"Child Labor"

I was going to Maddi Lala’s shop for some toiletries. On the way, first I saw the family with 3 little sons. Two of them playing, and the eldest one – 8 year old, breaking stones. First comment in head was of course the clichéd child labor pity – poor kid, he should be playing, he is breaking stones with hammers. I did not click his picture. I guess we have seen enough of pictures/videos/stories on this, and there’s no need to expose the plight of these children any more to establish that child labor is pretty much prevalent in India. In a while, his dad arrived. I did not act like an NGO guy, by telling that what the hell was he doing, his son was not supposed to do the labor etc etc. Rather, I casually and curiously enquired, “school ni jaainch” (Did the children not go to school today?).

He replied, “nai saab jaate hai school, ab pahunche thodi der pehle”. I was wondering what else the child could do now in the village in this period after school. This is one of the poorest families I have ever seen. Asking the children to read something after school would have been too much of a demand. Parents have do not have education or enthusiasm to sit with their kids with books. The children can’t really play all the time after school. It was tough to conclude if it was really child labor. His dad would earn some money by selling those stones. Who knows how much of that money will be used in alcohol and how much in buying even a candy (forget clothes etc.) for the kid? Of course this scene was running totally counter to the Child Protection that our NGO focuses on. On one hand, child could hit his hand anytime with hammer and stones. On the other hand, the child might be experienced enough by now to carry this task seamlessly without any danger.
With these thoughts I reached Maddi Lala’s shop some 10 metres away. There a very young boy was sipping tea and having a cream roll. He was taking lunch-break from his tasks of walking all day selling saree and rugs. The conversation went like this:

“Kahan rehte ho tum”
“Mehelchori”
“subha khane ka kya karte ho”
“subha kaun banaaye.. subha kuch nahi karte”
“subha khaana khaate hi nahi ho”
“na”
“aise hi nikal padte ho..? fir saare din kya karte ho?”
“aise hi samaan bechte hain ghar ghar mein”
“paidal chalte ho saare din?”
“haan”
“fir yahan kisi dukaan pe chaay pee lete ho, hain? Raat ko khaate ho?”
“haan haan”
“hotel main?”
“na na, raat ko pakate hain to, kamre pe”
“umr kitn hai tumhari?”
“16 saal”
“kab se kar rahe ho yeh?”
“ho gaye 3-4 saal”
“gaon kahan hai tumhara?”
“muzaffar nagar”
“ghar mein aur bhai behen bhi hain”
“haan haan, sab hai to, sab mazdoori dhyadi karte hain”
“school… kahan tak padhe?”
Laughs, “ZERO”
“hain?”
“school mein padha hi nahi kabhi.. ghar mein khoob koshish ki padhaane ki, main school se bhaag jata tha.. man nahi lagta tha school.. padhai mein”

Now I was speechless for sometime. I understand that this boy started the work at the age of around 13. He has never been to school and had no interest either. Who is responsible for this ‘child labor’? Is it the boring school that could not entice him to education? But then many other would have studied in the same school. Is it the parents, who could not engage him in something else at home, where he could have at least gotten two times meal? What could parents possibly do in family of 7 children, who are currently pooling in money at home, may be for sisters’ wedding or household expenses. Parents do not work, this boy told me. I can’t figure out what sustainable help can be extended to make this boy’s life better. Does he himself feel that his life needs to be bettered? In the small conversation I had with him, he never sounded complaining. If this labor is taken away from away from him, what will he do? I guess if there’s something that one can do for him, then it would be making him have breakfast somehow. Either he himself prepares or buys. He carries that heavy sack of rug on his back all day walking up and down hill. He might end up becoming anemic. Now I might be accused of underestimating the boy. And on the top of that, if he gets into alcohol/smoking (in case he hasn’t already), then that will complete the damage.

From the platform

I was waiting for my train to Haldwani. After standing for half an hour, my legs could not bear any more, after all I had been carrying that heavy , almost 10 Kg, back pack in and around the Old Delhi Railway station. Plus, I had just heard the announcement that train was 2 hours late and it was terribly cold that night. So, I looked around the place I was standing to find any seating arrangement. Just next to me was a group of people, apparently a family from Bihar. They had some cloth laid out on ground, and on that they were all lying covered with blankets. I requested one of them to let me sit on a small patch of cloth. The guy said, “arrey poochne ki kaa baat hai, baith jaaiye”. One of the women in group gave a tiny smile, as a sign of approval perhaps. Initially, only half of my ass was on cloth, slowly I made my way to gain little more of cloth under me, as not only my payjama was getting soiled, I was shivering from the cold from ground. I kept waiting for my train, and the announcer kept adding grace period to wait time. From 2 hours, it was now 3 hours and 45 minutes. The family continued to sleep. Sometime, one of them would accidentally hit me with his feet and then apologize. In every half an hour, a police man from Delhi police will come and hit them with his shoes and will not apologize. He would shout at them and probe them with feet like they are animals. That’s the value of human life. I was getting angry, but the recent incident from Delhi Govt Dispensary was still fresh in my memory. I was thinking how many things can I alone set right. There were many other ‘educated’, ‘high society’ people around who were watching this and did not bother to object.

But the main purpose of sharing this experience is somewhat deeper. This family allowed me to sit next to them on their cloth. They wouldn’t have said anything even if I had sat without asking for permission. When my train arrived, and I got up and said Shukria, the guy from the family said, “arrey bhai aapka bhi samay kat gaya, hamara bhi!”. I don’t think any of my friends from city circle (IIT, MNC’s, English educated etc etc) would have let a stranger sit next to their family. It’s tougher when that stranger is male-bachelor and dressed as a rustic. In many places in Delhi, such men are called chhada (often used to refer to labor migrated from Bihar).A couple of months back, I am sure I myself wouldn’t have allowed that. We become concerned about privacy and safety of the family. What is it with our education and modernization and our middle or upper class society that we tend to be drifted away from the concept of ‘vasudhev kutumbam’ (whole earth is a family) in practice as we ‘prosper’ and ‘progress’ and gain more status? We tend to keep ourselves and our dear ones more guarded from ‘others’ and more boundaries are created. In fact, a couple of months back, I am very sure, the first remark that would have echoed in my head after seeing that family would have been,“kahan se aa jaate hain, saara rasta bloc kar dete hain”, forget about sitting next to them. This family is one of the many families one can find every night on the platforms of Indian Railways. These are the people who travel in general compartment. Because of delays in trains, and because they have nowhere else to go and wait, they lay down on the platform and destroy the aesthetics of stations. At a time when railways do not have a decent waiting room even for people with sleeper class reservation, such families will have to wait a couple of decades for better conditions for themselves on stations.

Where will it all end finally?

I was watching a show on Discovery in which they were showing the modes of transport of future. The mode of transport was shown primarily to be AIR! Jet packs would be used to move from one place to another. People would be able to evade traffic hassles by easily flying over small distances instead of commuting by roads.
Cool. New innovation, huh? Similar optimism must have been expressed a couple of centuries back when road transport was introduced? It’s in big mess today everywhere. We ate up all lands. On the modern road, where vehicles move today, many years ago, those were the roaming grounds of animals. But we chased them away by killing their habitats and making roads for us. Now we want to chase the birds too away by making more intrusions (apart from Planes) into their roaming air. Does this hunger to save time lead us anywhere? Once it becomes affordable and practical, even jet packs will see Traffic lights hanging in the air. But what after air? I guess we will then spoil other planets from scratch as we did to earth.

Swades Ki Khoj - Madhyantar

Let me begin by wishing everyone a very blissful new year. I hope you are in great health and mood.I have spent 6 months in Swades Ki Khoj, instead of sharing experiences individually with friends through emails, let me try to express it here.

My experiences in swades ki khoj had been quite great so far. This discovery was not some one moment. I have had experiences in the past few months which all form this discovery. Changes have started happening without me being consciously aware of them. When I return from morning run, and I see some old woman breaking stones in a corner, my eyes become wet. I feel dwarfed and overwhelmed when I see an old woman bringing loads of fodder or fuel wood on her back, yet managing to give a smile when I wish her Namaste. I am valuing money more than ever before. I have made friends with people who by conventional wisdom are from a world totally different from mine. For example I became friends with Mukesh in Ashram plainly because of the fact that we are both human beings and we have a common language and I need another human being in the Ashram to see and talk to. There’s no hidden agenda or expected returns in such friendship. I am glad I could experience such unique form of friendship.

Around Deepwawali, I stayed in Mehergaon with Pradhan Hoshiyar’s family. That time of around a week was one of the best times I had. I tilled land and had break fast with the family in the field in sunshine, sitting on the same ground which had given the manduwa few months back, whose chapatti I was having there. It was a divine feeling. It was the closest I got to food we eat. I hadn’t even seen a ladyfinger plant before the internship. Pradhan Ji’s 5 tiny daughters appeared one after the other before me like von trapp children of Sounds of Music! One of them still says, ‘mujhe chacha ki khudi lag gayi’. The unconditional love that the family began showering in no time was overwhelming. Even the village became so much familiar with me that when I returned here again after some time (to see ashtabali mela to actually witness animal sacrifice) they all recognized me, although I couldn’t identify them! It was really like a home coming. My village is in Haryana where I last visited at least a decade back. No one lives there any more. I am glad that now I have a village to call my own.

Apart from this I have been going to many other villages in different clusters to speak with farmers. What has been most enlightening is the dialogue with the elderly. I try to hear their perspective on such things as ‘democracy’ and ‘freedom’. It’s interesting to know how they feel when I tell them that India is growing or that we are in 21st century. But I haven’t had enough of this. I am still hungry for more of Gairsain! I feel that I have fallen in love with Garhwal and more so with the huge hill in front of campus which I always want to embrace! People are so hospitable that I feel extremely swept over when after I have food in some home, the people in that home apologize with me for any thing I disliked. God, I see god in them! I wonder which world are these people from? Is it the same India where I lived in 6 months back? In fact when someone speaks with discourtesy, I found that almost in 100% cases, the person is from Dehradun or Delhi!



