Exercise 10

Design brief.

I am a student of Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology. I intend to introduce an interactive space in between the senior citizens and junior citizens of Yelahanka. I am looking forward to exchange of thoughts, feelings, knowledge and values among the two parties. By junior citizens I mean they must be aged between 17 to 23 and by senior citizens they must be aged 60 or above. Through active participation these sessions can lead to events in the form of a festival.

Name of Project: 1. Old are Bold.

Or

2. Trade traditions.

Or

3. Golden Bridge. (Name can change if students can come up with better ones.)

Participants: 10 students required in the age of 17 to 22, 23. Kannada, Hindi and

English speaking having some sufficient extra time of two hours

Every evening from the 16^th of August to the 4^th of September. (Time will be discussed according to majority’s convenience)

Project requires: 1. Every student must get in touch with a relative or a neighbor.

Or, a family friend who must be retired (aged above 60). Each

Student must find minimum two old aged individuals who are

Fit (not suffering with health problems) enough to give us time every two hours in these three weeks.

2. Suggestions on how must we conduct an interactive session. For example, I suggest that a festival will be conducted by all of us. This festival will have competitions (debates, cookery, art and craft etc), themes, entertainment where groups will be mixed between students and senior citizens.

3. The events will be divided into two days. One day for off stage events, the other day for on stage events. There will also be a display of work done by both students and senior citizens which will/will not be for sale. Can be food, art and craft, etc.

4. The three weeks will be divided like this-

a) 17^th to 21^st –will consist of interaction, getting to know each other, discovery of skills and talents, planning out the events, dividing responsibilities.

b) 23^rd to 28^th – working on advertising the event/festival in and around Yelahanka through posters, Internet, etc. (2 days for this and beyond), working on the events planning and managing properly.

c) 30^th august to 1^st September—Practice sessions for participants, series of rehearsals.

d) 2^nd September—final rehearsal and finishing touches.

e) 3^rd to 4^th September—off stage and on stage events.

The above division of the three weeks can be changed depending on the convenience of the senior citizens but not the final events dates.

Exercise 5

A visit to Marasandra on Dodaballapur

Its this village we went to around 25 minutes from college by bus.

We stopped by the house of Bhairavana in front of whose house we saw freshly baked pots displayed. Bhairavana was inside the front yard of his shack where his work was in progress. Though language and culture was a barrier, Bhairavana didn't feel concious at all. He continued his skilled pot making on the cart wheel which spun at a high speed. Within the span of ten to fifteen minutes he made like four pots with ease like a cakewalk.

He mentioned that he inherited this business from his fathers.

We were allowed to intrude and observe the surroundings.

There was this huge oven like furnace where they baked the pots.

During monsoons they work but keep the shacks covered with layers of plastic sheets.

As we approached inside we met his son Manjunatha with swift hand movements moulding the clay into idols of Ganesha, as the festive season is coming up next month.

They don't invest much as they use water colours to paint. They don't put varnish as the finishing touches. Because these idols are eventually immersed in the natural waters which leads to the hardened clay to melt and that clay goes back to the water ground.

Exercise 4

Our new exercise was based on egronomics. We had to choose any worker like the coconut seller, cobbler, auto driver, etc. and measure his work and working methods.

I chose the furnishings tailor in Yelahanka New Town.

Measurements:

Distance from arm to table=28 inches

Breadth of the table=21 inches

Height of the table table from the ground=31 inches

Bends to collect materials to his right from the floor=24 inches.

Exercise 3

We had to take those two people's lives and make a scenario of a financial crisis or legal crisis. As i chose the following- owner of the cake shop, Mr. Sunil Punjabi, and the owner of my hostel, Mr. Pratish Uthappa.

Sunil Punjabi- He moved into Bangalore seven years back from Mumbai when the death of his father took place which led to the dirty games of inheriting property among his brothers and sisters. His wife had the degree of passing a culnirary course.

He bought a house in Ganganagar in Bangalore. And got a good deal of rent at R.T. Nagar to start his cake shop with his wife.

In the year 2002 R.T. Nagar was not as polished and developed as it is now.

As the years passed it started to get so. A pizza hut opened to the left of his shop. A nilgiris opened in across the road.

He could see familiar faces inside nilgiris and pizza hut than purchasing from his shop. They are consumers after all. How could he complain?

The students pockets were well suited to his shop. In the last three years the rent increased and he didn't have a back up space. Mr. Sunil could not pay the rent this year. And the Income Tax Department extended his penalty. He still could not cover up the amount.

