Am quite excited that we’ve finally launched this project!  In short, it is a year long research and immersion program with 12-21 year olds in India.  We’re really looking for 5-6 sponsors  - to help kick it off the ground – personally I believe that one of the key benefits (apart from the actual understanding and immersions with kids and youth) is that Clients from different non-competing industries will go on this journey together and learn from each others rich and varied experiences too.

More details and the brochure available for download here – bit.ly/convokids

My new Yoga teacher speaks no English. He’s young, and comes from a small town in the North. He’s moved to Mumbai to make a living. And still, he communicates via SMS so well, and has evolved his own form of English. I asked him how come he doesn’t text in Hindi, he says its an image thing – he prefers to send his clients English messages.  And he said he’s learning English this way too. Imagine the potential for so many who can’t speak but are using Texting and SMS to learn and communicate in the language!

Young minds through the lens of young eyes.

The day after coming back from TEDIndia I was catapulted back into work – preparing for a big presentation-workshop today, which was good. This was in Gurgaon, and I spent the evening in Delhi with my sister and her young 6 year old Zai, who is totally fascinated with my iPhone, particularly the camera and the way photos are displayed. I was desperately trying to finish off my presentation, my sis wasn’t home, and feeling guilty about not spending time with him. So I gave him his own little ethnographic research project to do – to photograph things around the house that he loves, and those that aren’t his favourites. And asked for an explanation for each. Here’s what he came back with , in just 10 minutes, sure of some items, but with questions about how to slot some others! (Many pictures are blurred but they tell his story).

Amazing what a phone-camera in the hands of a six-year old can reveal about how a child frames his world. I’m glad it’s not all black-and-white!

His favourites:

The door handle – which he explained as being a favourite because when he turns it, he can go into the garden to play

The brand new wallet he got for his birthday last month.

His crayons and here’s his favourite painting – there are many many all over the house, but he likes this one in particular

His Bike -he loves going fast on it every evening around his neighbourhood

Himself! – he says he is a nice boy who doesn’t fight with other kids in school. And everybody (waving his hands wide open) loves him

His Globe – he likes spinning it fast and watching how the world whizzes around

The guitar his dad made – he is learning to play

His Sports Day notice from the school – he loves his school and running races, he says.

His maid, Rajni didi – who is really his playmate and favourite punching bag (he’s hers too!)

Me – because I’m his Dina Maasi (aunt) but he wished I wasn’t working

What he doesn’t like:

Pile of Newspapers – his explanation is that he doesn’t like to read. Would much rather draw or paint.

Ashtray with a stub – when I asked him to explain this, he says much like a grown-up, “obviously Dina Maasi – this is bad!”

The Inverter that kicks into action when electricity fails. He says it’s too noisy.

Those that he isn’t sure about, or is torn about:

Scissors – he uses them a lot for all his art and craft work and at that level loves them, but knows they can be dangerous

Boomerang – again, loves playing with it, but knows if he misfires, he or someone else could get hurt!

Croc – he likes it during the day, but at night, it scares him

Priyanka Kargupta is an 8 year old living in Maryland, USA. She’s set up Kids for Mumbai – to help those affected by the Mumbai Terror Attacks.  I personally don’t know her, just got an email from her, and would encourage you to assess it for yourselves before donating.  She’s provided links to her Dad and has her own blog. I’d like to know more details around who the funds are going to for disbursement.

Fighting Back the Carnage at Mumbai
on November 26-29, 2008 

Kids for Mumbai
www.kidsformumbai.org

I’m quite impressed with what she’s doing. I do hope she is able to achieve her goal. I’d love for her to build up a movement around this where all kids all over the world are made increasingly conscious and aware that there are other kids like them who are being affected and violated every single day.

My friend Tracey Rankin was here last year and she had shared a lovely thought with me then. She told me that for Christmas 2007 she planned to gift her two young nieces an account with a non-profit where they would send money to a child affected by some form of violence in the developing world. What I liked about her plan was that her nieces and the children they were sponsoring would be in constant touch with each other via email.  I forget which NGO she spoke of, just thought it’s a nice thought to share as Christmas is upon us.

A new video from Mike Wesch, who had earlier made the fab video, The Machine is Us/ing Us. Mike Wesch’s videos explore mediated culture, seeking to merge the ideas of Media Ecology and Cultural Anthropology.

In a blog post describing this video, Prof Wesch says:

It began as a brainstorming exercise, thinking about how students learn, what they need to learn for their future, and how our current educational system fits in. We created a Google Document to facilitate the brainstorming exercise, which began with the following instructions:

“… the basic idea is to create a 3 minute video highlighting the most important characteristics of students today – how they learn, what they need to learn, their goals, hopes, dreams, what their lives will be like, and what kinds of changes they will experience in their lifetime. We already know some things from previous research (and if you know of any interesting statistics, please list them along with the source). Others we will need to find out by doing a class survey. Please add whatever you want to know or present.”

A super example of Digital Ethnography! [thanks JP, for the link]

Am laughing so much!  I was just speaking with my little niece and wishing her a happy birthday.  I asked her what she would like as a gift – and she asked for a lot of lollipops and candy and gum  – stuff I had bought her when I was in the US in August.  You don’t really get such colourful and varied candy here!  So I told her, I’d have to go to America for that – her response to me – ask America to send it home!  Hehe .. we are so spoilt in India, getting everything delivered to our doorstep.

What can India send home to you ?

Bloggy thought two. It’s not worth it, if it’s not searchable. Robert Scoble and Steve Rubel seem to feel so. Am actually feeling the contrary only because of my recent experiences with Facebook and Twitter. The other day, I was chatting with a young friend who is 18, and he told me a few things around Facebook. His dashboard and homepage is Facebook – all his social interactions happen around it, along with a few IM clients. He doesn’t really use email very much. And most pertinent to this post, was his comment that he was disturbed that his whole family including aunts and grand-aunts could ‘peep’ into his entire life. In fact, it was so funny when he related a story about how an aunt actually sent his grandma some pictures of girls who wanted to ‘marry’ him. He’s now got most of his family on ‘limited’ profile — but his friends have full access to him!

I still believe that what you write or say or show on the web is there for everyone to see, read or hear, and I like that openness and transparency of the web. Still I am enjoying the levels of privacy that Facebook offers me. When I blog, I do sometimes (not when I am feeling particularly ranty) wonder whether what I write will come back to bite me some day or how people will view me as a result of what I write. I do feel more ‘responsible’ about what views I share on my blog – perhaps this happens when you have been blogging since 2003 and when your blog becomes your single-point public profile, for the whole world to see – family, friends, clients, potential clients etc.

But on spaces like Facebook and Twitter, I feel so much more comfort – I can rant, I can be silly, throw some food at a friend, hug someone else, share when I am upset or ecstatic. I don’t ever ‘think’ too much when I am on Facebook – my mode is a more feely one. It’s more about me and who I am. And less about my thoughts on a particular subject and less of the ‘Dina’ I want to project or promote or share around what I do.

I loved this comment at Steve Rubel’s post by Ryan McKegney – it resonates: