'Adarsh Balaak' (ideal boy) and the Indian youth

What happens when a school boy relentlessly studies and works at chemistry lab to create C20H25N30 a.k.a LSD? Well, the teacher tests it and he gets the A+ grade!! The school boy eventually becomes the social media sensation as Adarsh Balaak (ideal boy) with 1504 shares in Facebook, 7902 comments and 42000+ page likes! An anarchic contemporary comic character evolved from the golden day’s ‘adarsh balaak’ posters (which have been used as the instructional charts at Indian schools to promote good habit in 70s and 80s) are now one of the most popular comic strip series among youth. 

Comicandcola.com website mentions “Mumbai artist Priyesh Trivedi has recently blown up on the Internet with his painted comic series, Adarsh Balak, in which Trivedi takes the familiar icon of 80's Indian school-texts and educational charts and re-purposes him in a variety of subverted images and narratives: here he is offering a joint to his father as he works late into the night, here he sits curbside swigging beer from the bottle as his friends graffiti the wall besides them, here he is tricking his chemistry teacher into dropping some acid and giving him an 'A.' The 23-year old Trivedi has so far been pursuing animation as a career, but it's his new comic which has bought him to wider attention and acclaim; striking a chord with a generation of young adults like himself who have grown up with the neatly turned out schoolboy decorating their books, and take pleasure in seeing him turn against the lessons he once taught. It's the delight of seeing recognised associations in unexpected situations that shocks and amuses, and resonates- here, especially, the good boy gone bad, and the contemporary references -'swag' paired with something that represents traditional, conservative values.”  The website further adds “It began with one image: last year, Trivedi made a poster of a young boy rolling a joint with ‘T for Toke’ emblazoned across the top in Devanagari script that emulated the Barakhadi charts, which would depict a young boy undertaking various 'good' and 'correct' practices, used in many Indian schools. The image proved popular, spreading quickly thanks to the internet, and selling a number of prints. It was easily the most successful thing Trivedi had done, and he was encouraged by the response to create further and expand on the theme, which led to the production of the comics. In an interview with Visual Disobedience, he credits the swift popularity of the strips to 'the love for nostalgia and the archaic which most of us have that is partly responsible for the popularity. I always found the visual styling of the educational charts from the ‘80s and early ‘90s very amusing. Most of the people relate to this style because they probably went to school when these charts were widely prevalent.'

Tridevi's strip is still in its fledgling stages, but it's generating a lot of clamour- with some comparing his work to that of Spanish cartoonist Joan Cornella. I can see why- the strong, bright painted visuals, and the superficially thematic similarities of a satirical social deviance, but Cornella is much more biting, more out there, more surreal, and also plays around with the notion of visual illusions. Either way, Tridevi's a fan: 'I love Joan’s work. He’s definitely an inspiration not just for this series but for me as an artist in general. In fact, quite a lot of people have told me that my work reminds them of Joan which I kind of take as a compliment since I look up to him. Stylistically we are very different but it’s because he has already created a niche for bizarre and unsettling stuff.”

 Trivedi is now launching the printed posters and other articles with the same theme. In one interview he has stated “'The style which I could relate to the most was surrealism and psychedelic art. Up until two years ago, I was really big on psychedelic art. That style of art was very intuitive for me. I didn't have to try, it just flowed from my head onto the canvas. But as an artist, I think it's very important not to settle on just one thing. Keep experimenting and see what works for you. I'm very afraid of belonging to any one niche. I dabbled with realism, I dabbled with abstract art, I dabbled with psychedelic art. I've even tried my hand at sculpting..”

Here’s one more set of painting by Priyesh.

