Eye-Opener

A hidden world that i wish was mine!

2011-03-10T21:26:00.013+05:30

Snorkeling-Snorkelers!

Scuba Diving: The first time Rakesh mentioned this to me, it scared me. It freaked me out. I can't swim. I love the water. But i can't swim, leave alone hold my breath under the water and dive! But in my head, i hoped it won't be so scary.

Fast forward, rather rewind to that one lovely day in October. We were in Havelock, Andamans for our honeymoon. (Now you know why i said this post is long pending!). The beach, the sand, the surf-it was my idea of heaven! I think it was the second or the third day that we got up and headed out to Elephant Beach from Havelock Island.

After being asked to sign a agreement and being informed the basics about Scuba Diving-(maintaining pressure, the signs for SOS, going up etc), Rakesh and I had the very uncomfortable task of zipping into a scuba dive suit. Zipped up, we got into the jetty and waited for the ride to begin.

The boat ride was awesome and breath taking...and finally we reached Elephant Beach. The beach is lovely. The water is shallow and so clear. So clear that you can actually see the fish swimming between your feet. Yes, you can actually see your feet underwater! Believe me that is such a luxury in today's era of pollution!

As we waited for another couple to finish snorkeling and scuba diving (an hour's wait!) we began chatting up with Steve, a teacher from U.K who was on an year's sabbatical so that he could travel around the world (Isn't that cool?).... After that, Rakesh decided to be my swimming coach and to teach me how to float in water. (He claims it's much easier to float in saline water!) After almost drowning (yes, in knee deep water!) i managed to master how to float and it was such an awesome feeling.

And once i saw the schools of fish floating around in gay abandon, i had forgotten that i couldn't swim! I enjoyed snorkeling so much! Just seeing the varied fish in their environment is something that i can't even describe...Soon it was our turn to go scuba diving.

By this time, i was over my initial fear of drowning and was a little confident of doing this. The trainer, a very patient one at it (I think her name was Angie) helped me gain confidence first by taking Rakesh and me through some exercises. The toughest was holding my breath under water! It was so difficult. I felt so claustrophobic! But i decided to fight it out. Perhaps it was the curiosity of wanting to experience scuba diving or the longing to do something out of the world, but the fear became secondary at that point..

Soon we set out for scuba diving. I had this wonderful trainer with me holding my hand as we went under water. The scuba gear is very heavy but the minute you drop a few feet (We went down over 20 feet i think) it becomes light as feather. And believe me nothing, nothing can beat the beauty of the life under water. The first sight of the corals, the amazing variety of fish around the corals and the different plant life is something that nothing can beat. The schools of fish which look at you and pass by you nonchalantly or the big fish which look at you as intruders, scuba diving is one heck of an experience.

If you are the kinds who loves watching documentaries about ocean life or simply stare endlessly at aquariums, then scuba diving is definitely your thing. I still remember the awe i was in, as i was diving. The fear that i could drown, the fact that i could not swim or the fact that i was so many feet underwater had vanished. All that i registered from that experience was the beauty of it all. The beauty of this world that exists parallel to all the madness above it, the boring monotonous city life.

It's a world that you don't ever want to disturb once you experience it. It's a world that you wish you could be a part of but are scared at the same time. It's world that never ceases to surprise you, please you, amaze you and leave you in wonder. For instance, as we were moving from one coral area to another, we saw this school of blue fish (wish i knew the names of all the fish!).

They stopped and when i saw 'they' it was a school of over 50-odd fish and they all stopped for a brief moment and in unison and perfect coordination turned. It was such a smooth turn. Or the time when i accidentally touched what looked like a stone and it moved much to my shock. It was a crocodile fish!

Or the time when suddenly out of the clear still sand, a ray fish came out of no where to simply glide away-it almost feels like its flying inside the water. Then there was the time when i saw an oyster and i almost shrieked in joy (of course when you shriek underwater you can't really hear yourself!)

And Rakesh, the romantic that he is, didn't pass the opportunity to give me an underwater flying kiss which had me laughing (when you do that underwater-it sounds like gurgling!)... I was under water for 40 minutes till i could not handle the pressure any longer and decided to float up..and after that i didn't want to stay up. As i floated up and felt the sunshine beating down my face, i felt a deep sense of regret that i was leaving this world and that i might never see it first-hand again!

I loved Scuba diving and everything about it and i strongly feel it is something that everyone of us must and should experience. I know, i want to do it again!

All geared up to take the plunge!
Elephant Beach!
The lighthouse enroute Elephant beach
Best friends, lovers, life partners and honeymooners for life! :)

Who has been abandoned?

2011-03-08T20:14:00.005+05:30

His signs haunt me. They are everywhere in the house. On the floor. On the switch board. On the kitchen floor. At the entrance of my room. He is everywhere. How does one wipe out four and half years of a relationship.

I committed a crime recently. A crime that is going to haunt me for years to come. A crime that I don't think i can ever redeem myself from. The crime of abandonment. I abandoned Spidy. My dog. Of course, I was not there when he was abandoned in an area unknown to him. And I wasn't there when he ran out of the car as soon as he was freed from his leash. And I am not there now.

All that I do now is wonder. Wonder where he is. What is he eating. Who is he with? If he is alive? If he has been bitten by other dogs? Wonder how he is surviving in the big bad world. And then am filled with overwhelming guilt. A guilt i don't want to feel. A guilt i don't want to sense. A guilt that I just want to bury deep down somewhere and continue living in denial.

But it all comes back. And simply intensifies. Each time I see his leash in the backseat of the car. The leash that I had bought lovingly when i got my first bonus at the current job. Or when i see the chewy sticks lying uneaten, when i see the half finished pedigree packet or his water bowl...

It a hard thing. Attachment. And detachment is punishment. I can't get over the fact that Spidy is not around anymore. The same dog who was there all through for 4.5 years is suddenly not in the house. It's worse than abandoning a child. A child can speak, cry, tell where or who he or she is. What can an abandoned dog tell? How will he even tell that he is no orphan? But an abandoned orphan. It's breaking me apart- this feeling that I will probably never see him in my life.

I want him back so bad. I don't want to even think of the reasons why we had to take the tough decision of abandoning him. But i want him back. And want to give this relationship another shot. But i know that's never going to happen. That's how relationships are. Time and destiny doesn't always give you a second chance.

He came from nowhere. Cute, chubby, fluffy under my car. He has the cutest brown eyes which didn't leave their puppiness even as he became a big scary dog. The magic is all in his eyes. And i just hope that his magic works on some other kinder family. He was pampered and he was a foodie. He loved eating people food. And never preferred his own dog food. He didn't like being treated like a dog and like i often joked he had an identity crisis. He could never see me cry. He was possessive of all of us. He was more human than all of us in the house. He would sense when things were really wrong. He would sense it when we were happy. He would sense when someone was unwell. He just knew it all. And he would show he cared in his own doggie way. I will remember spidy as the dog who loved to run around, who loved to dig, chase frogs, bark at cats, cared for a kitten, who loved being patted and petted.

He was my dog. And he has left a deep vacuum in me. A vacuum that is never going to be filled. And nothing is going to absolve me of the crime i committed. Of abandonment.

A hope for tomorrow

2010-12-15T22:24:00.006+05:30

So there i was attending this annual day function at Geetanjali Devashala as part of my work when i was hit by a wave of memories that just flooded me. It was a different sensation altogether being in the audience of a school's annual day and not being part of one.

I remember how much fun i used to have during my annual days. The excitement, the enthusiasm and just that feeling of doing something on stage for your school, is something that will never come back. The crazy costumes, the rouge that's applied on your face, the anxious teachers and parents-annual days were fun.

It's been years since i have been to one-not after i passed out of school and i felt so good and so positive as i watched the performances begin.

School annual days and sports days are a big deal in our country. And am glad they are. Because to me they are those few opportunities that you as an Indian student (of course times have changed now) have to present yourself, to put your best foot forward and to shine. It is also the time for you to get over your crazy fears and just do your best, not to mention learning to work in a team.

Today, as i sat in the front row and watched the students-from the tiny tots to the teenagers-i felt a strange sense of harmony. I felt at home, though this wasnt my school or these weren't my classmates.

And perhaps what made me feel so peaceful and positive was that even after 9 odd years after having passed out of school, the school annual day routine was still the same. It still reflected India, its diversity, its challenges and still brought out the patriotism that few of us adults feel or can identify with nowadays.

The innocence and enthusiasm with which they performed those dances-traditional dances of different states-and participated in plays, gave me hope. It for once silenced the cynic in me which keeps telling me oh nothing is going to change... for once there was this really strong positive voice in me which told me-hey there is still hope.

If my next generation and their next generations are still getting the message of Indian independence, of religious tolerance, of terrorism and corruption, then there is hope. Because, this generation too, like many in my generation will strive for a better tomorrow. And they are so a very aware set of youngsters. Aware of their rights and responsibilities. And that thought gives me hope.

It was with a lot of pride as an Indian i watched them unfold the different facets of my beautiful country. I was filled with pride as these little ones showcased the diversity of my nation and made me realise that in my cynical little world, i was missing out on the larger picture-that despite all the problems and challenges, we as Indians have managed to live with tolerance and in harmony.

Yes, we have problems but then we also have people like u and me and those students who performed today at that Annual Day with their full heart and soul, who will find solutions.

And yes, the feeling of singing your national anthem with others is a different feeling altogether.

Has the line blurred or disappeared altogether?

2010-12-01T13:49:00.003+05:30

So, finally the can of worms has been 'Open'ed. And the worms came crawling out...slimmy, slippery and gooey; the worms are out there creating a storm of sorts...crowding over the people in the center, as they gasp for breath...to save face from beneath all the worms.... And there you are a silent spectator, watching as the worms slowly eat into everything that you perhaps believed in.

#barkhagate #radiagate... the tags, hashes, searches, the terms may be different..The slimy underlying truth remains the same. That journalistic 'integrity and ethics' are now just restricted to "Key Issue Lectures" in Journalism schools. The can that has been opened now, has brought out different worms-the integrity worm, the ethics worm, the honesty worm, the courier worm etc. These are issues that should have been in discussion long ago. These are issues that need to be talked about openly by editors to cub reporters...but then wait a minute...what does a cub reporter do if the editor is the one at fault here?

This is the land of media. The land of powerful men and women (And please Barkha Dutt cut the 'feminist sexist' crap please!) where the real stories remain hidden and the ones that you as a reader or viewer read or see are just shallow reports. There is an underground cellar here where the stories that need not be and should not be reported are pushed to. Where so-called cub or junior reporters are discouraged from 'investigation'.

This story is not just about one Barkha Dutt who according to her, was 'gullible and missed a story'. But also that of the changing editorial policies of media houses across the country. Where news channels are started with motives, where journalists are no longer the 'watch dogs' but are the 'power brokers'; 'the blackmailers'; This story is of the larger issue of changing media roles. Of a media that is toothless (and deliberately at that) but wealthy. This is the story of the 'fourth pillar' of democracy's changing role to that of 'courier' and 'wealth accumulator'.

It is also the story of the disappearing (or disappeared!) lines between a journalist and a PR person. Of the changing motives of both the sides. Of turning a blind eye to legitimate stories.Of hiding information from the public. This is the story about the fight for unfiltered information.

But, will the media gurus and so-called who's who take the responsibility of clearing the muck thats swallowed Indian media? Do they have the balls to take these issues head on?? Will this issue to be forgotten like the 'paid news' story?

I am a cynic. And i believe that would be the case. Endless blogposts like these would be written, columns published, debates held and a month later, the issue is forgotten. Will 'Padmashri' Barkha Dutt who attacked Manu Joseph on her show last night about his failure to 'follow up', follow up this story? Her own story? Will Vir Sanghvi do that?

And will we remain mute spectators to all the injustices and scams around us?

One Saturday...

2010-10-05T11:37:00.004+05:30

It was the perfect Saturday morning...blue skies, a slight breeze and lots of sunshine. After many days, it felt like the rain gods had decided to take a break and let the Sun God take charge.

And this Saturday was a special one. After almost five or six years, i was entering the Parade Grounds in Secunderabad to watch a dear friend and his team 'Sunshine' play a cricket match.

The expansive ground had close to twenty teams playing matches against one another at the same time. As i sat down to watch 18 year olds and 20 something year old play the Gentleman's game, i was filled with a sense of curiosity and wonder at the passion these guys had towards the sport.

Every year, dozens of C-Division league matches are played, my friend and captain of team Phalguna informed me. And most teams work hard, practice hard and take these matches seriously. And boy do they take them seriously! I watched, a mute spectator, as the Sunshine team cheered when their captain took wickets; screamed hard as another team mate dropped a catch and appreciated another team mate for wonderful bowling. The sentiments were the same as that portrayed by our national team. The same sense of anguish, pride, anxiety, happiness and ecstasy.

And then you wonder-what pushed them to play cricket in the first place; what pushes to take the sport so seriously, knowing well enough that you wont be earning big bucks like those in the spotlight? The friend had this to say "At the end of the day one gets immense satisfaction from winning a game. And its for that satisfaction that we play". Here are young, talented people who perhaps held a dream once-to make it big, to play for the nation and hoping to be noticed. And for many, it will just remain a dream.

These youngsters pool in money to register as a team, to use the grounds with the HCA. The one's working in the team contribute a little more than the others to play 10 matches a season. When my friend was telling me this, i wondered why the Cricket Association needs to take money from these teams? why not simply let them utilise the grounds? Isn't it these small teams that are keeping the real spirit of the game alive? Apolitical and non-commercial, I found the real spirit of the game, for the game and team spirit among the Sunshine team.

Here was a team that was playing to win. Here was a Captain who was asking his opening batsmen to keep wickets and play calmly, and play to win. Here were other team mates and capable batsmen, cheering as their star batsmen Lokesh hit fours and sixes (though it was quite hard to determine what a six and a four was in the parade ground).

They weren't jealous that someone else got an opportunity to bat longer. They weren't here to get great scores. But they were there on that Saturday morning to simply play cricket in its rightful sense.

And it was this team spirit that pushed them to win their first match of the season. And that's when i felt that the real game of cricket was still alive. Not on television. Not among the sensational IPL matches or test matches. But here among the C-Division league was the true spirit alive and kicking...

Tragic Voyerism

2010-05-23T12:14:00.006+05:30

May 22 2010 will be remembered by families of over 158 people who died in the Air India accident...It will also remembered for the insensitive and disturbing reporting by almost every news channel in the country. While some channels did tone down their description of the fatal accident, little was done to control the desire to air 'exclusive images and footage' of charred bodies and grieving relatives or putting up 'body count'.

While it was necessary for the media to do their bit in showing the severity of the accident, i found myself asking as a viewer and as a journalist whether it was necessary to show the charred bodies lying amidst the debris. Was it necessary for news channels to air the horrific image of burnt child being carried away? What was the point of blurring the image minutes after airing it? (Many channels like NDTV and CNN IBN did this.)

Death and gore, whether we like it or not, feeds on some morbid fascination humans possess and accidents like this brings out that out among the opinion maker and seeker. Be it the Mumbai carnage, the Aarushi murder case or the Nithari serial killings, the media coverage was appalling and remains appalling. And with the pressure on to bring 'first live images' and 'exclusive images', editors and those in charge no longer seem to ask vital questions: is it necessary to show the whole body?

Or could the footage have been shown in a less traumatic way-for instance with emergency workers huddled around the charred bodies Many might argue that the footage was shown more to perhaps highlight the work being done by rescue workers. But does that truly justify showing it?

Was even the slightest thought given to how the family of the child would have felt or of viewers at large. In our attempt to 'highlight important issues' and to show 'things as they are' we are perhaps falling into the trap of 'desensitising' the larger public by sensitising events like this. How many of us truly cringed when we saw the disaster?

But then there might be instances when photographers might capture powerful and newsworthy images that might depict the anguish of events one covers-of loved ones waiting to hear tragic news or people rushing towards the spot of tragedy.. Though the emotions might be on public display, certain photographs may feel like an invasion of privacy to some readers and those photographed. And these are instances, when an editor has to take a call on how to handle these photos.

For instance, during the Gujarat riots, the image of a crying man with his hands folded touched a chord with almost every one who saw the image and the photograph managed to capture the full intensity of the carnage without actually showing the victims. However, was the photograph that was published in almost every leading newspaper today of the child necessary?Or could it have been avoided?

Then there is also the question of thinking about the family and their reactions to such disturbing photographs and footage. The mother of one of the air hostess who lost her life in the accident is yet to be informed of the tragedy. The father, for the sake of his wife's health was forced to disconnect the cable connection even as relatives tried to keep the over-zealous media out of the house. The need to get 'reaction' of family in their time of grief needs to be tamed and it depends on the self-control of the reporter in question.

Even under pressure situations, I think, one needs to place themselves in the shoes of the family before barging in on them with cameras and mikes to get that sound byte or quote. I remember an instance where i was asked to go the family of a MS student who was found murdered in the US. The family was in shock, the mother weeping uncontrollably. One Hindi channel reporter with little regard and respect to the family members thrust her mike in front of the weeping mother and asked her 'how she felt', even as the cameraman invaded the privacy of the household by getting footage of the house, of photos of the girl who lost her life etc. Where does a journalist and a cameraman or photographer draw the line?

There is also the question of how one plays the photo. Newspapers have stopped considering carefully how to play a photo once a decision is made to publish a disturbing photograph. Take for instance, today's New Indian Express and Eenadu which published gruesome photos of the tragedy on page one. Were there no less-sensationalising photos available? Was it necessary for these papers to publish these images? Was little thought given to how the families and readers would react to the photos and the rights of the victims. A better way of handling the dilemma would have been to publish a less disturbing photo in the front page with a disclaimer warning of the content of a photo in the inside pages.

We are living in a world where there seems to some sort of vulgar display of suffering, almost like a pornography of suffering. And it is at times like this one needs to exercise self-censorship. But then with TRP's ruling the roost, i really wonder if we as journalists and viewers will ever see such a day of restrained reporting.

Reality Check

2010-03-04T22:07:00.006+05:30

When i started this blog in January 2008, it was started with a purpose. To enable people to read my articles and reports on my experiences following the covering deprivation trip to Vidarbha.Soon, i added a couple other reports and at some point it also turned into a personal diary with lot of my random thoughts becoming a part of it.

But this is not a random blog post. Nor is it a fun one. It is a serious one. Perhaps it might be at some level be rhetorical. But it certainly is a post which aims to do what this blog was meant to do-a reality check of our times.

