bajrang dal - 'militancy' to 'terrorism'

the bajrang dal is the militant youth wing of the vishwa hindu parishad (VHP).
they have perpetrated series of violent acts in the last months in orissa, karnataka, etc.
their tag-line is slowly being changed from militant group to terror group.

since the dramatic arrest of sadhvi pragya, the face of 'hindu terror' is emerging.
the convenient 'SIMI scapegoating' should finally end.

tehelka has run a long interview with their current president - prakash sharma.
it is good reading and a lot of cut and thrust.
i am quite amused by sharma's constant refrain to 'spontaneous reaction'.
sometimes i wish for spontaneous human combustion.

the mess that is our cities

2008 is an important year for population statisticians.
the population residing in urban areas will cross the 50% mark.
the UN estimates that this will move to 70% by 2050.
the 2001 indian census shows that 27.8% of our population is urban and increasing quite rapidly.
atanu dey at deesha is an active proponent of the creation of cities.

it is an undeniable migration and close to irreversible (unless the raj thackereys of the world have their way).

but the reality of the india's inept governance structures makes this process extremely scary, a point which is well brought out by kalpana sharma.

Typical of such small urban centres is Nawada, the district headquarters of Nawada district in South Bihar. Barring a few reasonably broad paved roads, the rest of the city appears to be connected and disconnected with narrow pot-holed roads where all manner of vehicles jostle for space with vendors, pedestrians, and animals. The winners are the ones who are more dexterous.

Electricity comes sporadically. The rich have diesel generators and invertors. Most manage with kerosene lamps after dark. Many homes depend on handpumps either inside or just outside their houses for water. Sanitation facilities are suspect although there must be some sewerage, and there is little evidence of garbage collection as you see the piles of garbage around every corner with pigs and dogs competing for access.

Yet, this town has a history studded with the names of men and women who played an important role in the freedom struggle -- like Jayaprakash Narayan. The Sarvodaya Ashram he established is a couple of hours away from the city. And there are older reminders of a distinguished past that residents will tell you about, including its link to Buddhism and Jainism. Nawada is also home to the master of dhrupad and thumri, Siyaram Tiwary.

Its past notwithstanding, Nawada’s present reflects little that distinguishes it from other towns of an equivalent size. It exemplifies the acute problems that urbanisation poses in India – the absence of investment in infrastructure, the lack of planning and developmental norms and the poor status of structures of governance that could make a difference. There is a silent crisis afflicting these places that is affecting the lives of millions of people, yet no one seems to notice or care.

for example, the water supply situation...

According to figures quoted in ‘Status of Water Supply, Sanitation and Solid Waste Management’ prepared by the National Institute of Urban Affairs (June 2005), there are literally dozens of fairly major towns in India that get water twice a week or every alternate day. Although the figures quoted in the study are from 1999, and the situation in some of these towns could have improved, it is indicative of the extent of the water crisis in these cities. The worst off, according to the 1999 data, were towns in Gujarat. Surendranagar, for instance, got water for 30 minutes once a week, Gondal was slightly better off with water supplied for 20 minutes once in four days while Amreli received a supply of 60 minutes once in three days. Nine towns in Tamil Nadu had water either twice a week or on alternate days. Even Bangalore got water on alternate days.

entire article is here.

eat less oil and more sunshine...

says mike pollan in his letter to barack obama.

the food and agriculture policies you've inherited -- designed to maximize production at all costs and relying on cheap energy to do so -- are in shambles, and the need to address the problems they have caused is acute. The good news is that the twinned crises in food and energy are creating a political environment in which real reform of the food system may actually be possible for the first time in a generation.

his suggestions hinge on his concept to 'resolarise the american farm':

Your challenge is to take control of this vast federal machinery and use it to drive a transition to a new solar-food economy, starting on the farm. Right now, the government actively discourages the farmers it subsidizes from growing healthful, fresh food: farmers receiving crop subsidies are prohibited from growing "specialty crops".....
...Commodity farmers should instead be encouraged to grow as many different crops -- including animals -- as possible. Why? Because the greater the diversity of crops on a farm, the less the need for both fertilizers and pesticides.

to 'rebuild the food culture'...he says:

On the premise that eating well is a critically important life skill, we need to teach all primary-school students the basics of growing and cooking food and then enjoying it at shared meals. (emphasis mine)

this is certainly true for not only america, but the entire world.

back in circulation

spent a week each on either side of deepavali travelling and catching up at home base.
madras, coimbatore, bangalore, allenahalli (karnataka) were touched in this trip.
did the entire trip by rail (indian railways zindabad!!!)

by all measures, this was a defining trip for wife and me.
why and what this means will be another series of posts coming up.

good to be back on fanaa.

"doomsday scenario...

...is looming if israel attacks iran."
says an old british hawk.
general time pass reading.

shreesh jadhav - super story

this is what makes a great start to the morning.

Shreesh Jadhav was ranked second across India in the JEE and completed his B.Tech in computer science with a perfect 10 CPI. A recipient of the President’s gold medal at IIT, he spurned all offers of plum scholarships from top foreign universities. Instead, he went on to do his Ph.D from IIT, Kanpur....He continues to positively impact the lowest rung of the social ladder. Recently, he helped save the life of 12-year-old Sarita, who developed a hole in her heart. Her operation in Bangalore cost Rs 3 lakh and on reading Shreesh’s email, I had contributed my bit, but was doubtful if he would meet the target. But, as I recently found out, Sarita was back home in Kanpur after a successful surgery, making me put my faith in Shreesh’s words that “there are a lot of good people in the world, we just need to reach out to them”.

Unmarried, he has dedicated his entire life towards a social cause. He joined the Ramkrishna Mission after his doctorate and, by now, has taught computer science to several thousand students at their university, besides managing various projects spread across the country.

whole story here.

hat tip: charityfocus

LAFTI ideals

Krishnammal and Sankaralingam Jagannathan have been bravely soldiering on Vinobha's Bhoodan path - redistribute land from the rich to the landless.

