May 11, 2020 | Adamas University

Trek for life – A quick guide for your next trek

As children, as adults, we are taught to live up to expectations. Become one of the millions of people who endeavour to put the shambles of their life into a meaningful picture, all the time referring to the book of rules. Dreams that keep entwining our mind through childhood are labelled as “too big” by the world and eventually by ourselves. We apply the identical standards, identical expectations, and identical meanings to each one of our lives. Hardly ever, are we told that we have a consign in the world that is uniquely ours. You see a locked door and never realise that you can always look through the keyhole at a different angle and who knows, you might be able to unlock the door eventually.

Trekking the mountains was something like a locked door. I frequently used to travel to the mountains as a child and the dream to trek kept fascinating each time. A chase to infinity just to feel the liberty that gushes into, like the flowing mountain streams releasing the spirit to break through whatever may come. With the enthralment of the word “trekking” and with
some childhood allure to climb heights I started to hike. The first ever in my life Sandakaphu (3636m), the highest climb in West Bengal was real tough with several technical, physical hurdles on the way, the first trek entangled with the love of near and dear ones, a family eagerly awaiting your early return made it nearly impossible for me. Each day the climb became even tougher than it seemed to be! Although not a successful one, the entire trek and its incompleteness has encroached life time values, to be cherished forever. Everything on earth is mortal except your own experiences. Priority will change but your achievements will draw a smile in your face forever and meeting failure turns the curve upside down!

How to prepare?
Trekking is real fun but in the same time it becomes hard-hitting job, to cherish the scenic beauty around while gasping for air! Be motivated; start early as much as you can. Once set with the plan keep close control over your diet along with a rigorous exercise habit, no suggestion, no medicine can help you help you reach your dream destination other than this
self help. Start with brisk walking and try completing 4kms walk within at least 30 minutes. Try some squats at home and practice deep breathing. Try step climbing while at home and practice exercises to enhance cardio vascular endurance. Climbing heights comes with hazards like breathing shortness, vomiting, head ache, acute flu. Easier said than done a detail
analysis about the elevation will help you prepare physically. Start accordingly, remember even baby steps can go a long way. You may find it hard to climb a 15 feet slope but wait, check around if there are stairs on the way. Don’t keep trying to get on the slope and sliding all way downwards. Rather take your time. Climb each step; feel the journey; make memories
and nobody can really stop you from reaching the top!! Pre physical condition monitoring is just a kick start to the wonderful experience.

What to pack in the Rucksack?
Remember to pack in your own innovative way! Hikers should restrict themselves from exceeding the 15kg limit on personal luggage.

Clothing Section must have pair of trekking pant, thermal innerwear, light weight jackets, short sleeved t-shirts (Opt quick dry ones), one full sleeved trekking shirt, Sleeping pants, quick drying towel. innerwear, minimum 3 pairs of socks and Hiking shoes. Trek specific requirement like rain quancho, river shoes, etc varies according to itinerary of the trek and varying trekking conditions.
Gadget section must have a torch (headlight if required), phone chargers, powerbank, memory card and extra batteries. Passionate photographers need to accommodate their camera and lenses as well.
Sunscreen, hat, hand and toilet sanitizer, paper soaps, tooth brush, tooth paste, toilet paper are must have items for the toiletries section
Other items shall include trekking stick, water bottle, thermal bottle, sleeping bag liners, dry food containers, etc.

Watch out for provisions to leave the extra baggage at your stay so that you can hike only with a small daysack. Fill the daysack with some of the important items only that might be required before the next base camp.

Do I need Medicines?
Oh yeah! Definitely. But yes at the same time don’t start living on them until and unless advised by a doctor. For being in the safe zone, don’t try out extreme altitude trek above 5400m until you become a real experienced trekker. High altitude medical problems are real tough to be attended immediately. Start with very small elevations and your own medical kit
may find a little use! Pack some band aids, paracetmol, aspirin, stomach antibiotics, amoxicillin, rehydration packs and pain relief gel. Take proper guidance from a medical practitioner before consuming Acetazolamide drugs highly used to combat high altitude sickness.

