

–

Image Credit: Vivek Singh/The India Today Group/Getty Images

The post How Art Can Become A Better Paying Profession For Indians appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz, an award-winning online platform that serves as the hub of thoughtful opinions and reportage on the world's most pressing issues, as witnessed by the current generation. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to find out more.

Trolling initially started out as an aberration, gained rapid momentum and soon became a plague. Today, it stands as the number one epidemic that is slowly feeding off the brains of many humans.

If you’re remotely familiar with the workings of social media, you’ll know that trolling is the most basic, almost primordial facet of it, that has nearly become synonymous with the platform itself. But how much do we know what being trolled can do to the victim – and by extension, to his/her freedom of expression?

Only recently, Gurmehar Kaur, a 20-year-old student of English literature at Lady Sri Ram College was threatened with rape and assault for voicing her opinion against a certain student political organisation. Furthermore, she was infantilised by the minister of Home Affairs, Kiren Rijiju, who very patronisingly suggested that she didn’t have a mind or agency of her own. Later, she withdrew from the campaign because this was all that her ’20-year-old self could take’. This is how trolls work – they scare, intimidate and exhaust you.

Many of us, who’ve shared opinions on social media that are even slightly ‘unpopular’ in nature have witnessed what it’s like to be trolled. It is almost as if they’re snatching a part of you – a part that you’d always thought belonged to you – and are telling you, “This was never yours. This was always a favour bestowed upon you, which as of today, stands revoked.” Moreover, if you’re a girl, the onslaught wouldn’t be limited to just that. Before you know it, you’ve become what is commonly termed ‘randi‘.

However, this isn’t a phenomenon limited to Facebook or Twitter, only. Even online retailers such as Amazon aren’t spared by trolls who threaten writers by attempting to rob them of their dignity and also by trying to snatch their very livelihoods.

Barkha Dutt was one of the first victims of this strategy when her book, “This Unquiet Land”, was subjected to a well-planned campaign of negative reviews. An article on Scroll states that only 18 of 3,890 one-star reviews of Dutt’s book are by verified buyers.

A more recent and depressing case is that of Rana Ayyub’s self-published work of investigative journalism, “Gujarat Files: Anatomy of a Cover Up”. Less than two weeks after its release, the book had already gained 1,234 reviews on Amazon, 844 of them being one-star. Only three of the 844 one-star reviews of Ayyub’s book – and none of the nine reviews that bear two and three stars – are marked as ‘verified purchase’. And yet, right at the beginning of the page, the customer is informed that 1,234 people have given it an average rating of 2/5! (The ratings have changed now.)

On a smaller scale, many other books have been similarly trolled and deliberately forced into a poor fate.

Currently, there is no redressal mechanism on Amazon that applies to such highly methodical levels of trolling. Not much can be done to deal with reviews written with the intention of harming the traction of a book. This needs to change, now.

See, this isn’t about criticism – because criticism is a completely valid and legitimate form of using your freedom of expression to make a judgement. Your criticism doesn’t even need to be constructive, for that matter. But, when you tell me that you’re going to use your freedom of expression to curb mine, I have a problem with that. You can denounce my views and even dismiss them as being foolish – but the second you tell me that the way to redress that is by threatening to kill or rape me (if I continue speaking), you are scaring the world out of me.

How can I ever expect to opine my thoughts in the public domain ever again? And this works in such insidious ways that it often goes unnoticed. For example, every time you hesitate to click the share button on Facebook (because you’re worried they’ll question your nationalism, or in some cases, even your nationality), and each time you’re scared to voice your dissent or agreement to someone else’s opinion (because they’ll tell you how you’re a bitch for doing so), your freedom of speech is getting censored, right there.

A very popular counter to any argument that questions trolling is that you may have your freedom of expression, but you can’t escape from facing its consequences.

Well, yes – that is correct. However, what really matters is whether the consequences happen to be merely ‘incidental’ or ‘severe’ in nature.

‘Incidental’ consequences are what you would have expected ‘by virtue’ of your opinion being unpopular or cynical or even outrageous in nature. These consequences may often be unpleasant, but are completely understandable. The public at large might ostracise you, write op-eds denouncing you, call you dumb and so on and so forth. In my opinion, this is fair play. This is the least you can accord to a critic of your opinions. After all, he/she should have the right to access their freedom of speech.

However, ‘severe’ consequences are something else altogether. They include things such as throwing stones, inking the face of a speaker, gagging the person, threatening the subject’s very livelihood, etc. Recently, incidents in which professors were allegedly sacked because of holding certain opinions and signing certain petitions came to light at Ashoka University. How is any of this fair? How are you assuring me of my freedom of expression, when you’re putting forth such terrible examples of what happens when you express a not-so-popular opinion? How am I expected to be okay, knowing that I can either have my freedom of speech or my job?

Denouncing someone for their views is understandable. But intimidation and coercion, which threaten one’s rights to life, dignity, expression and livelihood, are nothing but acts of censorship.

A study published by the University of Manitoba in Canada, found that trolls exhibit the personality traits of narcissists, psychopaths, and sadists – namely taking pleasure in the suffering of others and lacking any remorse or empathy for their victims. However, it is also true that today, trolling has seemingly become a ‘profession’ where the only ‘qualification’ required is the ability to spend limitless hours, relentlessly indulging in any and every kind of slander that will work to benefit the ‘greater cause’.

Is there a solution to trolling? More importantly, is there a punishment for it?

According to this paper, until November 2014, there had been 113 registered cases of online abuse in Mumbai City alone for the year 2014, as compared to the 33 cases reported in 2013 – something which was discovered in a reply to a Right To Information (RTI) application filed with police authorities. In India, we can find two different sections in two different laws which can be applied to trolls – making trolling a criminal act, but only if there are a few mandatory features in the comments posted by trolls.

Section 66A of the IT Act, 2000, which sought to provide punishment for sending offensive messages through communication devices, stated that:

Any person who sends, by means of a computer resource or a communication device –

1. Any information that is grossly offensive or has menacing character; or

2. Any information which he/she knows to be false, but for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience, danger, obstruction, insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred or ill will, persistently by making use of such computer resource or a communication device,

3. Any electronic mail message for the purpose of causing annoyance or inconvenience or to deceive or to mislead the addressee or recipient about the origin of such messages,

shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and with fine.

The law, however, appears to be vague and ambiguous. The terms used, such as ‘annoyance’ and ‘inconvenience’ do not convey a clear meaning in criminal law. If the troll writes something which the police feels is not offensive, then Section 66A would not be applicable – and vice versa. It’s no wonder therefore that the Supreme Court struck it down.

The newly-added Section 354A in the Indian Penal Code(IPC) says that if any man makes a ‘sexually-coloured remark’, he would be guilty of sexual harassment. In such a case, he can be imprisoned for up to one year, or be fined, or both. This is, however, a bailable offence.

Sadly, India doesn’t have a certified agency to monitor trolls, yet. As far as laws against cyber-bullying are concerned, every country has a different one. This makes things all the more complicated – even if the troll isn’t anonymous, the mechanisms to punish him/her will depend entirely on the laws of the country in which the troll resides, the laws in the victim’s country and the laws of the country where the host server is located.

