Intervene or Perish

Thanks for circulating this mail.Generally,we talk of big things,make fun of most things around us and criticize governance as the root cause of everything bad in our country.But the main thing is that we are very much a part of the whole. Change has to begin with us.Intervention,whatever may be possible within our means,holds the key for improvement all around.
I salute this retired IRS officer who has taken some steps to regenerate our villages.There are 6 lakh villages in India which still provides livelihood,very inefficiently,for 68% of Indians,generating just 18% of the GDP.This is because we educated Indians have abandoned our roots.The government alone is incapable of tackling this gargantuan task.Most NGOs are hand in gloves with the govt in siphoning off public funds.
Therefore there is ample scope for intelligent and committed people like us to fill this yawning crisis of leadership at all levels.At least 600 Anna Hazares are required for each of the 600 districts of this country.Only then there can be a lasting solution for the unlimited opportunities that lie in store for us,if we try.Otherwise the govt is smart enough to thwart the recent Hazare upsurge.The pressure on the govt, at all levels, must be relentless.The responsibility on us educated classes is immense.
Intervene or perish!


Best regards,
Avinash
http://poshaning.blogspot.com/


From: Debashish Bhattacharyya
To: it-bhu-batchof1982
Sent: Tuesday, September 6, 2011 7:18 AM
Subject: [IT-BHU-BatchOf1982] Fwd: FW: On Teachers' Day: Remember your school also:



FYI and please circulate.




Dear friends, Here is a short message from a Non-IIT person, retired from Income Tax department, who had come to PanIIT 2010 and requested us for a Poster Space. He wanted to share some simple messages with IIT alumni. He has sent me a mail today, on Teacher Day, which I felt compelling to share with all of you. I would strongly encourage you to look at the list and see what you can do at your individual level. Regards Yogesh From: Subhash Chand Aggarwal [mailto:villagepoverty@gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, September 04, 2011 1:36 PM
To: Yogesh Andlay (IITD Alumni)
Subject: On Teachers' Day: Remember your school also: Dear Yogesh Ji, How are you? Will you kindly circulate this email amongst all your best friends and relatives all over the world?

Every year India celebrates 5th of September as Teachers' Day - it being the birth day of former President of India, Dr. S.Radhakrishnan.

On this day, you may like to think of your teachers, your class fellows of the school from which you got your primary education or passed 10th class. You may like to do something for the development of the said school or for the development of the school situated in your native/ancestral village. You can launch two or three or all projects for the development of the school situated in your native/ancestral village by spending money from your own pocket:

1. Construction of separate toilets for boys and girls.
2. Construction of boundary walls of the school.
3. Renovation of the school building.
4. Do white wash of the school building.
5. Construction of additional class rooms.
6. Construction of libraries in the school.
7. Provide computer education in the schools.
8. Appoint a Yoga teacher in the school to teach Pranayaam to every student so that every student can remain healthy in his or her life.
9. Provide salaries to a few teachers to solve the problem of lack of teachers in your village school.
10 Make sure that there is electricity in your school during school hours.10A Renovate school playground.
11 Provide game kits - 20 foot balls, hockey sticks, cricket balls, nets, volley balls, sport shoes, cricket bats etc.
12 Provide basic facilities - tube lights, chairs, black boards, bulbs,fans, jute-mates (tat-pattis) in case desks are not available.
13 Provide Tables, chairs, almirahs for teachers.
14. Set up a Trust or a Foundation to promote welfare activities for students in your village school.
15 Revisit your school, discuss problems of the school with the Head Master and solve some additional problems of your school.
16. Give prizes of 2 pens or any other suitable prize to students

a) who have stood first, second and third in the class or
b) who have secured more than 60 marks in any subject or
c) who have attendance in the class at least 90% to 95%.
d) who have very good handwriting.
e) who have written an essay "what shall I do to develop my ancestral village when I grow up?" - words limit 50 to 500 words.(only for 10th class students). Consultation with
parents, brothers, uncles should be allowed
f) who have learnt and can give demonstration of doing "Pranayaam" and Yoga at least for half an hour in class.
g) who have provided adult education to their parents and grandparents and taught Pranayaam - at least anulom vilam, kapalbhatti, to them.

