Changes to this Blog: 1 of 3
In preparation for welcoming the year 2010 AD with a modest sense of rejuvenation, I have planned three major changes to this blog, to be implemented in phases (so that you have to deal with less new things simultaneously) starting with this one below.
A New Name: The old name (An Experiment Called ‘Life’) just wasn’t doing justice to my personality or the kind of content I’ve been posting here. So, I’ve decided to go quirky with the name ‘No Signal’ inspired by one American graphic designer (New Yorkers have such an enviable sense of cool!) and my 32″ LCD television set that I can’t do without.
Enjoy the new avatar!
Psychology is a subject that I find immensely fascinating and the amount of reading I’ve done on personality disorders is testament to that. So last Sunday, when I caught a glimpse of the Hindi film ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa’ my mother was watching on television, I couldn’t help but forget about my chores and sit down on the recliner to see how the story progressed. What made it interesting was the subject being dealt with – Dissociative Identity Disorder – and the pace with which the plot moved forward, which was neither too slow nor confusingly rapid.
I first heard about this disorder through Sidney Sheldon’s book, ‘Tell Me Your Dreams’ (though it was then called Multiple Personality Disorder) and the impact it had on my mind was so great that when an opportunity to write a story for a college assignment arose in 2005, this is what I came up with:
Rotting garbage fumes tickled my nostrils. I woke up with the rest of Bangalore, as people went about doing their yoga and multiple rounds of the nearby park. It was 7 O’ Clock in the morning and to my surprise, a plastic bag full of kitchen waste had been my pillow all night. I was in a garbage dumpster in the heart of the city.
I reluctantly shook off the trash and got up to get out of the dumpster. There was something about this huge can that was annoyingly comforting. I had no idea how I got here in the first place, but it had happened before and was likely to happen again. I was getting used to waking up in the most unexpected places, always accompanied by long gaps of memory loss. The last time it had happened, I had woken up a month after I had last remembered being conscious and I don’t know what may have happened in the thirty days that had passed.
My name is Ashok Gowda and I’m an artist by profession. I was born and raised in the city of Bangalore, amidst lush greenery and a very relaxed pace of life. So relaxed that I would always shudder at the thought of having to live in a place where life is a constant rush.
In my thirty-one years of living on earth, I had done it all – booze, drugs, sex, gangs, everything. At age 10, I nearly killed my abusive father after he returned home drunk and tried forcing me into an act that robbed him of any respect I ever had for him. He was a homosexual paedophile. I ran away from home that night never to see my father again.
It was around then that these episodes of lapses in memory began. I would wake up to find myself in weird places with strangers who behaved as if they knew me really well. I would find my way back to Atul’s house where I’d discover that it had been days since he or his family had last seen me. Atul is the childhood friend who had convinced his family to take me in after I ran away from home. Years passed by and they got used to me disappearing for days on end without ever questioning my whereabouts.
The dumpster left behind, I quickened my pace. The aroma of freshly brewed coffee wafting from a café nearby was tempting. Alas, I had no money. I walked to a park nearby and stopped to catch my breath for a while. A stone bench provided the necessary resting spot. I looked around and a father-son duo caught my eye. My eyes welled up and I couldn’t control the tears. Why hadn’t I had a father who loved and cared for me? All he ever did was drink and beat me or use me as a sexual toy for his sick perversions. I hate him! I hate him! I buried my head in my hands as my whole body shook from the sorrow caused by painful childhood memories. Then, in a flash I blacked out.
I hate it when Ashok has these emotional outbursts; it brings out the worst in me. I need a drink right now or I’ll kill someone. That’s right, my rage is uncontrollable. I should have just killed that bastard of a father that night when I had the chance to. The night I was born.
I’m twenty-one years old. I came into existence as a result of Ashok’s suppressed emotions having exploded in a fit of rage. I share the same body as him. My name is Madhur. I am his alter ego.