Twitter keeps devising several mechanisms to combat abuse from time to time. Twitter said that it plans to keep banned users from creating multiple accounts, via a combination of human and algorithmic interventions. It will introduce a ‘safe search’ feature, that hides sensitive content from search results. However, users can choose to opt out of this. It will also hide low-quality responses, so that users don’t get incessantly pinged with abusive tweets. All of these are perennial attempts made to counter harassment. However, the efficacy of these measures remains disputed.

In 2016, Oxford Dictionaries named ‘post-truth‘ as the word of the year. It was defined as ‘relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief’.

Many believe that we’ve successfully entered the ‘post-truth’ era. George Orwell would argue that we never left it. The sad reality, however, is, that we are undoubtedly living in a time, where facts, empirical data, arguments based on logic hold little or no water in front of relentless acts of trolling.

This is a world where it takes one slimy attack on a person’s identity, their clothes, their religion, their nationality, to negate all the arguments they make. I fear these attacks – and so do most of us. This fear acts as a major impediment in our freedom to express, it hampers our freedom to opine and it censors our freedom of speech – every day, every hour!

The post What You Can Do In An Age Where Trolls Are The New Censors appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz, an award-winning online platform that serves as the hub of thoughtful opinions and reportage on the world's most pressing issues, as witnessed by the current generation. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to find out more.

पिछले दिनों महामहिम राष्ट्रपति जी रामनाथ गोयंका अवार्ड के समारोह में बोल रहे थे, “सत्ता में बैठे लोगों से सवाल पूछने का अधिकार राष्ट्र के ‘संरक्षण’ की बुनियाद है, खासतौर से ऐसे समय में जब सबसे ऊंची आवाज में बोलने वालों के शोर में असहमति की आवाजें डूब रही हैं।” उन्होंने कहा कि “मेरी समझ से प्रेस अगर सत्ता में बैठे लोगों से सवाल पूछने में विफल रहती है तो यह कर्त्तव्य पालन में उसकी विफलता मानी जाएगी। इसके साथ ही उसे सतहीपन और तथ्यात्मकता रिपोर्टिंग और प्रचार के बीच का फर्क समझना होगा।”

इस बात को समझना होगा कि हमारे पत्रकार किससे सवाल कर रहे हैं, किनकी आलोचना कर रहे हैं, वो रिपोर्टिंग और तथ्यों की बात करने की जगह पर क्या कर रहे हैं? पत्रिकारिता की विश्वसनीयता खत्म होने लगी है, रिपोर्टिंग के नाम पर वो सोशल मीडिया से रिपोर्ट करते हैं, ट्विटर उनके इंटरव्यू के साधन है और रिपोर्टिंग का भी। जब संसद में आपकी विश्वसनीयता पर सवाल उठने लगे, लम्बी बहस होने लगे तो समझना चाहिए कि सब कुछ सही नही है। तथ्यों को तोड़-मरोड़ के पेश किया जाता है, झूठी खबरें बनाई और फैलाई जाती हैं।

हर शाम को सजने वाले टीवी चैनलों के कानफोड़ू कार्यक्रम जिसमे वक्ता किसी अभिनेता से कम नही होते हैं, वो हर मुद्दे के विशेषज्ञ होते हैं, दिनभर उनका काम इस टीवी से उस टीवी पर जाना होता है। और टीवी एंकर की आक्रामकता, आक्रोश और गुस्सा आखिर किसके लिए होता है? उन पर सवाल भी किसी सवाल से कम नही होता है। वो हर दिन किसी को शत्रु बना कर पेश करते हैं और उनसे ही सारे सवाल करते हैं। वो इन पर चिल्लाते हैं, डांटते हैं। बस शर्म करो-शर्म करो, मारो- मारो, गद्दार-गद्दार, देशद्रोही-देशद्रोही जैसे नफरत भरी हिंसक आवाज़ें ही सुनाई दे रही हैं।

ये आपको धीरे-धीरे नफरत करना सिखाते हैं अपने ही समाज की लोगों से। उनके मुद्दे ऐसे ही होते है जिससे वो आपके अंदर नफरतों का ज़हर डाल सके। ये नफरत इतनी फैलाई जा रही है कि हम हत्यारे बनते जा रहे हैं। आज एंकर ही जज हैं और एंकर ही वकील हैं। एंकर ही फैसला है एंकर ही सेना है।

उनकी ज़रुरत किसे है? ज़ाहिर है जो सरकार से सवाल नही कर पता उसे। आत्महत्या करते किसान, दलितों के जलते घर, शोषित होता आदिवासी जो अपने अस्तित्व की लड़ाई कर रहा है, बढती बेरोज़गारी, कुपोषण के शिकार बच्चे, ये सब कहां हैं उनकी रिपोर्ट में? झारखंड, छतीसगढ़, मणिपुर कहां हैं? वो बस दिल्ली तक ही सीमित दिखाई देता है। मीडिया अब बस एक मनोरंजन और राजनीतिक पार्टियों के प्रचार का माध्यम सा लगने लगा है।

पिछले दिनों 3 मई को media freedom day था, हमारे पत्रकार यह बताने में शर्माते दिखे कि 180 देशों की रैंकिंग में 136वां स्थान कितना सम्मानजनक है। मीडिया  के व्यवसाइकरण ने पत्रकारिता को पूंजीवाद और वर्चस्ववाद का गुलाम बना दिया है। हकीकत यही है कि ये अब सरकारों से सवाल करने से डरने लगा है।

The post एंकर साहब! ये आक्रामकता, ये आक्रोश और ये गुस्सा आखिर किसके लिए? appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz, an award-winning online platform that serves as the hub of thoughtful opinions and reportage on the world's most pressing issues, as witnessed by the current generation. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to find out more.

Sandeep Bhaiyya, Malviya Aunty, Chunmun, Ram, Shyam, my mom, my wife, the many, many friends, and that hostel heater. The first sentence sounds like a cluster of people with a hostel heater thrown in between them! This is the month of Ramzan and for someone who has been lucky enough to observe the fast and behave like a ‘proper’ Muslim for a month, these are the people and things I am thankful for.

My mom tells me that I have been fasting since the age of six or seven. Needless to say, I was an early starter. Thanks to my balanced appetite and supportive and great company, I have been successfully fasting every year.

For those who don’t know, fasting begins at dawn when we eat Sahri. It is the meal that helps us last the day, and also is considered a tradition.

When I was in school, it was my mother who kept the tradition going by waking up all the kids of the house, the unwilling souls. Who wants to get up at 3 a.m. and eat? The typical Sahri at home would consist of roti or paratha with last night kababs or egg curry. There was also something called “sooth pheni” made with milk. A cup of tea was a must to avoid headaches. We would gobble as much water as we can till the time the sirens would sound or the mosques would announce that the time is over!

Life changed dramatically when I moved to the hostel for my graduation in Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). The luxury of kebabs and curries was no longer there. More importantly, there was no mom to wake me up. The independence came with accountability, and Ramzan with two eggs and one packet of milk, given to us a day in advance for Sahri. This is when the secret room heaters came to our rescue. All friends would bring out their heaters and we’d boil eggs, warm up the milk, make some tea. It was fun of a different kind. Hunger pangs troubled us often, but then this is what hostel life looks like. Three years passed away pretty quickly. Today when I think about those days, I feel like those years passed us by like a breeze!

