Author: Parvathy

Kahaani 2021

by Parvathy

This is my third year in Kahaani and I chose to do Kahaani this year as well because I really enjoy doing dances that represent my country, India, and it is just a really fun experience.

My initial goal for Kahaani this year is to improve my collaboration skills with others (LO5) because I am one of the oldest dancers there, and I am a fast learner as well, hence I feel the responsibility to help the younger dancers if they have any questions. Another goal of mine is to show perseverance and resilience (LO4) because if I am being completely honest, this dance is not as enjoyable as my Kahaani dance from the previous years, so I am really finding it hard to be motivated to show up for the sessions, therefore I need to find the motivation to go for these sessions and maintain that motivation. I also need to stay committed so that the final performance of this dance will look beautiful.

Hopefully Kahaani this year goes well, and that I will be motivated to go to the sessions, because I really do enjoy dancing, just not this dance.

IFP Reflection – Conflict, Violence and Peace building

by Parvathy

So far we have had around 2 months of IFP, and during these sessions, we discussed various topics such as collaboration, conflict, violence, and peacebuilding.

Conflict and violence are very tied into one another, usually, conflict leads to violence. However, I believe that although conflict is inevitable (due to everyone’s differing opinions), violence is inevitable if we consider the consequences of our actions and take other people’s opinions into account before making decisions. Violence does not necessarily only have to be physical, it can be emotional, verbal or even cultural, and I strongly believe that all these forms of violence can be avoided if only people become more self-aware and less selfish.

We also discussed the different forms of conflict and violence that arose from the movie Crazy Rich Asians. This movie sparked a lot of controversies because of the lack of representation of “brown” people – Indians and Malays – in Singapore. One response to this movie mentioned the racism present in Singapore, and how nobody talks about it, and I kind of agree with this, but I also believe that the levels of racism in Singapore are not as high as other countries such as the USA. I believe that certain forms of conflict might take hundreds of years to be resolved, or it might never be resolved. This is because humans are just naturally very self-centred narcissists who will find the smallest of things to use against others as long as it leads to them feeling more superior to others. However, I believe that through educating people, they will learn more about the consequences of violence and why they should not act upon the conflicts they have with others, and instead should try to resolve them. This will definitely make the world a more peaceful place.

We also did an activity a few sessions ago, where we spilt ourselves into two groups, the Jahs – a poor country that doesn’t trust rich countries as they have been exploited by them – and the Kays – a rich country that have good intentions that just wants to help the Jahs. The Jahs were not given any information about the Kays other than the fact that they are a rich country, and the Kays wanted to help Jah prosper and be a better country. The objective of this task was to come to a conclusion on how the Kays will be able to help the Jahs, but the misinformation and being unable to communicate effectively really prevented us from getting to a conclusion, instead we reached a conflict. From this activity I learnt that in order to communicate effectively and maintain peace, we need to let others make their statements without any interruption, hence building a wall of trust between the two parties. We also need to keep in mind that everyone has different opinions, hence it really will not be effective to have one single person represent a whole group of people. If there was only one person representing a whole group, then there is bound to be internal conflict within that group, and this might hinder their ability to interact with others.

So far in IFP, I have really been able to build my collaboration skills (LO5) and I have also been able to learn more about how to be a better collaborator and maintain peace instead of creating conflict.

Representation and Identity : Eli Rezkallah

by Parvathy

(link to google doc)

For the past few weeks in English LangLit SL, we have been looking into Eli Rezkallah’s “In a Parallel Universe” which is a collection of parodies of sexist advertisements from the 1950s.

Here is my concept map for the key terms relating to satire, gender and advertising:

Rezkallah’s style is satire and it encompasses making parodies of sexists ads from the 1950s and also involves the inversion of the roles of the males and females portrayed in the ads, therefore reversing the stereotypical gender roles and challenging the dominant discourse of the modern audience. Rezkallah also uses intertextuality – by making parodies of the advertisements from the 1950s – to compare modern society to the sexist society of the 1950s. By referring to the ads from the 1950s, it makes the modern audience reflect on whether society’s attitudes towards gender stereotypes have changed, or whether advertising is still restricting people into certain stereotypes based on their gender and age? Hence (in my opinion) the purpose of Rezkallah’s work is to spark conversation about modern-day sexism and conversations about the broken advertising industry. 

Nowadays, many people believe that society has become more equal and less sexist, however by using ads from the 1950s, Rezkallah not only implies that society is still sexist, he also provokes the male audience to feel the sexism that women experience. “In a Parallel Universe” also promotes men and women to break the binary thinking of separate spheres and be who they want to be instead of following the stereotypes.