Umzi Wethu
Earlier today Yesterday, I watched ‘The Rolex Awards for Enterprise’ on National Geographic for the first time and was very moved by one man’s initiative in particular, called Umzi Wethu (which means ‘Our House’ in Xhosa). Andrew Muir, a South African conservationist by training, read a UN report in 2004 stating that 80% of the world’s orphans lived in sub-Saharan Africa and was shocked by it, prompting him to start Umzi Wethu.
Umzi Wethu is essentially a day and residential school that provides vocational training to orphaned youth for employment as cooks and rangers in the emerging eco-tourism industry in South Africa. Apart from vocational training, these youngsters are even provided with life skills, wellness counselling, one-on-one mentoring and wilderness experience.
I really admire the fact that instead of just doling out charity money, the people behind this initiative are giving teenagers vulnerable to being drawn into a life of crime and prostitution, skills that will help them crawl out of poverty and inspire others like them to improve their lives too.
You should read Andrew’s story on the Rolex Awards website to truly understand the impact the Umzi Wethu training facility is having on these orphaned youngsters.
It’s while watching such programs on television that I realise how meaningless a life spent chasing money and acquiring possessions and ’status’ is. Why not use your excess wealth to help improve lives of the people around you instead?
I’m definitely going to explore such opportunities where I can do something good for the less fortunate once I’m back in Kenya next year. Yes, after 12 years of living on the cusp of insanity in India, I am moving back to my homeland in early 2010. I never felt much of an Indian in spite of my brown skin, anyway.
Harambee! Nyayo!
Internet Communication of the Future
As if Google Wave hasn’t created enough of a complexity buzz, Mozilla Labs had to go and introduce Raindrop, which is:
an exploration in messaging innovation being led by the team responsible for Thunderbird, to explore new ways to use Open Web technologies to create useful, compelling messaging experiences.
Though I’m now a bit wary of these so-called technological advancements; an information system that lets me keep track of all types of conversations I’m having on the world wide web would be a welcome luxury. Like many of you out there, I dislike having to log on to this website, that messenger and that other desktop client just so I know what’s happening within my immediate social circle and elsewhere.
What we need is a system where e-mail, social media (Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr, StumbleUpon, etc.), blogs, RSS feeds and all other interactive content from the Internet can be accessed within a single application that has a sophisticated enough user interface to know what is more important than the other and display it to us accordingly. Add to this heady mix, an integration of IM (Instant Messaging) and Skype-like Internet telephony and you have an efficient system that really lets you save time and focus on communicating with the people that truly matter. To make it even better, a protocol for a single, universal user-name and password could be devised and implemented across all services making logging in, less of a burden on our already over-taxed memory reserves.
Do you think developing such an application will help us save time on our daily reading and responding? Are you a programmer with the kind of experience required to take such an idea forward? If you are, write to me@parasg.com and let’s get talking!
MyLifeIsAverage – Life Is Normal Today
I just spent the last half hour laughing my eyes dry thanks to a website called MyLifeIsAverage – Life Is Normal Today. This is how hilarious the jokes on it are:
Need I say more? See it for yourself here.
You’ll be looking forward to gloomy days soon.
I love how this series is shaping up and hope you are enjoying getting to know these very interesting people spread across the globe.
This week, for the third edition of 6KQ, I present to you an interview with Nishita Kavadia, an interaction designer based in Mumbai, India.
[Note: All images used in this entry are the property of Nishita Kavadia and may not be re-used without her permission.]
1. Me: Thank you, Nishita, for agreeing to do this interview with me. Now, I know you graduated with a Communication Design diploma from Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology in Bangalore a few years ago, but I’m curious to know how you ended up there. What made you choose Srishti over your other options?
