A Time To Reflect

charukesi August 27th, 2005

Its raining anniversaries in blogland. Funny how many great blogs were born in the month of August (and with that, I have subtly and sucessfully wedged my way into the great blogs list)…

Two years today…

So, don’t go away. Stay tuned - I will be back right after the break…

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The next scian melt will be hosted here after September 12. Please send your nominations to me as comments here - or email them to Selva at the scianblog.

Abi, am rushed too. let’s keep the leapfrogging discussion open - and resume once I get back.

My age-cohorts research too needs to be written up…

• The World of Indsight
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charukesi August 26th, 2005

Just finshed reading Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran. Whew! Made me run back to my book shelf to read The Great Gatsby again.

Arrghhh, where is the book? I knew I have it somewhere here.

Where is the darned ctrl+f function in life when you need it? Especially in your book-shelf? (Speaking of which, has anyone found a fool-proof cookies system to keep track of book borrowers - and the books they borrow?)

Also went berserk at the Strand bookfair last week. Among the spoils, Humra Quraishi’s Kashmir: the Untold Story, Amritsar to Lahore: A Journey Across the India-Pakistan Border by Stephen Alter, a couple of Saul Bellows, a Henry James collection (again thanks to Dr.Nafisi), In a sunburned country by the delightful Bill Bryson…

Broke but happy. Know the feeling?

And lots of books waiting to be read. In the high priority list, The Kite Runner, Amitava Kumar’s Husband of a fanatic.

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And now it is time for me to take all these books out. With me to the hills. Where I am off to meditate. Sort of.

I am going to Lonavala this Sunday for a two week course in yoga (+ayurveda+whatever else helps). To seek help on some niggling health problems. Including residual and sometimes unbearable pain from a spine surgery nearly three years ago. All I was left with at the end of the surgery was an ugly scar on my neck and a negative bank balance (which is not saying much, since it was quite negative even before the surgery - and remains there till date).

Now that doctors have helpfuly and cheerfully written my “case” off - and I have tried pretty much everything possible (ok, I haven’t yet consulted a numerologist… Uma, Sanjay Jumani?!) - Lonavala beckons with a faint promise of ‘rejuvenation’ and hopefully pain relief… One last feeble straw to clutch at. Wish me luck!

• The World of Indsight , On my bookshelf
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charukesi August 25th, 2005

I came across this intriguing article when I was searching for something else on the net (oh the joys of google serendipity!) - to be honest, it was the title that caught my attention initially…. The power of saas-bahu. Eh, what is prime time star plus (the television channel that made saas-bahu the buzzword in Indian er, entertainment) doing on a site on Indian ngo news?

An army of largely illiterate and rustic women from Azamgarh can teach a thing or two on polio eradication to the high profile WHO and UNICEF teams. The district, which gave jitters to the state health machinery for having topped the polio tally in 2001-2002 with 81 recorded cases, has thrown up only one case this year. The credit for the transformation in all fairness goes to the concerted saas-bahu power.. Realising that conservative (and themselves very bored) mothers-in-law would not take too kindly to their daughters-in-law going out of their homes for anything - including getting their children immunised against polio, NGOs in this town hit upon the idea of organising saas-bahu sammelans. - assembly-of-mil-dil…(? in public) - the women got together and fought the polio battle. Women together and not against each other…

“My greatest moment,” says Singh, “was when I administered polio drops to 18 children of a family in Faria at one such sammelan. The same family had shut the doors on the WHO team earlier the same day.”. Read on…

***

While on polio, I googled on and found other interesting articles.

From Frontline, A reluctant battle against polio, which says Uttar Pradesh accounts for 64 per cent of the polio cases reported worldwide, but its Chief Minister, Mayawati, is honoured with the Rotary International award for her “outstanding personal contribution” towards eradicating the disease from the State. - emphasis mine.

Launching the third phase of the national pulse polio campaign on April 7, WHO Director-General Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland said: “Eighty-three per cent of all new polio cases are now found in India. Uttar Pradesh, in particular, should be the number one priority in order to stop the transmission of the polio virus around the world.”

I wonder what Mayawati’s contribution could have been…

And here is The Eradication of Polio and the Conspiracy-Theory Mentality

By mid-2004 the conspiracy theory had jumped to India, where a health worker noted that in one slum, “many poor and ignorant women regard the anti-polio drops as a deceptive strategy to control the birth rate.”

Groan, not the conspiracy theory again. Exactly how much damage has been caused by our enthusiastic and energetic, if misguided efforts at population control?

