4.35 pm – Ms. Vani took the stage again for the final session and sought insights from the participants. A couple of them aired their opinions and said the event was a great learning experience. Before the session came to an end, there was a group song on Sthree Shakti with very good lyrics.

I would like to infer here that the day long event turned out to be a great forum to learn/share and know about the rights of Women. It  is high time for women tormentors to give due respect to women folk and also change their attitude towards women. I sincerely hope that the world will not be same when that thinking comes to all.

Bye for now.

Gururaj Kodambahalli

4.10 pm – Talk from Ms. Merlin, Legal professional and Director of Deeds NGO,  – She recollected the proceedings of the whole day and asked the crowd to make introspection on whether a woman is the biggest enemy of a woman. She pointed out some of the daily issues any house wife or a working woman face everyday, be it in office or at home. Merlin went on record saying that as Anganawadi workers, they have the right decision making and judgment skills to provide counseling to the needy women. She wondered whether there is any good step mother is there in this earth or not taking one of the skits into account and suggested to show woman as not the enemy of other woman. She also spoke about the three orders/injunctions  which prohibits husbands to physically abuse the wife, throwing her out of the house and selling the house without her consent.  Speaking about upbringing of the children, she recommended to all the women present in the event to make their daughters to raise their voice wherever they experience or see injustice and not be just mute witness or undergo harassment. It was an inspiring speech for all and the crowd acknowledged by joining their hands together.

3.55 pm – Play by Eight Circle -  The play starts with a school kid Chenni coming to home only to find her mother eloped with her paramour. Hearing this news, Jenny’s father also dies.  Chenni becomes an orphan all of a sudden. Her Uncle takes her home. Her Uncle’s wife and children does not like this but eventually allows her to stay but like a servant.  She is ill-treated to the core and made to eat left-overs. Her Uncle starts seeing her with an ulterior motive.  One day suddenly Uncle’s wife dies and this makes him more drawn towards Chenni. One day when nobody is in home, Chenni’s Uncle goes beyond the limit and takes undue advantage.  Uncle’s son, who was secretly loving Jenny comes to know of  her father’s and Chenini’s relationship becomes very desperate and starts ill-treating Chenni more and more.  One day Chenni’s Uncle decides to marry her and ties the nuptial knot forcibly which is witnessed by his son. He gets so dejected and becomes a drunkard. Jenny could not take this and tries to commit suicide only to be stopped by Uncle’s daughter at the right time. She then approaches Anganawadi Teachers/counselors to find a solution on this. They assure her and ask to bring Uncle, his son and Chenni to the Center.  They counsel all of them and make them strike the right chord.

3.45 pm – Dance by Ninth Circle – Scintillating dance performance by all of different age . The steps are uniform, the dress very striking and the song, very meaningful in the context of today’s event. It seems to me that all the events today are very meticulously planned and sends a strong message to the society about the Women Power.

3.30 pm -  Tulu Skit from Fourth Circle -  This depicts the struggles of a housewife, Savita who wanted to be self reliant but always ridiculed  by husband and mother in law.  She comes out of her husband’s house and start business on her own and prosper through her hard work. She also gives jobs and guides other ladies, destitute women towards self reliance. She propspers so much that she drives her own car, takes orders through her cell and becomes extremly busy and famous.   Seeking constant guidance from Break Through she zooms past everybody and becomes rich.

Seeing her richness, her husband and mother in law comes to her acting very good and showing that they are repenting. But Savita is aware of their greedy character and doubtful credentials, she refuse to live with them and sends them out of her house after a fitting reply.

3.20 pm – Now the new skit is more of social maladies like female infanticide, dowry, child marriage, prostitution, alcohol, AIDS.  The skit was done in a highly articulated  way and earned huge applause.

3.15pm – Wonderful ‘Yakshagana’ performance ends.  True to the Women Centric event today, the performance was more of a women oriented and as the organizers themselves said ‘This is an attempt to give more scope to Women and their thoughts and work.’