Till September 2007, around 12,000 people had received 11,066 acres of land. The land is also registered in the names of women in the family. At a recent meeting of the Tamil Nadu Cabinet it was decided to waive stamp duty and registration charges to enable LAFTI to buy 1,061 acres in Nagapattiam to give to landless farmers at the rate of one acre per farmer.

their work has been recognised with the 2008 Right Livelihood Prize.
quite deserving.
one thing that struck me as awe-inspiring.

For Sarvodaya activist Krishnammal Jagannathan land represents freedom. A lifelong Gandhian committed to the philosophy of self-reliance, 85-year-old Krishnammal and her 95-year-old husband S Jagannathan began a movement in 1968 called LAFTI-Land for the tillers’ freedom.

meltdown - must see

gary braasch is a conservation Photographer and has documented the visible effects of global warming since 1998.
his audio slideshow - Meltdown is gripping.
do keep your computer speakers turned on.

home schooling

i have been an avid follower of this concept for children.
it means that the formal notion of a school no longer is relevant .
it is quite an established fact that parents play the most significant role in the education of the children (when compared to teachers).

while this is a popular movement in US and Europe, it is a recent but growing phenomenon in india.
well, growing fast enough to get onto tehleka.
the first quoted couple, manish and vidhi jain are part of shikshantar, which actively articulates de-schooling society.

i have been saying that i would never put my children (if and when that happens) in any school. now you know why...

if ludwig was peter pan

then the headline would read:
Peter Pan pans Pan IIT.

or maybe
pandemonium at pan iit

or maybe
pan iit pants off

or maybe
pan iit handles issues worse than panhandlers
(no offence meant to the panhandling community)

or maybe
i should just stop.

media wakes up...

the MSM has been heavily one-sided in their reporting over the entire terror episodes.

looks like that tide is turning.
was reading the TOI today morning and was keenly surprised at these articles.
framed? and shocked?

and went online and kafila has detailed analysis of this trend - which is a welcome reversal.

LHC - large hadron collider or ...

... Lehman's Huge Cock-up

i am certain now.
it has to be linked.
the LHC's big bang experiment started on the 10th of Sept.
mega anxiety was created over the potential disastrous outcomes of this (at least on India TV and Star News).
some poor girl apparently committed suicide over this impending calamity.

within 4 days, the american financial system busts wide open.

and within 4 days of that, the LHC's big bang experiment has had a magnetic meltdown.

tell me these are not related and i shall stop blogging.

flushing disgrace

associated press reports that american medical institutions flush down the toilet over 250 million pounds of drugs down the toilet!!
for SI system inclined readers, thats over 10,000 Tons of drugs per year.
swell indeed.
no need to take an asprin, just have 2 glasses of water to take care of the infection...

how much of this is happening likewise here in india?
should be in the same region if not in multiples. most perhaps are going into waste dumping sites and eventually into the soil.

i have consistently been drinking water off the tap for the last few years.
may be such contaminations account for my large nose :-)

alternate media on the delhi encounter

blasts rocked delhi couple of weeks ago.
as again, the police/agencies go ballistic and run operations on prozac.

there is a major report on the encounter with militants in delhi which nails 2 'terrorists', 1 super-cop.
atif is killed and is purported to be the supermind behind all things evil.
the media goes ballistic and is totally reliant on nothing more than police feed.

here are 2 alternate commentaries:
countercurrents rips apart the initial attack.

The five youth living in the apartment submitted to the Delhi police their personal details, including permanent address, driving license details, address of the house they previously stayed in, all of which were found to be accurate.

Is it conceivable that the alleged kingpin behind the terrorist Indian Mujahideen outfit would have wanted to undergo a police verification- for whatever purpose- just a week after the Ahmedabad blasts and a month before the bombings in Delhi?

and the analysis at kafila is even more scathing (in assistance with imagery from hindustan times).

A number of disturbing questions about this ‘encounter’ are gradually beginning to make themselves known. I do not wish to repeat or reiterate them in this posting (though I feel that they need to be carefully thought about). I just want to share my doubts about particular thing that I can’t but help noticing while looking at the photograph. image is here. entire article is here.

there is a lot of narco-analysis and fluff like that...where is the evidence.
scary stuff.

end of capitalism

after a thought provoking 'socialism redux' post, my further research (aka google search) shows that many thinkers on the blogosphere have espoused similar thoughts.

here are some samples (these are not examples of great economic writing, but just some samples)

American Capitalism has been offered as a solution around the world since the 1960s, but hasn’t gained much traction for one simple reason – it doesn’t work. It does not offer any solution for those market failures that arise on a regular basis. It certainly offers no hope for the largest market failure facing humanity today – that of Climate Change. We now see, through the nationalisation of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, an admission from the US Federal government that American Capitalism does not work. We ought not to celebrate too much just yet. The Keynesians came to the rescue in the 1930s and 1940s, but there is no parallel school of thought today. Perhaps necessity will generate it? Perhaps it is time for China, or India, to take the intellectual lead? full article here

the above view is about the failure of the capitalistic theory. which is certainly plausible, but i am not fully bought in.
the below view is about the failure of the practioners of capitalistic theory. this i have some sympathy for.

The recent request by US Treasury Secretary—and more importantly former Chairman and CEO of investment bank Goldman Sachs— Henry Paulson to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac with US taxpayer dollars is but another indication of this destructive and parasitic relationship between bankers, government and the economy.

That a private banker from a large Wall Street investment bank is also Secretary of the US Treasury is no coincidence. It is also no coincidence that once again, public monies from the US Treasury are being used to rescue private bankers and to indemnify their losses.

Receiving taxpayer dollars from the US Treasury for their private benefit is not new to Goldman Sachs. In 1990s, when the Mexican government defaulted on its bonds, investors at Goldman Sachs' stood to lose billions of dollars. They didn't.

Buried deep in the subsequent $40 billion US bailout of Mexico was a $4 billion payment to Goldman Sachs, gratis of the US Treasury indemnifying Goldman Sachs against any losses on their investment in Mexican bonds.

