In the following Integrative Seminar Lesson, We were assigned to write a poem on our personal experience of the place appointed to us. In this class, I learned the importance of having a personal perspective first and exploring that narrative and expressing the same. We were given the guideline of reading books such as “Onlooking: Eleven Walks with expert eyes” by Alexandra Horowitz- An American Cognitive Scientist, who pioneers in animal psychology and is the creator of an interesting TED Video called “How do dogs see with their noses”. On reading, I discovered that the book is a compilation of eleven walks that the author takes along with her dog and her infant son. It explains in detail the key distinct observations and perspectives that are seen by the two and compares it with how regular adults perceive the same world in mundane ways. The author takes these walks around her neighborhood blocks in New York City. She speaks about concepts such as “selective attention” and the “narrow framing” effect that makes human beings pay attention to only certain details of their environment and ignore the remaining aspects.
The following book was a guideline for us to follow to write our narrative of the area appointed to us. Our narrative was supposed to be submitted in the form of a poem.
I chose to use a very critical and negative narrative of exploring the journey through the lens of an outsider to the city and the intimidation one feels coming from a relatively smaller town and slower-paced life compared to Mumbai- a big city with a fast-paced lifestyle.
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