Cut to the year 2003. My MBA programme. I stayed as a paying guest in the house of a gentleman called Sandeep Arora (famously known as Sandeep Bhaiyya) in the posh colony of New Hyderabad in Lucknow. Sandeep bhaiyya ran a corporate lunch catering business and had rented out a room to the two people including me. Neyaz Bhai and I came to Lucknow from AMU to pursue our MBA. As Ramzan approached, we began worrying. How would we observe the fast while staying in a PG accommodation, where the kitchen was always busy from the catering work and we didn’t have access to it? Adding to our worries was the fact that Sandeep Bhaiyya was a pure vegetarian! But our good luck prevailed. This time it greeted us in the form of Ram and Shyam. They both were Sandeep Bhaiyya’s employees and were assigned the duty preparing fresh Sahri for us, every morning. We were informed about it a day before the first day of Ramzan, and it surprised us, delighted us and left us with strange emotions.

Every day we would eat some new delicacy with milk, tea and freshly made chapatis. Not only that, we got wake up calls so we didn’t out on the fasting. Both Neyaz Bhai and I felt so much at home at the PG. I would have never dreamt of such an experience at the house of a devout Hindu. But those were good days, we didn’t look at each other on the basis our religious identities.

After completing my MBA I was lucky enough to find a good starting job in the city of dreams, Mumbai. And even luckier to find a place close to the office. Yet again, I found myself living, in a PG accommodation,  in a cramped room with two of my MBA classmates. We landed up at the doorsteps of one Mrs Malaviya, a Hindu Brahmin belonging to Allahabad and well settled in Mumbai. Aunty (as we started calling her from the first meeting) was kind enough to give the three of us a room meant for two. The lodging came with food that she prepared herself. Again, she was a pure vegetarian.

I have been a hardcore non-vegetarian since my hostel days, but thanks to Sandeep Bhaiyya and now Aunty, I started enjoying vegetarian food too. (I am lying, I didn’t have a choice ) .

Ramzan arrived, so did the thought of skipping fasting. Aunty had a son and stayed with her husband, a small, happy family. But God was kind to me again. Despite me asking her not to, aunty got up every morning to prepare tea and fresh chapatis for me. I was actually very embarrassed the first day and insisted that she not put herself through so much trouble. But then there are souls who are kinder than we can ever imagine. Aunty did this every year for me. I stayed there for four years and every Ramzan she would happily cook for me as if I was her own son. She didn’t have to do it, but she did it happily and with love. How I miss those days!

And then I moved to a rented flat and this guy called Chunmun (Anil), a help, came and prepared some amazing sahri and iftaar with great love and care.

As of today, I have been married for five years, and living with my wonderful wife and family has made Sahri times great again. With some yummy mango shake to help polish off delicious chicken curry, kebabs and chapatis, and with my mom there with me to wake me up in the morning, just like old days, things are back to being the way they were.

Every Ramzan, I thank God for making me meet Sandeep Bhaiyya, Ram, Shyam, Chunmun and Malaviya Aunty. I am fortunate to be in a country where humanity and respect for others are way above small religious differences.

I have so many other Iftaar stories with colleagues of different faiths across Indian cities. Many who fasted for the whole day, just to share that experience with us.

God has been kind to give us this blessed month of Ramzan, and kinder to have made this country a land of diversity.

Ramzan Mubarak and Jai Hind.

The post I’ve Never Missed A Single Ramzan Fast, And I Thank My Hindu Friends For It appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz, an award-winning online platform that serves as the hub of thoughtful opinions and reportage on the world's most pressing issues, as witnessed by the current generation. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to find out more.

Like many people around me, I too get most of my daily news from the internet. It is a faster way of receiving, analysing, and discussing the more immediate happenings in the world than waiting for the morning newspaper or that friendly face at the roadside tea stall. Discussions on the internet are very productive, in my opinion, because the large number of voices that are involved eliminates the chances of bias trumping logic. These discussions are very important tools in shaping public opinion in today’s age of technology, but they are being plagued by a constant problem – the casual commenter.

A couple of days ago, I was a part of a live session on Instagram that was addressing the topics of sympathy, empathy and the importance of love and understanding. It was a very productive discussion, with people chipping in with comments as the person moderating it addressed them in a free, fair, and unbiased environment. However, in the middle of all this serious talk, people started popping up with random sleazy comments about the person moderating the session. Although these were handled well by all those present live, it somehow seemed to detract from the sanctity of the conversation that was taking place. At the end of it all, I found it unfair on the person presenting the session, as she was doing it voluntarily, and on all of us who joined in on it in order to have a fruitful and hopefully educational discussion, that the seriousness of it all would be taken away so easily by a couple of people who had no intention of productively contributing.

However, the casual commenter isn’t always so benign in internet discussions. In their most damning form, the casual commenters have one great power – the power to manufacture facts. Due to the internet’s guaranteed equality of expression, every person has equal rights to comment, share or post anything of their choice but the misuse of this power can have serious consequences. For example, as John Oliver mentioned in his show “Last Week Tonight” on February 12 this year, the accusation that the state of California has millions of undocumented and illegal voters, that is now part of a global discussion on election fraud, initially stemmed from one person on Twitter mentioning it without any supporting sources of information. This demonstrates the very real threat of a casual commenter being able to manufacture facts/news that could take up such an ominous form.

Lastly, it is important to address what we can do when we are faced with the bane of the casual commenter because ignoring it is no longer an option. We are slowly moving towards a time when the number of casual commenters approaches that of people actually looking for real information. One way we can counter this threat is to personally fact-check any piece of information that seems dubious with at least one internationally acclaimed secondary source. Additionally, as John Oliver points out in the video mentioned above, we should be doubly careful with news that matches our pre-existing bias as this is the kind of news that the casual commenters thrive on – the sort of thing we think and feel is true even if there is no evidence to back it up.

The internet is believed to be a safe space for all of us, where we can express our opinions and have conversations with people that may result in these opinions changing. It is up to all of us to keep this space safe, by keeping each other accountable. Of all the things that are wrong in this world today and that we can’t fix, this isn’t one of them. The problem of the casual commenter is very solvable if we decide to do so by large-scale accountability.

The post How The Internet Troll Has Become The Biggest Danger To Public Opinion appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz, an award-winning online platform that serves as the hub of thoughtful opinions and reportage on the world's most pressing issues, as witnessed by the current generation. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to find out more.

Anand Moy Banerji needs no introduction. A renowned and multifaceted artist, we got him to talk about his life, views, and style over an e-mail conversation.

Ashish: What is the story behind you becoming an artist?

Anand Moy Banerji: Quite simple and very important. I am talking of the early seventies, of my school days. I should be giving credit to my parents and my school — Raisina Bengalee Higher Secondary School. And especially to its senior art teacher, Manab Banerji. My father was not only keen, but at times, we siblings had probably felt that he was stubborn too. Keen on what? On simply taking us to various historical places in Delhi, like Sapru House, Max Muller Bhavan, and AIFACS. Every Sunday, my mother would pack a tiffin-box and we would be off. He would take us to art competitions and cultural programmes. On the other hand, my school also sent me to all inter-school art competitions. Somehow, somewhere, silently, that became part of my life. I would earn awards most of the time – or probably always – and suddenly I earned the Indo-Soviet Land Nehru Award in 1972/73. My visit to Russia then forced me to start dreaming about becoming an artist. Manab da, as we used to call him, his dedicated interest got me admitted, with scholarship, to the College of Art in 1975.