And this time its a reality check of media houses. If you are tired of reading criticism about Indian media you are most welcome to close the window and walk away. If you are wondering where this leads to..read on. Ps: This is purely my perspective gained out of my experience in the media industry.So, If anyone gets offended reading this, you are welcome to ignore it.

It's been almost two years since i have joined one of India's leading English dailies and been a part of the media industry. I had never imagined media to be clean industry and had heard tales of corporatisation of media, of manufactured consent and what not. But to face it in reality far from the lectures and seminars was something that i was perhaps not fully prepared for.

For all our rhetoric about freedom of speech and expression, the fact remains that media industry is perhaps one of the many industries where freedom of expression and speech are hardly exercised. There is no scope for wider discussions and debates among reporters, more so if there is a hierarchy at place. As a journalist you have the right to question everything and anything, except your own editor or your paper's editorial policy. You have no freedom to challenge a viewpoint or present your perspective. And if you do chose to exercise this constitutional right, then you will be bringing upon yourself wrath. So, at the end of the day..all this hype about "getting truth to people" falls flat because you are not allowed to write truth-not the plain truth at least.

Most papers hide under the garb of being just, neutral, objective, apolitical and what not. But most media houses are quite opposite to that and that includes even self-proclaimed objective papers which believe in 'plain reporting'. The agenda, is often hidden under all this self-righteousness and rhetoric. And those who do 'real reporting' are shown the middle finger. Most media houses are corrupt and stink of nepotism and egoism at its worst can be experienced here. And journalists are as good as stenographers or glorified Public Relations Officers selling their souls by typing out reports and press notes.

And the power of 'Power Seat' corrupts them all.The media which goes on and on about corrupt politicians, society and questions and analyses how 'Power of Kursi' corrupts people should do a reality check and have some internal analysis. And no this doesn't mean having a seminar where the so-called and self-proclaimed journalists sit on a dias along with other 'intellegentia' to discuss this.

Like old politicians (not wise-old), the senior journos too are not open to perspectives from 'juniors' or 'youngsters'. And these youngsters who i think should ideally be used to the fullest extent are relegated to frustrating menial jobs..and so you are caught in a vicious circle of frustrations..anger etc.

News sense: This is another aspect that really worries me. We are living in a world where romps by Swamiji and greying Governors are aired prime time and published as front page news. Where 'issues' are relegated to third, fourth and sometimes district editions. Where real news is used as fillers and meaningless reports and press conferences cram your daily newspaper and news channels. As an opinion maker, media has forgotten its role of analysing the news and simply dump its viewers and readers with 'infotainment'. Every rule in journalism is broken every single day by countless papers and channels and no one questions or critiques them. Sensationalism has reached a nauseating level and we will do anything for TRPs even expose rape victims or publish photos of rape victims in our so-called attempt to get the truth out.

Objective news analysis are far and few in between and opeds by so-called Magasaysay winners fail to address the issue internally, in their own organisations. Journalists and media houses don't waste a minute in criticizing and at the same time are highly intolerant to criticism of any sort. Honest straightforward opinions are not welcome in this industry. Real stories are squashed because your boss's friend may be in the thick of it all; And meaningless reports are given space because it concerns your boss's friend. Some reports are killed because you don't want legal complications (read you may lose ads!) and a couple others because you don't want to offend the sentiments of the readers. Question all this and you are in a soup. And you are cooked in the soup in a slow,painless manner!!

Of course the 'higher-ups' remain oblivious to all this. While some papers do all this by wearing multiple masks, others do it shamelessly and blatantly. There is absolutely no intelligent reporting and majority of news that you read or watch is absolute nonsense. Reams of paper and hours of prime time is wasted on talking about inane issues which are not issues in the first place.

Price rise is discussed but the real story behind price rise is hardly told by anyone. Why doesn't anyone report on the food-stock that is wasted every year? Or talk about the tons of pulses that are exported as cattle-feed? Why doesn't anyone tell you that USA has access to our traditional seeds through a brilliant -'Knowledge Exchange' programme? Why doesn't anyone tell you that hundreds of children are employed in cotton farms by Monsanto, Bayer etc? And why doesn't anyone report fearlessly on how shamelessly soft drink companies are allowed to exploit ground water resources in this country just to 'quench the thirst' of those who can afford them?

Till two decades ago, journalists were a feared lot. Journalism was a honourable profession. 2010 A.D journalists are 'people who can be brought' and are not feared. Journalists are people who throw tantrums if they are not given 'complimentary' gifts, passes and tickets. Journalists are people who will threaten you with an 'expose' for personal gains.

Of course, what do i know about journalism? Am after all a 'junior'.

Brand Hyderabad

2010-02-27T11:48:00.005+05:30

Image Courtesy: The Hindu

Lost in A.R.Rehman's latest offering from Em Maya Chesave, i was staring out of the auto, not thinking anything for a long time as i set out home the other day. Just near Shopper's Stop where the traffic flow tends to get disrupted, i saw a head peeping out of a Silver Innova, staring right at me..a guy with blonde hair, perhaps 18 years old, with blue eyes staring right into me, gave me a small smile and looked away staring at the traffic with open mouth.

Seated beside him were his friends and some Indians, presumably their hosts, perhaps.. My auto was right beside their Innova..and it was not difficult for me to see the awe on their faces coupled with horror at the way traffic moved here...

And they pretty much had the same expression till Rasoolpura cross roads where we parted ways...and that got me thinking. What is Brand Hyderabad? Over the years, Hyderabad has been called Cyberabad, IT hub, Green City (this no longer holds true) so on and so forth.

What has remained consistent in the past ten years is this tag "Drive in Hyderabad and You Can Drive Anywhere in the World". Over the years, the tag, once said sarcastically has now become a proud statement. Something that is said by many of us (Hyderabadis) matter-of-factly. And this is the tag that foreigners or our 'Athithis' carry along with them. And believe me they don't do it in a nice way.Nor do they laugh over it.

During the recent Telangana agitations, lot of people (Hyderabadis) expressed their angst that Hyderabad's branding has taken a beating ..But then this happens almost every year doesn't it? Doesn't brand Hyderabad's image take a beating when we drive without lane-sense, traffic sense and civic sense? Doesn't it take a beating when we scribble sweet nothings on our heritage structures or encroach them? Doesn't it take a beating when we pollute our lakes and dirty our surroundings? Where does the thought of Brand Hyderabad go then??

When Hyderabadis and Indians can in general desist from breaking traffic rules, littering etc when they are in other countries, what makes it so tough for them to follow the same here? I have heard many NRIs tell me that the rules need to be more stringent here. I don't think it is about rules and regulations. It has more to do with us, individually and common sense. When we go to France, UK, US, we are awestruck by their heritage, take photos, go gaga over the buildings etc and when it comes to our own country, we go "tch-tch, this government isn't worth anything" and believe me we say this for every government.

So, next time we go 'tch tch Brand Hyderabad is taking a beating' let us think what Brand Hyderabad is in the first place. Is it just an image for wooing investors or beyond that? And what are we doing in contributing (or not) to this Branding?

The year that was part 1

2009-12-31T01:54:00.001+05:30

Wow! So the year has come to an end..well almost...exactly 24 hours from now and we will be entering the next decade-2010 and boy does it feel strange!!
Like every other year, this one's been a mixed bag for me yet again...but i seem to remember the happier moments over the sad ones this year. The sad ones have taught me lessons...lessons i will remember for the coming years. Of death..of life..of friendship..of betrayal and of trust.

The year started on a sad note...i lost a friend...murdered by the society's insensitivities and by her own haste. And the high point was that i had become permanent with The Hindu..a permanent employee with perks et all!

And then came March when i went to Chennai to visit my best buddies Nalini and Sumitra..Though the four days passed in a haze i remember having lots of fun...the walks on the beach..the endless hogging...non stop yapping...venting, laughing, giggling, bitching! It was four days of masti! :) of clicking super crazy photographs...A month where i revisited some superb memories when we went to our dear ACJ together..and caught up with some super cool juniors-Ajai, Moon, Mehran, Sneha and others.. March 2009 my kid sister Soumya turned 18 and i was once again amazed at how fast time flies! From being the naughtiest cousin to a mature young woman, she has come a whole long way! :) And i really hope she discovers herself better in the coming years! :)

April, May were 'hot' months in every sense! I got a taste of political reporting (almost!) when i got to cover the Assembly elections...was amazed and disgusted at the same time at the money that is spent (given away) to acquire votes(read)..the period left me disillusioned and worried with our so-called democratic system...I also voted for the first time...No i don't have a voter id card still! I just know my serial number! I remember standing at the polling booth and wondering whom to vote...and also remember regretting the second i voted! May 28 my sis Sandhya left behind her teens and entered the 'Terrific Twenties' ... Wow! I still can't get over the fact that these two sisters (Sandhya and Soumya) have grown up and then i am reminded of my own age! :)) :D And my birthday in 2009 was also one of the best that i have had in a long time.. :) Thanks again to all those who made my birthday the 'Most Memorable' one...

In between all these special moments..was my own emotional craziness...of people whom i thought i knew 'well' turning out to be 'not so well'...and i realised that detachment is not a bad thing after all and that there is huge difference is saying "hey iwill be there" and someone becoming an 'emotional leech' on you....The months were also difficult as i was fighting against the system at work...thanks to some really close friends...i managed to pull through that one! Thanks Rak, Nal, Sumi, Abhi, Anna and Akhila Aunty for being there for me :)

June-three new ACJIANs entered the Hindu world...two who made my life at office much more bearable and fun! Thanks Suvasini and Jayashree for all the fun 'canteen moments', for the friendship..for the sisterhood! :)

Then came July when a secret trip happened! Haha :-) And No i shall not disclose it even now! ;) But yea the keywords remain-friends...trip...farmhouse...food...fun....and some superb bonding! :) From discussing heartbreaks with anger to verbally bashing a few 'idiots', the entire trip was a fun and supremely refreshing one! :) :)

But the weeks and days were interspersed with days of intense frustration to days of intense joy...and on days of frustration, a special someone would always know how and when to make me smile...so much so that even getting caught in crazy Hyderabad jams become enjoyable and i was actually looking forward for them...like i would look forward for the 'ice-cream breaks' just as i would look forward to just getting a glimpse of that special someone-my soulbrother :)

The year that was....part 2

2009-12-31T01:48:00.001+05:30

But no,the year was not a bed of roses for me...It was also an year of some freakishly scary moments..like the day when i found out that Venky Anna was hospitalised...I remember feeling scared and lost and praying fervently to God...I remember going to the hospital and getting impatient just to see him...and feeling at peace when i found out he was going to be alright....

A few months later...i saw my otherwise agile grandfather weak and wanting to give up on life.To see someone who had lived life to the hilt in that manner bothered me intensly...I saw him slip into a depression that was never part of his life..2009 also marked the end of my grandfather's drinking years (he is not an alcoholic)...But thankfully, he hung in there and fought it off :) it's good to see him back again in his elements..

August was a visit to Mumbai-to attend Rajesh's engagement and i made two cool new friends there-Nitya and Vidya :) Nitya the silent mischievous one and Vidya the cool funny babe :) The trip was a special trip as both the families were travelling together for the first time and it was super duper fun! :) The train journeys..the engagement ceremony et al and the Mumbai trip..But all through the trip i missed Rakesh a lot...i would phase out at times thinking how nice it would have been if Rakesh was here..It was a special trip also coz i met Rahi and Homi after over an year and felt sooo nice! It's so nice to have insanely sane friends! :)

September 2.the Chief Minister YSR died in a terrible helicopter crash! The month was one of crazy reporting..of seeing and experience mass grief for a supposed despot...it was also the month when Rakesh turned 25 (:D) and a bit more mature! :)

October 2009 my darling niece Sarayu (second one) was born...It was awesome being there and seeing her minutes after she was born! A tiny little creature with cute little features who is growing up rapidly with each passing month...It was a different feeling all together watching my second cousin donning the role of a mother...We all had grown up together and though there is a good 5-years gap between us, Swetha never let me feel the gap! She was the one who would be the first to know about all my crushes..who would hear out my stupid school problems and who would counsel me..she was perhaps also the first of my cousins who treated me not as a 'kiddo' but as 'Priya'... Swetha,Jagathi akka,Ranjitha, Karthik, Vikram (my own bro) we have had a time of our life together...and hve shared some crazy moments together...so it feels weird to see all of them (minus Karthik) married...and in new roles! :)

October was also the month when i got my FIRST BONUS! And boy it felt goood :) Professionaly the month was interesting as i was allowed to do report from Kurnool district,following the floods...the trip saddened me personally....the destruction..the loss of life and livelihood.....

And then came the best news of the year-That Rakesh would be coming to India after 15 Loooooonggg months in November for his brother's wedding and for our ENGAGEMENT! :) :)

November: We got engaged! :) But the best day was when i met him at the airport after so long (November 22)...just feeling him beside me...and not just hearing his voice...just holding him..and hugging him and knowing that he was here now...and then the pre-engagement shopping happened..the hunt for the perfect rings began! :) and the clothes..and the arrangements! And then the friends landed on November 25! :) The month was also the time when i realised that i had a wonderful set of girlfriends who are just there at every special moment and difficult moment of my life..who just know how to make my special day a brilliant one... even if it means being asked crazy questions like "Are you ready for this engagement"or being told that "Life is going to different after engagement"...But then these are people who are there for me come what may who take me for what i am! Thanks once again Chandrika...my darling cousin, Krishna, Sumi, Nalini, Mallika,Neha, Priyamvada (though she wasn't at the engagement) Jayashree and Suvasini for making this year and my special day so much more special :) November 26 is a day in pictures! :) I was humbled by the sheer fact that almost each and every person-family and friends who were invited had turned up to bless us-myself and Rakesh... be it the old friends or the new friends..the cousins..the uncles and aunts and not to forget my new family who have made me one of theirs! :-) Thanks Mamaya, Athaya, Rajesh, Nitya, Pavan, Dheeru,Karthik, Swetha, Charan, Lalitha and Lakshmi athayas and Gopi Uncle :)

November 29 Rajesh and Nitya got married and it was one hectic day but a day full of fun and lotssaaaa bonding with the family again..

December has passed me in a haze....it's just been a month full of Rakesh Rakesh and more Rakesh and i remain unsatiated...my thirst for him and for his love remains unquenchable...every minute i have spent with him so far has been memorable one...whether it be sitting at Barista our favorite coffee shop and talking 'family' stuff or just hanging out at Eat Street or discovering our combined love for good food at Tansen, Little Italy and elsewhere..or laughing together in cinema halls... or just chilling at home...the month has been one of the best months of 2009 and i wish time would stop!December was also the month when i met up my other besties from school Anusha and Bhavana..not to forget the brilliant Christmas lunch with Akhileshwari aunty, Pronoy,Amulya and Rakesh :)

This year will be remembered for many reasons...most important of all...friendship...New friends of 2008 A and V are now my closest buddies...older ones remain the golden ones :) Here's a toast to all those who made my year so so so special! :)

And Yes HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010 :)

Cynicism Vs Optimism

2009-11-19T18:43:00.010+05:30

One of the biggest drawbacks of being a journalist i think is that one turns into a cynic. You come across so much 'reality' and so many times is one slapped on the face by this reality that you tend to become a cynic and start thinking-this is it. Nothing will change. And then some day as part of work, you meet a group of people or individuals who are so hell bent on bringing this change...who still believe that things can change, that you feel heartened, even as a part of you laughs at their blind optimism.

When i decided to take up journalism, i truly believed in the proverb 'pen is mightier than the sword', then i had a wake up call at a J-School, that change happens but at a really slow pace and that journalists of today are not the same as the glorified activist-journalists of yesteryears.

Yet, i was not prepared for the complete lack of conscience among people-politicians, beauracrats, officials, ngo workers, doctors etc...One year into journalism and i had turned into a cynic. Three years ago, i truly believed that change was not impossible...and three years later i felt change was not wanted truly. Through my reports i tried to highlight issues, fight of individuals, good work done by organisation..but deep down there was always this feeling that its not enough..what is the govt doing? how much can a handful of people do? I would come home frustrated at the lack of response to media reports..at the complete fearlessness of the fourth estate and at the rising yellow journalism ..there have been times when i have felt that i was nothing short of a glorified PR person.

But then it is always not so bad. It feels good when someone reacts to your report. When someone takes cognisance and try to bring about change. When readers call up congratulating you for highlighting an issue...but at the end of the day i always ask the same question: Have i really done my bit? And if pen is truly mightier than sword..?

The trip to Kurnool was one of my most frustrating trips as a human being but professionally satisfying. Frustrating at the complete lack of response from the officials, the complete failure of the State machinery and the insensitivity of fellow human beings towards those suffering. One somehow wants to believe that natural disasters and war time tend to erase the barriers such as caste and religion and gender..but it seldom happens. The idealist in me believed that those affected would have risen above these silly yet destructive barriers. But i was taken aback when that was not the case. However, wasn't i supposed to be prepared?? Low caste areas continued be under the slush...those who could afford it (read upper caste) got the slush out of their homes..those who couldn't lived with it. Old town of Kurnool where Hindus and Muslims live in equal number also saw this disparity. I surely did get good reports...but as i began my journey back from Kurnool, i felt despair. Despair at what would happen ten years down the line. What would happen to this society?? What can erase these barriers? Colleagues, friends with whom i would air my frustration and despair ask me to be patient.Be patient change will happen. Be patient it's not easy for one or two individuals to change the world. Be patient, things will fall in place.

And just when i was hitting the rock bottom of the cynic-pit something happens that pulls me out and revives my faith in humanity. I remember the day 3 weeks ago, when my mom woke me up with the news that my servant maid's six-year-old had been diagnosed of blood cancer. I was upset..Ofcourse, it;s not a new thing and hundreds of young children are diagnosed of cancer every year..but when this was closer home and it hit me hard. Swathi, would come home with her mom and like any typical child would catch hold of the numerous soft toys in my home and sit in the rocking chair even as her mom would tell her to get off the chair. It was a typical case...poor family..no father. No money and 2 other daughters to look after. Suvarna, my maid was helpless and she wanted to kill the entire family along with herself. The doctors had told her that the treatment would be around a lakh rupees. I wanted to help..and the help in this case had to be financial or medical. When i sent out an appeal to a group of friends and people, little did i expect a response. Sms, mails status msgs evoked response. When Mr.Thiagarajan and Ashwin said they would do the needful, i wasn't expecting a response of such a large scale. Both of them are two of the most positive individuals i have met in ages and are full of energy that shames a 23 year old like me.