Remember trekking comes along with potential health hazards too especially at very high altitudes one can have Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS), High Altitude Pulmonary Oedema (HAPE), High Altitude Cerebral Oedema (HACE). Proper Acclimatization serves the purpose to keep these at bay. Before planning for high ascends remember to perform a quick
research on the symptoms and their after-effects.

What I need to know about the term “acclimatization”?
Take time and Soak- in! To acclimatize is to let your body slowly mould into accepting the new environment. A thumb rule says that you should not generally ascend more than 300 metres per day and keep a day off for each 1000 metres ascend. You need to get in-tune with the changing environment. Maintain a slow pace while walking to allow your body enough time to adjust with the changing heights and weather conditions. Breathe gently through your nose to control the pace and keep rehydrating yourself. Maintain proper diet and include carbohydrate as much as possible. Energy is what you will require all through.

Over and above learn by heart to embrace your own stance to settle on your extent. Believe that all beautiful feelings of the world are real tough to achieve. There’s nothing called easy trek, everything lies in the mind including your strength to rise above any hurdle. Keep exploring and trying pushing your limits harder than ever. Though my first elevation gain of 3636m remained incomplete, I happily completed scaling 4633m the very next year. So don’t lose hope with failure rather plan wisely.

Happy Trekking!

Suggested Read:
• http://www.natgeotraveller.in/trekking-guide-expert-tips-on-how-to-pick-a-trail-pack-prepfor-any-terrain/
• https://devilonwheels.com/trekking-in-himalayas-comprehensive-guide/

Why Study Methodology in Sociology

Before delving in to the intensity of research methodology let me start with a common scene in your university. You are in your university cafeteria, with a cup of coffee or tea and you begin with stating:

You: “I can’t understand how Justin Bieber or Luis Fonsi can have almost 50 million followers!”

You friend (while taking a sip from the cup): “Can you imagine Disney World is so crowded that it is difficult to get ticket irrespective of seasons!”.

You: Really! Do you find more interest in children’s Disney World than watching and listening to Bieber or Fonsi?

Your friend: Yes, of course. It doesn’t make any sense to me that people stand in front of their hotels only to get a glimpse of them!!!…

You: Ohh… Come on. You’re not a teenage! It’s far better to see a teenage heart throb than to visit childern’s Disney World.”

These simple and apparently benign everyday ‘common’ conversation as well as observation (though ‘common’ things are not ‘so common’ at all) may have deep rooted sociological interpretations. Sometimes these types of conversations turn in to a debate involving aspects like group dynamics, behavioural aspects, mob mentality, crowd control etc. You can take a deep plunge into by posing question like why Justin Bieber or Luis Fonsi are famous and among what type of mass they are famous. A detailed understanding of the answers of these questions may include the analysis of their voice quality, the words of the songs, the way of presentation, the theme of the chosen song etc. Also, if you wish to analyse the like for Disney World you may need to muse on the characters of Disney, why Mickey Mouse is a cartoon celebrity moreover when it is larger-than-life, how people visiting Disney World feel to live inside their favourite cartoons and so on. In both of these cases gender binary can play an important role as well. To find out hidden reasons behind these facts we need to conduct research not only for these cases but also for other fact-finding areas.

While exploring and/or explaining and/ or describing a particular social structure we, sometimes, need to conduct interviews or simply need to be a keen observer. Thus, sociological research primarily depends upon two major designs: conclusions deriving from statistical description and/ or inference (named as quantitative) and/ or systematic review and interpretive framework from systematic observations (named as qualitative). Since sociology deals with society and interprets it in a systematic manner it needs a proper methodology to be addressed as a social science. For a critical analysis of a particular social structure we need to adopt a well-structured research design. We, sometimes, need help from theories also for the analyses. In this manner a well-defined scientific result can be achieved.

If, we take the example of the cafeteria, from where the questions of research generated, we will see few hidden steps are involved in getting the appropriate result

We need to define specific questions (here the ‘why’ and ‘how’ questions)
Collecting information and resources (either through statistical data or observations)
Forming a statement that needed to be proved correct or incorrect (through step no. 2)
Analysing the data collected or observation made
Coming up to a conclusion in a statement form
Showing your result for future references

Thus, a banal observation or statement may lead to a proper scientific study with the help of a methodology that may give the society something new in terms of the analysis of its structure–function, interaction and/ or conflict. A proper methodological skill enhances observation power and subjective insights. The basic difference between casual observation and sociological insight is- in the case of casual observation there is no standardization (in case of any argument between two people whose point is more accurate and/ or whose point we should follow), but a proper methodology gives that observation a research standard. In this manner a common observation becomes a research question with the help of a proper methodology. Thus, methodology bridges the gap between theory and research. So, start thinking critically (as I discussed before in the segment of why study sociological theories https://adamasuniversity.ac.in/why-study-theories-a-sociological-perspective/ ) and establish your critical thinking by adopting a proper methodology.