Ashish: What inspires you to put your energy into art?

AMB: I sincerely think, man and nature — ‘Purusha’ and ‘Prakriti’– are my real sources of inspiration. There are many things to say. Manab da’s pencil sketches, Abani Sen’s mural in our school – “Nataraj” – probably were the first strong visual interactions I had. Dhiraj Chaudhuri’s pen and ink drawings, Bimal Dasgupta sir’s watercolours, Jai Zharotia’s subtle coloured drawings, Anupam Sud’s technical nuances in printmaking, Sanat Kar, Somenath Hore’s personal languages in the art of printmaking, and certainly K G Subramanian’s personality, subtly reflected in his art, were my initial inspirations, along with Tyeb Mehta ji and the book “The Little Prince”, while doing my master’s. The presence of the spirit of Rabindranath Tagore in Santiniketan along with the blessings of Kanchan Chakraborty, our art history professor in Santiniketan, were also big initial inspirations. Then, after a long journey, I finally saw ‘Purusha’ and ‘Prakriti’.

A: What materials do you use in your paintings?

AMB: As an artist, I use many kinds of materials as I paint, draw, print and also do a lot of experimental work too. What I want to emphasise here is that I am actually open to all kinds of possibilities. So, from a pencil to a computer monitor, all are my friends.

A: Who is/are your favourite artist(s)? And why?

AMB: Speaking precisely, with a pragmatic perspective, now that art has travelled a lot from the primitive days to postmodern ones, at various stages, various artists might have inspired me and I may have grabbed on to them as my favourite at that stage. But in the end, it seems to be nature, nature and only nature. Nevertheless, if you still ask me, Ramkinkar Baij, M F Hussain, Picasso, and Anish Kapoor.

A: As an artist what do you think needs to be done in order to reach out to more people?

AMB: To make art reach a larger audience is a very important endeavour, to begin with. Though there can be various views and various standpoints, my blueprint for this is simple – to make art education an important part of our school curriculum, along with physics, chemistry, maths, and so on. What I mean is, you need to create a platform of love and acceptance for art from the beginning. Only then will it be able to reach all people. Otherwise, all attempts will be temporary. When I say art, I mean all forms of art – visual, performance, literature, everything put together.

Ashish: What differences do you find between audiences in India and abroad?

AMB: My answer to this is related to my previous answer. I have seen a huge, snake-like queue of people lining up to see Lenin’s tomb in Russia, and the same in front of the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa. This does not happen here for any exhibition or any music or dance performance. When I say this, I do not wish to compare, but it happens. This is because art and culture have always had their own culture, but never their own world. We do not document in order to let the next generation know. In India, you may see a huge line in front of malls but attendance in the National Gallery Of Modern Art will always remain very thin. The government has to organise more art initiatives and events, too.

Ashish: Is art limited to some classes in India? If so, what are the reasons behind it & how do you see the economics of art in India?

AMB: I will try answering these two questions together. Please imagine visiting a temple in India today, in the postmodern era. Still the poor hesitate to enter, the rest will stand in a line, and certain affluent individuals will arrive and get an entry straight away – even if they have to pay a certain sum. Now, why do we complain that art does not and cannot reach everyone? I have no political, social, religious, or economic agenda here, but realise one thing when God, who is art to me, is served to people on different platters depending on their lot in life – the fate will be the same on the other side. Our society as a whole has to march forward a long way still. Yes, to talk about economics one must create a market for Indian art, globally.

The post ‘Man And Nature Are My Inspirations’: An Interview With Artist Anand Moy Banerji appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz, an award-winning online platform that serves as the hub of thoughtful opinions and reportage on the world's most pressing issues, as witnessed by the current generation. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to find out more.

भारतीय इतिहास में हिंदी पत्रकारिता को मूलतः चार समयखंडों में बांटा गया। पहला जब हिंदी पत्रकारिता का उदय हो रहा था लगभग 1826 से 1867। दूसरा भारतेन्दु काल (1876-1900), तीसरा महावीर प्रसाद द्विवेदी काल (1900-1920) और चौथा रहा गांधी काल, जब गांधी दक्षिण अफ्रीका से भारत लौट आए थे (1920-1947)।

उसके बाद से अब तक हिंदी पत्रकारिता का स्वातंत्रोत्तर (पोस्ट इंडिपेंडेंस) काल जारी है। वक़्त इसका भी एक विभाजन मांगता है और मैं इस दौर को हिंदी पत्रकारिता का ‘नारदीय’ दौर मानता हूं। ये पहले भी था लेकिन कभी मुखरता से इसका ऐलान नहीं हुआ। अब संस्थानों में इसकी मांग हो रही है, विमर्श हो रहे हैं। मुखालफत करने वाले लोग भी इसी बिरादरी के हैं। जो बात पहले तार्किक और वैज्ञानिक ना होने के आधार पर ख़ारिज कर दी जाती थी, आज उसे स्वीकृति देने की कोशिशें की जा रही हैं।

क्यूंकि देश के सर्वश्रेष्ठ कहे जाने वाले पत्रकारिता के संस्थान से पढ़ाई का अवसर मिला और लिखने की वजह से निलंबित किया गया, इसलिए संस्थान के प्रशासन से तनातनी बनी रही। वहां बेहद सुनियोजित, व्यवस्थित और संस्थानिक स्तर पर पत्रकारिता की नई पौध को तैयार होते हुए देखा। यह बेहद दिलचस्प है कि जब पूरी पत्रकारिता की ही हालत खराब है ऐसे में हम हिंदी पत्रकारिता की बात कर रहे हैं। इसके साथ ही मैं अंग्रेज़ी को छोड़कर अन्य भाषाओं में संभावनाओं की तरफ देख रहा हूं, लेकिन दूर-दूर तक सन्नाटा पसरा है।

क्या हिंदी का पत्रकार होना बस अनुवादक होना है:

अनुवादक होना बुरा नहीं है लेकिन पत्रकार होने के नाम पर केवल अनुवादक होना पेशे के साथ नाइंसाफी है जो आज की सच्चाई है।
प्रिंट और इलेक्ट्रॉनिक मीडिया के बाद इंटरनेट ने हिंदी मीडिया को खासतौर पर एक नई ऊर्जा दी है। मीडिया के जानकार बताने लगे हैं कि भविष्य डिजिटल मीडिया का ही है, वो अपने आंकलन में सही भी हैं। लेकिन हिंदी पत्रकारिता की चुनौतियों पर कोई खास फर्क पड़ता नहीं दिखाई दे रहा है।

डिजिटल माध्यम की मौजूदगी ने प्रोडक्शन और डिस्ट्रीब्यूशन की कॉस्ट को बेशक कम किया है लेकिन मीडिया प्रतिष्ठानों ने इस बचत को कहीं और खर्च किए जाने की ज़रूरत नहीं समझी। उन्होंने नए रिपोर्टर नहीं बहाल किए, बल्कि उनकी जगह कंटेंट राइटर ने ले ली है। एजेंसी के सब्सक्रिप्शन ले लिए गए, वायर पर जो खबर आती है उस खबर की शक्ल बदलकर कंटेंट राइटर उसे पेश कर देते हैं। बाज़ार के बदलते हुए ट्रेंड को देखते हुए शिक्षण संस्थानों ने भी विषय-सूची में ‘टंकण’ (टाइपिंग) और ‘अनुवाद’ को ख़ासा महत्व देना शुरू कर दिया है। अगर आपकी हिंदी टाइपिंग की स्पीड अच्छी है और आप अनुवाद करना जानते हैं तो ये वक़्त आपका है।

