Monica Ingudam

S02E32 FindingTheVoices: Tamara Reisdorf From Germany, First time Author, Nanowrimo 2015 Winner

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FindingTheVoices: Tamara Reisdorf From Germany, First time Author, Nanowrimo 2015 Winner
Guest Speaker : Tamara Reisdorf
Interview Location: Web Interview, Guest Speaker joining in, from Germany.
Language: Interview in English

I love the concept of Nanowrimo , to write a novel in 1 month. On November 1, participants begin working towards the goal of writing a 50,000-word novel by 11:59 PM on November 30. We have Tamara Reisdorf from Germany, First time Author and Nanowrimo 2015 Winner sharing about her experience. It was really great to learn her experience and Nanowrimo is a great platform for first time author, trying to write with the drive and support, to pour out the 50K words floating in your mind into written words.

A little bit about Tamara Reisdorf in her own words:

My name is Tamara Reisdorf. I am a 24-year old german, social worker and participated this year for the first time in Nanowrimo. Currently I am getting a master degree and there I specialize in grief/loss/death and social work related to this. At the moment my thesis is about how grief is shown in children’s books. Afterwords I plan to do a Phd in the same research field. This inspired me to write my novel about a 11-year old girl (Prim), who lost her sister a few weeks ago. Therefore she is full of grief and sadness. Then she meets Alma who is a Bothynum which is a little creature that gets send to humans, who are going through a hard time. Only the human who they get send to can see them. Together they experience the loss in the family, the burial and different things.

Music of the world 003: Jamaican Reggae artist Nesbeth “My Dream”

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Reggae is a music genre originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. It’s always interesting to learn about music in different parts of the world. I love the beat, rhythm and musical characteristics of Reggae being played 4/4 times.

For instance in Nasbeth’s song, Joy in the morning, which is one of my favorite amongst his collection, he goes:

“It’s gonna be joy in the morning,

It’s gonna be joy in the morning,

It’s gonna be joy in the morning,

It’s gonna be joy in the morning”

and that captures the whole essence of the song and I can sing along that part at least.

The other aspect of reggae which is captured very well in Nesbeth’s song “My Dream” is the beat and rhythm of the music, a music which will make your body sway as you listen. It’s interesting to hear the child’s version of My Dream in his soundcloud list.

Listening to “My Dream, My Dream, My Dream, My Dream” reaffirms that my dream is important and I need to pursue my dream. Music is a medium which can get you through many facets of emotions, giving you the strength to bear low phase or heighten your spirits to the peak.

Yes, I had to look up on Nesbeth’s background, he grew up in the urban Arnett Gardens neighborhood of West Kingston on the island of Jamaica, referred to as “The Concrete Jungle” because of high crime rates and widespread economic hardship. It’s interesting to note that throughout his childhood, music was the sun in his life, and his curiosity about using it to communicate and to offer comfort to himself and others grew as he began to experiment with recording and discover his own voice. And this is reflected in his song Taste Victory which shows the trainings, hard work, failures before the taste of Victory, a beautiful way of expressing the way to tasting Victory.

Here is the link to listen to his songs at  https://soundcloud.com/nesbeth-greg

Here is the video of his song Taste Victory

MI_S03_withlogoBorn and raised in the violence-torn landscape of the Indian state
Manipur, I have a vision to promote and spread inspiring, empowering, educative & entertaining stories. I believe we can do this together by finding the voices, voices which needs to be heard and shared, voices of the people, people all over the world. I believe that these voices will bring a change and connect all of us. Presenting the voices in our series of “Music of the World” sharing music and the thoughts of the artist from all over the world. Contact us to be a part of this series

 

 

S02E31 FindingTheVoices: Ingudam Manoranjan, Entrepreneur from Manipur, Founder of Vbooky

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FindingTheVoices: Ingudam Manoranjan, Entrepreneur from Manipur, Founder of Vbooky.
Guest Speaker : Ingudam Manoranjan
 
Interview Location: Bangalore, India
Language: Interview in English
Interview of Ingudam Manoranjan, Entrepreneur from Manipur, CEO of Vbooky. We spoke in-depth about his journey in taking up the path to building up the product from ground up and finally being deployed and used. It’s very interesting to hear the technical as well as the team and market dynamics in building a product and running a startup company. He also shared about the strategy on recruiting his team members and what they look for as they are expanding their company.
VBooky is an online marketplace for beauty and wellness services for a particular location.

VBooky has been started by 3 enthusiastic technologists, powered by a talented team & driven by the single desire for delivering better customer experience through technology & operational excellence. VBooky is derived from “We[V] Book You” & strives to bring the best customer experience & convenience to you.