17. Repair the roof(s), wall(s) of the school building.
18. Provide varnish and paints on the doors and windows.
19. Repair all school furniture - chairs, tables, sofas, stools, almirahs, doors, windows etc. lying unused in the school premises.
20. Provide drinking water facilities - water cooler.
21. Provide a tube well in the school premises so that students can take bath in the evening after playing games.
22. Make sure that every person above the age of 18 in your village gets education up to 10th class or upto Matriculation.

Kindly acknowledge this email and forward it to your best friends or relatives who were born in villages or have ancestral villages in India.

With Regards,

SC Aggarwal, IRS (Retd)
Founder, Poverty Trust,
K-101, Sarita Vihar, New Delhi 110076
Email: villagepoverty@gmail.com
September 4, 2011
Phone No. 29942933
-
To end poverty: Develop your native/ancestral village with your own funds: POVERTY TRUST



__,_._,___

Knowledge Begins in Loving Ourselves

I came to write a mail .But what I essentially wanted to say is beautifully said by Osho in this mail.
See, we are completely done in by social consciousness where everyone looks alike, thinks alike, that herd mentality.And the delicious irony is that this is a MANUFACTURED consciousness.This is manufactured by the powers that be,the religious,political and business elites,so as to subjugate the populace to a manageable herd.Had we really known who we are,we would really be ungovernable because,then, there wouldn't be any need to govern us.
And it is never too late in the day to redeem ourselves and reclaim our lost grandeur and our beauty. And the point to start is to love oneself,to trust oneself.To implicitly know,as a beginning hypothesis,that there is no power, no beauty,no sacredness greater than the One right within us.And,slowly, as we begin to know our real Self, we are struck with the Awesomeness of its Mighty Presence.
And then the real magic begins.We realize that what we are, everyone else is.Although they may be expressing the same Self in myriad ways, the essential Oneness is never lost.And then we begin, not to compete but to cooperate, not only to accumulate but also to share, not to war but love and be in harmony,not only with humankind but with the Existence in general.For who will be so brave to say that the flora and the fauna,the mountains and the rivers,though they may not speak in words,are not as much filled with Life as we are.
My dear brother, if you think that we have seen enough of prosperity and abundance then rest assured that the knowledge that will come from beginning to love yourself,will completely sweep you off your feet and you will bless yourself for Actually Living for the first time.
So take the first step with confidence.Existence loves us.We matter,no matter what the Herd consciousness may tell us.We are very precious to Existence because in our flowering we give a tremendous fillip to Existence,to all of Life.The life, and this body, that is given to us is so precious. Let us protect and empower it with all our might.

A Corporatist Racket that Emasculates the Majority

I don't think Arundhati Roy is against capitalism per se. She is only against the excesses of a buccaneer, crony capitalism which has pauperized the majority for the unbridled greed of less than 1% of the population.I completely agree that there is no better system than capitalism and democracy. But this whole edifice is premised on the equal opportunities for all which has not happened so far,even after 200 years. And this is because the better endowed will always find ways to subvert the system for their narrow, partisan gains.Some discerning commentrators have concluded that the so called free market is a "corporatist racket of the few";it is free only for the rich,who can move their money around at will, the bankers,business tycoons who exploit lax regulation and offshore tax havens and the unholy nexus of politicians and corporates that plunder national resources to the emasculation of the populace at large.
And till this tap of corrupt policies remain open, we can never mop the floor dry to usher in a corrupt free society premised on equal opportunities for all.

