Place to Breathe

I have spent my entire life in IIT Campuses, born in IIT Bombay, brought up in IIT Delhi, graduated from IIT Hyderabad. Not until my adolescence, I realized that the walls around the big 'state of the art' campuses become stiffening. However out there in the city; there are very few places which I find comfortable as a student, and now a graduate (Basically because I have a budget constraint, and I don't like hopping from one cafe' to another). So what does a person like me expect from a city? A place where I can find cheap but good food, free wi-fi, social networking with like minded people (offline, and trust me it is embarrassing to follow a stereotype engineer's idea of social networking), and a couple of cultural events taking place every week.

La Makaan, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad

Even though I never visited this place regularly, due to the remoteness of my campus; every time I was here was a different and new experience for me. Over these brief visits, I came across other entrepreneurs, students from the university, theater artists, photographers, film makers, people who run NGOs, event organizers or just another person who thinks as differently as perhaps you do. The best part; you just bump into them, that's the culture. LaMakaan is an open cultural space; where events like film screenings, recitals, music shows etc. keep taking place every other day; and all at a reasonable price to both the audience and the organizers. There is a Cafe' attached to it as well which serves cheap food and beverages, where I remember drinking cups after  cups of Coffee. Oh yeah! there is free wi-fi also.

Kunzum Cafe, Hauz Khas Village, Delhi

I happened to discover this place, when I asked one of my friends for a LaMakaan in Delhi. Apparently my mind doesn't function well and constructively when I am at home lying on my bed; and can't resist myself from Youtubing, or facebooking, or thinking about crap memories which are still fresh. Even though Kunzum is a Travel Cafe where travel freaks get together and share their experiences, and there are loads of travel journals and books on their shelves; I think I may still find like minded people to interact or work with. And well, travel does lie in my like-minded category. Once again free wi-fi; and good riddance from slow IIT internet to the residential area. Their marketing concept is something I really appreciate: 'pay what you like'; which means I can pay whatever I am comfortable with for amazing espresso and cookies, while the foreigners who visit Delhi may be a lot more courteous. :D

Best part: Ambiance with cushions, Travel Photographs, and Andy McKee hits; Can lie their all day long.

I am new to this place; so can't add much.

'The Corridors' - philosophy

Most of you, who know me; know this as well that I always wanted to write a novel, on the desires of a boy who has been through a journey of graduation. Yes, I know there are Chetan Bhagats and Amitabh Bhagchis who have done so already; but I wanted to approach this from a very different angle. It's about how I lessen the obsession with the protagonist's college; and focus on something bigger. It's about how I can focus upon a network across the city, and how I can spin different fields, different virtues, and different mindsets together. To achieve this goal of mine; I press upon the following aspects which would play an important role in shaping my novel: Philosophy, Place and Culture, Protagonist's mindset, Element of life.

Philosophy - The Corridors
It's a way in which I perceive life. It's an analogy that I derived from my school days. I see life as a journey across the corridors of a school; with doors leading to classrooms on either side. But there is a glitch here; for I wouldn't truly know of the nature of the class, before stepping in and I would just be building assumptions based on what I have heard. The truth is that experiences in each of these classrooms may develop to become the most cherished memories of my life; or on the contrary, the most regrettable. However, if I were to look for the secret of honor; I would take a step into those classrooms and never quit before my time is done, and desires are accomplished or if I am forsaken by my own subjects of belief. There will always be a courageous thought though; that the corridor never ends and that my journey will always have something to teach me at the porch of every door I take. 

Hyderabad in a nut shell (My perception)

I guess in 3 years even though I may be living 20 kms outside Hyderabad, I am justified in developing a perception of Hyderabad. Well! so Hyderabad? The truth is that you can't perceive this crazy city. It's a city stuck between cultures and times, stuck between a typical conservative south indian society and the developing cosmopolitan culture (owing to the increasing industrialization and globalization). On one hand you have streets of Nalagonda where school students are still being groomed by their parents to succumb to the unforgiving preparation for engineering entrance examinations (where interacting with a person of opposite sex is considered to be derogatory); and on the other hand you have high-tech city, jubilee hills, and banjara hills which take me back down my memory lane to New Delhi. I believe what I am witnessing is a transition from a reserved and conservative society to one which is growing on Hard rock cafe and International concerts such as Jethro Tull and Bryan Adams (been hosted recently).

P.S.: My facts and figures are quite unclear about the above scenario, but I guess it's going to be an interesting topic for my next media article. Hope I manage to finish it, without failing in academics any more.