इसलिए हिंदी पत्रकारिता में डिप्लोमा को ट्रांसलेशन साथ मिलाकर एक इंटीग्रेटेड कोर्स बना देने की ज़रूरत है। अलग-अलग डिप्लोमा की क्या ज़रूरत है, जब काम एक ही है? हालांकि ये भी कहां समझ आ पाता है कि जिन्होंने मास-कॉम में ग्रैजुएशन किया है उन्हें पत्रकारिता में ही पी.जी. डिप्लोमा क्यूं करना होता है, जबकि कोर्स  के स्तर पर कोई फर्क है ही नहीं।

खबर बनाना, इन डिज़ाइन या टाइपिंग कोई राकेट साइंस तो है नहीं, इंडस्ट्री नई बहाली के नाम पर टाइपिस्ट/स्टेनोग्राफर लेना चाहती है और ये मानती है कि यही अनुभव दो-चार सालों में पत्रकार तैयार कर देगी। तो फिर आप पत्रकारिता के डिप्लोमा-डिग्री धारकों को क्यूं लेते हैं? सभी ग्रेजुएशन वालों को मौका दीजिए, उन्हें भी तो ये सब आता है।

रद्दी हो चले हिंदी अखबार:

जब मैं हिंदी के अखबारों को रद्दी बता रहा हूं, ऐसे में ये सवाल लाज़मी हैं कि क्या अंग्रेज़ी अखबारों में गुणवत्ता बची है? टिफिन में रोटी लपेटने का काम सिर्फ हिंदी अखबार ही क्यूं करें?

बेशक गुणवत्ता में गिरावट वहां भी दर्ज़ की गई है और ‘राष्ट्रीय पत्रकारिता’ की होड़ में क्या अंग्रेज़ी और क्या हिंदी? लेकिन इस होड़ में अंतर का एक कारण है- ‘लिबरल स्पेस’। आप हिंदी और अंग्रेज़ी अखबारों के ओपिनियन पेज को मिलाने की कोशिश कीजिए। अंतर साफ़ दिखना शुरू हो जाएगा। हिंदी के अखबार जो कभी अपने संपादकीय (एडिटोरियल) और अग्रलेखों के लिए जाने जाते थे, आज ‘विचार-विमर्श’ से दूरी बना चुके हैं।

द हूट की संपादक सेवंती निनन ने अपने शोध में एक वाकये का ज़िक्र किया जो आज के संदर्भ में बेहद महत्वपूर्ण है। सेवंती, फील्ड विजिट के दौरान पटना के ग्रामीण इलाकों  में गई थी। वहां एक सरकारी स्कूल के शिक्षक ने बताया कि वो रोज 30 कि.मी. साइकिल चलाकर पटना जाया करते हैं जनसत्ता अखबार लाने। सेवंती ने जब उनसे पूछा कि आखिर जनसत्ता ही क्यूं? तो उन्होंने बताया कि जनसत्ता का सम्पादकीय और लेख उसकी खासियत हैं। अब ‘संपादक’ जैसी कोई संस्था बची ही नहीं है, उसकी जगह एच.आर. और मैनेजमेंट के लोगों ने ले ली है।

‘नो नेगेटिव न्यूज़’-ये क्या है:

हिंदी के अखबारों ने अपने मास्टहेड पर लिखना शुरू किया- ‘नो नेगेटिव न्यूज़’। मतलब कोई नकारात्मक खबर नहीं छापी जाएगी। आखिर ख़बरों की नकारात्मकता क्या है? इसे कैसे परिभाषित किया जाएगा? पहले संपादक तय करता था कि उसे कौन सी खबर दिखानी है, वह कितने कॉलम की होगी और लीद स्टोरी क्या जाएगी आदि। अब कोई नेगेटिव न्यूज़ के बरक्स पोज़िटिव न्यूज़ का चयन कैसे करेगा? जनसरोकार के कौन से मामले, जनता की परेशानियां, राजनीतिक गलियारों की हलचल पाठकों-दर्शकों तक लाना हमारी ज़िम्मेदारी है। इसमें नकारात्मकता का पैमाना कौन तय कर रहा होगा- पाठक, संपादक या सत्ता?

दरअसल यह नारदीय पत्रकारिता के उद्भव की एक झलक है जिसमे पत्रकारों के अन्दर भरा जा रहा है कि आपको सिर्फ आलोचना नहीं करनी है बल्कि सरकार के अच्छे कामों की तारीफ़ भी करनी है। सत्ता की तारीफ़ करने की बाध्यता को प्रतिबद्धता में तब्दील करने की व्यापक कोशिशें जारी हैं। सरकार के अच्छे कामों को दिखने के लिए उनके पास सरकारी बजट है, डीएवीपी है। हमारा काम है कि हम सत्ता के प्रति आलोचनात्मक रहें, लेकिन यह व्यक्तिगत स्तर पर भी संभव कैसे हो? मीडिया स्वामित्व को कैसे दरकिनार कर पाएंगे? आखिर जहां से कंट्रोल हो रहा है, वहीं से तो ये नेरेटिव तैयार किया जा रहा है।

दर्शकों/पाठकों आपसे माफ़ी:

बतौर हिंदी पत्रकार मैं आपसे माफ़ी मांगता हूं। लेकिन इस माफ़ी के साथ मैं ये वादा करने की स्थिति में नहीं हूँ कि अब चीज़ें बदल जाएंगी। मोटे तौर पर यह बेहद असंवेदनशील और निर्लज्ज बिरादरी है। चाहे वो भाषा के स्तर पर हो या कंटेंट के स्तर पर, हमने आपको खोखला करने की ठान ली है। आपको ट्विटर के ट्रेंड के फेर में फंसाकर मुद्दे गायब करना हमारा नया पेशा है।

यह व्यावसाईक हितों के लिए बेहतर है और व्यवसाय ही कर्म है। यह लिखते हुए मुझे अपराधबोध होता है कि हमारी स्टाइलशीट में ज़्यादातर शब्द अंग्रेज़ी के हैं, ख़बरों के नाम पर सॉफ्ट पॉर्न परोसना हमारे पेशे का हिस्सा बन चुका है। भाषा का स्तर गिर चुका है, आपके मुद्दे गायब कर हमारी दिलचस्पी अभिजीत भट्टाचार्य के ट्विटर अकाउंट में है। हमें कभी माफ़ मत कीजिएगा।

पहले पत्रकार खुद को एक्टिविस्ट कहने में झिझकते नहीं थे। वो अखबार में काम भी करते थे और सामाजिक आन्दोलनों में भी अहम भूमिका निभाते थे। लेकिन आज पत्रकार खुद के लिए भी खड़ा होने की स्थिति में नहीं है। उसे ‘क्रांतिकारी’ बताकर ख़ारिज करने का इंतजाम पूरा है। ‘राष्ट्रीय’ पत्रकारिता का ये दौर नया नहीं है। आज़ादी के आन्दोलनों में प्रेस की भूमिका कितनी अहम रही है, ये किसी से कहां छिपा है।

लेकिन आज की ‘राष्ट्रीय’ पत्रकारिता, सत्ता के साथ होने की जद्दोजेहद में है। तब यह सत्ता के खिलाफ और राष्ट्र के साथ थी। लेकिन आज सत्ता और राष्ट्र एक दूसरे के पर्याय बनाने को आतुर हैं।

The post क्या हिंदी का पत्रकार होना बस अनुवादक होना है? appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz, an award-winning online platform that serves as the hub of thoughtful opinions and reportage on the world's most pressing issues, as witnessed by the current generation. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to find out more.