Best regards,
Avinash
http://poshaning.blogspot.com/

And in that Trap Passes Another Life

Dear Friend,
This forward is truly mind blowing. We spend a lifetime nursing hurts and grudges which, if you look closely, is debilitating for us as we are the first victims of our resentments.The energy which could have been better utilized in creativity is trapped in hurts and slights.The other person may not be even aware that we fell slighted in the first place.To add to our grief, we may have lost a friend who may have been very useful to us but for our lazy,unconscious,unaware,mindset.
This life is such an awesome gift that,as Gods,we have given ourselves.But the consciousness remains trapped in the personality,in duality, to the utter neglect of the Essence,the same lifeforce,which pervades everything in this cosmos.
And in this trap passes another life.



Best regards,
Avinash
http://poshaning.blogspot.com/


From: Debashish Bhattacharyya
To: it-bhu-batchof1982
Sent: Wednesday, August 3, 2011 1:52 AM
Subject: [IT-BHU-BatchOf1982] Fwd: FW: Thought for the Day



The parable is worth sharing… But have you ever seen a baby porcupine? I would pass it along just for this!









Fable of the porcupine
It was the coldest winter ever. Many animals died because of the cold. The porcupines, realizing the situation, decided to group together to keep warm. This way they covered and protected themselves; but the quills of each one wounded their closest companions. After awhile, they decided to distance themselves one from the other and they began to die, alone and frozen. So they had to make a choice: either accept the quills of their companions or disappear from the Earth. Wisely, they decided to go back to being together. They learned to live with the little wounds caused by the close relationship with their companions in order to receive the warmth that came from the others. This way they were able to survive.


Moral of the story: The best relationship is not the one that brings together perfect people, but when each individual learns to live with the imperfections of others and can admire the other person's good qualities.

Duplicate India:A Poor Version of an American Suburb

Friends,
This critique by a well known architect will hardly come as a revelation for any of us.The corollary of being a copycat is that one loses one's self respect.And that's quite a poor way to live.
The world, so far, has been driven by the agenda of city based, dog eat dog nationalism,where economic efficiency and profits become paramount.While this may be okay for small countries,this hardly suits the requirements of countries with large populations spread over large areas where the majority are still dependent on agriculture. The point is to make the rural areas prosperous and requires massive investments.Even science and technology has to fit within this paradigm if it is not to become irrelevant to the requirements of cheap housing,clothes, food,education and health services for the common people at large.
Therefore, we need to put our best thinking caps to rise to the occasion and contribute our mite towards prosperity for all.

