Earthly Musings

  Hybrid Film Festivals #IFFI2020 Films convey stories from most diverse geographical regions.   They become a fine tool that tide over geographical and language boundaries to portray events and voice out significant aspects of human endeavor and culture.    Film Festivals thus turn into a vital link that bridges distances and touch core aspects of human mind processes and emotions.     Each year a number of film festivals are held across the world.   However this year, Covid 19 pandemic has drastically altered the way Film screenings and festivals are going to be conducted around the world this year and years to come till fears arising out of spread of novel covid 19 and other mutant viruses are put to rest. Hybrid literally means a mix and in terms of Film Festival being termed Hybrid, it would in reality mean a mix of real theatre screening with an admixture of digital virtual screenings of movies and discussions thereof.   Today technology has empowered us to virtually cross

  Today is National Handloom Da y.   Swadeshi   Movement was launched on this very day i.e.   7 th  August, 1905 . Handloom reflects the glorious traditions of Indian Textile Industry and an era of self reliance in the area of garment production and fashion.   History is replete with instances of Indian textiles occupying high demand within Indian borders and far across the oceans. Handloom is also a significant source of livelihood which holds capacity to empower artisans associated with the profession.   It is estimated that 70% of all handloom weavers and allied workers in India are women.   However, being a household activity and entrenched in rural backgrounds, imperfect and often cheap imitations through power looms and illegal inroads through mills have brought this sector into a state of slow decay and death. I belong to Kerala and hail from the district of Palakkad. For several centuries handloom weaves from the Villages of Kollengode, Chittoor, Devangapuram, Kallanchira, Ne