The fact that current US Treasury Secretary and former Goldman Sachs CEO Henry Paulson also recently used US funds to underwrite JP Morgan Chase's private buyout of investment bank Bear Stearns and is now proposing to do the same with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is to be expected. For investment bankers, using public money to privately profit is business as usual. full article is here.

the times of india seems to have followed the lead.
they have a lead story on 'USA to USSR' and the 'end of capitalism'.

socialism redux

the nehruvian economic theory drew inspiration from USSR's socialistic approach to economic development.
but there are certain 'twists'.
1. an economic advisory written by the leading industrialists of 1940s, the 'bombay plan' advising a socialist approach.
2. the first industry minister - SP Mukherjee - was the main architect of india's industrial policy.
SP Mukherjee later founded the party which became the BJP, the Jan Sangh. (incidentally a landmark intersection in mumbai near the museum, regal cinema and near the gateway of india is named after him).

ok. so where am i getting to. it is connected to what's burning down the markets.
since 1991, one of the things that the indian government is doing is disinvestment, i.e., selling their share of their companies.

state ownership - the core of socialism - has always been touted as critical screw-up.

so i ask, what is happening now with AIG and what just happened with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?

new mumbai word - vikasak

new word in the hinid/marathi lexicon.
very technical.
i read it off the ganpati pandals mega-marketing
none of my office colleagues (all locals) could figure.

विकासक - vikasak
means.... developer....as in "builder"

विकास - vikas - means development.
but this is really a bit too much i think...

in some dictionaries, it may also means GOD.

the story of the month

totally astounding. the 'bestest' inspiring story of this month.
of azharuddin... written by harsh mander - who has been there and done that.
from the modern day killing fields of gujarat, the most 'stunningestly' super story.

read here.

the SIMI story

SIMI is the Students Islamic Movement of India.
the 'villain' behind all the heinous violence happening in India.
vilified and 'banned' by the central government from 2001 right after the 9/11.
the police are certain that they are behind the recent blasts in ahemdabad, jaipur and earlier ones in malegaon, mumbai, etc.

not hard to believe.
pretty clear that there are several madrassas and muslim outfits are outfitting islamic youth towards 'jihadist' activities.
we hear a lot that the ISI has infiltrated many covert cells into our country and is funding/training SIMI activists to lead the terror assaults.

may be this is something that needs a unprejudiced mind. very unlike ours. and look at the reality through unblinkered eyes.
tehleka has run a very indepth series on SIMI.
it is very good investigative writing. and it blows away the myth that the indian/state government(s) and mainstream media are trying to perpetuate.
here is a series of articles which are must-reads.

1. Tarun Tejpal’s editorial
2. Ajit Sahi’s investigative cover story (Brilliant and a must read)
3. The witch hunt against Shahid Badr Falahi (ex-president of SIMI)
   
4. The judge who stirred the hornet’s nest by over-turning the ban.
5. Shahid Badr Falahi’s interview.
6. Tehelka’s internal struggle to cover SIMI.

what is apparent (even in the much media-frenzied "aarushi" case) that our police and investigative agencies are woeful.
they can neither punish the guilty not safeguard the innocent.
we will struggle as a nation.

latest news - the Supreme Court has extended the ban on SIMI till October as the government has requested for additional time to file their affidavit.

pollunation

purvi's comment got me thinking about this.
not a 'national poll', but a word coming out of the monster monsanto post.
erudite readers can figure the genesis.

sharing the best seeds within the local community through seed banks etc, has been a integral part of our farming practices.
i tend to think that the green revolution is one culprit in erasing such knowledge systems.

monster monsanto

monsanto is a big agriculture company.
not just big, but gargantuan.
after enslaving the US farming community, they are targetting india's kisans.

Entitled A Second Green Revolution: Redefining the US-India Strategic Partnership in Agriculture, the report dismisses the need for research and says the need of the hour is to open up Indian agriculture to the private sector. To do so, changes in the existing regulatory framework can be effected with the aid of the US, which has considerable experience intervening in this field.

the first green revolution has left in its wake some heavy duty mess.
an organic farmer makes a great case here.

and india's political sector and private sector will willingly bend over backwards to accommodate their ambitions. the PM, CII, FICCI are all into the deal, but at least, the 'babus' seem to be suspicious.

Agriculture policy analysts were suspicious of the deal from its inception in 2006, during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to the US......At the last meeting of the KIA, at which FICCI and CII were inducted on to the board, it became clear that private sector interests were expanding their influence.

this article quotes a Vanity Fair (VF) article.
found it, read it and was shocked at 'monstranto'.
it is super detailed, super interesting and super scary, but super impressed that VF runs such stories.

RTI gets a boost

shailesh gandhi has been has been selected for the post of the Central Information Commissioner.

he is just an awesomely determined dude.
he has been part of the revolution that is Right to Information (RTI).

this is his site with all the stuff that he has uncovered using RTI.

i have had the chance to spend time with him on 3-4 occasions and it has always been wonderful.
more power to him.

the ills of affluence

reading this article about the Nano stand-off at Singur left me bewildered.
there seems to be some casual reporting, but the behaviour of the protagonist.

Having surrendered his one-and-half acre farmland to the West Bengal government, 61-year-old Sushen Santra was banking heavily on the Nano project. His three sons—Subhas, Uttam and Bibhas—were beneficiaries of the project with two of them daily workers at the Tata factory. But the dharna and suspension of work by the Tatas shattered his world.
The resident of Pagepara in Joymolla neighbourhood put himself out of his misery by drinking a bottle of pesticide on Wednesday morning.

before the Nano-induced affluence, even the extreme poverty seemed manageable,

The family income had jumped from an average of Rs 45 per day from farming only to about Rs 300 per day

the irony is striking

...But the shutdown threatened that lifestyle, now bolstered with addons like a TV set....

