TVC: Sverdlovsk Diabetic Society–My friend diabetes
By Malay Desai From: Ekaterinburg (Russia), by Red Pepper A public interest filmfor a non-profit institution working for diabetics and persons with disabilities is a first-person monologue by a man. He begins talking about diabetes, who takes the form of a lollypop sucking person, from the moment they met and spend their lives together. ‘Diabetes’ is shown doing annoying things first, such as jumping on beds and not letting his companion sleep. ‘But sometimes, even sworn enemies become friends’, the man says half-way through, followed by the two hanging out, exercising and sharing the family portraits. The film winds up with a man avoiding having popcorn from his wife’s bucket in a theatre, after getting a nudge from his friend. ‘Make friends with your diabetes, ask your doctor now’ is the final copy. Why we Like? In 2008, the Sugar Collective, an initiative spreading awareness about sugar-related health facts, published a print ad showing a woman donned in bomb squad gear in a room. She was cutting a cake while her family stayed safely away. ‘Are we not overreacting to the dangers of sugar?’, the copy read. In 2014, diabetes has claimed millions more, and is virtually short of being an epidemic in India, but the message still remains relevant. The communication around the lifestyle disease, in most big cities, is often alarmist. We ourselves have read and heard the phrase ‘silent killer’ as a tag around diabetes. While medical practitioners themselves don't deny the adverse effects of it, most of them also believe that the disease can be tackled with simple disciplinary steps. By impersonating diabetes, this film simplifies the message and drives it right through. There is a definite amount of humour in the first-person monologue here, with the narrator recalling his first meeting with diabetes, as if it were an adopted child. The ailment is in the form of one sweet-sucking, plump guy, who stays with his ‘host’ all day and night. The host, evidently, gets irked with forced companion and at one point also claims to ‘lose meaning in life’. The diabetic’s psyche becomes an entertaining but factual avatar here, and portrays what it exactly feels while having pizzas, sweets and colas. But the crux of this film is the ‘shift in perspective’, and the latter half is filled with this meaning. The script is important here, ideas like ‘if you know your worst enemies well, they can be friends’ are what doctors tell you in complicated terms. To make diabetes ‘a friend’, the host must simply change his mindset and the annoying parasite will mend his ways too. Toward the end, the ailment has become the host’s ‘personal nutritionist and trainer’, and as many diabetics would vouch, it helped them get in shape in their bulging 40s and 50s, thereby warding off a host of other potential ailments. To all the 50 million plus diabetics here, happy friendship day. To watch the film type‘bit.ly/ViewTubeNov17’in your browser Social Newsfeed Your regular dose on the shifts in the social media universe Got to love the NewsFlicks app, most of it The news, views and opinions junkies in us stumble upon a new site or app every now and then, but there are some which become habits.. until a new fancy one comes by. Having used the smartly designed social app Flipboard on my phone until now and grown out of it, I’ve been filling my travel and leisure time with NewsFlicks, a brand new application that makes infographics out of trending events. There are no lengthy articles or links to analytical reports here, for it understands that we busy ADD victims like our content to be slick and visual-heavy. The snippety, crisp graphics that tell stories of politicians, cricketers, actors and other newspapers are packaged neatly in sections –poliflicks, ecoflicks, buzzflicks and lifeflicks – where I’ve spent much time checking out ab workouts. The only flipside, the flips are sometimes skewed right – it’s an India Today creation – as it was apparent in the recent upload: ‘How much do you hate Arvind Kejriwal?’ Heart = break. Aroon Purie likes this @Crapfoodblogger on a pant-taking-down mission Sly tweeting in Twitter land hit a new high recently with the arrival of @Crapfoodblogger, who describes himself as ‘I have a food blog.. I am right. What do they know?’ among other things. The account, evidently that of an insider’s, has been targeting top food bloggers, hospitality writers and the assorted cupcake-baking Tweeters who have populated Twitter in the past two years. The modus operandi is similar to what @bollywoodgandu did before selling out to make comedy shows – target famous tweeters and take their pants down. It’s also perhaps inspired from a @shitfoodblogger, who’s been doing this in NYC since 2012. Mr Crap’s tweets have been hilarious I think, and targeted uncomfortably at many who’ve been freeloading away recently, thanks to their online celeb-dom. Watch out! Trollistan like this Pune builder rides smartly on ‘NYC girl walking’ wave Last fortnight, a New York girl and her friend with a GoPro camera did a social experiment of walking down the city’s streets and recording all the cat-calls, jeers and attempts at harassment in a few hours. The video went viral, highlighting the fact that street dignity for women is askew not only in towns notorious for it (Delhi, Mumbai?) but also in the heart of America. Then, last week, in a classic case of chance pe dance, a real estate company from Pune, Kolte-Patil Developers, attempted the same in their city and put up a video. Surprisingly, as we went through the 2.35 mins of edited footage from seven hours, there was not a single instance of harassment or cat-calling. The reality might be different, if the comments below the video suggest, but ‘the largest developer of Pune’, surely hit a clever boundary there. Osho likes this
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