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| Sikkim Express. 14.3.24 |
Tuesday 16 April 2024
Sunday 14 April 2024
Window Seat. Weekly Column in English, 14.4.24
Window Seat | Mrinal Chatterjee | 14.4.24
Vote
India, the largest
democracy of the world is going to vote in the next two months. An estimated 970 million voters are eligible to cast their ballots to elect
543 politicians to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of parliament. Some states
including Odisha are also having assembly elections.
2024 is called the year of elections, as about 60
countries in the world are having elections this year. But India’s is the
grandest. Here are some numbers to underline the grand scale of election in
India: the US has 168 million registered voters, Indonesia 204 m. Russia had
114 million, Pakistan 128 and Bangladesh 119 million.
The voter participation in India is more vigorous
than many other copuntries including the US.
Election Commission in India (ECI) has embarked
on several programmes including the flagship ‘Systematic Voter’s
Education and Electoral Participation’ (SVEEP) for voter education, spreading
voter awareness and promoting voter literacy in India. SVEEP is
designed according to the socio-economic, cultural, and demographic profile of
the state as well as history of electoral participation in previous rounds of
elections. The Commission produces several voter awareness materials and
disseminates it various mediums/platforms of communication i.e Print Media,
Electronic Media, Social Media etc. Under this initiative, Pran’s Features
have published a comic book “Chacha Chaudhary aur Chunavi Dangal” of 62 pages
with Pran’s popular cartoon characters Chacha Chaudhary, Sabu, Raaka, Dhamaka
Singh and Billoo. The comic book has same action and adventure along with a
social message to vote. It contains ten episodic stories and a quiz covering a
wide range of topics on Voter awareness by the ECI. In New Voter Registration
story Chacha Chaudhary guides Billoo who has recently achieved his voting age
the process for voter registration. Chacha Chaudhary inspires everyone to be a
smart voter like him through various Apps developed by the ECI, such as Know
Your Candidate App, cVIGIL App, Voter Turnout App, PWD App and Candidate App.
Chacha Chaudhary and Bini motivates our women voters to come forward and vote
fearlessly. A comic story inspires Third Gender voter awareness campaign of
their equal rights in voting. Chacha Chaudhary explains to Sabu and Bini why
everyone should vote and each vote matters.
It is available online- free of cost. Check it out.
Chhena Poda
For the last few years Chhena Poda Day is
observed in Odisha on 11 April, which happens to be the birthday of master confectioner
Sudarshan Sahu of Dashapalla (Nayagarh) who first made it- accidentally in
1947. He had left sweet chenna on hot flame, got occupied and forgot about
his chenna for a few hours. When he came back, the chenna was charred on the
surface, but was granular underneath. He liked its taste. He developed the
dessert and gave us what we know as Chenna Poda today.
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Chhena Poda, for the uninitiated, is a
unique dessert which has a character of its own- framed by the burnt leave
aroma and granular taste. Chena Poda has to be made from fresh, home-made
Chhena (not commercially produced stuff), which is well-kneaded with sugar,
semolina and flavoured with cardamom, cashew nuts and raisins and is wrapped
with Sal leaves and baked over wood fire,
for several hours until it browns. A North Indian equivalent of it can
be the baked Kalakand sold as Milk Cake. Bengalis have tried to compete, with
Baked Sandesh, but nothing comes close to the sublime Chhenna Poda.
Compared to Rasagola or Rasogolla, chhena
poda is of recent origin, although paneer, it is claimed, existed since Vedic
times and there is evidence to indicate that it was known to the people of the
Indus Valley civilization.
A Ghost Story
The donkey went and destroyed the crops in a farmer's land. Infuriated, the farmer's wife shot the donkey and killed it.
The donkey's owner was devastated at the loss. In reply, he shot dead the farmer's wife.
Angered by his wife's death, the farmer took a sickle and killed the donkey's owner.
The wife of the donkey's owner got so angry that she and her sons set the farmer's house on fire.
The farmer, looking at his house turned into ashes, went ahead and killed both the wife and children of that donkey's owner.
Finally, when the farmer was full of regret, he asked the ghost as to why did it kill them all?
The ghost replied,
"I killed nobody. I just released a donkey that was tied to a rope. It is
all of you who released the devil within you which resulted into everything bad
that happened."
Morale of the
Story: Be aware of the possibility of the Ghost releasing donkey. And don’t
overtly react to every donkey.
(Courtesy: Social Media)
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Saturday 13 April 2024
Sunday 17 March 2024
Window Seat. Weekly Column in English. 17.3.24
Window Seat | Mrinal Chatterjee |
17.3.24
Popcorn
Brain
‘Popcorn Brain’ refers to a multitude
of kernel-like thoughts jostling about in one’s brain, rather than one or more
substantial concepts. Coined by researcher David Levy in 2011, it refers to a
person’s attention jumping from thought to thought like the kernels popping in
popcorn. A 2003 study by the University of California Irvine found the average
attention span was two minutes and 30 seconds. Recent studies have shed light
on Gen Z's shorter attention span, revealing significant implications for every
industry. Research conducted by Microsoft in 2015 found that the average
attention span of Gen Z individuals was only about eight seconds, four seconds
less than that of millennials.
We are inundated
with a deluge of information, comprising both meaningful data and trivial
details. This flood of content overwhelms our brains, diminishing their ability
to discern what truly holds significance. With our mental landscape crowded by
a constant barrage of information, there's little room left for the cultivation
of clear, cogent thoughts or opinions.
This is so
pervasive, that I
strongly suspect we are heading towards a popcorn brain pandemic.
Graphic Novel
I was writing an
essay on Graphic Novel on the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of the publication
of ‘A River of Stories’ considered to be the first Indian graphic novel. There
is a difference between Comic Book and Graphic Novel. Comic Books are serialized
stories, mostly short in length and the stories they contain can continue over
months and sometimes years. Graphic Novels on the other hand
tend to be much longer, and also usually have their story lines wrapped up in
one or two books. Graphic Novels are usually more
complex and layered.
Incidentally the
first graphic novelist of the world Will Wisner was born on this month- March, 107
years ago. His graphic novel ‘A Contract with God’ was published in 1978,
though it was not promoted as a graphic novel.
I first heard about graphic novel about six years ago from a fifteen year old boy, who was writing one himself. He named it Monster Park. That teenager Himanshu Parija, son of Neelima BN, Professor of Mass Communication at Tirupati based Padmavati Women University is 21 now, pursuing graduation in veterinary science, because he wants to treat sick wild animals. If ever I write a book on Graphic Novels in India, which I am planning to do- I’ll dedicate that book to him.
The Wise Owl
Our house is located
almost inside a forest. It borders a reserve forest on the back side. There are
a number of mango and jamun trees and bamboo groves across the boundary wall on
the front side.
The other night I found
an owl sitting on a bamboo grove in front of our house. We often meet. And
whenever we do, he hoots- and in its language, gives me some gyan.
That night he said
something, which I found printed on a banyan some days ago: may the forest be
with you.
When I retire (in two years) and shift from this place, adjacent to a reserve forest to Bhubaneswar, the only thing that I’ll definitely carry with me is this forest. It’ll remain with and within me for as long as I live.
AI Teacher
A school in Kerala
has introduced India's First Artificial Intelligence Teacher, Iris. The saree clad Caucasian, early thirty
looking female teacher, an Artificial Intelligence driven robot is claimed to
be able to answer complex questions of the students.
I can understand
the reasons behind introducing AI teacher at a state where there probably are
more teachers than students. There are two sets of reasons: one- pushing the
boundary of knowledge and technology; two- no salary, no pension, no lafda, no tension.
I am thinking of a
future scenario. In not a very distant future, in our schools the robo-teachers
will teach robo- students, while the human beings search for another planet to
live as the planet earth is increasingly becoming unlivable.
The present world is full of ironies.
Consider this: Recently AI powered robo teacher has been launched. So in near
future, robo teachers will teach robo students, while the human beings search
for another planet to live.
Human beings are now called Homo
Sapiens; ‘Sapiens’ mean wise men. The future human beings, as my friend J P
Jagdev says, “will be called Hobo Sapiens: intelligent and homeless.
Height of Marketing
Holi, being a festival of colours, it
used to be the occasion to wear dresses- sarees, salwar kameez, kurta- which were
old and soon to be discarded.
Not so anymore.
Specially designed sarees and Kurtas
to wear on Holi are being sold online and on brick and mortar shops. These
sarees and Kurtas have holi motifs printed on them.
Either we have grown sticking rich or
have become stupid.
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Saturday 16 March 2024
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