 

Why the hell, an anarchic paradoxical character is becoming popular? Is it that the youth in India are fed up being the ‘good boys’? Are they irritated on how the education is delivered in this country to convert them into robotic stereotypes? Or is it the simple anarchic tendency to ‘appear’ different from the crowd?Well, time will tell in near future. One can see the random use of Hindi slang as comments, in most of his artworks posted at social media.... the vent of anger or fun to become radical? 

here's the original 'ideal boy' chart:

 

reference: http://www.comicsandcola.com/2014/06/priyesh-trivedis-adarsh-balak.html

http://astray.in/interviews/priyesh-trivedi

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/adarshbalak?fref=photo

The 'social research' videos by young activists are spreading the social awakening in India

While checking the Facebook home page, an update caught my eyes. The header was “This Will Change The Way You Think” which had likes of more than thousand and similar number of shares. Below this, was an ongoing serious discussion where everybody was brainstorming on why / how ‘poor’ have more ‘giving mentality’ than the rich (in India). The youtube source showed that it was uploaded by ‘Trouble Seeker team’ which has a flourishing facebook page.  In next few hours similar videos popped up in my FB wall and Twitter (all virally spread by the youth). These videos were tagged as “Pranks”. Most of these ‘pranks’ are properly planned (and scripted) to highlight various prevalent social issues that needs public awakening. Mostly related to social emotion and the eroding social ecosystem. How we don’t give space to Ambulances, how we ogle to others disrespectfully, how we don’t give food to needy but a poor street dweller gives it even when he is not getting enough food! Day after, I met many youth who were excited and agitated over these facts and reconfirmed on ‘how true these videos are’!

An article in OPEN magazine coined the term ‘social experiment videos’ for these pranks. The article stated ‘A little like prank videos, at least in their staging, such social experiments aim to see how people would respond if faced with a person in real trouble. Broadly, an act is staged in the middle of the street with a camera recording reactions of ‘real’ people to the situation portrayed by the act. The video is then uploaded online on YouTube and if it goes viral, YouTube ‘monetises’ the video—sharing revenue generated via the video based on the number of ‘views’ and ‘likes’ it gathers.’  This article further added ‘A Nirbhaya video shot by actor Varun Pruthi recreates the Delhi gangrape scene by having in in make-up that makes him look severely injured and bleeding. Through the seven minutes of the clip’s running time, Pruthi tries to stop vehicles in broad daylight, asking for help, but none pulls up. Videos with somewhat ‘lighter’ social messages, like Free Hugs shot by Bedi and one about littering in public places by a channel called Awkward Unlimited, have been doing well. The months of May and June alone have seen at least half a dozen ‘social experiment’ videos being uploaded on the net.

Another offbeat experiment, put up recently and made by YTV, tackles the issue of homosexuality and public responses to it through the video of a girl who discloses to her mother that she is a lesbian. The message of the video, explains YTV founder Naman Sharma, is to get the nature of the problem across to viewers. “The biggest problem that young people face is lack of communication with parents. The video aims to tackle that,” says the 26-year-old, who founded his company only two years ago after completing a Phd in business and finance and a teaching stint in Melbourne, Australia. The video has already garnered as many as 3.6 million views.” The video posted by Awkvid shows how the ‘dropped wallet’ is picked by another youth in front of all as nobody protests or tries to return the wallet! Awkvid, in their Facebook page wrote “wkvid creates Awkward Videos that are fun to watch and share”. While posting these prank videos, they writes ‘social experiment’ in the title to ensure that the videos are taken seriously.  