Subhas recalled his father’s bewildered look after TV channels flashed that the Tatas threatened to relocate the plant from Singur on Tuesday night. “He heard the plant would remain closed till Durgapuja. He kept saying he doesn’t know how the family will survive more than a month without any work.

there is something called 'too-much information'.

vinakaya chaturthi (vc)

aka ganesh chaturthi aka ganpati is the second in series of the festival madness that sweeps mumbai (post krishan jayanti aka gokulashtami aka dahi handi) and continues onto ramzan (aka id), navratri (aka dandiya), deepavali (aka crackers), christmas, new year (aka binges parties).
4 months of 'trance music' and unmitigated noise pollution (among of course the regular types of pollution).

in my childhood, vc was an austere brahmin (redundancy intended) festival occassion, where early morning pure clay idol woul be procured, medium scale puja (with very yummy food) would happen. as vinayaka was a bachelor, it was auspicious that the puja be done by one (if available in the house). so i have done the vc puja many times (with my dad donning the priest role).
the next day, the idol would be removed and kept 'in the well', near a tree and will 'dissolve' into the earth (from where it came from).
fairly simple and non-elaborate.

post 1998, after coming to mumbai, i started seeing the mumbai style ganpati celebrations - which most know is a mega mega event.
for some reasons, this never appealed to my religious/spiritual senses.
i fully appreciate the 'social mobilisation concept that tilak started. master-class idea.

in the 'God ratings', vinayaka occupies the top ten slots in the marathi manoos demographic.
in most other demographics, vinayaka is in close contest with tons of others - parameshwar (aka shiva), vishnu (and his top 2 avtaars of rama and krishna), the vast army of devis (lakshmi, saraswati, durga, vaishno devi, the ammans of south india), karthikeya (aka murugan).

coming back to today's times.
my new residence is right next to one of the prime visarjan (immersion) spots.
i awaited this year's vc with some trepidation.
yesterday was the 'first day' visarjan and it was ok. read this first-timer's experience.

it is quite a stunning sight to see the number of people participating and the amount of money that flows into ganpati festival. the mandals falling over each other to outshine each other in, what i think is, the most creative marketing contests of the year. and each year lalbaugcha raja emerges tops.
i think it is a sheer waste. if only all this energy and resources could be diverted 'usefully' (need not be my definition).

hiranandani gardens scam

'builder' is a ubiquitous mumbai terminology.
it is uttered with a lot of contempt and fear.
these guys rule the city's roost.
they mow down opposition without any qualms.
'redevelopment' is the buzz word.

one of the 'respected' and 'polished' builders is hiranandani developers ltd.
their flagship township - hiranandani gardens is in powai, mumbai. some of my best friends live there.
and i have seen it at extreme close up for over 8 years now.

mumbai mirror has run a low/medium quality investigation on the major scam that is hiranandani gardens.

In 1986 the government and MMRDA signed an agreement with the original 19 land holders of these 230 acres saying that the land would be handed over to them to develop it on the condition that 50 per cent of the residential units built would admeasure 40 sq mts (approximately 430 sq ft) while the remaining 50 per cent of the residential units will extend to 80 sq mtrs, roughly 860 sq ft (see inside for more details). Out of the 230 acres thus available for development Niranjan Hiranandani, who was given the power of attorney by the original land owners, undertook to develop more than ninety per cent of the land.

the amount of construction i have seen over the 8 years has been stunning, including the demolition of a hill to build a park!
the flat owners and the resident societies are in arms against this constant state of construction in the area. their complaints has led to a 'environmental pollution report' by the government.

but the extensive report has led to what is at best a minor 'feathery rap on the knuckles'. a Rs 3 crore fine, which has been paid up.
the remaining 'punitive actions' will lie ensconced in judicial gordian knots.

farmer aspirations

regular readers of this blog would have noticed the coverage i have on farmers, agriculture issues.
there is a reason.
at some stage in life, i anticipate farming and living out of a village. this stage hopefully will commence within the next 2-3 years.

coming back to the present, there are some great examples of city farming aka terrace farming.
this is perfect for those who have terraces, which makes it impossible for over 90% of the city's apartment dwellers.
but the intrepid and innovative residents have designed their window protection 'iron grills' to serve as base stations for vegetation. solely intended to have some greenery around them, one wil notice pots of pots with a variety of shrubs.
so with the same available setting - the window grill - we decided to start the farming journey right here.
we already had the ubiquitous tulsi, and some other assortment of plants.
this weekend, we got more pots and seeds of 'french beans' and 'bhindi' aka 'okra'.
following the instructions, these are now planted and we are waiting like expectant parents.

simultaneously, we have created an 'aerobic' composting bin. almost all the kitchen waste is collected into this and over 6 weeks or so, we expect something useful that could be added to the soil.
this project is likely to get extended to another 10 pots.
so we think that once in 45 days, we could have a meal which has a significant portion of locally grown produce.

poverty in india - hot off the press

the WB releases a press note on the latest poverty research.
the indian press go ballistic with this data, some saying "poverty reduction" and some saying "poverty escalation".
TOI has a chart











certainly doesn't look good. and from experience of being here and having a ear to the ground, poverty prevalence is real and omnipresent. and the data just reinforces real experiences.
whats keeping india depressed in the charts?
in my analysis, there are 2 key factors:
1. rising health costs - CV Madhukar takes this head on and i agree.
2. corruption - i had earlier blogged on it.

point 1 is closely linked to poverty and nutrition.
point 2 is closely linked to poverty and greed.

we will need to do 'forcible liposuction' on the leeches. there are now just too many of them to be able to just use salt.

bihar flood devastation - again and again

bihar is again in the midst of series flood damage. last year was ultra-devastating. and it happens unfailingly on an annual basis.

and once again it is not due to rain, but due to river overflow due to upstream rains.
the Kosi has breached all the banks.

i put up this picture just over a year ago while reporting the 2007 floods.
check out the latest photo from the TOI report on this year's floods.
the photo is a good match.
the report on the shift in course is quite damning evidence of too much damming.
too much trifling with nature.

the next gen Amtes

we learnt that prakash and mandakini amte won the magsaysay.

as expected, news hounds made a beeline to their abode in hemalkasa.

tehelka runs a great story on them. only the middle part tangents out to covering baba amte (which i guess is ok for new comers).
it is quite incredible, the entire family has voluntarily taken over old/taken on new projects initiated by baba.