The mail got forwarded to unknown people, got posted in groups and help started pouring in. In less than 2 weeks, i was assured of 40,000 Rs and that's when i felt humanity exists. That was the point when i felt that all was not lost. Here are people whom i had met through my professional capacity as a journalist who came forward to reach out to this unknown person and i was overwhelmed. Overwhelmed with the trust people placed in me and with the compassion shown by people from across different countries wanting to help a child in need...

Humanity exists in different forms..what we need is a united front to bring about change....I just hope my optimistic side wins over the cynical side..there may be few things to cheer about but i hope i can continue to cherish those few things....

It feels surreal

2009-09-04T17:41:00.003+05:30

I didn't think i would ever write a blogpost for or about Y.S.Rajasekhara Reddy. But then this post is happening. Even as i write this in a dreamlike state sitting in the office, it feels utterly surreal that he is no more.
Did i like him?Was i proud to have him as the Chief Minister of my State? I wasn't. Though, i appreciated the schemes that were introduced for him, like the Arogyasri Scheme for instance or other pro-agricultural,pro-poor policies, there were quite a few things about him that bothered me and many like me. Corruption and scams that occured during his time were regressive. So even as the State claimed to move ahead, it was also being pulled back. Lack of accountability among government officials had increased manifold. But then there are many supporters who ask me "Which politician isn't corrupt?" Another issue to be dealt and written about on another occassion-about how easily we seem to accept corrupt politicians.
However, today when i watch his coffin being lowered down, i feel odd. And am concerned. Concerned about the State as a whole. Concerned as to who will come and fill his shoes. For five years and three months, he was at the helm of affairs. Never once faltering, never once feeling discouraged. He was not to be cowed down by anything-opposition or scams or allegations.
A politician with a sharp tongue, his remarks had created uproars in the Assembly. His smirk and over-confident comments on the Opposition leaders left many seething with anger. He made many enemies, but the enemies were too scared to fight him.

A co-journalist had asked me outside the pilot's home yesterday, if i liked YSR. And i chose not to answer. I disliked him approving endless SEZ (103) and irrational irrigation projects. I disliked him for giving a free hand to the police and for not discouraging corruption; for reducing the accountability in the State.
But, for many he was their messaih. On Thursday, as i walked towards the CM's camp office,right beside my office, i saw the number of people-men, women old and young who came to pay their last respects to their "anna". Women weeping recalling how his numerous schemes helped him, youth recounting how they got employed thanks to his schemes, poor students thanking him for having got an opportunity to study...and so on. As i reached home, my eager watchmen wanted to know where the burial would be and broke down saying that he was a poor man's friend. The watchman recalled how the arogyasri scheme covered the medical expenses when his wife fell ill.
On Friday, as scores of people poured out on the road to pay respects for their leader, i thought i should probably give the devil its due. Here is a Chief Minister who actually implemented what was promised-free power, scholarships, water, health et al.. And the poor man sees this. Not how effective the schemes probably were. Not how much was 'eaten' by greedy politicos. And YSR knew this. He encouraged higher education by setting up IIIT's. It';s a different thing some run in godowns. And a completely different issue that government schools are rotting like the government hospitals and primary health care centres in rural areas. A friend of Muslims and Christians alike, he knew how to keep the minority votes safe. At times, at the cost of majority sentiments.
But then in this country speaking ill about someone who died is blasphemy and the media is careful not to commit this sin.
YSR died a hero. And he will continue to live so. And he will be immortal. Like all those who died in the digital-age will remain.
But yes, it is eerie-The fact that one won't see him in the Assembly or addressing press conferences or teasing the opposition feels weird......

Memories of a woman, a mother and a grandmother

2009-09-01T02:46:00.005+05:30

I remember her chubby face, her endearing smile...her beautiful eyes. I remember the way she smelt...like a baby yet like a mother.I remember the softness of her saree as i buried in my face in her bosom...and cuddled to her...I still remember them all like it was yesterday.

She flits in and out of my life.There are days...weeks and perhaps months when i don't think of her..don't remember her and days when all that i can think of is her..reliving each day..trying to forage for the slowly vapourising memories...

And then am scared.What if i forget her?What if i forget her smell?And i try hard to remember her voice..But i can't..ofcourse unless i speak to her sister..And then my mind tries to do a photographic capture of all the memories.But they are rushed.Vague and muddled.

Now, there is no timeframe. I hear the memories argue among themselves,trying to convince me which came first. But my first memory of her is coupled with smell of dicoction coffee and the sounds of crows cawing outside the window. The memory is almost like a black and white film now. With shades of colours in. Like the colour of her saree.A green colour one with patterns of some red flowers.I walk groggily outside and she picks me up,cuddles me and takes me to the bathroom. As i brush my teeth, i hear her singing a song in a low tone. Sleepily, i walk towards her and she places a glass of milk to my lips. And then the memory ends...

Then again there is the day when she gave me a bath in the courtyard, even as my enthusiastic uncle clicked pictures of us. I remember her chiding her son as i begin to cry....She washed my hair with 'kunkudi kayi rasam' and laughs as the bitter juice enters my mouth accidently..she then dries me with a white turkey towel and wraps me in the same even as i run around a little kitten...and then there is the day when she introduced me to 'goli-soda'. I watched her as she drank the chilled drink trying to cool-off the humidity.

She sees the pleading look in my eyes coupled with curiosity and desire for the hidden goli in the green bottle. As i taste the first fizzy drink of my life, i remember the curious sensations i experienced of the fizz in my mouth, the seemingly smell-less smell and the sound of traffic around me...

And then there are many more memories which rush through....or perhaps i was rushing through them as i grew up..as i made friends..as school became my priority...

I remember seeing the women and wife in her the day she saw pictures of her husband's first trip to the US. A photo of an American woman giving a peck on my grandpa's cheek had her blood rushing to her facing and her sulking for an entire day....Of a mother when her elder son-in-law (my dad) yelled at her daughter without her fault... Of a grandmother when i came down with chicken-pox...the neem-baths to calamine lotions...that was perhaps the best sickness i ever came down with! Because she was around.

And every summer as i got off the train and rushed to get into the rickshaw, i would be as eager as ever...waiting to see her, hold her and be pampered..

Waiting to wake up to the same reassuring sounds of people talking, of birds chirping, of motor running, of the fan whirring... Waiting to eat the delicious hot idlis with amazing chutney or be treated to endless summer fruits like date palm fruits, mangoes etc. I would wait, for those evening trips to the market with her, picking up clothes, getting restless, being treated to endless eatables..to coming back home exhausted....to the smell of her cooking...

She was there when i stepped into 'womanhood'.She was there trying hard to put concepts in most simple terms for me, answering incessant questions even as she tried hard to live by traditions laid down by her fore-fathers. Traditions she never firmly believed in but chose to follow. She was there chiding my father as he spoilt me and bringing me back to reality..She was always there..

And then suddenly, just like that she was gone. I still remember that phone call. The phone call that changed it all.That brought me really close to death..I remember dad recieiving the call in the dead of the night and mom instinctively asking if her mom was ok.

I remember mom crying and coming into the room and waking us up....and telling us that 'She died'. A phrase i didn't want to hear or believe. And i chose not to for a long time.

I remember that trip down to the place i was born..the trip where i saw my super-human grand-dad turn into a mere mortal before my eyes...the trip where he sobbed on my lap, the trip where my little cousins had come face-to-face with death even before they realised the meaning of life...i remember it all.

And i remember trying to collect and put all the memories together of my darling grandmother. Trying hard not to believe that she would no longer be there for me.....

And today, almost 13 years after her death, i feel her loss even more plainly. I feel her abscence even acutely as much as i miss my grandfather. I have always wanted to be the 'good girl' in their eyes and when i do something wrong, it is them and not God that i look upto for forgiveness...it is from them that i seek courage.....

Words they say are forever and i just put together perhaps a handful of my memories with grandma with the hope that it stays forever.....

Rights over practicality?

2009-08-02T21:17:00.006+05:30

http://www.livepunjab.com/articles/supreme-court-says-mentally-challenged-women-can-continue-pregnancy-18800.html

This is a report on how the Supreme Court, the Apex court of our country has withheld the right of a mentally challenged 19-year-old victim of rape to continue pregnancy. The girl, an orphan had been an inmate of Nari Niketan in Chandigarh where she was repeatedly raped by the watchman. By the time it was brought to light, the girl was found to be pregnant by eight weeks and was shifted to another home.

While the Punjab High Court took the role of a 'parent' and asked for the termination of the pregnancy, the girl's appointed lawyer asked for the continuation of the preganancy on the grounds that the child would be her only 'blood relative'.

As someone who is studying human rights, the case caught my eye for multiple reasons.I am no legal expert, but there are certain issues that i wanted to discuss (rather vent).

According to many, the SC has set a precedent by stating that mentally challenged women can have children, thereby protecting the rights of the mentally challenged. Appreciating this decision of the SC i however feel that there is a lacunae here and that the actual issue remains unaddressed. Ofcourse, mentally challenged and disabled women can become mothers but i believe motherhood is someting that is 'chosen' and not 'forced' upon.

In this particular instance, the girl was 'raped'and she certainly didn't know what was happening with her. So, the issue should have been not about protecting the rights of a disabled or mentally challenged woman, but that of forced motherhood on a rape victim-whether or not disabled.

Though Indian Law has left the choice of abortion to the parents, particularly the woman bearing the foetus, however the law also says that abortion cannot be carried out once the foetus is 20 weeks old. The teen's plight was brought to the notice of the authorities when she was eight weeks time, leaving ample time for an abortion or medical termination to be carried out. However, the question remains whether the victim wanted an abortion or not? Though, the High Court took the role of a 'parent' and asked for a medical termination, questions were raised by the victim's lawyer as to why the girl shouldn't become a mother.

But should the victim's motherhood have gotten more focus over the fact that a woman was raped? Again, a major question remains unanswered here- Was the victim's opinion really taken into consideration? Or was an opinion forced upon someone who was in no position to take this decision? And if a normal woman who has been raped and sexually traumatised has the right to abort why was there such a huge debate over this victim?Was it because she was mentally challenged?

By the time the debate reached SC, the girl was past 20 weeks of pregnancy leaving no option for the SC but to allow pregnancy-as terminating it would be dangerous for both mother and child and against the law.

Was this a case of - justice delayed justice denied? Could the SC have intervened earlier in the matter really taking into consideration the opinion put forth by mental health experts,doctors and ground reality and not just be swayed by human right activists and NGOs who are promising to take care of the girl-woman and her to-be-born child.

Despite being a student of human rights, i am not finding the judgement practical.Or should practicality be kept aside when talking about rights? I think we have enough laws and conventions which talk about protecting the rights of disabled and mentally challenged to become mothers but should the issue of rights have come up here especially coz the girl was raped.

An orphan and someone with an IQ of 9 years old, i wonder if the SC's judgement would have been the same if the girl was from an elite family. I also found the lawyer's arguments insufficient. She said the girl should have the child because that was her only blood bond. Should the judgement have swayed by emotions than practicality? A girl who is unable to take care of herself and that too raped,how right was it on the lawyer's part to say that she should carry on with the pregnancy, keeping aside the medical reports evaluating the child.

I will also state here that there have been instances where rape victims in the world have kept their pregnancy intact even when they had the choice to abort it. But i am concerned in this case as to whether the girl-woman really had a choice here?

A support system is extermely important for a disabled and mentally retarded people. In a scenario where the person has no proper support system, it naturally becomes the State' s responsibility to look after them. But whose responsibility does an orphan like this girl's case and hundreds others is it when the State fails?? And what is the guarantee that the State will not fail in protecting the interests of both mother and child here?

Motherhood is an important step in any woman's life and it has proven to have theraupatic effects in the case of the mentally challenged. However,one also needs to look at the trauma that was inflicted upon the girl-woman here. Will this pregnancy really have theraupatic effect on her or will it worsen the situation?

What was worse was that the ongoing debate on the 'motherhood' has kept the investigation of the rape wanting with the 'alleged' rapist denying the charge and saying that the pregnancy should not be terminated as it was'evidence'.So now question remains considering that the courts took their own sweet time to take a decision on the pregnancy, shouldn't the DNA tests and investigation of rape have been carried out first?

And this is where i think the need of fast track courts is felt again and again. We need in this country a strong judicial system and a fast one too. And that means we need more lawyers, informed ones and no i am not talking about the fake lawyers. There is a need tto increase emphasis on humanities in the education system. And the media should learn to be more balanced and not create unncessary emotional hype when it comes to sensitive issues like this.

Also, the media should follow up the story and actually see how effective (or right) was the judgement. People might have short term memory when it comes to news but the media shouldnt.

Thankfully, the case has brought to limelight the plight of hundreds and thousands of women -normal and mentally challenged who are subjected to varying forms of sexual abuse. But a lot needs to be addressed regarding pregnancies that arise out of such sexual abuse. Should the rights of the victim be safeguarded or should the rights of the unborn child be given precedent over the rights of the victim?

Memories made and to be made....

2009-07-06T01:19:00.004+05:30

Every Saturday as i head home after my really boring night shifts, there is just one thing that comes to my mind..the beauty of silence and night..The empty roads, the battalion of street lights standing together huddled in a discussion of shadows...the homeless people sleeping on every available space..the road,the footpaths,the bus shelters...the lonely dogs running around rummaging for food...and the loneliness of it all...

Its a same feeling Saturday after Saturday...As i pass through the familiar spots i and rakesh used to hang around when he was here....a sense of loneliness and the realisation of how overpowering physical distance too can be... As the cab moves towards Begumpet, past the flyover..i am reminded of the endless times I and rakesh would be caught in the crazy traffic.....as i near Lifestyle, a smile comes on my face as i remember the times when we both just went and window shopped there....

It is unbelievable but there are many places which remind me every day of Rakesh....the cab slowly crosses Shoppers Stop and i remember the first Valentine when Rakesh bought me a beautiful necklace there...Come Paradise circle and i remember the endless times when he picked me up from there to drop me in college....Patny...YMCA...the memories are endless....

And every Saturday...there is one person who keeps me company as i head home...--Rakesh...His voice keeps me company...one thing that we both have learnt over long distance is recognising even the smallest change in our voices....I might not be able to see him or he might not be able to see me..but we know...when either one of us is down...or excited...the voices give it away.... And each Saturday...Rakesh's voice keeps me company, he makes me laugh..he listens to me as i vent...soothes me...argue with me if need be...sing for me...but he is there around...omnipresent...always...

Whether it be on Saturday nights or when am working....when i pass through familiar places...such as KBR Park, Barista, Pizza Hut, Nagarjuna Circle, Central, Shilparamam...even buses bring back memories...8 A...250/49M, Secunderabad Bus stop, railway stations... the feeling is back...the memories flood me and i feel lonely and lost...i feel incomplete....And then i am again lost in the crazy world of every day existence..of work of the monotony of it all...but with that feeling of emptiness....

It's crazy...the distance between me and Rakesh..but it's something that i have learnt to cope with perhaps not too effectively....but yes...it's a challenge...and the wait is maddening..but like i tell my friends..the wait is surely worth it....

Its been almost 11 months since i have seen Rakesh...and it's going to be atleast 8 more months before i see him...add or minus a few months...but the wait continues..the journey continues for us...living in two different continents....bonded by one single thread of Love....Till then...i will live with the memories....knowing that many more memories are waiting to be made.......

Just a story....

2009-04-13T00:00:00.003+05:30

She sat there staring at the wall... Her hair untidy and her dress dishivelled.. Her dark black eyes were lifeless...The 10 by 10 room looked even smaller, with the metallic door shut close. A small opening in the door was her only connection with the outside world. The white tiled room with a ceiling painted white was supposed to have a calming affect.

On the contrary...the room suffocated her. The whiteness of the room blinded her. Unlike her room, her mind was a dark cave. Black thoughts crammed her brain and she was waiting to explode. Images of her past loomed right in front of her..

She stared till she saw the images on the wall in front of her... the wall was no longer white..the room was no longer small..it was dark.... The clock struck 2 after midnight..she was alert trying to listen to the tell tale signs...the door to her room creaked open..slowly but steadily...and then she felt it...

A touch...a touch so revolting...she wished she was dead...she slowly switched herself off to what the hands were doing to her...her body was no longer hers. She had detached herself even as tears rolled down her eyes. The hands groped her body while forcing her to do unmindful things.. Then she heard the panting cold voice...a parting warning..a warning that she would hear for years to come 'He will die if you open your mouth'..Crying silently, she set her dress straight and went back into the foetal position feeling impure...

She was jolted back to present as she heard the door open..Her heart started beating loudly...even as her eyes were peeled away from the white wall to the sight of the heavy door being pushed open. She saw him..a flickr of recognition and then she went all blank again. He called out to her softly, she shivered. He came closer even as she pushed herself to the wall, scared..."I won't hurt you. I love you," he said. She recognised the voice..and the face...He took out the photos and starting talking to her in a soft tone. She stared at his face, at his greying hair, the dark brown eyes. He looked at her.. He held her hands and said "I am there for you. No one will hurt you," This time the touch was not revolting.It was comforting. She held on to him.

Sleep soon took over her.Her thoughts had manifested themselves in dreams..nightmares..confusing ones.. she got up sweating...and screaming...and she saw him...sleeping in the chair across her bed. She got up and stared at him..and tried hard to remember who he was. Picking up the photo album beside him, she slowly flipped the pages. Of her and the man across her.Laughing in one, hugging each other in one, in a park, at a party...Her memories were coming back to her. She got down..went near him..put her hand on his knee and called him softly, her voice choking with tears. He got up, switched on the light and saw her weeping. He pulled her up and put her in his lap and rocked the chair...his embrace broke the wall...he hugged her tight....and as his lips touched hers, he knew she was his again...She was out of the darkness.....

Under a Tree

2009-04-01T12:48:00.003+05:30

I sat under the tree and let the shade envelope me. As i sat on the cement wall, i looked down into the pond at my other self..at my reflection.... The gentle breeze whispered in my ears...as the leaves swayed in orchestrated unison with the breeze...

I heard a splash and saw a little boy throwing stones into the pond, watching the ripples in wonder...I remembered the day the first time i threw a coin into the vast river from a moving train. And i wondered, where is all the wonder and innocence now? I saw a couple hand in hand, obviously very much in love...and i remembered....the last time i was here...under that tree..

It had been long since i had sat there under that tree. And the last time i had sat there i wasn't alone.I was with my soulmate. I was with my best friend. I was with my companion and i was in the midst of love.