Women have been bleeding for years. But the myths, misconceptions and stigma around menstruation across the world haven’t ceased.

Let’s get the facts straight. A girl’s first period is one of the most significant changes in her life – a biological change that affects her whole being. But in India, this natural experience is treated like a curse. From being shut away to being barred from entering places of worship, a woman on her period is discriminated against in various ways.

Then there’s the problem of sanitation. In India according to census 2011, 89% of the national rural population lives in households that lack toilets. Further, because of lack of access, affordability, and sanitary means of disposal, only 48.2% women age between 15-24 years use hygienic methods of protection during their menstrual periods. Indeed, these factors have made the monthly period nothing short of a nightmare for the Indian girl.

But, I recently found out that this is not the case in India alone. I came across an article on Women’s Health magazine, which elaborated on the various ways women in the rest of the world deal with menstruation. And things didn’t look much better outside India too.

This is not all. Customs around the world present many challenges to women’s health and deny them the right to their bodies, subjecting them to many psychosocial pathologies.

In India in particular, many think that this is a problem limited to rural areas, but the truth is that even in the urban settings the patriarchal gaze always instils a need to apologise when menstruation is mentioned in public.

Why do we need to care about this?

For one, this expression of apology because of one’s body has given birth to self-loathing, isolation, poor self-esteem, low level of confidence, fear, shame, submissive response to sexual violence and forced drop out from education and work among many young women. Further, it reinforces the inability to speak about one’s genitals, reproductive organs, and sexual intercourse, stigmatising these issues even more. This only damages the psychosocial well-being of women and increases the risk of her rights to her body and identity being taken away. Lack of awareness, poor menstrual health management, weaker support systems, poor sanitation, and poor access to clean water only makes young girls and women face increased amount of shame and feeling of worthlessness.

And this needs to change right now. Because many girls drop out from schools and workplaces, risk sexual violence, and make poor reproductive choices, which contributes largely to the larger problem of gender imbalance, especially in India.

The post 4 Hard-Hitting Facts Reveal How Menstruation Is A Nightmare For Girls All Over The World appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz, an award-winning online platform that serves as the hub of thoughtful opinions and reportage on the world's most pressing issues, as witnessed by the current generation. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to find out more.

साल 2011 की बात है। तब मैं भारतीय जनसंचार संस्थान (आईआईएमसी) में हिन्दी पत्रकारिता का स्टूडेंट था। उस समय हमारे सिलेबस में वेब पत्रकारिता नाम का एक चैप्टर था, जिसके लिये दस नंबर तय किये गए थे।

हमारे लिए पत्रकारिता का मतलब टीवी और अखबार ही थे। वेबसाइट के लिये पत्रकारिता करने का शायद ही किसी ने सोचा होगा। उसी संस्थान में हमारे एक टीचर थे दिलीप मंडल। दशकों तक मुख्यधारा की पत्रकारिता में सीनियर जगहों पर रह चुके एक वरिष्ठ पत्रकार। मीडिया पर किताब लिखने के लिये कई पुरस्कार से सम्मानित। बाद में आईआईएमसी से निकलकर इंडिया टुडे मैगजीन के मैनेजिंग एडिटर भी बने। दिलीप मंडल का जिक्र इसलिए क्योंकि वे हमें क्लास में एक बात कहा करते थे, वे कहते थे- आज हर कोई पत्रकार है। आज दस रुपये की पत्रकारिता का ज़माना है। उनके कहने का मतलब हुआ करता था कि साईबर कैफे में एक घंटे के दस रूपये लिये जाते थे और उस कैफे में बैठकर कोई भी फेसबुक या ट्विटर पर अपनी बात, अपनी खबर कह सकता है। अगर खबर में दम होगा तो वो दूर तक चली जाएगी।

मुझे याद है हम उनकी बातों पर यकीन नहीं किया करते थे, मतलब सिर्फ फेसबुक पर पत्रकारिता की बात हमें थोड़ी कम समझ आती थी। वक्त बदला, देश में 3जी क्रांति आई, विडियो, इन्टरनेट पैक, स्मार्टफोन का तेजी से फैलाव हुआ। आज 2017 है, करीब छह साल का वक्त गुज़र चुका है। अब दिलीप सर की बात बिल्कुल सच दिखायी दे रही है। स्मार्टफोन ने क्रांति ला दी है, पत्रकारिता की परिभाषा बदल गयी है और इन सबमें सबसे खास बात है कि हिन्दी और हिन्दी पत्रकारिता भी कदमताल कर रही है या यूं कहिये कि हिन्दी दो कदम आगे चल रही है।

हिन्दी पत्रकारिता के इस दौर के इतिहास को जब भी लिखा जायेगा तो सोशल मीडिया की पत्रकारिता को भी उतनी ही मजबूती से दर्ज किया जाएगा। पेपर, रेडियो, टीवी से होते हुए आज हम सब सोशल मीडिया की इस पत्रकारिता को देख रहे हैं।

मुख्यधारा के लगभग सभी हिन्दी मीडिया हाउस सोशल मीडिया पर हैं, वे विडियो, टेक्स्ट, तस्वीर, ऑडियो सब कर रहे हैं। पहले होता यूं था कि कोई खबर अखबार में आती थी, फिर वहां से टीवी तक पहुंचती थी और फिर उस पर सोशल मीडिया में बहस का सिलसिला चलता था। फिर अखबार की जगह टीवी ने ले ली और आज सोशल मीडिया मुख्यधारा की मीडिया में एक ट्रेंड सेट करने की हैसियत में है।

हिन्दी पत्रकारिता आज अपनी सालगिरह मना रहा है तो यह दर्ज करना ज़रुरी है कि सोशल मीडिया पर हिन्दी पत्रकारिता ने कितने मठों को लगभग उजाड़ बना दिया है। कई ऐसे सर्वे आ चुके हैं जो बताते हैं कि हिन्दी पत्रकारिता पर एक खास जाति के लोगों का कब्जा है, या तो संपादकों की तूती बोलती है, या फिर मालिकों की। सिफारिशों पर, भाई-भतीजावाद के आधार पर धड़ल्ले से पत्रकार बनाए जा रहे हैं। नौकरियां बांटी जा रही है, ऐसे में हाशिये के कई सवाल पत्रकारिता से गायब कर दिये जाते रहे। खासकर दलित-पिछड़ों, महिलाओं और मुसलमानों के बारे में खबर करते हुए एक खास तरह का पूर्वाग्रह दिखता रहा है। यही वजह है कि आरक्षण जैसे संवेदनशील मुद्दों पर हिन्दी पत्रकारिता बेहद पक्षपाती रिपोर्टिंग करता रहा है, इसी तरह बाबरी विंध्वस के वक्त भी हिन्दी पत्रकारिता के पूर्वाग्रह सामने आए।

