Swajana

Bullock Cart

admin — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 05:42:29 +0000

The bullock cart is one thing you will find as a major means of transport in the rural areas of India. But can you imagine a bullock cart moving around in the fast moving traffic in the cities; well you can watch this video then.

Technorati Tags: swajana, india, pune, bullock, cart, video, blog

The Tailor

admin — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 11:35:48 +0000

Sudhan Sarvoday is a tailor in Pune, India .He is running this business for past thirty years. At the same time he also conducts various side businesses with the help of his wife. HHHHe sells leftover pieces of clothes to paper producing industries. His wife sells utensils in exchange of old clothes. Then they mend the clothes if necessary and then Sudhan sells them in a market where old/secondhand items are sold .
He sells old jeans, shirts, sarees in the secondhand markets.

Sudhan Sarvoday who left his school in the fourth standard due to his family’s bad economic condition, started helping his father in tailoring business. That’s where he learned the art of tailoring .He still desires to get formal education. . He and his wife are working hard because they want their child to pursue higher education and be successful in life.

Technorati Tags: swajana, india , pune, tailor, videoblog

Ganpati Festival

admin — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 11:25:04 +0000

Ganesh Festival is a day on which Lord Ganesha (also know as Ganpati or Ganesh), the son of Shiva and Parvati, is believed to bestow his presence on earth for all his devotees. Ganehsa is widely worshipped as the supreme god of wisdom, prosperity and good fortune.
Traditional stories tell that Lord Ganesha was created by goddess Parvati, consort of Lord Shiva. Parvati created Ganesha out of sandalwood paste that she used for her bath and breathed life into the figure. She then set him to stand guard at her door while she bathed. However, while she bathed, Lord Shiva returned and as Ganesha didn’t know him, he didn’t allow him to enter. Lord Shiva became enraged and severed the head of the child and entered his house. After realizing that he had beheaded his own son, Lord Shiva fixed the head of an elephant in place of Ganesha’s head. In this way, Lord Ganesha came to be depicted as the elephant-headed God.
Typically the festival falls sometime between August 20 and September 15. People bring idols of Ganesha at their houses and worship it for 10 days. On the last day of the festival they immerse the idol in river or sea water.
In Pune, India, as the sun sets over darkening rivers, the idols are taken out in boats and as each one is immersed, a cry is raised asking him to return the next year. It is an emotional and public farewell to their beloved god, who will rise once again the following year.

Technorati Tags: swajana, india, pune, ganpati, ganesha, festival

Share AutoRickshaw

admin — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 14:05:12 +0000

Auto rickshaws, or small motorized three wheeled transport vehicles which run on a motorcycle or scooter engine run all over India .Auto rickshaws have been modified in India to carry more passengers and are called share-autos. Office commuters find this version more economical since the fare is shared by more people. Competition among ’share’ auto-wallahs has led to the virtual standardization of fare per passenger based on their destination.Shared autos play an important role in transporting urban India, where state-organized public transport, while not quite crippled, is congested to a point of extreme unreliability, especially during peak hours. Or connecting the sub-urban areas where state owned transport facilities are very few and infrequent.

Technorati Tags: swajana, india, pune, auto, rickshaw, video, blog

Cyclewala - The bicycle doctor

admin — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 14:21:06 +0000

Pravin Swaminathan Pillai (35),a bicycle repairer ,conducts his business at a lane in Koregaon Park ,Pune. Because of his family’s bad economic condition he had to quit his school in the fifth standard .Since then he started repairing bicycles. He has been doing this job for the past 15 years and with the savings of 15 hardworking years;he is all set to buy his own shop and conduct the same business on a larger scale.

Technorati Tags: swajana, india, pune, street, vendor, videos, cycle, repair

Dahi Handi

admin — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 14:40:43 +0000

Dahi Handi generally takes place on the second day of Janmashtami(Day on which Lord Krishna was born). An earthen pot containing a mixture of milk, dry fruits, ghee is hung around 20-30 feet high in the air with the help of a rope. Enthusiastic young men, form a human pyramid by standing one on top of the other, trying to break the pot. Onlookers throw water on the young men in order to prevent them from breaking the pot. Breaking of the pot is followed by prize distribution. Devotees believe that the broken pieces of earthen pot will keep away mice and negative powers from their homes.

Technorati Tags: swajana, india, pune, dahi handi, janmashtami, festival, hindu

Khilonewala - The Toyseller

admin — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 13:37:29 +0000

Every day lot of people from India’s rural parts land in the metros in search of Jobs. Each one has his own dream to live for. Some are Educated and some are not. The Educated half gets a job but the other half has no options. The only option they have is to do something on their own and to do that they set out on the streets selling stuff which is of dailly use. This hawkers sell anything such as eatables,utensils,stationery,clothing in short they sell everything at the cheapest of rates…They have their own set of customers which are the Indian middle class and lower class.They earn today to live today because they can hardly save anything.

Technorati Tags: swajana, india, pune, hawkers, toys

Girni - A flour Mill

admin — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 11:03:52 +0000

In India people usually eat a lot of wheat and other foodgrains in the form of chapatis, bhakaris, bread or idlis etc. All this items are made of flour, the best part is that people don’t buy this flour readymade from stores; instead they grind foodgrains at home using a GIRNI, a machine with 2 stone wheels placed on each other. The grains get grinded in between this stones to give out flour. Now a days this Girni’s are replaced by their electrical counterparts which almost work on the same mechanics. The video is about a shop in pune which prepares flour using the Girni…. …

[tab]swajana, india, pune, girni, flour, mill, video, blog[/tab]

Soum and Ankit discuss Video Blogging in India

admin — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 07:25:32 +0000

Soumyadeep Paul (aka Soum) is a graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology(IIT) in Computer Science and is currently working with Mixercast. A film maker at heart and a tech vizard he was the first one in India to start video blogging. Soum’s channels His Master’s Toys and CSFVLOG on Blogger hosts a lot of interesting videos from India. Soum has also made a movie on Rickshaw, to get a glimpse of it visit Rickshaa - A film on three wheels

Technorati Tags: swajana, india, pune, soumyadeep, paul, video, blogging, pioneer

Yusuf Meherally Center

admin — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 09:03:12 +0000

Yusuf Meherally Center situated at the Tara village near Panvel, India, is an organization which works on the rural development model. Their strategy includes providing farmers with resources and adequate knowledge needed for better productivity and also helping them by marketing their products at various outlets in the cities so that farmers gets paid enough for the input they put in.Dr V V Deshpande, the vice president of Yusuf Meherally Center describes the various activities they are involved in.

Technorati Tags: swajana, india, pune, yusuf, meherally, ngo, rural, development