I remember that day. That day is etched deep in my heart. I might not remember the date.But i remember the hours spent under that tree, as i gazed lovingly into his eyes. As i let my mask of 'a bubbly girl' fall and let my soul talk. I remember his loving eyes telling me he would always be there for me.No matter what.

We sat there for three hours or was it longer? We sat there oblivious of the people around us. Of the disapproving eyes..of the curious looks..of the stares..We smiled at each other when we saw couples hand in hand, while at the same time wondering how many of them would last..I remember thinking 'Will you and me last?' I remember saying this to him and he held my hand...he didnt say a word but just held on to my hand..he spoke through touch..he reassured me with his eyes...that we would last forever...

For a few minutes we were quiet,absorbing our surroundings and then we were lost in each other again. We sat there discussing everything under the sky, from the injustice meeted out to the vulnerable sections to the environment..We laughed... We talked about us, our future, hopes and dreams...

As we moved away from the tree towards the pond,little did we realise that, that tree and that place would be something we would cherish forever...where we felt a sense of togetherness..not just with each other but with our surroundings...

Where dreams weave stories....

2009-03-06T14:22:00.008+05:30

Since childhood, i have had the knack to remember dreams, if not whole, at least partly. I would wake up with a particular image or scene or feeling and sometimes even taste in the morning. And then there are some dreams that recur...always leaving me wondering what they meant if they meant something.

She was standing in a playground. It was sport's day at school with tent's put up at one corner... She was there with her four year old. As he dragged her into the crowd towards his class, she goes back in time. Revisiting her memories of being 13 when she stood there in the same ground in a white salwar proudly sporting her house colour... And then she was snapped back into time by the little one who was running excitedly towards his friends. He looked cute in his blue checks shirt.. As she watched him, she saw her fifth standard school teacher looking at her, trying to recall her name. "Ma'am it's me. Do you remember?". A hint of recognition and a smile as the teacher asks her to sit beside her. "So, how are you what are you doing?,"she asks. As she tries to find an answer, she looks across to see her four year old gleefully play in the mud, making circles with his shoes. "I am a mother now," she says with a smile. The teacher smiles...as she remembers her struggle to have children. of wielding uncomfortable questions. Of dashed dreams and lost child. She saw the sadness creep into her teacher's eyes. She was no longer a doting student wondering what had happened to her teacher or where her tummy had disappeared. She was a mother now. Who understood the angst of the lost child. She looked at her own son again. She moved towards the parent's corner remembering times when her own parents would sit there watching her perform the drill or take part in athletics. Buildings had sprung up in her school campus. Little corners where she used to sit with her friends during the games periods were no longer there. She glanced at the basket ball court and dribbling the ball came back to her. She saw the curly haired boy with dark eyes look at her giving her a smile, waving enthusiastically at her. The drum beat started. The same old band, the same old beats..123 123 1 2 3....she smiled as her son took position to do the drill. The little hands moving up and down.
And then a loud blast...she was taken aback. As heads turned towards the source of sound, another loud blast this time much closer. Shrieks, wails and screams followed. She was shocked. Rooted on the spot. Wondering what had happened...Bomb blast?Here?In her school?
Before long she saw white gowns taking a reddish shade. Bloodied body parts were strewn on the ground...a white canvas shoe had turned red in colour...a burnt saree... a broken watch...children lying dead their lives cut abruptly..the red blood mixing with the brown mud...and the she looked for him...

She looked for the curly haired boy. He was looking for her. She moved towards him even as he was being pushed farther away in the wave of the overwhelming crowd moving away from the playground... spotted his little head. And then it was gone again. She screamed his name, but it was drowned in the the confusion... she started to run..run into the crowd, towards the curly haired boy... who was lost.
She saw her teacher hold a child and run out..crying..she was going to lose yet another child..She was running when she felt a hand hold her.. she looked down..it was a girl, she picked her up and ran..ran looking for the curly mop.
He wasn't to be found. She was crying now. . feeling helpless...she wanted to hold his hand...look into his dark eyes. She felt a small hand wipe her tears...the tears blurred her eyes. The hounds had come in now..mute spectators to mindless destruction carried out by humans... She saw a khaki clad man come towards her.
She put the little girl in his hands. As she did, he called her by name. She looked up, recognised him and broke down. She put a white handkerchief in his hand as he looked at her questioningly. She was muted by shock. Unable to react. "Please...find...my....boy...."she said in between sobs... As ambulances rushed in taking people in, she was frantic..looking for her boy...she saw blue shirts everywhere but not her boy...Her friend came.
As she looked at him with hope he remembered looking at her with the same hope during the exams. A look and she had passed her answer sheet to him.
He held her hand..took the hanky and let the hound sniff it.Soon, there was a tug at the leash, as the dog ran towards the auditorium.... parents with their children were in the auditorium that looked more like a makeshift hospital. As she ran past the auditorium, she couldnt help but remember the days she spent there. As a student, as part of the choir, or enacting a play, or during a fancy dress competition.
They were behind the auditorium now, near the green room. He began barking, scratching at the door. She pushed it open and ran inside..The room was dusty, filled with cobwebs and unused benches. She called out his name, almost shrieking now. And she saw the curly mop come out of a cardboard....He was there..bleeding from the ear...shaken. She went towards him, picked him up and hugged him tight, the dark eyes pleading her to never let him go......

This story, is my attempt at weaving a story out a dream that i had today morning.... of who i presume was my child getting lost...the blast..the crowds ..and the dream ended with him being found in a cardboard box. I often have strange dreams, but this one was in a sequence. My old schoolmates will perhaps remember which teacher i was talking about...the ground, the school all that were part of my dream today. the remaining i tried weaving out of my imagination. ...

The beauty of darkness...

2009-03-04T21:45:00.000+05:30

Light...something that we take for granted...the bright yellow sunlight...the tubelights in our office...and then when you experience darkness...u realise its worth...the value of light...as valued as love is for those who never had it in their lives...

It was around 9.30 pm when i returned home...i was all alone..and just as i entered the house..the lights went off.it was a power cut...as i edged my way into the living room..i was intimidated...by the pitch darkness..by the blackness of it all...the sofa suddenly seemed like a strange creature...and the curtain in the darkness had a spooky feel about it...suddenly it seemed full of life....as i moved into the kitchen...i was suddenly faced with the impossible challenge of finding the matchbox... I let my hands wander over the kitchen platform..the cold granite tickling my finger tips...the stove almost laughing at my helplessness....my leg touched something cold....and i felt something brush my feet....i was scared..and froze on the spot...as i let my eyes adjust to the darkness i realised that i had bumped into the rice container...my search continued...for the matchbox..for the giver of light..and at the moment i was forced to think of times before fire was discovered..images of stone age men and women couped in dark caves came to my mind.... and then i was amazed at the ability of the visually impaired to depend on their senses...my search continued even as thoughts muddled my brains...and my sense of touch was overwhelmed...my fingers were doing something they were not used to..i was too dependent on my eyes.... Fifteen minutes passed...i was conscious of the sounds around me..of the children running out to take a whiff of fresh air..of neighbours catching up on lost time....and then suddenly i found it...the matchbox... at that point felt like it was all that i wanted! As i struck the matchstick and the little flame danced..teasing me...i realised i needed a candle..and before long the dance ended...and i was plunged into darkness again....thankfully i had the matchbox...and another ardous search for the candle began....and i wondered yet again who invented candles?who discovered wax...who makes these candles for us....as i lit the candle...i was enchanted by the flame...the orange core...the bluish outline...i remembered my science class vaguely on the properties of flame...and i saw the strange shadows that were thrown on the wall as the flame gyrated... i was in a magical land that lies between light and darkness....and i was lost.... as i saw the candle die a slow death...slowly shrinking in size...i was amazed at the creativity of it all...of the magic behind it all.... i was in the land where senses are heightened,teased and stretched... where shadows become your playmates..and where silence no longer seems eerie...and then the lights were back on...and i was transported back to my land....of light...i heard the children run back into their homes...doors slam....i heard the televisions being turned on...and dinner table conversations coming to a halt....and neighbours getting back into the monotony of their life..perhaps to catch up only during the next power cut........ I was back to real world....where light just takes you back to a routine...where there are no real challenges like the visually impaired have...where there is light but no enlightenment..where there are conversations without warmth..where watching tv together means spending time together.....where life without email, cell phones seems impossible... where cities live in 'light' at the cost of villagers living in darkness for 18 hours...

Where love is overshadowed....will miss u anusha....

2009-02-04T19:36:00.000+05:30

If I had written this post a week ago... it would have been written with lot of angst.... and sadness. with a heaviness in the heart.... after a week I am calmer... composed and in a position to write with a sense of sadness... with emptiness in my heart.... and as I write... it I no longer curse the God... but yeah I feel helpless... I feel numbed with the society...

This post is long due... really long due... and I dedicate this post to all those friends I have lost over time... by losing I mean, the ultimate loss. Where there is no turning back. Where sorries won't bring them back. Where nothing would bring them up. I lost them to death. The most recent one being-
Anusha Cherukuri - a childhood friend... a playmate... classmate...

I met Anusha at my place of birth Guntur where I had studied for an year... in my seventh standard.... her smile... that was the first thing that struck me... if I look back now.. that’s the only thing that I seem to remember of her… Her bright smile... which always went up to her dark black expressive eyes... and of the 40 odd students in the class from varying background… she was perhaps from those few who wasn’t ashamed of her family background....and unknowingly taught me something essential in my life: Dignity of labour. Her father was a bus conductor....a job that I would not have thought much about if it wasn't for Anusha. She would talk endlessly about her dad's long hours spent in district buses... and her mom’s endless patience… she wanted to work hard... be a doctor... and help her parents... We would sit in the ground and talk endlessly... she would insist I speak in English with her because she wanted to pick up English and she would in turn help me with my math and Telugu... that January holidays I had to be operated upon for Appendicitis... and missed close to 10 days of school... by the time I was back she had the notes ready for me… written down... not even xeroxed... she had made a copy of notes in each and every subject for me and then she helped me learn all the chapters I missed in Maths... as I write these lines... memories are flooding my eyes... memories of pure love... pure friendship... a purity that is so hard to find now.... and I feel knives pierce my heart...as I realise that she is no longer there... Anusha was a hard worker and would help those who were weak in subjects... she was what I call a doer… always there to help... never asking for help for herself...

After I left Guntur... she was one of the very few people from my class I had managed to keep in touch with... her dreams of becoming a doctor remained unfulfilled… as she was soon married to her cousin in her degree first year... I remember her telling me, that she wanted to study but she doesn’t want to go against her dad who had worked so hard... what she didn’t tell me was that her dad had in the past few years turned into an alcoholic and had no savings at all... then I slowly got caught up in my own life... and I lost touch... lost numbers and lost contact... then three weeks we were back in touch... and my darling Anusha had grown up... and she asked for help… reached out for help... and before I could help... she was gone... she had taken her own life... and no she didn’t do this coz she didn’t want to fight it out… but coz she was pushed into a corner... She had been diagnosed of being HIV+... she was five months into her pregnancy… soon after as she revealed the same to her husband ..she was accused of 'sleeping around' ...and when she asked him to get the teest done as she was sure he was the carrier....her husband and in-laws kicked her out....and she was back in her motherz home...but that too wasn't of much help...and that's when I got her call... my initial euphoria of speaking to her after years soon turned into anger and sadness when I heard her speak... we spoke for a good hour... when she spoke of her dreams... plans with the child... and her will to fight... she wanted to live... and she had so many plans... She was going to name her child Saraswati if it was a girl and Vidyasagar if it was a boy... she wanted to educate her child… and she was ready to fight the disease...knowing fully well it would kill her in a few years time… but for those few years she wanted to live... and I had got her help... rather my brother had found help... but before the help reached... she did what she had always spoken against – ‘suicide’.... coz she was suspected... coz the society even today thinks that a HIV+ has no right to live... am not trying to generalise… but I know and this is just a case in proof that HIV+ are treated as shit and its triple oppression for women affected with it... even though the husbands might be responsible......where there is absolutely no support for those affected with the disease from their families... where misnomers and myths continue to exist about the disease...and what’s heartbreaking is it that women like Anusha are blamed for no fault of theirs... their character assassinated... their dignity ripped apart... and in the end many are forced to take their life... and believe me this is not a 'village' or 'small town' phenomenon... those living in Urban India are faced with similar problems... where a simple HIV/AIDS test is looked at with suspicion... where in the name of traditions and culture, the simple test is not being made mandatory pre-marriage...!

Untouchability still exists in India - In different forms - Talking about sex is still a taboo... talking about child sexual abuse… domestic violence… about marital rape... those with HIV/AIDS are treated as untouchables....and the untouchability is doubled in the name of reputation, pride, prestige...where love for your daughter is replaced by the family's pride… where support and care is replaced by ego and false prestige... where desperation is forced upon people... where death is shown as the only way out...

Anusha and her child were murdered...by her own family...by her own friends… by her own life partner who chose to let her suffer in silence... who cut her out from seeking help...she was murdered by the society which still questions the woman's character and not the man's....and am left with a vacuum... And I know this is not the first case of its kind... and also won't be the last...

RIP ANUSHA…!

2009-01-26T21:28:00.000+05:30

Where does anger stem from? Where does frustration come from?Where does helplessness emerge from? Why am i ruled by my emotions or rather why do my emotions rule me?

There are times like today..when somethings just take their time and sink in....and as it did sink in...this sense of being abandoned in the middle of an empty road... i felt anger rising...anger that had been suppressed....stamped upon each time i felt it rise...and its anger in its truest and purest form...anger where i want to break something...where i want to stand on top of a building or the highest point of the city and scream..where i want to do bad things....anger that stems from ignoring my inner feelings for a long time...anger thats caused by injustice...a feeling of indifference...bordering on cruelty....frustration-of trying to make people understand...frustration wondering why the hell am i even trying to make them understand..frustration on my own emotional ups and downs...frustration on my increased emotional dependence...frustration that i cant handle this issue on my own..frustration and anger- a super combo... i want to hit..run...run..run and run...away from my problems..away from my past and present...run towards my future...run blindfolded...run stonehearted..run towards my messaih...but the run seems long...and i am scared that i might just collapse somewhere half way through in this run...in this run for love..in this run for justice...in this run for peace.. and i am tired.. and i need to vent.

Life is an endless loop of emotions and at the end of the day...or life...u realise that all that u did was trying to get out of this loop only to be caught in a new loop....there is no way out...anger.frustration..helplessness...happiness..joy..ecstacy....peace....and the circle continues...and i want to put an end to it all...i want a way out of this endless loop...i want to stop going in circles...i want to put an end to all the anger...to all the frustration...I want justice..justice without vengeance...justice without fights...justice thats rightfully mine...

Yet another year comes to an end

2008-12-27T23:43:00.000+05:30

Hmm, so the countdown for the end of another year comes to an end. It feels like just yesterday when the year started and we are already seeing it come to an end...my year started like any other year...at home...with family...and dis year is going to b no different...
January 2008 was the turning point of my life...its going to one year since i went to Vidarbha as part of covering deprivation...but even today the images of the villages..villagers...poverty...haunt me...where life is about surviving each day.... Kishore Tiwari...Vijay Jawandia..these people continue to fight..fight to uplift the farmers......even today Kishore Tiwari continues to maintain a 'Suicide Diary'; a few thousand more farmers killed themselves this year too in parts of Vidarbha, Andhra etc... Nothing much has changed...the life of human beings in our country is worth zilt.
No One cares. One wonders where the so called NDTVs and CNN IBNs of this country were when farmers were on a suicide mission..except for making 'documentaries' which capture the 'poverty' of our country, hardly do u hear any channels or even papers for that matter discuss about the agriculture policy of this country. .. Doesn't NDTV think 'Enough is Enough' when it comes to the poor dying? guess not. Coz they don't watch NDTV right? So, a few thousand poor people die..who cares? The trp ratings don come down coz of those deaths right?
This year was also marked with unprecedented violence across the country..blast after blast..the psyche of the people was affected...however that too saw a gradual change from initial fear to a sense of detachment and acceptance that nothing much can be done and terror attacks can;t really be avoided..den November 26 happened..Mumbai got attacked..and the city's already stretched spirit snapped..while media went on a rampage covering the attacks...many crucial questions too were raised on the changing role of the media from a fourth estate to a corporate set up that needs to be regulated... from freedom of expression to the need for curbing this over-expression... 2008 has been the year when media truly touched a new low in India- whether it be the Aarushi murder coverage (which incidentally has been forgotten) to the Mumbai attack coverage.. the year has been a traumatic experience for the viewer, with many wishing for the days of DD news coverage to be back....
From a life changing trip to vidarbha..to mad rush to complete a dissertation in March 2008 to placements in April..to the convocation ceremony in May....this year has been quite an 'eventful' year for me...May 22- I saw Rakesh after 1o whole months..and boy was i happy! :) June was my training at The Hindu...June 2 to December 31- I have completed a few months at Hindu..
There have been days when i have been super frustrated at things..to moments of joy when reports and articles were appreciated..but yea the initial thrill of finding my bylines did slowly weear out..Aug 2008 Rakesh went back to US while in October we completed 3 years of togetherness....this year was also marked with our parents getting accustomed to each other...something that we both wanted... Looking back as i recap the year..i c that 2008 has been an year of learning and unlearning for me....story ideas...and six months in the field has left me looking at everything as a possible 'story idea'..and then there are times when i just want to get out of the monotony of reporting city based stories and want to roam around...
Made new friends this year.. like in any year..retained old friends....got in touch with older friends thanks to facebook....saw friends get married....shared the joy of my first cousin delivering a baby girl...while another cousin got married..while some found love..others lost love... forgave old friends...accepted mistakes and asked for forgiveness..bid farewell to other as they left for higher studies....lend shoulders to friends when they needed it...made new friends online...one such friend is Vatsala-Kappa who was my junior at Francis... i have't met her till date..but i feel protective about her..like i would be of a younger sis..
Friendship at Workplace: Something that i thought wouldn't happen..considering the vast age difference and professional experience..but yea i did manage to acquaint myself quite many in the office...while i found friends in three.. proving that age difference doesnt really matter as long as the wavelength matches....SKM, Venky and ADK (the only one in my age group) have been really good..from helping me get accustomed to the place to making me feel at home...Venky and i share the same alma mater..our school...SKM is a good human being who just doesnt say No to anyone...and is always there for anyone ready to help...he is truly a 24/7 helpline :) a man with a good heart...and with an equally lovable daughter... ADK has helped me get used to the nuances of working in a city bureau to lending an ear when i wanted to vent....
It's been a good year over all...an year worth remembering for numerous reasons...

