Thursday, April 07, 2011
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Travel on no money
It was at around 10 pm, with no lights on the street, no sound of humanity, and only the occasional roar of the tide, when we asked Mr Dhanavade, "Where is the nearest ATM, Sir?"
I, along with two friends, was concluding my two-day back-packing stay in Diveagar, a small beachside hamlet on Maharashtra's Konkan coast. It is the sort of sleepy villages you see in old movies, where a tightly-knit community lives off kitchen gardens, fresh sea food, and the money paid by a few families that drive down from Mumbai or Pune, looking for a quiet weekend. There are no hotels, no supermarkets, and no ATMs.
Mr Dhanavade, owner of Dhanavade Niwas where we stayed and ate delicious Maharashtrian food cooked by his wife, smirked. "I think a 100 km or so," he said. "You don't have enough cash?"
The three of us, still in college and living off a monthly allowance, had carried a pittance to Diveagar, assuming that the food and stay would be cheap. This was until we decided to stay a day longer, without as much as a thought about dwindling cash reserves, and low chances of finding an ATM anywhere around this near-isolated coastal village.
There was no better way to put it. "No Sir," I said, my head hanging half in shame, half in the stupidity of the city-bred assumption that one can always 'withdraw' in case of a cash crunch. The bill was Rs 1,450 including two days rent for a small room where we slept, and the five meals we ate. We had, totally, Rs 600. There was no limit to our sense of shame. The Dhanavade couple had extended their hospitality to random half-hippie half-rockstar youngsters. They took good care of us: the food I had still continues to be the best home-cooked sea food I've ever eaten, and Mrs Dhanavade's willingness to prepare tea at odd hours on request, taking time out from her household chores, humbled us. And now we did not have enough money to pay them.
I expected an upheaval. There was no ATM around, and no bank where we could withdraw cash from. Our bus back home was to start in an hour – the only bus in the day -- and we had college to go back to the next day.
Mr Dhanavade was staring at all of us now, one by one. He sighed, and looked at his wife. They nodded at each other.
"Can you take down my postal address please," he said.
"What?" I asked, confused.
"Please take down my postal address. When you go back, collect the cash and send it to me by money order. I trust you."
That was it. He got up, and retired to his bedroom.
The time when Steve visited India, is also etched in my memory. He had contacted me on CouchSurfing.com, a service that lets users find lodging (a ‘couch’) in other users’ places. Not paying for hotels this way means cutting down on the largest share of any traveller’s expense, with the added benefit of interacting with local, similar-minded people.
On the lazy summer afternoon when Steve arrived, I lied down and listened to him talk about Canada, and his life there. Between mouthfuls of the roasted Indian groundnuts that he liked so much, Steve told me how he worked as a tree planter for half the year, and used the savings to travel for the rest of the time. His tales never failed to inspire me.
“Planting trees for half the day, every single day, involves intense physical stress. I’m sure you know what mental stress feels like. But with your conventional job I’m sure you don’t know what it is to be stressed from hard, physical labour. You have to feel it, to know it,” he said, belittling my strenuous gym workouts into a mere fad. Sitting there in that sultry room of my flat, I could imagine him trampling through Canada’s dense forests, earmarking spots, and planting saplings. I could see him dig a pit, push-in a wet plantlet with all his might, and refill the soil -- all in flat thirty seconds. The sweat, the heavy breathing, damp air, muddy shoes – I could feel it around me while he spoke. And when he paused in between, to scoop up more groundnuts, I let my mind wander around those forests, and that country, walking with his friends, meeting his family, and attending parties. Canada seemed so familiar, yet so distant. Steve made me want to lead his life, to work for the environment, and not work in air-conditioned environment-unfriendly buildings. Yet India is no Canada. Will any job wait for me after I’m back from my carefree travelling? Nobody pays for planting trees. I wasn’t on a tour, I did not own any mode of transport, nor had I stepped outside my home. Yet, sitting in the room listening to Steve, the eagle soared over the forests of Canada.
I, along with two friends, was concluding my two-day back-packing stay in Diveagar, a small beachside hamlet on Maharashtra's Konkan coast. It is the sort of sleepy villages you see in old movies, where a tightly-knit community lives off kitchen gardens, fresh sea food, and the money paid by a few families that drive down from Mumbai or Pune, looking for a quiet weekend. There are no hotels, no supermarkets, and no ATMs.
Mr Dhanavade, owner of Dhanavade Niwas where we stayed and ate delicious Maharashtrian food cooked by his wife, smirked. "I think a 100 km or so," he said. "You don't have enough cash?"
The three of us, still in college and living off a monthly allowance, had carried a pittance to Diveagar, assuming that the food and stay would be cheap. This was until we decided to stay a day longer, without as much as a thought about dwindling cash reserves, and low chances of finding an ATM anywhere around this near-isolated coastal village.
There was no better way to put it. "No Sir," I said, my head hanging half in shame, half in the stupidity of the city-bred assumption that one can always 'withdraw' in case of a cash crunch. The bill was Rs 1,450 including two days rent for a small room where we slept, and the five meals we ate. We had, totally, Rs 600. There was no limit to our sense of shame. The Dhanavade couple had extended their hospitality to random half-hippie half-rockstar youngsters. They took good care of us: the food I had still continues to be the best home-cooked sea food I've ever eaten, and Mrs Dhanavade's willingness to prepare tea at odd hours on request, taking time out from her household chores, humbled us. And now we did not have enough money to pay them.
I expected an upheaval. There was no ATM around, and no bank where we could withdraw cash from. Our bus back home was to start in an hour – the only bus in the day -- and we had college to go back to the next day.
Mr Dhanavade was staring at all of us now, one by one. He sighed, and looked at his wife. They nodded at each other.
"Can you take down my postal address please," he said.
"What?" I asked, confused.
"Please take down my postal address. When you go back, collect the cash and send it to me by money order. I trust you."
That was it. He got up, and retired to his bedroom.
The time when Steve visited India, is also etched in my memory. He had contacted me on CouchSurfing.com, a service that lets users find lodging (a ‘couch’) in other users’ places. Not paying for hotels this way means cutting down on the largest share of any traveller’s expense, with the added benefit of interacting with local, similar-minded people.
On the lazy summer afternoon when Steve arrived, I lied down and listened to him talk about Canada, and his life there. Between mouthfuls of the roasted Indian groundnuts that he liked so much, Steve told me how he worked as a tree planter for half the year, and used the savings to travel for the rest of the time. His tales never failed to inspire me.
“Planting trees for half the day, every single day, involves intense physical stress. I’m sure you know what mental stress feels like. But with your conventional job I’m sure you don’t know what it is to be stressed from hard, physical labour. You have to feel it, to know it,” he said, belittling my strenuous gym workouts into a mere fad. Sitting there in that sultry room of my flat, I could imagine him trampling through Canada’s dense forests, earmarking spots, and planting saplings. I could see him dig a pit, push-in a wet plantlet with all his might, and refill the soil -- all in flat thirty seconds. The sweat, the heavy breathing, damp air, muddy shoes – I could feel it around me while he spoke. And when he paused in between, to scoop up more groundnuts, I let my mind wander around those forests, and that country, walking with his friends, meeting his family, and attending parties. Canada seemed so familiar, yet so distant. Steve made me want to lead his life, to work for the environment, and not work in air-conditioned environment-unfriendly buildings. Yet India is no Canada. Will any job wait for me after I’m back from my carefree travelling? Nobody pays for planting trees. I wasn’t on a tour, I did not own any mode of transport, nor had I stepped outside my home. Yet, sitting in the room listening to Steve, the eagle soared over the forests of Canada.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Gem clips. Small yet big.
When you used a paper clip this morning, did you give it more than a moment’s thought? You would have opened a box of clips, picked up any one of them, and clipped your manuscript with it. You picked one of them at random – each one being as preferred as the other. Little did you know that the same clip represents a history of struggle for identity; each clip picked from among a hundred others could tell a different story.
Ask your grandmother, and she will say it was Johan Vaaler who invented the clip. True, Vaaler, a Norwegian who lived in the late 19th century, was long known for that. He had received patents for it in Norway and USA Norway
The common clip today is a “Gem” clip. We call it that just the way you call a photocopy machine, a Xerox machine. It was Gem Manufacturing, a British company, that started production in 1870s, and which holds the credit for popularizing today’s paper clip. The clip is so commonly used, that till this date we call it a “Gem” clip; obviously, a single British company does not supply it to the rest of the world! The first twist of the paperclip’s identity comes here. Nobody has heard of E. P. Bugge. Well, what we know today as the “Gem” paper clip was developed and patented Bugge of the United States
Vaaler’s version of the paperclip, like scores of other versions, was ineffective compared to the Gem clip. It lacked the last turn, and a subsequent long side -- making the clip highly flimsy. It would give its user a hard time trying to push it across thick paper.
Why did Vaaler become so famous then?
It was a fight for the Norwegian identity that made him a hero. The paperclip by then had become a very commonly used item, and claiming it to be an innovation from Norway gave great pride to Norwegians, especially in the aftermath of World War II. They wore it on their lapels as a symbol of resistance, when wearing flags pins was prohibited by the Nazi party.
Writers of history too did not leave out the opportunity, of building national pride in Norway Tennessee , USA Norway
A twisting and turning of identities, indeed!
Sunday, November 01, 2009
Woody Allen
There’s something very Real about Woody Allen’s movies. Its like he takes all the riff-raff out of the situations he portrays and says “hey, this is how life eventually is. you have a woman fancying two men at a time, or you have this artist guy who just wants women around him and doesn’t stop a bit to hide that from anyone. this is life in the face, man.”
Most scenes are very lovable, and many of his movies have a narrative going in the background (like in Vicky … ) or there’s the protagonist breaking the fourth wall and describing his feelings, or the situation (like in Whatever Works, Annie Hall, etc). This saves the director a lot of time in terms of making actors chalk out prototype expressions / acts that would tell the average movie watcher that “they are now in love”, or “she is having a great time with this guy”. Whatever is the needful is said by the narrator or the protagonist and this way there is more time to get the story moving on, and to probably notice other things that are more important to the formation of the plot or the movie than simple logical movements among the characters.
I used to think that a movie in which Allen doesn’t act by himself, won’t be that good. But somehow, i hardly felt any difference between the two. He magically imbibes among his actors the same haste, stumbled speech, queerness, and the fear of commonplace life, that he himself so skilfully portrays in almost each role of his.
As an actor, he is one person who has achieved everything that he ever wanted his audience to know – while essentially being the same person in each movie. All his movies look more or less like sequels to each other with all the other actors and the scenarios just changing but the Allen is the same thin small guy wearing the same type of clothes, talking in his trademark way, and worrying about his trademark stuff.
He is one talented filmmaker whose films unfortunately go unnoticed by the “high circles”.
I think I like it better that way.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
you’re fired
Reading headlines and news opinions about layoffs isn’t half as appalling when something like that happens close to you. especially something in the next cubicle at work. It almost makes one think that there’s absolutely no value for good work anymore in the world. I mean, a guy comes al the way from a different city, starts working, dedicated his entire life and thoughts to the work, but all he is for the company is a “resource”, with a price-tag attached. When the burger’s too expensive, they go for the hotdog. Bye-bye burger. Do these “HR” people even think once about what impact would this have on, the other employees (‘resources’)? Aren’t they taught psychology in their MBAs?
In a way, firing a professional isn’t too different from employing a poor jobless to do your gardening and then one fine day, just asking him to stop.
