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Showing posts from 2023

quantum brew

Flux on its own, is a random self, therefore it’s maiden name.  When matter in any form comes in, flux gets a purpose and marries, to set a motion of gay abandon for whatever love. The embodiment of matter in motion meets more such and therefore more flux and more embodies working to reach equilibrium, of an imagine. Calmness 'as in being cool' in this quantum chaos is the consciousness, maybe !  Observing and doing the responsible/sive tasks nonchalantly and come back home and drink brew merry to wake up to the sunshine  and until uncle calls and says fresh b rew is waiting guys 😉 Ravishankar, October 2022/23.

Plight of the Nucleus

  Everyone of physics talks about protons, neutrons, positrons, waves n particle but they don’t discuss the plight of the Nucleus!!😀 While this is metaphorical, I love physics and shared this quite sometime ago, with a dear friend in Jorhat, Arjun Trivedi, a PhD in Physics, worked at CERN, and now started a school for the Tea garden children, Selenghat Valley School..,,, his reply ... That is actually a very good point, Ravi, and one that my research group was also involved in trying to bring to everyone's attention, which in other words is that everyone is talking~doing more with the parts (electron, proton etc) than the whole (nucleus)! And a lot has to do with how reductionism has somehow become more fashionable — finding parts of the whole for a while was very exciting and even very valuable in subatomic physics, but increasingly it seems that fewer are working on the whole! The theory of the whole continues to be profoundly challenging because relative to the parts that can b...

Digitisation & Empathy

Visited Jawahar Navadaya Vidyalaya in Titabor, 15 km from Jorhat along with Krishna last week. His children twins, are very bright kids, in class 5 in a state government school. I thought they should move to Navodaya, a beautiful initiative of the government, a school for children of interior India and low income parents. Krishna’s daily income depends on the weather btw!! Met the Vice Principal and told her why we were there, she was very polite and pleasant, enquired regarding admission to 6th std coming year. She later said applications were closed for 6th std on 31st August, we were in September already. I asked if there was any way of applying. She said not possible since it’s all online from central office and it’s closed. Krishna looked disappointed. I felt bad too. There was no way.  There used to be ways earlier I thought though how right they were, a different matter but for right people ways were maybe! While driving back and talking to Kartik, I said Digitisation has no...

Few takeaways from the 3rd NEP Conclave

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3rd National NEP Meet, Delhi: Holistic Education, Academia & Industry Connect - Few Pointers I gathered from Immersive Panel Session Chaired by Dr Anunaya Chaubey and from the talks by other panellists: Pedagogy vs Heutagogy  Continuous Up-Skilling New Job Roles & Profiles Domain knowledge Middle Path (Madhya Marg) approach to Generalist vs Specialist Industry Academia to Co-lab in areas of future value creation System understanding and thinking (connecting the dots, relationships, empathy and creative action) Education for Living or/and for Earning! Or overall well being! Social Science workers and their professional inclusiveness in industry Enabling MSMEs to attract talent  Is the industry agile enough in mindset and action to adapt and adopt this! Is the Academia getting tailored to this paradigm shift ! Who will be the first mover to design this product, the future worker! The MOE and Industry have set the stage to initiate way forward. While the profiles of Indus...

Few Pointers on Sustainable Packaging

The concept of modern-day packaging has boomed with the advent of the large consumer purchasing power, multiple brands with diverse competing SKUs in retail shelves and FMCG manufacturing companies besides advertising collaterals. While purpose of packaging is primarily functional that of protection, storage and for shipment, its commercial need in the context of design to attract, shelf throw and pick up to convert the product to sale is its predominant attribute practised by commerce. The issue is Systemic in nature involving multiple stakeholders primarily business houses including the end consumer responsible to solve and resolve the design, generation and disposal of non-degradable packaging materials and its management. A wicked problem. The approach conceptually and strategically may be to: ·         Identify the bulk of products which generate waste along with institutional of both public and private consumption and apply the 3Es principle (ed...

