A wonderful post about Egypt, Mubarak, Obama and democracy by the uber talented Ashish! Clickety click to read, it’s really very well done. =)
Post can be found here.
The Distance is Far, But our Hearts are Near
It is strange to be presentation prepping and paper writing when there is a major revolution going on across the world. I feel like we should stop what we’re doing and have a conversation about what this means for planning, for democracy, for the world, for ourselves, for our friends and neighbours. Two days ago a dear friend sent me the video clip below and while I was watching it my throat had a lump and tears were close by, but even now, my heart is full with the thought of how the love of your first home is a deep bond that stays with you always. (Alas, much to say, but also much to do, so today this must be a short note).
Till next time.
First and Foremost, We Write for Ourselves
Today was a busy day preparing to present at the Canadian National Planning Association Conference from Feb 3-5th in Waterloo.
During a study break though, I saw a lovely interview with Kiran Rao, the writer and director of Dhobi Ghat, and there were a few parts of the interview that I wanted to share (If you’re interested in watching the interview in full, you can find it here).
The first was about the film making process itself:
My aim in making a film has always been to figure what I can do..what’s my forte, what’s my voice as an artist, as a creative person, what is my distinctive voice, and do I have something to say? These are things that make me want to make a film. I’m not making a film because I want to make a first film, I’m making a film because I feel I have something to contribute, and I wouldn’t make it if I didn’t think it was something good. So when I wrote it I didn’t have box office in mind, I didn’t have an audience, I had nobody in mind but myself looking over my own shoulder saying hmm is it good, do I have a story to tell? So that’s what I set out to do.
And second was her husband Aamir Khan’s description of working with her during the film:
First of all I didn’t know she was such a good writer..and I had no idea that she was such a good director. These are two things I learnt about her. Because I know she is a lovely human being, she is someone who I love very much and respect very much and have high regard for intellectually and emotionally and in every way, but I didn’t know that as a cinema person she is so capable and so in control of what she is making. I didn’t know all that because I had never seen that side of her as a writer and director. So I’m very proud of that.
In an interview with the delightful Jian Ghomeshi of Qtv, Aamir Khan says something similar (the whole interview is really just a lovely watch) and whether he is sharing his eagerness to be part of the cast, or his admiration for her warmth and strength as the leader of the film, the affection and joy and shared purpose and understanding between them is clear. It is a heartwarming reminder that the basis for all friendship and love is respect and equality.
In addition to their admiration for each other though, in the Qtv interview Kiran also speaks about the subject of Dhobi Ghat: Mumbai. She always knew she wanted to make a film about her home, and the plot really stems from the reality of the city itself. It is a place where you can’t hide in gated communities and you are forced to interact with people wildly different from you on a daily basis.
I think there is something to this idea of seeking to understand and describe the nature of a city itself. Certainly Vancouver and Toronto (and other places I’ve visited) have distinct personalities; as a result, they impact and shape their inhabitants in very different ways. So to take those differences and explore the layers and complexities of a city by telling the stories of its people is a fascinating project to think about.
The Magic of a Library Card
A couple of weeks ago, I disconnected my Facebook account to carve out space in my day to read more. Not that reading online isn’t lovely (I hope you like this blog for instance) but time is finite, and I agree with Farhan Thawar‘s advice at the recent Nspire Discovery Series “The Modern Tools of Creation” that it is important to prioritise your reading, so “if something is temporal, unless it’s the Harvard Business Review, just stop reading it and do something else”. He explained what he meant by saying “my own reading hierarchy is books>mags>blogs>twitter, and I always have a book with me. If you check my bag at any point, even tonight, you would find one there.”
And while I still love Twitter, I’ve been taken aback by the difference more books and less social media has made to my happiness level. When I first moved to Toronto, I couldn’t get a library card right away because I didn’t have any paper bills yet, and then when I finally started receiving mail, I was so swamped with actual school reading and work that I just never made it out to the University of Toronto libraries or a Toronto Public Library branch to discover new book friends. But this all changed with the new semester, and in the past couple of weeks I’ve read two lovely books. I’m amazed at how this simple addition has made such a huge difference to daily joy, and my ability to be critical of myself and aware of my own shortcomings while still being kind and hopeful about progress on things I find difficult.
Difference is a Good Thing (A Peek into my Non-Family Household)
We had a discussion at home the other day about whether or not we choose our friends. I was convinced we do, but afterwards realised that the Roommate was right. We don’t really choose them, it’s more that life itself chooses our friends for us. At least that’s how it’s always worked for me. In nearly all the people who I consider close and dear, our meeting is an unusual story, and extraordinary timing and coincidence (being in a particular place on a particular day for instance) played a role in how we became important parts of each other’s lives.
The Roommate and I are no different. In the weeks leading to my departure for Toronto, I spent huge amounts of time on Craigslist and Viewit.ca and Kijji and Padmapper and all sorts of other apartment hunting sites trying to find a place that I liked enough to commit to. For the most part, listings would read: “Most AMAZING apartment ever! Beautiful, sun filled, spacious, and an incredible deal! Close to everything, food, transit, the city, the university etc”. And then I would actually look at pictures, and it would invariably be a small dark apartment with an unpleasant colour of walls, and some dude’s lumpy mattress in the middle of the room. After a while, I could no longer distinguish one listing from another, time was ticking by and I was really no closer to finding a place.