I recently attended a mid-term review workshop of Swades Ki Khoj at Chirag. It was interesting to see what others had been doing. Every one has changed in some way! Many people are more confused now including me! Earlier I would think of getting into music/ theatre/ journalism/ Air force. Now, after discovering more of myself in this internship, I am having more career interests! – NGO, IAS, doing my own business in this area, I hope confusion gets resolved in the coming months!

Now I plan to see Kumbh Mela in haridwar for the first time. These mystic things have become subjects of my interests. I am giving benefit of doubt to these things which I would earlier plainly reject as irrationalities or blind faiths, may be because of strong faith and culture of people.

linguistically speaking

Savita is one of the few people who has offered me alternative line of thought. Few days back, she showed me a perspective that I could not find myself in an obvious manner. She asked why I talked in English with Mohit Ji from Plan. This is the kind of thing I look forward to while I am with SBMA to actually get moved. Of course I do get to learn from everyone both from village or the NGO. But learning something that I myself could not learn directly is priceless. Generally people in NGO would be submissive and nod yes with whatever I say. But I am glad Savita put a question before me that made me to think. Plus I was tired of such submission all around me. When I thought deeply I realized she was right.



Yesterday when I was talking to Akanksha from Plan, I was consciously making efforts not to speak in English. But I found myself speaking in English every now and then, and on such realizations I immediately switched to Hindi. Thus, it was a game of hide and seek between English and Hindi. This gave me a clue why I spoke with Mohit Ji or with Nishita or Shruti or Prateek from Swades in English. Actually Akanksha was speaking in English. I guess she was also making little efforts to toggle. But mostly she spoke in English. That made me speak in English. Same happened with others too. It just comes onto tongue naturally. I naturally do not talk in English while I am in village or with NGO people.

Climate Change

We have started feeling the heat of climate change in a diffused form when we feel disheartened on not finding something we expected. It is usually associated with tourism. For example, all our lives, we learnt that hills are cool and that it snows there every winter. But often people visit the conventionally cooler places and end up getting dejected on seeing their beliefs turning false. I went to Joshimath so that I could visit Auli too and enjoy winters there. But unfortunately, there was very less snow. There was no point of going to Auli as snow wasn’t good enough for skiing. Even the films and songs that we indulged in while growing up, showed hills to be some kind of paradise. For instance, there was a song from the film Ram teri Ganga maili ho gayi, which said, “husna pahdaon ka, kya kehna ke baron mahine, yahan mausam jaadon ka” , meaning that hills are so beautiful because they have winters all 12 months. Although the song is still a rage in hills, but since the time when this song was written, climate has undergone dramatic change and it’s not so wintery any more. I get up every morning expecting to see some snow here, but even though it’s January time, there’s no snow. My acquaintances from plains keep trying to confirm that it is freezing cold here, but they too feel surprised when I tell them that weather is alright. It’s not that cold. In fact it is colder in Delhi and other surrounding places of northern India. That cold is evident in my mom’s voice when she calls me.

I imagine how much disappointed our kids would be when they will see no characteristics of weather they read in books or watch in films when they actually visit such a place. Even the notion of ‘river’ has changed. Often while travelling I see some water body which natives of that place refer to as river, but to me it doesn’t look like anything more than liquid spill. It will be sad if kids were to see rivers and trees and green pastures only in books and photos. I can see at least some snow, albeit in farther hills. But I doubt my kids will see even that much snow. I am still an outsider in hills. My disappointment is temporary. After I go back to Delhi, I might forget it all. But for the people in villages here different types of weathers have strong connection with the life and culture here. Their festivals are associated with different seasons. They look forward to play in snow every year. Even though it is cold, they enjoy snow as it’s a part of their calendar. They make makeshift boards and do snow boarding. These people must be deeply saddened with this varying pattern of weather.

I guess people are not so active in preserving climate even now because, climate change hasn’t been strong enough to hit the very existence of lot of people in an obvious manner. Droughts and floods in unlikely places are of course result of climate change only. But such causal relationship is not obvious enough for a common man to become sensitive and take action. Humans anyway have strongest tendency to adapt, so if the change is not very huge and quick, people can get used to such things as falling rainfall or lack of snow. As long it is not as widespread and obvious as some kind of epidemic, people will not respond much on a large scale for example carrying out districts wide forestation. But people should learn from their follies. They should not wait for a crisis to actually hit their door for them to get their a** moving. I think environmentalists too will not do harm if they create an atmosphere of fear which can force people to become active in saving climate.

Rats

So far I believe I have killed 5 rats. Rats have always posed big threat to me, primarily they cause lot of damage even to things of no use to them, like books, paper and cloth and also, in case of those big mice, they are a compromise with hygiene thus a risk of diseases. When I arrived in Ashram, one thing that gave me sleepless nights were chaos of mice in night. I was so disturbing that even thoughts of quitting internship cross my mind. I did not expect luxury in the village, but then I will be happy even if I get a small but clean hut.

I had no clue what to do. I did not have that box in which rats can be caught. In the village, I asked one gentle man, Bangari Ji, who had expertise in kitchen garden, although sometimes sold some unique sized product of his farm for handsome prize. He did well in treating disease of vegetables, so I thought he might as well suggest something for rats. He told me to make small rolls wet flour along with broken pieces of glass. Rat will instantly die as glass pieces will be too big to get down his tiny intestines. When I shared that novel idea with Claudia, she found it gross and evil. Next he suggested complicated methods of using leaves and oils of certain plants. On the way back I saw a simpler solution of Mortien Rat Kill. I found out that a couple of those were available with Ashram also. So I used those cakes. Although cake was not found next morning, but the rat had his night thereafter too. It turned out that those cakes had expired and hence were ineffective. I got 6 sachets of brand new cakes next day. And it worked. I had peaceful nights. But one day, we opened one room in Ashram, and it smelled gross. We found the victim of my rat kill cakes there, and from the malodor it felt that expiry date of the rat was at least a week old. He was a big fat horrible carcass.

I had relief for a month until I was moved to another room. New rats found their way here. They punched holes in plastic containers, leaked a mustard oil bottle and nibbled on bathing soap. What did they achieve in doing this? I suppose they don’t eat plastic or soap or drink mustard oil. I was forced to another Rat Kill cake. I found that their main source was bath room, so I placed on there and on in front on room. Every time I would keep rat cakes in night, first thing I will do to look for no signs of the cake. The one in front of my room was gone. I was happy. The one in the bath room was still there. I noticed that in the night I also left the instruction paper that came with cake, next to the cake itself. I wonder if the mice read the instruction when he arrived at the cake and thus comprehend my intention and left the cake unattended.

Yeh Delhi hai meri jaan

People in hills in general and at the NGO in particular are very respectful. First of all, I never hear ‘Tu’. It’s mostly ‘Aaap’ and sometimes ‘Tum’. Okay I do not mean to say that respect is reflected only through the pronouns we use to address others. But at places where it is, like this one, then being addressed as ‘Aap’ makes me feel respected. Even those, who have more experience than my age! , they call me ‘rajeevg’ and ‘aap’. Surprisingly, this ‘rajeevg’ does not sound as Bihari ‘rajeevg’.

Recently when I went to medical hospital, the doctor was quite ill mannered. The generalization that government doctors will any way talk like they are obliging the patients will not be valid here. The other doctors Dr. Rana and his daughter were quite charming. Fuming at the outrageous attitude of that medical superintendent I filed an RTI for the information I attempted to request for, politely. Back at NGO, I explained what triggered me filing the RTI. I told that I was deeply offended by the way she talked to me. Everybody in the village talks with so much respect, so I wasn’t used to this kind of behavior. Dimri Ji told that she was from Delhi. I felt so small in this one piece of information. Why do Delhi guys have to be so high headed? When I wrote ‘Yeh Delhi hai meri jaan’ entry in my blog earlier, people were all offended about my opinion on Delhites, but that observation of mine is quite clear and correct and one does not need to wear microscope to see this.

Today, while I was going to bazaar, as usual in hills, I forgot the way and took wrong turn. But I realized that and turned back. Finding me confused, one lady from a group sitting near Swajal tap asked, ‘Kahan se aa raha hai, rasta pooch nahi sakta, kahan se hai’.
I was shocked. I was at least expecting, ‘kahan jaa rahe ho’ if not ‘Ko jaani, kakh batan aani’ . All the way to the market, I thought about this. I intentionally took the same route while coming back to encounter the lady again. Before I reached the tap again, I met some women of that group. I was ready to let my anger out by asking them if that’s how they too usually talked.
Before I could say a word, I saw the familiar Garhwali smile and the first woman asked,

‘Bhaiyya, rasta mil gaya?’
‘haan’

I got some encouragement and noticed that they were dressed in Garhwali form. I was too disturbed earlier to see what they were wearing. I asked the girl behind, ‘Didi, gobar khad gaddhe se le jaa rahe hoya seedha’
‘Khaad gadhe se , bhaiyya’
‘Kisne banwayaa, Swajal ne?’
‘haan, isi saal’
‘accha, kaunsa? Keede waala? Vermi to mil gaye the na’
‘haan haan, bhaiya bhaat khao’
‘nahi, bas dhanyavad’


As I moved happily little ahead, I met another woman.

‘bhaiyya, mila gaya tha rasta bazaar?’
‘haan’
‘badi jaldi waapas aainch tum’
‘didi, aap yahin rehte ho’
‘nahi bhai, me dehradun rehen, yeh to inka gobar le jaa rahi hun’

I was joyous to know that even though she was from town, she knew Garhwali and spoke Hindi with Garhwali accent and respected people like anyone here in Garhwal. But I was yet to see the other that rude lady. So I asked this one, ‘didi, who jo behenji udhar baithi thi, unka ghar kaunsa hua?’
‘Bhaiyya, who to delhi ki hai, bhai ke ghar aa rakhi’
‘Well, that explains it!’

On my way up, when I arrived at the tap, I saw the uptown woman still washing clothes under the tap. I noticed her hair and dressing style. She was alien. Without saying a word, I moved on.