Mr. Sunil is about to meet his lawyer and take the matter up to the C.A. who will give him legal advise.

Mr. Pratish Uthappa- Mr. Pratish left for Chennai to his paternal house to take care of his unwell relative. He got huge provisions for two weeks for the pg and gave the warden a sum of 15,000 ruppees in case of emergency.

The other day i returned from college early and saw that the pg was not cleaned.

I went and asked aunty for explanation from the warden,

Warden: The maids have left and gone.

Me: So our rooms will remain dirty?

Warden: Then you clean it yourself.

I got so angry. I lost my temper and called Pratish and he disconnected my call and texted me saying that he was out of town.

Aunty came and apologised for being rude to me. And told me that last evening she was out to take the landline call for five to seven minutes in the corridor. And the money that Pratish gave her is stolen. So she tried to ask the maids and they felt insulted to be questioned and left.

Aunty broke into tears and told me what can she do? Can't even ask the students.

In the evening we sat for a meeting. And discussed the matter. And the seniors suggested her to lodge a complaint. But she wasn't ready to take that risk with Pratish not being around. And how could she tell Pratish?

Exercise 2 part 2

As i stay at Pratish paying guest i know to an extent how it works. But not the details. So i won't be able to get enough inside information unless i indirectly interview him personally.

From what i know its a neatly organised business though some tiffs and disputes come in the way it doesn't show that much.

We have a warden who is in charge of us. The structure is well secured with security guards. We have two cooks. Two cleaners.

Every week's provision is given to the warden and the money.

He visits the paying guest once in a week. Sometimes twice.

I'll get to know more when i interview him personally.

Dilip as i mentioned does not do the business. I spoke to him and he told me that their bakery is in R.T. Nagar and the snacks that he brings to us comes from their factory directly which is situated in Hebbal.

He gave the man's number who owns the business. Mr. Sunil Punjabi. I went all the way to their cake shop. It looked very simple and not at all fancy or bling like. He was very warm and greeted me as a customer. At that time the shop was getting arranged as they just opened it. He has around workers there, they also behaved very much like him. As a customer i instantly developed a liking towards this cake shop. His shop had other things like readymade Indian snacks and whole sale like cheese, chocolates, mayonaise, pop corn etc. I told him that i had once had the blueberry cheesecake and i'd like to have one there. He seemed really busy but the little that he attended to me made me feel like an important customer. He was not the fake kind. He seemed genuine. He said they have come from Mumbai. I asked him where the muffins and donuts were? He told me that department is handled by his wife. And he offered that i could meet her. I called her up and she fixed a meeting this saturday that is tomorrow.

Exercise 2

Our new task was to track two kinds of people running a small scale business and efficient at it. We were to be the "fly on the wall". We weren't to stalk the two people completely. But be invisible to them while researching. Like a customer and not a journalist.

I thought the two people i can track is the person who owns the paying guest i live in now. His name is Pratish Uthappa.

The second one would be the guy who comes to our college from 2:30 to 5:30 to sell donuts and evening snacks, Dilip, known as "muffin man".

Both the above seem to have an interesting at the same time different kind of business.

Looking forward to be the "fly on the wall".

Exercise 1

Our aim for the first exercise was to earn 100 rupees in a way where we don't mention that we are doing it for a project or charity. We were to earn this 100 rupees thinking creatively. Time limit was for a day.

I thought of making smiley badges and selling them.

But that wasn't enough.

Why would anyone buy smiley badges and just shell out money for me to reach a hundred's profit?

In fact i wouldn't buy a smiley badge from just a random street seller.

Then i thought over it.

I myself feel strongly for the environment.

I am not an activist but the least i do is make attempts to save electricity, water and not litter on the streets.

So i made these water drop shaped blue paper cut out and shaded it nicely with the blue pencils i had. It had the text "SAVE ME". I pinned it to safety pins.

The other one didn't turn out to look as appealing as i had planned. I cut out a leaf shaped light green paper. That too had "SAVE ME" on it.

By the time i was done, I knew there was no point in going to the city, I tried this place called B.E.L. Road near Hebbal.

I went to this coffee shop there called Barista. A lot of youngsters were sitting there.

I approached a group of three girls and told them that i would like them to buy those. i spoke about the scarcity of water within the coming decades. And we must not take it for granted. And more.

Initially i was charging ten rupees for it. They refused. Since they showed little interest while i was talking i thought i'll make it five for them.

Then it started to rain.

I managed to sell around seven and made 35 rupees.

Couldn't reach the hundred. Also realised its difficult without the plan.