I got the opportunity to meet the young and dynamic team and got a glimpse of their workplace, a team who gives their best. I love technology and found it extremely interesting, listening to the young team on their solution, vision and plan for the company. It’s been just a year and it’s encouraging to see the tremendous progress, growth and expansion  of the company. I wish and see a very bright future and success for all of them, a team who are not afraid to pursue their dreams giving their best.

As I walked out from the Vbooky office, I felt this extreme sense of pride with the realisation that, this young man, Ingudam Manoranjan from Manipur has co-founded a company, hiring teams in Bangalore. I started my career in Bangalore working for Wipro and have seen many of us working for companies founded by others. Now we have many companies all over the world, founded by people from Manipur and I am in search for their voice to feature their talent and story to the world.

MI_5Born and raised in the violence-torn landscape of Manipur, I have a vision to promote and spread inspiring, empowering, educative & entertaining stories. I believe that we can create contents bringing the positive side of Manipur. I believe we can do this together by finding the voices, voices which needs to be heard and shared, voices of our own people, people of Manipur and well-wishers of Manipur. I believe that these voices will bring a change and connect all of us.

I welcome you to join me in my journey to finding the voices at Http://FindingTheVoices.com/

S02E30 FindingTheVoices: Interview of John MPamei Musician from Tamenglong Manipur.

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FindingTheVoices: Interview of John MPamei Musician from Tamenglong Manipur.
Guest Speaker : John MPamei
Interview Location: Web Interview, Guest Speaker joining in, from Qatar.
Language: Interview in English
John Mpamei is a musician from Tamenglong, Manipur. He shared about his journey of being a musician. He is specialized in Guitar, Piano, Violin and vocal. He is currently teaching music at Doha, Qatar. He shared his pain with the situation in Manipur with the media portraying the divide between the hill and valley, but gave a very hopeful message for peace, unity and progress in our beautiful land. He shared very interesting perspective and experiences which he faced.
Congratulations on John MPamei’s  first music Album Far Away released on 21st Dec 2015.  Be sure to get a copy of his Album from iTunes.

MI_5Born and raised in the violence-torn landscape of Manipur, I have a vision to promote and spread inspiring, empowering, educative & entertaining stories. I believe that we can create contents bringing the positive side of Manipur. I believe we can do this together by finding the voices, voices which needs to be heard and shared, voices of our own people, people of Manipur and well-wishers of Manipur. I believe that these voices will bring a change and connect all of us.

I welcome you to join me in my journey to finding the voices at Http://FindingTheVoices.com/

Music of the world 002: Chloe Baker ‘s haunting voice in her song “Love Won’t Make You Cry”

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“Love won’t tear you down, call you names or laugh at your pain
Love won’t sacrifice your hopes and dreams
For heartache and shame
Love won’t beat you or burn you or hang out to dry…
Love won’t make you cry”

It’s from a song by Chloe Baker which I have been listening back to back from yesterday. Every time I listen to her hauntingly beautiful voice, I can feel her words and absorb the meaning even deeper. I love the lyrics and her voice.

I always look up the details of the artist when I love the work, to get to know a bit about the artist. Chloe Baker is a New Jersey-based singer and songwriter. I believe that there is always somebody who is behind you, backing your dreams, who inspired you to step up that extra step,  catches you when you fall. It’s interesting to note that Chloe Baker grew up in a home filled with music and she worked very closely with her father to record and produce her music. It must be a beautiful feeling to work together with her father creating beautiful memories which will last forever. Staying across countries, I miss my father very much. He has always been there and I treasure my memories with him including the arguments and tears. Can’t help thinking if they fought and argued while they worked together, just like I do with my father.

I love her song “Love won’t make you cry” so much that I looked up and watched all her other songs. The song “The Rope” was written and sung based on her feelings about the suicide of a distant cousin. I definitely see a lot of talent in her as a young singer and songwriter. She believes in her words and songs, which can be felt bringing the instant connection to her words and voice.

 

MI_S03_withlogoBorn and raised in the violence-torn landscape of the Indian state
Manipur, I have a vision to promote and spread inspiring, empowering, educative & entertaining stories. I believe we can do this together by finding the voices, voices which needs to be heard and shared, voices of the people, people all over the world. I believe that these voices will bring a change and connect all of us. Presenting the voices in our series of “Music of the World” sharing music and the thoughts of the artist from all over the world. Contact us to be a part of this series.

 

Music of the world 001: Tomas Doncker protesting for the Charleston Massacre through his music

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When I read about the rage, hatred, confusion and disillusionment Tomas Doncker shared over the Charleston Massacre, and how he has put his feelings into the songs he wrote and made for his Album “The Mess we made”, I had to look up and listen.