I guess to respect someone, one doesn’t need to be a villager or city dweller or illiterate or educated. It’s a common sense. The woman from Delhi immediately assumed a higher position for her in the group because she was Delhi. One might argue that the lingo and style that I despise might actually be the culture of Delhi. Well then, Delhi must be culturally very poor and this culture thing is as much clichéd and futile as the undying spirit of Bombay. I wonder even in Haryana, which is supposedly famous for its raw language and habits, people speak this way with strangers.

Yeh dilli nahi ban sakti meri jaan unless it raises it culture quotient.

Happy Deepawali

They say that a picture speaks thousand words

Another place, Another home, Another family, Happy Deepawali

Me and Julie

Initially I did not like her, like any one else from her species, in fact I did not even know until recently if she was she or he, because people would address her as he only. I got to know her gender only after she gave birth to four little angels. It’s surprising that I have been staying in Ashram now for close to 3 months without worrying about dogs. Rather I feel affectionate towards Julie. Earlier I would always hesitate to go into a house where there’s a sign beware of dogs. In such homes, I would ask from outside itself if the dog was tied or not. In fact, sometimes I would enjoy showing third finger to dog. But here at Ashram, first of all, for the first time, I am not scared of dogs and there are two of them. Four actually, there are two puppies too. I treat them like another occupant of Ashram, saying Hello when I pass by them. Things actually changed after Claudia left. Before that, I was too absorbed in conversations with Claudia to even give a look at these dogs. I would try to stay away from them. Once, I was having lunch, and Julie came and sat right under my chair. The moment my leg touched her and I realized this, I sprang from chair, shaking the whole food table and thus almost giving a heart attack to Claudia. She told that she was surprised that Julie sat under my chair, even though I did not like her then. I think over last few weeks, Julie also understands that I don’t dislike her. Earlier, when I would try to go close to her or touch her, she would kinda bark, or go away or become alert, but now she just politely closes her eyes or does not react. May be in sometime, she might reciprocate the affection as she does to other people in Ashram. I guess the relation between me and Julie is improving because she has seen how much I love her kids. First time when I tried to touch the little Frank Jr and Sophie, Julie barked and almost hit my finger. But now when I cuddle them, she doesn’t react. She’s is just silently happy that there’s one more to the army of people who shower affection on her children. It’s quite magical actually. Kids on streets in cities do not get so much love as these puppies do. Who ever comes to Ashram – new or old, just loves them, and does baby talk to them. Most strangely, Me. I wonder if ever touched a dog before this. But when these puppies are around, all my fondness comes out. Sometimes I let them probe or lick my shoes when they try to climb on to me, by placing there tiny paw on my shoes. When they walk and do kinda rap through their neck, they really resemble the little toys we see in stores, who does things or dance or walk through some spring action. But I am yet to become fully a dog person. I don’t touch them quite often, as I have fear that there might be some insects or diseases in their hair. The way even kids in Ashram keep the puppies for long in their lap and remove dirt or insect from their hair and body, I can’t do that now, may be for hygiene and fear factor. Plus I feel tired of washing hands every time I am done with them. Amit Ji in Ashram already told that there are small lices or insects kind of thins with Julie, which she has transmitted on to cane chairs which she naps upon in the afternoon. Since then, I have stopped sitting on those can chairs. Now if I can’t share a chair with dogs at this stage, how can I possibly jump straight to the level of having the puppies sleep with me. I think all of this might boil down to faith. If I had my own puppy, personal one, then I would have taken care of him, given him bath to him and then I would have belief that the puppy is clean and stay with me like another human being, and I wouldn’t have any doubts about him. As long as I don’t personally take care of the puppies in Ashram, the suspicion might prevent me from going too close to them.

My introduction in my own land!

Sometimes I feel like a stranger in my own country. Off late, when I go somewhere and I am asked for ‘aapka parichay’. In my introduction, I say, ‘Rajeev Gupta, Gairsain’, which I guess should be sufficient. But they insist in asking, “No, where are you from? Which organization?”. They want to get out of me, that I am from Delhi and that I work with SBMA. I go to market, after little conversation, I am asked, “where are you from, you need a lodge?”. Recently, I visited a community health centre in the village, and I wanted to ask the doctor why the costly medicines are never available with the dispensary and if she is allowed to prescribe such medicines. So I went up to the doctor, and told her that I needed some information from about medicines. She asked me for introduction. She spoke further only when I told her that I was from the NGO. Now that she knew I was from NGO, she asked why would NGO be interested in this information. That’s why I did not want to divulge that, because after that, the conversation takes a different turn. In fact, so many people come to this only medical centre from remote villages. I am sure the doctor does not know them either. But she doesn’t ask them their introduction when they come for treatment. Or perhaps she does not bother to know a patient as long as he doesn’t do the abnormal task of questioning. Similarly, when I went to Krishi Mahotsav, and tried to make my point, the government adhikari asked me to give my introduction first. Why do I have to be from any organization to make myself heard? Can I not talk and ask because of the fact that I am an Indian? Do my wearing jeans and tshirt and sometimes a cap and clicking pictures make me any less Indian and I look like being from Africa, or America or Europe or Pakistan? The only explanation I can think of is that there are millions of India’s that exist with in the Indian Republic and each of those tiny India’s consider the others as a different country. With so much of diversity, such dilemma and identity crisis are bound to be there.

Accountability of a people’s servant

It was my 3rd visit to Krishi Mahotsav today. It was at Maithan, which meant I went down around 200 meters in terms of altitude, thus it was very warm there. Initially, I was sitting in shade, but my buddy sun wanted to see me, although I did not and thus began the game of hide and seek. Whenever a patch of my hand was under sun, I would move my chair a little towards left. In no time, I was almost stepping over the chair of old man sitting next to me, thus there was no left left! So I got rid of chair and came close to what we all become after death – soil! Although the sun chased me down there on ground ttoo, but now I was more absorbed in the conversation that was going on between the adhikari’s and the farmers. Farmers complained that adhikari’s were listening so much but there was none who was even taking down the suggestions. The speaking adhikari, dude from Horticulture department pointed to another adhikari Mr. Tamta sitting next to him saying that he was writing, seeing that the poor Mr. Tamta started opened a register kept on table, I hoped at least then he had started writing. Everybody was saying that unless there is something done on these suggestions, there is no use of such fancy events as ‘Sarkar Kisan Ke Dwar’.

Then came the golden idea in my head. I grabbed the mike, and in presence of Pradhan Ji, senior members of village, the chief guest, who was a wise farmer and ex-armyman (which explains why is he hardworking and smart farmer) from the same village and the adhikari’s, I said, “Why don’t’ we all give two months of time to the adhikari’s and ask them to send a written report to Pradhan Ji which will give brief on all the activities that have done on the suggestions”. I felt like telling the adhikari, “listen dude, deal is simple, if you belive in every word you speak today, just write it, sign it and give today’s date.” This changed the faces of adhikari’s. Spontaneously, in front of public, they could not say or do much other than nodding in yes, as it was under normal circumstance, the ideal thing. And why should not. When I work at a private company, my boss does ask me question like, ‘Rajeev, when can we hope to finish this’ or ‘where are we on that research task’. People in private sector have to give weekly reports. And in private sector, less number of people have their stakes. But here, 1 billion people are the bosses of the government adhikari’s, 1 billion people have their stakes in the adhikari’s work. These government adhikari’s are ideally the people’s servants. They work for government and the government is ‘for the’, ‘by the’ and ‘of the’ people. In fact Nehru mentioned on becoming the Prime Minister that he was happy to be the first servant of the people of free India. So, all government officers and employees should give a written promise when they assure to deliver something, and should give at least a monthly report on where they are. Else, flyovers and highways will continue to get constructed till eternity and we will never get to drive. New hospitals will continue to get erected, but people will also continue to die pre-mature death because of lack of medical facilities.

Learnings from Swades - Education

I just read a small interview of a kid from SIDH. He studied in SIDH’s primary school. Now SIDH’s education is different from conventional education, because SIDH does not give education compartmentalized in different subjects through text books. It focuses education from within the village’s resources. A kid reads about trees, the occupation of people in village, the social structure in village etc.. and learns to express his understanding and learning through poems, essays, drawings and other creative forms.
Now when this kid applied for admission into government middle school, he was to write an exam. The syllabus and structure of the exam was little to alien to kid. In kid’s own words:

Through our project work, we learnt about trees but also about life. We learnt to
write poems and stories. We learnt new words. We learnt to write letters to
friends and the elderly. However, in Hindi (understood as a subject to be learnt
for the Board examination) we had to learn seven poems by heart, we had to
learn about our country and about other countries. We had to read stories and
learn how to answer questions on the story. We had to learn how to summarize
the poems we learnt. We had to make sentences in Hindi and learn what is a
noun, pronoun, verb, subject, etc.

[Taken from UNESCO Report on SIDH]

Now my question is why the kid has to forcefully learn about other countries or other cities/places in his own country? When I was in school, all through primary and middle school and even in class 9, I was made to absorb information about different countries, cities in world, many of which I could not locate on map until recently when I am 24. Do kids in Germany or Canada learn about India, its geography, its climate, its political structure? Many of the grown ups in other countries do not know even the four metro cities of India. Those who know often know them by colonial names of Madras and Bombay.

Is it just the question of developing countries knowing about developed ones? Will that be enough to justify our syllabus’s carrying writings on developed world while not the other way round? In this regard, I would like to quote Late Mr. Pramod Mahajan who I once met during the shoot of the Karan Thapar’s show ‘The Big Question’ on DD1. In response to question of one of the audience on the show, he said, “No, we can never take advantage of US, only they can take advantage of us.” But then we might as well go as far as saying why on earth do we need to learn another language called English? Of course, 99.999% of Indians learn English not out of interest but out of force or necessity. Here’s there’s a difference between force and necessity. When we were kids, we were not wise enough to know the need of a language, thus, we were forced to learn English. But, many people do courses like Rapidex English Speaking Course or some crash course from British council or Inlingua. That’s called necessity. It’s like me learning now at this age, French because I need a job in Paris or in French Embassy here. People might as well argue that because of English or know-how of western countries, we are doing good business and have advantage over many countries in Asia, who are left behind in this wave of outsourcing.