Best regards,
Avinash
http://poshaning.blogspot.com/








Duplicate India
July 31, 2011 By Gautam BhatiaaaaSHAREEMAILPRINTSeveral years ago on a visit to rural Gujarat, I was surprised to hear a labourer at a construction site humming an 1863 American civil war song. Having only just returned from the US, I was familiar with the popular When Johnny comes marching home again, Hurrah!, but couldn’t understand the connection between the two. As it turned out, the American melody had been clearly lifted for a popular Bollywood movie.
The recent history of Indian objects, film, design, industry and inventions states unequivocally that copying is a standard method of Indian creativity. For something to be truly Indian and high quality, it must have come from abroad. The IT industry has proved that in substantial measure. California-based firms create the invention; Bengaluru provides the software support and manpower to facilitate. European steel companies consolidate and modernise the manufacturing process; then Indian companies follow. The Japanese bring automotive technology to India; Indians make it their own.
So used is the Indian mind to borrowing the best from other cultures that the assumption that native skills are incapable of producing anything of value has been sadly stapled to our psyche. Two decades earlier, Indian businessmen travelled abroad to European industrial fairs and American speciality stores merely to pick up items that could be duplicated in India for a third of the cost, and then resold to the country of origin. Grimy workshops in Jalandhar and Rajkot were kept busy duplicating German machine parts, American denim and English cutlery: It was a matter of great national pride that the world’s most successfully selling items and ideas could be copied in India. American shaving blades, Japanese televisions, and Korean cars… in the face of such foreign competition, Indian productivity and inventiveness was highly suspect. If you must copy, copy the best.
Why does India continue its slavish dependence on foreign ideas? Why is there no thought given to how we’d like to fashion our own lives? Is the country merely a second-rate conduit for the adaptation of informed and innovative minds from abroad?
Even now, despite an open, globalised economy, the more relevant research and invention comes from abroad. In a small town in northern Sweden, Lars Lundgren, a mechanical engineer has invented a dust vacuum. A 30-inch high, noiseless conical device that absorbs the dust in a room; small, battery operated, it requires no movement, just a place on the floor. Surrounded by snow for a good part of the year, Lundgren’s invention was inspired by the few years he spent in Algeria, where high dust levels would make such a device useful and necessary. In Japan, only recently the Kuchofuku Company has designed an air-conditioned jacket.
A bulky enclosing overcoat that draws air through a set of fans inserted along the side, and keeps the wearer cool for up to 11 hours on a single battery charge. A few successive heat waves in Japan were enough to get Hiroshi Ishigawa to produce the device that does away with the expensive conventional cooling of whole buildings. “Air conditioning people is a whole lot cheaper,” he said. Likewise, other ideas prevail. Germany — despite high levels of cloud cover — relies heavily on solar power for its energy needs. The vast acreage of solar farms is visible from the air all across the German landscape.
All three devices — the dust collector, the air-conditioned jacket and solar power — are essential to Indian needs. Yet all these inventions are from the West (Japan is so far East that it is West). In the search for solutions that are radical and far reaching, the Indian mind is mired in the belief of a second-rate culture, unable to produce anything on par — or better — than others. So there are lengthy study trips abroad, to experience first-hand how the Brazilians designed their BRTs, the Swedes their Public Health Systems, the Italians their electrical grids.
Where the serious needs and requirements demand local resolutions, the Indian mind conversely works in the opposite direction. The low-cost bio-fuel car, or the electric hybrid may be a critical need for the Indian road, but serious work is being done primarily in Brazil and Japan. Instead, expansion in the Indian car market is heading into the luxury segment, the Bentleys, the SUVs, leather-padded interiors and gas-guzzling machines. Where the requirement for low-cost middle- and low-income houses is growing rapidly, a similar propagation of high-end designer homes is being promoted by builders. So while Indian architects design lavish marble polyester palaces with pools and gardens and tinkling fountains, a Japanese architect has invented a home no larger than an average garage. A 10-foot cube that contains all the requirements for a complete house — living, dining, kitchen, bedroom and bath, compressed and expanded as the need arises, from the walls of the cube.
Doubtless there are many organisations in India — public and private — that carry out serious research in the hope of new applications. Yet much of the work promotes ideas that are merely improvements on existing ones; a more efficient car, a faster train, a greener house. The techniques and methods adopted are those that can justify financial expenditure in research with quick results. The long-term remains clearly out of their grasp. What would India be like in 20 years is a question of statistics and demographics. What would we like India to be in 20 years is a hope that rests within the realm of ideas. Unless the culture of copying changes, we know India will just be a poor version of an American suburb.
* Gautam Bhatia, architect, artists and writer, has built extensively in India and the US.

The Scams are only the Symptoms

Friends,
We were discussing the issue of corruption. Now P Sainath has come up with the theory that all these scams that are coming to light in this country are only the symptoms.The disease is the State itself, driven as it is by the Corporates. And he comes up with solid data, not merely ideological posturings.
According to him , corruption has three sources. One,huge concentration of power and wealth in a handful of people.Two,the whole edifice of economic policy over the past 20 years has only driven, deepened and legitimized these inequalities. Third,the culture of impunity and arbitrariness with very little accountibility that enables the rich and powerful to get away with anything.
My own view is that the roots of the disease runs much deeper.All of us are party to the election of our representatives and all of us are beneficiaries of this systemic loot of the past twenty years.So how can we be smug and think we are not culpable for the present mess and the systemic pauperization of the populace at large.
The fact is that our Consciousness is stuck with Separateness and in the Material. That is why we are unable to understand Oneness and utter Interdependence of all Creation which causes us to act so selfishly and so cavalierly.