• - Public health
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charukesi August 23rd, 2005

This is the story of Aruna, a very bright young woman I know. Aruna’s mother - and her mother before her - has been working at my husband’s parents’ place in Kakinada for many years. Aruna’s mother Sai did not want the same life for her daughter; so Aruna went to school while her mother did house work.

After she completed school, my inlaws have been paying for Aruna’s education. Aruna got a BSc degree in Computer Science. And then went on to complete her MCA (Masters in Computer Applications) degree.

Many scholarships along the way. Industrial training in Hyderabad. And a distinction in MCA. My favourite memories of Aruna are of her zipping around town in the bike that my mother-in-law gifted her when she completed her degree.

Aruna has been in Hyderabad for the past few months, applying for jobs and attending interviews. But despite her academic record, she has not been able to find a job. I suspect one of the main reasons is her lack of English skills. At our (my husband and I) insistence, she did enrol in an English speaking course a few years ago. But she was too shy to ever speak to anyone in English outside or in college. And at home - who will she speak to in English? Technically she knows English but that is clearly not enough.

Aruna has dreams of finding a good job for herself and supporting her mother from now on. And her mother back in Kakinada is dreaming of the day her daughter goes to an “office”.

I hope their dreams come true very soon. I hope this young qualified - and very brave - girl does not get disillusioned by the world out there. I hope when the time comes for Aruna to get married, she will be able to find an educated young man who does not see her as a maid’s daughter but as an educated confident young woman. I hope for Sai and Aruna, this is the end of their struggles, and not just the beginning of another kind of struggle. Good luck, Aruna.

• Indiawatch , - Education
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charukesi August 22nd, 2005

I had put this as an update to my earlier post the MBA game. But then I decided this was too good to be true - it deserves a post all by itself.

MBA after 10th! “Management Studies through Early Intervention for a Borderless Corporate World”.

A New Paradigm in Management Studies, Corporate Institute of Management’s path breaking concept launched in India.

Blah Blah. Full page ad in Mumbai Mirror.

Contact : Corporate Institute of Managament. Blah blah. Goregaon (W), Mumbai - 62

A New Paradigm alright. (Will put up a link when I find it)…

***
And while on this, I was searching in Fabmall for some books and I noticed that Arindam Chaudhuri’s book Count Your Chickens Before They Hatch is to be found under the Humorous Section.

Ahem. No comments - from me. Yours welcome as always.

I am sure Rashmi Bansal agrees with this one…

• - Education , Don't be funny!
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charukesi August 19th, 2005

If you are an MBA basher, you might find this article from Economic Times interesting - B-Schools mean wrong training only.

The debate on the relevance of business schools refuses to die down. In the past, various academics - including Henry Mintzberg of McGill, Jeffrey Pfeffer of Stanford-GSB and Warren Bennis of University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business - have trained their guns on B-schools and the value of MBAs. So far, Mintzberg has been the strongest critic. His grouse: “An MBA trains the wrong people in the wrong ways for the wrong reasons.”

I don’t know what ‘wrong training’ here means; I have no doubts about the ‘relevance’ of business schools in sharpening analyical thinking and developing managerial skills in people. However, I agree with the major point of discontent - that top B schools (especially in the West) have given in to the pressures of the ranking game. And as the article puts it, have placed style over substance - in everything from choice of curriculum to teaching professionals. For example, it translates into curriculum changes that emphasise appearance over substance, less time spent on rigorous foundational training, research,” DeAngelo said.

Thinking about it, the reason for this is obvious - top business schools vie to attract the best and sharpest brains from all over the world - and what do these brains in turn expect from a business school training? A prestigious and very well paying job. In other words high profile placements. Which in turn boost the rankings of the school… And the ranking game continues.

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On a related note, I thought of the number of business schools that have mushroomed across our country. Strictly not business schools but engineering colleges and arts colleges offering an MBA degree. In terms of sheer numbers, these ‘MBA institutes’ must rank just after private enginnering colleges and dental colleges. And they thrive on much the same basic need - a lucrative job. Except in this case, an MBA degree is seen as a quick and easy route (as opposed to a rigorous disciplined training - as MBA ideally ought to be) to a well paying job.

And as opposed to the top business schools, the institutes do not palce any premium on work experience or even educational background of the applicant. Given this, what does an individual who shells out a few lakhs for the degree -note, I say degree, not course - get from it? Just that, another degree.

And what does this mean - a future generation of MBAs from local ‘institutes’ without any claim to keen managerial skills or out-of-the-box thinking? Who do not find jobs “suitabe for their dgree? Or lucrative enough for them?