लेकिन आज उन मीडिया हाउस पर विश्वसनियता का संकट गहरा हो चला है। दलितों की जंतर-मंतर पर रैली होती है, उसमें जनसैलाब उमड़ता है, फिर भी हिन्दी के संपादक उसे अपने यहां जगह नहीं देते। लेकिन वही रैली फेसबुक के माध्यम से लाखों लोगों तक पहुंचने का सामर्थ्य रखती है। यह हिन्दी पत्रकारिता का जनतंत्रीकरण है। आज सब कुछ पब्लिक स्फियर में है। लोग अपनी भाषा में खबर लिख रहे हैं, उन्हें अपनी खबर छपवाने के लिये किसी खास जाति से नहीं होना पड़ता, या किसी खास वर्ग और खास तरीके की चीज़ें नहीं करनी पड़ती। मुझे कई ऐसे पत्रकार मिलते हैं जो सिर्फ फेसबुक पर लिख रहे हैं, वे अपनी रोजी-रोटी के लिये कोई और काम करते हुए भी अपने भीतर की पत्रकारिता को ज़िन्दा बचा पा रहे हैं।

कई ऐसे लोग हैं जो सिर्फ फेसबुक पर और हिन्दी में पत्रकारिता करने की वजह से पैसा भी कमा रहे हैं, बाज़ार ने हिन्दी को इंटरनेट पर विशेष महत्व दिया है, 60 प्रतिशत से ज्यादा लोग इंटरनेट पर अपनी क्षेत्रीय भाषा में लिख-पढ़ रहे हैं। खबरों को जानने के लिये आज किसी अखबार या टीवी का मोहताज नहीं रहना पड़ रहा है। लोग सोशल मीडिया पर अपनी भाषा में खबर लिख-पढ़-देख रहे हैं। आज बस्तर से कोई लाइव कर रहा है, कोई राजस्थान में हुई घटना पर प्रतिक्रिया दे रहा है, मीडिया के ओवी वैन धीरे-धीरे अप्रसांगिक हो रही हैं।

याद कीजिए रोहित वेमुला की आत्महत्या को। यह सोशल मीडिया ही थी जिसने इस घटना को राष्ट्रीय बना दिया और जब मैं राष्ट्रीय कह रहा हूं तो इसका मतलब है गांव-गांव में हिन्दी में सोशल मीडिया का इस्तेमाल करने वाला वर्ग, न कि सिर्फ वे टीवी चैनल जो दिल्ली की किसी गली की खबर को भी राष्ट्रीय बनाकर पेश करते हैं।

सोशल मीडिया पर चल रही पत्रकारिता का ही नतीजा है कि ऊना में हुए दलितों पर जुल्म के बाद के गुस्से को पूरे देश में फैला दिया जा रहा है। जब तेजबहादुर यादव सेना के भोजन की खराब हालत पर विडियो पोस्ट करता है तो वो भी हिन्दी पत्रकारिता ही कर रहा होता है और यह पत्रकारिता ज्यादा जनसरोकारी है। जनता के करीब है न कि किसी पूंजी और पार्टी का एजेंडा।

हिन्दी पत्रकारिता आज इतने सालों बाद अपने सचमुच के स्वर्ण काल में है और इसका क्रेडिट सोशल मीडिया और इन्टरनेट को जाता है। उस स्मार्टफोन को जाता है जो वहां पहुंचता है जहां चैनलों के कैमरे नहीं पहुंच पा रहे हैं और भोपाल में हुए फर्जी इनकाउंटर को भी एक्सपोज़ करता है।

हिन्दी पत्रकारिता जनता के हाथ में है। उनके द्वारा संचालित किया जा रहा है। हज़ारों-लाखों लोग पहली बार अपनी बात कह पा रहे हैं, अपनी खबर दुनिया तक पहुंचा पा रहे हैं। लेकिन इसके कुछ खतरे भी हैं, जिन्हें दर्ज किया जाना जरुरी है। व्हॉट्स एप, फेसबुक जैसे सोशल मीडिया आज फर्जी खबरों का डस्टबीन भी बन गया है। ये खबरें लोगों को उकसा रही हैं, भीड़ को हत्यारा बना रही हैं, कोई फिल्टर नहीं है जहां से इन खबरों को रोका जा सके। एक सभ्य समाज के बतौर हमें सोशल मीडिया के हिंसक भीड़तंत्र वाली पत्रकारिता से भी बचना होगा। उसके खतरे से अपने आसपास लोगों को आगाह करना होगा, फर्जी, अफवाह फैलाने वाली खबरों को रोकना होगा। एक समाज के रूप में हमारी यह परीक्षा का भी समय है। टीवी चैनलों ने हिन्दी पत्रकारिता में हिंसा और डर के जो बीज बोए थे, उसकी फसल सोशल मीडिया पर भी लहराने लगी है। इसपर लगाम लगाना ज़रुरी है।

नहीं तो एक बेहतरीन उम्मीद अंधेरे में बदलती चली जाएगी। सोशल मीडिया मुख्यधारा की मीडिया बन चुकी है, अब इसका किस ज़िम्मेदारी से हम इस्तेमाल करते हैं तय हमें ही करना है। आप सबको हिन्दी पत्रकारिता दिवस की शुभकामनाएं। अपने अंदर के पत्रकार को ज़िन्दा रखिए, सतर्क रखिए और खूब लिखिए..

हर सही के पक्ष में रिपोर्टर बनने की क्षमता हम सबमें बराबर है। पत्रकारिता कोई जन्मजात प्रतिभा नहीं।

The post सोशल मीडिया के दौर में हिंदी पत्रकारिता का बदलता स्वरुप appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz, an award-winning online platform that serves as the hub of thoughtful opinions and reportage on the world's most pressing issues, as witnessed by the current generation. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to find out more.

“ये इंटर्नशिप नहीं आसान इतना समझ लीजिए ट्रांसलेशन का दरिया है टाइपिंग कर के जाना है।”

आज हिंदी पत्रकारिता दिवस है और हम आज केवल पत्रकारों या पत्रकारिता की बात कर रहे हैं लेकिन हम भूल रहे हैं कि इसी जमात का एक हिस्सा है ‘इंटर्न’। इनकी बात आज तक ना लिखी गयी और ना सुनी गई, ये बस ऑफिस के अंदर तक ही रही। ये जमात धीरे-धीरे बढ़ती जा रही है, आज इंटर्न वो गुलाम हैं जो वक़्त पर आते हैं और वक़्त के बाद जाते हैं। इनको पैसे तो दूर की बात कई बार इज्ज़त तक सही से नहीं मिलती है। आज इनकी संख्या इतनी है की आप इंटर्न के लिए नया चैनल लॉन्च कर सकते हैं।

आज हम पत्रकारिता नहीं कर रहे हैं, बिना बोले बस कीबोर्ड की गुलामी कर रहे हैं। जैसे ही आप पत्रकार बनने का सफर शुरू करते हैं, पहला सवाल यही होता है कि आपको कीबोर्ड की गुलामी आती है या नहीं। यानि हिंदी टाइपिंग आती है या नहीं। अगर आप कीबोर्ड के गुलाम नहीं तो आप पत्रकार नहीं। जितनी तेज़ टाइपिंग उतने तेज़ पत्रकार। आप सोचते होंगे ये ज्ञान वाली जो पत्रकारिता है वो कहां से आयी, अगर आप ऐसा सोच रहे तब ये आपकी गलती नहीं, आप बच्चे को सिर्फ बड़ा देख रहे हैं, भूल रहे है उसका बचपन, यानि एक “इंटर्न” की ज़िंदगी। इंटर्नशिप हर पत्रकार का बचपन होता है।

