GET CRACKING

Members of ZEST have beeen recruited by various advertising agencies and Public Relations firms as interns. They will be training to enter the media world as young professionals. This is the time when you have to test the grit of this movement. On the other hand it is important to re-emphasise that this is your movement. With The Delhi MCD polls commencing and the on-coming Common Wealth games there is a need to also look at our long forgotten monuments which have been reduced to mere dustbins when they can become sources to generate revenue. This month we would want more volunteers to join us and would like ideas for how the place in and around monuments can become a cultural hub of sorts! Why do tourists flock to Dilli hat, Janpath and Sarojni Nagar??...because that is where they find the culture of India's people.

What can be done to these historical monuments then and that too in a cost-effective manner, keeping the expenses damn low....so that these stars of yesterday shine till eternity.

Events? Light and show festivals? Cleanliness drives conducted by schools and even university students? Competition for how best these locales can be modelled? What else? GET CRACKING!!!

What's ON your AGENDA?

Protecting Mournuments???

ZEST made a presentation to INTACH on 12th March 2007 in its effort to STOP monument defacement and chart out the best possible way to create a long lasting impact. INTACH and ZEST will be working hand in hand along with the youth of India to tackle this problem.

An individual is like a miniscule atom in this society, its strength however cannot be undermined. Can it, when the most basic bond, a valency is what this entire universe rests on?We can do our own little bit, extend our "valency" ...prove that NO MISSION IS IMPOSSIBLE!!

ZEST will be organizing exhibitions and workshops in colleges and schools across Delhi. This is only to create a BUZZ...to kill virus apathy!

What all do you think we can do to involve the youth of India into this campaign? We are quite sure you are bubbling with a multitude of ideas...so blog on and paste your comments!

THIS WEEK's AGENDA: BEST WAYS TO BUZZ OFF VIRUS apathy!

Come up with ideas to start a chain (Ex. Awareness, Curiosity, Anger, Signature Campaigns, Workshops, Competitions etc) in schools and colleges across Delhi!

ACTIVITY OF THE WEEK

WE NEED YOUR HELP!

A MOVEMENT SUCH AS THIS MUST REST ON GOOD IDEAS. SO PLEASE HELP US THINK OF DIFFERENT SLOGANS FOR THIS CAMPAIGN TO STOP MONUMENT DEFACEMENT!

A FEW IDEAS ARE GIVEN BELOW:

Make a difference- fight indifference!

Face- Dont Deface!

Stop Trashing Our Past (STOP!)

... THE IDEAS YOU GIVE US CAN BE IN BOTH HINDI AND ENGLISH... AS LONG AS IT PACKS A PUNCH!

GO ZEST!

Our final presenatation is officially over. But our movement has only begun!

Our group ZEST! was able to win the hearts of our judges and fellow batchmates. But this campaign goes beyond mere marks and grades. It cannot be confined to a classroom. The real battle lies in the REAL WORLD! It lies in uprooting the real problem! We can't hold back now. We MUST keep the ball rolling!

For each one of us it has been a journey. We started off with ignorance, and finally light did dawn. It was difficult. We were discouraged, we had fights over what was the best possible way to go about the entire camapign, we lost hope, grew bitter....but in the end we made it! We realized that standing up for any cause doesnt require courage, but determination and committment as well!
We have to blow this small project into a campaign at the national level. We look upon you for advice! Every week we will throw a new question, we will initiate a debate on different aspects of this issue.

We will scan and process each and every step we take, so that we dont falter, and even if we do, we get up with new vigour, with new strength.

Calling Card at the Qutab

One of the many faces of defacement, taken by ZEST! and displayed at our JNU exhibition...

If you thought scratching a name on a monument was bad enough, take a look at this! Someone has actually left behind his phone number as well!!... Talk about leaving behind a calling card!

Now, WHY would somebody do THIS to a monument???

Perhaps phoning up this number might yield some insightful answers...!!!

Exhibition at JNU

ZEST( Zeal! Enthuse! Sensitize! Team! The perfect recipe for change!) launched an exhibition MOURNuments in JNU on 15th and 16th Feb'07 showcasing paintings and photographs to expose the plight of our heritage! Yes it was not art for art's sake, it was all for a purpose or rather a mission. It is foolish to get complacent after our first success, none the less it was an occasion to celebrate! In two days we were able to attract close to about 300 visitors and received around 130 detailed comments!

These are positive signs to launch a crusade against APATHY!

So help us make a difference by fighting indifference!!!

Blog on and join our movement... and make it YOUR movement!

ANSWERS NEEDED

Which world do we live in? What has happened to us? Rats have launched an attack on our home, funnily we are those rats! Eating, knawing, crippling our legacy! Time is here to stay, to teach us a lesson. Yes we are blind with eyes...automatons attuned to look away, having earned a degree in the art of 'Escapism'!
You provide us with answers! What can be done to shake the most indifferent individual of Gen-Next into action? Time is ticking away...

Infection: Apathy

We went to the colleges in the University of Delhi and conducted a research to understand what the youth of today has to say about their rich cultural heriatge and about the monuments in their own city.

We stumbled upon two patterns of response:
1) Either they rattled off textbookish responses full of praise and ornamental words to compliment our cultural legacy:


“Face of India”
“Reflection of our past”
“Rich heritage”
“Diversity”
“Cultural Icons”
“Ancient”
“Aesthetic”
“Treasure”

2) However if the questions were asked with a twist we found they had even more interesting things to say:


“Dirty”
“Not Cool!”
“Garbage Dump!”
“Public Toilet”
“Stinky”
“Shady Places”
“Ruins in more ways than one”
“Boring”
“No way a fun place to be in!”
“Places meant for weirdoes!”

So what do you have to say? The biggest problem we face today is apathy, indifference. We Indians live in a pool of muck! We have in a way become immune to corruption, illiteracy, crime, poverty...(The list is never ending); living in the gutter we have become used to its stink! What will shake us into reality? Having reached this state of numbness, what would serve as an electric shock, a wake up call? When will words translate into action?

We have started this blog in search of real answers to a real problem! Help us, help your own country!

LET US BEGIN!

“All this will not be finished in the first hundred days... the first thousand days... nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.”— John F. Kennedy

We know we have a mammoth task ahead of us. But we must know that we also have the potential to tackle it. Every suggestion, every anecdote, every experience that you share with us will only confirm this belief.

We've added pictures that we have taken of the present state of our monuments. These need to be seen, these need to be understood as portents of what may happen if such defacement continues unchecked!

Hope for the future lies with us, the youth. We’ve shown our mettle before. We’ve led candlelight vigils and have marched in protest together to repeal judicial errors and bring wrongly acquitted criminals to book.

And now it’s time to join hands again. So ACT now! DO your bit! HUG YOUR HISTORY!

MOURNuments

A plea to all concerned responsible citizens to lend a helping hand and join in our online effort to protect our past from literally falling into ruin:

Students we are, looking afar
Hoping to heal an unfortunate scar;

With courage and care, we hope to ensnare
He who scratches our monuments bare.

Bring him to book, that ruthless crook
Who rapes our heritage, while we only look!

So join in our fight, to give us the might
To save our MOURNuments from their awful plight!