Barefoot College - Creating Solutions

http://www.barefootcollege.org/default.asp

Established in 1972, the Barefoot College is a non-government organisation that has been providing basic services and solutions to problems in rural communities, with the objective of making them self-sufficient and sustainable. These ‘Barefoot solutions’ can be broadly categorised into solar energy, water, education, health care, rural handicrafts, people’s action, communication, women’s empowerment and wasteland development.

The College believes that for any rural development activity to be successful and sustainable, it must be based in the village as well as managed and owned by those whom it serves. Therefore, all Barefoot initiatives whether social, political or economic, are planned and implemented by a network of rural men and women who are known as ‘Barefoot Professionals’.

A Boy At Any Cost

http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/news/63-years-on-indians-still-want-a-boy/188885

A new trend is emerging in 'India Shining' where couples travel to Thaíland for gender selection. Since the Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act, 1994 (PNDT), was introduced gender selection is banned in India. This Act has certainly not put an end to male-preference notion in the country where its present sex ratio is 933 girls:1000 boys This does not mean that many illegal clinics do not operate around the country. Couples wishing to have a boy either because they already have a girl child or who wish to have only a male child can easily go such clinics, can get the gender of the fetus detected and aborted, in case it is a female. In India the notion of preference for male child cuts across all socio-economic strata.

Now many, who can of coruse shell out anything between  4-6 lakh, can travel to Thailand and get the gender of the fetus selected without having to go to trouble for abortion. This is indeed a very upsetting trend and raises questions about how can we allow in this age, where we keep talking about ''new emerging India'', ''super global power'' still harbor such thoughts and practice them. The worse part is that even those highly educated indians do practice it. States like Haryana and Punjab have very bad sex ratio as compared to the rest of the country and in many of the towns and villages of these two states there are no girls; men are already over thirty and parents are finding difficult to find brides for their sons. Many have to sell their land or find ways to collect   30,000-40,000 to get brides from others indian states or even from Bangladesh.

Endless Discrimination

Why did Vypari Bai die? The real story of India's progress lies in the detail of how programmes like NRHM (National Rural Health Mission) are implemented, or not implemented. It is a story that is not told often enough to make us angry. Occasionally, we pay attention to the needs of our children. But women like Vypari Bai, who die because no one cares, remain invisible, the ghosts of another India.

Why Is The Government In Denial??

http://ibnlive.in.com/#hp_player3

The number of farmers commiting suicide has increased steeply and the Indian Goverment is not even ready to acknowledge it!!

Cricket World Cup 2011

Cricket World Cup 2011 is around the corner. It will be held from 19 Feb. to 2 April in Bangladesh (hosting for the first time), India and Sri Lanka. In India, where cricket is a religion, fans are in the grip of cricket fever and hoping that their country wins the world cup this time. India last won and the only time in 1983 in England.

The Indian squad for the Cup was announced today. Sachin Tendulkar would be playing, I guess, for the last time and really hoping for his country to win before he retires. India currently ranks second in the ICC ODI rankings; with Australia ruling the chart. In all fourteen countries would be fighting for the cup.

The official WC Cricket mascot is Stumpy, who is a young cricket enthusiastic cricket fan. He was unveiled at a function in Colombo last year. The official song De Ghuma Ke has been composed by famous indian musicians Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and has been sung in Hindi, Bangla and Sinhalese.

Of course, I would want my country to win. Otherwise my favorite would be South Africa, I guess. Since Australia has already won four times and three time in a row since 1999, I am personally not too keen to see them win this time too.

Well, all the best to my country and may all the nations play the sport in its true spirit. Jai Ho !

Is There A Genius In All Of Us?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12140064

''It would be folly to suggest that literally anyone can do or become anything. But the new science tells us it's equally foolish to think that mediocrity is built into most of us'' David Shenk , Author of The Genius In All Of Us.

So, basically we all can become genius. Does our surrounding, genes etc. do not play any role? Why is that some are born genius whereas others have to struggle very hard? It is time to ponder.

Video Volunteers

http://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/society/article1092635.ece?homepage=true

The videos have brought about affirmative change- such as education, committees being formed in villages, public hearing being called for and migrant children being admitted to schools. However, Jessica says,''We walk a tight rope in terms of how much we interfere. Subjects like caste, religion and human rights are sensitive issues; so, we make sure that the stories don't take a slant''.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

The Kite Runner is the first novel written by Khaled Hosseini. It is a story about Amir, who is desperately trying to win his father's admiration and one horrific incidence changes his friendship with Hassan and the guilt with which Amir lives for the rest of his life.

The book talks about Hassan's (who is a low caste servant working at Amir's house along with his father) deep loyalty towards his master's son, Amir. The author beautifully explores Hassan's unquestionable loyalty, faith and friendship with Amir and Amir's friendship, jealousy and hatred towards Hassan.

Of course, we do sympathise with Hassan (when he is sexually abused and his life during the Taliban rule) but what really drew my attention was that to what extent can children go to simply seek their parents love and attention. Amir, who constantly feels that his father does not love him no matter what he does (he is very fond of writing short stories to his father's dislike) and his father thinks his son is a whimp, does not help his friend, Hassan, at the time of need though he knows he should have and this guilt haunts him for the rest of his life till he gets a call from his uncle, Rahim, who says, 'There is a way to be good again'.

The book begins and ends with a beautiful line, which is the core of the story, 'For you, a thousand times over'.

The film with the same name is also well made. There are very few directors who do justice to the book they are making film on. Child artists, Zekeria Ebrahimi and Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada, who play young Amir and Hassan respectively, have done a wonderful job.