Or is something other than developed vs developing or strong vs weak? Is it that India is one of the few countries who have such education system, while others, irrespective of being developing or developed, eastern or western, rich or poor, have a curricula for school which encourages kids to learn about their place first, live in their place, develop it and then if he has interest, he can himself look for other countries on web, books, newspapers, magazines etc.?

Morning Walk

Although the movie with the name was drab against the high hopes I raised, but the experience I had in the morning during walk was amazing. I was amazed to see how flexible my day is. I got up in the morning at 6 and felt very cold. It was like Tabu felt cold on her first morning in New York. She took a shawl out of trunk and wrapped around. Similarly, first thing I did after getting up in the morning was putting on jacket and a mufflour all around my neck and head and ears. I have been here for over a month now, but these days may be because I am in the spirit of namesake, I felt as new today here as Ashima Ganguly felt on her first day in New York. After guarding myself with woolen I paid visit to toilet. Sitting on shit pad, thoughts started arriving in my head, and I was little pissed off with that. At least in the morning, these thoughts should give me a break. I am yet to be done with morning call, and thoughts are trying to find room in my head. I really should start some form of meditation, I desperately need that. So I tried to flush the thoughts out by closing my eyes. I had brushed my teeth the previous night, so I did not feel as bad, as I would have otherwise felt. Closing my eyes, I felt that I should sleep more, but as I came in the room, I saw at clock and realized that I had slept 8 hours. Had I been in city, I would have rushed to bathroom or to stadium for running, or to gym, trying to waste as little time as possible. But now, here when there’s no hurry to do things, when there’s no deadline to meet, I just lazily got down on bed, eyes half closed, sometimes staring through the bluish surrounding outside of early morning, sometimes covering my head with quilt to avoid the light from the same window. In this pleasant cold, it is so pleasant to just lie down silently in semi-sleep state. At 6:30, I felt I am not getting any sleep anyway; I should get up and take a walk. When I was in Noida, my morning itself will start with confusion and indecisiveness. When my eyes open up in the morning, I would be wondering if I should sleep more or is it enough. Then when I decide I should sleep little more, then after few minutes of that semi-sleep state, I would struggle to confirm to myself if I am getting sleep or wasting time in bed. Now, here in the village, that state is less intense and I come to that point of beginning of struggle quite late. After I woke up completely, I put my earphones and sneakers on, and put camera in pocket and started walking. I was busy with thoughts and music in ears, but some part of me was also silently and pleasantly enjoying every breath of fresh air, of the sight of fluttering of leaves of very few non-pine trees which are lining the road. Soon I saw couple of school girls with big pair of flowers of white ribbons on their heads, which looked funny and cute on them. Sun had risen but it was beginning to bless this side of the hill. At some point, my walk was almost matching pace with that of sun in rising up here. So in few minutes, I was touched by the first rays. As I was walking up, sun started showing up, playing peek-a-boo through pine trees. And now was the rendezvous with sun, we were almost face to face. I was bathing in his warmth. Early morning sun and setting sun offer unique and pleasant warmth, which is not scorching. I was hearing the beautiful lullaby from Omkara, ‘Jag Jaa’, I started singing the same as if praying to Lord Sun. I took plenty of his pictures. He must be feeling shy of this paparazzo. As I walked forward and continued to hum I met this old frail man who I would often see while running. Today I stopped and talked to him. With the lens of my Canon SX110IS, I captured the contours of his face.



Each wrinkle on his face was telling a tale from his enormously long life. He knew little Hindi. Somehow, I find such folks in Garhwal, who do not know Hindi, from a different world. Their ancientness invokes curiosity in me. We had almost no common language, but still we managed to talk and enjoy each other's company! I used signs, little Hindi, he replied in little Hindi and more Garhwali, I smiled, he smiled,, sometimes must be feeling that I am stupid on simply smiling in response to his cryptic questions in Garhwali! I managed to learn that he had come to attend nature's call of the morning, somehow, the elderly still feel, "log bahar hone undar kyun jaate hain". One has to be from north India to appreciate that deadly one!

From the eyes of an ant.

Every day I come to work, but I never observe myself while working. Just imagine an ant sitting in some corner of your cube, and gazing constantly at you every day. Here’s what an ant wrote in her diary about me.



This guy with different hairstyle comes everyday to this place. Then he sits silently and keeps banging some keys for most of his day. Sometimes, raises his head, he looks around, put the mouth of a bottle in his mouth, and then resumes staring at the colorful screen in front of him.

Giving up on love

After so many love failures in the beginning, I am tired of all these chasing after chick games. I think I should quit now. If it has to happen, it will happen anyway. Love is not something you have to make efforts to find it. It’s not like clearing some exam or job interview that you will have to make efforts for. After all, this damn fist shaped thing in the left side of my body does not follow any of the written/ unwritten rules of human beings. It has its own language, grammar, codes – all of which is beyond comprehension of any one. And quitting is good. The efforts I was putting in this ‘seeking love’ process can be better used at work, where I do expect results to come out, as that work is a linear process. You work hard (albeit with some smartness), you get results, you get promotion, and you feel happy. But you go out, you strain your eyes in catching one glimpse of that b’ful gal, or you are driving, you see a gorgeous face in car going next to you, you try to maintain speed with her vehicle, only to discover that while you were having great start of morning in admiring beauty, you ran into another vehicle in your front, or you got challaned for over-speeding! So I have decided now, I will not give second looks to a girl. It all begins with that second look. Your sight happens to fall on some sweet gal, next you give second look, then you follow her, try to find out details, if successful after lot of hard-work, you get her number, and if lucky, you will get coffee date, but all these come with an expiry date of 3rd date, after which it’s a break up, as she announces, “I got engaged!!”. Did I hear from someone now, ‘well it never started in the first place’? Well at least for cupid-hearted-extra-romantic fellows like me, it already started from that second look . Hence proved  no second look => no love lorn hearts.

Irony, as I conclude this brief, mere naina dhoonde mere naina ko. Will this heart ever stop beating for someone else? I know realize how much sense those non-sense movies ‘Dil to Pagal Hai’ and ‘Dil hai ki manta nahi’ make.

Uncle Uncle Uncle

Uncle Uncle Uncle

Of late when I meet some married acquaintance of mine, I am getting a new tag – ‘Uncle’. When ever I visit his/her family, the kids address me as uncle. Or that friend will ask the kid to ‘say hello to uncle’. I remember when Papa’s friend Sanjay ‘uncle’ used to visit us, we would call him uncle only, and he used to be of same age as I am today, and he too was unmarried. In fact, there were lots of Papa’s friends who were uncles for us. So for my married friends, it’s perfectly fine for them to find an uncle in me for their kids. But I fail to find a fixed point in time line when I made this transition from ‘Bhaiyya’ to ‘Uncle’. Or was it rather a gradual transition? Whatever it may be, it hurts to feel I have aged. A ‘Chaachu’ might have felt pleasant and less age defining! But then it would have become a formal relationship in Indian set up, whereas ‘Uncle’ is a freeway relationship, you get in and get out as and when convenient!

But the uncle episode gives me one more reason to run away to US of A, where everyone other than father is uncle/sir. And when you are not addressing someone by uncle, you address him by his name, even if he is your step dad of twice your age, “Hey Bob, didn’t Mom come with you today?” 

How much is too much?

How much is too much?

We often start liking someone or something too much. But sometimes we go so far in liking that we start getting bored of it. It’s like too much of sugar in pudding is also distasteful. I used to like Rajbhog a lot. Every time I go out for eating, I would invariably have Rajbhog as sweet dish or in dessert. But now I feel sick of it. Mere sight of it pushes me towards throwing up. Similar experiences with couple of other things and people make me wonder, in the process of cuddling something, when do we realize the point beyond which our affection for that thing takes a downward curve?

I have been listening to Raag Tilak Kamod a lot. I listend to all its versions I could find online – instrumental – shehnai, sarod, sitar; vocals – by many different artisits; and even film songs which were purely in this raag. When I get up after a nap, often the first words are the lyrics of this lovely song, ‘neer bharan kaise jaaon’ in raag tilak kamod. Now I have started having fear if I should stop liking it so much lest I should grow dislike for this beautiful music too? Does that love hate relationship hold true for music too? Can we possibly stop liking something ourselves voluntarily? Is there an on/off button for it? And if not, what about the pain when the other party in the liking process becomes unavailable or start disliking me? What if I love chicken and there’s a bird flu? What if I am madly in love with someone, but she magically finds out that button to stop liking me?

PEACE

PS: kehet Ravi Jain suno bhai saadhu.. at least in a relationship (including friendship), if we manage to come out of that downward curve once.. then begins a never ending upward curve of eternally blissful relationship.

BhaiSaahib

It was Saturday morning, I was goin back to home after a tennis game, when I saw Sandeep Laxmi Sri Pada, my colleague, getting down from a rickshaw. He addressed rickshaw puller as “bhai saab”. That was a first to me. I never heard any rickshaw puller being called ‘bhai saab’. I don’t know whether it was out of respect, or Sandeep would use this for any stranger. Nor do I want to generalize that all people of Andhra of south India are polite with others. All I am saying is that it was a pleasant sight. That rickshaw puller must have felt happy. In fact we should call every one – plumber, mechanic, waiter, maid – as bhai saab, and do away the north-indian, “Bhaiyya”, that way, Marathi’s in general and Raj Thakeray in particular would also not be offended  as they keep complaining that bhaiyya’s from UP and Bihar intrude Maharashtra.

Eastern Purity

It all triggered with the morning visit to Mother Dairy today. I saw a gentle man putting a white hanky on his head as he approached a small gurudwara. A very small gurudwara which might as well resemble a house. He closed his eyes and stood there at the gate for few moments. The faith that I saw he had in god, and the faith in that minute he spent there was overwhelming. I have waited many times outside temples for my friends offering prayer inside, or waiting in queue [temples around Jama Masjid attract huge crowd] for their turn to offer prayer. Generally this happens on Tuesdays. I don’t have any issue getting inside an have a word with almighty, but I enjoy more waiting outside, I get the delight to watch! Last Tuesday, I saw Prateek standing quietly with closed eyes and folded hands, as I waited outside. The innocence on his face and the faith that the situation exhibited was enough for me get that rare standard emotion, “I wanna die here.” That’s how I felt when I saw Darjeeling for the first time or when I saw river Ganga in Rishikesh. These feelings are inexplicable by a word but I would like to coin a phrase, “eastern purity”. This is what I find most appealing about Asia and more so about India. The mandir, the masjid, the ganga, the flute, the Hindustani classical music, the morning, the sitar, the feminism – all these go into formation of ‘eastern purity’. Everyday, I see some lacunae around me to crib about India. But whenever this sense of ‘eastern purity’ prevails over my head, all cribbing fade away.