Also read Prof.Madhukar Shukla’s post MBA Education is bad for Society/Business/…. Students?!!! where he bursts the MBA bubble.

• - Education
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charukesi August 17th, 2005

Uma at IndianWriting has a thought-provoking post Many Indias on the recent tragedy involving two Manipuri women at the Gateway. What were press photographers doing there, clicking pictures. and not attempting to help. And all the onlookers. There is an interesting discussion on at her blog about why people do not want to get involved.

My own thought about the bystander effect is what studies have proved earlier - that the more the number of people present at the scene, the less likely or willling will an individual be to get involved. the bystander effect (also known as bystander apathy) is a psychological phenomenon where persons are less likely to intervene in an emergency situation when others are present than when they are alone.

Apart from of course this situation that Truman talks about there - Our laws and the police have installed a fear within us for helping people in need. The people around did not care to save the girl because maybe they feared that what will follow after this will be a string of court and police station visits.

My own experience with the “law” happened three days ago - we were driving along Palm beach Road in Vashi on Sunday (14th) night at around 10.30 p.m. when we saw a dead buffalo on the road. Probably an accident. And we thought, we want to report this to someone and get it cleared off the streets, but who?

Thinking of the epidemic scare and the fact that the next day was a public holiday (Independence day), I called 100 from my husband’s cell phone. the phone was picked up on the second ring.

Hullo! I am calling from Vashi. Palm Beach Road. There is a dead buffalo here on the road and we want to get it cleared… blah blah (all in Hindi)
Madam, you have to speak to the Vashi police station.
Can you give me the number please?

Time spent on call - less than a minute

****

Vashi police station - phone picked up on seventh ring.

Same routine - from my side.

Ji, mein Vashi se blah blah… yahan sadak par ek bhains mara pada hai blah blah… (there is a dead buffalo on the road…)
Ehh, kaun mar gaya? (eh, who is dead?)
I gripped the phone hard and thought - I hope I never ever have to report a dead person - ever - to the police.
Kaun nahi - ek bhains (not who - a buffalo)
Ehhh, to hum kya kar saktey hain? (so what can we do?)
Please get it cleared…
Aap kaun baat kar rahe hain?
… Please get it cleared….
Pehle bataiye aapka naam kya hai…

(first thought - hullo, I haven’t murdered the buffalo, why is my name important?
immediate follow-up thought - oh my god, I am calling from a mobile number… is he going to harrass me?)

Suniye madam, aisa nahi chalega, aapko proper complaint likhna padega. Aise phone par hum kuch nahi kar saktey (you have to give a ‘proper’ complaint - we cannot do anything on the phone)
Aap police hain. Aapko kuch karna padega (in best shaky threatening voice - you have to do something)

(Consultations in the background)
Aap BMC (or was it NMMC) ko report kijiye
Number denge please?

Time spent on call : 5.49 minutes

****

Municipal Corporation : phone rings. And rings. And rings.

Imaginary answer in my head - hullo, yeh Sunday raat hai. Hum kyon office be baithey rahenge? Aur kal? Kal to chutti hai. Swatantrata diwas hai na. Parson dekh lenge. Bhains to mar gaya na.

(Why do you think we will be here at work on a Sunday night. Or tomorrow - on a public holiday. The buffalo is dead - it can wait for a day more).

The next time, we will drive straight on. Buffalo, RIP…

• Indiawatch
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charukesi August 16th, 2005

Indian Express has an Independence day special series - India explained, India empowered. The series was flagged off by an article by the President Dr.APJ Abdul Kalam. The focus of the President’s note is “Empowering Rural India”- and is titled - India Empowered to me is Knowledge taking roots in the village. Read the full piece here.

To the Prime Minister whose note followed the president, empowerment is Open democracy and open economy. Read it here.

And today’s piece by Mr. Somnath Chatterjee, Speaker, Lok Sabha who writes about Bringing into the mainstream all those kept out

Link through The Scientific Indian who says - If there’s one engine that’s today driving a changing India, it’s empowerment. Empowerment of the individual, the family, the neighbourhood, the community—and, hence, the nation.

The theme is India empowered to me is - to me, it is a fully functionally literate India.

And to you?

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And Sri Lanka gets connected as villages get mobile technology. Phones begin ringing in Sri Lankan villages as new technology arrives, says this report on Smart Mobs. Not mobiles, nor standard landlines, but a clever combination of the two that is quickly making telephony accessible to all. - CDMA wireless technology which has made it posible in India for mobile phones to exceed landline connections in a span of just a few years.