Credit should be given to the children who acted like thorough professionals.

1.50pm – ‘Yakshagana’ performance starts with an all-women cast (a first!) and not about mythology but about ‘domestic violence’ (another first!)

1.37 pm – Lunch Break which will be followed by an ‘Yakshagana’ performance.

1.20 pm – Now a play on ‘Spandana’ by the Anganawadi First Circle  – A typical day for an anganawadi worker who also has lot of family commitments.  She goes back to her house a bit late after a greuelling day of survey work and is questioned as though she had committed a crime and is beaten black and blue.

A girl who could not get a job despite her good qualifications is seen  walking on the road near a Bar. She encounters a lady whose background appears to be dubious.  She shows sympathy and brings the girl to the owner of the bar and restaurant and sells her without her knowledge. The Bar owner coerces her to do dance  and get involved in immoral trafficking.  The girl pleads with the owner to leave her but to no avail.

At the same time, a police official appears and inquires with the owner about the license and the girl in tatters.  After not getting any convincing reply from the owner,  she arrests him and advises the girl not to trust anybody blindly. The play ends on a happy note with the girl getting out of the bar and reunite with the parents.

12.45 pm – Ms. Shanta of ‘Vimochana’ addressed the crowd and emphasized the need of Anganawadi workers to work towards Domestic Violence. She recollected how ‘Vimochana’ was started. She also spoke in length about Female Infanticide happening all over India.  She called for the starting of ‘Mahila Nyaayalaya’ meaning ‘Female Court ” where all the cases dealing with women can be tried.  She also mentioned that as per the survey conducted on ‘Dowry Death Cases’, very few cases accounted for conviction and majority of the cases were derailed during the course.  Ms. Shanta dealt with the differences between ‘Varopachara’ and ‘Varadakshine’. She was very vocal on the derailment of dowry deaths that happens with the collusion of the authorities.

12.30 pm – Circle 7 will be presenting a skit ‘Varadakshine’ meaning ‘Dowry’

The skit is about how the parents of a girl married to a rich family gets into the whirlpool of debts. It also deals with 1961 Dowry act. The mother in law gives a time of one month to settle the dowry. Even after one month, when she does not receive the dowry as promised, the Mother in Law sends the daughter in law back to her house insulting her and abusing her physically. It ends on a happy note after counseling about the Dowry Act.

12.15 pm – Circle 3 presented a Tulu skit  ‘Kannirina Thelike’ meaning ‘Laughter in the midst of tears’

The play is about a blind girl who is tormented to no end by her step mother. The step mother’s son also ill treats the blind girl though the father tries to advise both of them not to trouble her.  To put an end to her sufferings, he plans to marry her but was not sure whether anybody accepts her. Fortunately, one guy with a good heart accepts the proposal because of the girl’s good character. The skit ends in a happy note.

11.55 am – Now the Circle 9  of Dakshina Kannada Anganawadi is performing  Tulu skit on the theme ‘Ponnu, Samsarada Kannu’ which effectively means ‘A Lady is the eye of a Family.’ The skit is based on a real life incident where the wife faced perinneal harassment from the husband who never respected his wife and belittles his own daughter when she happily shows her marks sheet.  He again admonishes his wife and leaves to drink alcohol. Once he is back, the wife chides him but he beats and kicks her and sends her out of home. She approaches the elders, teachers and counsellors and requests them to advise her husband suitably. They effectively counsels him and he repents a lot and becomes a changed man.

11.45 am – A video clip of Shobha Mugdal’s  ‘Man ki Manjire’ focusing on the women’s rights, their entry into new horizons, the dreams, the awakening , their belief in themselves.

Drawing parallels between Shamshad and another harrasment case, she called up on the crowd to take courage in every aspect and face the issues as it comes and have a never say die attitude.

