Rimi Nandy, Author at Adamas University

The Rise of the Cooks:Cooking during Covid-19 Lockdown

Food is one item which can be categorised as a necessity as well as luxury depending on which food item is being referred to. On one hand there is the basic ‘roti’ ‘daal’ rice, which satiates hunger and on the other there is ‘biryani’ which satiates desire. The restaurants being closed and people being restricted to their home, has affected the field of food making to a great extent.The art of making food is the domain of the cook. They can be categorised into amateurs and experienced. The lockdown has led to the rise of cooks, from the ones surviving on Maggi and packaged food to the experimental cooks and down to the charity cooks. Why talk about cooks? The images of Dalgona coffee and restricted access to street food and junk food got me thinking how the very idea of being a cook is increasingly being perceived differently.
The Celebrity cooks:
The prevalent idea about celebrities is they lead a life very different to that of the common people. With the busy work schedule and by virtue of belonging to the rich class, celebrities such as the actors, do not venture into the kitchen to cook their food. Covid-19 is an equaliser, does not discriminate between the rich and the poor. Therefore now, the audience suddenly find themselves inside the private space of the actors, cooking, struggling to roll out round roti. This is the newest form of entertainment.

The Trendsetters:
One fine day, Dalgona coffee arrived on Facebook and then suddenly the timeline was flooded with versions of the coffee, well decorated and looking professional in glasses made to look exquisite in white and coffee coloured enigma. For foodies forced to stay away from junk food, it finds its way into their kitchens. Social Media is plastered with home made Pizza, Mughlai paratha, Biryani, baked items and the list continues. Cooking has become the upcoming trend. Selfies have found its competitor in the photographs of home made food items.

The other end of the spectrum
While for a class of the society, being unable to walk into the restaurants, is extremely disheartening, for the pavement dwellers, beggars, migrant workers and truck drivers, existence of food itself has become a matter of grave struggle. To them , being able to get a single meal is clouded with uncertainty. This is where the charity cooks come into play. Some people have taken the initiative to cook food and distribute it among the people who are being forced to sleep on empty stomachs. A simple meal of khichadi or rice and daal is lovingly prepared for these unfortunate people. This act of charity is not restricted to humans alone. There are others who reach out to the street dogs, cooking for them, feeding them. What do these people get? A huge sense of gratitude and a personal sense of happiness.

In Conclusion:
Cooking has become a therapeutic tool, a hobby, an indulgence. Never has so many different types of cooks existed before this. Neither is it a gendered any longer. The hired cooks being absent from the household, almost every member of the family comes together as a cooking unit. As for the foodies, cooking becomes an alternate passion which probably intensifies the love for food. For the thousands depending on the act of kindness, the cooks appear to be angelic form, driving out darkness and sorrow. It is indeed surprising that cooking has become an integral part of our day to day existence due to the lockdown.

Transmedia Narrative and New Age Learning – Teaching Literature effectively

transmedia narrativeThe worldwide lock down has shifted the teaching learning experience entirely on to the digital platform. As teachers we often ponder on the question as to how to engage our students more effectively when the only medium available is the internet. In the absence of a direct interaction, getting the student’s attention becomes quite challenging. In such a scenario an alternative method of evoking interest in the students is experiential learning. This not only makes studying interesting, but it also provides a more holistic approach to a student’s understanding. In this context I would like to talk about using Transmedia Narrative in the teaching learning process. Though this can be used across various disciplines, as a faculty of English Literature, I will be focusing mainly on the domain of literature.

What is Transmedia Narrative?

The traditional method of studying a text has been textual analysis through lectures. In the present age only depending on explanation of a text through lectures becomes quite insufficient. This is where Transmedia Narrative plays a very important role. Before moving forward, I would like to discuss what this particular form of narrative refers to. The manner in which literary texts are consumed are no longer restricted to passively reading a text whether in the form of a hard copy or its electronic copy. Transmedia narrative refers to the various mediums which can be used to depict a particular literary text like a movie, a game, interactive fiction, comic strip, art , installation to name a few. When a literary work is presented through the different mediums, its representation and consumption, greatly differs from one to the other. Passive consumption has been replaced by immersive learning which transforms the passive audience to an active one in most cases.