Eat to Live or Live to Eat: Reflections on Food Narratives

Let’s begin this piece of writing with a scene that occurs in a popular Bengali movie, Golpo Holeo Sotti (1966) directed by Tapan Sinha. The movie offers us a glimpse of a Bengali middle class joint family, which remains constantly perturbed with innumerable problems. Anyway, that is a different issue. For the time being, I would like to draw your attention to the sooty, dingy kitchen space of this household, where two wives are striving hard to finish off their cooking. They have to serve their husbands before they leave for their respective workstations. These women are disgusted with their daily confinement in the claustrophobic kitchen space. They despise their daily monotonous household chores which otherwise remain unacknowledged. They always remain irritated with their position in the house. This scenario changes completely with the arrival of a man named Dhananjoy who exemplifies how cooking can be an act of pleasure and thus, seeks to transform the perspective of these women towards cooking.

From a tangential reference to cooking as an art in the scenario of Bengali films like Golpo Holeo Sotti, there is a shift in films like Machher Jhol (2017) directed by Pratim D. Gupta where cooking occupies the centre stage. The film depicts the return of a culinary expert based in Paris to his ailing mother in Kolkata only to experience the toughest challenge in his entire career. His mother asks him to prepare an authentic machher jhol for her. The story and its twist entirely depend on the chef’s numerous experiments with machher jhol, and eventually his relationship with his family improves. Moreover, it is interesting to watch the evolution of the kitchen space and the slow movement of food from a topic of casual, peripheral interest to one of serious discourse.

These two significant films rooted in two different time-frames act as crucial pointers to our understanding of the evolution of the discourse of food, food history and anthropology through which any kind of narrative on the culinary tradition of a community becomes a significant gateway to acquire knowledge about its socio cultural past. The first anthology that comes to my mind is The Landour Cookbook (2001), a compilation of long lost recipes of the bakers at Landour (a cosy cantonment area near Mussoorie), edited by Ruskin Bond and Ganesh Saili. The book is not like any other recipe book. What is intriguing is that it contains a brief history of Landour when it was the “headquarter of the American missionary community in India, for about 100 years (1850 to 1950)” (Introduction 1). To add to that, the recipes, collected in the book, still bear the names of their owners. If you sift through its pages, you will come across some lip smacking recipes like Mrs. Strickler’s Chocolate Cake or Elma Hill’s Quick Cake. Nonetheless, it is not only the food, but also the names that would whet your appetite. Apart from the regular glossy cookbooks, that have a considerable amount of readership in the market, there is a repertoire of researched works on food history and anthropology, that deal with the interrelationship between food and various other discourses like colonialism, modernity and so on. Utsa Ray’s Culinary Culture in Colonial India (2015) serves as a significant instance that concentrates on the transmission and appropriation of several ingredients and recipes from the West in the social context of nineteenth century India, specifically Bengal. There is another category of works, which has also emerged and gained prominence. It is known by Food memoir. Madhur Jaffery recounts her childhood days in a fascinating food memoir, Climbing the Mango Trees (2005) where she very clearly depicts how each of her family recipes entails a story concerning the history, customs, rituals and even belief system of the family. As she tries to recreate her childhood days, her taste memory helps her recapitulating those less frequented alleys.

With the gradual intervention of social networking sites in our daily lives, food photographers and food bloggers have furthered the glamorization of food, foodies, and all people related to the art of preparing and consuming food (yes, you heard it right, consumption of food, to make it simple, eating is also an art!!!). Some of us, who are facebook or insta addicts, do not miss single opportunity to update pictures of food and often live videos of cooking. Who knew before that a simple meal consisting of dal, bhat and alu posto (you don’t need to google for alu posto; it’s a popular dish among Bengalis, an explanation will spoil the sport. If you are really curious, you have to taste it) could fetch almost hundred likes?