My (mis)adventure with sports

I have written enough lecture about road discipline, humanity, cleanliness etc., etc., so let me not bore you with the preaching. I will write now of sports, particularly my misadventure with sports.

Cricket. – FORTE FOR MOST OF YOU



First a confession: I have no interest in cricket what so ever. I can’t even list the 11 players of Indian team and this has always been a constant source of embarrassment, more so when girls discuss about certain match and I am dumb. Hence, I have been accused at time of not being a true Indian.



When I was in class 3 or 4, my parents bought me new bat from. Next morning I went to some park with kids from our neighborhood to play cricket. Not just I was denied any chance of batting, I forgot to collect my bat while coming back only to come home to hear, “you are not going to play with those kids again”

As I grew up, I would try to go to park with another set of kids, as our home was shifted. While fielding I always used to pray that ball should not come to me, because when I would try catch ball, I would get to hear this from you, “you think ball is gonna lovingly come to your arms, why don’t you move.” I think I was little like Rohan Awasthi of Taare Zamin pe! By the time I was in class 8, I was too conscious of that disapprobation administered to me! So I stopped playing cricket. Forever. But later when I was in college, I had really awesome friends (read ramjane , kumar!) who would invite me to play and give me batting. I would be invariably bowled out in a maximum of 3-4 balls.

I had much fervor for batting until recently; I would trade with kids near my home the kites that land on my roof, for chance of batting.

Oh my god! I just revealed to you guys that I don’t know flying kites either..

Okhay enough of dhoni and ganguly..


Basket Ball



In school, I attended coaching for sometime, and most of the times, coach would exhaust me in the warm up itself. But things changed dramatically when I went into college, I thought that now I m in the best college in the country, what more do I want. Now I will do everything and anything I like, one of them being basket ball. So I was there on court on 3rd day in college, without fear of ragging! I was sincere at practice, would come to court at correct time. One day we were playing zone defence. I was playing centre, when suddenly the coach came on me and said, “what the hell are you doing, you don’t have brains ? You think by jumping like monkey, you can bloc the offence” and little more he said. You guys might be thinking I was this close to tears, but I actually was very close to bursting into pearls of laughter, but that wasn’t visible on my face which was inexplicably grim at that time. So seniors told after the coach left, ‘kid is finally ragged’.
Of all the sports I liked basket ball most, but somehow couldn’t be regular , may be because wasn’t doing good at it. Once in several matches I would get to shoot, mostly I would pass the ball, but sometimes I would become selfish and attempt, and very rarely those will convert into basket, and those ephemeral moments would drive me for the next few days. In my 7th semester, I made it to waiting list of team! I was very happy as that mail containing the list for Inter IIT basket ball team players was sent to all. But the wait turned out to be eternal as none of the permanent players fall ill before tournament.

Athletics and others.




















I took up athletics in college only. In fact I was never more serious about sports than in college. I worked for long jump, and 100 metres, again for the annual Inter IIT sports Meet. As far as physical efforts were considered, the task was quite demanding, and I was putting my best foot in. finally I the day of selections came, I borrowed my friend’s boots. I missed tutorial class to attend the selections. But could not measure up to the coach’s expectations, so was told, “try next time… goodluck” and walked back from that vast athletic field.

Before attainting myself anymore, I will conclude, I have had been an outstanding sports man, I mostly stand outside the team .

Hypocrisy at its best

TOI reported today that ‘Speaker’ Somnath Chatterjee and his colleagues had to spend extra time circling because a southern China flight took more time to clear the runway. After Mumbai attacks, the same damn TOI complaint of high VIP security for MP’s and MLA’s. Now the same TOI is reporting about little extra that a VIP had to waste because of some technical snag. Common men including me face similar situation so many times, those are not reported. It is by reporting such incidents that media enhances the VIP image of a person.

Mumbai Terror Mubai Terror Mumbai Terror Mumbai Terror Mumbai Terror

That’s what is happening all around us everyday, right? In today’s TOI, caption of marathon foto on front page is ‘mumbai runs against terror’
My question is for how long? The so called 26/11 took place on Nov 26 last year. Of course I do not want people to just forget and take no lessons from the tragedy. But at the same time, I do not want this tragedy to be felt sad about FOREVER. And more importantly, it’s gross to see media – print or otherwise – deriving fodder out of this tragic incident. Their work is to inform citizens, and not influence their opinion or keep things alive in people’s memory.

But what irks me even more is the hypocrisy. After this article , I might be accused of indifference to the sorrow of terror victims but what should the media guys be accused of when they did not give even half as much coverage to guwahati blasts (which took place more recently ) as they are doing even to this day to Mumbai attacks. Guwahati and other north eastern cities suffered from blasts last year too. And they too suffer huge casualty. But these are reported for a day. And then forgotten. Why will not people form north-east complain of feeling detached from India? No wonder entire region is inflicted with insurgency. Why entire nation cried, Mumbai we are with you? Has one ever read, “itanagar, we are with you” ?

No wonder people coming from guwahati to delhi sometimes say they are coming to India!

Crusade against print media.. continued

Few weeks rather months back, I wrote to The Hindustan Times for giving some coverage to non-south-Delhi areas too. The report gave information on plantation drive during monsoons in Delhi.

Here's what he wrote.
"First of all, the story had many points. The major point was the booming business of nurseries due to early monsoons as the first sentence corroborates.
The second important was voluntariness of youngsters who could be called to give a helping hand as their vacations were on when monsoon had hit.

Plantation drives do happen. there's nothing new in it.
It was only early monsoon which made Hindustan Times publish this story. Focussing on plantation drives was not our focus.

You should read the story again!

As far as other areas are concerned. Check this sentence..
.....Gautam Pandey, who is spearheading a campaign named Hands For Trees (HFT) around
Chirag Delhi, Vasant Vihar, Dhaula Kuan and some areas in east and north Delhi......

Anyways thanks for your feedback..
We always welcome our readers to give their valuable responses.
"

Then I shot back with:
"
Well I read the story quite nicely first time itself. I am not trying to deny your first major focus and second major focus. I am concerned about the examples you took for your focus, which were mainly from south Delhi. I don’t understand why you wrote about early monsoon and plantation drive stuff, I nowhere , in my mail, doubted the reason you published the article. Hence I will rather encourage you to read the mail again!

And as you yourself pointed out in your reply here, “some areas in east and north Delhi...... ”, why ‘some areas’, when you can write chirag delhi – vasant vihar , you could also give some examples of those ‘some areas’ as well. I am sure the picture that was attached in that article was also not from those ‘some areas’ but from south Delhi only.

Anyways, thanks for your reply. I have wrote a couple of times to columnists of HT Brunch, only to find no response. It was heartening to see that your cared to reply.
"


That was the end, no more communications. My further correspondences to even other columnists or reporters are met with no reply. Looks like they have directed my mails to spam!!

Letter to West Delhi Plus of TOI

I am regular reader of the TOI, and WDP. I have noted that you always give news about conditions of areas like Punjabi Bagh, Dwarka, Rajouri Garden, Janka Puri etc.. You describe achievements of people in these localities. But I would like to bring to your knowledge (in case you are not aware already), that in west Delhi, there are other areas too like Sagar Pur, Uttam Nagar, Raghu Nagar. The TOI main paper anyway does not give any news from these areas, unless some serious mishap takes place and they are kind of forced to come here. But West Delhi Plus is supplement particularly about western part of the city, so at least once in a while, you can direct your cameras to our areas too, which our mostly pointed towards organized colonies. I am a resident of Sagar Pur, I have been here for the past decade or more. I hardly read anything about our area. You report about water, sanitation, road problems of Dwarka or Janak Puri. But what about Sagar Pur, where there is no public park, where in such huge colony, there’s just one post box for the past 10 years or so, where there’s no charcoal road, where no public servant comes to clean sewage, which often leads to mixing of normal water with sewage water. If no one respects our colony, why do even form a constituency and we are urged to vote. You report achievements of kids and youngsters and about malls of Rajouri Garden. I want you to know that there are genius kids in our areas too. Who makes one area posh and other down market – you guys only, the media. I am myself 2007 pass out IIT Guwahati (Computer Science), and I have been to all those *hip-hop* areas, I clearly understand all the pages - page3 and page10. This is to request you to respect all localities, that’s what true journalism is. And I hope you wouldn’t reply by telling about your reporting of some slums in west Delhi, I really request you to stay sometime in middle too, not always on the extremes.

Anonymity – Ambiguous.. why is everyone so coward!!

TOI reported today:
NEW YORK: Former Pakistani army officials trained the terrorists who went on rampage last week in Mumbai , The New York Times said on Wednesday quoting unnamed Pentagon officials.

I don’t understand why new papers even report the statements of people (officials) who don’t have the balls to stand by what they speak. After Mumbai Attacks, I have been reading and hearing from all corners, about pak-link of terrorists. There has been no *solid* evidence. Those who claim to have it, say that wouldn’t share it now. Many of those who allege pak-terrorists are anonymous officials, be it those babus in external affairs ministry, be it some diplomat, or the so called reports of CIA, no body comes out in open and speaks without fear. Strangest part is that most pak-link newspaper reports are reported by The Observer, The Guardian, and NYT. Where are the TOI’s and HT’s of India? In Indian print media, like the photos of events in India, which are almost always clicked by Agency, or Reuters or AFP, now even intelligence reports of terror attacks are also out sourced from foreign press!

Reservation : Retake!

Let me start with saying that we do not need reservation at any point, not even at primary or secondary level.