11.30 am – Ms. Kanmani, working as Trainer in CART told a heart rending story of Shamshad who commited suicide on Dec 3, 2009 unable to bear the torture  is a victim of both extreme domestic violence along with police dereliction of duty.  In a video which was taken on her when she was alive, she(Shamshad)  narrated the trials and tribulations she underwent in the form of domestic violence. She told how her husband tried to burn her by pouring kerosene on her on more than one occasion.

Ms. Vani Periodi called upon the crowd to muster courage to fight against these evils and also find a solution rather than going for suicide.  She listed out a new charter in the form of the below bulleted points to enable such situations do not arise.

• there should be a full time officer to look into these sensitive issues
• Police, Advocates should be sensitized
• A separate law should come into effect
• Time should be the essence of this law and suitable action should be taken within a short time

Taking these issues into account, there will be a signature campaign to support the charter to enable it to expediate

Ms. Kanmani expressed thanks for the Break Through for their constant support .

11.25 am – Mr. Venugopal in his Vote of thanks expressed his heart felt thanks to  Ms. Shobha Rani, Ms. Neelam and all others who graced the occasion as Chief Guests.

11.15 am – Ms. Shobha Rani, in her presidential address recalled the efforts that were put in to hold the event. She felt sad for those who could not attend the event due to the transport strike. She spoke about the trainings that are available for the Anganawadi workers. She stressed on the awareness related to domestic violence, how to find a concrete solution for the various harrassment.  All the legal aid that needs to be given to the the women suffering all types of harrassment are being provided with the help of a advocate who will be present always for the needy. She cited a scenario where the husband is a high earner and  subjugate his wife for various types of insults and at the time of divorce or breakup, the husband will get the custody of the child though as per the law, the child should always stay with the mother.

11.10 am – Ms. Neelam, a legal luminary who was involved with the External Affairs Ministry is now addressing the crowd. She emphasized on the dimension of the domestic violence more from a violence on children perspective. She quoted a report on Child Abuse which stated  70% of children are abused, both physically and mentally which is  a startling find. Summing up, 2 out of 3 children are abused. She recollected her proud moment when her daughter did her PhD.  ‘Men will not stop the domestic violence until Women resists’ was her mantra. She congratulated all the people involved for working on the cause of domestic violence.

11.05 am – She further spoke about the domestic violence prevailing and sought a solution once for all on the burning issue. She also let the crowd know about the list of events that will happen throught the day culminating in a Yakshagana performance and thoughts from the people assembled.

Now the traditional lighting of the lamp is on with the revered guests lighting the lamp one by one with the background of some soothing music. The mood is ecstatic in the hall.

11.00am – The much awaited event organized by Break Through – Sashakta Hejje – Mahila Mela is now on at Mangalore’s Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.

Braving the Bus strike which is the lifeline of DK, it is heartening to see Anganawadi workers assembled in large numbers.

The event started with a customary prayer and continued with the falicitating the Chief Guests assembled on the dias. The Chief guests have done commendable work in their fields and deserve all the praise.

Ms. Vani in her speech expressed speculation in the beginning about organizing the event. She related Anganawadi as the ‘Jeevanandi’ which can be called as Life Line when translated to English.

(in chronological order)

