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| Samaja Saptahika 18 Jan. 2020 |
Thursday, 16 January 2020
Sunday, 12 January 2020
Saturday, 11 January 2020
Column | Window Seat 12.1.20
Window Seat | Mrinal Chatterjee |
12.1.20
Future of Children’s Literature
I was a panelist at the panel discussion on
Future of Children's Literature at the New Delhi World Book Fair organised by National
Centre for Children’s Literature (NCCL) of National Book Trust (NBT) on 4
January.
My take was: in a digital ecosphere, it is difficult to make people read, more so children. The attention span is decreasing. Distractions are increasing. Therefore though Children’s book bazar is booming across the world, our children are probably reading less and enjoying whatever they are reading even lesser.
My take was: in a digital ecosphere, it is difficult to make people read, more so children. The attention span is decreasing. Distractions are increasing. Therefore though Children’s book bazar is booming across the world, our children are probably reading less and enjoying whatever they are reading even lesser.
There are three categories of books for
children- with some overlapping. One: text books. Two: books providing
information, which enrich their knowledge and/or help them to become better
informed person; and three: story books, which children read for pleasure,
which fuels their imagination.
As
people are becoming more educated and earning more money- they want their
children to be 'more educated'- more focused on the 'studies'. They want their
children to read less number of books that do not
fall in their 'areas of study'. As a result children are reading more - on
their subject of study (mostly text books), and reading less about other subjects
thereby knowing less about other areas in life. Reading for pleasure is not
encouraged by most of the first-generation educated parents. This leads to a
serious setback in developing the personality of the children. Children are
made to develop a need-focused, goal-oriented personality. Pleasure, happiness takes
a backseat. They tend to ignore simple pleasures of life going after the
elusive 'success'.
Now what are the ways out:
Parents, teach your kids to read for pleasure. Don't only ask them to read text books and books to get information.
Teachers, encourage children to read variety of books. Nudge them to explore and ideate.
Writers, focus on 'story telling'. Write well. Write for the children.
Publishers, experiment with form. Mix and match text, audio-video, even virtual reality and gaming. This is one of the major trends in children’s books to watch. Penguin Random House is entering the children’s ebook arena with Bookful, an app that combines books with augmented reality (AR) to provide kids with an immersive and interactive experience. We’re going to see a lot of development in this area over the next few years.
Now what are the ways out:
Parents, teach your kids to read for pleasure. Don't only ask them to read text books and books to get information.
Teachers, encourage children to read variety of books. Nudge them to explore and ideate.
Writers, focus on 'story telling'. Write well. Write for the children.
Publishers, experiment with form. Mix and match text, audio-video, even virtual reality and gaming. This is one of the major trends in children’s books to watch. Penguin Random House is entering the children’s ebook arena with Bookful, an app that combines books with augmented reality (AR) to provide kids with an immersive and interactive experience. We’re going to see a lot of development in this area over the next few years.
But ‘telling a story well’
remains the soul of good children’s literature.
No Marriage Women
The other day I read in a newspaper an
interesting news: A growing number of South Korean women are banding together
and embracing radical feminist movement ‘4B’ or the four Nos. No Dating, No
Sex, No Marriage and No Child-rearing.
The effects risk reinforcing the country’s
looming demographic disaster. South Korea’s total fertility rate- the number of
children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime- dropped to 0.98 in 2018,
far below the 2.1 needed to keep a population stable.
The situation is completely different. We need
to reduce the number by reducing the fertility rate. It is good that that is
happening. The fertility rate in India is at 2.2 (in 2017) after being stable at 2.3 for the four years from 2013 to
2016, according to the Sample Registration System (SRS) compiled by Registrar
General of India (RGI) for 2017.
However, our problem is regional imbalance. Among the states,
Bihar reported the highest TFR (3.2), about twice that of Kerala (1.7) and
Delhi (1.5), which scored the lowest. The findings indicated that the average
fertility rate went down primarily in southern states such as Tamil Nadu (1.6),
Andhra Pradesh (1.6), Telangana (1.7), Kerala(1.7) and Karnataka (1.7) as well
as the hill states — Jammu & Kashmir (1.6), Himachal Pradesh (1.6) and
Uttarakhand (1.9). Delhi (1.5), West Bengal (1.6), Punjab (1.6) and Odisha
(1.7) also fared well.
One of the key reasons for the decline in fertility has been education, more precisely that of women.
One of the key reasons for the decline in fertility has been education, more precisely that of women.
Tail piece: Our News Channels
What
will America do next in Iran?
To
decide that whole of US think tank is watching Indian News Channels and closely
following the experts airing their views.
Jai ho.
***
The
author, a journalist turned media academician lives in Central Odisha town of
Dhenkanal.
An
anthology of his weekly column Window
Seat, published in 2019 is being published as a book. Should you want a
copy with introductory discounted price, write to him at: mrinalchatterjee@ymail.com
Tuesday, 7 January 2020
Column | Window Seat 5.1.20
Window Seat | Mrinal Chatterjee | 5.1.20
Happy New Year
The
last decade has been described by many as the decade of protest. As several
countries embraced ultra-nationalism after the heady days of liberalization
came to a close- there were protests. Me-too movement spread across several
countries. So did protests against discrimination against LGBT communities. In
India there were violent protests against CAA and police brutality. There were
protests against price rise.
 |
| Photo: Subhojit Sarkar |
Protest
has vibrancy and a possibility- of ending the concerned problem or issue or at
least framing and highlighting it. But it also has the risk of going off
tangent and turning violent- as has been seen in many issues across the world.
