STUDENT PAPER OF THE SCHOOL OF MEDIA & LIBERAL ARTS
GREATER NOiDA | october 27, 2017 | VOL 1 , issue 4 | PAGES 12
THE TIMES OF BENNETT
Colours of Lodhi Colony
Future of standup comedy
Photo feature on colourful street art in New Delhi PAGE 12
Sarthak Patil takes stand-up comedy to new heigths in Nagpur PAGE 4
Victims step up #MeToo campaign 2-in-1 man of Ranchi WRITAVA BANERJEE
DEEP DAS BARMAN
An online campaign, #MeToo has been doing the rounds on social media to create awareness about Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) and sexual crimes against women. The hashtag originated from Twitter and has spread to other social platforms. This movement was originally created almost a decade ago by Tarana Burke to aid women of colour who are survivors of sexual assault. But the movement actually took a trajectory when Hollywood actress Alyssa Milano put up a tweet urging women who faced sexual assault to write ‘me too’ in their posts. Her tweet followed the sexual harassment allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. Following this, a large number of people put up #MeToo as their status. People young and old feel very strongly about the issue. Kusum Kali Pal, a student said, “Six characters — #MeToo took the collective societal consciousness to task and the outcome is overwhelming. Through different experiences of men and women, what
Ashok Ram 2-in-1, popularly known as Mr 2-in1, was born in Bihar and brought up in Ranchi. He was raised like a normal kid but was destined to be extraordinary. He is a twoin-one man like a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. He lives with his family of seven, five kids, his wife and his dog “Chotu Duranga”. They completely support and encourage the spirit of Mr 2-in-1. He is quite famous in his locality, having starred in a local movie in which he played the role of both the villain and the hero. He has appeared on a talk show with Rakhi Sawant as well. He runs a paan shop where people stand
#MeToo illustration by Vibhuti Bharti came to the forefront was not a blame-game but a realisation of the information gap, ignorance and an urge to introspect, both for the victims and culprits.” Pal said that the narratives of the victims that were heralded by #MeToo instilled a sense of solidarity. “This solidarity in turn begins to nudge or slightly overwhelm culprits who are questioning their conduct, jokes and even how they see another person. The spectator in me is excited about the collective learning and unlearning that will unfold, but the victim in me gets angry
Huge number of people put up #MeToo as their status update at every comment which condensates a victim. The journey is long, but hey, it is not a bad start!” Pal said. Smita Tripathi, a teacher, explained further that the problem is closer home than we think it is. “Sexual harassment then too but it was not discussed thereby
making it easier for the perpetrator to escape but today with these types of drives on social media has emboldened the girls/ women to unburden the baggage they have been carrying for so long. Usually the perpetrators are close relatives, friends or someone whom the victim trusts and is so not willing to testify or report against. Not only women but also men have come forward to share their stories about harassment during childhood. Children are the softest preys.” Sweta Pandey talked about how such incidents
haunt her till date. “I have watched over my shoulder since I was 5-6 years old. Fear engulfs me every time I am in a similar situation. I have felt every terrible emotion a human being is capable of feeling in the last 20 years. Years spent trying to make sense of so many things; years spent being my own confidante because no one would probably believe me and a lifetime of living with issues that make life terribly difficult. While I get punished every day the people who did this have a happy prosperous life. ” she said. Continued on Page 3
The 2-in-1 man with one of his seven scooters in queues to get a glimpse of him. Mr 2-in-1 believes that nature loves symmetry and every natural thing in this world is symmetri-
Mr 2-in-1’s dog, ‘Chotu Duranga’
cal. He says, “People wear clothes of two different colours at a time, but they do the division of colours horizontally, I do it vertically.” He started this trend 11 years ago. His first attire was black and white. Later he added more colours. Every colour Mr. 2 in 1 wears has a meaning. Red symbolises mother’s love, since red is called “Laal” in Hindi and a beloved mother also calls her son “Laal”. The blue-and-black combination symbolises day and night. Also his dog “Chotu Duranga” is painted half black with a body paint. continued on Page 3
Zardozi continues to mesmerise
Artisans see bleak future in Dilli Haat
“Zardozi has flourished and survived till date and will even flourish and survive in the future,” says Irshad Ali, a Zardozi worker of Lucknow. While explaining the history of Zardozi Irshad says, “Zardozi is one of the oldest and most beautiful form of hand embroidery. It is known that Zardozi has been brought to India by the Mughal conquerors.” He further says, “Zar” means gold and “dozi” means embroidery. Irshad says, “Originally the embroidery of Zardozi was done with pure silver wires coated with real gold. Pure gold was beaten into fine metal taar (thread) and was used to embroider motifs on silk, satin and velvet. Due to rise in price of gold and silver, Zardozi workers started using copper wires polished with gold and silver.’’ In India Zardozi work is mainly done in the various
The shops at Dilli Haat are soon going to be all empty. Due to high rent and almost negligible footfall, the shopkeepers are shifting from the Haat. After the usual pre-Diwali Mela, the Haat again wears a deserted look. The shops are filled with glowing lanterns, scented candles, wooden handicrafts, a variety of flowers etc, but all their skills are getting wasted and they even find it difficult to run their households as there are hardly any customers to purchase their goods. The management of Dilli Haat has also hiked the rental of the shops, from Rs 250 to Rs 550 per day. When asked, Rajinder Singh a shopkeeper at the Haat, said, “log toh bahut bargain kar lete hain, jitna daam batao uska aadha bhi karna padta hai kai kai baar” (people tend to bargain a lot, sometimes we even have to sell the commodity at half the price).