Tools of learning through transmedia storytelling:

There are various mediums available in the market today which could be exploited to cater to the differing student understanding. Read ahead to know more about the various platforms at the disposal of teaching professionals to creatively engage their students in the process of learning.

Movie adaptations has been the earliest form of transmedia representation of a text. Movies help the readers to put the text in context and acquire greater understanding through its visual representation. This was followed by games based on texts. In this medium the audience becomes an active participant in the unfolding of the narratives. One such example is the Lord of the Rings multiplayer online game. This game is closely structured on J.R.R Tolkien’s The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings series. There are multiple quests in the game and how it is played depends entirely on the players. There is a choice of characters built on the characters appearing in the novels. The story world gives a better understanding of the text as the students can access the characters and setting directly.

Interactive fiction is another medium which provides the students with the option of active participants. One of the foremost software used for interactive fiction is Inkle. Interactive fiction allows the reader to read a text in the sequence which he/she chooses to follow. As a reader the student can choose one ending out of multiple endings each with a different plot line.

Minecraft is another tool which can be used to create story worlds based on the settings of text which can then be traversed by the students. This helps in retaining important details pertaining to a particular text. ArcGIS storymaps can be used to chart the places included in a text. Teachers can use existing story maps or make one.

Digital platform has become indispensable to teaching learning pedagogy in the present time. These tools and the sphere of transmedia narrative can be used for the dissemination of knowledge of any discipline. Though this form becomes essential during the long periods of lockdown, its use can be continued beyond the time of isolation as the education industry has started moving towards the digital domain as a major effect of the Covid-19 outbreak.

External Links:

Transmedia Storytelling: https://vimeo.com/4672634
Lord of the Rings transmedia: https://ibcomtransmedia2013.wordpress.com/2013/09/20/the-lord-of-the-transmedia-storytellings/
Transmedia theatre project: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/4x4edj/transmedia-theater-projects-tell-the-stories-of-shakespeares-itempesti-and-kafkas-ithe-triali

Digital Humanities in the time of COVID-19

The worldwide lockdown and isolation has created a demand for an alternate to physical movement and presence. As most people are forced to stay indoors and work from home, the digital sphere has become extremely essential. The field of digital humanities provide a space for the creation of new projects as well as for studying and understanding human behavior brought about by the digital sphere.

Whether it is the field of art, music, literature or education, each of the fields have been affected by the spread of the Corona virus across the world. A number of art museums have enabled virtual tours for art lovers to view online from any part of the world. The British Museum in London, Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, The Louvre in Paris are a few of the museums which can now be visited from within the comforts of one’s home. This was made possible with the help of the Google Arts & Culture project. This approach is sure to push away the boredom and the feelings of restlessness and loneliness which is brought about by the forced isolation due to the spread of the Corona virus.

Social media has become an important outlet for the creativity of a number of people stuck at home. Videos of musicians playing covers of popular songs has become very common on Facebook and YouTube. Their seems to be no age bar as well. From the age of 4 to the aged, people are reaching out to a universal audience through the social media platforms. The various instruments used for the same range from Violins, piano, guitar to Tabla and other indigenous instruments. The renowned group Bolshoi Ballet have planned to premiere their performance of the Nutcracker Ballet on the 10^th of April, 2020 in YouTube. This is an opportunity made available due to the lockdown.

Apart from music, a very popular trend on Facebook are the various photograph challenges which evokes a sense of nostalgia, by connecting the current situation with an earlier time. This affects the manner in which a very different identity is created on the Facebook platform with the help of a narrative built on the past. The born digital literature in the form of status update and comments are furthering the manner in which literature is being consumed and will be consumed in the future.

The field which is heavily dependent on the digital forum at present is the education sector. Schools, colleges and Universities have been temporarily shut down. However, the classes continue with the help of platforms such as Google Classroom and Zoom, to name a few.

The manner in which the spread of the disease is studied has also undergone a major change due to the availability of an enormous amount of unstructured data in the form of Big Data. These available data is being further studied with the help of Machine Learning, Virtual Reality and simulation.

The very perception and attitude of the people towards their fellow beings and the society at large are undergoing a major shift due to the continuous developments taking place in the digital sphere. The world is truly moving towards a digital age where the presence of the digital mode is becoming all pervasive. Digital Humanities cater to a changing world which slowly moving towards an interdisciplinary approach to get a holistic view of human society and life.