The Richest Culture
This week, I attended a workshop of Amal Ambassadors and the topic was “Trying New Shoes: A Marketing Mindset Workshop”. In the meeting, we discussed a lot of interesting concepts which were very informative and amazing and they were; what is marketing according to my point of view, unconventional marketing, empathetic posture and why don’t people listen to you. In the end, our facilitator Sir Awais Farooq has assigned us homework which was regarding the documentary ‘Cobra Gypsies’’.
French filmmaker, musician, and photographer Raphaël Treza spent three months in the desert of Rajasthan on India’s border with Pakistan. During this adventure, he shot Cobra Gypsies, a documentary about the Kalbeliya, a mysterious Indian gypsy tribe of musicians and dancers. It was incredibly awesome and provided powerful lessons for us. Firstly, the director beautifully captured all their nomadic lifestyle and highly insular culture. He took a quick glance at it. Secondly, he briefly describes all their lives and lifestyles like marriages, singing, dancing, music, seeing dangerous animals, hunting of Cobra, a celebration of Holly and concerts. The people enjoyed their lives without any mental stress.
The movie makes people think about what being happy means, as they realize those ‘officially’ poor people seem healthy and happy. Sociologists have already analyzed the fact that richness is not only about having money (economic capital); one can own many different kinds of capital, for example symbolic (fame), cultural (music, dance), social (your relations). And in those kinds of capitals, Kalbelyias are very ‘rich’. I appreciate the Kalbeliya for their efficiency, their freedom, and having the courage to be themselves no matter whence hard it is to be outside of the main group.
I personally learned a lot of lessons from this documentary that “Your inner peace is matters regarding these materialistic things”. It gave me a positive message that we should live together that is the thing that makes life beautiful and amazingly perfect.