I think the problem is in the way we have perceived the contributors of knowledge and work to the making of successes. We tend to look first at the success – a company, money, a building. And then, like a pyramid chain, we tend to go downwards and downwards till we reach the point where the man who put his heart and soul into probably the smallest of the working parts, is the one looked upon as merely a liability. We don’t start by looking at him, that selfless contributor who sold his soul to dedicate himself for something he hardly even profits from.
Marx’s ‘alienation’ couldn’t be more true.
Friday, October 23, 2009
"Classes"
My tyrst with classes began, first, in my tenth standard when I joined the first and last tuition of my life. As far as I can remember, my classmates had been to this mysterious torture hole which gave more homework that school itself. I remember in my third standard or so, classmates leaving school hurriedly to gobble up lunch and reach their 'tooshan's.
When i joined my tuition it was more out of need for discipline than anything else and God knows i learnt it well.
These 'classes' have always haunted people of ages three and beyond. Right from the neighbourhood aunty/uncle who is good at maths, right till those hellholes designed to push people into engineering institutes, till professional institutions meant for the graduates and beyond and training them to excel at the world-wide competitive examinations. a Lot of money has been made off people and has made common teachers into tycoons..
My tyrst with classes began, first, in my tenth standard when I joined the first and last tuition of my life. As far as I can remember, my classmates had been to this mysterious torture hole which gave more homework that school itself. I remember in my third standard or so, classmates leaving school hurriedly to gobble up lunch and reach their 'tooshan's.
When i joined my tuition it was more out of need for discipline than anything else and God knows i learnt it well.
These 'classes' have always haunted people of ages three and beyond. Right from the neighbourhood aunty/uncle who is good at maths, right till those hellholes designed to push people into engineering institutes, till professional institutions meant for the graduates and beyond and training them to excel at the world-wide competitive examinations. a Lot of money has been made off people and has made common teachers into tycoons..
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Autos.
This blog is dedicated to this hard working tribe of 'shared' autowallahs, who instead of plying on 'meter' and looting the city of cash, instead do a service by moving on fixed routes with fixed prices and giving us humble citizens what the city buses cannot.
The first striking difference between a 'normal' auto and a shared one is the absence of meter in the latter. It looks rather odd since we have all grown up seeing that good old meter (usually made by Super Meter Works, Hadapsar, Pune) ticking away to glory and placed on that age old position on the frame dividing the driver's area from the passenger's.. in fact, seeing an auto without a meter would make one think it is out of order. Yet, almost everyone has had their own stories of their rendezvous with different types of auto meters. while those in maharashtra region are known to show values that need to be multiplied, divided, subtracted, added, and what-not to eventually land upon the correct legal fare. on the other hand, the autos in hyderabad have always believed in reducing the arithmetic load on people by always getting the meters tuned to the currently running fares. this gives a distinct impression that the meter moves too fast (since every 'tick' is worth 20 paisa). it is indeed palpitating to see the meter go tick tick tick faster than the auto itself (60-80 km/h)
we move on to seating space. all autos proudly write "to seat 3 only", "3 + 1", &c &c. For the metered autos, this rule more or less applies unless the commuters are ready to pay him a tenner to get that fourth friend sitting on somebody's lap instead of getting another auto. BUT, writing "to seat 3 only" on a shared auto is nothing but dry humour. The revenue model itself of a shared auto restricts the minimum number of commuters to 5. This is when creativity jumps in and you have specially designed coffee table-like seats on either side of the auto driver. These are to house two extra people beyond the three already sitting on the driver's seat. Metered autowallahs sometime spend that extra cash they get from plying a firang (Rs 300 only) into decking up the interiors with extra-cushy seats, posters of preity zinta on the left and sridevi on the right, and even a sub-woofer. (it is assumed that every true autowallah has a music system installed as a part of the whole machinery).
It is really good to see an auto with a "3+1" sign containing 6+1 people, with the latest telugu hit songs blaring from below the commuters seats.
Its even more fun to be one of the 6.
(more, later)
This blog is dedicated to this hard working tribe of 'shared' autowallahs, who instead of plying on 'meter' and looting the city of cash, instead do a service by moving on fixed routes with fixed prices and giving us humble citizens what the city buses cannot.
The first striking difference between a 'normal' auto and a shared one is the absence of meter in the latter. It looks rather odd since we have all grown up seeing that good old meter (usually made by Super Meter Works, Hadapsar, Pune) ticking away to glory and placed on that age old position on the frame dividing the driver's area from the passenger's.. in fact, seeing an auto without a meter would make one think it is out of order. Yet, almost everyone has had their own stories of their rendezvous with different types of auto meters. while those in maharashtra region are known to show values that need to be multiplied, divided, subtracted, added, and what-not to eventually land upon the correct legal fare. on the other hand, the autos in hyderabad have always believed in reducing the arithmetic load on people by always getting the meters tuned to the currently running fares. this gives a distinct impression that the meter moves too fast (since every 'tick' is worth 20 paisa). it is indeed palpitating to see the meter go tick tick tick faster than the auto itself (60-80 km/h)
we move on to seating space. all autos proudly write "to seat 3 only", "3 + 1", &c &c. For the metered autos, this rule more or less applies unless the commuters are ready to pay him a tenner to get that fourth friend sitting on somebody's lap instead of getting another auto. BUT, writing "to seat 3 only" on a shared auto is nothing but dry humour. The revenue model itself of a shared auto restricts the minimum number of commuters to 5. This is when creativity jumps in and you have specially designed coffee table-like seats on either side of the auto driver. These are to house two extra people beyond the three already sitting on the driver's seat. Metered autowallahs sometime spend that extra cash they get from plying a firang (Rs 300 only) into decking up the interiors with extra-cushy seats, posters of preity zinta on the left and sridevi on the right, and even a sub-woofer. (it is assumed that every true autowallah has a music system installed as a part of the whole machinery).