A few months back I came across a book called Korma, Kheer and Kismet (2014) by Pamela Timms, a Scotttish journalist whose blog Eat and Dust is a treat to one’s eyes. Pamela has chiefly talked about the variety of cuisines available in Old Delhi. Her picturesque writing dwells on vivid details about exotic dishes like Daulat ki Chaat or Mr. Naseem’s Sheer Khurma, which, I believe, are completely unknown to most of us.

For most of these bloggers, researchers and even the celebrity chefs like Ranveer Brar or Vineet Bhatia who host a number of food and travel shows (to name a few, Ranveer’s Himalayas: The Offbeat or Vineet’s Twist of Taste), food involves very precious, delicate, and subtle experience. You cook something; you lap it up, but the taste, the visual remains with you forever. Your taste memory often conjures up a host of other images; you associate a particular dish with a person who is no more or a place where you ventured at distant past. Food brings with it a legacy of taste and cooking that we often inherit from our ancestors (there is always a nostalgic yearning for mother’s magical touch) and pass it on to the generations to come.

Further Reading:

Pamela Timms. Korma, Kheer & Kismet. New Delhi: Aleph, 2014.

Ruskin Bond & Ganesh Saili, ed, The Landour Cookbook. New Delhi: Roli Books, 2001.

Madhur Jaffrey. Climbing the Mango Trees. London: Ebury Publishers, 2005.

Role of Artificial Intelligence to combat post-pandemic consequences in Agriculture

Student members: Anwesha Bose (Biotechnology, 3^rd year. Adamas University), Soumyajit Chandra (Biotechnology, 3^rd year, Adamas University)

The sudden outbreak of highly contagious COVID 19 has led humanity at stake. The high infectivity of the virus combined with high mutation rates has been the greatest hurdle for the scientific societies to discover a potent vaccine or drug for cure which makes the situation even more alarming. Many countries have declared lockdown to ensure safety to the citizens including the developing countries of the 3^rd world. But the post-pandemic situations will face a huge downfall in aspects of economy, agriculture, and industries. Situations may turn out to be even worse if the lockdown conditions continue for more months leading to the death of millions of people due to hunger and poverty. The biggest crisis will be faced by the poorer sections. Here a question arises, are we going to face famine shortly? We need to think of strategies to fight back the most undesirable consequences of this pandemic to save humanity from the danger of extinction. Artificial Intelligence can be an ideal solution for both keeping the agricultural productions unaffected along with ensuring minimal usage of manpower to ensure the social distancing and health security of the farmers.

The worldwide problem in open-field agriculture under lockdown condition: The current worldwide pandemic of COVID 19 is spreading at a rapid pace and have affected more than 200 countries worldwide killing more than 2.5 lakhs of people with more than a million people affected till date, since January 2020, when WHO declared it a global health emergency [reference: WHO situation reports]. Neither an absolute cure drug nor a vaccine has yet been developed to cure or prevent the disease which has led the affected countries to declare ‘Lockdown’ to ensure social distancing and to avoid mass infection. This bold step is quite appreciable but it has led to the serious downfall of the economy, agriculture, industry, and raised a question of food crisis to arise in the near future. Although at many places, agricultural activities are allowed that also raises a significant question of the health security of the farmers working in the fields

Representation of Different country-specific data of mortality rate with regards to number of COVID 19 cases per capita

Image source: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/risk/our-insights/covid-19-implications-for-business

Artificial Intelligence a new arena for continuing food production during lockdown condition:

Using an integrated approach of Artificial Intelligence in the field of Agriculture, popularly known as smart agriculture applied to conventional production systems as a solution to fight back the probable consequences of the pandemic as an alternative to manpower especially under lockdown condition where maintaining social distance is a prerequisite. We need automated systems for agricultural purposes to avoid probable food crisis in future and also ensure safety to the workers in the fields.

Image source: https://medium.com/neuromation-blog/ai-and-deep-learning-are-the-keys-to-unlocking-the-future-of-environmental-sustainability-345f93a57ec5

Putative solutions for overcoming this terrific medical emergency

We can think of a large scale semi-automated hydroponics set up as an alternative to conventional farming, which will require a lesser quantity of manpower and will be cost-effective. The setup will comprise of the following arrangements.

