nid-less to say
24th January 2005 5:40 a.m - journey begins to Ahmedabad via Jet Airways.
Purpose - To interview students from the National Institute of Design (NID), the premier design school in the country.
Have been welcomed onboard, by plastic smiles, fake hospitatility, and a vegetarian fare that's compulsory in the name of sensitivity to a region and people who are supposed to be 'pure vegetarian'. When I ask the hostess about non vegetarian she tells me 'Sir this is a completely vegetarian flight. In my plate lies a 'medhu vada' (spicy donut for those uninitiated in Indian cuisine) soaked in sambar and Gobi bhaji. The state of Gujarat where Ahmedabad is situated is on the west of the Indian Peninsula whereas the menu that is served to me is from south and north respectively. So much for sensitivity and appeasement to the people of gujarat or gujarati or gujjus. I don't think I can complain about sensitivity to me who is a 'pure non vegetarian' after I notice the standard of sensitivity here.
Reach Ahmedabad to 11 degrees celsius. (Ahmedabad - name soon changing to Amdavad I think because of the signboards I see while traveling through the city). Another form of sensitivity I think, Ahmedabad is the name from the muslim past of the city, so change the past lest we get too sensitive about it again.
Finally I enter the pristine environment of NID at Paldi which is around 15-20 KM from the airport. Brickwork decor, very arty, and smells of fresh creativity. Go through their exhibition that display some of the best work done. One thing that I notice is their sensitivity to the Indian ethos in the work. Most of the design innovations are meant for India. I'm a little gullible when I see anything that makes me proud to be an Indian. NID gave me that feeling.
Spoke to students from Information Design and New Media Design segments. Most of them show the sensitivity required towards design and adpating it to the requirements. Also being from a design school they are sensitive and aware of the fact that reality means a very different challenge. Incubated creativity done in gay abandon is drastically different from the creativity under defined and sometimes hand to mouth requirements. All in all was pleased with the kind of reception that I got at NID. Expanded my horizon to the talent that is available.
Gujarat is a non alcohol state, and I met couple of students who were part of a local heavy metal outfit appropriately named 'Dry State' albeit tongue in cheek. They opened for Parikrama, my favourite Indian rock band, a day before at IIM Ahemedabad fest. Sensitivity of a different kind where state government diktat doesn't allow you to be to able to celebrate or mourn your senses away. All for a good cause they say, yes I say to the bootleggers of neighbouring wet states and the 'wet' patches of a dry state.
A very good session at NID gets completed and 'needless to say' I'm impressed with this institution that incubated some of the best talents in the country, truly a picture of national integration sensitive to having to give back to the country what they have gained. Hats off NID, proud to be associated with this esteemed insititution.
Journey back home, where my beloved awaits for more than an hour from ETA, thanks to
some aerospace issue at Ahmedabad, all flights get delayed. Finally I'm back on the all vegetarian flight back home. Dinner is being served, the cart rolls next to my aisle seat, and my sensitive nose smells some non vegetarian. The hostess asks a couple of passengers if they have asked for non vegetarian. Both reply in the negative, I wonder whether they would have been offended if they were pure vegetarian and found the statement blasphemous, but this hostess is not sensitive to that. When my turn comes, the hostess dumps the regular vegatarian fare in front of me, and once again like in the morning I mouth the words can I have non vegetarian, I get the same reply that this is an all vegetarian flight. But I guess she's gotten a little sensitive to my pangs for non vegetarian food and says she'll check and get back to me. And as promised, she's back with the non vegetarian packet for me. I'm thrilled only for a while till I find that I did this for just two miniscule pieces of chicken.
Finally meals are done and my 45 minute airborne experience is coming to an end, as we land at Mumbai airport. Strangely in Mumbai and so is the case with most airports in India, the state sponsored airlines like Air India and Indian Airlines get the preference over the private carriers. So my flight gets space not a terminal a couple of 'hamlets' away from Santacruz.
What the heck, atleast I'm home safe, needless to say that's all that matters finally.