It is really good to see an auto with a "3+1" sign containing 6+1 people, with the latest telugu hit songs blaring from below the commuters seats.
Its even more fun to be one of the 6.
(more, later)
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
To Read
Isn't there anything better left to read?? Other than the usual editorials, opinions, of people sitting in high-rising airconditioned buildings? opinions that are based on, sigh, other opinions or things that are 'thought of' in other high-risers? Nobody writes about, say, African farming. Or the natives of Gobi desert?
Sigh.
Thrown into this mood by the overload of editorial opinions set upon the humble reading schedule..and how one of them talked about (very little, but still) the impact of the global recession on the poor, and the 'marginalised'. After which, of course, the article got back to talking about what the G20 is gonna do in the next meet. (another high-rising building-ers)
Isn't there anything better left to read?? Other than the usual editorials, opinions, of people sitting in high-rising airconditioned buildings? opinions that are based on, sigh, other opinions or things that are 'thought of' in other high-risers? Nobody writes about, say, African farming. Or the natives of Gobi desert?
Sigh.
Thrown into this mood by the overload of editorial opinions set upon the humble reading schedule..and how one of them talked about (very little, but still) the impact of the global recession on the poor, and the 'marginalised'. After which, of course, the article got back to talking about what the G20 is gonna do in the next meet. (another high-rising building-ers)
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Top.
Remember, a top?
The other day I saw kids from a nearby slum playing outside my building, with a top. While the taller and evidently older one skillfully released the strung top with a graceful jerk of the hand, the smaller kids stood bewildered staring at it as it twirled at top speed and eventually came to the much-dreaded sideways tilted halt.
It took me back years, when my mom used to show me how to use it, followed by my failed attempts to do the same. I still can't manage it.
But, do today's kids even know what a top is? In this world of digital entertainment, and "fashionable" games, does any middle-and-upper class kid feel fascinated by that amazing piece of gravity-play?
Remember, a top?
The other day I saw kids from a nearby slum playing outside my building, with a top. While the taller and evidently older one skillfully released the strung top with a graceful jerk of the hand, the smaller kids stood bewildered staring at it as it twirled at top speed and eventually came to the much-dreaded sideways tilted halt.
It took me back years, when my mom used to show me how to use it, followed by my failed attempts to do the same. I still can't manage it.
But, do today's kids even know what a top is? In this world of digital entertainment, and "fashionable" games, does any middle-and-upper class kid feel fascinated by that amazing piece of gravity-play?
Thursday, August 06, 2009
I completely agree with today's Haaretz editorial titled "The benefits of rapport". Clinton's personal visit to N. Korea and his meeting with Kim Jong Il played an instrumental role in not just freeing the two American journalists imprisoned there, but also in sort of "cooling down" the childish stand-off between the two countries.
US, indeed, always has childish standoffs. Look at the way they treated Afghanistan and Iraq, look at the way they are treating N.Korea and Iran now. They seem to be running on a definite set of beliefs which nothing can change. If Saddam is bad, Iraq is bad (ooh but so much oil), so bomb the hell outta them, imprison most of them in Guantanamo, (but make sure the oil is safe and sound). For reasons undeclared (read: oil), they haven't attacked N.Korea yet and due to the diplomatic smartness of Iran in the way it has interlinked itself with other countries (notably India), it has been much more difficult for the US to attack Iran.
Why can't a US official go to N.Korea, or Iran, and just talk? "Nuclear States", they say. Well if you are so concerned about these going haywire with their nuke arsenals, wouldn't it be more logical to pursuade them to abandon their programs? And not that this stand-off and untouchability has resulted in anything worthwhile.
Why can't the yanks learn a thing or two from us? No matter what happens between India and Pakistan, there's always constant dialogue and interaction between the premiers of the two countries. I'm not advising that these result in fruitful solutions, but what I am saying is this reduces the coldness and stiff-upper-lip-ness between the two countries which certainly helps in reducing adverse "problems" like the ones Iran and N.Korea pose for the US.
US, indeed, always has childish standoffs. Look at the way they treated Afghanistan and Iraq, look at the way they are treating N.Korea and Iran now. They seem to be running on a definite set of beliefs which nothing can change. If Saddam is bad, Iraq is bad (ooh but so much oil), so bomb the hell outta them, imprison most of them in Guantanamo, (but make sure the oil is safe and sound). For reasons undeclared (read: oil), they haven't attacked N.Korea yet and due to the diplomatic smartness of Iran in the way it has interlinked itself with other countries (notably India), it has been much more difficult for the US to attack Iran.
Why can't a US official go to N.Korea, or Iran, and just talk? "Nuclear States", they say. Well if you are so concerned about these going haywire with their nuke arsenals, wouldn't it be more logical to pursuade them to abandon their programs? And not that this stand-off and untouchability has resulted in anything worthwhile.
Why can't the yanks learn a thing or two from us? No matter what happens between India and Pakistan, there's always constant dialogue and interaction between the premiers of the two countries. I'm not advising that these result in fruitful solutions, but what I am saying is this reduces the coldness and stiff-upper-lip-ness between the two countries which certainly helps in reducing adverse "problems" like the ones Iran and N.Korea pose for the US.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
A short essay on riding a bike in sadashiv peth [Part I]
India, with its excesses and ambitions, has a wide variety of powerful and powerless bikes availabe to the average customer. these, i may add, are auto and manual transmission based. while the ones using the former mode of transmission are those who dont have to worry about clutching, shifting, neutral, etc etc and thus speed up, slow down, stop, again speed up, at their own sweet wills, i shall leave them aside from this manual-transmissioned-perspective and in fact treat their presence on the roads with a (partly jealous) trivialization.
