Institute For The Future

Chaudhary, Strategies of Leisure and Downtime, Kolkata, 01/09/09

Strategies of leisure and downtime, Kolkata, India, Roy Choudhury 09/01/09

Shubham Roy Choudhury,  29 years, is a doctoral research fellow at the Department of Film Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata. He also teaches undergrad courses in the same department. He studied Zoology in undergrad, but his love for media, especially films turned him towards film studies. He is studying the changing landscape of Hindi films in terms of sound; how the sound used in Hindi cinema, including music, has changed from 1970s to present. Specifically, he wants to understand the aesthetics of sound in the context of transformation from analog to digital technology, during this period. We interviewed him at the department of film studies at Jadavpur University.

Domain Specific Questions

Shubham stays in a big house at Golpark, Kolkata with his parents since birth. He grew up in a joint family. He considers all his four cousins, from both the sides of his parents, and the uncles and aunts, with whom he passed his childhood days, as very close relatives. He does not have any siblings and he stays in touch with the cousins over the phone and occasional get-togethers. In such reunions, he enjoys all sorts of leisure activities – watching mostly Bengali and some Hindi movies, visiting restaurants or having good home made food. He also hangs out with his friends, and  occasionally visits restaurants, watches film, theatre and rock concert shows with them. Eating out is a great fun for him.

Experience of watching films of different languages and cultures is the most enjoyable part of his present research work.  Shubham takes part in different community groups. He is the founder member, the lyricist and the manager of a primarily local Bengali music band, Chilekotha (meaning, Attic). He formed the band with some school friends during high school. He was also a member of a family-based theatre group since his childhood.

Shubham is a member of different online social network groups as Orkut and Facebook. He is member of some film studies related people in such groups. He considers himself as an internet junky and loves to remain hooked to internet. He downloads movies and watches them on his PC.  He rarely watches TV. He loves chatting using Google Talk, plays mostly strategy games like Second Life and Travian everyday. He prefers less complex games as he finds such games as means to free his mind from professional complications.

At some point he plans to build a website, a database on Indian cinema.

For real fun, Shubham likes to go out of the city on a short trip with his school friends. He recollects such an occasion when they visited a small island on the shore of the Bay of Bengal. The fact that trip was unplanned made it special for Shubam.

He prefers to live in the present. Nevertheless, if he has to think about his life in near future, he may shift from academics to commercial film production, where many of his friends are presently working. He has experience of writing film-scripts for his friends, directing a couple of theatres and a documentary film on the plight of workers in a small scale industrial enterprise in the age of globalization and standardization. The film has been screened in a competition called Jeevika (meaning livelihood) in New Delhi and at the Jadavpur University film festival also.

Fun becomes most important to him after finishing any burdensome job as writing a paper or after a long stretch of routine work. To have fun, he loves to hang out with friends, go eating out with friends, and may be go out for a longer trip. He still recollects one such occasion when he visited Shantiniketan for a couple of days with two friends and “passed the time boozing.” Forgetting the daily routine, walking aimlessly in unfamiliar places, switching off the mobile phone, boozing – appear fun to him.

In near future, he apprehends, life may become less fun as he may have lesser friends. He also is not sure whether he may be getting married very soon. Romance is important for him but flirting is fun. He does not want to be in a serious relationship. He expects to spend more time online in the future. In fact, he told us jokingly that  he took a test and found himself ninety five percent addicted to internet.

For him, social network sites as Orkut and Facebook offer opportunities to build and enjoy multiple selves. He maintains three profiles on  Orkut. First, profile is of an older management professional (that he never likes to be really), second is a woman and third is his real self. The female profile helps him to see the world through a woman’s eyes. He said that he has deeply benefited from his female profile.

Technology

His PC is not shared and is used for internet, email and  watching films. PC to him is a means for communication, something that also offers personal space, assists to be creative with photo and audio-video editing. He uses a simple mobile phone for talking and SMS only, and he does not prefer any multi-function gadget. Mobile phone for him is a means that helps him to keep in touch with his contacts, 24 hours a day and he never switches off his mobile phone. The next technology in his wish list is a laptop computer as he believes that it will help to carry his world with him on the go.