[Reader-list] Urban Spaces and Identity Formation: Second Posting

[Monica Narula]

Hi Madhura

The problem with posting images on the list is that there is a very  
high possibility of virus getting through the administering of the  
list as well - we must dismiss at least 50 spam/virus messages a day...

But i agree that those images should be seen

Can i suggest that you start a blog? Places like blogspot make it  
very easy and if you go to http://freetemplates.blogspot.com/ you can  
also get a different template from the usual one.

Once you have uploaded images on to that, members of the reader-list  
could visit the blog and see the images.

There are many on the list who keep blogspot blogs - i'm sure that  
they can give more advice!

best
M

Monica Narula
Raqs Media Collective
Sarai-CSDS
29 Rajpur Road
Delhi 110 054
www.raqsmediacollective.net
www.sarai.net


On 21-Apr-07, at 7:01 PM, madhura l wrote:

> Hi all! Am just managing to put in my second posting before my  
> designated week gets over. I'm beginning to think this practice is  
> nice though…gives you a chance to stop and look back on where your  
> work is going. And this is how and where my work is going:
>
>
> By now I have a fairly concrete idea of what is the pattern of  
> content of the notice boards ( vartaphalak) I've been covering in  
> different areas. To give a crude categorization, here are the  
> 'types' of content that are put up in the vartaphalak:
>
>
> Pertaining to religion: There are actually three broad categories  
> in this type. The first one concerns overtly technical information  
> about religious practices (in the context of Hindu religion of  
> course). Very pedagogic in nature, these are small tips on how to  
> perform puja, where to place ritual objects, how to make a ritual  
> offering, what is the significance of a particular festival and so  
> on. The language used is extremely formal, some of the words almost  
> alien to everyday language. These boards are homogenous since they  
> are 'adopted' by a local organization 'Sanatan Sanstha', whose  
> volunteers write these messages on the various vartaphalak. I'm not  
> yet completely sure what the organization is all about, whether it  
> is affiliated to the political Hindu right and so on. More on this  
> in the next posting definitely!
>
>
> The second type is again related to religious teachings, but which  
> are largely couched in a spiritual-moral discourse. The 3-4 Muslim  
> boards included in this study fall in this category. For instance,  
> some of the messages generally revolve around extolling the virtues  
> of Khwaja Garib Nawaaz or explaining the generosity of a particular  
> pir.
>
>
> Lastly, there are the overtly Hindu fundamentalist vartaphalaks,  
> which have a specific agenda of consistently spewing forth hatred  
> against Muslims and Christians. The content here is acidic, the  
> rhetoric strongly communal. It is not a surprise that these 3  
> vartaphalak are to be found in the Sadashiv Peth-Narayan Peth  
> areas, which are almost exclusively Brahmin populated.
>
>
> The moral discourse: I have given this title to this category for  
> the want of a better term. But I'll try and explain what exactly it  
> entails. There are 3-4 such vartaphalaks, wherein a '  
> Suvichar' (Thought for the day) is written everyday. There is a  
> strong rhetoric of morality, 'good' behaviour, ethics, values like  
> humanism, benevolence, courage that is reflected in these messages.  
> They present an archetype of 'ideal' citizen, who is moral, ethical  
> and patriotic in his outlook.
>
>
> Political commentaries: This is an interesting category. There are  
> 2 vartaphalaks which constantly engage in commenting on the recent  
> political happenings, at the local as well as the national level.  
> Both the boards use an irreverent, satirical style while critiquing  
> the happenings around them.
>
>
> I will try and give a sample of a few messages of each category the  
> next time.
>
>
> I have also realized that the frequency of these messages tends to  
> be pretty inconsistent, barring a few. So some boards that  
> regularly used to change their content, have now hardly anything  
> new to say. In such cases, I've been confused as to whether to  
> include these in the study or omit them.
>
>
> By now I have almost close to 300 photographs, since a photoessay  
> is also one of the outcomes of this study. It's a shame one cannot  
> put up images on the reader-list, otherwise it would have given  
> everyone a greater sense of what I was saying.
>
>
> That's all for now. Waiting for some feedback, comments, whatever.
>
> Madhura
>
>
> _________________________________________
> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
> Critiques & Collaborations
> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with  
> subscribe in the subject header.
> To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070426/d2168c68/attachment.html