Writing about travel, culture, geek stuff, and more!
Search for 'Voltaire' on my blog. Go on. It will now show up in three posts. I really must stop quoting him. Well, not him exactly. The quote which actually comes from The Friends of Voltaire (1906), written by Evelyn Beatrice Hall under the pseudonym S.G. Tallentyre is so apt, how can I not use … Continue reading The Freedom Express
Many years ago, the mailboxes of a television network crashed. Newspapers were writing of the tragedy of someone's death. People were in tears. Why? Because a character on a television soap died (eventually the makers of the series had to bring the character 'back to life' under immense public pressure). The power of television in … Continue reading Soaps of our Indian lives
Note: I've included this post in "Journalism, Globalization and Development" because I felt it related to the question raised in the presentation I did last week on whether social media has led to any changes in journalism or not. While I've focused on India till now as the subject for my JNL6027 posts, this time … Continue reading Twitter, Dubai and Journalism
As is my wont to ask random questions, I once put forth this query to someone I knew: "What is your take on honour killings? He replied: "I think it's acceptable under some circumstances." I was - and still am - aghast that an educated person could think that a ritual as barbaric as honour … Continue reading Honour (?) in the modern world
Every morning, I'm on my Chrome 4.1 browser checking my many email accounts (of which I have 7. Or 8. I can never remember), looking at my Twitter feed on Seesmic and Skype-ing away simultaneously. All this before my breakfast, mind you. Yet some people haven't even seen a computer, forget knowing what a 'trending … Continue reading Bridging the Digital Divide
July 2003: I was 16 and for the most part, ungainly and awkward. I had volunteered to assist the school librarian during the summer vacation to re-organize stacks of books in the library. My trade-off was getting books to read. One day, I took a shortcut on my walk home which meant passing through a … Continue reading Of Pink Pants and Eve-Teasing
If my family had been uneducated, entrenched in the patriarchal ways of thinking and steeped in the mire of traditionalist thoughts, the possibility of me not seeing the light of day would have been very high. Why? Because I am female. The sex ratio in India stands at 933:1000 (i.e. for every 1000 male births, … Continue reading Female Foeticide in India
In the JNL6027 class, we were shown this interesting piece titled How to Write about Africa which highlighted the clichés writers and journalists use when expanding on the 'dark continent' (see, I did it too!). It struck me that even India (the country I'll be focusing on in my blog for this module) has its … Continue reading How to Write about India
Stereotypes exist everywhere. Be it in your mind, in the media or in how you're served over a counter. Linked to the concept of stereotypes is the 'single story' - Chimamanda Adichie, in her TED talk, speaks about the danger of a single story, whereby hearing only one story about a particular place or person … Continue reading Crossing Borders
