Discovering definitions of Digital Media and Learning

In March this year, I got the most pleasant surprise of my life. A phone call from David Theo Goldberg at the University of California at Irvine telling me I was one of the winners of the 2009 Digital Media and Learning competition! 

I had applied almost 6 months earlier, after Jay Dedman, a wonderful videoblogger from the US emailed me about the competition. Soon I approached Madhusudan Agarwal of Mam Movies and Angana Jhaveri, an independent filmmaker in Bombay to collaborate on the grant application. Unfortunately, Mam Movies later withdrew when we had different ideas about the management of the project. Subsequently, Video Volunteers became the organizational partner for 'Women Aloud: Videoblogging for Empowerment'. 

WAVE as it's now acronymized (I know this is not a word), involves training 30 college age women from marginalized backgrounds - one from each state in India - to video blog about their perspectives on community issues. Since there's also 30 days in a month, we will have a new video up everyday from a different part of India highlighting a different story on that month's theme. 

I believe this is the first project of its kind in India, and I'm incredibly excited to see how it works out. We have many aims for the project: empowerment, training community/ citizen journalists, offering a livelihood skill, promoting the spirit of activism and engagement in civic and social issues, and the list goes on... 

Fortunately, we have been funded the entire amount that we requested - $107,000 - for the first year of this project, by the admirable MacArthur Foundation and HASTAC, to buy equipment, pay stipends to women participants and pay staff. But we will need to find a way to make the project sustainable for the future. 

I highly recommend that you check out the fantastic projects that were winners in this competition. It's inspiring to see people committed to innovative training such as 'Virtual Peace' where you learn about public policy and distributing emergency funds through an interactive game or 'Digital Ocean' where kids learn about underwater life and conservation. Other projects I loved were 'Black Cloud' where kids measure atmospheric pollution in their schools, 'Fractor' where they publish news and related actions readers can take. 

Meeting the people behind these projects at the two day winner's reception in Chicago in mid April was like a feast for my new media thirsty, social entrepreneur soul!

Another concept I enjoyed was Plork, the Princeton Laptop Orchestra, where computer science and music majors make music off keyboards while a conductor synchronizes them. 

Then there were inspirational international personalities like Ramsey Tesdell who works in citizen media projects in Palestine, South African and Mexican Chiapas school principals encouraging literacy through mobile phones and low-cost laptops...

Plork - Princeton Laptop Orchestra

At the 2009 MacArthur/HASTAC Digital Media and Learning Competition awards. 

$500 bottles of madeira from 1905!

At the Spanish Table, Berkeley

Funky Dim Sum in Hong Kong

Jellyfish with chopped cucumber

Tea leaf smoked egg

Gluten puff

Are these all that common?

Pizza on a naan at Chaat Cafe in Berkeley - innovative Indian food at last!

Kill Bill kid's clothing near Dadar station

Open letter to Advani from IPS officer re: why Hindu's shouldn't vote for the BJP

An open letter to Shri L.K. Advani Member of Parliament, Gandhinagar.
>From Mr R.B. Sreekumar, IPS

Most Respected Shri L.K.Advani,

Sir, I am a voter in Gandhinagar Loksabha constituency. I am a Hindu by birth and practitioner of the tenets of Sanatana Dharma, the eternal religion, popularly called ?Hinduism, in my own humble way, in personal life.

The conceptual and philosophical framework of Hinduism is enshrined in three fold treatises - Prasthanathrayam - namely, Brahmasutras, Upanishads and the Bhagvad Gita.

Equal adoration to all varieties of divinity and paths towards them and recognition of the right to salvation/liberation to all living beings , including plants and animals are deemed to be the most ennobling and elevating feature of Hinduism. Ill will towards even non ?believers is also not permitted , not to speak of people professing non-Hindu faiths.
Any deviation or aberration by any individual or group of persons or an organisation of Hindus ,away from the four walls of these ideals make them unacceptable and condemnable for real Hindus. Applying this yardstick , BJP supported by its sister bodies in the Sangh Parivar would be quite undeserving for getting votes from Hindus , who are intrinsically practising quintessence of Hindu ontological ideals.

In the history of Hinduism there were only two most demoralisingly deplorable instances of sacrilegious crimes, which would make any self respecting and committed Hindu to bury his head in shame. The first was demolition of a worship centre, (building for prayer) Babri Masjid of Ayodhya in December 1992. The second was the anti-minority genocide in which over 2000, mostly innocents were brutally killed. Both these Satanic acts were the handiwork of miscreants, owing allegiance to BJP, going by the presence of well known BJP leaders on the scene of these crimes.