Sadashiv Peth is a different bet altogether from the wide, well-made, well-divided roads that our contemporaries are so used-to and happy 80 kmph-ing on.
What with its innumerable turnings, and nondescript lanes all along the roads, crossing 30 becomes tough. crossing 50 is what you do only on LSD and end up at a sadashiv peth 2-bed hospital with awesome docors, but expired tinctures.
While riding, a beginner usually regards 4-feet-wide lanes as useless and not very dangerous. it is when this same lane bournes a speeding Tata Sumo/Hyundai Accent/Tata Indica, that he gets shocked and in the end applied all the levers endowed to him by his two-wheeler and runs the risk of skidding and crashing into an old building, an old shop, or an old man.
These Sumo's/Accents/Indica's, mind you, do not respect that fact that they need to honk or dip before exiting from non-existence onto a main road. they would rather zoom past from one non-descript lane into another.
[To be continued]
India, with its excesses and ambitions, has a wide variety of powerful and powerless bikes availabe to the average customer. these, i may add, are auto and manual transmission based. while the ones using the former mode of transmission are those who dont have to worry about clutching, shifting, neutral, etc etc and thus speed up, slow down, stop, again speed up, at their own sweet wills, i shall leave them aside from this manual-transmissioned-perspective and in fact treat their presence on the roads with a (partly jealous) trivialization.
Sadashiv Peth is a different bet altogether from the wide, well-made, well-divided roads that our contemporaries are so used-to and happy 80 kmph-ing on.
What with its innumerable turnings, and nondescript lanes all along the roads, crossing 30 becomes tough. crossing 50 is what you do only on LSD and end up at a sadashiv peth 2-bed hospital with awesome docors, but expired tinctures.
While riding, a beginner usually regards 4-feet-wide lanes as useless and not very dangerous. it is when this same lane bournes a speeding Tata Sumo/Hyundai Accent/Tata Indica, that he gets shocked and in the end applied all the levers endowed to him by his two-wheeler and runs the risk of skidding and crashing into an old building, an old shop, or an old man.
These Sumo's/Accents/Indica's, mind you, do not respect that fact that they need to honk or dip before exiting from non-existence onto a main road. they would rather zoom past from one non-descript lane into another.
[To be continued]
Monday, December 15, 2008
the other day, as i reached M22 for my morning class, i found a group of unknown women, average age 22, standing outside. accompanying them was a junior friend of mine, who told me about them. they were from some organisation called 'teach for india'.
"ah. teach india. but of course...the times of india thingy..there're here to get people to join?" i asked.
"no. its teach For india. its different. and i've been assigned to show them around and get them to give their presentation to as many classes as possible."
as i told her then, there were precisely six people attending class that morning, and the visiting women seemed rather put-off. but, well, what else can u expect at 9 am on a cold lazy morning in a college where attendance is not compulsory?
anyways, they started their presentation. and when they spoke the first few words i nearly fell off my chair. they had a fake american accent!! for Gawd's sake!
they spoke to us about how they arrange as agents and sponsors of the Educated to go and teach underpriviledged children, etc. (quite similar to teach india)
this would, however, have been sufficient for 20-year old almost-graduates. No. they, by now, seemed to be rather affected by the sleepy/stoned response the six of us were giving them..so now they decide to keep on asking us questions like "what do u think is the dichotomy in indian education", which digressed into "ok tell me what differences do u notice between a private school and a government school", which soon became a frantic "do u think everyone in india is educated as much as you??". the desperation to drive in a already-known point was apparent and pissing off.
by now they were treating us like underpriviledged children themselves, talking ever so slowly and asking more and more basic questions. i knew this would be a rather long affair now. (our ma'm was blissfully happy that this way she would get lesser time to teach, and thus taking no efforts to cut this arduous presentation short)
but! all of a sudden, the main presenter said "so thats all we had to say" any quick questions?
i asked her who these kids were. and where will the volunteers teach them?
"low income private schools"
-"never heard of them. didu just say private schools? didnt we just know how they are different from the grassroots govt schools, etc?"
"umm..uhh..yes..they Are indeed LIPS as we call them."
-"ugh."
a north indian girl asked if knowledge of marathi was necessary.
"of course not! you will teach in english..and a little bit of hindi is fine to communicate with their parents."
didnt go down too well with me.
"but isnt marathi the language that almost all the lower class people of this city use?" i asked.
-"um yes.. but we are teaching in english medium..and we are campaigning to convert the marathi medium LIPS to english ones"
and they went on about how even parents want kids to learn english. but did this mean that they should be alienated from their vernacular language or that they should have teachers who dont know it at all?
my further arguments about the importance of teaching basic concepts in their mother tongue (and certainly not badly accented english) drowned amidst their insensitivity and corporated-ness, and my own mind's reclusion against all this.
"ah. teach india. but of course...the times of india thingy..there're here to get people to join?" i asked.
"no. its teach For india. its different. and i've been assigned to show them around and get them to give their presentation to as many classes as possible."
as i told her then, there were precisely six people attending class that morning, and the visiting women seemed rather put-off. but, well, what else can u expect at 9 am on a cold lazy morning in a college where attendance is not compulsory?
anyways, they started their presentation. and when they spoke the first few words i nearly fell off my chair. they had a fake american accent!! for Gawd's sake!
they spoke to us about how they arrange as agents and sponsors of the Educated to go and teach underpriviledged children, etc. (quite similar to teach india)
this would, however, have been sufficient for 20-year old almost-graduates. No. they, by now, seemed to be rather affected by the sleepy/stoned response the six of us were giving them..so now they decide to keep on asking us questions like "what do u think is the dichotomy in indian education", which digressed into "ok tell me what differences do u notice between a private school and a government school", which soon became a frantic "do u think everyone in india is educated as much as you??". the desperation to drive in a already-known point was apparent and pissing off.
by now they were treating us like underpriviledged children themselves, talking ever so slowly and asking more and more basic questions. i knew this would be a rather long affair now. (our ma'm was blissfully happy that this way she would get lesser time to teach, and thus taking no efforts to cut this arduous presentation short)
but! all of a sudden, the main presenter said "so thats all we had to say" any quick questions?
i asked her who these kids were. and where will the volunteers teach them?