Let
us hope that the New Year will bring an end to the protests by ending the
occasions giving rise to the protests.
Sarve Bhavantu
Sukhinah
Sarve Santu Niraamayaah |
Sarve Bhadraanni Pashyantu
Maa Kashcid-Duhkha-Bhaag-Bhavet |
Om Shaantih Shaantih Shaantih ||
Sarve Santu Niraamayaah |
Sarve Bhadraanni Pashyantu
Maa Kashcid-Duhkha-Bhaag-Bhavet |
Om Shaantih Shaantih Shaantih ||
May All be Happy,
May All be Free from Illness.
May All See what is Auspicious,
May no one Suffer.
Om Peace, Peace, Peace.
May All be Free from Illness.
May All See what is Auspicious,
May no one Suffer.
Om Peace, Peace, Peace.
Competition Mania
During the winter holidays, I see announcements of different
kinds of competitions. I see people taking part in those competitions, parents
egging their children to take part and win. This is good up to a point. Beyond
a point it turns into a mania.
Take for example the Fart Competition organised in Surat in
Gujarat, touted as the country's first ever in September 2019. The competition
was to find out who can let out "longest", "loudest" and
"most musical" farts. Sixty people had
registered to display their prowess. It is different issue that only 20 turned
up at the venue and only three participated. They too, however, failed to pass
the test as they could not find the courage to pass wind. According to the
organizer, of these, only three took to the stage, in front of 70 people in
attendance, along with a few media channels, and ended up failing to
"perform".
(To know more about this
bizarre competition see: https://www.indiatoday.in/…/world-s-best-fart-championship-…)
The point I am trying to make is about this madness to
compete and win, that urge to grab 10 minutes of fame, that fleeting lime light.
Compete to do what and win what- this question is gradually becoming
irrelevant.
Next in line we may have poop competition or pee competition. In fact in our childhood we used to have this pee competition- who can pee to what distance. Now that could be packaged into a grand championship. Like hyped boxing matches, two competitors will pee and there would be referee with a measuring tape.
Who knows it might just happen. Whoever had thought, there could be a fart competition.
Next in line we may have poop competition or pee competition. In fact in our childhood we used to have this pee competition- who can pee to what distance. Now that could be packaged into a grand championship. Like hyped boxing matches, two competitors will pee and there would be referee with a measuring tape.
Who knows it might just happen. Whoever had thought, there could be a fart competition.
Why Journalists are attacked?
Journalists are often intimidated and attacked while they are
on duty- like it happened in Bhubaneswar, Odisha recently where a lady
journalist was attacked. Many of the journalists have been killed. Committee of
Protect Journalists, an international body in its 2018 report says that “In the past decade, at least 324 journalists
have been silenced through murder worldwide and in 85 percent of these cases no
perpetrators have been convicted. It is an emboldening message to those who
seek to censor and control the media through violence,” Every year CPJ comes
out with Global Impunity Index- a list of countries where journalists are under
threat. India ranked 14th on the list with 18 murders of journalists with
impunity from 2008 to 2018.
As
a former journalists myself, I know why journalists are attacked. There are
basically four reasons:
1.
Darkness
does not like light. People do not like unpleasant truth about them to be
brought into open.
2.
Journalists
are considered as soft targets, increasingly so.
3.
Our
civil society organizations do not value the role and contribution of the
journalists to the extent of physically or otherwise take steps to protect them
or protest when journalists are attacked.
4.
The
Govt. feels it can ignore the journalists as it has 'good relation' with the
media owners and can intimidate the journalists as the owners consider the
journalists as expendables.
Adda
In Bengali there is a word called ADDA. Pronounced: AAD..dda. This word is there in Odia language also. Somebody has defined it as the sublime activity of being busy without doing nothing. That is closer to the meaning of adda as meant in Odia, where it has a derogatory hue. In Bengali it has a different and up-scaled connotation. One can look at it as the midway between a gupshup and a serious discourse. Anything under the sun and beyond could be the subject of an adda. Usually there is a fixed place and loosely fixed time. Though an adda usually has familiar faces, anybody can join at given point of time and has the freedom to change the subject altogether and start a new one. It usually continues for hours till the friendly neighbourhood chaiwala closes his shop or the participants are constrained to go home.
What are you doing?
Friend 1: What are you doing?
Friend 2: Just finished dinner with wife… and now holding
Scotch
Friend 1: Wow, which one? Black label or Red label?
Friend 2: ‘Scotch Brite’ re bhai… bartan dho raha hu.
(Washing the utensils)
(Courtesy: Social Media)
***
The
author, a journalist turned media academician lives in Central Odisha town of
Dhenkanal.
An
anthology of his weekly column Window
Seat, published in 2019 is being published as a book. Should you want a
copy with introductory discounted price, write to him at: mrinalchatterjee@ymail.com
Sunday, 5 January 2020
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