Is there any school in the country which denies admission to kid because of caste (lower or upper)? Then what makes these kids from SC/ST require the need of extra support?

Fine, if you feel that people from SC/ST are generally poor too, so grant them this support at primary level or at most secondary level. Period.

At least in cities, I have seen equal opportunities for all. Any kid can get admission in to DPS, or into a government school. Similarly, all institutes if higher education, vocation - IIT, Amity, Delhi University, then WHY Manage Caste Diversity.
Why do we even think of caste at any academic place, leave alone IIT. Why can't caste ( since it will always stay in India), be a personal matter like religion. For example, students are favored or despised pretty less in the matters of admission because of their religion, barring the very few minority institutions (like AMU etc., ), similarly, we can treat the caste as immaterial.

Cleanliness is Godliness

Imagine yourself walking down a road, and you see a white piece of cloth on the way. What will be your first reaction? You will get cautious and try not to stomp on sheet. Why because that sheet is so clean and you wouldn’t want to spoil it.

Now imagine the same walk, the same road, but in place of clean white sheet, there’s a dirty rug. Your first reaction? There wouldn’t be any, you will perhaps not even notice.

That’s what I will try to advocate here : If an area is clean, people would like to keep it clean, if something is dirty, it will get dirtier. So keep the surroundings clean.

Let me try to support the cause with my personal examples too.
Consider Noida vegetable Market. One fine Tuesday, I was jogging back from noida stadium to office gym, listening to that title track of movie swades. And here goes the clash of my 2 senses. My ears were listening something and eyes were seeing something else or perhaps my nose too. Song goes – ‘the fragrance of your motherland soil, how will you forget this’ there was no fragrance in the first place! It was awfully pathetic smell of the spoiled vegetable and fruit remains of the previous night, which brought me almost close to puke. So I wouldn’t really want to remember the odor of the soil. And after that foul smell, I tend to at least spit out, if not puke, which makes the road even dirtier, there goes the point I started with. Hence we should keep the surroundings clean.

That also reminds me of a small kid I saw at the IGI airport when I was landed from Vienna . That kid was telling his mom, “mom I can smell the scent of India” of course in a positive tone.

Dogs keep their place clean before sitting. If we keep only our homes clean, there wouldn’t difference b/w us and dogs. So we should do more than that, keep the street clean, then neighborhood, then surrounding areas, cities, states and the entire country. First thing that someone notices when he comes to a city for the first time is the cleanliness. All other things – public transport, warmth of people are seen later. Anyways eyes start their action earlier than any other sense. So tourists from abroad and from other cities will be happy to visit Delhi again if they find it clean. I remember a young woman on ND railway station walking around 500m to a dustbin to throw her cigarette butt. Of course those were ramodass;s days when smoking in public was banned. But the point is, if she can care for cleanliness of a place, which is not even hers. Why can’t we care even more for our place?

I am talking of sanitation; because that’s the easiest way of contributing to society and country without spend the costly resource of time or money. We should simply stop throwing litter- which includes ice cream cups, groundnuts shell, wrappers of toffees, chocolates and other edibles., keep them in pocket or in hand, and throw them in dustbin on road if there’s any or in the trash bag at home. Simple.

Priests say god resides in hearts of pious people. Well I say, Ram resides in cleaner homes and societies. No wonder we clean our houses to please goddess Lakshmi on Diwali. I will suggest please please her 24*7*365, not just on Diwali. And goddess will come by road to your home. So please keep that road clean too. To sum up, Gandhiji’s mantra – “Cleanliness is godliness.”

Kids!!!

There is such a big variety of kids one can see in a kindergarten that the enormity of diversity of human race is quite understandable. When in the tender age of 3-4, these kids are so much different from each other; we can very well imagine the difference in every aspect of these kids when they grow up into adults. Today lazily I was observing the kids in my mom’s kindergarten. There is one boy who is lost in his own world. Perhaps that explains why some people are introvert and prefer solitude or are not bothered by what’s happenings around. Of course, as kids grow, lots of transitions takes place in their physical and mental behavior. This small kid might as well become a rock star at 18!
I also saw many kids who had formed a group. In the group, one would behave like a leader, will initiate talks, will explain things to group mates like some seasoned manager. Group members would sometime hit the leader, and sometimes some other kid will take up the leadership role. We can also see some kids sitting in pair and fighting with each other non-stop. There are some kids who sit observing others. They look like spellbound by what other kids are doing. Such fascination is clearly visible in their eyes which are wide open in fascination of what other kids are doing.

And yet, all these kids are so much different from one another. Each kid is unique in one way or the other.

The regular embarassment

There are few situations of awkwardness which I face every now and then. Problem is one can't get rid of them, you run into them almost everyday.

Firstly, if someone sings just casually and makes facial expression and looks or comes towards you or looks at you as if singing to you, although he might be in the mind emphasizing the meaning/feeling of song and least aware of me or the embarrassment within storming my mind. What the hell he/she is doing? Why can't he sing alone? I never do that torture to anyone. I sing only in elevator when there is no one else. I wonder if in those times, I should sing with them, or sing along them - both these actions will make me feel even more embarrassed. Or should I ignore them, like they don't exist. That might make them feel I am not attending them, or more busy in my work! What to do man.

Secondly, people cracking awfully pathetic jokes. How can someone do this to me? It's tough to laugh. I just smile to give them some respect lest they should feel ignored and consider me rude. But it becomes a torture, when I am the butt of joke. I don't mind laughing at myself, but the joke has to be funny by my humor. So now when I smile, people feel I am shying. Wht mother crap is that. I guess in future, I should smile or laugh only when I feel like doing the same, without giving shit to any social obligations. Like Sachin does. Yet everyone loves him.

Thirdly (and certainly not the last), grown ups asking me how much money I make. Do they not have least social manners? It's so embarrassing.

Delhi Governance

Delhi Government is perhaps the best government of all the state govermetns in India. Of course it too suffers freomn problems associated with govt. departments, but what Ms. Shiela Dikshit has done in Delhi duting her ternure so far is unparalleled by any of her predecessors.

I particularly like the simple advertisemsnts that they publish in newspapers and on bill boards. The advertisements are really simple to read with no fancy words and jazzy art. Somehow they take you to old word charm. And those ads are really informative, through them we learn what govt is doing, how can we access different services offered by govt free of cost, which most of the people are unaware of. Govt has so many grievances cells, and they would not know of problem unless we report them. We must make use of these services. The bhagidari scheme is another wonderful programme of Delhi Govt which is again no-nonsene kind of project. Citizens should participate in this to make things happen. I have used the grievance cell phone numbers to report a couple of problems, lets see if that works.

Talking of Delhi, I was recently impressed by visit of E Sreedharan’s visit to Delhi Metro. This guy asked for more soap boys in the premises of Metro Station for cleaning stone surfaces. When even in North and South Bloc, one can easily find gutkhas and paan spits, and bird nests, DMRC’s emphasis on cleanliness and maintenance is simply exemplary. They are also trying to make the look and feel of all stations uniform. That is what is perfection. I am so happy there some places in our country in govt sector, where this perfection is seeked.

Why am I pissed off?

Quite often I stay in unpleasant mood. Cranky. I decided to list down my problems.
Here they are:
One. I have huge tummy that refuses to disappear even after workin my ass up for getting rid of it. Winters are arriving , what I am gonna do? I woudn’t be able to dress up properly, so many of clothes will lie useless as they would look ugly with tummy. I can’t even think of updating my wardrobe for the new season.

Two. My hair are growing at a miserably slow rate after I got the ghagini hair cut. I doubt if they are really growing. And I look awfully pathetic in this. And holy crap! Those few white hairs look even more prominent when their length is less, I can’t even hide them in other hair. This gives more tension which in turn turns more hair white.

Three. I am growing darker by the day. Thanks to Delhi weather.

Because of the above reasons I have stopped even glancing at mirror now. I realize that I haven’t bought a single piece of cloth or any footwear for me in ages now. What shall I do with them with this ever growing belly. It really depresses me to acknowledge that I am ageing. I wonder if I have so much negative thoughts, then perhaps people who are in 40’s should just kill themselves

Roadies

Have I grown old? The dreams for getting into roadies ended before starting. I could not even get into auditions. I don’t know why wish to sound like a loser as if I desire to garner some sympathy votes. But this sucked. All those years, I could not get into this because I was studying in a small town (town? Or was it village?)called guwahati where there were no auditions for roadies or for that matter any other show. But now it was in my own city, New Delhi. It was my first and perhaps last chance. Last chance like for so many other activities such as Indian Air force. I knew the place too, and yet I missed it.
The other day I was discussing about audition with someone, and his first reaction was, ’dude , you are old now for all this.. you have too many other things now which you can’t just leave get your old fat ass into roadies!’. I hate to admit, he turned out to be right. I did not take off today. Dunno what came on my head that I cancelled my leave and came to office. If hadn’t done that I would have been there at audition on time. But the thought that stopped me for heading for audition was a sense of duty for reporting test, for the greed of saving one day’s pay, these things have indeed rendered me old enough no to have courage to do something else. But I don’t want this to happen. I am all of 23 for Christ’s sake and I feel old and tied in duties and responsibilites? Then what should people of my dad’s age do?
Some people were suggesting that I should tell about this audition in office to my manager and other colleagues. But do I have to? Rather should it not be little awkward? It’s like a movie I go to on some night, and telling the same at work? No. and I am not doing anything wrong. I have not been dishonest with my work. I gave it extra hours whenever it demanded. It’s like if I am wedded to my work, then I don’t commit adultery if I attend some of my other interests too.

fun and work @ work place

There are two conflicting school of thoughts in my mind about balancing fun and work at work. One of my colleague reminded (because Siddharth had told me about the same sometime) me today of British or (generally) western style of working. Brits work only during office hours of 9-5 whatever is that time window of 8 hrs is. But during those 8 hours, all they do is work. They don't waste time or should I say, spend time on activities which are not related to work. But as their 8hrs are over, they rush to home or anywhere but office.