"low income private schools"
-"never heard of them. didu just say private schools? didnt we just know how they are different from the grassroots govt schools, etc?"
"umm..uhh..yes..they Are indeed LIPS as we call them."
-"ugh."
a north indian girl asked if knowledge of marathi was necessary.
"of course not! you will teach in english..and a little bit of hindi is fine to communicate with their parents."
didnt go down too well with me.
"but isnt marathi the language that almost all the lower class people of this city use?" i asked.
-"um yes.. but we are teaching in english medium..and we are campaigning to convert the marathi medium LIPS to english ones"
and they went on about how even parents want kids to learn english. but did this mean that they should be alienated from their vernacular language or that they should have teachers who dont know it at all?
my further arguments about the importance of teaching basic concepts in their mother tongue (and certainly not badly accented english) drowned amidst their insensitivity and corporated-ness, and my own mind's reclusion against all this.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Friday, December 07, 2007
It's quite obvious that my previous post needs heavy updating. When I posted it, Musharraf was still the General, lawyers still protested, Choudhury was still the Chief Justice, and there was no bloodless end in sight (there still isn't, actually)
Well, Musharraf shed his army camos for good and got into the seemingly humble suit-and-tie of a civilian president, while the world hushed and gaped at this previously unpredicted event. But, well, after the ceremonies were over and newspapers found different headlines, a thought started lingering in my mind.
Is there ANY difference at all between now, and then?
-Musharraf is not the Chief-of-Staff anymore, but he's now the legally elected Supreme Commander
-The new general (whose name i cant remember now), has been "hand-picked" by Musharraf
-Emergency has been lifted, prime ministerial elections scheduled, and almost every other short-term problem solved.
more after more research :)
Well, Musharraf shed his army camos for good and got into the seemingly humble suit-and-tie of a civilian president, while the world hushed and gaped at this previously unpredicted event. But, well, after the ceremonies were over and newspapers found different headlines, a thought started lingering in my mind.
Is there ANY difference at all between now, and then?
-Musharraf is not the Chief-of-Staff anymore, but he's now the legally elected Supreme Commander
-The new general (whose name i cant remember now), has been "hand-picked" by Musharraf
-Emergency has been lifted, prime ministerial elections scheduled, and almost every other short-term problem solved.
more after more research :)
Friday, August 31, 2007
A thing or two from good old Pervez
General Pervez Musharraf, Chief of Pakistan Army & President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, has more than one reason to worry. For one thing, the upcoming 2008 Presidential elections may just strip him off either, or both, of his offices. But what’s of bigger concern now is that, the General is cornered in the same country where seven years ago he overthrew the reigning government and set up a rule of his own.
The Chief is cornered, and how. The extremist forces, especially Taliban, take the biggest responsibility in this.
US and NATO intelligence reports say that al Qaeda and Taliban are operating camps and outfits in the
Again, as Musharraf tried to strike a balance between US wants and his countrymen’s changing stances, the lawyers and justices of his country chose the same time to prove their point against the general’s authoritarian and anti-democratic actions against the Judiciary (when he unconditionally removed Chief Justice Mohammed Ifthikhar Choudhary). Again, the judiciary, along with Justice Choudhary, took it up then as a war-cry and made sure office is restored, in a perfectly legal way, to Choudhary.
Then again you have 2008 poll contenders and former Prime Ministers Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto. Sharif is still on exile and is burning
Amid such uncertainties and political disasters, the good old
As I said, Musharraf is cornered. His political, military, diplomatic, and unfortunately even biological life seems to be very uncertain. It is in this situation that I feel somebody should shed a tear for the General, and try to remember what all he did that can be learnt by individuals, and nation states. The list, however, is short.
Firstly, Musharraf’s stance towards the
Secondly, the strong attitude shown by him against Islamic extremists in his own country is a brave lesson. Sure he was under tremendous pressure from US and other allies, but taking such an unprecedented strong action should not go unnoticed.
Lastly, I would like to stress on just one small point. As of today, the disputes between
It is at that behest that I feel that having a dictator in Pakistan who doesn’t mind striking peace initiatives with us and who takes anti-extremism seriously, is not just necessary but also a matter of extreme importance.
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Encountering Reality
We as Indians have grown up hearing about so called "encounter specialists": policemen who are enough cold-blooded to kill innocent people and declare it as an "encounter" thus slipping away from the judiciary. Even movies have portrayed this side of our "free and independent" judiciary. True, the provision of encounter has done good to the society before and one can cite many examples where dangerous criminals have been caught or killed by the police just because they could 'do an encounter'.
Till now, there have been hundreds, even thousands of such cases. Sadly, in almost all of them, the criminal policemen have escaped. This is probably one of the biggest loop-holes in our justice system, and hardly any effort has been made to do anything about it.
Till now, there have been hundreds, even thousands of such cases. Sadly, in almost all of them, the criminal policemen have escaped. This is probably one of the biggest loop-holes in our justice system, and hardly any effort has been made to do anything about it.
If you noticed news headline over the past week, you will find a lot about a certain Sohrabuddin and his wife and how they were allegedly killed by policemen in a conspiracy that reaches high offices of the Indian Police Service.
On November 26, 2005 Sohrabuddin Sheikh, a petty criminal and his wife were abducted by the Gujarat Police from a Belgaum-bound Inter-state bus. The husband was encountered soon. And, according to recent reports, his wife became a victim too.