One reason why am looking forward for the new year is that 2 people am really close to in this office have promised me that they would quit smoking. And am glad they are for reasons best known to them and me....

Well, here is wishing all of you a Happy New Year 2009. ... :)

2008-12-22T22:50:00.000+05:30

The other day i went to a political rally...that of Chiranjeevi's party- PrajaRajyam. I tagged along a colleague of mine...and boy was it fun..well, political reporting has its own charm i guess...though i am sure it can get monotonous after a while..But yea it was worth an experience..I have been to political rallies before...as a student of journalism in chennai..but unfortunately i could hardly follow half of what the speaker spoke thanks to my limited understanding of Tamil. But here, it was different..the meeting was being held at Dharna Chowk, near Indira Park..

I was left wondering as to what motivated people to come to such meetings...i mean even after so many years of non-governance and corruption, how is it that political parties, new and old, and leaders continue to attract people in hordes? Something about the whole atmosphere was charged and i had a zillion questions running in my mind..the issue being discussed in this particular meeting was about the attacks on women..following the acid attacks (which i will discuss in my later posts)...this speaker went on and on blaming the government the police for the lack of safety...and i was wondering..oh so is the government responsible for the sexual violence that is perpetuated against women in their own homes..as ever..my mind was digressing and couldnt remain focused..i was too captivated by the whole atmosphere..of women listening to men and women on a pedestal...the words sounded hollow to me...a cynic that i am..but i saw the hope and admiration in the eyes of those gathered there and i was left pondering and wondering..what does it take to be a politician or a leader in this country?and then i wondered..if these women r so awestruck by a moderate speaker like who ever was on the stage (forgive my ignorance..i am bad with names more so those of politicians!) ...and i was thinking what a great speaker Hitler must truly have been...my thoughts were digressing in the same manner as they are now!! There was this man...a truly irritating one at it.....the meeting which was primarily a women centric meeting had this man openly bossing over the so-called women leaders.. it was an open show of male chauvinism.....but those gathered there didn think so. And that's when my thoughts shifted towards how ingrain some gender stereotypes are...how many women just seem to accept men 'crowning' over them..under the pretext of a 'safety umbrella' and so on and so forth......

Anyways all in all..the experience was a different one..a thought provoking one..inspite of the painful time my poor ears had thanks to the blaring loud speakers...which had me wondering about the effects of loud noises on people in the vicinity!!!! It will remain a wonder to me...how and what makes or pushes people to sit in front of politicians, daring heat (thankfully PRP had put up a tent)...it's quite an interesting study of human psychology....half the people sitting there are aware that most of the promises made will not be lived up to..yet they come...i guess its all about hoping against hope....like a fellow journalist from an urdu daily said today "if the king is a thorough businessman what more can u expect from those under him? "..he said this in response to another journalist's statement that all voters need is a packet of biryani and a bottle.....politics is indeed business..u elect me make me powerful...i will give u at least 1/4th of what was promised to u..just bring me to power to give me that 1/4th and every 4 years when u a different leader...atleast 1/4 of 4 of ur such wishes will come true..that's the funda.....Journalism is quite fun..i must say.....political, non political, science anything..a journalist...a true journalist like my grandfather says is a 'social scientist'.

Hotel Taj: Icon of whose India?

2008-12-02T00:24:00.000+05:30

Picture courtesy: Nytimes.com

An interesting read..Food for thought...

Gnani Sankaran- Tamil writer, Chennai.

Watching at least four English news channels, surfing from one another during the last 60 hours of terror strike made me feel a terror of another kind, the terror of assaulting one's mind and sensitivity with cameras, sound bites and non-stop blabbers. All these channels have been trying to manufacture my consent for a big lie called - Hotel Taj the icon of India.

Whose India, Whose Icon?

It is a matter of great shame that these channels simply did not bother about the other icon that faced the first attack from terrorists - the Chatrapathi Shivaji Terminus (CST) railway station. CST is the true icon of Mumbai. It is through this railway station hundreds of Indians from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Tamilnadu have poured into Mumbai over the years, transforming themselves into Mumbaikars and built the Mumbai of today along with the Marathis and Kolis

But the channels would not recognise this. Nor would they recognise the thirty odd dead bodies strewn all over the platform of CST. No Barkha Dutt went there to tell us who they were. But she was at Taj to show us the damaged furniture and reception lobby braving the guards. And the TV cameras did not go to the government run JJ hospital to find out who those 26 unidentified bodies were. Instead they were again invading the battered Taj to try in vain for a scoop shot of the dead bodies of the page 3 celebrities.

In all probability, the unidentified bodies could be those of workers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh migrating to Mumbai, arriving by train at CST without cell phones and pan cards to identify them. Even after 60 hours after the CST massacre, no channel has bothered to cover in detail what transpired there.

The channels conveniently failed to acknowledge that the Aam Aadmis of India surviving in Mumbai were not affected by Taj, Oberoi and Trident closing down for a couple of weeks or months. What mattered to them was the stoppage of BEST buses and suburban trains even for one hour. But the channels were not covering that aspect of the terror attack. Such information at best merited a scroll line, while the cameras have to be dedicated for real time thriller unfolding at Taj or Nariman Bhavan.

The so called justification for the hype the channels built around heritage site Taj falling down (CST is also a heritage site), is that Hotel Taj is where the rich and the powerful of India and the globe congregate. It is a symbol or icon of power of money and politics, not India. It is the icon of the financiers and swindlers of India. The Mumbai and India were built by the Aam Aadmis who passed through CST and Taj was the oasis of peace and privacy for those who wielded power over these mass of labouring classes. Leopold club and Taj were the haunts of rich spoilt kids who would drive their vehicles over sleeping Aam Aadmis on the pavement, the Mafiosi of Mumbai forever financing the glitterati of Bollywood (and also the terrorists) , Political brokers and industrialists.

It is precisely because Taj is the icon of power and not people that the terrorists chose to strike.
The terrorists have understood after several efforts that the Aam Aadmi will never break down even if you bomb her markets and trains. He/she was resilient because that is the only way he/she can even survive.

Resilience was another word that annoyed the pundits of news channels and their patrons this time. What resilience, enough is enough, said Pranoy Roy's channel on the left side of the channel spectrum. Same sentiments were echoed by Arnab Goswami representing the right wing of the broadcast media whose time is now. Can Rajdeep be far behind in this game of one-upmanship over TRPs ? They all attacked resilience this time. They wanted firm action from the government in tackling terror.

The same channels celebrated resilience when bombs went off in trains and markets killing and maiming the Aam Aadmis. The resilience of the ordinary worker suited the rich business class of Mumbai since work or manufacture or film shooting did not stop. When it came to them, the rich shamelessly exhibited their lack of nerves and refused to be resilient themselves. They cry for government intervention now to protect their private spas and swimming pools and bars and restaurants, similar to the way in which Citibank, General Motors and the ilk cry for government money when their coffers are emptied by their own ideologies.

The terrorists have learnt that the ordinary Indian is unperturbed by terror. For one whose daily existence itself is a terror of government sponsored inflation and market sponsored exclusion, pain is something he has learnt to live with. The rich of Mumbai and India Inc are facing the pain for the first time and learning about it just as the middle classes of India learnt about violation of human rights only during emergency, a cool 28 years after independence.

And human rights were another favourite issue for the channels to whip at times of terrorism.
Arnab Goswami in an animated voice wondered where were those champions of human rights now, not to be seen applauding the brave and selfless police officers who gave up their life in fighting terrorism. Well, the counter question would be where were you when such officers were violating the human rights of Aam Aadmis. Has there ever been any 24 hour non stop coverage of violence against dalits and adivasis of this country?

This definitely was not the time to manufacture consent for the extra legal and third degree methods of interrogation of police and army but Arnabs don't miss a single opportunity to serve their class masters, this time the jingoistic patriotism came in handy to whitewash the entire uniformed services.

The sacrifice of the commandos or the police officers who went down dying at the hands of ruthless terrorists is no doubt heart rending but in vain in a situation which needed not just bran but also brain. Israel has a point when it says the operations were misplanned resulting in the death of its nationals here.

Kakares and Salaskars would not be dead if they did not commit the mistake of travelling by the same vehicle. It is a basic lesson in management that the top brass should never travel together in crisis. The terrorists, if only they had watched the channels, would have laughed their hearts out when the Chief of the Marine commandos, an elite force, masking his face so unprofessionally in a see-through cloth, told the media that the commandos had no idea about the structure of the Hotel Taj which they were trying to liberate. But the terrorists knew the place thoroughly, he acknowledged.

Is it so difficult to obtain a ground plan of Hotel Taj and discuss operation strategy thoroughly for at least one hour before entering? This is something even an event manager would first ask for, if he had to fix 25 audio systems and 50 CCtvs for a cultural event in a hotel. Would not Ratan Tata have provided a plan of his ancestral hotel to the commandos within one hour considering the mighty apparatus at his and government's disposal? Are satellite pictures only available for terrorists and not the government agencies? In an operation known to consume time, one more hour for preparation would have only improved the efficiency of execution.

Sacrifices become doubly tragic in unprofessional circumstances. But the Aam Aadmis always believe that terror-shooters do better planning than terrorists. And the gullible media in a jingoistic mood would not raise any question about any of these issues. They after all have their favourite whipping boy – the politician the eternal entertainer for the non-voting rich classes of India.

Arnabs and Rajdeeps would wax eloquent on Nanmohan Singh and Advani visiting Mumbai separately and not together showing solidarity even at this hour of national crisis. What a farce? Why can't these channels pool together all their camera crew and reporters at this time of national calamity and share the sound and visual bites which could mean a wider and deeper coverage of events with such a huge
human resource to command? Why should Arnab and Rajdeep and Barkha keep harping every five minutes that this piece of information was exclusive to their channel, at the time of such a national crisis? Is this the time to promote the channel? If that is valid, the politician promoting his own political constituency is equally valid. And the duty of the politician is to do politics, his politics. It is for the people to evaluate that politics.

And terrorism is not above politics. It is politics by other means. To come to grips with it and to eventually eliminate it, the practice of politics by proper means needs constant fine tuning and improvement. Decrying all politics and politicians, only helps terrorists and dictators who are the two sides of the same coin. And the rich and powerful always prefer terrorists and dictators to do business with.

Those caught in this crossfire are always the Aam Aadmis whose deaths are not even mourned - the taxi driver who lost the entire family at CST firing, the numerous waiters and stewards who lost their lives working in Taj for a monthly salary that would be one time bill for their masters.

Postscript: In a fit of anger and depression, I sent a message to all the channels, 30 hours through the coverage. After all they have been constantly asking the viewers to message them for anything and everything. My message read: I send this with lots of pain. All channels, including yours, must apologise for not covering the victims of CST massacre, the real mumbaikars and aam aadmis of India. Your obsession with five star elite is disgusting. Learn from the print media please. No channel bothered. Only srinivasan Jain replied: you are right. We are trying to redress balance today. Well, nothing happened till the time of writing this 66 hours after the terror attack.

2008-11-29T09:12:00.000+05:30

The TV Ticker says 59 hours..the clock continues to tick... the three most horrifying days of my life...of many Indians across the nation and world....the 24 hour TV coverage...the commandos...the firing..the blood..the fire..the smoke...father's crying over lost hope..a toddler orphaned on his birthday...stories of bravery and courage... mindless killing...

What is being termed as Mumbai's 9/11, the terror attacks that began on 26/11 has left the numbed country bruised and angered...numbed thanks to the numerous blasts that took place in the last two years...jaipur..ahmedabad...bangalore..hyderabad..delhi..mumbai.. Mumbai has taken so much beating..so many scars..it's like a city with its face mutilated multiple times..with 'plastic' surgery performed over and over..but the scars r much deeper... the incident has left the otherwise come-what-may-life-moves-on Indian frozen at a spot...where are we going?what is happening?Who are these people?Why?What do they want?What was the government doing?Questions which were not asked earlier..questions for which answers were earlier not demanded..but now..people want answers..people want to believe in the power of democracy..

One father who lost his young son asks "was the government asleep?" I say all Indians were asleep..they were caught in a limbo...caught in their own's life...only to be rudely awaken to be told "wake up sleep time over..we are in ur homes now!"

The gtalk status messages..and the facebook status messages are just an example of what an average person feels...of frustration..anger..helplessness..sadness and in some cases disbelief...

As the Operation at Taj Mahal comes to an end...the blame game has begun...a game of passing the buck on to each other...and within 2 days media would have forgotten the whole thing...or maybe i should give them their due..they will discuss it in various forums..experts would be called in..editorials would be written... shots of ordinary man on road expressing his angst would be shown over and over again..juxtaposed with shots of Taj going up in flames...letters to the editor would be printed on not one two pages... but then...after a while..its forgotten..its put behind our minds..as we move ahead to 'secure' our life, as stereotypes are further created... like a colleague of mine was saying as i watched the tv... "Earlier we could identify a muslim by his beard and cap, but now they are all clean shaven and young and look like software techies,"

Every Muslim is a terrorist- a stereotype created post 9/11 rather reinforced multiple times after the 9/11 will now be cemented thanks to these mindless attacks..

and for LK Advani..looks like terrorists proved that they were above religion as they killed the brave Hemant Karkare who was tightening the noose against hindu fundamentalists...as people fight over mindless ideologies..political or religious...innocent people continue to lose their lives...jus this time it wasn't the average middle class Indian but the elitist Indian who was targetted along with foreign guests...

I feel empty in my stomach...friends ask what can v do? Question remains..yes what can v do?Except for letting the voyeur in us take over and thanking god that someone we knew wasn't there....or for condemning the failure of the govt... at some level..we all forget that it is a government by and for us... how many of us have our names in the voter list?And at some level we feel that no leader in this country wil actually bring any change...

do we need a movement like that national movement pre-independence? can there ever be a movement of that scale ever? Does anyone have the time to do that?

Thankfully, this time..Indians across have felt that this wasn't an attack just on mumbai but on India and India's pride...an insult to the country...thank god that even today that bit of patriotism exists..Will tightening the law help? No. Terrorism is here to stay. Islamic or Hindu fundamentalists cannot be changed..they cannot be sent to rehab..dese r young men and women who are indoctrinated..who feel that what they r doing is right... with the divide between rich and poor getting wider... with oppurtunities being unequal..with life being unfair..there is so much of angst.. 'latent angst' as friend put it... the need to drain people out of this feeling of unfairness is necessary..but then the question remains how? I wish i had the answers..but i don't and all that i have felt over these three days is anger...frustration and helplessness...anger that all parties have failed...frustration that politicians use human calamities to appease vote banks...helplessness that as a voter i don't have trust in any of the leaders...right..left... any party..all of them are the same..corrupt...manipulative...all of us are responsible for the state of the matters....to allow this terrible tragedy unfold..we don't question anymore..that i thing is the biggest problem..we need to question and demand for answers..not question and move on..No. This is not the time for us to move on. This is time for us to stop..break away from the routine of going to work...accumulating wealth...running the rat race..stop..take a deep breath..and question things around u...it's not always about fight for rights..but also for the need to fulfil one's duties... most importantly we need to trust in each other...and transcend above irrational stereotypes..above caste..religion..colour......

Till then, i will pray..pray that not another innocent soul lose his/her life in such mindless and crass killings...pray that people are awakened now...pray that stereotypes are broken and not made..pray that this incident remains fresh in every Indian's mind...remember that every life lost was valuable..pray that we get over this state of indifference..and pray that incidents like this bruise us and not numb us... pray that leaders don't divide this country further...pray...pray..pray.....

For the love of my life- Rakesh Kamal

2008-08-22T20:42:00.000+05:30

This blog post i dedicate to the love of my life Rakesh Kamal, however cliched as it may sound. I know so far i have posted my thoughts on various issues in the society as a whole. For a change i thought i would tell you ( who ever is reading it!) about Rakesh who changed my life.. and for the better.. If i can discuss issues with so much clarity its because of the clarity Rak helped me attain in my life..
We met each other at AIESEC on Sept 10 over 3 years ago.... the first thing that struck my mind when i saw this chap was as he introduced himself as 'romantic rakesh' was 'Oh really!!'. As we got to know each other.. we realised that we had a hell lot in common...it was uncanny and spooky at some instances the way we just liked the same things or said the same things at the same time..the way we reacted to situations was identical... And well one thing led to another and we r here today where we are.. :)
Rakesh is one person who has an air of positivity around him.. he is unshakeable... his belief in things and his positive attitude is unshakeable. And for a person like me who finds trusting people ( read men) difficult and someone who found life,until 3 years ago, highly unfair, meeting and interacting with rakesh was very different... Unknowingly he had started to infuse in me a sense of positivity..apart from helping me build my self esteem.. hard as it might seem to believe..the confident priya today back then was someone who was going through too many things at the same time in her life.. from a bad break up to a myriad of issues..life seemed too difficult to even live.. people whom i considered as best friends were going thru phases themselves... and at the time Rakesh showed me a way out.... he had a solution for every problem... whether it be the problem of generation gap that i seemed to face with my father to the difference in opinion at college..to peer pressure... every problem had a solution.. and he taught me to face them all with a smile.. Insecurity was probably my biggest enemy then.. confidence was low.. and i never told anyone that i had always dreamt of being a journalist for The Hindu except for rakesh...only coz i feared being ridiculed..
These 3 years rakesh has been the strongest pillar of strenght in my life... if i m not drowning in self pity today its because of the rakesh's strong words... there have also been times when he has tried hard to protect me...pave the way for me... but then some things need to be learnt through experience... He held my hand and helped me cross the toughest of hurdles...kissed my forehead and helped me get better tat day when i thought i was dying... Not just for me..but he has been there for my family... and well there is no way i can say thanks to this chap.. he has a beautiful soul..a soul that i am lucky to be sharing.. for a wounded soul like mine...his soul is like a soothing medicine.. :) Sometimes just saying I love u is not enough.. Sometimes some people just come straight out of nowhere and change ur life forever...... so much that u cant believe that ur life was once so frustrating...so much that u look back at ur old self and smile now... the change wouldnt have happened if Rakesh wasnt there in my life... Am a romantic.. and i truly believe love has the power of all.... :) I love u a lot...and u make my complete!!! :)

Where does all the garbage go?

