Untitled... again
One thing I left out in my first post was that along with feeding volunteers with yummy peanut chutney, every 5 years or so, Deep Griha also sends some of its volunteers on youth exchange programs, which somewhat explains my new enthusiasm for Irish music and ice skating. In collaboration with the Commonwealth of Nations, Deep Griha and the Methodist Church of Liverpool district, UK, have been organizing exchange programs for the last 20 years. I was one of the lucky 13 sent this June to see how people in England live …with not nearly enough warm clothes as I found out.
When a journalist from a reputed newspaper in Pune approached us to write an article about our exchange trip, we were, admittedly, a little excited. A chance to see our names and pictures in the paper, and for our enraptured mothers to cut the article out of the newspaper and, if we were lucky, save it in the family album for posterity, and if we weren't that lucky, have it proudly displayed to all the neighbours. I may mention that in fear of that happening, I accidentally neglected to mention to my mother the occurrence of that article. It's another story that she found and read the article before I even remembered that it was due to have been printed that day. Perhaps it's some kind of intuitive/investigative power women attain upon reaching motherhood.
The article, however, didn't prove to be quite what we expected, and I feel dearly for any of my team members whose mothers have well-meaningly displayed it to the next door neighbours.
It wasn't so much the patronizing manner in which we were described - 'bright, vibrant, fluent in English and more importantly, an urge to do something for the poor', or the misquoting, or the misspelling of our names, or even the misspelling of Deep Griha's name that got to us. What really annoyed us were the fabricated statements that were attributed to us and printed for all of Pune to see. It's one thing that we have been reduced to empty headed teenagers; injured pride can be dealt with. It's another when our words are twisted out of context, or even worse, words put in our mouth. "They are really dedicated souls, unlike we Indians who do social service as a part time job". I was there for the interview. And I am quite sure, whatever we may have said, coming from an NGO, we didn't say that.
And that is only one example of a fabricated quote. This was a cultural exchange program. It would hardly have been successful had we gone about undermining ourselves and our country. We don't claim to be filled with patriotic fervour, but whatever its faults, India is still home.
This post isn't about the fact that what we hoped would be good opportunity for publicity for Deep Griha blew up in our faces.
This post isn't just about a bunch of indignant teenagers smarting in the wake of an embarrassing newspaper article either.
This post is also meant to be about how responsible journalism seems to be on the decline, if we are to go by the article in question. Once upon a time the media spoke for us. Now we may just have to start speaking for ourselves.
When a journalist from a reputed newspaper in Pune approached us to write an article about our exchange trip, we were, admittedly, a little excited. A chance to see our names and pictures in the paper, and for our enraptured mothers to cut the article out of the newspaper and, if we were lucky, save it in the family album for posterity, and if we weren't that lucky, have it proudly displayed to all the neighbours. I may mention that in fear of that happening, I accidentally neglected to mention to my mother the occurrence of that article. It's another story that she found and read the article before I even remembered that it was due to have been printed that day. Perhaps it's some kind of intuitive/investigative power women attain upon reaching motherhood.
The article, however, didn't prove to be quite what we expected, and I feel dearly for any of my team members whose mothers have well-meaningly displayed it to the next door neighbours.
It wasn't so much the patronizing manner in which we were described - 'bright, vibrant, fluent in English and more importantly, an urge to do something for the poor', or the misquoting, or the misspelling of our names, or even the misspelling of Deep Griha's name that got to us. What really annoyed us were the fabricated statements that were attributed to us and printed for all of Pune to see. It's one thing that we have been reduced to empty headed teenagers; injured pride can be dealt with. It's another when our words are twisted out of context, or even worse, words put in our mouth. "They are really dedicated souls, unlike we Indians who do social service as a part time job". I was there for the interview. And I am quite sure, whatever we may have said, coming from an NGO, we didn't say that.
And that is only one example of a fabricated quote. This was a cultural exchange program. It would hardly have been successful had we gone about undermining ourselves and our country. We don't claim to be filled with patriotic fervour, but whatever its faults, India is still home.
This post isn't about the fact that what we hoped would be good opportunity for publicity for Deep Griha blew up in our faces.
This post isn't just about a bunch of indignant teenagers smarting in the wake of an embarrassing newspaper article either.
This post is also meant to be about how responsible journalism seems to be on the decline, if we are to go by the article in question. Once upon a time the media spoke for us. Now we may just have to start speaking for ourselves.
posted by Anonymous at 9:50 pm
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