walking through gold mohur

after a fun filled movie - jaane tu ya jaane na (dont miss the "pappu cant dance" song), my wife and i decide to treat ourselves to a kailash lassi - near dadar station, eastside.

walking down the lane from hindmata junction towards dadar station, we come across 2 textile mills.
on a whim, my wife walks into one (the Gold Mohur Textile Mill) and asks for a tour.
and surprise, surprise, the person there lets us a free unaccompanied walk through the premises.
it took some topping the JTyjn experience, but the 'mill walk-through' was amazing.
we saw the carding room. here is a carding machine. imagine standing in front of a football ground sized room filled with such machines. mind boggling. like this one.
and the classical iconic chimney. see the one at phoenix mills and a 3-in-1.
what an outstanding sight from right under it.
there is a lovely tank with tons of ujala-white swans.

gold mohur and 3 other mills were originally supposed to be sold to 'developers', but now there is a revival buzz. the guy there was certain that some mall is coming up there.

the story of the mumbai mills is pretty sad and depressing. these properties are at the center of the most severe pitched battles between the private developers, the government and the activists. here is a NDTV feature on the changing face of girangaon.
here are some vignettes from the net on this story, darryl d'monte's interview, the legendary datta samant, datta samant's interview
am waiting to read this book - One Hundred Years, One Hundred Voices: The Millworkers of Girangaon, An Oral History By Meena Menon and Neera Adarkar.

lets spin yarn

gandhi advocated several radical ideas.
one of them is using khadi spinning in schools - as a means to educate children and finance the school.

Education to be universal must therefore be free. I fancy that even under an ideal system of government, we shall not be able to devote two thousand million rupees which we should require for finding education for all the children of school-going age. It follows, therefore, that our children must be made to pay in labour partly or wholly for all the education they receive. Such universal labour to be profitable can only be (to my thinking) hand-spinning and hand-weaving. But for the purposes of my proposition, it is immaterial whether we have spinning or any other form of labour, so long as it can be turned to account. Only, it will be found upon examination, that on a practical, profitable and extensive scale, there is no occupation other than the processes connected with cloth-production which can be introduced in our schools throughout India.

prima facie, it does appear as nonsense.
i recall that he also takes a moralistic stand on the fact that the money earned from taxing alcohol and tobacco is used to finance education and such monies are 'tainted'.

well.... my opinions have wavered significantly on this.
finally i am now at a place, where i entirely agree with his proposition.

and i found a school that does have spinning as part of the curriculum.
Shishuvan in Mumbai. superb name.
Check their FAQ site - which says why khadi?

i dont think current economics allow a financing arrangement in urban settings.
but gandhi did center most of his ideas on rural settings - where it is still possible/probable.

philanthrophy advice

sudhir venkatesh shot to fame with his famous chicago gangster research in the wildly famous freakanomics and his subsequent book 'gang leader for a day'

sudhir also writes in in the very avidly read freakonomics blog.

here is his series on "what to do with your $70 million?".
part 1, part 2 and part 3.
part 3 is the real thing!

some interesting parts:
1. classic traits of aspiring donors:

First, they confused charity with commerce: that is, they uncritically applied the language of outcome-oriented investment to efforts to change human behavior in social settings. Humans, alas, don’t operate neatly according to market logic, though incentives can shift behavior.

Second, donors seem reluctant to talk about their own self interest. Instead of admitting their personal desires, they speak of selfless charity. Of course, donors can do whatever they want with their money, but this attitude doesn’t help them grow.

2. here is a nice 'catch':

....whether they liked the results or not, they had to provide a second grant disbursement to the organizations (contingent on the fiscal responsibility of the recipient grantees). I felt this freed them up from the expectation of evaluating anything other than their own personal transformation. The three donors agreed on a “loss figure” of $500,000, meaning they would each give $1,000,000.

3. simple but powerful learning:

...they learned that poor families who have access to small amounts of cash — as little as $20 — can stave off problems that might otherwise spiral out of control. (Previously they dismissed the utility of using such small sums for change.) Of course, credit unions have long understood this — and one of the donors is now helping to fund organizations that replicate this strategy in New York.

They also learned that, in some cases, process is as important as outcome. For example, service providers who keep families together — despite dramatic improvements — are playing a valuable function in communities where things always fall apart. And even if a child’s grades don’t improve, sometimes staying in school is a huge mark of success for the family.

it is not over yet. we wait to see how this progresses.

hat tip: charityfocus

जैसा बाप वैसा बेटा/बेटी

the son has lived up to his towering father's name and achivements.
dr mandakini and prakash amte are the recipients of the magsaysay award for community service.

what they have done and are doing is simply outstanding.

more power to them.

one week of rain...

...and maharashtra - which looked like this on 23rd July:




now looks like this on 30th July.

RIP - Randy "Inspiration" Pausch

randy pausch is no more.
an utterly remarkable person.
go in peace.

earlier on randy.

TOI's media ethics

most of us like to hate TOI.
their celebrity-centric reporting, trivial-centric writing, business-centric philosophy, etc.

their expansion across to mutiple cities over the last months has been very successful. they are bashing up local leaders like the hindu in chennai, etc.

and it is correspondingly clear, that they are setting the benchmarks in media business today. what TOI is today, is what all our media/publishing houses aspire to be.

now here is one part of their their media strategy - which easily qualifies for the top unethical practice of the year award.

At around 2.30 pm on 10th May, 2008, at a construction site on Bannerghatta Road in Bengaluru, a lift being used by workers malfunctioned and dropped 18 floors, causing the death of 2 workers and leaving 7 workers severely injured. Sobha Magnolia is a 19-storey super luxury apartment complex being constructed by Sobha Developers. Due to the immense force of dropping from such a height, the lift repeatedly bounced up and down several times before stopping. Of the 7 injured, three have been discharged while the remaining 4 are still undergoing treatment. Each of the injured have suffered multiple fractures and other injuries.

On 12th May 2008, the Times of India reported that:

"Lift crash leaves 2 dead, 7 hurt

Two occupants in a lift died and seven others were injured on Saturday after the lift crashed to the lower basement at the construction site of a residential apartment on Bannerghatta Road."

