Karina Pandya

Known to be the Haiku of Cinema, short films are especially well known for the story behind the short film seen. These films (original motion pictures) which do not run for more than 40 minutes fall under different categories such as drama, humour, emotion; anything that can grasp the attention of the audience.  These films have been given the Academy Awards, popularly known as Oscars since 1929, the time of its inception at a dinner party hosted by American actor, director & producer – Douglas Fairbanks in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.  The First Academy Awards ( Oscar Awards ) https://youtu.be/vJv38K0mrRo via @YouTube      However, the exchange of these awards is not exactly a new phenomenon as a result of the cinematic affect found in the Lumiere brother’s films or even Georges Melies’ trick films, known for A Trip to the Moon.  These awards bestow the artistic and technical merit in the film industry and are given by th...

Cardboard, plastic, tin, mud, concrete, brick and waste material; all it takes to make a slum. Imagine… this is your house… the place you sleep every night and wake up inside every morning! However, there is no choice – you were born in poverty and life is a battle, battle for survival!  This is the life of billions and billions of people living across the world - in different slums, in countries. As a result of rapid urbanisation decent living conditions have become very scarce and cities are not at all prepared to accommodate any sort of growth especially when formal structures are not in place. The urbanisation is not only steadily increasing, but no one can really estimate when it will stop.  How residents of the world’s five biggest informal settlements are shaping their futures. A five-part package featuring exclusive drone photography, interviews and reportage is worth watching.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0OU-TXqtgo&feature=youtu.be ...

                             Deshbhakti… the fondness, the faith, love or emotional bond to our country. Images of freedom fighters: Mahatma Gandhi, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Bhagat Singh, Jawaharlal Nehru and Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar all conjure in the mind.   However, this is the ‘latent Deshbhakti’ we are constantly reminded of maybe once a year and neglected for the rest of the year! Patriotism of our nation is always healthy because that has inculcated a sense of pride for our country; and even extended to included a sense of alliance with other citizens who share the same feeling.It could also include many factors combined to our country such as historical, cultural, ethnic and political aspects.  It is not, however to be mistaken as 'nationalism' is a system created where people believe that their nation is superior to all others. It is inseparable from powering the ma...

Technology has won the power to do many things and changing the world is one of them! With both science and technology, it has becomes easier to live our lives. The technology that is already present in our lives and what we are accustomed to has set about the roadmap for us to innovate things further.  For instance, take the simple example of a crayon –a coloured chalk or piece of wax or pencil. This simple invention was then innovated to add metallic colours and then neon colours and even glow in the dark colours. Similarly, innovation can be found in almost each and every product around the world. It could be the mobile phones, the Internet- along with broadband browsers and HTML and even different innovations in healthcare such as  drug developments, surgical advancements and new diagnostic tools. You could even see the modern day taxi driver, who uses a GPS system for driving directions. This automation allows the task to be performed without the requireme...