Nishita: At the time that I decided I wanted to study design, the options were limited. The sad truth about design education in India is that, nine years later, not much has changed. There was a thin line between design and ‘commercial art’, which a lot of smaller institutions offered. This kind of study was very specifically catered towards building skills to succeed in the field of advertising or more niche areas of design such as – fashion, industrial or set design. But to venture into the field of design, not having a pre-decided specialization, you were left with only two options – The National Institute of Design was considered the premier design destination, and to get through there you had to compete with thousands, maybe more students from all over the country and that did not work in my favour. That’s when I came across Srishti.
2. Me: What was your experience at Srishti like?
Nishita: It had been only 4 years since Srishti had opened its gates, back in the year 2000. The program was raw, fresh and flexible. There was a lot of emphasis on unlearning and looking at the world afresh. That, I believe, laid the foundation for a new way of thinking. While there was focus on learning new skills, the larger structure lay open to exploration. If you realized a few years into the program that you wanted to study film, you could request a tailor-made course. Not only did it open me up to a global view on design but also led me to remote parts of India to discover the crafts and new cultures. It was a fascinating time of self-discovery, learning and living.
3. Me: What advice (about choosing a school) would you give to someone considering a career in communication design?
Nishita: Communication Design was a great choice for me because it let me focus on combining the basics of information and graphic design with mixed media – print, web, sound and video. A good reason to acquaint yourself with art and design history is that it inspires you to develop an aesthetic eye and a unique style. I’d say, while choosing a school, one should look out for a course that has a strong balance between learning the basics of visual design and pushing the boundaries with new media. A framework that allows you to constantly explore the various possibilities with media is necessary. From my experience, a school that enables you to understand and interact with people from all walks of life helps develop a healthy outlook.
4. Me: As an interaction designer, what are your most frequently used tools when working on client projects?
Nishita: You have to wear many hats – and juggle at the same time! There are some tools that grow on a designer, almost like additional limbs. For me, the ability to simplify a brief, spot a problem and deliver a solution that is simple and sustainable is important. I like to collect new tools and resources that help me to communicate better – be it fonts, wares, references, scripts, graphic styles – if it catches my fancy, it must be saved. I also find it useful to doodle, build mockups and create mind maps when trying to work on a solution.
People tend to have a strong vision of what they want something to be and when there is an overlap in this vision, that’s when a true solution emerges. So it’s important to bounce your ideas off a team of different thinkers. You might see something you didn’t see before.
I especially like this excerpt from a poem by Ani DiFranco:
“I sing sometimes for the war that I fight
’cause every tool is a weapon -
if you hold it right.”
5. Me: Outside of design, what do you drawn inspiration from?
Nishita: I get inspired by the littlest of things all through the day. A really well-written piece, even a beautiful photograph can trigger so many different emotions. Besides that, people who do amazing work are such an instant stimulus. Like recently, I saw a talk from the TED India conference by Pranav Mistry, which completely blew me away. It opens you up to a world where people are willing to share brilliant and awe-inspiring ideas that can channel a whole new level of possibilities. I also like to travel and connect with nature whenever I can – it gives me the space to be introspective and redefine my purpose in life.
6. Me: Speaking of inspiration, you recently took a trip to the USA to spend time with family. What were your impressions of America?
Nishita: Travelling to new places is always an adventure. I get totally engrossed in studying how the people and places differ from the ones back home. It’s interesting to draw parallels because it lets you understand the systems that work or don’t work in a place. When I was travelling through the Yosemite National Park I came across rambler strips on the divider as well as the shoulder of the road. This is something I had never seen before and think if it were to be implemented everywhere, it could make our roads potentially safer.
Summer is a great time to visit America because everyone’s in such a great mood overall and there’s always something fun going on. It’s also hard to stay away from political banter, be it about health policies or the economy. If you’re in New York or San Francisco, you are instantly drawn to the cultural diversity which is reflected in its people and food. America has a lot of systems in place that make everyday living far easier compared to a lot of other countries, however, as a nation I wish they’d consume LESS – paper and power.
