Chennai Roads presents roads in Chennai, Bangalore
Here is another visual representation of the urban mess that India is...
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Monday, December 24, 2007
Jeeva Nagar, Chennai: Using Youtube to expose
The media battle today is centred round eyeballs. Television, the Internet and print newspapers are all competing for reader and viewer attention, to the point of screaming their messages and using a variety of lures to attract an audience.
So how do you get your message across in all this din?
The residents of a residential layout in Chennai's suburbs next to Mangadu and Poonamallee, called Jeeva Nagar, have hit upon the idea of using Youtube to broadcast their own 41 second film on their problems.
Earlier, they used the Right to Information Act, 2005 to get important information from the Mangadu Town Panchayat about the state of their layout and plans for development.
See the short video. The scene is nothing exceptional for Indians, although land here now costs about five million rupees a ground! The Mangadu Town Panchayat apparently does not care, although it expects its pound of flesh whenever a building permission application is filed by a Jeeva Nagar property owner. What is interesting is that this has become a film, titles, credits and all.
The media battle today is centred round eyeballs. Television, the Internet and print newspapers are all competing for reader and viewer attention, to the point of screaming their messages and using a variety of lures to attract an audience.
So how do you get your message across in all this din?
The residents of a residential layout in Chennai's suburbs next to Mangadu and Poonamallee, called Jeeva Nagar, have hit upon the idea of using Youtube to broadcast their own 41 second film on their problems.
Earlier, they used the Right to Information Act, 2005 to get important information from the Mangadu Town Panchayat about the state of their layout and plans for development.
See the short video. The scene is nothing exceptional for Indians, although land here now costs about five million rupees a ground! The Mangadu Town Panchayat apparently does not care, although it expects its pound of flesh whenever a building permission application is filed by a Jeeva Nagar property owner. What is interesting is that this has become a film, titles, credits and all.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Small stories about people and places
New media can tell many micro stories easily. Anyone with an interest in his surroundings and a small camera phone in hand knows that. Unlike the high power, bloated presence of television, the keen video blogger can achieve a lot more.
Here is the first of a series of videos that tell those small stories about life in India. These stories will be about small and big men. Many of these themes are too familiar to excite Indians. When put in context, they say a lot for a global audience.
This is the scene of Chennaiites returning home under trying circumstances. Pocket-picking gangs proliferate in these packed situations. Hopes are lost, as are fortunes. Governments don't care much.
These people must just pay their taxes and hope that somehow their lot will be transformed one fine day...
New media can tell many micro stories easily. Anyone with an interest in his surroundings and a small camera phone in hand knows that. Unlike the high power, bloated presence of television, the keen video blogger can achieve a lot more.
Here is the first of a series of videos that tell those small stories about life in India. These stories will be about small and big men. Many of these themes are too familiar to excite Indians. When put in context, they say a lot for a global audience.
This is the scene of Chennaiites returning home under trying circumstances. Pocket-picking gangs proliferate in these packed situations. Hopes are lost, as are fortunes. Governments don't care much.
These people must just pay their taxes and hope that somehow their lot will be transformed one fine day...
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