Indian Senior’s Project
Proposal is to explore the India-Australia Interaction.
During the time of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam a book was published called “The World and South East Asia” and he wrote the foreword for that. This was published with the cooperation of many nations. It begins with a quote by Will Durant, the philosopher, “Europe and America are the spoiled child and grandchild of Asia, and never quite realised the wealth of their pre-classical inheritance”.
“We shall be surprised to learn how much our indispensable inventions, our economic and political organizations, our science and our literature, go back to the orient.”
The same is true today when we consider Australia and India. India was the source of our Urban Culture as far back as 2500 BCE, and Australia is the world’s most urban community in the 21st century. But the relation goes back to the land, the people and the community back to millions of years.
The main objective is to produce a document of the observations of the senior Indians living in Canberra to express their observations and experience in terms of relating the two great nations.
The document to bring forward the great achievements of these two without any bias or preference or prejudice.
To relate the multicultural aspects of these two through thousands of year of continuous occupation of the land divided by the might Indian Ocean, created only after the break-up of the super-continent of Gondwanaland. It might even be worthwhile to include the comments by Australians about their impression of India.
Publicity of the document – There are four options of promoting the document- hard copy; E-Book, Webpage; or compact disk. It is intended to distribute the document, free of cost, to public libraries, schools and colleges and other community organizations to understand the cooperation that exists.
Option 1 would be most expensive requiring writing, editing, printing, marketing (if the cost is to be recovered) and storing the final product.
Option 2 is now gaining popularity but many of the members do not yet have tablets to read them as books. It will soon be a common tool though.
Option 3 of using a web-page has some positive advantages, but again having the access to computer technology can be a drawback.
Option 4 of using as a compact disc could be the easy solution and least expensive with a wide exposure to the community.
-It is now easily available both for creating as well as accessing the product. This technology is now getting common and every library has access to it- Public Libraries, school libraries and even individual households.
Even the production of the material will not be expensive. Once a master copy is made reproduction is simple, that can be undertaken by individual or through stores like Big W, Office Works, Dick Smith or any camera shop. If necessary it can be even produced at home without any problem by persons who own a CD/DVD burner.
Production cost – Main cost would be digitizing information. The text can be typed on the computer, illustrations digitized; the whole set-up edited under an IT Expert (which the community has) and then transferred to CD or DVD for distribution. Having the master will make it convenient to produce only the required number of copies, thus reducing the storage area.
The cost would be:
One – The cost of the discs and the cases, which can even be bought from super markets.
Two – The cost of printing the cases/covers for individual disks. Some members might already have the facility, which is commonly available.
Three- One-off cost of the Graphic Designer to create the sleeves for the disks. Ones it is done there will not be any additional cost for reproduction.
Four -It would be good to have it as video-audio combined. For this it would be necessary to have some very clear and easily understandable voice for recording. This will also be a one off-cost.
Five- Once the voice is recorded it has to be synchronized with the text and illustration. Once again this would be a one-off cost.
Six- The cost of distribution of the final product
Next step
1. To set up an advisory committee to work out the detail scope of the project that would benefit both the Indian Seniors as well as Canberra Community.
2. Search for volunteers who would be willing to contribute to the project
3. Find the IT Experts those we have who can undertake such project
4. Find sponsors who would support and aid the project by providing the facilities and funding, their sponsorship recognised and displayed on the cover. It might be beneficial to contact even the Government of India if they would be interested (of course without any interference).
5. With the limited time at our disposal, it has to have an urgent priority.
6. To find out the cost involved for IT Projects
Cost
The cost has to be worked out after consulting the IT Experts because they are the only trade experts to have some idea of the cost. As a guess-estimate around figure of two to three thousand dollars should be sufficient at the initial stage.