KRITIKA LALWANI
regions. Irshad said, “Lucknow is the hub center for zardozi. Stitching and embroidery is considered to be a woman’s work but it has been seen that more men are involved in doing this zardozi work than women.’’ ’’Zardozi is not only used in clothing’s but also in home decorations,” says Huzoor another zardozi worker in Lucknow. He further talks about the plain wire badla and the tiny dots made of badla called mukaish. He says dabka, sitara, sequences, shiny stones and zari are used for zardozi work. Huzoor says it takes around two days to complete a light zardozi work and the price is varies from Rs2000 to Rs30000. Irshad says his eyesight is getting weak day by day and creating problems while doing zardozi work. Irshad even points out the fact, “Machine will never be able to take the place of man. Zardozi work can be
Zardozi worker with his cloth and needle done manually only. Tools required for doing zardozi work are needles, scissors and different types of frames commonly known as “Addas.” Irshad visiualises the design to be traced on a tracing sheet and then he makes holes along the traced pattern using needle. After this, fabric is placed in the holes on which the embroidery is to be done on a flat area. Then he makes a solution of kerosene and robin. He dips a piece of cloth into
this solution and rubs this piece of cloth over the tracing paper positioned on the cloth to be embroidered. Afterwards he ties the cloth to be embroidered to the addas or the frame and starts embroidering on the traced design with the help of a needle. The twisted gold thread used for embroidering and is known as Gijai. The range of products using Lucknow zardozi today are endless they include dresses, coats, purses, etc.
VIBHUTI YADAV
Shopkeeper at a stall in Delhi Haat, during the pre Diwali mela The major problems that the shopkeepers are facing is the increasing rental of shops, decreasing customers and the maintenance of their goods. On asking the profits he earns during festivals, he said, “kabhi kabhi ho jata hai par vaise toh hamesha hi khali hi rehta hai, Diwali se teen din
pehle bhi dekho koi nahi hai” (sometimes the Haat is empty even three days before Diwali). All the members of his family are working and most of them are in this profession. His runs his shop with the help of his cousin and many of his relatives work under
him in manufacturing the decorative items. When asked about his own Diwali preparation he said, “kuch nahi kiya hai, bas saaf safai he huyi hai, ghar me meethai bhi nahi aayi hai madam” (nothing except the cleaning has been done, even sweets haven’t been arranged till now).
Why men wearing pink are questioned about their masculinity? TANVI MISHRA
Have you ever imagined blue as a feminine colour and pink masculine? Unlikely, because the world follows a simple rule, ‘blue for the boys and pink for the girls’. Wait a minute. Do colours need a gender? And if they do when did they become male and female. In the 1918 edition of Earnshaw’s Infants’ Department, a trade publication, the colour pink is suited to men as it is more decisive and resolute whereas blue is for the women because it is subtle and graceful. Well, then pink was male and blue female once upon a time. When did the two colours swap their genders? PINK! The colour loved by all little girls’ world over, thanks to Walt Disney, who dressed up princesses in
pretty shades of pink and the princes in dark and bold colours, making little ones believe all colours have a gender. Over the years,
‘A colour that conveys a message larger than life cannot be demurred’ the gender dimension to colours has gained further ground. Carrying it in our subconscious minds, we question men and mock them when they wear pink. But we don’t object to women wearing a colour tagged as masculine? Ms. Sak-
shi Virmani, a journalist, said, “Men wearing pink shouldn’t be questioned about their masculinity. One should have the confidence to wear any colour, it is about how you carry it.” No colour is male or female. Colours didn’t come with stickers, they were put by us humans. As time passed, every emotion got associated with a colour; black depicts anger, red shows love, green for peace and so on and so forth. This year’s edition of ‘Pinkathon’, a marathon started by Milind Soman in 2012 to spread awareness among women to live fitter and healthier lives, became the subject of controversy when earlier this year women who took part in the marathon stood up against its nomenclature. “We talk about giving
wings to women but why do these wings come filled with a particular colour?” Pooja Shrivastava, a feminist and a Facebook critic, wondered. Pink is yet another classification to personify femininity like bangles and vermillion. It has become a menace, added Pooja. But should the colour-gender link be so undesirable? Pink has been recognised as the official campaign colour for the breast awareness campaign by the WHO, which apparently sends a positive message worldwide. People have universally accepted this colour to promote a cause. Why was there no protest against it? Dibyajyoti Sarma, a journalist and creative writer, said, “Commercialisation is the sole reason behind the uproar over
Stereotypically portraying men in blue and women in pink pink being called a feminine colour.” People failed to realise that the promotion of the colour was a mere marketing strategy and therefore, they accepted the forced fact that pink is a girls’ colour. He said that, in a country like India
with its diverse cultures and customs, every state has its own colour to denote happiness and grief. Dibyajyoti took the example of Maharashtra, where women wear green. The colours change as customs and traditions change.
During the Nazi regime, the masses were given different colours according to their class, the poor wore pink triangles and that did not mean they were less masculine, it was meant for only classification of the population. Again, in the
Elizabethan era, the people who wore colour pink in their clothing, be it men or women were dictated to do so by English Law. The colour reflected their social standing. “We can see two instances from two different eras using the same colour but in contrasting ways,” Dibyajyoti said. A colour that conveys a message larger than life cannot be demurred. It holds a valid fight, expressed Mr. Dibyajyoti. Pooja said every woman demands an equal say in the decision-making process rather than being merely associated with a colour. “The men are told not to express emotions openly and taught to dominate. Pink is becoming a taboo,” Pooja said. Continued on page 3