To know more about Nishita, visit her website at nishmash.com
Rapping Flight Attendant
This year (2009) has been a very hectic one for me as far as travelling, waiting at airports and getting on flights is concerned. Since February, I’ve been on an average of 2 flights every month and I don’t see this trend abating till January of 2010.
So, being sick and tired of the same old announcements that precede every take-off and landing, I was delighted to come across this video on the Internet where David Holmes, a flight attendant with Southwest Airlines in the USA, starts rapping his pre-flight announcement:
Why can’t more airlines use such creativity to make their employees’ routines less boring? IndiGo, are you listening?
7 Days of Flu and Other News
Winter officially arrived in Bangalore some time last week and I got hint of it when I woke up with a throat that felt like it had been sandpapered through the night in preparation for having a coat of thick tar layered over it the next day. It hurt so bad, my fingers kept trying to soothe the pain from outside to little avail.
Now, usually I get so crabby when I have the flu that I can’t see, smell, taste or think straight. This time though, I wanted to document the progression of symptoms from day one to day seven, by when I would hopefully have fully recovered, so I tried keeping track of it in spite of my irritation.
This is what my brain remembers from the ordeal:
Day One: The throat is the first to go down in the attack. I woke up with a sore throat and went to bed in the same intensity of pain.
Day Two: The throat continues to hurt and somewhere in my nasal cavity the plumbing has sprung a leak. With a dripping nose and watery eyes, my hanky saw its busiest day of the year.
Day Three: Pain in the throat starts subsiding and nose drips less but headaches have been activated. I slept as much as I could. By night, scattered incidents of coughing have been noted too.
Day Four: Pain in the throat is considerably less, phlegm from the nose is thicker and I seem to have control over its release from the nostrils. What I couldn’t control were the intermittent headaches and increasing bouts of coughing. I spent most of the day in bed.
Day Five: The coughing has worsened, though my throat seems to be on the verge of recovery. I didn’t have to blow my nose as much which was a relief (for my handkerchief too)! I felt well enough to go to the airport with my brother to drop my dad off and then treat myself to a burger at the new KFC in Basaveshwaranagar (which, by the way, has some really cool furniture and is a lot better laid out then its counterparts in Indiranagar and on Brigade Road). The dry coughing fit I had later that night was another story though.
Day Six: Can’t feel any pain in the throat, phlegm production in the nose is mirroring the economic recession worldwide, the body isn’t aching and the cough is more manageable. I slept through most hours of day light.
Day Seven (today): The pain in my throat is mysteriously back but my cough and cold are very close to saying good bye. If I feel perfectly fine when I wake up tomorrow, my theory that a flu will come and go within a week whether you visit a doctor or not will be justified. Then I can start telling people to wait it out instead of spreading paranoia and wasting money on medication.
In other news, my post on Fuzzco came to the attention of Fuzzco’s founder Josh Nissenboim encouraging him to have those annoying hover sound effects on the navigation menu removed. So he did and you can now enjoy Fuzzco.com with no sounds at all. That’s the power of the written word (that is published for the world to see)! So if you’ve been considering starting a blog or being more regular with your posts on one, do it! Just don’t go crazy with ‘influentia’.
In still more other news, I have another interesting 6KQ interview lined up for you on Tuesday, November 10, 2009; this time featuring Nishita Kavadia, an interaction designer based in Mumbai, India. So be sure to check it out then.
Have you ever wondered how the indiscriminate use of disposable plastic/paper utensils affects the environment? I hadn’t, till I came across the KeepCup website.
Now thanks to the efforts of a Melbourne (Australia) based manufacturer of take away food containers and packaging, you can reduce your carbon footprint considerably by replacing disposable cups with the KeepCup.
The KeepCup is a spill-and-splash-proof beverage container that holds hot and cold drinks; keeps more non-recyclable plastic from reaching landfills; and manages to look cool and sexy at the same time. It can be re-used for up to four years and is easy to clean too.