Briefly with the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage

Along similar lines of Arts Management, NGOs like Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) have taken awareness, education and conservation of Indian arts and cultural heritage miles ahead. Taking care of four main domains, Architecture Heritage, Art Heritage, Natural Heritage and Intangible Heritage; INTACH has more than 150 chapters across India. INTACH also deals with the documentation of each and every detailed aspect of the Indian heritage through its chapters and has been successful in preserving several endangered languages, traditions, literature and history throughout the country. These are then revived and exposed to the society of that region through various means such as insistence on incorporating these languages in the primary education system and usage of local script of the area. The documentation also offers means to the universities to research upon these traditions for their various art courses. INTACH has also developed short term internship and research programs with universities and colleges. It also encourages schools across the country to organize heritage clubs and host workshops. Tourism circles of INTACH not only convey the facts about a tourist site, but also revive the culture and living heritage of the site. The funding for all programs by INTACH is facilitated by the MHRD, zonal cultural centres, various cultural foundations and trusts and corporate (However corporate collaborations are avoided as far as possible).

Briefly with the India Foundation of Arts

With a vision of enriching the practice, knowledge, and public access to the arts and its experience, the India Foundation of the Arts is playing a pivotal role in providing the strategic support for innovative projects and capacity building across the arts. Through its grants to the individuals and organizations, IFA fills up gaps in private and public assistance for culture and arts in India. By providing awards, fellowships and workshops to school teachers IFA strengthens the study of arts in the education system; and through Arts Research and Documentation it supports documentation and archival initiatives in arts (necessary for revival and evolution of arts and culture over time) which were perceived to be at a lower priority at the universities. Under arts education IFA jointly with Goethe-Institute/Max Mueller Bhavan has initiated a program ‘Kali Kalisu’, which envisions a series of arts capacity building workshops for school teachers in the state of Karnataka. Having employees from various backgrounds such as cultural studies and management, IFA supports activities such as art education, art research and documentation curatorial practices, performance infrastructure and new performance through its grant programs and publishes art journals to promote the arts and reach out to the public.

The Truth

Reworked theosophical symbol
There is no religion higher than Truth

A Need For Conventionality (as per my research essay)

“We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute; we read and write poetry because we are members of the human race and the human race is filled with passion. Medicine, law, business, engineering; these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love; these are what we stay alive for” words from the Dead Poets Society. Indeed there are two parts to the human brain; the rational and the irrational, which is the artist. As we know our society runs on rationality; perhaps to an extent that it doesn’t give enough room for the counterpart to develop. But isn’t it still important to promote all that makes us feel human; to feel what we are living for? But how is this possible when the stream of Arts isn’t as industrialized as it should have been, when the employment facilities are not as wide as they could have been.

Even though career prospects have increased over the years; students at +2 school level are still dissuaded from opting Arts as it is still seen non-conventional by the society. This observation is backed by the fact showing more boys in Science stream and more girls in Arts. The social perspective towards Arts and Humanities affects the standards of colleges at under-graduate and post-graduate level as well, with very few Colleges/Universities across India that maintain relatively good standards. However in general, the central universities are considered much better of than the state universities since they are directly affiliated with the HRD Ministry and Ministry of Culture. Due to relative independence central universities are seen to be more successful in producing artists with critical thinking.

Employment facilities are more dependent on the market situations. The funds mainly pour in from the Cultural Ministry, Arts and Cultural Organizations, and Corporate; which suggests that whenever there is a market boom, corporate has surplus money to spend on Art functions, Art galleries and promotion of Art and Culture across India. During this period, more designers and artists are recruited by the multinational companies for the aesthetics in their infrastructure. In today’s world of Information technology freelance opportunities are widely available on web, through which cross country services are available too. However these networks can be organized much better, making them more user friendly. In competition to the electronic media performing arts such as theatre has reached a standstill with very few professionals in the field. Lack of good theatres for performing arts and non-ticketing of shows has affected theatre culture adversely and has resulted in scarcity of quality audience and quality performance.

Industrialization of the streams such as Arts and Humanities can solve the problems of employment in the same. Just like any other industry it also requires managers and entrepreneurs adept at arts management, where they are familiar with the aspects of arts alongside the market available for it. Arts management is the brokership between the needs of arts and the required audience for it. It deals with creating market opportunities for the artists across the country to interact with their audience though their works.

For example ‘Evam’ a Chennai based theatre arts group comprises of theatre artists as well as MBA post graduates who are marketing their shows by pricing them along with their brand promotion. Similarly websites like Myntra.com gives the users an opportunity to design their own merchandise personally or use an existing design from Myntra’s large database. The website has around 12,000 designs posted by thousands of designers who receive 10% of the revenue on each sale of their design. Hence the website is gaining attention from the designers looking for a platform to exhibit their work.

As the times change and so do the career avenues, and it seems necessary for India to have a standardized and well organized system for arts and cultural activities with enough scope for the youth today to seek employment or freelance opportunities. Arts management being an important aspect for it and focus should be laid on creating a market for various art activities. Introduction of various workshops at primary and secondary school to enhance the artistic skills of the students can accelerate the process of developing a wide range of skilled talent. Arts management however, should seek to create a competitive industry for arts and cultural innovation and free practice rather than an industry just for art application. Thus, it shall be necessary for good and educated art manager to market arts innovatively without allowing the market rationality to affect the creativity of the artists.