A few weeks back, I attended a talk by P. Sainath on his plans for a 'Rural archive of India'.
His idea is to have an archive of digital content like videos and pictures and have them accessible in a wiki style website. Ofcourse, he would be the editor and quality czar but anybody would be able to contribute.
He showed some photos and videos on his travels to the parts of India that most people brought up in towns cannot even comprehend. Most of the material was about 'people at work'. A potter from West Bengal, a martial art instructor in Kerala, a dance form in U.P, pictures of farmers in Vidharbha.
Here are my thoughts from the talk:
What is the practicality of these artifacts?
How do these people at work derive meaning from life? - Some of them are clearly just trying to survive but some had passion.
Most people do what they do because they don't have a choice - Like the potter who said that if his kid doesn't do well at school, he would become a potter too.
What can we do about it?
Quality of life - Does the struggle of life bring out a certain character in people?
When people in the city think about villages, there is a romanticism about it. However, the truth is that village life is full of hardships and most villagers would want to migrate to cities to live a 'better' life. At-least it is one up on the Maslow's hierarchy where your physical needs are taken care of.
If say a tribe of a unique profession give up their unique work and move to the city and eventually climbs the ladder of opportunity in a more mainstream business, should we feel bad that the their uniqueness is lost Or should we celebrate their success?
What are some perpectives on life that you gained as you travelled into the heartlands?
Should add this book to my reading list where perhaps I will get some answers:
Everybody loves a good drought.
No comments:
Post a Comment