Then, again on 8th June the Times of India reported that:

"LIFT CRASH

SHRC chief takes officials to task

The State Human Rights Commission has asked a private construction company to ensure complete and fair compensation to families of two workers who dies and seven who were injured in a lift crash in an apartment building under construction on Bannerghatta Road. The accident took place on May 10.…

The accident occurred on May 10 at the construction site of a multi-storeyed super-luxury apartment on Bannerghatta Road."

Note that the Times of India does not name the company, Sobha Developers in reports unlike all the other English and Kannada newspapers, which explicitly did so.

Why would they not name the guys... could be a big-ticket advertiser? well read on...

Apparently, Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd., the publishers of Times of India, has entered into a Private Treaty with Sobha Developers, whereby through this arrangement BCCL picks up law equity stakes in companies, in return receiving long-term advertising and other publicity deals.

whole story is available here on the hoot.

history - photo feature

The Frontline magazine carried a series on the Religious Architecture of India through this photo feature.

1 – the eternal india

2 – the Stupas

3 – the sunga era

4 – the grandeur of caves

5 – the kushana period buddha

6 – the krishna valley stupas

7 – the gupta era

8 – Ajanta

9 – the chalukyas in the deccan

10 – mamallapuram

11 – the royal pallavas

12 – the temples of MP

13 – ellora

14 – the temples of orissa

15 – the pala period of buddhism

16 – the chola temples

17 – the bronze era of tamilnadu

18 – the Himalayan valleys

19 – Buddhism in trans-Himalayas

20 – khajuraho

21 – the hoysalas of Karnataka

22 – the sun temple at konark

23 – Images of hampi

24 – temples of south india

25 – solanki temples of gujarat

say tu, baalu

t r baalu is the union minister for shipping, road transport and highways.
he lives up to his name - he is serious 'troublu' for the UPA.

the renewed push on the sethusamudram canal project is on.
the DMK quietly slips this through during the mega din and chaos of the trust vote.
classic 'extracting their pound of flesh'.

so in the Supreme Court, Fali Nariman - senior counsel for the government is reported as below:

He referred to Kamba Ramayana and Padma Purana to draw a point that Lord Rama himself had destroyed the Rama Sethu so that nobody should come from Lanka.

"Lord Rama destroyed the bridge and details are there in the scriptures. You cannot worship something which has been destroyed," Nariman asserted before a Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan.

i think, this is the final nail in the UPA government's coffin.
i am certain that the congress that left itself no chance at the next elections. am anticipating the NDA to come sailing through.

and the publishers of kamban's ramayana are laughing all the way to the bank.

earlier post on the sethu.

its all about power

all this hoopla and hullabaloo is over electricity, rather the lack of it.

we are hopelessly short of electricity and current demand-supply gaps are expected to worsen.
major studies estimate that our power needs will shoot up 3 times in the coming 10 years.

and we are losing (via theft/leakages and general government largesse) over 30% of all generated power.

madhukar at alternative perspective studies the sham that is rural electrification.

in the midst of all this - TOI carries out an investigation into how much electricity is being abused by our maharashtra netas when the state is undergoing a serious shortage of power.
1. the maha CM uses more power than the PM.
2. all maha ministers are super-power guzzlers.

as usual, simple common sense of plugging leaks, curbing usages are never paid their due and we are just hell bent on increasing supply.

some positives from the political hungama

after the heated debate over the nuclear deal, the results are out.
the UPA govt manages to retain their government (or is it our government...).

i am seriously hoping that among all the nonsense that is happening, i am hoping that DD Loksabha TV channel is making money. by syndicating their live coverage to all the new channels.

some tax money saved!! i hope....

indo-us nuclear deal

super hot topic underway right now. the government's survival is at stake.
is causing serious political re-alignments.
here is what happened yesterday in parliament.

so what is the nuclear deal all about? business line has a '10 misconceptions' pitch by an ex-nuclear bureaucrat.

obviously it is a complicated matter, safely couched in such complicated legalese, that the common laypersons would struggle to come up with a valid opinion on the situation.
my stand has been governed by completely an other factor - disposal of spent fuel.
as per the dept of energy - government of USA from their website...

Waste Disposal. A current concern in the nuclear power field is the safe disposal and isolation of either spent fuel from reactors or, if the reprocessing option is used, wastes from reprocessing plants. These materials must be isolated from the biosphere until the radioactivity contained in them has diminished to a safe level. Under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, as amended, the Department of Energy has responsibility for the development of the waste disposal system for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. Current plans call for the ultimate disposal of the wastes in solid form in licensed deep, stable geologic structures.

there is more from wikipedia.
storing such vast quantities of potentially hazardous radioactive material in an underground system of concrete bunkers and suchlike is deeply unconvincing.
i don't claim any expertise other than 'deep suspicion' over the scientists who are swear on such methods.

check out this facility that is being made in the US - the waste isolation pilot plant.
this line strikes me as being close to impossible.

...Because drilling or excavation in the area will be hazardous long after the area is being actively used, there are plans to construct markers to deter inadvertent human intrusion for the next ten thousand years.

we could be setting ourselves up for serious annihilation - faana.

'nano'sense

this is not about the new tata car, etc, etc.
i got this in my inbox today - central government to start new centers of the Indian Institute of Nano Technology.

nanotechnology primer available here.

Nanotechnology refers to a field of applied science and technology whose theme is the control of matter on the atomic and molecular scale, generally 100 nanometers (10 raised to the power of -9) or smaller, and the fabrication of devices or materials that lie within that size range.

when i tried to get to the bottom of this - i could not find the aforementioned indian institute.
i found the nanoindian site and i found the amity insitute of nano technology.

what pickled me to no end, was the acronymisation of these institutes - IINT and AINT.

my vast telugu speaking audience will immediately ROTFL as students studying at IINT will be going 'iintikku' (going home). so probably thats why the central government has selected the cities it has selected.
the second one is quite obvious, ain't it.

p.s. - for the record, it was very funny when i said it to my friend.

news and degrees of separation

6 degrees are the maximum levels that is supposed to separate us with anyone else in the planet.