Institution Design

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Empowering People with their expertise and make aware their limitations to overcome Empathising with People Emotions, Aspirations, Insecurities, experiences Negotiating through People inter-work, inter-social/cultural/political relationships Coursing the young as design minds Navigating for the set purpose ahead  Scripting inter-engagements, interfaces for an outcome of said purpose and value through a collective intellect and not on singular opinionated views Setting up an Institution is the  Design of a Story   of a present and future continuous living entity. A  book which will have multiple beginnings and ends, today and the day next. A story which  is transient like the wind, course it takes is dependent on the Designer and the engagers/ actors in the story, gratified by a sense of cherish able experience to look back and say, hey! I was part of that Story, fought my internal and external battles and participated through my work and acumen for the collectiv...

Seagull & Frogy

  A Seagull in one of its vagabond flights lands on the wall of a well. He wonders what is this and there is water deep inside within parched stone wall, never seen something like this before!! Sees a Frog swimming in it and asks’ “Hey what is this place?” Frogy replies "it’s a Well, well! These bucket people call it so!" Seagull “ Ooo! …do you like its here?” Frogy, sitting its side walk the of the wall, “ Well!! I don’t know… there are predators here sometimes and a bucket which falls in unexpectedly to draw my water, dangerous for my kids and family and my friends!!” Seagull “Friends! In here? Who are they….?” Frogy “ My friends, Wormy, Snaky, Goldy Fish (my love interest, btw!, don’t tell my wife 😉 ) and many others…..” Frogy “Btw where are you from!!” Seagull “ Oo me!” Frogy “Yep”. Seagull “ I come from the blue sky and blue seas and wild breeze and winds and sunshine” Frogy, Wow!! And tell me what you do there!! Seagull, “I fly in blue sky, do acr...

Silent Unknowns

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So many things happening at the same time….startup India, NEP, hackethons, online programmes, WFHs, Home deliveries, E-com Apps, Bit currency, Instagram reels, Research funds, incubators by the corner, AI, MI, DL and all, ….govt schemes, twitter habituals, SDGs, Metaverse, Yoga, Drone tech, ….you may add more. Meanwhile, Krishna, 28, 8th std pass, a very bright, intelligent and diligent man, who is my help at home, during the day is a freelance dailywage. Rainy day is a bad day for him, misses his 400 rupees, sunny day is good if he is lucky to find work!! There are many many Krishnas and Kamalas in the urban diaspora, support rungs of the rotor, silent unknowns in the flux and fluff. Can we please PAUSE and set priorities in order and say, Ok what are those things best for us all and that we are good at doing and do that for us all. Not be wannabe in Everything and work on settling Kamalas and Krishnas for a comfortable living !! Ravishankar - Nov 2022

DESIGN MIND

  What you decide in the beginning to be and what you do at the end is the same,  is not a design mind. What you imagine in the beginning and what you let it manifest to be in the end, is a design mind. Ravishankar Dec 2020

MY NEW SILVER CARDS

My Hypothesis on new age design professions … Artist Designers – Scenography designers, Character & Avatar artists & designers, Graphics, Furniture, Artifacts Product Designers – Interactions & experience designers, Gesture & Movement designers, artifacts with personalised character and behaviour designers, CMFs and details designers, Form & Expression givers, Design strategists, Universal Designers Clothing designers – Textiles, Fibres, Material Designers, Ensemblers, Indigenous Crafts, Lifestylers, Accessorisers, Stylists Communication Designers - Conversation & Language designers, Inclusive Designers, Message & Content designers, Navigation designers, Information designers, Creative controllers, Brand designers, Media Strategists Tech Designers – Experimenters, Makers, Prototypers, Detail & expression givers, AI Designers, IOT, Extended Reality creators Concept Designers – Setters of new de...

To Critic is easy !

Design as a profession is  Persuasive , not authoritarian It’s all pervasive all during the day while you walk up or switch to work, and if you imagine or claim to be a Designer, Appreciate the well done or resolve, participatorily if it needs correction. (Participative Design is an act/skill of being detached yet an empathetic approach if you have the mind for it and navigate it to its end elegance of what triggered you to engage in). Correction is about whether holistically the design is working in terms of functionality, meaningful usefulness at large, is elegantly done and is inclusive. Ravishankar, Jan 2023