अब बात इंटर्न की ज़िंदगी की करें तो इंटर्न वो गुलाम है जो खुशी-खुशी गुलामी करता है, वो रोज़ इतनी टाइपिंग करता है कीबोर्ड भी बोल पड़ता है कि, “भाई इंटर्न हो क्या?” वो केवल कीबोर्ड से ही रोज़ बात नहीं करता, वो रोज़ खूब सारी साइट्स से भी बात करता है, देखता है कि किसको ट्रांसलेट करना है। ट्रांसलेशन इंटर्न का दूसरा धर्म है और ऐसा कैसे हो सकता है कि उसे धर्म ना आए? अगर इस धर्म के पालन में आपसे चूक होगी तो आप इंटर्न बनने के लायक नहीं। आप कितना भी बोल लो हम हिंदी जर्नलिज्म करके आए हैं, तो क्या हुआ क्या तुम इंटर्न का धर्म नहीं निभाओगे। इंटर्न की ज़िंदगी यहीं नहीं रूकती उसको सब आना चाहिए जो शयद वहां पर किसी को न आता हो।

आज देश में दो विषयों के लिए पढ़ाई की जगह की कमी नहीं है, एक बी.टेक और दूसरी पत्रकारिता। आपको गली-गली में इंस्टिट्यूट मिल जाएंगे। अब तो चैनल भी अपने इंस्टिट्यूट खोल कर बैठ गए हैं। अब सोचो इतने बच्चे पास होकर कहा जाएंगे? कौन देगा इन्हे नौकरी? नौकरी तो बाद की बात है इनको इंटर्नशिप भी कौन देगा?

हर चैनल सच दिखाने का दावा करता है, लेकिन वो अपने इस सच से भागता है। एक इंटर्न की व्यथा हर पत्रकार जानता है, लेकिन वो इसे बोलना नहीं चाहता। जो चैनल हर चीज़ में आगे हैं वो भी इस बात में पीछे दिखते हैं। जो तेज़ हैं उनकी इसमें कोई रफ़्तार नहीं दिखती। यहां तक कि सबसे अलग दिखने वाले चैनल भी इस पर कुछ अलग नहीं दिखते।

The post ये इंटर्नशिप नहीं आसान, ट्रांसलेशन का दरिया है और टाइप करके जाना है appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz, an award-winning online platform that serves as the hub of thoughtful opinions and reportage on the world's most pressing issues, as witnessed by the current generation. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to find out more.

To say Arnab is ‘controversial’ is like saying that water is wet. However, after having embarked on his new venture, ‘Republic TV’, the firebrand news anchor seems to have more freedom to indulge his politically opportunistic and sycophantic side. Following the Centre’s ban on the sale of cattle for slaughter (popularly reported as a ‘beef ban’), Arnab has… opinions. The ban has met widespread criticism (even though several high courts have upheld it), with commenters calling it a further attack on the secular nature of India, an attempt to uphold Brahminical supremacy as a governing principle, and an attack on Muslim minorities and workers who subsist on the sale of cattle. There have also been protests in the form of beef eating festivals and open cow slaughter.

Whether the protests are in line with the actual government order is a debatable matter. Arnab, however, believes that there is nothing ‘secular’ about the eating of beef – that it is a violation of Hindu beliefs and deliberate provocation of Hindus – and therefore it has no place in a ‘secular’ country, especially as a form of protest.

This, however, is in stark and hilarious contrast to the Arnab of the Times Now/Newshour era, who made some rather sound points following the Maharashtra beef ban. He called into question the very idea of banning a particular food source for an entire nation, based on the religious customs of a particular community. The video above, made by Gaurav Pandhi, a member of Congress’ Digital Communication Team, juxtaposes these two very different faces of Arnab to show what happens when Arnab’s own silencing tactics in arguments, and flip-flopping beliefs, are turned against him. What emerges is a very interesting picture of a man caught between personal beliefs and political opportunism.      

The post Watch: Arnab Goswami’s Complete U-Turn On The Beef Ban Is What Hypocrisy Looks Like appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz, an award-winning online platform that serves as the hub of thoughtful opinions and reportage on the world's most pressing issues, as witnessed by the current generation. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to find out more.

Shri Ram Gohri ji is a retired art teacher. Although he never really retired. Even after almost five decades of teaching art, he continues to mould young minds, helping them connect with their inner self. Most people know him from St Thomas School, Mandir Marg, Delhi. He still handles the paper recycling plant at the school that he set up and maintained in the first place. He is a very soft-spoken, humble person who might be a man of few words but his real worth can be seen in his art and the art of all those he has inspired. Here is his interview:

Ashish: What is the story behind you becoming an artist?

Shri Ram Gohri (SRG): From childhood, I was very interested in art. I belong to a goldsmith’s family. I used to design leaves and flowers as designs. My father used to inspire me to draw as much as possible. I am from Rajasthan. Since my childhood, I used to see the villages create ‘mandanas’, which involved decorating their houses, platforms, and walls. I used to observe. Therefore, art came naturally to me. These were the two things that inspired me to design and draw.

Ashish: What inspires you to put your energy into art?

SRG: I want to create new things using new mediums. I have already created so many works. There are so many new mediums and techniques. I like to incorporate them into my art.

Ashish: What materials do you use in your paintings?

SRG: I use the paper pulp and recycled paper, that I usually create myself.

Ashish: How have you evolved as an artist? How would you describe your journey so far?

SRG: My art has evolved since I was in JJ School of Art. I used to create portraits – life studies with oils. We used to paint compositions on canvas. With time, my expression has kept on changing. My preference of colours and materials keeps on changing.

Ashish: Who is/are your favourite artist(s)? And why?

SRG: Salvador Dali, Van Gogh. But Picasso is my favourite. He inspires me the most.

Ashish: As an artist, what do you think needs to be done in order to reach out to more people?

SRG: We have to reach out to the public, explain things to them. A common person does not know about museums. More awareness has to be created among the masses. Our traditional art is wonderful. Every state has their arts and crafts, which are easier for the public to understand.

Ashish: What differences do you find in the audience of India and abroad?

SRG: Lots of differences. In India, we do not have so much awareness. So many parents abroad bring their children to museums and they will explain things to them. Children start to understand as well. There is so much more awareness. In India, even mature people do not have awareness. Only the professionals like artists understand art.

Ashish: Is art limited to some classes in India? If so, what are the reasons behind it?

SRG: Yes. It is limited to those people who are in this profession – artists and art galleries. A special type of group but not for the layman. Now even art critics are limited. No regular space is given to reviews as such.

Ashish: How do you see the economics of art in India?

SRG: It all depends on art galleries. Artists make paintings. There is no proper system in place for selling. Not everybody can afford to do solo shows.

The post Art Came Naturally To Me: A Retired Art Teacher Opens Up appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz, an award-winning online platform that serves as the hub of thoughtful opinions and reportage on the world's most pressing issues, as witnessed by the current generation. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to find out more.