TOI has this excellent investigative article titled -NRI friend of Rani Mukherjee’s uncle robbed

news/media certainly are prime subscribers to the 6 degree notions.
any newsworthy item is just a few degrees separated from a celebrity.
nail that and it is ready to go to print.

NREGA primer

the national rural employment guarantee act 2005 (NREGA) is one of the most significant legislation that has come into being in this decade. the act aims to:

... enhance livelihood security in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to every household whose adult
members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.

the act now covers all areas of the country (except 100% urban districts).
each person covered under this act will earn wages as per:

Wages are to be paid according to the Minimum Wages Act 1948 for agricultural
labourers in the State, unless the Centre notifies a wage rate which will not be less
than Rs. 60/ per day. Equal wages will be provided to both men and women.

other salient points are:

1. The shelf of projects for a village will be recommended by the gram sabha and approved by the zilla panchayat.
2. Permissible works predominantly include water and soil conservation, afforestation and land development works.
3. Social Audit has to be done by the Gram Sabha.
4. Grievance redressal mechanisms have to be put in place for ensuring a responsive implementation process.
5. All accounts and records relating to the Scheme should be available for public scrutiny.

the entire guidelines of the act are here. if you prefer a simple ppt style intro, go here.

there is serious commentary on this act, its philosophy, its implementation all over the place.
there is a serious Right to Food campaign, which is doing tons of great stuff across NREGA among other things.
atanu dey at india's development is a serious critic of is act.
and of course, there are some states which are doing it much better than the others. the comptroller and auditor general's reports are available for scrutiny.

but of course, there are some positives, like sainath reports on decreased urban migration.
sandeep pandey (from NAPM and asha) writes on the social audits in UP. this is potentially one of the most significant concepts that thsi act has introduced. this along with the Right to Information Act are extremely large strides in introducing transparency into our system.

recycle cycle

at std 6, i had a choice of second language. continue with hindi or choose french.
actually the choice was less mine and more my parents. from simple 'scoring marks' idea, french was chosen and i vaguely remember my dad mentioning something around 'global/foreign language', etc.
after 6 years of learning french, i developed a soft corner for all things french (i am more partial to rolland garros than wimbledon).

leaving aside the juvenile affections and biases, there is a lot of french stuff which is brilliant.
highlighting a recent one, which is quite outstanding - the velib city-cycle service.
quoting from the french tourist office site:

On July 15, 2007, the city of Paris will debut a new self-service "bicycle transit system" called Velib’. Parisians and visitors alike will be able to pick up and drop off bicycles throughout the city at 750 locations—offering a total of 10,648 bikes. By the end of the year, there will be a Velib’ station approximately every 900 feet for a total of 1,451 locations and 20,600 bikes.

To access the bikes, riders can select a one-day card for 1 euro, a weekly card for 5 euros or an annual card for 29 euros. After the purchase of an access card, riding for the first half-hour is free and a supplement of 1 euro will be charged for an additional half-hour, 2 euros for another 30-minutes and 4 euros for every addition half-hour after that. Example: a 25 minute trip = 0 euros, a 50 minute trip = 1 euro, an hour and 15-minute ride = 3 euros.

Each Velib’ parking station will be equipped with muni-meters to purchase one and 7-day passes and to pay any additional charges once the bike is dropped off. The Velib’ meters will also provide information on other station locations.
The city of Paris has over 371 km (230 miles) of cycling lanes. (emphasis mine)

incidentally, today is the first anniversary-eve of the launch.

in a year, NYT reports that 27.5 million trips have been made at an average of 120,000 a day.
that will be approx 27.5 million trip x 2.5 kms/trip (approx) = 70 Mn kilometers = 7 Mn liters of petrol (at 10 kms per liter in a typical car).
it is quite remarkable.
bogota, colombia's capital city, has an phenomenal city cycling system - Ciclorruta.

one of the key things in all these initiatives, is the efforts of the Mayors in the respective cities. politicians can change things dramatically for the good of the people (as democracy intends).

in indian cities.....lets see.

monsoon update

this year surprised us with a very early start of rains in mumbai. june 6th and 7th (the very first weekend of june).
till date the records (in colaba and santa cruz weather stations) show that we are more than on track in mumbai.
the records, however, do not seem to play out in reality.
there has been more and longer dry spells during the last 40 days.
and maharastra has announced a drought-like situation.
if one sees the monsoon map of maharashtra till date, it is clear that the monsoon has been a little truant this year. except the western maharashtra belt, the rest of the state is far below the expected rain levels.
since the already low rainfall areas are getting less than anticipated, the cropping patterns will certainly get delayed/affected, etc.
so we could expect the farmers of vidarbha to have another tough year ahead of them. hope they bounce back from this better than the earlier years.

mumbai phrases 3 - bata

अरे, ज़रा फ़ोन बता ना
this means "show me the phone".

how 'दीखा' became 'बता' , please बता
(am unable to figure out how to put the 'small di')

mumbai phrases 1 and 2 from earlier.

don't shit me

i had first written about manual scavenging a year or so ago here.
there was a whiff of news around the fact that the authorities were moving ahead (albeit slowly) with doing away with this demeaning and illegal practice.

a year later, there is definitive progress by the Safai Karmachari Andolan. they have fought hard and are ready to declare andhra pradesh as the first manual scavenging-free state in India. as an epithet - it sounds ludicrous, but what an achievement.

read this story - 'we will never clean shit again'.

not alone at lallubhai

lallubhai compound is a resettlement colony.
this was the area which i had written about here. readers are drawn to the epic court battles i had participated in over 15 months ago.

now that it has been over a year since the premises have been occupied, here is a report on lallubhai compound from kafila. it is an interesting read, though there are points of personal disconnect.

i use the 'urban ghettoisation' term in reference to lallubhai fairly often and over the last 15 months, i have had more reasons to feel downbeat about the area.

poverty - corruption - poverty

check this survey/report by the center of media studies with the transparency international india on the level of corruption in Below Poverty Line (BPL) families in India.