If you are someone who visits coffee chains a lot and can’t start the day without a lethal shot (or two) of caffeine, this product will help you lead a greener lifestyle and become ‘hip’ overnight. Though you won’t be able to find it outside Australia or the UK yet. For more information, check out their website at keepcup.com.au.
I’m jealous of you residents of developed countries. We don’t get cool objects-of-desire like these soon enough in India.
For this edition of 6KQ, I exchanged e-mails with Kunal Bhat, a graphic designer and programmer based in Chicago, USA; also an old room-mate of Trevor Gilley’s (who featured in the inaugural issue).
Photo Credit: Matt George
[Note: All images used in this entry are the property of Kunal Bhat and may not be re-used without his permission.]
1. Me: It’s great to be doing this 6KQ interview with you, Kunal. Thank you for finding time for it. To start with, tell me a little about yourself. What’s brand Kunal Bhat all about?
Kunal: Ideally: the color grey, grids, databases, and organizing information. Also, my wardrobe is organized by color (but most of it is grey anyway). Realistically: brand Kunal Bhat is still evolving. I’ve positioned myself as someone who can help bridge the gap between visual design and back-end programming by offering to consult on both ends during a project. It is still very much a discovery process for me, and I have been lucky to have clients who understand design is a process.
2. Me: On your website I can see that you’ve indulged in a bit of graphic design, some illustration, some sketching, some video-editing and some interaction design too. Which of these did you first start with?
Kunal: I focused on Computer Science in high school, with the thought I would study that in college. When I entered college and starting taking higher level programming classes, I decided it wasn’t for me. Not necessarily that CS wasn’t for me, but studying it in a classroom setting wasn’t going to do much for me. It took some soul-searching to decide I was interested in visual design. As I started my coursework for design, I met with the head of our university’s CS department to create a personalized minor that would allow me to continue to take some essential classes in the theory and practice of CS with a web application development focus.
3. Me: Which are you most passionate about now?
Kunal: Graphic design is my passion. As I said before, my background in programming is largely self-taught, and that has been a very interesting learning process for me. I believe there is a sensibility and appreciation of visual sophistication which cannot be taught, or at the very least, learned easily. Visual communication is so intriguing to me, and my experiences with attempting to understand, define, and master it have resulted in great satisfaction to extreme frustration. If anything, I believe this range of emotions constitutes a passionate (if not always pleasant) relationship. I have a deep respect for graphic design, especially it’s history; the fact that I may never quite know why it appeals to me so much will keep driving me to learn all I can about it.
4. Me: What is Chicago like, in terms of culture and environment, for someone in the creative fields?
Kunal: Chicago is a midwestern city. It’s true that many transplants are from the surrounding states like Wisconsin, Missouri, Indiana, Michigan, Iowa, etc., but you easily meet people from all over the world. I’ve enjoyed living and working here because of the access to so many different cultures, but it’s really the city itself that has interested me the most as a student of art history. Chicago has a recent history, after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, which has made it very much a product of the modern age. The best example of this is the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Fazlur Khan that dominate the skyline. The amount of public art, not just in the city, but throughout all the neighborhoods, never ceases to inspire me. This is a city that has made art and history a part of everyday life.
5. Me: We all find ourselves facing a mental/creative block some time or the other during our careers. When it happens to you, how do you overcome it?
Kunal: If I am designing, I’ll take a break to write some code for fun. If I’m writing code, I’ll switch to trying to finish designing the perpetually unfinished 2.0 version of my website. The answer for me though, is to just keep trying. You have to work through those mental blocks, even after you take your break.
6. Me: As an American-born citizen of Indian origin, do you ever suffer from an identity crisis where you feel unsure of who you really are (the ABCD factor)?
Kunal: It’s definitely true that I have had an identity crisis, and have felt like perhaps there is some part of my background I am ignoring or not taking advantage of. But that was early on, and since then, I happily realized the truth is I am creating my own identity.
For more information on Kunal, visit his website at http://kunalbhat.com/.