Known Turf By Annie Zaidi

Known Turf is a book written by Annie Zaidi, who is a well-known journalist and a writer. She has discussed about gender violence, caste discrimination, hunger and dwindling sex ratio in India. Her numerous field trips to various parts of India as a journalist, led her to discover many social issues still prevaling in our country. The best part is that these stories led the author to introspect.

It is a simple, witty, straight forward, well articulated and at times emotionally written book. I have many favorite lines but some of them are -

'Sometimes I wonder if our inability to judge....we don't have a clue about how they are made' Page 83



'You think how this world isn't fir for her...and now imagine you had a choice not to bring her into this frightening world...and we live with that void' Page 221



'Each time any of us thinks about why things are the way they are, we become kafirs...we are all, by default, kafirs' page 184

Past Sins Leading To Farmers Suicide???!!!!!!

http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/past-sins-to-blame-for-farmer-suicides-madhya-pradesh-minister-79030

I think their only sin is that they are ruled by an utterly callous, unsympathetic governments year after year. They live in a country that is predominantly agrarian but governments, whether at center or state, simply have no concern for its farmers. To blame 'past sins' for farmers suicide just goes on to show at what level can ministers stoop to shrug off reponsibility. It really makes me wonder that we could build huge stadiums etc. for CWG in just two-three years but governments have done NOTHING to eliminate the misery of our farmers IN YEARS.

हाय रे मेहेंगाई !

महेंगा प्याज़ रुलाता है
फीकी लगती है दाल सब्जी
प्याज़ के पकोड़े सपनों में आते हैं
तरस गए एक प्याज को
जीना हो गया है मुश्किल।


गुस्सा आता है देख लाल टमाटर
आसमान के भाव छूते हैं उसके दाम
टमाटर का सूप था कितना स्वादिष्ट
बुट्टर चिक्केन मैं थे कितने टमाटर - लाल...लाल !


कैसे खाए अंडे हर सन्डे के सन्डे
उबला नहीं, किसी तरह का नहीं
कोई अंडा नहीं।


जेब खाली हो रही है
मेहेंगाई जा नहीं रही
फ्रिज खाली दीखता है
मेहमान आते हैं
सिर्फ पीने को मिलता है।


फ़ोन पर सिर्फ मेहेंगाई की बातें
इ मेल, ब्लोगिंग सिर्फ मेहेंगाई पर
सपने मेहेंगाई के, जीवन मेहेंगाई का।


हाय रे मेहेंगाई!
करू मैं जादू टोना
और तू भाग जा
टमाटर खाना है
प्याज खाना है
खाने का स्वाद वापिस लाना है
जा गायब हो जा
हमारा दरवाज़ा फिर मत खटखटाना।

Hinglish I Speak

I have friends who have learnt Hindi either because they are truely, madly and deeply in love with India (I am not exaggerating) or at some point in their lives they want to truely, madly and deeply fall in love with India as they have heard so much about my country (apart from snake charmers, poverty and traffic jams). So pretty often when I meet them, they want to converse in Hindi in order to improve their spoken ability and I always welcome that, smilingly. The conversation begins. And it so happens that they are, of course, struggling with their vocabulary (as it happnes with me in German) and genuinely trying hard to form a correct sentence and poor me is too struggling to speak pure Hindi !! So when I speak a sentence in Hindi that tends to have couple of English words and those words definitely have Hindi words for it, my friends are quick to ask, 'Is there no Hindi word for.....?' And then I think hard, very hard and when I can't recollect, I say 'I will look into the dictionary.' Which, of course, I do.

I don't remember if I ever spoke to anybody in pure Hindi. It has always been Hinglish. I have always spoken with my friends, who either live in India or outside and who can speak Hindi and English both, either in English or Hinglish. It has been only in the past couple of years since I started to live abroad and my non-Indian friends questioned me repeatedly that I started to really think about Hinglish.....just why?

English has just seemed to crept into our lives. Lately, I have read some Hindi newpapers that report in Hinglish. Due to the invention of new technology almost every year there seem to be many new english words we have incorporated into Hindi language. Like, computer, ipad, iphone, laptop etc. We don't seem to translate them into Hindi, maybe because it is convinient to use them because English is a global language. But I found out that the Chinese translate every new english word, say, computer, iphone etc.into mandarin.

Another reason might be, or rather I think it is that in India we tend to think lowly of a person who can not speak English or can but chooses to speak pure Hindi. A friend of mine, who speaks good Hindi, recently visited India for the first time and was looking forward to speak Hindi. The people she met or befriended spoke to her either in Hinglish or English. And there were some she met who insisted on speaking in English even though they could speak Hindi pretty well AND were pleasantly surprised to know that my friend spoke good Hindi. They would often say,'You can talk to us in English....we can speak English.' But my friend was not looking forward to speak in English BUT Hindi and hence she was a bit disappointed. Why speaking in pure Hindi make us feel uneducated? Why does it make us feel old-fashioned? Why is that when we don't know certain or many Hindi words or their meanings it feels alright ('I don't know, so what') but it is not the same with English.

I don't know if the same thing happens with other indian languages. Like, do Bengalis speak Benglish or do Marathis speak Maralish or do Gujaratis speak Gujlish.

मुझे पता नहीं कि हम english words हिंदी में क्यों use करते हैं. पर, of course, मैं शुध हिंदी बोलना सीखना चाहती हूँ because तुम्हें पता है कि हिंदी is my mother tongue.