Purpose - To interview students from the National Institute of Design (NID), the premier design school in the country.
Have been welcomed onboard, by plastic smiles, fake hospitatility, and a vegetarian fare that's compulsory in the name of sensitivity to a region and people who are supposed to be 'pure vegetarian'. When I ask the hostess about non vegetarian she tells me 'Sir this is a completely vegetarian flight. In my plate lies a 'medhu vada' (spicy donut for those uninitiated in Indian cuisine) soaked in sambar and Gobi bhaji. The state of Gujarat where Ahmedabad is situated is on the west of the Indian Peninsula whereas the menu that is served to me is from south and north respectively. So much for sensitivity and appeasement to the people of gujarat or gujarati or gujjus. I don't think I can complain about sensitivity to me who is a 'pure non vegetarian' after I notice the standard of sensitivity here.
Reach Ahmedabad to 11 degrees celsius. (Ahmedabad - name soon changing to Amdavad I think because of the signboards I see while traveling through the city). Another form of sensitivity I think, Ahmedabad is the name from the muslim past of the city, so change the past lest we get too sensitive about it again.
Finally I enter the pristine environment of NID at Paldi which is around 15-20 KM from the airport. Brickwork decor, very arty, and smells of fresh creativity. Go through their exhibition that display some of the best work done. One thing that I notice is their sensitivity to the Indian ethos in the work. Most of the design innovations are meant for India. I'm a little gullible when I see anything that makes me proud to be an Indian. NID gave me that feeling.
Spoke to students from Information Design and New Media Design segments. Most of them show the sensitivity required towards design and adpating it to the requirements. Also being from a design school they are sensitive and aware of the fact that reality means a very different challenge. Incubated creativity done in gay abandon is drastically different from the creativity under defined and sometimes hand to mouth requirements. All in all was pleased with the kind of reception that I got at NID. Expanded my horizon to the talent that is available.
Gujarat is a non alcohol state, and I met couple of students who were part of a local heavy metal outfit appropriately named 'Dry State' albeit tongue in cheek. They opened for Parikrama, my favourite Indian rock band, a day before at IIM Ahemedabad fest. Sensitivity of a different kind where state government diktat doesn't allow you to be to able to celebrate or mourn your senses away. All for a good cause they say, yes I say to the bootleggers of neighbouring wet states and the 'wet' patches of a dry state.
A very good session at NID gets completed and 'needless to say' I'm impressed with this institution that incubated some of the best talents in the country, truly a picture of national integration sensitive to having to give back to the country what they have gained. Hats off NID, proud to be associated with this esteemed insititution.
Journey back home, where my beloved awaits for more than an hour from ETA, thanks to
some aerospace issue at Ahmedabad, all flights get delayed. Finally I'm back on the all vegetarian flight back home. Dinner is being served, the cart rolls next to my aisle seat, and my sensitive nose smells some non vegetarian. The hostess asks a couple of passengers if they have asked for non vegetarian. Both reply in the negative, I wonder whether they would have been offended if they were pure vegetarian and found the statement blasphemous, but this hostess is not sensitive to that. When my turn comes, the hostess dumps the regular vegatarian fare in front of me, and once again like in the morning I mouth the words can I have non vegetarian, I get the same reply that this is an all vegetarian flight. But I guess she's gotten a little sensitive to my pangs for non vegetarian food and says she'll check and get back to me. And as promised, she's back with the non vegetarian packet for me. I'm thrilled only for a while till I find that I did this for just two miniscule pieces of chicken.
Finally meals are done and my 45 minute airborne experience is coming to an end, as we land at Mumbai airport. Strangely in Mumbai and so is the case with most airports in India, the state sponsored airlines like Air India and Indian Airlines get the preference over the private carriers. So my flight gets space not a terminal a couple of 'hamlets' away from Santacruz.
What the heck, atleast I'm home safe, needless to say that's all that matters finally.
posted by Jolvin Rodrigues at
2:53 AM
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1 comments