• Hyderabad short film fest #hsff organized very well at the prasad preview theatre by cinephiles. Worldclass thtr. http://mypict.me/pCyy
• first up is CLASH a short on college gang wars. Reminds me of rgv’s blog
• 2nd short is ‘eve’s letter to adam’ about woman’s side on sexual harassment
• nxt up is ’shor’ – 3 friends and a bomb! Set in mumbai local trains.
• SHOR is interesting mumbai slum style shrt abt 3frnds trying to blast a bomb to prove that the RDX is good fun!
• just realized why SHOR is so gud – directrd by directors of 99. No wonder its so well made
• short playing now is ‘closed doors’ by pondfreaks.com entertainment.
• ‘closed doors’ has non linear track. Good attempt by the rookie directors.
• very sensitive short film JASMINE abt how a 10yr old who was playing wid her friends, can’t go to school as she is flwr sellr
• I liked the analogy of showing a jasmine flower being crushed by bike and the girl selling jasmines’ dreams being crushed
• neelakanta director of telugu parallel movies like show, missamma, mr.medhavi talking abt how he took up filmmaking
• neelakanta has offered to help aspiring filmmakers by getting in touch wid him through cinephiles. Nice gesture
• ramana gogula the maverick music directr talking abt him being a live musician first, and then getting into films. He was in sybase!
• just met with @rishabhkaul’s mom who helpd in getting this wonderful venue. Miss u rishabh at this event
• Ramana gogula talked abt how he met a girl called ‘lovely dylan’ in US on whm the song ‘ye pilla nee peru lovely’ in Tammudu was based
• awesome quote by ramana gogula ‘ I hate the music that most people love’
• rahul nambiar talking abt how the best visual effects are what go unnoticed, and have human emotion in it. Well said.
• nice quote saying its not imprtnt to know software but use ur imagination and creativeness to use the software
• rahul nambiar honest to admit that they copied the drum special effects sequence in ARUNDHATI movie as he cudnt help it
• demo of special effects by pixelloid for the telugu movie ‘oy’ @crhemanth shocked to see how most scenes had spcl effcts!
• pixelloid talking abt how accident scene of a merc was recreated in the movie ‘nenu meeku telusa’ mind blowing!!!
• pixelloid talking abt how telugu and indian directors don’t give time for postproduction which reduces quality
• short films shown at cannes being shown right now! 1st up is ‘birju’ abt a 5yr old discvrng lot of sights n sounds in small town
• special thanks to vlc media player for being able to play any kind of format films it got a lot of mileage here )
• nxt film ‘A silent plea’ is abt a kathakali dancer in kerala’s turmoil when his son decides to go to US rathr than continue the tradition. Well actd!
• nice marathi short abt a kid and his elder sis who wants to study after 12th std but father doesn’t allow her. Kid’s perspctv.
• short film on a muslim woman in search of her husband who is later revealed to hav been killed in riots, through a policeman’s acct
• thanks to the wonderful organization by all http://mypict.me/pJVr

Create your own visited map of The World

BRTFF

Indie film festival in Bangalore today – coverage in ‘Downtown’ edition of ‘Bangalore Times’ today.

More details at – http://tr.im/brtff

ISIM

InfoQuiz ‘07

First to go was Dr.Prasad Ram, center Head, Google India. He was also center head for Yahoo India R&D before. He talked about democratizing the web where users are publishers, information access is frictionless and internet is like a computing platform available to all. He talked about how global economy and culture is evolving by creating a confluence of information, providing universal access and demanding new emphasis on information management. What was very interesting apart from the gyaan he gave on Web 2.0 platforms that Google owns (like YouTube, Blogger) is that he shared few of the challenges that Google has with regard to e-Access. Some of the challenges according to him were – Stemming (Google trying to guess the correct combination/spelling of words in case you search a typo), Google News (clustering and presenting the best news items from different sources), Google Scholar (Citation Analysis, Identification of duplicates) and Google Print (OCR Search). Overall it was an interesting session.

Next was Deependra Moitra, who is a Capital Analyst and was till recently with Infosys R&D. He said he viewed the future of e-Access as having two components: Democratization or co-creation and Consumerization of Information. He also said that important themes of e-Access are Information Architecture and Pervasive Computing. He said in future access will be more popular through devices like mobile phones,etc. rather than computers/laptops. He talked about the importance of portability of applications from computer to the mobile phone via GPRS or SMS.