The Bhagvad Gita is quite explicit about one's approach to any form of worship. In three slokas the relevant principles are unambiguously laid down.

In Chapter 4 Sloka 11, Lord Krishna proclaims, "In whatever way men identify with Me, in the same way do I carry out their desires; men pursue My path, in all ways"

Again in Chapter 6-30, the Lord preaches, "He who sees Me everywhere and sees all in Me, he never becomes lost to Me, nor do I become lost to him"
Finally in Chapter 7-21, the Lord promulgates, "Whatever form any devotee with faith wishes to worship, I make that faith of his steady."

The brigands who razed the 16th century mosque in Ayodhya to the ground actually acted against the letter, spirit and ethos of the above stipulations by Lord Krishna that is why those great Hindus, who lived and enriched my religion from 1529 A.D., the year of construction of Babri Masjid to 1992, the year of demolition, did not care to move even their little finger against this monument, during their lifetime. We have a galaxy of Hindu giants, who left laudable foot prints on the sands of time, in this period, from Goswami Tulsidas to Mahatma Gandhi.

Can we consider the marauders and their leaders, who knocked down the masjid, by insulting even the pious name of Lord Shiva (those rogues shouted Jai Shiv Shankar, during demolition and the word meaning of Shankar is 'One who blesses everybody with peace, Sham Karoti Iti Shamkaram)', as greater champions and 'brave sons of Hinduism' than those model Hindus like Mahatma Gandhi, whose life and deeds brought greatness and glory to the Sanatana Dharma.?

Honourable Advaniji, if there is scriptural justification for the liquidation of Babri Masjid, kindly convey it to all Hindus, so that they will not have any hesitation to vote for BJP.

In case the BJP views the bulldozing of the Babri Masjid as an unHindu act, why no legal or organisational penal action to punish those destroyers of the centre of worship - Kshetradwamshas, as prescribed for Aathathais (criminals) in the dharmashastras was taken so far? Since no such move is visible from BJP it will be quite impossible for a Hindu voter to accept BJP as a party which adheres to the principles and practice of the scriptural ideals of Hinduism.

The story is similar in case of anti-minority genocide in Gujarat, in which over 2000 innocents lost their lives. Never in the history of Hindu Rajas, in the pre-histotic or historic times, the ruler did allow a set of his subjects (prajas) to freely kill another group - not even by notorious evil souls like Nahusha, Tarakasura, Ravana, Kamsa or Duryodhana. The word Raja etymologically meant to be a person who brings reconciliation and peace among the subjects ? Prajanam Ranjanath Raja (Brahmanda Purana) . If there was an underworld active in the minority community, why Police was not used to neutralise them on 27-2-2002, the day of the gruesome Godhra carnage, and subsequent days. Police records confirm that practically no anti-social headstrong criminals from the minority community were killed, during the 2002 riots by the mobs, largely constituted by BJP supporters.

In case BJP was not backing the protracted pogrom in 2002, why no action against the perpetrators of heinous crimes, either at organisational level or through Criminal Justice System (CJS). Instead whenever accused in riot cases were released on bail, BJP arranged receptions to them on the pattern of commendation extended to our freedom fighters during the struggle for independence.

Can you kindly intimate your voters in Gandhinagar the slokas and suktas from Hindu holy books in approval of the prolonged atrocities on the defenceless people and subsequent and currently on-going subversion of CJS, which prompted the apex court to characterise Gujarat State govt. officials as 'modern Neros'.

Kamandakia Nitisara, a well accepted authority on Hindu polity, in Chapter 5 Shlokas 82-83, cautions the administrators/ Rajas to protect the citizens from the favourites of the King and his own greed. "The subjects require protection against wicked officers of the King, thieves, enemies of the King, royal favourites (such as the Queens, Princes etc.) and more than all, against the greed of the King himself. The king should secure the people against these fears.

Further, the Shanti Parva of Mahabharata (59-106/107) exhorts the ruler "You should take a pledge that by thought, word and deed, you will rule the world believing that creation is the very incarnation of the Creator". The question asked by the devout Hindus is thus , Were the minorities in Gujarat in 2002, who were victimised by the mobs, inferior creations?

Sir, you may kindly clarify as to whether above components of Raj Dharma as per the real Hindutva of the Hindu religion were actualised by the Gujarat State Govt. functionaries from the highest to the lowest, during and after 2002 riots.

With due respect to your long innings in Indian politics, I appeal to you to kindly provide convincing clarifications to my aforesaid plebeian queries so that faith of Hindus in BJP's commitment to fundamental Hindu ideals can be restored.

Respectful regards,R. B. Sreekumar .
rbsreekumar71@yahoo.com