1) A dome-shaped greenhouse chamber (to avoid cleaning of dust particle from greenhouse surface which restricts sunlight)

2) A nutrient solution reservoir tank connected to the cultivation chamber through an automated electric valve.

3) Another valve to eliminate wastewater from the cultivation chamber.

4) DIY sensor-based monitoring of growth conditions, such as ambient temperature, water temperature; pH, Electrical conductivity, humidity and light availability and these can be controlled through mobile application.

5) Water Sprinklers can be introduced to maintain the temperature.

Diagrammatic representation of the probable setup for large-scale automated hydroponics

The proposed system can be used as an automated platform of large scale vaccine production using plant expression system. This will potentially help to combat the sudden surge of demand for COVID 19 vaccine as soon as it is developed. The system being semi-automated, it will use very little manpower and that also for planting and harvesting crops. As the system is planned to be developed in a very cost-effective way topped with extra advantages for using plants as a vaccine production system makes it available and affordable to even the poorer sections. These systems should be made much more available to the 3^rd world countries as they are facing the largest crisis in terms of economy, health, and industry.

Image source: Google images, search keyword: Artificial Intelligence for Environment

Prospect of Adamas University using as experimental platform for initiating such need based approach:

Here in Adamas University we have a unique chance of developing such unique ideas along with their implementation and establishing an entrepreneurial setup as here all the schools including school of life sciences and biotechnology, school of engineering and technology, school of law and justice, school of pharmaceutical technology, school of science, school of economics and commerce, school of social sciences, etc. are interconnected through knowledge fibers. Here we learn by exchanging and implementing our knowledge with each other with the guidance of our eminent and efficient faculties. Although now we are locked down in our respective homes we are working our brains out to think of ideas that can make the world live a healthy life with incomparable guidance and support from our teachers and mentors and we promise that we will make the world a better place to live.

Motherhood: Biological Essentialism vs Cultural Performativity – Discourse Analysis and Paradigm Shift

Happy Mothers’ Day to all my friends who feels the emotion of motherhood irrespective of their gender and marital status. I am trying to provide a sociological understanding of motherhood through this blog. Motherhood, by definition, is all-embracing. The identity of complete women is often replaced by motherhood in our society. Under patriarchy, women are only allowed to be mother and women are expected to aspire so. Mothers appear to have mythological and powerful position and if she is mother of son/sons, then she is associated with more powerful and prestigious position. It is one of the central issues of women’s life whether or not she become mother and restrains their available choices.

Motherhood has a direct impact on women’s lives, anyway, whether or not they become mothers. There are many discourses of motherhood depending on biological essentialism and cultural performativity. Motherhood also complicates binary assumptions that identify agency as either reinforcing or resisting the subordination of women. There are many discourses of motherhood-

Expected childbirth vs medical discourse: The ideology of motherhood is stereotyped. Girls are normally socialized from childhood to perform the role of mother after marriage. A heterosexual couple living together is usually anticipated to give birth to children and rear them. The institution of motherhood comprises of various impending role of women as wife, as mother, as daughter-in-law and so on. In whatever economic and powerful position the women belongs to, her ‘real women hood’ is often connected with her social status of motherhood.

The discourse of motherhood is influenced by patriarchal and religious priorities rather than equality, freedom and dignity. Following Simone de Beauvoir’s famous writing- The Second Sex (1949), we can argue that it is equally a trap that severely limits women’s individual freedom.

In India, patriarchal joint families exhilarated birth of multiple children and preferably male child. But, the health condition of mother or the risks involved in such motherhood are never taken into consideration. The socialization of women shaped their ideology of motherhood in such a way that they choose to be mother even after being completely aware of their life threat due to pregnancy. India’s maternal mortality ratio (MMR) per 100,000 live births stood at 122 in 2015-17. (SRS, 2016) The major complications that account for nearly 75 per cent of all maternal deaths are- severe bleeding (mostly bleeding after childbirth), infections (usually after childbirth), high blood pressure during pregnancy, complications from delivery and unsafe abortion. (WHO, 2017).