2008-07-01T19:20:00.000+05:30

Ever wondered where the garbage from your homes go? Did you know that hyderabad generates more than 3500 tonnes of garbage PER DAY? yes u must have seen dumpyards and sighed and tched away...and said " Oh well this is India!" but what have u an educated Indian/hyderabadi done to combat this problem? How many of us segregate waste? We take part in campaigns against global warming, which create awareness about environmental issues but when it comes to our own waste we just refuse to be associated with it. why should the municipality be responsible for your waste? Waste can be divided into dry and wet waste. dry waste generally includes the waste that cannot be recylcled and wet waste includes organic waste that can be converted into compost. all that one needs to do is separate the waste at the source level. Sukuki exnora an ngo in SWM has come up with an innovative idea of segregating and using waste. If it is implemented in localities across the city, we can expect a dust bin free society which means no dumpyards. The plan is simple. segregate ur waste. people would collect it from ur homes and make compost out of the organic waste and send the non biodegradable waste to companies. Its not difficult to implement, but wat is difficult is getting the people to cooperate. people just dont care! this is a fact! People think the municipality is responsible for their waste. FYI the municipality doesnt have a magic wand and the waste doesnt simply disappear into thin air! Visit a dumpyard and you will know what i am talking about. At one end is unchecked infrastructural growth and concretisation of our communities and cities and at the other end no proper solid waste management plan in place. This is a question for all the people working in MNC's out there- have u ever wondered how much waste your office might generate per day? try and find out. for your next CSR programme get involved in managing waste from your own offices and homes-after all charity begins at home. MNCs have an advantage- they have visibility, they have team spirit and they certainly do have dynamic spirited young leaders so why not tie up with ngos and manage ur waste? Maybe ur next team visit could be to the jawarharnagar dumping yard!
Solutions are plenty but people who cooperate are far and few in between!

Hope Hope Hope- A beautiful word

2008-07-01T18:49:00.000+05:30

What is it with seminars and lack of time sense? Either Hyderabadis are really laidback or the traffic situation is just getting worse! I had been sent to cover 4 press conferences and all of them started atleast half an hour. Sheer lack of time sense is plaguing this city and some times the seminars conducted are a sheer waste of time! A press release would have been enough in most of the cases.
There are two kinds of journalists in this world- one kind is the kind who sees the world in white and black and the other kind are the jaundiced journalists who are highly subjective and for all their preachings have no qualms accepting 'gifts' or 'gifts-in-form-of-cash'. It is a disturbing trend. A few rotten apples spoil the whole basket, well this holds good even in this field. Thanks to these jaundiced journalists, even the remaining ones are put in the same category and offered 'tempatations'. And don't even make the mistake of confronting the PROs who mislead the companies. They would cooly say that journalists accept money or gifts and you have put your leg in cowdung.
Sometimes i laugh at my thinking- my hope that every problem has a solution. And believe me every bloody problem in our country has a solution in black and white but what lacks is will power to implement it! We have policies for everything from providing free education to the specially abled to safeguarding pedestrian rights to guidelines to manage solid waste but somehow our dear politicians are just not aware of these policies or well care a damn about them.
It gets frustrating when you have to run from one department after another only to realise that goddamit there is a law, there is a policy but....! Babus just say But....and push the blame on another department. Its all about blame game. I am not whining. I am venting. Yes, we are to blame for this situation for this i-care-a-damn-about-u-citizen attitude from the administrators. we are nothing but mere vote banks for the politicians and we go about our duty of voting in the most indifferent and irresponsible manner possible. How many of us actually read the election manifestos or look at the background of the politicians? I came into the field hoping to change something..i am still leaving in Plato's ideal world- It doesnt exist. And idealists are mere memoirs in our country.... I m not someone who has lost hope, no i hope for this country, and i hope to c it change for the better..but i am someone who is wondering how and where it all starts.. will there be a big bang? what would change the things around us? Would writing about issues make any difference at all? Questions questions and more questions..and i am still searching for answers...

The Urbane: Wreaking Havoc

2008-05-07T20:40:00.000+05:30

Degradation of Urban biodiversity

Urban biodiversity; the term seems like a misnomer for many of us. However, a closer look reveals that India’s rapidly developing towns and cities actually are home to a number of habitats ranging from city forests to lakes to estuaries. Many cities are a treasure house of ecosystems. However with rapid urbanisation, these ecosystems are facing a slow but inevitable death.

Chennai has varied biodiversity- Rivers, sea front, hills, lakes, swamps, backwaters and an estuary. Unfortunately, Chennai has squandered its ecological wealth to replace it with concrete wealth. The Adyar estuary located in the heart of the city of Chennai is one such example. An estuary, where the fresh water of the river meets the brackish water of the sea, is a unique and fragile ecosystem, representing a habitat between the land and the sea. It is never static. The important feature of this environment is the constant change of mixture of salt and fresh-water. It is not just a bird refuge; it is an open space for an increasingly breathless city, a wetland that helps maintain the water table apart from being a unique geographical feature. The Adyar estuary is part of the identity of the city.
The degradation of this beautiful creek began when the Chennai Corporation decided to dredge it to facilitate boating. This was followed by the proposal by the government to set up an Ambedkar Mandapam. The islets and creeks on Thiru Vi Ka’s bridge were cleared. The Adyar estuary once extended upto Foreshare Estate and included Quibble Island at Santhome. The Quibble Island doesn’t exist anymore and has vanished owing to the illegal constructions that sprouted around the estuary. The creek, originating near the Chettinad Palace, and then meandering through Foreshore Estate and ending at Mandavelipakkam, has today been reduced to half its original size - 100 acres. At the Karpagam Avenue one notices garbage being dumped.
The proposed restoration plan designed by the Pitchikundalam Forest Consultants, funded by the Tamil Nadu Urban Infrastructure Financial Services Ltd (TNUIFSL) aims at creating an Eco-park to conserve the estuary. However a look at the plan has one asking many questions. The plan talks about restoring only part of the estuary and doesn’t consider the other part. The restoration plan has been designed only for 58 acres leaving the remaining 300 acres in a lurch. However, NGO’s and activists groups like the Consumer Action Group (CAG) are not convinced by this restoration plan and finds flaw with the basic idea of having an eco park. Says Rajesh Rangarajan of CAG “If the government really wants to restore this estuary, then it would decrease human intervention and not facilitate it. Any ecosystem can restore itself if it is left to its own devices.” After the draft plan was drawn up, CAG had gone to the court. Later, the court passed the revised plan with the changes as suggested by CAG. The plan shows storm water outlets which are but sewage outlets. A closer look shows that all the storm water outlets are connected directly to the police quarters, Sreenivasapuram and Santhome. Sewage has been drained into the Adyar river and Cooum river since decades causing their slow death. The plan has come up with a concept of satellite ponds. Satellite ponds are nothing but man made ponds which traps freshwater and according to Joss Brooks, the lead consultant of the Pitchikundalam Forest Consultants, “Satellite ponds serve as a new habitat and we can integrate other aquatic life in these ponds.” However, integrating new aquatic life into another habitat is a problem in itself. Previous attempt to integrate aquatic life that doesn’t belong in a particular habitat has proven that often such organisms become parasitic by nature.
Whether or not the restoration plan with its proposals of eco-park, urban pathway, satellite ponds would actually help the estuary, one can only wait and see. However, the restoration plan is going to have other impact. The plan says “Opportunity for investment for infrastructure and beautifying the water front”. The plan has asked for eviction of the Sreenivasapuram residents as a part of this beautification process. Also the fate of 70 fishing families has now become uncertain. “I fail to understand why one requires 100 crores to restore an ecosystem? There is a strong real estate lobby involved in this plan”, argues Amritha of CAG.
The Pallinkaranai swamp, a wetland is another example of abuse of urban biodiversity. Many Chennaites identify Pallinkaranai as a dump yard and not many know that this swamp was once home to a different kind of ecosystem. The swamp had been abused mostly by government agencies, leading to its fragmentation. The swamp is currently only tenth of its original size owing to mindless encroachments and illegal construction. It is also an example of the government’s inability to understand the importance of the environmental consequences of such actions. The government had allocated these 273 acres of the marshland to various departments. Urban marshes suffer abuses of varied kinds most common being dumping of garbage and leaving untreated sewage into the marsh. Most distressing is the use of the marsh as an outlet of untreated sewage and as a dump for garbage that is not entirely biodegradable. The overall change in the extent and orientation of the Marsh has led to stagnation of polluted water that emits foul smell. This marsh is an identified as an internationally important bird area. Most distressing is the use of the marsh as an outlet of untreated sewage and as a dump for garbage that is not entirely biodegradable. The overall change in the extent and orientation of the Marsh has led to stagnation of polluted water that emits foul smell. According to Jayashree Venkateshan of Care Earth an NGO, “
Degradation of urban biodiversity is not just a matter of visual loss. These habitats provide fresh air and act as sponges for air and water pollution. They are also buffers against the noise pollution and are a haven on hot summers. If one were to measure these benefits they would run into thousands of crores of rupees. Money can be earned but a destroyed ecosystem cannot be restored.

Nuetrino Experiment

2008-05-07T20:35:00.000+05:30

We are all made up of atoms. A statement one hears often. But then what are atoms made of? Atoms consist of a nucleus made of subatomic particles. These subatomic particles are protons, electrons and neutrons. Protons have a positive charge, electrons negative and neutrons are neutral. When the neutrons undergo a nuclear reaction, they transform into protons and emit a different kind of subatomic particle. This subatomic particle is known as a neutrino and is charge less. They are elementary particles formed produced by decay of radioactive elements.

These particles are very tiny and are of three types referred to as electron, muon and tau. They are hard to detect and often pass through solid matter without detection. They don’t collide with any other molecules. Muons are charged particles released by the neutrino when the neutrino collides into a mass without passing right through it. What makes neutrinos unique is their ability to remain unaffected by nature’s forces and they are not absorbed as they travel light years between their point of origin and us. However, it also this nature of the neutrinos which makes them extremely difficult to detect and requires complex instruments to trace them.

When muons travel through a transparent, they emit a blue light, said Dr. Vijaya Swaminath, an astrophysicst and once winter-over at the South Pole. As these muons travel in the same direction as that of the neutrino it helps the scientists to trace their origin.

Ice cube experiment- the name doesn’t sound familiar and for many of us its unheard of. Not many know that there are over 60 winter-overs staying at the South Pole trying to find neutrinos and consequently trying to find the origin of stars- something that might sound incomprehensible and even unimportant to us. What is one supposed to do by finding out the origin of a star or even earth? Right?

These 60 winter-overs working for the IceCube Experiment are spending months in the world’s coldest and driest regions. IceCube is an international project sponsored and conducted by the United States and several non-U.S. countries and funding agencies. It is an international neutrino observatory for astrophysics that was installed for Astral summers for a period of over six years.
Set up on a volume of over one cubic kilometer i.e close to the size of three soccer grounds, it is embedded in the purest ice found on earth to track neutrinos. It consists of a digital optical sphere which is a pressurized glass sphere which is the size of an inflated balloon. Now the question arises as to why this experiment is being conducted only in South Pole and not anywhere else. Well, if one notices an observatory, the telescope is pointed towards the sky. Here, the earth in itself acts a telescope. Owing to the high density of ice any neutrino that hits the ice sheet will result in the production of muons. According to estimates there are close to thousand such collisions that occur in the IceCube detector.

However, finding these minute subatomic particles is not a joke and for the scientists living there it is not just a passion but often entails lot of sacrifices. According to Ethan Dicks, one of the 60 winter overs currently staying at the South pole “I miss home a lot, I miss my family and I miss 24 hours internet!” The winter overs have access to internet for just 4 hours in a day. “Earlier the access was just for 2 hours, thankfully it is now 4 hours”, said Edgar Nielsen another winter over.

Life at South Pole is no bed of roses and initially they are affected by the altitude and temperature. “Because of high altitude, the air pressure is very low and it takes time for us to adjust” said Ethan. “Exercises are a complete no-no here because of elevated heart beat and any kind of exercise affects the heart”, he said. Also because of lower air pressure, the water from the body evaporates faster leading to dehydration. “We have to keep ourselves constantly hydrated”, said Edgar.
However, once they are acclimatized to the weather and get past their initial hiccups, they do make the most of their experience. “There have been times when I wondered what I was doing here, but I have learnt a lot here. It’s a completely different environment that we work in and we do what the normal human beings around the world don’t do!” said Ethan. They do try to keep make their life in the observatory as normal as possible. “We have events, clubs, festivals, barbecues nights” he said.

Because of the freezing cold there, they have to make sure that the machinery doesn’t freeze. “We have to keep our snow mobiles switched on when we are out on the snow. If we switch them off, it would take ages for the ignition to work”, Edgar said. To drill holes into the ice for the sensors to be embedded it takes close to 57 hours and around 4800 gallons of fuel.

“We get a completely different perspective of life here. And when we are back home, even small things like going to a grocery store seems exciting!” said Ethan. Food is not a problem as supplies are flown in bulk twice in a year. “When the cargo flight unloads, we load it with the garbage that has piled up here,” he said.

Whether or not the IceCube experiment might benefit us or whether or not we will ever know its benefits, time will only tell. But these experiments involving these brave young men and women enlighten us about the hidden matter in the space and help us understand the evolution of earth.

Need for Agro-bio security system

2008-05-07T20:26:00.000+05:30

Responding to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s call to the scientific community to have a knowledge based intervention in agriculture, the Indian Science Congress (ISC), one of the most powerful scientific lobbies in the nation, has presented a set of recommendations. The proposal includes setting up an agro-bio security system. In lieu of the recent bird flu outbreak, the Science Congress has felt the urgent need to set up a mechanism to minimise the impact of such disasters. The ISC has demanded Rs 100 crore in the upcoming budget for technological development. Apart from this they have also called for setting up a National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority to regulate the use of biotechnology in agriculture.

This demand by the scientists is a welcome in today’s scenario where there is no national body to regulate the upcoming bio-technology companies and new scientific advances. Although India has a Genetic Engineering Approval Committee, it has failed in carrying out its duty. GEAC should emphasise on biological risk assessment. GEAC should regulate genetic technology like the US Recombinant Advisory Committee (RCA) does for genetically engineered drugs. RCA makes it mandatory for companies to provide a list of negative and harmful impacts and minimises that impact before approving for commercial sale. As a result, the approval process takes 25 years. Unfortunately, GM research in India is not being made to evaluate potential harm to human health and environment. In fact the GEAC is known to bend backwards to facilitate the smooth functioning of multinational companies.

The setting up of an agro-bio security system would be a turning point for research in India as it would not just serve as the apex body for regulation but also would help focus on some pressing matters like food production, water conservation, energy generation and building sustainable technologies. Also currently India has no provisions to check on the entry of alien species which can cause disasters. Thanks to the entry of the genetically modified plants and India’s inability to protect their indigenous plants, Indian agriculture has suffered greatly. Close to 1,50,000 plant seeds have been collected by the U.S department of agriculture and this was neither stopped by the Indian government nor by the GEAC. The recent Agricultural Knowledge Initiative signed between India and the U.S also makes traditional agricultural knowledge accessible to the American companies. Further, Trade-related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) allows patents on genes and cell lines, thereby blocking India’s agricultural research leading to what can be termed as scientific discrimination against the developing countries.

If the Indian government accepts this proposal, it certainly would be a turning point. This department would bring under its umbrella other functions like inspecting food grains, animals and other agri-bio related products that enter the Indian market. It would help prevent the outbreak of epidemics like SARS, bird flu which are a direct result of unchecked entry of bird species from other nations. Unlike the developed nations which control the outbreaks at the first instance itself, nations like India, Thailand need to still learn from their mistakes. The economic loss involved in such a large scale outbreak is immense to the nation and avoidable. According to a recent report, the bird flu outbreak cost the poultry sector close to $ 5,84000 in Bangladesh. The mass culling of chickens in West Bengal, which neighbours Bangladesh, is a direct proof of the lack of scrutinising agency.

However, considering India’s economic policies which have always favored the multinational companies, by giving subsidies, tax exemptions or by helping set up Special Economic Zones (often at a heavy human cost), letting mining companies raze through forests and other such instances, the chances of the proper functioning of any such body will remain doubtful and questionable.

Tiger Census- an Op-ed

2008-05-07T20:21:00.000+05:30

More than 50 per cent of India’s tiger population was lost in the past five years with the numbers dwindling to 1,411 from 3,642 in 2001-02, according to the latest tiger census report. The report titled “Status of Tigers, Co-predators and Prey in India” estimates that there are just 1411 tigers in six landscapes across the country.

With this recent census report, it is but obvious that the Project Tiger has again taken two steps backward except in the state of Tamil Nadu. This much touted project too was slammed by the Comptroller and Auditor General for just about sustaining the population in the designated areas.

Extensive poaching, destruction of the tiger habitat along with a decrease in the prey has effected the tiger population across the country in various states especially in the North and North-Eastern states. An ill fitted and ill equipped forest officials apart from the indifferent bureaucracy is also an inescapable fact of the Indian Forest Department.
Indian bureaucracy still suffers from a colonial hangover with a very apparent ‘babu’ attitude. There is no coordination between the local tribes within a forest area or reserve and the forest officials.

There is an urgent need to create zones or reserves which are free from human presence. Last year, 270 villages were identified in core areas of these tiger sanctuaries which need to immediate relocation. Just a few weeks before the census, the government had cleared funds for tiger conservation and designated eight new reserves for inclusion under Project Tiger for the 11th plan. Much of the funds are to be used for relocating the displaced people from the core areas. The focus of considerable attention still remains the human-tiger conflict and there is but an urgent need to resolve this tug-of-war.

Any attempt to conserve the tiger without the involvement of all the stake holders is going to be a failure. There is no coordination between the local tribes within a forest area or reserve and the forest officials. Forest officials need to coordinate with the local tribes (who again are on their way to win their land rights), local communities, researchers and scientists apart from passionate tiger conservationists apart from the common man.
Apart from the poachers, there is a need to control the armed insurgency in the Eastern Ghats and parts of central India. Tiger reserves in areas with heavy Naxalite presence and influence are the country’s worst, according to the Wildlife Institute of India’s latest tiger census report that has recorded a sharp fall in tiger population. Forest officials in the three states of Orissa, Jharkhand and Chattisgarh have almost acceded control of the tiger reserves to the rebels. The Tiger Conservation Authority should also ensure that the unsustainable resource extraction apart from indiscriminate killing of the tiger’s prey be stopped.

The constant demand for the tiger skin and other related products in the international market is putting immense pressure on the already declining tiger population. It is a question of simple economics caught in the midst of a complex environmental problem. If the demand comes down, so will the supply. With widespread international support to save the tiger, what this conservation agenda most needs is a dedicated political will.