----- Forwarded Message ----
From: "avinashk.sahay@gmail.com"
To: asahays@yahoo.com
Sent: Fri, July 8, 2011 11:42:49 AM
Subject: The Hindu : Opinion / Lead : The gang that couldn't shoot straight

P Sainath has touched a raw nerve of the chattering classes,the upwardly mobile,who are supposedly partners in the systemic looting of the national resources resulting in the pauperization of the populace at large.Therefore, the disease runs deeper.

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/article2208331.ece#.ThafpGyKz5o.e

The Scams are only the Symptoms

As we close in on 20 years of Manmohanomics, it's worth remembering one chant the chattering classes uttered, first with pride, later to console themselves. “Whatever you say, we have the most honest man in Dr. Manmohan Singh. And no one can speak a word against him.” It's less heard now — those affections having been transferred to other punters in the honesty sweepstakes. But growing numbers do say this daily: the honest Prime Minister presides over indisputably the most corrupt government in our history. And therein lie many lessons.

Dr. Singh's decision to meet weekly with editors tells us which lesson he has drawn from the mess. That his government's problem with corruption is a public relations one. This even though the media, while barking at politicians in the 2G scam, have steered clear of the corporate core of all such rackets. Dr. Singh sees the media acting too often as “accuser, prosecutor and judge.” (He may have got that one right). Yet, he wants a weekly meeting with them. So is this a PR exercise? Or does he believe India's editors possess a wisdom unknown to others that will end corruption in all sectors (bar their own)? I hope the former.

Totting up his government's scams is like a Census operation. A large and complex count. There are scams done and buried, there are those alive and breathing. More are exhumed by the day. There are others in the pipeline, about to be pulled off. Still others where the media remain helpfully silent. And yet more in planning and process. We have a Union Cabinet that is possibly richer (at over Rs.500 crore) than most earlier Cabinets put together. And in spirit, reminiscent of the bungling mob in Jimmy Breslin's 1969 book The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight. Only this mob rakes it in where Breslin's collapsed swiftly. And this crowd runs a large country, not a few blocks in New York.

There are of course many causes of corruption and everyone has his or her favourite story. But there are three sources which, if ignored, render analysis worthless. One: the structural inequalities of Indian society, including huge concentrations of wealth and power, class and caste, gender and other embedded discrimination. Two: the whole edifice of economic policy that has (more rapidly in the past 20 years) deepened, driven and legitimised those inequalities. That has, for instance, made corporations far more important than citizens, mocking the Constitution. And three: the culture of impunity and arbitrariness — with very little accountability. That allows the powerful to get away with almost anything. Where a judge in one State bans all protest rallies on weekdays because his car got stuck in a rally on the way to work. Where sundry godmen can break every tax law — so long as they don't challenge the ruling regime.

Tackling corruption without addressing its sources is like trying to mop the floor dry — with all taps open and running. The sources are old. Their (man-made) scope, size and damage are pretty new.

The past 20 years have seen unprecedented concentrations of wealth, often by awful means, mostly enabled by economic policy. The state stands reduced to a tool of corporate enrichment. It is there to facilitate private investment. Each budget is written for (and partly by) the corporate world. The last six budgets have gifted the corporates Rs.21 lakh crore in concessions on just direct corporate income tax, customs and excise duties. In the same period, food subsidies and agriculture have suffered cuts.

The neo-liberal economic framework assigns the state the role of wet nursing the corporate sector at public cost. This is why we live in the age of privatisation of just about everything. It is the state's mission to hand over scarce national resources of all kinds, land, water, spectrum, anything, to further bloat corporate profits. It is this process of peddling a nation's resources to private agents on preferential terms that is the main source of corruption in our time. The scams are the symptoms; a state that serves corporations, not citizens, is the disease.