I also like that kind of working atmosphere and ideally I would have worked like that only. But if I work like that focusing only on my work, will I not be considered aloof? I am seeing people huddled in one cube, may be sharing some sweets or some joke. Should I not press Windows L and leave my desk , go and join them? If I do that I will be loosing time close to half an hour. Because after that entire party might move to terrace for sharing puff and coffe. Such occasions will occur several times in day. So everyday, I will lose considerable time, which if I had put in work, I would have wounded up my work early and left early and could find time for host of other activities. But if I come to office, work and leave, and continue this for long, will I not be considered aloof by my colleague. At any new work place, one would like to make new friends and make the friendship closer. But that would not be possible if all I do in office is work.

Where to draw line?

That colleague of mine told that it's all in mind. Ultimately, if one speaks politely to a colleague and asks for help, he will be helped, and what more one expects from a colleague.
I wasn't fully convinced with this to accept completely the new style of working. Even though I actually work in that style to a great extent unconsciously for some reason.

Yet after this discussion I fail to find where to draw line, which school of thought is good for me. Perhaps someone reading this might be able to suggest. I feel that it solely depends on person and his abilities. Sachin for example, can talk to all his friends/colleagues, afford to join in any number of puffs or TT games and still be able to finish work on/before deadlines. I on the other hand will have to compromise on one thing to achieve the other.

Little conversation with Sardar Ji auto wale

I was struggling hard to reach Noida for the first time through this new route (yes, I did cross check it pronunciation on wordweb just now. And it did not sound as absurd in the American voice of wordweb as it bleeds when people in my office make pronunciation ) to India Gate. Here we had this sardar ji who was driving auto-rickshaw next to me. I was pissed off with heat of the day and frustration and fatigue of biking, and already I had sun burn so far. I asked this auto guy the way to nizamuddin bridge. He was very considerate and explained me the way with great patience. There was huge traffic jam and we had enough time to for a small conversation. Sardar Ji too needed someone as much as I did to distract oneself away from the frustration of traffic, heat and driving. He said,”sardar ji uranium manga rahe hein desh ki bhalai ke liye”. I was amazed at his interest and knowledge about country’s problems and politics and his flair for technological-infrastructure projects. He told that coal will not be able to solve the country’s problem of power. He pointed to the thermal power plant near Pragati Maidan and asked how long and how many people that could serve. Another lovely thing of this little chat was his addressing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as ‘sardar ji’!

Affection for South Delhi

South Delhi

What the hell is the deal with ‘South’? South of India has always been considered as the literate India. And indeed the culture of Bangalore is quite different than any north Indian city.

Now I read this news that residents in South Delhi are planting saplings in the rainy season. I wonder why only in South Delhi. I guess in places like Sagar Pur (again, first word that comes to my mind while thinking of non-posh localities is Sagar Pur!, after all this is where I have been residing for ages). People are firstly not educated enough to realize the importance of greenery/plants. But I do believe that being humans, they like green clean areas as much as any South Delhite would do. But then in our part of Delhi, we don’t have open spaces enough for raising plants and trees. People do not find place to park their cars. Where will they plant? Also, so many people in New Friend’s colony and other colonies of posh south Delhi do planting as a part of their hobby and this hobby is as fashionable as reading Atlas Shrugged or giving baths to puppies in homes for dogs or sipping red wine on a brunch! In Uttam Nagar, Raghu Nagar, and in most of pur’s and nagar’s of Delhi, people will not have these fancy ideas/hobbies. Their world is different. They will rather gossip, watch soaps, or reality shows or 24-hr news channel and sit putside their homes in the evening. So it will take quite some time before these things catch up with my world. Yes, no matter how much I earn, which fancy hotel I dine at, which posh crowd I party with, I will still belong to Sagar Pur, this name will reside on my passport and ration card for a long time. It is this Sagar Pur where I grew up in. Mentally, I might not feel at times that I belong here, like many of NRI’s might not feeling like belonging to India. But practical fact is that I am Sagar Purite!

McDonaldisation!!

Ah! finally I got time to write! after ages.

India , one of the oldest civilizations, is slowly changing itself so much that cultural heritage will soon reduce to a word in history text books.
I had joined music classes some time back. Students who would learn music with me were of the age like 5 or 6 or sometimes perhaps 4 also! These kids learn Hindustani classical music in English. The teacher gives them notes as Sa Re Ga Ma. And this is true for students from any community, there were lots of Bengali and north Indian kids there. They all learn music in this way. People in so many states are fighting to get a 'classical status' for their language, but what is the use of that status if the language that gets that status is not considered 'cool' by the community that was expected to encourage its use. Already, so many languages of the world have become dead. But most of them became extinct because the people speaking that language became extinct. But in our country, number of people capable of speaking Indian languages is always on an ever increasing trend. Hence, it will be shameful if Indian languages become obsolete.

This also reminds me of another interesting trend in the 'upwardly mobile and progressive' society that is flourishing in satellite townships of Noida, Bangalore, Gurgaon etc..
Yesterday my mentor told that he bought an alphabet primer for his few months old kid. The book has alphabets as:
P for Pizza
C for computer
B for burger
and perhaps I for iPod!

I might be accused of acting like French (who, it is said, dislike anything American, like our very own Left) or some anti-progressive jerk, but what kind of nature loving and healthy kids we raise if they learn of Pizza before identifying a Parrot and they see Burger before getting excited to play with a Ball

जोधा अकबर

Finally I finished watching Jodha Akbar in 3 days! watching 15-20 mins for the first two days before I would get to sleep, but on second day the music impressed me a lot and I could not wait to watch the entire movie.

What can I say now? Movie is a brave attempt on part of director. But again lack of knowledge and research was evident, as is the case for most of bollywood movies. There were tribals.. typically from North East dancing in the show put up for Akbar. What the hell were north eastern Indians doing there? I thought director thought to include them in the dance show to make it look grand!

But no doubts, the music was really imposing, particularly the background score. It was indeed AR Rehman music. And it had the grandeur needed for the royal story. It did remind me of mughal-e-azam. Of course one falls short of wards to describe this music. It's really nice to see some film makers and musicians do not shy away from having classical music. Effective use of sitar. But the lyrics were not great in most of songs.. Manmohana could have more touching lyrics, it was really straight forward colloquial of current times.

Most of the movie had scenes in day light. Some scenes look good in night. The dance show could have been put up in lamps and candle lights rather than in bright sun... I mean there were so much of tents pitched up around in that dance show.. it looked as if we were watching the sets themselves. Compare that too 'Mohe panghat pe' from Mughal-e-azam.

I guess image of one grand thing of past can just not be erased by any number of newer versions in the recent times. Like original ramananad sagar's ramayana is still fresh in our memories, and still looks much more real than all the clones made after that. Similarly, comparison of Jodha Akbar with K Asif's master piece is inevitable.
In terms of communal harmony, they could have shown more. In the end Amitabh bacchan says this was the story of Jodha Akbar. I am sure there could have been lot more to that. The movie in fact showed very few instances of their love.. most part was about war and politics. In the old movie.. we also saw Akbar celebrating Janmashtmi, can giving rides to bal gopal krishna.

But anyways , this was indeed different.

रामायण

I was watching रामायण after very long. I guess last time I watched it was when I was in class 8 or something. Here mummy is alone at home, so to give her company, I watch it. I found that even today, when so many hindi films have been released since Ramanand Sagar's रामायण , still this one carries so much emotional value. I feel moved to tears in many scenes. Unlike Mahabharat, रामायण is story of so much love and affection . One can notice the word 'sneh' umpteen number of times in one episode. One really feels like having cleaned his mind and heart of all vices. Every character in the story (ofcourse barring few - kakayi, manthura and those from Ravan's camp), have so much love for each other. Every one's fighting to give comfort to some one else. I feel that Ram's age must have been the most peaceful and stable times on earth.

Timing of my realization of these things is pretty apt. I mean very recently Karunanidhi questioned the existence of Ram. He was giving some arguments that he claimed were rational. Even I am myself a computer science graduate. But still I feel influenced by these mythological stories. At least they are putting in us some fear for god, some fear from doing fallacies. If he wanted to make bridge, then he should have gone ahead, but not by inciting people by attacking faith of people. I remember once I was complaining to an Austrian Professor that in India, some rivers get polluted a lot because people put dead bodies and other things in the reiver for religious reasons. Then even that chap, who was complete foriegn to hinduism and mythology replied,"But people have faith in that. It's the question of faith." And Karunananidhi is from south India, the land, where we can find most religious people in India. Even that bridge is ultimately for welfare of people, then it is actually service of God, people would not have complained if that new bridge is making the lives easier. But it is crap to say things about Ram sethu or for that matter Ram's existence per se, as this was all uncalled for. It's like if we can build a hospital for destitute by breaking some temple, then it should be fine. But we should not break the temple because we don't believe in the deity worshiped in that temple. May Ram give some sense to these morons.

double standard, glorified.

July 24, 2007

Some prominent media houses give following headlines :

NASDAQ : "Suspect Haneef's Clean Chit To Australian Federal Police "

The Times of India : "Diary notes are mine, not by cops: Haneef"

Times Now : "Haneef gives a clean chit to AFP "

Yahoo News / CNN-IBN : "Haneef says Oz cops did not doctor his diary"

July 30-31, 2007 : When Haneef is back in India, here's what we see :

The times of India : "Haneef wants Australia to apologise"

The Hindu : "Haneef: I am a victim of Australian conspiracy"

This sudden change in the Hanif's attitude is quite visible through headlines!

bangalore - glass house?

It's been more than a month since I moved to Bangalore. A lot has been said ans written about this so called silicon valley of India. Here's my contribution, my first hand experience. My office is on the Airport Road, right across Leela Palace. I thought this must be the most happening place in the city. Soon my illusions were over when I saw the map and discovered that actually we are far from the hip hop spots of Bangalore. Most of the services have their centres far from here. Near to this area, I once saw a mini La Defense. The place around that golf course had all the brands of IT one could think of Microsoft, Yahoo, HP Google and what not? In erecting these high rise posh buildings, people behind all of it, forgot that India has a weather different from that of countries where these glass houses are a norm for business houses. In my own office,




in spite of state of art air conditioning and climate control system, I feel sultry in the noon if i am sitting next to a glass wall exposed to weather outside. So, those feeling awestruck (as I felt when I DLF building for the first time while going by Gurgaon road) by the sight of glass buildings, do have a heart for how it feels behind those glasses!