Idolising the 'idols'

2008-05-07T20:20:00.001+05:30

In 2001, Kannagi’s statue was removed by the reigning Jayalalitha government from its original pedestal on the Marina drive as it was believed that this statue would be the reason for Jayalalitha’s defeat in the then upcoming elections. Kannagi, a symbol of chastity and devotion was standing on the Marina drive since 1968. It was re-instated in the year 2006 by the DMK government. This is, but just one example of the numerous incidents involving statues and the politics that revolves around it.

Statues and idols are integral parts of any Indian city’s architectural heritage. Urban spaces are defined and flanked by statues of different personalities. The city of Chennai is no different. There is a story behind every statue… and each statue has a set of incidents associated to it. It is very interesting to note how the political movements within a city trigger off idols to be ‘idolised’.

What started off as a glorification of the colonial kings, went on to become a tussle between political parties and caste. In the early 19th century, statues of King Edward, King George and Queen Victoria were set up in this city of many firsts. The late 60’s saw the revival of a politicised Dravidian movement by Anna Durai. In 1969, the Tamil conference was held after which 13 statues of various personalities including those of the Tamil saints were inaugurated near the Marina beach.

According to Mr. Satyanaryana, Architect, statues in Chennai are politico-caste statements. The aftermath of the Tamil conference was the beginning of the statue politics in the cityscape. One thing that is to be noticed is the fact that most of the statues figured in Chennai are not of national leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru or Indira Gandhi, but are those from the Dravidian movement. The DMK made use of architecture and iconic figures to put across its party ideology of “Tamil Renaissance”. The 13 statues along the Marina were tools for the DMK to express their unique Tamil identity and they did this by exploiting public spaces. According to a research paper written by Dr.A.Srivatsan titled Politics, popular icons and urban space in Tamil Nadu, “Icons had become an important honorific gesture. Their numbers and location in the city space were constructed to be directly proportionate to the importance of the leader or the party.”
Political parties influenced the psyche of the people by cashing in on their sentiments through iconography and dotted the city with numerous statues. Statues of Mahatma Gandhi flourished during the pre-DMK era when Tamil Nadu was under the Congress rule followed by Periyar statues under the DMK rule.

AIADMK too didn’t lose out in this mad race. While DMK’s icons reflected strong Tamil bonds, AIADMK’s icons were a reflection of the caste politics within the city. 1991-’96 saw Jayalalitha inaugurating numerous statues, often making a casteist political statements. She unveiled the statue of Pasuman, who was the leader of the Devai community near the Nandanam Signal. Statues in Chennai are given more importance than sometimes even the common man, who has to wait for four hours in the mindless trafficSimilarly, she saw the unveiling of the statue of Azhagamuthu, who was the king of the Yadava community near the Egmore station. By doing so, she was ensuring that she captured the vote banks of these particular communities.

Chennai has been the centre of many battles over statues rather for statues. So much so, that there has been Public Interest Litigations (PIL) filed against the State government’s exploitation of space near the Marina drive, after which the State government assured the people that no more statues would come up near Marina. However, the assurance was not implemented and the State government went ahead and instated a statue of the late Shivaji Ganeshan on the Marina drive, thereby going against the court orders. Another controversial icon is that of the Dalit leader B.R.Ambedkar. The most recent controversy being, over an Ambedkar statue in Koyambedu this was removed as there was work that was to be completed on a grade separator. The Ambedkar supporters, as expected, were out on the streets protesting the statues removal.

Irrespective of the party in power, statues are here to stay, getting equal importance and sometimes more importance than the person who has been idolised itself. They are given police protection, sometimes barricaded, sometimes even caged!! DMK and AIADMK support their need for statues with many reasons, livelihood for artisans being one of them. But one does wonder, how many artisans are really benefited from this? Also there is the issue of using statues to woo voters by using them as point of contention in the election manifesto, like the DMK who promised the voters to reinstate Kannagi’s statue if they were brought back to power. Icons are no more mere symbols or reminders for the people, but rather act as political statements. Defacing and removal of a particular statue anywhere in the world can be viewed as a symbolic act of defying a certain ideology or that person. The best example for this is the demolition of Saddam Hussein’s numerous statues in Iraq which was viewed as the end of dictatorship.

Raw deal for Papad staff

2008-05-07T19:50:00.000+05:30

Papad- The traditional crispy wafer without which any Indian meal is complete, specially a South Indian meal, is the basis for providing livelihood to thousands of women across the nation. Commonly referred to as papad, appalam and papadam across the country, the production of it, is the centre of many self help groups’ activities.

Tamil Nadu is the ‘Sambar Capital’ of the country, which boasts of perhaps some of the best South Indian food. In such a scenario, no kitchen can call itself complete without the presence of this delicious crunchy food item. It is a fact that not many spare a thought for the people who work hard day and night, irrespective of the season, to make them.

According to the President of the Appalam Co-operative society P.R.Chandra, there are more than 100 branded papad making units and over 1000 unbranded papap making units. Ninety per cent of this industry is composed of women and ten per cent are emerging entrepreneurs usually bachelors from Kerala. According to Mr Chandra, this unorganised sector employs more than one lakh people. Most of these unbranded appalams go to the district of Kancheepuram.

One very popular brand name in this industry, which every papad lover must have heard of is Lijjat Papad which is run and owned by women who make the papads. It is perhaps one of the most popular self help groups (SHG) where every woman who is a member of Shri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad is the owner and beneficiary too. The Chennai branch of this popular SHG is based in Kilpauk and employs more than 250 women who earn anywhere between Rs 100 and Rs 150 per day. According to C.Pushpa, President of this SHG, these women take home the papad dough weighing anywhere between five to six kilograms and make close to 500 papads. Most of the women are from the low income group households often supplementing their jobs as domestic workers, maids etc with this profitable venture.
Though, papad production is a very enterprising venture, the fact remains that the conditions under which these women work are laborious and very demanding. They work for over 10 hours, kneading the flour and required ingredients into a dough, which then has to be flattened into circles and dried in the sun. All this is very time consuming and requires long hours of gruelling work which often affects the back and arms of the women. This is so especially in the case of the unbranded papad making units.
Take the case of Mr. Ashokan’s unit in Vadapalni. Mr Ashokan runs an unbranded papad making unit employing three families. There are a total of 4 women in this unit, each women making anywhere between 2000-2500 papads per day. They are paid per piece and on a weekly basis. These women work for over 12 hours per day making them. According to Sujatha (name changed), who works at this unit, the job is not a simple one and requires lot of patience and stamina. “ There are days when I wish I could just give up this job. It’s back breaking work and often at the end of the day I am very tired,” she says.
There is a sharp contrast in the working conditions of the women employed in SHG’s like the Lijjat papad and unregistered, unbranded units like the one run by Mr. Ashokan. According to C.Pushpa, if a member falls ill, she can always take leave and make up for it on another day. Since the profits are shared between the women, a member needn’t worry constantly about losing wages. Contrasting this is the situation of women in other units where missing one day means losing anywhere between 100-200 Rs.
Another local brand Majesty papad also employs 100 women. According to Mr. Ahmed, owner of the organisation, the women earn anywhere between Rs 50-180 per day and make around 3000 papads per day. The women here are not a disgruntled lot and are quite happy with their work. There are strict rules to be followed though. Maintaining hygiene is just one of them. Not many units make profits. Often these units break even. According to a Hindu report only 25 percent of this industry actually makes any profit.

To enhance its appeal a few changes have been made. “We made a few additions to enrich its taste and texture,” said Mr. Asokan, “We need more people to meet the demand,” he said. Some units use machines to mix the dough, but more often than not, the entire production of this food product is manual, as machines which work at high speed often destroy the texture of the appalams.
This sector has issues too, and would like the Government to address, for improved performance. They want the government to support them by providing financial support. Considering the fact that it is a low maintenance industry supporting women, it’s high time the government supports this industry. There is also a greater need to organize the women of this industry and ensure that their rights are protected.

Website to track dropouts launched

2008-05-07T19:38:00.001+05:30

Chennai,Nov.14:Krishnagiri
district could soon be 'out-ofschool
child free', said
Santosh Babu, Collector,
Krishnagiri district in a phone
interview.
The district has launched
an innovative programme
under which profiles of 8600
schoolgoing children from various
panchayats have been
uploaded in a website.
The programme revolves
around the Sarva Siksha
Abhiyan (SSA) and other educational
missions which are
being conducted in this district
with partial funding from the
United National Children’s
Fund.
UNICEF has played a vital
role by providing funds for the
implementation of this programme.
UNICEF provided Rs
50,000 and another Rs
50,000 come from the SSA
fund. The tracking and monitoring
software looks at elimination
of child labour menace
and thereby preventing dropouts.
According to Babu, there
are constant updates and follow-
ups of each child and
his/her family.It took them
eight to 10 months to compile
the data. According to district
officials, more then 7000 children
are back school. A
School Volunteer Force (SVF)
consisting of five boys and five
girls in each school will be
trained on various issues that
confront children. The SVF
will act like the ambassadors
of the Collector.
Talking about the basic
problems being faced, the
Collector pointed out that
migration was one of the
biggest problems in this district
bordering Karnataka. He
also said that there is extreme
poverty in the tribal pockets. A
drive to eradicate child labour
has been launched

Knowledge or Business Initiative??

2008-05-07T19:38:00.000+05:30

India and the United States have agreed to intensify efforts
to develop a climate supportive of trade and investment.
With the goal of doubling bilateral trade in three years,
both have agreed on a wide area of “cooperation” and in the
farm sector this is purportedly to be achieved through the
Knowledge Initiative on Agriculture with a three-year financial
commitment to link universities, technical institutions
and businesses to support education, joint research, and
capacity building including in the area of biotechnology.
The Government of India, under the auspices of the
Indian Council of Agricultural Research, had set apart
around Rs 10,000 million, with New Delhi approving the concept
of “Knowledge Society.” This is apart from the amount
set aside for this agreement i.e the Indo-US knowledge agreement.
Surely, these initiatives could provide some impetus to
Indian agriculture and trade but it would be naïve to believe
that Indian agriculture would quickly undergo a major transformation.
The policy makers have to exercise caution especially
in matters of tariff reduction and market access. The
deal allows USA to have unhindered access to the indigenous
gene pool of India thereby increasing chances of bio-piracy.
Considering the slow domestic output growth and demand
surge, it is highly unlikely that India would be a major
exporter of agricultural produce to the United States or for
that matter to any other country. What seems to have missed
most people is the fact that over two-thirds of US farm produce
is intended for overseas export and this makes India a
target market.
It is very important for India to ensure that domestic
interests are given priority over market access. Furthermore
the US government on behalf of the multi-national companies
(MNCs) is trying to push patented biotechnology products in
India. All the agro-biotech products must be tested and evaluated
for its appropriateness for Indian conditions. The debacle
of the Bt Cotton seeds produced by Monsanto in Andhra
Pradesh and other states is a testament to this.
This may sound ironical in an era where the theft of
genetic resources by Western MNCs enables them to make
huge profits over patented genetic mutations of the same
materials which belong to the poor. If this arrangement goes
astray into un-chartered territory, it might lead to what is
called as "official bio-piracy".The India-US “Knowledge
Initiative” in agricultural research with the prime focus on
genetically modified crops research has to be critically examined
in this light.

Rape Drugs on a rise

2008-05-07T19:20:00.001+05:30

It’s a Thursday night and the girls are getting dressed to go pub-hopping as it is Ladies night, their chance to let their hair down and dance away the blues. Chennai and partying don’t really seem to be in-sync with each other unlike the other metros where partying and pubbing are a part and parcel of the cosmopolitan culture. Chennai is a much more conservative city compared to its other southern counterparts Hyderabad and Bangalore.

But, with increasing presence of Chennai on the I.T map, there is an increase in the ‘party animals’ and ‘watering holes’. The city has witnessed the emergence of many popular pubs in the past five years itself. This smoked out the hidden drug scene of this ultra-conservative city which prides itself for its coffee and Carnatic music. A few years back, smoking weed etc was restricted to the elites and the so called ‘intellectuals’ of the IIT, but with increasing urbanisation and job opportunities thanks to the I.T boom, more and more youth are willing to indulge in these habits.
Party drugs and rape drugs have managed to raise their ugly head in the country and have penetrated even the most conservative of cities. Rohypnol", which has a dubious 'date rape" reputation, is a sedative and a hypnotic drug and the city police have discovered that this drug is the rage at late night parties at pubs and discos. The only person who can make us realise the horrors of date rape is a victim herself. Shreya ( name changed) a 23 year old executive, drugged and raped by an acquaintance with whom she had gone to a very popular pub in the city. She recalls being offered a drink by her ‘friend’ and she found herself the next day in a hotel room bruised and raped. She did not report the matter to the police as she felt that the police was bound to blame her for whatever happened. These drugs render the victim physically powerless, unable to decline sex, create dis-orientation in time and space and even induce memory lapse. Being colorless and odorless, spiking a drink is simple and its strength is double that of many other drugs. Many times girls are raped not by strangers, but by persons they know who may be friends or boyfriends. The notion that a decent, educated person cannot be a rapist is continuously challenged in date rape cases. There are more than 20 drugs used for sexual assault, according to the Journal of American College Health. Three common drugs are: GHB (gamma- hydroxybutyric acid), Rohypnol (flunitrazepam) and Ketamine (ketamine hydrochloride).

According to Srikanth, a regular party-goer (name changed), the drug though banned is acquired through the internet by placing orders. The drug is then sent to them through couriers and parcels. He says that there is a strong network in the city for circulating the drugs to the elite and salaried. Hari, another regular party-goer says that rave parties, though not quite a rage happen quite regularly in Chennai but are a big hush-hush affair and for a select elite crowd. “Beach parties are quite a rage in Chennai” says Nikhil , an executive. And he says that drugs like marijuana, LSD’s, ecstasy are a popular at such parties. Another party goer Prerna (name changed), a student of Loyola college, says that in the past 2 years or so, the number of girls who are venturing into these indulgences has increased manifold. A woman is vulnerable to sexual assault when she is intoxicated and this trend is quite alarming. Shalini (name changed) another regular at these parties, says she started drinking because of peer pressure and to be ‘cool’. These drugs produce a sensation of floating or flying outside one’s own body, says Kiran (name changed) a DJ at a famous pub in the city. He says that drug abuse is rampant in these pubs. When asked how one finds these drug peddlers in a pub, he says that if you are keen on getting hold of a drug it’s easy to find the source. He says how the people who circulate the drugs are often college-going students who are looking for easy money.

Though parties here don’t go on till 3 am or 4 am like they do in other metros, because of a strict law and order mechanism, the fact remains that these so called crackdowns haven’t really curbed the abuse of these drugs. What remains to be seen is how far the conservative attitude of this city will protect it from falling prey to the ‘toxic’ party culture like in the other metros.

Snakes help Irulas survive

2008-05-07T19:20:00.000+05:30

The Irula tribes of South India are considered as the first tribes of our country with links to the oldest African Negrito tribe. These tribes are an encyclopedia of knowledge and their survival was threatened after the introduction and implementation of the Wildlife Act in the late 1970’s when the export of snake skin was banned in lieu of the role snakes played as rodent predators. The Irulas, 'people from the dark' are the pre Dravidian inhabitants of the plains and scrub jungles of Chinglepet District, near Chennai. The Forest Protection Bill of 1976 ended the traditional livelihood of the Irulas, who sold firewood, wax, and honey collected from the forests.

Until the 1970’s these aboriginal forest dwellers depended on the snake skin for their livelihood. The Act moved the sale of snake skin of certain species of snakes from schedule 4 to schedule 2 where in hunting and sale of snakes was awarded severe punishments. Not just this, The Irulas were no longer allowed to respond to calls for help in capturing cobras and other endangered snakes that wander into inhabited areas, leaving the serpents to the fate of being beaten to death by villagers, property owners or the police.

With the ban on the import of the snake skin, this tribe was virtually pushed to the brink of extinction in their natural habitat and they were forced to migrate from forests to the cities in search of a suitable livelihood. The recognition on Romulus Whitaker’s part, to use this inborn expertise of Irulas in handling snakes to profitably put to use helped establish the Irula Snake Catchers Industrial Co-op Society (ISCICS). Romulus Whitaker was then in the process of establishing the Chennai Crocodile Bank and with his help, the tribals procured a license of the establishment of a snake venom extraction center.

Functioning in pairs, often husband and wife teams, the Irulas spend hours and sometimes days looking for tell-tale signs. From a seemingly innocent faint scratch in the ground, they can identify the type of snake, the direction of movement and roughly how old the track is. Many of the commercially feasible snakes live in rat holes and have to be dug out - a procedure that, in the case of highly poisonous varieties, can take hours.

The Irula Extraction Cooperative Society integrated their proficiency in catching poisonous snakes with a project to make anti-venom serum. The cooperative has, since 1982, extracted, processed and dispatched venom from over one lakh snakes. The reptiles are milked for venom thrice during the three weeks that they are held captive. One notices a unique interaction between the man and snake since the snakes are not kept captive and are left in the wild after they are milked for their venom.
The Irulas are paid handsomely for their catch. According to Mr Dravida Mani, Secretary the project has helped rehabilitate over 250 Irula families. They are paid anywhere between Rs 200 to 1200 for every poisonous snake caught apart from bonuses. Thanks to this cooperation, the Irulas are promised a sustainable income of over 4000 Rs every month.

According to Mani, this application of tribal knowledge and technology to use wild snakes sustainably and generate income has encouraged the Irulas to expand this cooperation. He feels that a simple change in the law can drastically improve the lives of this tribe by ensuring financial security.

The process of extracting venom is a long and lengthy process involving lot of snakes, as only one to two drops of venom is extracted from each snake. For example, to produce one gram of cobra venom, 10 snakes are required and to produce the same amount of venom from viper, more than 750 snakes are required. The extracted venom is then purified and frozen and then freeze-dried and sold in the powder form to the laboratories across the country to produce anti-venom. The King Institute of Preventive Medicine located in Guindy is one such procurer of this raw form of venom which is then converted into anti venom. Every anti-venom vial is sold for around anything between Rs 440 to Rs 500.

The Wildlife Act has banned the export of snake venom to the international market. “If the ban is lifted, we can employ them all through the year”, says Mr Mani. He says that in foreign countries, the snake venom is used by the pharmaceutical companies not just for producing anti-venom but also for treatment of other diseases and the ban only hinders the economic development of the Irulas. A gram of snake venom fetches anywhere close to 6000 Rs abroad much higher than its worth in India.

