Sunday, February 26, 2006

MICAVAANI-insights

okay.... so this is going to be about my latest (mis)adventure...about going to the adjoining villages of Shela and Ghuma for MICAVAANI-the community radio station of MICA..recently i quit the progaramming team and joined the marketing team..and from then on began the roller -coaster ride...
It began with going to the villages to spread awareness about MICAVAANI...so me and bhatta climed aboard the indespensible chakda..on the evening of a weekly rest day(a phenomenon that happens once a fortnight)..for an expedition into our rustic environs..in the spirit of knowing our surroundings better..but we had no idea about was was on our way..
Ghuma by the looks of it seems to be like any other north Indian village,and it indeed is..but to our surprise most of the houses we visited had a colour TV,the first guy we met drove a Maruti Van to fetch school children to and from a school in Bopal..and whoa..sent his only son to a school which charged Rs.40,000 per annum.(okie...)

Then as we moved on we met all kinds of people,some seemed to be interested,many shied away,and with a few we had quite insightful discussions..like they very clearly stated that the main problem facing them is the lack of ambition in their children,that they do not study and engage themselves in some kind of business or work to earn(perhaps that is where the legendary enrepreneurial drive of Gujratis can be traced to)..anyway,so the main issue that they brought on being asked was that of lack of Education or rather the lack of motivation to study further...maybe this can be traced to the sense of complcency that could be discerned by their behavior..so we got an insight for the programming team-Conceive a program on sucessful people from within their community(Gujrat) or elsewhere which tells sucess stories of people who educated themselves and hence became famous.
And perhaps we learnt a lesson for ourselves from that innocuous trip...more on it later.

Sunday, February 05, 2006

something stupid.....

There is something really goofy about all these Gujju's ,they intrigue me with their characteristics which you find in in one and all.The whole city of Ahemedabad goes to eat out on weekends...i mean belonging to Maaru-land for me its quite a phenomenon.On the Sarkhej-Gandhinagar highway which is not even proper Ahmedabad one would find restaurants teeming with hundreds of people and this is not the story about a few good restaurants. Big ,small,posh,sasta,eaterie,coffee-shop all these and the likes would have the same story to tell.There is something about these Ahmedabadi's that they would not even spare the cultural fest of IIM Ahmedabad.I had attended the Indian Ocean and NiladriKumar concert there last weekend...and guess what stole the show...yesss..the eating stalls which were set-up.As the majority of the audience were the local people who following their weekly ritual of outing had come to try IIMA out.And boy they thronged at the Pav-Bhaji,South-Indian,Tandoori,Cake Shop...and the new fad of Boiled corn stalls.

It is also interesting to note how they dress up and come for a fusion/whatever concert.many of them seemed to come straight from their sister's wedding,others were ready to go to a rave party,still others had come in their night suits as isf they don't give a damn about some fusion band performance....others were headbanging on Hille le.....

But the bhais and bens of Gujjuland cannot do without eating out on weekends...and they go with full family ,full makeup and full enthu.....