Wednesday, July 02, 2008

plugging loopholes

i am curious to know what makes people tick? the other day, in the department, my mind was trying to figure out a few things as i saw/heard Mr. Kennedy explain and convince three bold and intriguing girls about the need to write positive about college. i, for obvious reasons, will keep out of the debate (class is where i will speak out). now what is of interest to me is the reasons behind the writing, its objectives and more importantly why one is not willing to compromise on ones stand.
we have to communicate our feelings and emotions- to not do so is dangerous. the forum, the method and the means to communicate are important if one has to overcome the fears of the guardians of stability and decorum. each one has to choose the way to speak out depending on the ground realities. one formula will hardly work for everyone. experience is the biggest clue one can fall back on- and my experience tells me, what works for someone may not work for me. so, without loosing hope, find other avenues for those creative & critical juices.

2 comments:

John J Kennedy said...

hi i'm not sure whether i succeeded in my attempt to convince those three young, ambitious, extremely (sometimes immaturely) enthusiastic journalists. To be idealistic is one thing - a commonly seen trait in youngsters -the urge to change the world overnight -to act as the saviour - to prove to the world we are different -well didn't we all go through this phase? Amidst all this impassioned thoughts one must not lose touch with reality. I'm not saying one must always talk well of your college. All i'm saying is the newsletter is not meant to highlight the 'failings' of an institution. Failings within quotes because the institution will not consider them failings. Dress code, for instance is a mutually accepted code for the department and i see no reason why students must be critical now of its enforcement. That means you lack value, character and it is a breach of contract /trust /faith, call it what you want. The major objective of a newsletter is to enhance one's technical and writing skills - and this can be achieved simply by reporting myriad activities in college - you don't have to look at it positively if that is a problem, but don't strain your eyes to look for what you think are loopholes in the system. That is your opinion, fine keep it. you need not change it but don't expect the institution to change by criticizing practices that,in the first place you had agreed to abide by. I'd also appreciate if someone enlightens me on some perfect system where all is fine. if there is one we could follow that. If you think journalism is looking constantly for 'scoop', to be in the limelight by hook or by crook, to capture attention with co compunctions for the character assassinations (as committed everyday by power and fame-hungry journalists so commonly these days) i can't agree with you. My request to the students therefore is not to get carried away,instead learn to think sensibly with your legs rooted to the ground. Think positively. Remember even the most 'negative' thing can be looked at positively - after all they are perceptions.

Anju Christine said...

Dear sirs,
If that was construed as an attempt to change the college/system, then I must apologise. If there's one thing I have learnt in this short/hedonistic/inexperienced life of mine, it is the hopelessness of trying to change situations/systems.
In fact, if one did read the stories closely, one would note that none of the protagonists were either flawless, or successful in their attempt to make changes.
Further, we were not really trying to be journalists. In a way, it was an attempt to make the connection between journalism and literature – regular writing to express one's self [not journalistic writing – as in, it was not factual or objective (it's another matter that journalistic writing too is not factual or objective)] that was just put into a journalistic format.