Blog Moved

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All those interested in reading can access it here

Documentary on Chharas and Budhan Theatre

Watch the documentary BullDozer made by the Budhan Theatre on the plight of their Chhara community.

You can read more on the documentary, Budhan Theatre and Chharanagar on my previous post here. Read about the recent demolition in Maninagar by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation's Bulldozer here .

Watch the documentary on the Chhara tribal theatre "The Budhan Theatre Group". This documentary has been made by P. Kerim Friedman & Shashwati Talukdar.

New Connections on Orkut

Logged into my orkut account after returning back from 5-day trip to Goa. And what I see on my homepage is 9 friend requests and none of the requester looks familiar to me. No doubt orkut has made life easier by helping us find old school and college friends but the annoying aspect of orkut is getting friend requests from strangers. Especially women are bugged by these friend requests from the romeos of the cyber world. Don't know if the same happens with the guys. All those guys out there do tell if you are also flooded with friend requests from the juliets on orkut.

The above picture is my orkut homepage where I have 9 new friend requests(all males) from people I don't know. I am not open to making friends on internet so all these friend requests would be denied by clicking ''no".

Apart from the friend requests the scrapbook and the message inbox is flooded with messages from anonymous like -

"wanna have friendship with me" - The simplest friendship message

" hi i dont have any chat friend or girl friend......can we?????????" - This message gives an impression as if orkut is a dating site.

"hi girls,well i am a goan guy, aged 23 workin abroad. i am a simple and down hearted guy. i am tall, medium complexion and a very honest man. i am looking for my life partner. If any girl is interested in me, kindly message me on orkut or leave your telephone no. thanks alot ".

- This message was sent to the members of a girls' college community. Ever thought that orkut would play a matchmaking role in India. May be time will come when it would leave behind all those matrimonial sites like shaadi.com and bharatmatrimony.com who claims to be no.1 matrimony in India. Infact I think orkut would be more effective than these matrimonial sites as the bride/groom can find all the details about the prospective groom/bride from their profile and not to forget the testimonials. So all the guys and gals out there getting ready for their marriage, make your profile look good and impressive and bribe your friends to write a perfect testimonial for you before the person looking for you hits on your orkut profile.

Orkut recently entered its third year. It has become one of the most favourite timepass leaving behind Yahoo messenger and other chat services. Orkut is addictive and I am also a victim of it. All is fine with orkut till you are able to stay in touch with your friends but becomes irritating when you receive friend request and messages from Anonymous especially if you are not in favor of making internet friends.

Orkut is a great social networking site but like everything comes with its disadvantages, same is true with orkut. I have never come across any guy in the similar situation. All guys there on orkut let us know if your scrapbooks and inbox also gets loaded with friend requests from anonymous gals.

The DNTs of Maninagar - Fighting for a Permanent Shelter

The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation’s(AMC) bulldozer for the 12th time demolished the huts of the denotified tribes (DNTs) in Maninagar, Ahmedabad. It was on 8th Feb. 2007 when people of four denotified communities, who have been staying here for last 30-40 years, became homeless.

For their survival they used to sell maps in Ahmedabad city, villages. Women used to make plastic ropes at home itself and men used to go for ear cleaning work. Some used to sell toys while some of the women used to go for begging for their family’s survival. These people have been living under terror of the AMC as they demolish their houses and even beat women and children brutally.

Various applications have been submitted for a permanent settlement but there has been no positive response. Now “Sambhav” group has started a petition against the demolition drive of the AMC. Sambhav is a volunteer social group of the students of DA-IICT, Gandhinagar who go to Maninagar to teach the children of the people belonging to the denotified tribes. More on Sambhav here. The petition is a part of the struggle for getting a permanent settlement for these tribes.

People are suffering a lot. It is hot summer in Ahmedabad and there is no shelter for them. Now they cannot even go for earning because they have no place to leave their children. People are lying with empty stomach. These nomadic tribes need our help to make their dream of having their own house come true.

I request you to sign this petition and forward it to as many people as possible if you want to contribute to this struggle. Sign the petition here.

The previous post on the other DNT tribe of Chharanagar can be read here.