India's Educational policy

India’s Education Policy

Ours is a land which was a centre of learning for centuries. But since independence to this day, we have been facing challenges in achieving the goal of making India an educated state. On one hand nature of such challenges has been the same. For instance even today our goal of making primary education accessible to one and all, is far from being achieved. At the same time, challenges have taken more complex form today. Rewriting of history books with every new government and lack of funds for making higher education available to the rapidly growing population (whose size has gone through enormous increase) need intelligent strategies to deal with. This paper is not going to present a dismal picture India’s educational policy by giving an array of statistics, which is any way known. Nor will it mention a positive interpretation of such statistics in the way websites of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and National Literacy Mission boast of their achievement. It will rather describe the handicaps, plaguing the policy makers in the matters pertaining to education, and some plausible solutions, and some threads opened in the paper will be kept open for the readers to close them, for the author failed to obtain one feasible way for the same.

Moving in the natural order of development of a human, primary education sows the seeds of growth. The desire of providing free and compulsory education for all nurtured in our constitution and in the minds of gentlemen who drafted it. Even today, 59 million children out-of-school and another 90 million in school learning very little^[1]. We have plenty of villages where there is no school nearby. Government of course has a big role to play there. It should figure out all such villages and start a rapid movement of sort to install one primary school in each such village. In fact there should be one primary school within 1km radius. This goal of government is yet to be completed. To begin with, we can arrange for only few teachers, who should be paid more than their counterparts serving in the towns and cities where there are more number of teachers to share the burden. This won’t need much infrastructure. Of course black board education of such kind is not as effective as with some visual aids, but the whole idea is to make the kids literate, to prepare them for further education, to avoid their exploitation at the hands of the rich and slightly literate people of village, so that they don’t suffer the same plight as their parents. And we should not expect all the latest technology to reach in every village of our country overnight. But nor can we wait for that to happen. We must understand that literacy is as important as food or cloth. Only if a person knows basic mathematics, reading and writing short simple statements, needed in every day life, in one language, can he expect to secure some kind of employment in a country of 1 billion crippled with unemployment. He needs this literacy to get onto the right bus, to read before signing on a paper and virtually in every circumstance which is going to affect his life.

Apart from the government initiatives, we need more people like Magsaysay award winner Sandeep Pandey, who gave up his job of teaching at IIT Kanpur and came to a dalit village of Lalpur in district Ballia of UP, where despite all odds , he opened a school and took concrete steps to alleviate poverty. This happened in a village where even candidates of State Assembly elections made no commitments. Government has to later on make reservations for these dalit children. Why does it not educate them at primary level itself as to make them natural competitors with students belonging to general category. Here when situation is so grim that whole village is not able access a school, then will the government make reservation for the entire village? Why should it rather not open a school or two there? Government can’t always be relied upon for two reasons. Firstly, sometimes (though it happens very rarely) to focus all all areas at one time or it suffers from lack of funds. Secondly, government servants don’t want to serve the areas where they won’t benefit much in terms of votes or money through corruption (and this one happens more frequently).

Primary education suffers not just because of their lack of availability in rural India, but also on other grounds as well. Quality of that primary education in one such issue. It can be measured by learning levels of those attending primary schools. It is found that 40.2% of class 5 kids could not read class 2 level paragraphs and 56.6% of them could not perform subtraction sums ^[2]. If something could be done here, then it is the change in teaching methodology. Kids should be taught in a natural way of learning. For example, the most natural method of learning basic arithmetic is counting. A mother can ask her child to count the number of potatoes left in a basket after she put some of them aside. There can be more effective methods. We need to constitute a committee of experts in pedagogy, urgently to make suggestions in this direction with in a time frame, so as to implement new methods of teaching by the next academic session. Idea is to start looking for a solution as soon as a problem is identified. We need our government to give up its lethargy at least in the education sector and start working towards quick and effective solution.

Another area where work needs to be done is decreasing the dropout rates and increasing the number of enrolments per se. Firstly, we should understand that at times we have parents themselves wanting their kids to work and at other times kids themselves find going to school a boring task and would rather prefer working. Many factors contribute to this, frequent absenteeism of teachers (who are in fact better paid as compared to their counterparts in private school), inferior methods of teaching, making learning a tedious task and lack of infrastructure. For this constant monitoring of working of schools is essential. For instance, 25% of teachers were absent from school, and only half were teaching, during unannounced visits to a nationally representative sample of government primary schools in India. ^[2] It is worth mentioning that midday meal program of government of India is doing really good job by pulling the kids to school, and parents also find a reason to feel convinced to send their ward to school. But in the cases of working children, first solution is banning any form of child labor. Non Formal Education is a good but still a temporal solution for imparting education to working children. But here bottom line is that all good measures should be continued with more zeal.

Moving to middle and secondary school education, it also faces problems similar to those enlisted above for primary schools. There is an urgent need for a state-private partnership. Where there are government schools, education is very much subsidized. A monthly fee is on an average Rs.70 from class VI to VIII. In spite of that number of enrolled is far less than the expected. In such situation, we need huge awareness amongst the parents about value of education so that they can send their ward to school. But as we notice every year that it is the private schools that outperform the government schools not just in terms of results of public examinations but in the competitions pertaining to co-curricular activities also. So private schools should now realize their social responsibility and allow poor children to be part of their so called elite club. Or else rich children won’t have the experience of studying together with the kids from economically poor background, of sharing the joy of learning together. A sense of equality will then never be ensured in the growing minds.

Also in schools, student should not compulsorily taught Hindi. Two languages – their mother tongue and English should be enough. It’s important students enjoy reading and writing in their mother tongue also, that will help in the development of regional languages and literature and cinema.

Another concern about school education is changing of textbooks , particularly history textbooks, according to the whims of current political power at centre. NCERT and related organizations such as Indian Council for Historical Research should be given autonomy. Religion should also be kept strictly separate from education. In this wake, all RSS schools and madrasas should be closed, but then each community has been given constitutionally, the right to preach and propagate its religious beliefs. Some solution has to be thought to balance the two.

Higher education sector is the one that finally fuels the economic growth. America has more proportion of population going to higher education than any other country. No wonder it is the biggest economic power today. Moving focus away from higher education to work on primary education is something impractical. In Professor C.N. R. Rao’s words,” I don’t think that we should wait for all people to become literate before we improve our universities”.

The biggest problem we are facing today in the area of higher of education is the greater role of state in it. Either state should provide educate funds or otherwise let the colleges charge the fees that is some where near the actual cost of education, rather than heavily subsidizing it. In IIT’s, hostel rent per semester is Rs.500. At no place in the world can one find a room for Rs.500 for four months. Medical Fees per semester is Rs.100. This despite the fact that one time consultation fees of doctors these days itself is Rs.100. These were just a few examples to present an idea higher education is subsidized in our country. But in these colleges of higher education, children of industrialists and IAS officers also study. There are in fact plenty of students who can at least 2 times what they are paying now. So such students should be charged more. In fact, we can have a federal fee structure, like income tax rather than fix it for all (of course except students from SC, ST and OBC). The idea is to charge fees proportionately. This way, the dilemma of excellence versus access and quality versus quantity can also be solved. Because if government lacks funds, then in order to cater to the needs of growing for higher education, government will create more institutions or increase more seats in the existing institutions. In either case, it will result in decrease in over all quality and excellence, for the total funding is still the same.

We must also learn from the education system in developed countries. Private universities have been a great success in United States. Top 5 universities of the world include 3 private American universities. Of course, that success can be attributed to America’s economy being capitalist in nature, and we can’t have complete privatization of higher education, but still considering the high cost incurred in the education of a single graduate, and growing demand for higher education, government can just not hope to do it all by itself with the current total spending on education being 4% of GDP. Emergence of world class private institutes is inevitable. Indian Institute of Science and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research were also visions of industrialists and scientists. And these institutes have produced some of the nation’s finest researchers and scientists. Recent establishment and good performance of private institutes like Dhiru Bhai Ambani Institute of Information Technology and Jaypee Institute of Information Technology are also positive signs. Other business houses should also take lead in this direction.

The public sector institutes of learning like IIT’s, NIT’s , AIIMS and IIM’s should also depend lesser and lesser on government. Rather, they should generate their endowments through research and consultancies. These institutes should change their image from lethargic universities to that of profit making and fiercely competing companies. Competition always leads to good quality. For this very reason, we should allow FDI in education. If MIT opens its campus here, people would consider that also as a good option. This would reduce the pressure on several hundred thousand students, appearing each year for admission tests of various elite institutes, only a small percentage of which constitutes the finally selected students. But a constant vigil on all universities and colleges , particularly those in private sector is needed. Because we have private universities like Amity whose directors have been issued warrants against them. Even the Delhi Government’s Indraprastha university has so many small colleges affiliated to it which hardly have infrastructure for the courses they are conducting. In places like Bangalore, Noida, Ghaziabad, Hyderabad, and Gurgaon , one can find plenty of teaching shops claiming to be colleges affiliated to several private or government universities. The elite institutes like IIT’s are catering to the needs of very small percentage of students. Thousands of other students clamor for admission to these lowly colleges. All such colleges charge hefty amount of fees. Such institutes need to be checked.

While discussing higher education, mention of much talked about reservation is indispensable. The simple argument against such idiocy is that if some method failed to achieve its purpose in spite of having used it for 60 years or so, then how can the same method be strengthened further an used to achieve that purpose? On the top of everything else, no school or college in India denies admission to someone because of his/her caste.

Conclusion

The goal of universal education can be achieved by opening primary schools in every possible place where they find utility. No kid should be denied primary education for the reason of non availability in the neighborhood. Quality of education is also equally important and can be ensured through reforms in teaching methodology and more accountability and transparency in schools. Dream of having high standard higher education for all can be a reality with the help of private hands, and with increased funding , more emphasis on research than just conducting examination.