Rezkallah also conveys the superficial beauty standards of modern society, and how advertising causes women to believe that they have to be perfect in order to be accepted by society. This has been (and still is) a big issue that affects millions of females worldwide as they end up having self-esteem issues and end up believing that they will never be enough. However, the standards that advertisement has engraved onto the minds of women can never be achieved naturally as is all computer-generated beauty, it is all superficial. Therefore through “In a Parallel Universe,” Rezkallah conveys to the audience that advertising is the same as always – it still continues to bind the audience into tight stereotypes and identities. 

Little Red Cap vs. In a Parallel Universe

Sustainable Enterprise Consultants

by Parvathy

The service that I have chosen to do this year is Sustainable Enterprise Consultants (SEC). SEC is a leadership college service that aims to guide the other services (mainly GCs) in our school and help them to be more sustainable and have ethically sourced products. Essentially we are consultants for the GCs in our school, and I find that really interesting, hence I signed up for this service.

So far in this service we have split ourselves into different groups, I am in communications, and we have also done the goals setting of SEC. Personally from this service I want to have an increased awareness of my strengths and areas for growth (LO1) as I believe that a service like this is something that I might want to do in the future (being a consultant). I also hope to engage with issues of global importance (LO6) such as sustainable products and ethically sourcing materials and goods. Lastly, I also want to consider the ethical implications of actions (LO7) through this service as we will be guiding GCs to ensure that they are making ethical choices.

Karate

by Parvathy

Karate is a sport that I have been doing since seventh grade, and currently, I am a brown belt. I do karate twice a week – every Monday and Friday night – and I really enjoy these lessons.

My short term and very specific goal for Karate is to get my brown-black (brown tip) before the end of grade 11. This is going to be a challenge for me as in the grading I have to do a 6km, fight multiple black belts, and do stick jumping (which I really can’t to).  Therefore through Karate I am undertaking a challenge and developing new skills (LO2) and I will also show my perseverance and resilience (LO4) because I know that I will find Karate hard as the grading approaches.

In order to achieve my goals, I am planning on giving 100% of my energy in each Karate lesson. I really hope I do well in my upcoming grading!

Ballet

by Parvathy

Ballet is an activity that I have been doing since grade 4, and I really enjoy going to ballet lessons every week. During ballet I feel very calm even though the dances are very long and stressful, dancing is a nice break from all the tedious school work.

Currently, I am in grade 8 in ballet, and my goals are to have increased awareness of my strengths and areas for growth (LO1), to undertake new challenges (LO2) since the dances for grade 8 are really tiring and completely different from previous grades, and lastly to show perseverance and resilience (LO4) as I know that ballet is going to be hard, but I need to maintain motivation so that I do well in the exam. All these skills that I develop from ballet will be very useful in the future as I will need to face many challenges and I will feel like giving up, but I have to keep going and keep being resilient.

So far in ballet, I am finding the dances pretty challenging as they require a lot of stamina, which I lack. Hence in order to improve my dances and to succeed in the dances and the exam, I am planning to be more focused during ballet lessons and put in 100% of my efforts during each lesson.

IFP 2020-2021

by Parvathy

IFP, Initiative For Peace, is a completely new activity for me, and so far it has been really interesting. The reason why I chose to do IFP is because I wanted to build my leadership skills, meet new people and build my collaboration skills, and also because I want to know more about how I can help the world be more educated.

So far in our past two sessions, we have had discussions about what we think IFP will be, what we hope to achieve from IFP, and we also did some collaborative activity and reflected on them to figure out ways to improve our collaboration skills.

Through the collaborative activities that we did, I learnt that in order to corporate better with each other we need to be patient, open-minded, and respectful. This will allow the other group members to feel comfortable and therefore be able to share their opinions with the group. By doing so we will be building trust in one another, hence allowing our group members and ourselves to achieve our individual and collective goals.

Through participating in this activity, I hope to improve my collaboration skills (LO5) and I also hope to gain a better awareness of myself and how I can grow to be a better person (LO1).  I think that these goals are completely achievable and once I achieve them it will be very beneficial in my future, especially in university and in the workplace when I have to collaborate with others. I also hope to plan an IFP peacebuilding conference that will be able to teach others how to be more peaceful and prevent conflicts (LO3). I know that this may not be feasible because of the current covid-19 situation, but I really hope the pandemic gets better so we can actually hold this conference.