Some 44.5 million Indians now use mobile handsets, compared with the 43.9 million existing landline users, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said in a statement. From this post on textually.

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An then the debate about Ethiopia leaping into technology age.

10 % of Ethiopia’s GDP spent on broadband - Smart mobs

Ethiopia Leaps - WorldChanging

A thrust on computer technology and internet connectivity is always open to debate and criticism.The loudest rumbles come from those who believe that in a country where basic infrastructure - in the form of schools and healthcare and electricity - is not in place, spending on computers and internet seem misplaced - to the point of being insensitive to the “real needs” of the people. This is a challenge for those who believe in the power of leapfrogging technology.

As the WorldChanging article says - In essence, the Ministry of Capacity Building wants to make Ethiopia Africa’s first real Knowledge Economy. For a nation that has in recent decades suffered from overwhelming famine and civil war, this is an ambitious goal to say the least. If it fails, Ethiopia could become a symbol for the dangers of leapfrogging and the dangerous temptations of going too far, too fast. But if it succeeds — and the earliest signs are hopeful — Ethiopia could instead symbolize the pathway to success in 21st Century Africa.

This is also very relevant to India - when Dr. Kalam writes about knowledge taking roots in the village, I think about leapfrogging technology making a difference to the lives of impoverished and illiterate villagers. Bringing about a visible change for the better within a generation or two. Contributing to their development in some magical way that I have not fully understood yet.

But can social development really be leapfrogged? As usual, I have the questions here but I don’t know the answers…

• Indiawatch , Technology , - ICTs4 development
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charukesi August 15th, 2005

Independence day pleasantly spent at Karla caves near Lonavala. Well, mostly pleasantly. A drive on the Mumbai Pune expressway. A nicish climb up a hundred or so steps to reach the caves. Getting drenched in the rain all the way up and down.

And then the magnificent chaitya(chappel equivalent - Buddhist) at the end of the climb.

The principal cave is the largest Chaitya among Buddhist cave in the country, Being 15meters wide and 16 meters high. The most remarkable feature of the cave is its arched roof supported by wooden beams which have astonishingly survived the onslaught of elements for more than 2,000 years.

Onslaught of the elements they have survived. What about the onslaught of the humans?

Not just the humans who have steadily and thoroughly defaced and destroyed the magnificent architecture in the caves through the centuries. Religious motivation? Part of the plundering of the vanquished? Or was it just timepass…?

No, not just them from the past.

Which is the not so pleasant part. The litter. And the noise. And the plastic. And the catcalls. And the beer bottles. And the utterly unimaginative bunty-heart-arrow-babli graffiti. And the stench of urine inside the caves.

And did I mention the litter?

Why this utter lack of pride in what is ours - our heritage, our past? Is it ignorance? Or just plain indifference?

And all this from people who took off their footwear somewhere towards the top of the hill - before they entered the ekvira temple just near the caves. And bent low before every stone that had a flower and a red and yellow mark on it along the way…

These caves have survived - are surviving these ‘elements’ too - for how much longer, I wonder…

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There is a wonderful group on flickr called Ruins from India. If you liked these pictures, have a look at more pictures and the interesting discussions there.

• Indiawatch , My Roadblog
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charukesi August 14th, 2005

Came across this interesting website called Citizens Against Government Waste (Link via The Adam Smith Institute blog).

The site functions as a ‘wastewatcher’ complete with a wastewatcher newsletter to draw attention to waste and abuse in government programs, policies, and events that might otherwise go unnoticed. And they choose a Porker of the Month to identify the most wasteful representatives.

They also have a Waste Blog with this latest post - Fraud drained $1 billion from Iraq’s defense efforts.

What a wonderful concept. Just the thing India needs.

Top on my list of taxpayer moneygate would be the security cover for politicians and celebrities. Sometime last year, India Today had carried an article on the latest celebrities to be provided with Z plus security cover - Sachin Tendulkar, Shah Rukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai. Z+ security involves 11 commandos, a pilot and escort car; just security cover for the PM and ex-PMs sets the nation back by Rs. 100 crore every year… Another ‘celebrity’ who has been provided with this cover is Praveen Togadia. HC dismisses plea for review of ‘Z-plus’ security to Togadia, proudly says this piece in the HVK website (Hindu Vivek Kendra - a resource centre for the promotion of Hindutva - I just googled and got there - please spare me the dirty looks).

What other wastewatching can you think of?

• Indiawatch
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