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Pukar Monsoon 2006

 

Youth and the Urban Identity

PUKAR’s Fifth Monsoon was held at various venues in South Bombay from May 15 to May 31st, 2006. The annual Monsoon event provided a platform for Mumbai youth to express their ideas on Mumbai city through multiple mediums, including photography, music, radio, film, and writing. These acts of creative expression and documentation have produced serious statements on Mumbai, made by youth from the vantage point of their special location in the city. This year’s Monsoon turned the spotlight on youth themselves under the theme Youth and Urban Identity. It urged youth to ask two questions: “Whose city is it?”; “Whose city will it be?” as a starting point for youth to consider their roles as producers, consumers, activists, artists and shapers of the city’s dynamic future.

 

Lectures
 
   
 

PUKAR Monsoon’s Lecture Series opened with the talk “Mobilizing Youth: A Case for a Cohesive Identity.” Professor Ram Puniyani began by presenting an overview of defining moments in history when identity politics took on new and exaggerated forms. For Bombay and much of urban India, Puniyani made clear, one of these moments was the 1992 demolition of the Babri Masjid. Puniyani presented the years that followed as a time when religious identity became constructed as an “us/them” narrative in public space. The us/them narrative extends beyond religion, as Puniyani demonstrated, by drawing from examples such as the creation of Bangladesh from East Pakistan, the ongoing rife between Iran and Iraq, among other examples.

In the lecture on “Mumbai’s Urban Biodiversity”, environmentalist Anand Pendharkar presented a lively power point presentation on the ecological considerations and green spaces of Mumbai. Pendharkar suggested how trees play a vital role in Mumbai’s sustainability, beyond simply beautification. In the Bombay floods of 2005, for example, Pendharkar reported how certain trees provided resistance by absorbing flood waters. Pendharkar concluded his presentation by speaking of different opportunities for youth to get involved in environmental preservation through his group SPROUTS.

In the lecture on “Youth and Educational Institutions”, former PUKAR director Rahul Srivastava presented a historical overview on educational institutions in Mumbai, as a means to understanding the emphasis on certain career tracks, value systems of the academy, and the realities of intense competition. Srivastava drew on his experiences as a former lecturer at Wilson College, in addition to some of his recent work with PUKAR, as means towards creating learning opportunities that fall outside of mainstream education.

In the lecture on “Youth, Urban Communities and Revolutions- Premiji to Rang de..”, KRVIA Professor Kaiwan Mehta drew inspiration from Premiji, Bombay’s first Hindi publisher, to demonstrate how the written word and other quieter movements has often laid the groundwork towards social change and challenging complacency. Mehta contrasted the movements of the past to the current hype over the popular film “Rang de Basanti”, which he mentioned, is a loud but not always effective means of protest or long-term change.

In the lecture, “Mumbai’s Changing Landscape - Economy and Infrastructure,” former Chief Planner of the MMRDA Vidyadhar Phatak gave an overview of the city’s geographical realities and the challenges they pose for planners. He traced the economic changes over the last few decades and explained their influence on the major growth patterns experienced by the city.

Monsoon’s Lecture Series ended with the lecture “Youth and Urban Governance,” which presented possibilities for youth to take ownership over what they identified as challenges to the city’s growth and opportunities to end corruption. Through his role with Lok Satta, a citizen’s actions group committed to democratic reforms and ending corruption, Surendra Srivastava spoke how a stifling political structure has provided limited capacities for the average citizen to voice his opinion. As an alternative, he suggested Lok Satta’s approach to re-thinking urban governance and ensuring its democratic capacity.

 
 

Workshops

In the workshop “Capturing Mumbai’s Face,” eminent photographer David De Souza began with a discussion on how photography provides an insightful lens to understanding multiple facets and personalities of Mumbai’s identity. In the second part of the workshop, the youth were asked to construct a visual narrative of the city through a series of photographs. The portfolios were diverse and eye-opening, ranging from the Vada Pav vendor, lanes and alleyways of the city, the ladies’ compartment of local train, feet and footwear, and the behind-the-camera lives of production assistants. The discussion revealed how a picture reveals as much about the photographer’s identity and comfort level with the subject, as the image itself.

The workshop on Theatre began with Ratnakar Matkari giving an introduction to the broad aspects of theatre – scripting, direction and acting. He cited the theories of well-known people such as Bertolt Brecht and commented upon the approaches to theatre in different countries as well as the states within our country. The participants asked pertinent questions about acting styles, make-up and creating characters through dialogue and expressions. Ratnakar Matkari’s wealth of knowledge was evident in his detailed answers. To elucidate his points, he gave examples from various Marathi plays, written and directed by him as well as other stalwarts, and from Hindi plays and TV programmes. He urged the participants to appreciate the need for keen observation and discipline, if they wanted to be good at any aspect of theatre.

Neela Bhagwat drew on how music and song has been a crucial component of protest and resistance in the city in her workshop on “The Sounds of Mumbai”. Bhagwat cited how mill workers, for example, used to organically compose songs as a reflection of their experiences in the mills. The session concluded by asking the group to draw from their personal experiences of the city to create lyrics to a new song about their hopes, dreams and visions for Mumbai’s future.

In the “Gender and Public Space” workshop, facilitators Shilpa Phadke and Sameera Khan lead a lively discussion on examining one’s perceptions of gender in the everyday surroundings. They distributed a map with various locations in a neighborhood - a chai stall, a park, college etc. - and asked each participant to position various individuals and groups on the map - a single female, a group of men etc. Afterwards, they asked the group to comment on the process, on the most difficult part of the exercise. The group universally admitted that placing the single female provided the most anxiety and difficulty. This spurred a conversation on asking youth to consider their day-to-day locales and how gender functions in the usage of public space.

In the workshop “Writing our Mumbai Dreams,” well-known Mumbai author Jerry Pinto asked the group to consider how their individual dreams coincide and sometimes conflict with the intimate spaces of family and Mumbai they call home. Participants engaged in various writing exercises which explored individual aspiration, youth identity and their lives in the city.

In the Radio workshop “Youth and our Airwaves” facilitated by RJ Malishka of 93.5 FM, the workshop presented an overview of the industry, a discussion on various careers and a hands-on exercise which enabled each participant to practice before the group some techniques of radio, including voice modulation and introducing a new song.

 
 

Screenings

As part of different projects, PUKAR has produced some short films over the years. These films were an amateur effort, yet they provided space to the participants of those projects to explore their subjects through a new medium. These short films - Aur Irani Chai, Portraits of a Lane and Freedom before 11- were screened during PUKAR Monsoon. After each screening the audience engaged in discussions on some of the complex aspects of urban identity represented in the films.

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