A City is a Lot of People
When I see people in the hallway, at the grocery store, on the subway, walking downtown late at night or in any other space in which we see strangers, I wonder about them. I wonder where they live, where they work and what their hopes and ambitions are. I wonder whether they live with people they love, whether they’ve always lived in Toronto, and I imagine their challenges and their joys and disappointments. Yesterday after my night class I had one such moment when I turned to pick up my bags at the grocery store, and the coherence of the purchases of the man behind me caught my eye. A tiny package of Vector cereal. Four bright yellow bananas wrapped in plastic. Two firm red tomatoes. An apple. Sometimes it is something as simple as someone’s shopping purchases that gives clues to who they are, and the combination of firmly deciding to Eat Healthy but not stocking up on groceries left me curious to know more.
More than individual stories though, I wonder how I could ever take part in planning for a city without knowing about its heart and soul.
I’m Posting Every Day In 2011!
I was looking through an old daytimer today searching for something, and seeing the different entries from my time in Toronto thus far led to an epiphany. (yay!) I realised that part of the reason I’ve found it tough to blog regularly is that a day in Toronto might include anything from interesting discussions about social finance, to learning about the Chichewa word kumvana at the Engineers Without Borders National Conference, to feeling homesick and missing mountains to everything in between, and speaking about all that becomes a bit overwhelming unless I make space to share on a regular basis. So I talk a lot about what is going on during teatime at home (morning and night!) but because tea drinking happens all the time sharing isn’t a monumental task, and both small and big moments make it to those daily sessions.
So friends, I’ve decided I want to blog more. WordPress has a challenge to blog once a day during 2011, and I think that’s the motivation I need to be more regular, and share this crazy wonderful adventure I’m on called grad school and Toronto, and what it is I want to be and who I want to become.
If you already read my blog, I hope you’ll comment and share. And if you’re new to the space, welcome! I’m looking forward to the challenge.
When You Put It That Way, It Sounds So Simple
After nearly 10 weeks (!) immersed in planning classes and agonizing over where I belong in the world outside the classroom, this week’s readings in my theory class provided some much needed reminding that the world is in desperate need of all kinds of planners, and regardless of what I decide to do in the future, I want to really develop and polish my writing thinking and speaking skills during my time at U of T. (There certainly are enough assignments to help with that goal, now to focus and deliver my best effort).
Planners who hope to pursue an equity agenda must speak and write and as well as think and calculate. They must develop an articulate voice, organizing attention to issues and maintaining credibility even when data are inadequate and tempers are short. They must face the challenge of being persuasive without being manipulative. They must face uncertainty without being paralysed by it. Faced with the real complexity of housing or transit or service delivery problems, they must select which issues to focus upon and which to put aside. They must be articulate organizers as well as clear-thinking analysts. Gauging what to say and what not to say, when and how to speak to be understood, whether to be challenging or not, encouraging or not – all these are practical problems of rhetoric, of speech and writing..”~ Krumholz and Forester, Making Equity Planning Work
If planners consistently place before their political superiors analyses, policies and recommendations which lead to greater equity, and if they are willing to publicly join in the fight of the adoption of these recommendations, some of them will be adopted when the time is ripe. It is this process conducted with verve, imagination, and above all with persistence, that offers the planner challenging and rewarding work and a better life for others.~ Norman Krumholz, A Retrospective View of Equity Planning Cleveland 1969-1979
Small p planning
Similarly, Otto von Bismarck said, “Faust complained about having two souls in his breast, but I harbor a whole crowd of them and they quarrel. It is like being in a republic.” In that sense, the first step to dealing with procrastination isn’t admitting that you have a problem. It’s admitting that your “you”s have a problem.
I was exploring Hart House the other day and found a lovely room filled with magazines called “The Hub”, and so sat down to eat my lunch over a recent edition of the New Yorker. And while I was reading, I came across a lovely article about procrastination (ironically, putting off readings in the process) by James Surowiecki. You can read the full article here.
What are your thoughts? What do you think the reasons are for procrastination? Is it a planning fallacy or simply a case of divided selves? Or something else entirely perhaps?
Expanding the Boundaries of My Heart (Reflections From Seven Weeks In)
Every day, my love for this city deepens. I always thought the boundaries of my heart started and ended in Vancouver, but the past seven weeks have taught me that this is not the case. It is possible to hold multiple loves within you, and this openness to new and different things enriches your life and strengthens your love of each individual thing as a result. It’s been an astonishing, life changing revelation. I feel like I could live anywhere now, (or at the very least, can imagine myself in more than the west coast in the future) and am not as hesitant to try new things.
And now that I’m feeling more settled, I feel like I have so much to share about my adventures thus far! A complete summary is impossible, but it’s been a rich and learning filled few weeks. I’ve fasted the last few days of Ramadhan on my own, celebrated my birthday away from family for the first time, set up my new room (yay IKEA!), met lots of interesting people (and possibly a few kindred spirits), missed my brother’s birthday, befriended the TTC and the GO train, went to the U of T’s Graduate Student Orientation, celebrated my first solo Eid (and went to Eid prayer for the first time), explored campus, caught a cold, went to a Shakespeare play, went to Nuit Talks, attended an incredible dialogue session with the Governor General, attended the ballet, participated in Word on the Street, went to Friday prayer for the first time (minus conferences), visited Montreal, attended many campus lectures, consumed heaps of tea, wandered a great deal, and in sum, while doing the million and one things involved in settling and becoming used to a new place, have been learning new things and confirming old things about myself every day.
It’s been a challenging, fascinating, frustrating, and beautiful experience, and since it was my seven week annniversary in the city a few days ago, in no particular order, here is a bit of what I’ve been thinking about since I’ve arrived. (Amazing how time goes so quickly).
Seriously Planning 