Thursday
Saturday
Its time to really examine the city!
We can see the impacts if of own created idea of governance system whether its a democratic model or a communist. What I can really see is the impact of its thought on the daily lives. A humble sociologist once said that State and market has to go hand in hand. I like to cozily take my stand on the ideal theory of order!. In 1980's when India opened the markets it knew it could not create an economic setup to all the people of India. So it encouraged the market. While State has an obligation to have an agenda for social welfare, markets do not have. Both create jobs. In late 1990's, the shift was visible on the dominance of market in creating jobs.
State itself saw a profitable venture to encourage Market to grow the way it wants. This is also because of vested interests of politicians. So there existed a Win-Win situation for both State and Market. Both followed the theory of Profit and expansion for more job creation. The impacts of these ideas are clearly expressed in the form of a great chain reaction in cities. Cities are the epicenters of jobs. They will continue to attract the people. They will accommodate displaced families and disconnected cultures as they have always been doing.
It is easy to see this phenomena in a rapidly growing city like Bangalore. We can see an increasing number of new young individuals who's initial desires is not more than economic stability, gadgets, entertainment. They don't have a cultural setup (a system of family where ideas of life can be built and nourished upon). They are happy with few materialistic achievements. This is where the capitalistic model of attracting the displaced succeeds in its vision. The people in cities will aspire more materialistic components of life. When the need of a deeper cultural aspiration arise may be after they have kids or so, they will look out for more meaningful lives again here the modern spiritual setups have become commodities to people as they are used to the commodity setup!
Coming back to State and Market. Because of free hand of Market and alarmingly no Social Agenda, Indian cities in future will be an expression of container of people of disconnected culture and self initiated superficial micro social facilities (including religious and cultural centers of a locality) which run commercially by people with knowledge and ideas.
Will the state ever wake up?
Will markets ever slow down so that people see life?
State itself saw a profitable venture to encourage Market to grow the way it wants. This is also because of vested interests of politicians. So there existed a Win-Win situation for both State and Market. Both followed the theory of Profit and expansion for more job creation. The impacts of these ideas are clearly expressed in the form of a great chain reaction in cities. Cities are the epicenters of jobs. They will continue to attract the people. They will accommodate displaced families and disconnected cultures as they have always been doing.
It is easy to see this phenomena in a rapidly growing city like Bangalore. We can see an increasing number of new young individuals who's initial desires is not more than economic stability, gadgets, entertainment. They don't have a cultural setup (a system of family where ideas of life can be built and nourished upon). They are happy with few materialistic achievements. This is where the capitalistic model of attracting the displaced succeeds in its vision. The people in cities will aspire more materialistic components of life. When the need of a deeper cultural aspiration arise may be after they have kids or so, they will look out for more meaningful lives again here the modern spiritual setups have become commodities to people as they are used to the commodity setup!
Coming back to State and Market. Because of free hand of Market and alarmingly no Social Agenda, Indian cities in future will be an expression of container of people of disconnected culture and self initiated superficial micro social facilities (including religious and cultural centers of a locality) which run commercially by people with knowledge and ideas.
Will the state ever wake up?
Will markets ever slow down so that people see life?
Wednesday
Ask a question, get an answer, save your crops
Aaqua
Today I attended Prof Krithi Ramamritham's talk on the making of "AAQUA" - "Almost all questions answered". I was impressed by the intervention as the area is very hard to work. I observed the possibilities, potentials and problems of social networking system and its community service dreams. He showed pictures of his group repairing antennas, using loud speakers to promote, setting up computer systems in rural setup, teaching them, problems of connectivity, their really robust solutions and so on.
The whole project was successful in bringing farmer community to seek information. There are about a 6 lakh page hits and 3800 registered users cutting across half of districts of India.
Farmers can ask questions and they receive answers within a day to their queries. They have also started trading animals on the web! which is a cool unusual use of the system.
Farmer community is seen as a user of crop related information and largely on the interaction of Question and answers style. What struck me was what is the difference between community service website and social networking? How should one conceive this scene? Because... India has a large number of community service websites -
This good for work stage as described in the book- Designing Interactions by Bill Moggridge.
Enthusiastic stage
Work Stage
Consumer Stage
Well few things are patching up!
Tuesday
Violent city
Walking across a crowded market, traveling across city centers, searching for the right shop, buying the right things, meeting the right people, are few things which we cant avoid. It consumes a large amount of energy and puts you in an insane situation as you loose yourself and your sense in just getting these things right. City travelers should be treated like patients of mental disorders. They come back to sanity after an hour of good rest in a peaceful place. The main problem is obviously a matter of space. Crowded physically and mentally, once cannot listen to personal cries and act humanely. It is just not possible to take humanistic decisions and connections in a place which expresses crowd and suffocation. Like a child which cries if it does not get its space, so does a person's behavior largely alters due to context. I know its obvious but how do we take care of oneself in the crowded city?
I was reading an interview column of Antony Giddens a sociologist. He made an interesting remark on two inevitable things of future - Market and state!. He says, both should go hand in hand. A British can think like that in the age of globalization and multiculturalism, as he has fewer people in his country. What about India where there is a problem of "Crowd" and it itself is a a social expression.
People do many interesting things to tackle crowd! to find personal space and balance their energies.
They look out for lonely corners if they are alone
They get involved with a group
They prefer personal transport
They look out for next logical destination
They sleep in public transport
They get a quick grab - A fruit or a juice
They converse over the phone
I was reading an interview column of Antony Giddens a sociologist. He made an interesting remark on two inevitable things of future - Market and state!. He says, both should go hand in hand. A British can think like that in the age of globalization and multiculturalism, as he has fewer people in his country. What about India where there is a problem of "Crowd" and it itself is a a social expression.
People do many interesting things to tackle crowd! to find personal space and balance their energies.
They look out for lonely corners if they are alone
They get involved with a group
They prefer personal transport
They look out for next logical destination
They sleep in public transport
They get a quick grab - A fruit or a juice
They converse over the phone
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