Those who rightly worry about election spending also need to make other connections. There is a class of people which has much more to spend — and illicit funds to spend from. At levels unheard of since 1947. In many States, you cannot hope to contest an election without being a crorepati.

Take the case of 825 MLAs elected this May to the legislatures of four States, one Union Territory (and the bypoll in Kadapa.) Look at their declared assets. Thanks to the alert National Election Watch (NEW), a coalition of over 1200 NGOs spearheaded by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), we have data that are fun to analyse.

The ADR data tell us that the total self-declared value of these 825 MLAs is around Rs.2,128 crore. As many as 231 of these MLAs are into their second term. They increased their assets by 169 per cent on average, between 2006 and 2011. That is, they may well have collared more wealth in their first five-year terms than they had acquired in the rest of their lives.

Now think of 825 landless labour households. We cannot compare their ‘assets' with those of the MLAs since the landless households have none and are drowning in debt. How long would it take, working on the MGNREGS for instance, for them to earn money equalling the wealth of the 825 MLAs?

The most they can make in the 100 days of work the MGNREGS grants them is — on national average — around Rs. 12,600 a year. The 825 landless households would require over 2,000 years to touch that Rs. 2,128-crore mark. And they'd need to abandon frivolous habits like eating. But let's make that 10,000 labour households. They would need close to 170 years to hit the jackpot. Even a million households would take well over a year to get close. (Recall that over a fourth of those MLAs acquired most of their assets in 60 months.)

Of course, given the profound inequalities, the labourer households will never have any assets, leave alone Rs.2,128-crore worth. They will remain indebted. And the interest they will pay off on those debts will likely add to the assets of the MLAs — some of whom are moneylenders. Yet the wealth of those MLAs is paltry compared to the huge state-led enrichment of the corporate world. It would take a million labourer households around 275 years on the MGNREGS to earn the Rs.3.5 lakh crore the government has doled out on annual average in the past six years to the corporate sector.

And then there's the impunity. Dr. Singh can juggle his Cabinet, but will it change much? An Agriculture Minister who spent more time on cricket — and helped transform that national passion into a tawdry, commercial swamp of sleaze. (At the time of writing, another wicket, that of the Textiles Minister, has fallen in this regime's precarious second innings.) Another, the Minister of Heavy Industries, shamed by the Supreme Court for helping moneylenders — then promptly promoted to Rural Development Minister. Even if dumped, their replacements, however youthful, won't alter that. For it isn't about lax governance or poor rules only. It's about corrupt policies.

Want to fight corruption in our time? Move to dismantle structural inequality, the disease of neo-liberal economic policy and the culture of arbitrariness without accountability. Do we need a Lokpal? Yes. Should it be a supra-government? Above constitutional structures and answerable to no one? You're begging for trouble. Can it tame the Trimurti of inequality, economic policy and arbitrariness? No. It's not geared towards that. That's a larger battle for people as a whole and their institutions. As the old saw goes, your rights are only as secure as the process by which you defend them.

At this moment battles rage across the country over displacement, forced land acquisition, the rape of resources, over forest and other rights. These may be ‘local' battles but they challenge corruption on a large, even global, canvas. They are fighting inequality and discrimination. They resist impunity, greed and profit. They try to hold their rulers accountable. Some fight unjust laws (as in the case of Irom Sharmila). Others for the just application of laws (as with some forest rights struggles). Almost none, however, place themselves above the nation. Or declare that they will lay down laws which others must obey. Nor assert that they are answerable to no one. Yet, they fight for their rights and ours too and help make oppressive structures more accountable.

There's a little amnesia on this. A corrupt and effete government and the Congress party know that well. Barely 36 years ago, a man placed himself above all structures of the Constitution. A one-man supra-government. It's sad to recall how many PLUs, middle class people and even some intellectuals wound up cheering this man and his era. His name was Sanjay Gandhi and the period was called the Emergency. The rest is history.