The Telegraph Newspaper reported another video of ‘screaming woman’ inside a van. It mentioned “Experts and activists said the video posted on YouTube pointed to a general apathy in India about violence against women despite outrage in some quarters over the gang-rape and lynching of two girls in the country's north. "There's still an apathy about what's happening to women, an insensitivity on the issue, although attitudes are changing," said women's activist Ranjana Kumari.  The video, which has been viewed more than 1.2 million times since it was posted last week, shows a white van parked in a secluded area of Delhi with the windows blacked out at night. Although the screams of a woman are clearly heard coming from inside, a handful of men are seen walking and cycling past. Some stop to listen before calmly moving on.  Finally, a young man tries to break into the van, clearly upset about the 'staged rape' occurring inside. An elderly man is also seen attacking the van with his stick. The video was posted by a group called "YesNoMaybe" in what they said was a social experiment in the wake of the horrific attacks on the two girls, aged 12 and 14, late last month in Uttar Pradesh state. The attacks reignited anger over violence against women with small-scale protests held in the state capital and in Delhi, while a political row erupted over a perceived lack of law and order in Uttar Pradesh.  Since then, the media has highlighted a string of alleged rapes and hangings of women in Uttar Pradesh, the country's most populous state.  The attacks came just 18 months after the fatal gang-rape of a student on a bus in Delhi, a case that made global headlines and left India reeling over its treatment of women. The video sparked an outcry online, with some saying they were "ashamed", while others said the lack of help was probably reflective of attitudes in most capital cities. The group that posted the video did not draw any conclusions. "We hear about rapes every day in India, which leads to widespread protest," the group said in a message accompanying the video. "Thousands of people attend candlelight marches but only a handful of people act when it really matters. "So we set out to find how many people would actually help if someone's in trouble." Kumari told AFP that many were reluctant to intervene, fearful of being dragged into a lengthy police investigation or even face charge themselves in India's notoriously inefficient criminal justice system. "There is also still this rationale that the woman must have done something to deserve the attack. There must be some justification for what is happening to her," said Kumari, director of the Delhi-based Centre for Social Research.

 Social scientist Shiv Visvanathan said he was wary of drawing conclusions from the video but he said many Delhi residents were scared of being attacked themselves if they intervened. Visvanathan, a professor at the Jindal Global University just outside Delhi, said the capital drew millions of young men from impoverished and remote rural areas searching for work. As a result, he told AFP: "There's an absence of a community spirit in many parts of Delhi, a feeling that we should work together to stop these attacks happening. It's a city of strangers."

 For past 5 years there’s a series of social awakening activities among the youth in India. The funny yet convincing way to spread awareness or ‘change’ social mindset started with the Pink Chaddi’ campaign in the year 2009.

 In that year Times of India news paper wrote “Perhaps never before has underwear played such an important part in Indian cultural history. The `Pink Chaddi' campaign, launched by the Consortium of Pubgoing, Loose Forward Women, has attracted hordes of members — the number has touched 34,032 and still counting — making it one of the most popular sites these days.  With barely a few hours to go before D-day, or V-Day in this case, women and men from across countries have joined the campaign against an unsuspecting Pramod Muthalik, the Sri Ram Sene chief who has claimed responsibility for attacking women in a Mangalore pub earlier this year.” The rude shock of receiving chaddis (female underwear) ensured that the extremists stopped catching and harassing young couple during Valentines day. 

DNA news paper stated “Faced with a deluge of pink underwear from women across many cities, Sri Rama Sene convener Pramod Muthalik seems to have gone weak at the knees. No demonstrations or dharnas before pubs and other happening places on Valentine’s Day, but only affectionate advice for unmarried couples… the Sri Rama Sene’s sudden change of heart on Wednesday should perk up spirits of lovers here. Muthalik told DNA, “We will not force couples to tie mangalsutras, to solemnise marriages, or a rakhi, a symbol of sibling relationship. I have instructed my workers not to trouble people, but only advice lovers humbly to get married to honour their love.” 

For past, I have written about much such activities in this blog. The social experiment videos are new addition in it. The definite way to ‘change’ mindsets of people and spreading ‘social good’.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Similar videos can be seen at Varun;s channel" https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5GMWJmrR0LDUQ8MojJyXEQ

Reference articles: http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/living/age-of-the-clickactivist

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/10897387/India-rape-screaming-woman-ignored-by-passers-by-in-social-experiment.html

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Pink-chaddi-campaign-a-hit-draws-over-34000-members/articleshow/4126529.cms

 

http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore/report-sene-crumbles-under-undies-crush-1229995