Biological mother vs Adoptive mother: Women are expected to be mother within a few years after marriage. Women have to face constant pressure from family, relatives, friends and neighbors and in case of any delay of such endeavor the natural capability of giving birth to child is being questioned. The society constructs psychological pressure on the married women which make her unhappy and anxious. As motherhood is socially constructed as an essential part of adult femininity, infertile wives (not husband) face social stigma. (Ghosh, B, 2016)

And to get rid from this stigma, spouse often takes help of Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) for having biological child. Even after knowing economic and physical consequences of ART, a spouse chooses to do IUI or IVF for getting biological child rather than adoption of a child. Adoptive motherhood is often related to status loss and discrimination which is related to labeling, stereotyping and separation.

Sacred and Profane Motherhood: The notion of sacred motherhood related to good mother. The cultural image of good mother relates to the smiling, peaceful, tolerant, attentive and sympathetic caregiver which relates the motherhood with sacred hood. Ideally good mother should be involved with children, always teaching, regulating, and helping out the children at the school, co-curricular activities and play group. On the other hand, women who are having higher aspiration in carrier, more involved in own passion, love and care for themselves are categorized as bad mother i.e profane by nature. The ethical context of a good motherhood often leads women, especially the working mother, worried and being frightened about their performance. Donald Winnicott (1953: 49) has developed the notion of the “good-enough mother” whose “whole life is bound up with the needs of her child”. In contrast, women who are “masculine” or “preoccupied with themselves”

Intensive Mothering vs Balance Mothering: The ideal type of mother should be full time mother, fully engrossed with their children, face all the hurdles for children devoted whole life for nurturing of children without fulfilling her own wish. The intensive mothering often leads to “Hyper-mothering” (Warner, 2005), which is characterized by the increased pressure and expectations for mothers to raise literate, successful children (Sears & Sears, 2002), hold down productive jobs, support their communities, manage a clean and a spacious home in a and not feel stressed while doing it because stress is bad for your baby. In fact, the idealized image of motherhood is challenging to accomplish. It makes women feel guilt, become unhappy, and suffer from anxiety, depression due to failure of balancing between the ideal and the real life. Women who willingly become mothers and take up the care of children, in other words, need not essentially be seen as capitulating to patriarchal stereotypes of domestic femininity. So, motherhood should be balanced between fulfillment of her own choices and achievements in life and nurturing of children.

Identity achievement vs Identity crisis: Motherhood is not always achievement for many women. Mothers have to bear and rare children irrespective of their personal choices which lead to role conflict and often related to domestic violence. Most of the women has to sacrifice their daily life styles or forced to leave jobs even after the provision of maternity leave. The identity in motherhood often leads to identity crisis for many women. They have to negotiate a contradiction between a belief in autonomy as a central part of adulthood and a perception that autonomy is lost with motherhood. (Stephanie Lawler, 2002). Women often face postpartum depression. The global prevalence of postpartum depression has been estimated as 100‒150 per 1000 births.

Normal vs Deviant Motherhood : Usually society encourage women to be motherly through nurturing loving and caring attributes and reject all unusual motherhood e single, working, hijras, other memers of LGBTQ, unloving, uncaring – mothers as non-normative and deviant (Stephanie Lawler, 2002).

Paradigm Shift:

The reality of mothers’ lives, however, often fails to match the “ideal mother” aspirations. Motherhood is not the only defining attribute of women in present society. Women have different identity as working women – teacher, doctor, social worker etc. and also as daughter, wife, friend and many more roles performed by women in everyday life. They are dreamers, creators, partners, homemakers, entrepreneur, mentors, and leaders. Apart from the identity of mother, a woman has many other identities which have to be recognized by the patriarchal society. The women themselves have to belief on their versatile identity and create their complete identity not only by motherhood but also by utilizing and establishing their potential abilities. The experience of motherhood is diverse across cultures, regions, socio-economic status and psychological status which have to be addressed.