Almost one and half years later, on 23 April2007, CID named the encounter as fake and arrested three senior IPS officers in connection with the same. Two of them belonged to the Gujarat Police while the third to the Rajasthan Police.
Soon the blame game began and is, in fact, still in progress.
The Gujarat police named the slain as a Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorist, and said that he was planning a murder of Gujarat CM Narendra Modi. The Rajasthan Police defended its police officer. The Gujarat Government then blamed the Andhra Pradesh Police for being 'hand-in-gloves'. And on and on, as it always does.
This blog is being written neither in defence of the victim, nor in defence of the police. The blogger neither cares where the supreme court case goes nor does he want to think of the political repurcussions. The sole purpose here is to make the reader aware of the increasing insecurity among citizens, innocent and criminals. This country is a democracy, right? its not an autocracy where no reasons can be given for most of the things that happen.
How come policemen, including the top brass, indulge in something as bad as cold-blooded murder? How come the judiciary remains with absolutely no law with which it can contain such offense? Why is it that most of these offenders move scots-free among us, even today?
I dont know whether this is a case of human rights or municipal law. i dont know if it is worth taking to the court. I dont even know if its worth talking about at all.
All I know is that whats happening is not right, and none of us are very safe with this very dangerous loophole still in place.
Think about it next time you hear of the neighbourhood 'encounter specialist' who will charge just a small sum to get your enemy slained.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
New NCERT Textbooks (Phew!)
I just read a report in the Outlook magazine about the new face of NCERT (National Council for Educational Research & Training; the guys in-charge of making textbooks for CBSE students) textbooks of political science and civics for class 12. All I could say after that was: "Phew! About time!"
Finally finally finally and finally, students won't be compelled to read paragraphs over paragraphs about the Indian constitutional and political structure. I remember that when I was reading those books in my 9th standard I actually thought that whats written in the books and what actually happens outside are supposed to be two totally different things. Not any more.
These new books now cover Indian political scenario in the *real* sense. All this limited upto some extent of course.
What I found to be the best was in the field of world politics, the textbook habitually iterated the word "US hegemony". Yes, they used that word in a textbook. Unbelievable, eh?
What can be a more realistic interpretation of the world than that?
If the report on the textbooks is believed to be correct, then these new books are going to present to the students the completely real world scenario: where the US uses its hegemony all over the world for its personal interests.
Yet, the best thing is that at the end of the day (rather at the end of the chapter) there is no bias or personal opinion about anything. Its all given in a balanced manner, and it is upto the student to analyse for himself/herself.
I believe that this is a major landamark in the history of indian education. Accolades to the NCERT for taking such a brave step inspite of growing political opposition against it (another hegemony?).
And.... the show is not over yet!!! What actually shows that the NCERT has come-of-age is a series of cartoons showcasing Unni and Munni, two typically indian characters, who comment on things in the text and beyond it.
My favourite is the one where Unni says "I don't know why they use difficult words like hegemony. In my town, its called dadagiri. Isn't that much better?"
Really, isn't that much better?
I just read a report in the Outlook magazine about the new face of NCERT (National Council for Educational Research & Training; the guys in-charge of making textbooks for CBSE students) textbooks of political science and civics for class 12. All I could say after that was: "Phew! About time!"
Finally finally finally and finally, students won't be compelled to read paragraphs over paragraphs about the Indian constitutional and political structure. I remember that when I was reading those books in my 9th standard I actually thought that whats written in the books and what actually happens outside are supposed to be two totally different things. Not any more.
These new books now cover Indian political scenario in the *real* sense. All this limited upto some extent of course.
What I found to be the best was in the field of world politics, the textbook habitually iterated the word "US hegemony". Yes, they used that word in a textbook. Unbelievable, eh?
What can be a more realistic interpretation of the world than that?
If the report on the textbooks is believed to be correct, then these new books are going to present to the students the completely real world scenario: where the US uses its hegemony all over the world for its personal interests.
Yet, the best thing is that at the end of the day (rather at the end of the chapter) there is no bias or personal opinion about anything. Its all given in a balanced manner, and it is upto the student to analyse for himself/herself.
I believe that this is a major landamark in the history of indian education. Accolades to the NCERT for taking such a brave step inspite of growing political opposition against it (another hegemony?).
And.... the show is not over yet!!! What actually shows that the NCERT has come-of-age is a series of cartoons showcasing Unni and Munni, two typically indian characters, who comment on things in the text and beyond it.
My favourite is the one where Unni says "I don't know why they use difficult words like hegemony. In my town, its called dadagiri. Isn't that much better?"
Really, isn't that much better?
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
israel: the battleground we all know
Jewish tradition holds that the land of israel has been a Jewish holy land and promised land for three thousand years. The land of Israel holds a special place in Jewish religious obligations, encompassing Judaism's most important sites (such as the remains of the 1st and 2nd temples of the Jewish king, Solomon).
Predictably so, Jews from all over the world have always sought to migrate to their "holy land", Israel. Waves of immigration have taken place right from the thirteenth century till 2006.
As we all know, israel is situated in the middle-eastern world. the world of the arabs.
thus it is rather obvious that arabs would have already settled in the israeli land, whether or not it is holy for them. During the first large immigration in 1881, Jews bought land from the ottomans and the arabs. This increased tensions between the resident Arabs and the Jewish communities.
During the holocaust, immigration of jews into israel increased exponentially. Subsequently, there was a revolt in 1936-39 by the resident Arabs who were against their becoming a minority in israel and demanded elections. This compelled the British to issue the White Paper of 1939 which restricted the number of jew immigrants to 75000. The jews were also restricted from buying land. The White Paper was seen as a betrayal by the Jewish community and Zionists, who perceived it as being in conflict with the Balfour Declaration. The Arabs were not satisfied either, as they wanted Jewish immigration to be halted completely.