CultuRama 2020

by Parvathy

This is my third year in CultuRama, and I am really happy to have gotten into Nigeria. It has been around a month since CultuRama rehearsals have started and I am really enjoying it so far.

My initial goals for CultuRama this year was to improve my collaboration skills with others (LO5) and to take upon the challenge of learning how to do a completely different form of dancing, Nigerian dancing (LO2). I feel like these goals overall will be very beneficial for me as it will improve my collaboration skills, which is a very good skill to have, and this will also make me more of an optimistic person as I am willing to learn new things.

So far in our rehearsals, we have been learning the dance and perfecting it. I had my light plot earlier today and it was so fun to do the dance on the stage with all the colourful lights. Our rehearsals are every Saturday morning and we have also had some Friday afterschool rehearsals. Personally, I feel like during the Friday rehearsals I am very tired due to the long school day hence when I dance I lack the energy and the vibe. Therefore for the following rehearsals, I need to make more of an effort to be energetic so that it doesn’t seem like I am bored because of the dance (even though I am just tired).

Other than that, I am really enjoying all of the rehearsals, as I really enjoy learning the Nigerian dance, which is a completely new dance style, hence it is a challenge for me. I feel like in order to overcome the challenge of learning this new dance style I just have to keep practising this dance as much as I can in my free time so that I get the moves perfect and so that I am able to vibe with the music. Through this challenge, I was definitely able to develop a new dancing skill, but I also able to develop a bit more confidence in my dancing because I realised that in order to make this style of dance look good, I need to have confidence. It was definitely not easy to develop this confidence in my dancing, but I feel like I could definitely see my confidence during the light plot (which was earlier today) since I really just went full out and enjoyed dancing on stage with the colourful lights, and I just felt like my dancing was on point (as I was vibing with the song). I feel like it will be very beneficial for me if I managed to improve my confidence in ballet as well since it will definitely make my dancing look much better. Through the Nigeria CultuRama dance, I was also able to develop the skill of dancing with feeling hence making my dancing look so much better. This skill is very beneficial for ballet as well because we always need to dance with feeling so that we don’t look like mere robots. (LO2)

Through CultuRama, I have also been able to develop my collaboration skills as I had to collaborate with the other dancers in my team in order to make the dance look very good. Personally, I found it easy to work with the other dancers since we all have a collective goal of making this dance look amazing, hence they all were willing to answer any questions that I had about the dance. I found it really fun to make new friends through this dance, and I didn’t face any challenges while working with the other dancers, it was a very smooth and enjoyable experience. (LO5)

I am really looking forward to the final CultuRama recording, which will take place around two weeks from now!

Analysis of Mini Automatic Ad

by Parvathy

Link to Google Doc

This text is an advertisement designed by the car brand Mini in order to market their Mini Automatic car in the UK during the 1970s. It can be inferred that the audience of this advertisement is primarily men due to the attitudes that are portrayed towards women. Through the representation of women as weak and inferior to men, this advertisement appeals to the male audience by indicating the benefits of this product and by also making the male audience feel like the strong protectors of women.

One of the primary ways this ad appeals to the male audience is through the portrayal of women as weak and inferior to men, hence boosting the ego of the male audience. Firstly, this is captured through the problem-solution structure that this ad has. By stating that this car is “for simple driving”, this ad implies that women are the problem because they are bad at driving, hence they need cars to be simpler. Through the belittling of women, and focusing on the stereotype that women are bad at driving, this ad implies that by buying this car, the men will take on the role of a strong masculine protector. This implication boosts the ego of the male audience, hence effectively capturing their attention. Furthermore, this advertisement has an eyeline composition, with the wide, scared eyes of the women being the first thing the audience notices. The exaggerated wide eyes of the woman and the foregrounding of her fingers tightly wrapped around the steering wheel conveys the nervousness that she feels due to driving, hence incorporating the sexist stereotype that women are bad at driving into this advertisement. The eyeline composition of this advertisement along with the 2nd person address creates an emotional connection between the scared woman and the male audience, which causes the audience to sympathize with the woman, leading them to believe that by buying this product, they will eradicate this fear from women. This further boosts the ego of the male audience, as they are portrayed as the masculine protector of women. Overall, this advertisement appeals to the ego of the male audience as it suggests that by buying this car, the men will appear more masculine and caring to women. This advertisement also gives insight into the sexist culture of the marketing industry in the UK during the 1970s by suggesting that it was normal to belittle women and deem them as inferior to men as a form of marketing.