1. around 53.6 million households (approx 320 million people) qualify as BPL.
2. around 1/3rd of these households (17.9 million) paid a bribe, estimated to be around Rs 8830 million => Rs 500 per family per year.

dilip analyses the definition of poverty line as extremely fraudulent (worth a detaield read).
even by that estimate, if Rs 600 per month defines the poverty line, then the TII/CMS survey indicates that 7% of that earning is used to bribe government officials, extremely significant.

it just intensifies the cycle which is the post title.

time to exit bombay

it is when news like this comes to the fore:
870 FLATS, 2 LAKH APPLICANTS

MHADA is the sole agency which is building housing for low-income and middle-income populations.
and this is what happened yesterday to one of old MHADA constructed buildings (picture courtesy - TOI).

this is what vitalstistix must have been fearing all his life.

the end of a journey - which hardly started

Latif se Kabir – Ek Safar

Hajjar patthar mein miltha hai ek hira
Woh bbhi dikhtha hai ek kankar adhoora
Uspe lagtaa hai karyagaroon ka kamaal
Phir bantaa hai ek chirag, nahi mashaal
Uski roshni mein laakhon fida
Kya koi keh paayega, al vida

Aap, meri jaan, hai kamaal ka noor
Jisse dekhke saare gham hue door
Muskaan hai itni pyaari pyaari
Aap ki har andaaz hai nyaari
Aaknhoon si nikhlathi hui jwaala
Mashallah, mashallah, mashallah

Parde pe dekha, lachakthi kamar
Jhaanke dekhkha mein ne, mili aapki hunar
Woh mehnat, woh pasine, who barsoon ki taalim
Jaise beej se banthi hai paed neem
Roshan karte hain aap, bahut si zindagi
Ab neend kahan, aankhen jaagi jaagi

Chalthe raho, chalthe raho, chalthe raho
Un khwaabon ke peeche, jinpe aap jaagthe ho
Hum ne seekha hai aap se, kya hai bhakthi
Aur dekha hai andar ek nazook si shakthi
Jayeenge aap lakh miiloon ki safar
Badthe ja, jaise lehron pe lehar, lehron pe lehar

2 December, 2005

two and a half years after my initiation into poetry, my inspiration - latif urf kabir - passed away today.
latif starred in a brilliant broadway style musical called kabir and the rangeen kurta.
i had the good fortune to teach latif for a bit and his performance on stage was one tour de force displays in my life.

an astoundingly amazing youngster falls prey to the vagaries of an infection left unattended.

i use 'this is life' commonly to manage such situations, but here it is one hell of a stretch.

the swedish education model

the economist carries a report on the 'swedish model' which is turning out to be very successful in sweden and is likely to get exported out soon to the UK.

the Kunskapsskolan (“Knowledge Schools”) are the new big idea on the education space.

leaving aside the debates over the 'business model', what is interesting is the 'education model' they use.

Kunskapsskolan gets its customers to do much of the work themselves....(through) the Kunskapsporten (“Knowledge Portal”), a website containing the entire syllabus. Youngsters spend 15 minutes each week with a tutor, reviewing the past week's progress and agreeing on goals and a timetable for the next one. This will include classes and lectures, but also a great deal of independent or small-group study. The Kunskapsporten allows each student to work at his own level, and spend less or more time on each subject, depending on his strengths and weakness. Each subject is divided into 35 steps. Students who reach step 25 graduate with a pass; those who make it to step 30 or 35 gain, respectively, a merit or distinction.

very interesting approach. seems to have a good blend of the traditional model + home-schooling model.

cross posted from educatorlogin.com

shaky skywalk

mumbai is getting a lot of skywalks. they are expected to alleviate the pedestrian misery and provide for non-intrusive, clean access across congested stretches.
the first one was inaugurated yesterday.
and by the end of the day, was shaking and closed for inspection.

here is the photo of the inauguration by the CM (courtesy TOI).
the most interesting part of this image is on the middle of the left edge.
just look at the jammed traffic lanes .
thats not going to vanish in any hurry.

IIPM in hot water

IIPM is the 'dare to think beyond IIMs' management institute.
It is the brain child of Arindam Chaudhuri - 'management guru' or something like that.

Rashmi Bansal of JAM magazine carried a serious investigation over the claims of the institute in 2006.
The amount of hate mail it generated for her and her team is just amazing.

But the truth has ultimately prevailed.
Now the UGC has declared IIPM a fake university (see No. 8 in the list).
About time that students are saved from such monstrous, maniacal, marauding mercenaries masquerading as messiahs of management mantras.

that sinking feeling

bombay sinking down into the sea, says DNA.

The BMC had recorded some figures over the last two years and the figures show that the average sea level is going up. The BMC is now collating more data.

In 2006, the highest sea level at high tide was increased by 4.52 m and in 2007 it was 4.62 m and this year the level is expected to be 4.82 m. It indicates that the sea level is rising.

of course, sea level rise could be attributed to melting polar regions.

Marine biologist Vishnu Kanhere said, “The sea level is actually rising due to global warming, but the 30-cm rise over the past three years could not be is not due to this. This is a very rapid rise. In Mumbai, the seashores have been reclaimed. Mumbai itself is a reclaimed area comprising seven islands.

i had posted a year ago on the news from orissa on rising sea levels swallowing up coastal villages.

what man taketh, nature taketh back.

swept away by development

remember 'swades'-starring shah rukh khan. it was a real life story.
the place where the micro-dam was built to generate electricity was scheduled for submergence under the sardar sarovar project and it has met its fate.

this is a fantastic piece of coverage, by madhukar.

the last post on dasavatharaam

this is the third (and certainly the last) on the same topic in a week.
this could be either:
1. kamal's genius OR
2. overworked high IQ brain of a true fan.

he (true fan) has explained the 10 avtaars and their connection to the avtaars of vishnu. i am inclined to believe in no.1.

either which way, it is close to genius.

btw - the net is going just ballistic over dsvthrm, dunno about the box-office.