Last but not the least was Ajit Balakrishnan, Founder & CEO, Rediff.com. I was really looking forward to meeting Ajit since a long time as I had once approached him for a project in 2000 which was related to e-Commerce and I planned to meet him up in Mumbai but it didn’t work out. He is also known to be the e-business guru in India so the anticipation for his talk was really high. And he delivered! He started with the slide showing Ash-Abhishek wedding and claimed that Rediff first showed that picture within minutes of the wedding ceremony starting; as a rediff user took the picture on his mobile and uploaded it to rediff forums. He talked about how people are going to be the king of content and how there is a paradigm shift from editorial content to user generated content. He also gave an example of Rediff Q&A which receives close to 15,000 questions per day and each question gets answered by at least 3 other people. So what started out as a controlled activity grew to gigantic proportions once it was left to the users. He also talked about Sukanya Verma (suku)’s review on Aishwarya Rai’s “Provoked” which spawned discussions in the discussion board on that article; which themselves were excellently written reviews of the movie. He also talked about how a user provided the following picture of Sania Mirza on a pilgrimage at Haj, rather than professional photographers. In this way, he talked about the power of e-Access with people right now in the form of latest camera-phones, GPRS,etc.

He also talked about how the Wisdom of Crowds is reflected in the search Results. As an example, he did a Rediff image search on Mallika Sherawat and he showed that the search engine gives you related search results in the form of a sentence like this: “Related Images: Aishwarya Rai , Bipasha Basu , Priyanka Chopra , Sania Mirza , Pamela Anderson “. This determines that the search engines learn from the users and suggest new searches based on user patterns. He summed up his session by saying that “e-Access is all about bringing people, information and facilities together in the same place at the same time”.

All ‘n all, a very interesting couple of hours!

And shopping with Women is like experiencing hell down under (pun intended!) I took my cousin Kanu out for shopping when she came to Bangalore once; and she would take hours to shop for just 1 garment. She would check out 5 garments in 5 different shops in 5 different malls before going back to buy the 1st garment in the 1st shop! My body gave up half way through the shopping and I was slumped into waiting room chairs trying to catch forty winks! But her selection for me was always very nice; and helped me get compliments from everyone!

Now Kanu stays in Australia and I miss her company whenever I go out to shop. She is not here to choose the best t-shirt or jeans for me. And of course I have no patience to go for offline shopping. So what to do?

Then I heard of Shopcorn.in, India’s 1st social shopping community. Hmm… interesting concept I thought. Let me try it out for myself.

I mailed Kanu and told her to be online at the same time that I was; and we jointly logged onto community shopping website which promised a very interesting shopping experience.

And did we love it! within minutes of logging and using the video chat feature, we were reviewing the good and bad deals in the deal box.

Deal box was giving us options to drop in deals from other websites like Rediff, Indiatimes and then evaluate them online via text/audio/video chat. We are kicking the worst deals and picking the best deals among the lot. Loads of fun it was! One particularly bad deal from Indiatimes for a faded jeans for Rs.3000 was promptly kicked by my cousin and she said I’m much rather not buying a pair of jeans. You know how it is with Women and making decisions! If this chat feature was not there, I would have blindly bought it!

Another very interesting feature we liked was the community angle of the entire online shopping experience. As a social media evangelist, I totally believe in the power of crowdsourcing. I rely a lot on blogs and sites like moutshut.com more than advertising websites for information. This community feature actually allows people to create profiles of themselves, write blogs, participate in question & answers section, and even upload videos. How cool is that! We really benefited a lot from this feature failing which we would have fallen prey to a  unscrupulous vendor!

The entire online shopping comparison experience would have been bought to a naught if not for the wonderful Tataindicom USB connection which I had for my laptop. I was sitting in the balcony of my highrise building and sipping chai while I was doing this shopping, on a pleasant summer evening. The speeds were so good that it was almost as if I was sitting across with my cousin and chatting away with her about life in general and shopping in particular. I had used Tata Indicom’s earlier USB modem and the speed of Photon Plus is atleast 10 times better than the earlier one. Really impressive! The flexibility offered by USB modem has always helped me in online shopping as in the middle of a long road trip, I have been able to quickly order supplies to reach before I reach my destination. It always helps to stay connected on the entire road trip via a laptop with USB connection!

A very interesting shopping experience indeed and I would recommend the same to anyone who miss shopping with their near and dear ones, just because they stay far away.

More information here. Hurry up!