My father is close to 80 years old and he reads some 8 newspapers in a day in
great detail, watches almost all TV channels for news, He is an ex army person,
with little or no knowledge of how government and government policies work.
Everyday makes him more and more agitated and now he engages in giving his views
to TV in our living room when political discussions are going own. I feel very
helpless. I watch him going thru the real pain of not liking whats happening,
whats being done and i understand the futility of explaining the system and how
it works. Most of what he feels angry about is a correct reason, but i tend to
feel a anguish at the ease with which he just sits and comments. Also he doesnt
understand the information bias built into the broadcast systems. Not every news
is presented form the angle that it seems to come from.
Why dont they make better roads, why dont they punish the guilty, why dont they
make cities safer, why dont they clean the place, why dont they give admission
to deserving students, why dont they…they ..they ..they..
very difficult to explain..there is no “they” there is only “us”.
i dont know if it is wrong to expect in a country like ours, where “us” do have
the freedom to do and create what we want. it is there- except that “us” has to
be me or you and without any help..but yes the freedom exists and it is real.
For years there have been discussions that we have less designers, we need more
designers in almost all spheres of design, we need more institutions…we need
more provisions…
we realise Design is not a priority sector, (it is not even though we are in it
:), it is difficult to get resources and allocations and even time with
authorities that could do something about it.
We also realise Designer is a very small population and not influential at
that…whatever you may say the fact is- designindia after 10 years, on multiple
networks is just 6 thousand people….(its free)
ADI has facebook page with over 1000 likes, but we all know the moment
enrollment starts the number is bound to be less than this.
Less numbers, no resources, no influence makes this community self centered and
we talk to each other most of the time. which is more like what my father does
with the TV.
In my view we as this small community need to be positive and supportive of any
initiatives and steps that come our way. We should understand and take into
stride our individual shortcomings and work with each other for reasons and
causes to make this profession come to light. As it is we have negligible or no
government involvement, and then whatever we get we are tend to criticise and
pull apart so much that i worry if there is any reason for people to take all
this at all.
I feel the private initiatives are treated in the same vain as well, sarcasm,
doubt and pulling down more than support and lending hand.
Many times i do feel like asking my Dad, what did he do to make things better /
other tahn sit in front of TV and crib….
Then i think perhaps things are so bad, perhaps its only me who feels i need to
do something instead of becoming my father…
I am sorry, i dont think when u criticise you are wrong, but i do question why
do you (only) criticise..
Please do put your view..
Sudhir Sharma
Designindia
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