Many scuffles followed and even though Israel was recognised as a state in 1948, the enmity between the Jews and Arabs was never reduced to zero.
There were numerous wars not just inside the territory of Israel but between Israel and other Arab nations like egypt, jordan, syria etc. like the six-day war, the war of attrition and the yom kippur war.
Even though these wars were of the "conventional" nature involving the four dimensions, the dominance of the fifth dimension cannot be ignored. These wars had occured due to the fundamentalist nature of two different cultures and their quest for dominance in a small territory.
Could this wars have been prevented by facilitating cultural changes? Or can we still do it?
(to be continued)
Jewish tradition holds that the land of israel has been a Jewish holy land and promised land for three thousand years. The land of Israel holds a special place in Jewish religious obligations, encompassing Judaism's most important sites (such as the remains of the 1st and 2nd temples of the Jewish king, Solomon).
Predictably so, Jews from all over the world have always sought to migrate to their "holy land", Israel. Waves of immigration have taken place right from the thirteenth century till 2006.
As we all know, israel is situated in the middle-eastern world. the world of the arabs.
thus it is rather obvious that arabs would have already settled in the israeli land, whether or not it is holy for them. During the first large immigration in 1881, Jews bought land from the ottomans and the arabs. This increased tensions between the resident Arabs and the Jewish communities.
During the holocaust, immigration of jews into israel increased exponentially. Subsequently, there was a revolt in 1936-39 by the resident Arabs who were against their becoming a minority in israel and demanded elections. This compelled the British to issue the White Paper of 1939 which restricted the number of jew immigrants to 75000. The jews were also restricted from buying land. The White Paper was seen as a betrayal by the Jewish community and Zionists, who perceived it as being in conflict with the Balfour Declaration. The Arabs were not satisfied either, as they wanted Jewish immigration to be halted completely.
Many scuffles followed and even though Israel was recognised as a state in 1948, the enmity between the Jews and Arabs was never reduced to zero.
There were numerous wars not just inside the territory of Israel but between Israel and other Arab nations like egypt, jordan, syria etc. like the six-day war, the war of attrition and the yom kippur war.
Even though these wars were of the "conventional" nature involving the four dimensions, the dominance of the fifth dimension cannot be ignored. These wars had occured due to the fundamentalist nature of two different cultures and their quest for dominance in a small territory.
Could this wars have been prevented by facilitating cultural changes? Or can we still do it?
(to be continued)
pope's remarks against islam:
On september 14 2006, pope benedict XVI while delivering a lecture at the university of regensburg quoted a passage from a 14th century book written by the then emperor of byzantine. The passage said, " Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."Naturally, there was immense opposition from Islamic leaders and islamic lobbies from around the world.This is another example of a war in the fifth dimension. A war not fought with guns and explosives, but with words.Why the pope chose to quote such a controversial passage in an unanswered question, although one may safely comment upon it. The rivalry between the religions of islam and christianity is well known. this rivalry has been fuelled by islamic fundamentalism and terrorism that has done much harm to states with a christian majority.Today, in the United states, a lot of people despise muslims. After the september 11 attack, there were many cases of muslims being killed or tortured all across the "christian" world. Why did this happen?Many people in the US don't know enough about islam. for them, a muslim is the man who prays five times a day and wears a skull cap most of the times.In short, there has not been enough cultural assimilation among the muslims and the christians.A cultural change may help us out in this situation. By a cultural change, I mean cultural assimilation between the muslims and the christians. How many christians know about famous muslims?People should be allowed by the society and the religion to mix freely with other religions and be culturally one with them. There should be a number of agencies and events through which muslims and christians can come together and work on similar grounds. One may go even further to say that the scriptures of religions should be modified, so as to increase the tolerance against people of other religions.Just think of the americans who killed muslims post-9/11. would they have resorted to such violence had they been intimately related to a muslim, or visited mosques or tombs? would they have been so lethal if they were taught the positive aspects of the islam religion and its contributin to today's world? would they have killed muslims if in their neigbourhood, there wasn't a single world spoken against muslims?and, would the pope, in full media presence, have chosen to quote just that particular passage, had he been culturally educated and culturally friendly with islam?
On september 14 2006, pope benedict XVI while delivering a lecture at the university of regensburg quoted a passage from a 14th century book written by the then emperor of byzantine. The passage said, " Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."Naturally, there was immense opposition from Islamic leaders and islamic lobbies from around the world.This is another example of a war in the fifth dimension. A war not fought with guns and explosives, but with words.Why the pope chose to quote such a controversial passage in an unanswered question, although one may safely comment upon it. The rivalry between the religions of islam and christianity is well known. this rivalry has been fuelled by islamic fundamentalism and terrorism that has done much harm to states with a christian majority.Today, in the United states, a lot of people despise muslims. After the september 11 attack, there were many cases of muslims being killed or tortured all across the "christian" world. Why did this happen?Many people in the US don't know enough about islam. for them, a muslim is the man who prays five times a day and wears a skull cap most of the times.In short, there has not been enough cultural assimilation among the muslims and the christians.A cultural change may help us out in this situation. By a cultural change, I mean cultural assimilation between the muslims and the christians. How many christians know about famous muslims?People should be allowed by the society and the religion to mix freely with other religions and be culturally one with them. There should be a number of agencies and events through which muslims and christians can come together and work on similar grounds. One may go even further to say that the scriptures of religions should be modified, so as to increase the tolerance against people of other religions.Just think of the americans who killed muslims post-9/11. would they have resorted to such violence had they been intimately related to a muslim, or visited mosques or tombs? would they have been so lethal if they were taught the positive aspects of the islam religion and its contributin to today's world? would they have killed muslims if in their neigbourhood, there wasn't a single world spoken against muslims?and, would the pope, in full media presence, have chosen to quote just that particular passage, had he been culturally educated and culturally friendly with islam?
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