For those who don’t know about the Charleston Massacre, on June 17, 2015, a 21-year-old white man opened fired on a group of people inside the  Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston, South Carolina, United States. The shooter was quoted to have said “I have to do it. You rape our women and you’re taking over our country. And you have to go.” 9 people died, all African-American, out of which 6 were women and 3 were men, killed by multiple gunshots fired at close range. This was clearly a hate crime of racism.

Looking up on Tomas Doncker’s biography, it’s interesting to note that his musical vision is global. Starting from New York, his work went across Japan, China as a singer, songwriter and producer.

Most recently, I was asked by a young student from my native place Manipur on how effective are music sung for a cause. Coming from a conflicted place and seeing different kind of protests leading to more violence, I would say protesting via music is a very peaceful form of protest. The Album “The Mess We Made” is Tomas Doncker’s  way of protesting for the Charleston Massacre. It’s a strong way of non violent protest sharing his rage, hatred, confusion, disillusionment of this hate crime of racism. Music have no boundary and will travel across the globe like his music has reach me. “Time will tell” is my favorite amongst  his Album “The Mess We Made”.

And we stick together fighting racism and hatred.

Here is the link to listen to “The Mess We Made”

Album trailer for “The Mess We Made”

 

MI_S03_withlogoBorn and raised in the violence-torn landscape of the Indian state
Manipur, I have a vision to promote and spread inspiring, empowering, educative & entertaining stories. I believe we can do this together by finding the voices, voices which needs to be heard and shared, voices of the people, people all over the world. I believe that these voices will bring a change and connect all of us. Presenting the voices in our series of “Music of the World” sharing music and the thoughts of the artist from all over the world. Contact us to be a part of this series.

 

 

 

S02E29 FindingTheVoices: Bung Keisham, fashion designer from Manipur, sharing about his work and life (Part 2)

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FindingTheVoices: Bung Keisham, fashion designer from Manipur, sharing about his work and life.
Guest Speaker : Bung Keisham
Interview Location: Web Interview, Guest Speaker joining in, from Netherlands.
Language: Interview in English
Bung Keisham, Fashion designer from Manipur shared about his rough childhood and dealing with the unacceptance of his identity as a gay. This was covered in the first part of the interview.
In this 2nd part of his interview, he shared about his work. It’s interesting to learn the details about his work. He is working on Kids wear and I am looking forward to see the collection. He also shared about life in Netherlands.

MI_5Born and raised in the violence-torn landscape of Manipur, I have a vision to promote and spread inspiring, empowering, educative & entertaining stories. I believe that we can create contents bringing the positive side of Manipur. I believe we can do this together by finding the voices, voices which needs to be heard and shared, voices of our own people, people of Manipur and well-wishers of Manipur. I believe that these voices will bring a change and connect all of us.

I welcome you to join me in my journey to finding the voices at Http://FindingTheVoices.com/

Kishalay Bhattacharjee, Danger of a single story from Manipur

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Today, I want to share a video of covered by iValley Talks. This video was shared more than 1 year ago way back in July 2014 with only 596 views. In this video, Kishalay Bhattacharjee talks about the danger of a single story from Manipur. Kishalay Bhattacharjee, an author, a senior journalist who has been with broadcast television for twenty years, seventeen of which he spent at New Delhi Television (NDTV) where he was a Resident Editor covering conflict in India’s North-East. He is a regular columnist and speaker on conflict and post-conflict situations in India.

First of all I would like to thank and recognize the work of Kishalay Bhattacharjee and also to each and every brave journalists reporting the conflicts stories of Manipur. Their reports have given a glimpse to the world of the conflicts and issues of Manipur. In this video, he talks about what and how he has failed to cover other stories, stories which are important in breaking the stereotype image the world sees. He has covered only the images of violence. And in his attempt to cover other stories he has written the books “Che in Paona Bazaar” and “Blood on my hands: Confessions of staged encounters”

He is right, there are a lot of stories which needs to be covered, stories where people rise and celebrate life in the midst of the conflict. There are stories of people working together showing hope, unity, integration and progress in the conflict zone.

People (both government officials and public) working together and rising up. Such stories aren’t covered. But you will see stories of the divide amongst people and people OR people and system, covered in bold with the same title and content (even with the mistakes carried over), being circulated.

Let me give an example. During the flood and landslides calamities in Manipur this year, the people (irrespective of ethnic community) came together reaching out to the people affected in the valley and hills. This was an empowering example of people coming together. Then, there are the army officials who worked very hard in repairing the roads for the people. Where are these stories ? Aren’t these stories important ? There is no divide in this effort and so this story didn’t reach the media.

So yes, I definitely echo that we need to change the single story portrayed in the media. And I am in the quest for FindingTheVoices, I believe that these stories will bring a change and create a positive image of Manipur and positive thinking to many individuals. I believe that this will definitely contribute to change the scenery of the conflict and violence-torn to peace and progress in our society.

Reference: IVALLEY TALKS