February 06

Friends of Freedom Mumbai
Gautam Bastian
gautamb@gmail.com
(LSS Mumbai 01)

Fof Mumbai has a spirited group of people who are working on their own to make events possible across the city, here are some of the reports!

Highlights:

1. Jeevika Documentary Screenings on February 10 at University of Mumbai organized by Anindita Ghose (LACS Mumbai 05)
2. Screening of Jeevika Winning Documentary "Gharat" at Sophia College, Mumbai organized by Archana Sinha (LACS Mumbai 05)
3. A Discussion around the theme of Economic Freedom in Prof. Eddie’s Foundation Course/Human Rights class for Arts students at St. Xavier's College.
4. Action Plans for the forthcoming academic year 2006-07

Details

1.   On Friday, 27th Jan, after much hardwork Archana put together a documentary screening at Sophia College. She also conjured up the producer of the documentary, a very nice gentleman, Mr. Pankaj Rishi Kumar. The documentary "Gharat" was an interesting take on the potential Micro-Energy projects. Perhaps Archana would care to give us a more detailed perspective on the responses from amongst the staff and students who attended.
      Unfortunately the screening was scheduled in such a way that many students had to leave before the film was over. We discussed this later with Archana, Beejal (Archana's Teacher) and Pankaj, and I think it would be a good idea to schedule future screenings during classes, and perhaps if the film is too long it could be serialised over two classes. It was an interesting learning experience nonetheless, and perhaps we can refine the organisation of such events as they become more regular.

2.  On Monday, 30th Jan, I visited St. Xavier's College and conducted a discussion around the theme of "Economic Freedoms", eventually the discussion took its own course and I had to stop while discussing the differences between Rights and Entitlements. I hope that we can repeat these sessions with more, and abler speakers in the future.

Things I would like to improve about this franchise:

• It might be a good idea to prepare some lecture outlines with the Foundation Course in mind, which is common to all Mumbai Colleges. These lecture plans can then become part of our pitch to other colleges that we might want to approach.
• It might also be a good idea to have a workshop about how to organise and conduct a discussion for prospective discussants. I think a cadre of about 2 or 3 people should be available by the next year so that we have a good geographical spread of the city, and can cover for scheduling clashes.

After the discussion I got a chance to speak to Haem Roy and she promises us a good bang on the door of the Sociology and Political Science departments there.  

3.      While talking to Haem, I realised that developing an Action Plan for Xavier's for the next year might be a good idea, and thinking about it now, this could easily be done at Sophia and elsewhere.. The people on the ground could decide what they think is feasible, while those of us who no longer have the fortune of being in college could help them thrash their ideas out.

To start this off here are the points which I discussed with Haem, with some embellishments:

Xavier's Action Plan [Draft]

• Documentary Screenings.
  • Documentary Festivals.
  • One-off screenings.
  • Panel Discussions.
  • Malhar [Inter-collegiate festival].
• Mini-LSS/LACS: One day seminar for students, perhaps on a Sunday.
  • Potentially pitched as a seminar exposing non-econ/pol-sci students to those subjects.
• Foundation Course
  • Science Section [Take a "Third Culture"/edge.org approach of bringing together science and society, bioethics, scientific progress in an open and peaceful society].
• Summer School.

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