Some of the changes in social construction of motherhood need to be change –

Admire the choice of motherhood
Lingering voices against patriarchal subjugation of women in the name of good or ideal mother
Shifting paradigm of socialization from aspiration of good mother to self-fulfilling, successful in carrier women
Stop seeing parenting as mother’s issue only
Acceptance of single, working mothers, Hijras and other members of LGBTQ with dignity.
Change of popular media content for portraying the image of motherhood

A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO SCREENWRITING – THE ALL-IMPORTANT CINEMATIC CRAFT

One of the primordial elements of filmmaking is conceiving it and subsequently documenting it. Before a film is produced, the detailed idea needs to be penned down in a piece of paper. This paper is known as a script or a screenplay and can be considered to be the blueprint of the movie. Before delving into the details, let us first understand as to what screenwriting, also referred to as scriptwriting, is all about. We shall keep our discourse limited to the medium of films alone as screenwriting is equally applicable for television and video games.

What Is Screenwriting?

Screenwriting is the process of writing the text for a movie. In simple parlance, the art of writing screenplays is known as screenwriting. While the Oxford Dictionary describes a screenplay as “the script of a film, including acting instructions and scene directions”, the Cambridge Dictionary describes it as “the text for a film, including the words to be spoken by the actors and instructions for the cameras”.

The screenwriters are the one who are primarily responsible for conceiving the movie in totality before the film is made. The creative aspect of filmmaking is greatly influenced by the screenwriters. Screenplays can be original when the screenwriter concocts the story and plot for a given movie. Screenplays can also be adapted when another piece of literature becomes the basis on which the film is conceived.

The Importance of Screenwriting

The meaning of a movie largely depends on how the screenplay is written and how the same is executed by the director. It is essential to understand here that the same person can be the director and the scriptwriter. While trying to deconstruct a movie into its constituent elements, it is very important to give the plot and narrative their due recognition.

While the other technical elements are extremely important, the preeminence of screenplay remains of paramount importance. In order to understand this concept, let us look at a movie like ‘The Apartment’ (1960) by Billy Wilder. The script for this movie was also written by Wilder. While the movie has all the other technical elements, it became a classic because of its excellent script. The plot is simple and the narrative is straightforward. Notwithstanding, the movie leaves an indelible mark on our psyche. As an integral ingredient of understanding cinema, the script of a film should be looked into carefully.

A screenplay can adopt a number of forms based on the output. For the moment, we shall restrict our discourse to films alone. The principal forms concerning films include:

Feature Films: This type of screenplay is submitted to a major studio after it is approved. It takes a definite format depending on what the studio wants it to be. Generally, well-known screenwriters prepare such scripts. Most of the screenplays that we talk about belong to this category. Unfortunately, the leeway for inserting originality in this type of scripts is minimal as the requirements are spelt out before the writing process begins.
Spec Script: A spec script or a speculative screenplay is usually a non-commissioned project that the writers sell to the open market. The format is usually decided by the concerned writer. There have been multiple spec scripts that have been later converted into complete feature films. Generally, such spec scripts are converted to feature film scripts just in case any of the bigger studios decide to. Spec scripts are way more original than commissioned scripts for obvious reasons.
Documentaries: The screenplays for documentaries have a lot of voice-overs and follow a two-column format. Subject to the fact that a documentary can’t be planned to the last detail, the screenplay might undergo a lot of changes. Although a lot of documentary filmmakers completely discount the importance of scripts in making documentaries, the fact remains that a tentative schedule does help the conversion of ideas into specific actions.
Telefilms: Telefilms also constitute a specific form of films in the current era. Consequently, there is a definite way of writing scripts for telefilms as well.

All said and done though, screenwriting is evolving with each passing day and the methods to decipher a screenplay are also evolving. One needs to be constantly on the lookout to keep in tune with the changing times.

Importance of Training and Education in Becoming a Screenwriter

Screenwriting, though, is an acquired skill and it needs training and skilling. It literally needs hours and hours of practice. As one should understand, one can’t become a screenwriter overnight. This is exactly where an educational institute comes handy. You might be a talented writer and you might have a flair for telling cinematic stories. However, the same doesn’t automatically make you an accomplished screenwriter. Screenwriting is contingent on a number of factors that can be learnt only at a media or a film school.

Importance of Networking in Screenwriting

In addition to the training requirements, there is another seemingly dirty word that determines an aspiring screenwriter’s eventual success graph. That word is nothing but networking. Being well-connected and having the people skills are distinct advantages that can take a writer long way in being a seasoned screenwriter. We might totally believe in the importance of talent. However, the fact remains that references are absolutely essential for the producer or the director (whatever the case may be) to listen to your script.