The fact of the matter remains that what ever step the Indian Govt decides to take; the Irulas have already tasted success. Apart from helping the Irulas gain financial independence, the cooperation has helped serve as an important social center for them to meet regularly and discuss problems. Not only this, the cooperation serves as a model to help sustain the other tribes with similar knowledge. It is a source of pride and identity for these Irulas, a source of comfort in an age and time where tribal identities are constantly challenged.

P.Sainath's Editorial- A must read

2008-02-03T18:09:00.000+05:30

Discrimination for dummies: V. 2008 P. Sainath

Increasingly, job quotas are cited as ‘discrimination’ — in reverse. But the word discrimination in terms of caste means something very different that the media mostly do not, or choose not to, understand.

A signal achievement of the Indian elite in recent years has been to take caste, give it a fresh coat of paint, and repackage it as a struggle for equality. The agitations in the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences and other such institutions were fine examples of this. Casteism is no longer in defensive denial the way it once was. (“Oh, caste? That was 50 years ago, now it barely exists.”) Today, it asserts that caste is killing the nation — but its victims are the upper castes. And the villains are the lower orders who crowd them out of the seats and jobs long held by those with merit in their genes.

This allows for a happy situation. You can practise casteism of a visceral kind — and feel noble about it. You are, after all, standing up for equal rights, calling for a caste-free society. Truth and justice are on your side. More importantly, so are the media. Remember how the AIIMS agitation was covered?

The idea of “reverse discrimination” (read: the upper castes are suffering) is catching on. In a curious report on India, The Wall Street Journal, for instance, buys into this big time. It profiles one such upper caste victim of “reverse discrimination” with sympathy. (“Reversal of Fortunes Isolates India’s Brahmins,” Dec. 29, 2007.) “In today’s India,” it says, “high caste privileges are dwindling.” The father of the story’s protagonist is “more liberal” than his grandfather. After all, “he doesn’t expect lower-caste neighbours to take off their sandals in his presence.” Gee, that’s nice. They can keep their Guccis on.

A lot of this hinges, of course, on what we like to perceive as privilege and what we choose to see as discrimination. Like many others, the WSJ report reduces both to just one thing: quotas in education and jobs. No other form of it exists in this view. But it does in the real world. Dalit students are routinely humiliated and harassed at school. Many drop out because of this. They are seated separately in the classroom and at mid-day meals in countless schools across the country. This does not happen to those of “dwindling privileges.”

Students from the upper castes do not get slapped by the teacher for drinking water from the common pitcher. Nor is there much chance of acid being thrown on their faces in the village if they do well in studies. Nor are they segregated in hostels and in the dining rooms of the colleges they go to. Discrimination dogs Dalit students at every turn, every level. As it does Dalits at workplace.

Yet, as Subodh Varma observes (The Times of India, December 12, 2006), their achievements in the face of such odds are impressive. Between 1961 and 2001, when literacy in the population as a whole doubled, it quadrupled among Dalits. Sure, that must be seen in the context of their starting from a very low base. But it happened in the face of everyday adversity for millions. Yet, the impact of this feat in terms of their prosperity is very limited.

The WSJ story says “close to half of Brahmin households earn less than $100 (or Rs. 4,000) a month.” Fair enough. (The table the story runs itself shows that with Dalits that is over 90 per cent of households.) But the journalist seems unaware, for example, of the report of the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector. Which says that 836 million Indians live on less than Rs.20, or 50 cents, a day. That is, about $15 a month. As many as 88 per cent of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (and many from the Other Backward Classes and Muslims) fall into that group. Of course, there are poor Brahmins and other upper caste people who suffer real poverty. But twisting that to argue “reverse discrimination,” as this WSJ story does, won’t wash. More so when the story admits that, on average, “[Brahmins] are better educated and better paid than the rest of Indian people.”

Oddly enough, just two days before this piece, the WSJ ran a very good summary of the Khairlanji atrocity a year after it occurred. That story, from a different reporter, rightly suggests that the economic betterment and success of the Bhotmange family had stoked the jealousy of dominant caste neighbours in that Vidharbha village. But it ascribes that success to India’s “prolonged economic boom which has improved the lot of millions of the nation’s poorest, including Dalits.” Which raises the question: were other, dominant caste groups not gaining from the “boom?” How come? Were Dalits the only “gainers?”

As Varma points out, 36 per cent of rural and 38 per cent of urban Dalits are below the poverty line. That’s against 23 per cent of rural and 27 per cent of urban India as a whole. (Official poverty stats are a fraud, but that’s another story.) More than a quarter of Dalits, mostly landless, get work for less than six months a year. If half their households earned even $50 a month, that would be a revolution.

Let us face it, though. Most of the Indian media share the WSJ’s “reverse discrimination” views. Take the recent Brahmin super-convention in Pune. Within this explicitly caste-based meeting were further surname-based conclaves that seated people by clan or sub-group. You don’t get more caste-focussed than that. None of this, though, was seen as odd by the media. Almost at the same time, there was another high-profile meeting on within the Marathas. That is, the dominant community of Maharashtra. The meeting flatly demanded caste-based quotas for themselves. Again, not seen as unusual.

But Dalit meetings are always measured in caste, even racist, terms. This, although Dalits are not a caste but include people from hundreds of social groups that have suffered untouchability. The annual gathering in memory of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar on December 6 in Mumbai has been written of with fear. The damage and risks the city has to stoically bear when the noisy mass gathers. The disruption of traffic. The threat to law and order. How a possible exodus looms of the gentle elite of Shivaji Park. (In fear of the hordes about to disturb their polite terrain.) And of course, the sanitation problem (never left unstated for it serves to reinforce the worst of caste prejudice and allows “us” to view “them” as unclean).

But back to the real world. How many upper caste men have had their eyes gouged out for marrying outside their caste? Ask young Chandrakant in Sategaon village of Nanded in Maharashtra why he thinks it happened to him last week. How many higher caste bastis have been torched and razed in land or other disputes? How many upper caste folk lose a limb or even their lives for daring to enter a temple?

How many Brahmins or Thakurs get beaten up, even burnt alive, for drawing water from the village well? How many from those whose “privileges are dwindling” have to walk four kilometres to fetch water? How many upper caste groups are forced to live on the outskirts of the village, locked into an eternal form of indigenous apartheid? Now that’s discrimination. But it is a kind that the WSJ reporter does not see, can never fathom.

In 2006, National Crime Records Bureau data tell us, atrocities against Dalits increased across a range of offences. Cases under the Protection of Civil Rights Act shot up by almost 40 per cent. Dalits were also hit by more murders, rapes and kidnapping than in 2005. Arson, robbery and dacoity directed against them — those went up too.

It’s good that the molestation or rape of foreign tourists (particularly in Rajasthan) is causing concern and sparking action. Not so good that Dalit and tribal women suffer the same and much worse on a colossal scale without getting a fraction of the importance the tourists do. The same Rajasthan saw an infamous rape case tossed out because in the judge’s view, an upper caste man was most unlikely to have raped a lower caste woman.

In the Kumher massacre which claimed 17 Dalit lives in that State, charges could not be framed for seven years. In a case involving a foreign tourist, a court handed down a guilty verdict in 14 days. For Dalits, 14 years would be lucky. Take contemporary Maharashtra, home to India’s richest. The attention given to the Mumbai molestation case — where 14 arrested men remained in jail for five days after being granted bail — stands out in sharp contrast to what has happened in Latur or Nanded. In the Latur rape case, the victim was a poor Muslim, in Nanded the young man who was ghoulishly blinded, a Dalit. The Latur case was close to being covered up but for the determination of the victim’s community.

The discrimination that pervades Dalit lives follows them after death too. They are denied the use of village graveyards. Dalits burying their dead in any place the upper castes object to could find the bodies of their loved ones torn out of the ground. Every year, more and more instances of all these and other atrocities enter official records. This never happens to the upper castes of “dwindling privileges.” The theorists of “reverse discrimination” are really upholders of perverse practice.

Courtesy : The Hindu

http://www.hinduonnet.com/2008/01/18/stories/2008011853351000.htm

Lot of questions..No answers...

2008-01-20T23:16:00.000+05:30

" Hum ko kya milega aapko hamare bare mein bathake?" A question that we encountered in different forms at all the villages we visited. And the answer would always be the same " Hamari tho koshish hain usse jyada hum bhi kuch nahi kar sakthe hain"..

Covering deprivation trip has been one of the toughest trips that i would have ever been to in my life..reading about P.Sainath's articles on rural india and deprivation is different and having a first hand experience to that sort of deprivation was a revelation of sorts..it was depressing, frustrating and shocking..all at the same time..

"Log aathe hain, hamari kahani likthe hain..tv camera lathe hain...shoot karthe hain aur jathe hain, lekin hamare liye kuch nahi hotha hain"..these are people who are not new to cameras, to journalists walking up to them, intruding into their lives..asking them about that one day when his/her brother decided to drink pesticide and die...a day and incident they would want to forget...we go there and make them relive their pain...and its a pain that we can't decrease...

"Aap government ke officer ho kya? Survey kar rahe hoon kya?" These are questions asked with a hope...but these are villagers who haven't seen one government official or official from the agriculture department in spite of the mass suicides that have occured in this region... " PM aaya or gaya..hamare liye kuch nahi hua" - no these are not a bunch of people who are frustrated or who are "cribbing"..these are farmers who work harder than any other person in our country and are not given the price they truly deserve...

" Kya aap shahar ke log apne road banayenge?" This was a question that i thought was very valid...was asked in response to my question regarding the employment guarantee scheme...Why should we villagers lay our own roads and dig our own wells? Will the city dwellers do that?
Valid question..again no answer...

Vandana, Geeta, Babu Rao...some of the people i will never forget in my life...Geeta's eyes are eyes of a defeated human being...of a fight long lost.....Eyes i will never forget... Eyes that will probably haunt me...

Here we are cribbing when the power goes off for an hour...here are these people who are ecstatic if their village has power for an hour...biggest irony being that Vidarbha generates most of the electricity but has none for itself.... Here we are fighting to enroll our kids in "international schools", and here is the other India that is struggling to keep its kids in school... here we are cribbing about increased price of vegetables...and here is the other India..that is sustaining itself on bare minimum... Here we are talking about IT corridors, Hi-tech cities, spending crores on making the connectivity within our cities better...and here is the other India, where villages are unapproachable...where women still give birth on the road...where people die on the way to the Primary health care center...

"Will you city dwellers sacrifice the electricity for us villagers? No you wont...but we do..for you..."

Lot of questions were asked...i had no answer for any of them...

How many times will a man turn his head and pretend that he cannot see

2008-01-18T14:55:00.000+05:30

This is an editorial written by my colleague and good friend James Hardy on the role of a journalist while covering rural affairs.

“What will you people do?” The words of a widow who had seen countless journalists come and go but her situation remained the same. What exactly is a journalist supposed to do in the face of such overwhelming poverty and injustice? Where does he/she draw the line between becoming a voyeur and a sympathetic listener?

One of the unwritten rules of journalism is to keep oneself in the background. One should never get involved in one’s subject. A journalist is there for a job and after his job is done he/ she has to withdraw. But when faced with such stark reality one has no choice but to get involved. At this point it is no longer a question of one’s profession but rather one’s humanity.

Journalists are better suited for this task because they are aware. They can see beyond the superficial reality that is presented to the world. Their experience and knowledge tell them that there is another world out there that only they can see. That is one of the great advantages of this profession. To borrow a line from spiderman: with great power comes great responsibility. A journalist might even call oneself a prophet because he shows the world what it cannot see or rather what it chooses not to see.

But then the question lingers: how does one go about this overwhelming task? How can we make a difference? It does not mean that one should leave everything that he does and head for the rural areas hoping to change the world at the first instance. Only people who can afford to forsake everything can do this. This is because there is no turning back on this idea. But there are also other ways to make a difference. As Milton said in ‘On his blindness’: They also serve who only stand and waite.

A journalist’s greatest weapon is his pen. His / her stories are capable of influencing multitudes of people. A politician can speak to the people and influence them. But as time goes by his voice will deteriorate and he will not remain the effective speaker that he was. A journalist however will remain the same for the rest of his life because his pen will forever remain the same.

The first step is awareness. The people who live in their tall ivory towers have no idea how the rest of humanity lives. It is not true that they do not want to know but rather that they cannot know because no one tells them. Ultimately the power lies with the people. So the people should be made to understand that for every comfort that they seek there is somebody who goes without the basic necessities of life.

And this is what the journalist can do.

Changing Crop Patterns in Vidarbha... decline of white gold...

2008-01-18T00:07:00.000+05:30

Mohan Halule is a soybean farmer in the village of Dorli, in Wardha district of Maharasthra. Until two years ago, he was cultivating cotton. With falling prices and increasing costs of production forced him to shift to soybean cultivation. This is the story of changing crop patterns in the cotton belt of India. Most farmers are shifting to soybean; currently 70 per cent of farmers in this region have shifted to this crop. And 70 per cent is not a small figure. Thanks to the volatile markets and withdrawing government support, this seems the most feasible thing for these farmers.

But how long can the farmers sustain upon this crop? According to Mr. Vijay Jawandia, member of Shetkari Sangathan, soybean is a very risky crop and is rain dependent. Also considering the fact that it is less labour intensive, the need for agricultural labour too has dropped leaving many landless farmers jobless. He further pointed out that the soybean area would only increase with passing years as there is a greater demand for soybeans in the global market for a number of factors. This increase will however come with risks he said.

But for many farmers like Neelkanta Ugal of Dorli, soybean is but a natural choice for cultivation, because of its price in the market. The current price for soybean is Rs 2050 per quintal, while the input cost is Rs 3000 per acre. Comparatively, cotton fetches anywhere between Rs 2000-2600 per quintal, but with higher input costs of Rs 6000 per acre. The yield of soybean is higher compared to cotton; hence the cotton farmers have no profit margin after the sale. Says Neelkanta, “At least we have some profit through soyabean. Cotton is no more profitable”

Also soybean is an early maturing crop, i.e. it is on fields only for three months unlike cotton which is on fields till March, thereby giving the farmers scope to go in for a second crop, with minimum investments. Many farmers like Neelkanta Ugal, often go in for planting pulses or sugarcane as a second crop.

According to a report by Jaideep Hardikar, DNA correspondent, this year alone, the area under soybean has increased to over 17-lakh hectare, up from 15-lakh hectare last year in Vidarbha at the cost of cotton acreage that has dipped to 14-lakh hectare, much below its annual average of 17-lakh hectare.

The farmers are tempted to sow this cash crop as the returns are any day higher compared to that of cotton. However, Jawandia begs to differ. He feels that Indian agriculture depends too much on the whims of the international market. “The government should encourage the farmers to go back to their original way of farming, by giving incentives to those who plant food crops.” Jowar is a staple food of this region, however the price that jowar gets in the market has not changed since ’95.

Soybean cultivation might be matching the cotton cultivation, but it certainly is a short term solution. Instead, the government can encourage the cultivation of traditional oil seeds like mustard and sunflower, thereby decreasing the dependency of the farmers on cotton. Price stability is however the key factor here, according to Kishore Tiwari, head of the Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti. “The government has to stabilise the crop prices as they are right now entirely dependent on the volatile markets and there is no guarantee that these prices will hold good in the future”.Whatever is the market dynamics, for these farmers it’s a case of ‘making hay while the sun shines.’

Health is Wealth- Oh Yes..For the Private Hospitals!!

2008-01-17T01:32:00.000+05:30

“If we are unwell, we just wait for death to come and take us”- that’s what a villager had to say in Waifad, a few kilometres away from the town of Wardha. Many in this region of Vidarbha have simply stopped seeking medical assistance as they can no longer afford health care.

Health, according to Mr. Kishore Tiwari, Head of Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti is the second fastest component of rural family debt.

The adage that Health is Wealth certainly doesn’t apply in this region of Maharashtra, but surely can be applied to the private health care institutions which are minting money. Says Saritha of Waifad village of the same district, “ If we fall ill, we are forced to go to the private hospitals where we are asked to undergo costly tests and we are in no position to afford this”.

Government apathy is very evident in this region. The lack of facilities in the Primary Health Care center at these villages is leaving the villagers at the mercy of the private nursing homes. The Primary Health Care Center in Waifad has limited resources. There is just one doctor in the PHC, with the other position lying vacant since the time the PHC has been set up. According to Dr. Shwetha Talwar, Medical officer (MO) at this PHC, the government doesn’t even attempt to fill up the vacant posts of an Assistant Medical Officer (AMO) and sanitary workers. The PHC lacks all the basic facilities, with medicines being sent to the center only once a month or sometimes once in two months. There is no stock of anti-rabies vaccination and anti-venom here and the village has reported 4 snake bite fatalities in 2 months. Fatalities that could be avoided. Maternal health care is not given priority and often women give birth in their homes with the help of midwives because of the absence of the doctor in the village. “My daughter died due to excessive bleeding during child birth. She could have been saved if only the doctor had been at the PHC” says Chardi another farmer.

Last year, thousands of farmers in Vidarbha had to borrow money from private lenders or mortgage land to doctors due to an outbreak of chikun gunya. And the doctor denied any outbreak of chikun gunya in this village.

In Waifad, Gopal Yadav has mortgaged his already scarce land to pay off hospital bills. “A day in a private hospital in Wardha cost me Rs 40,000. I was made to undergo all kinds of tests without being informed of the cost”. He had to let go of 9 acres of land for repaying this bill. When asked why he didn’t go to the civil hospital, he says he was referred to the civil hospital that again referred him to a private hospital. Dr. Shwetha Talwar confirmed this statement by saying that the civil hospital is not equipped enough to handle serious health issues.

Another farmer Vishwanath Jade spent close to Rs 70,000 when he had to undergo a spinal operation. His eight member family depending on just 4 acres of land was sent into a deep economic crisis. He has his own provision store in the village and is still in the process of repaying the debt.

The situation is much the same in every village. In Bhudumri, in Yavatmal District, the nearest PHC is 12 kilometres away. This village hardly has any public transport reaching it and villagers have to walk for a distance of 4-5 kilometres to reach the nearest main road to access transport. Often, it’s the ‘anganwadi’ workers and midwives in case of deliveries who come to rescue of the women in these villages. According to the villagers at Bhudumri, a Help Age India van comes every 15 days with a doctor and who at the nominal cost of Rs 2 dispenses his service. In Bhutaipor, a tribal settlement of the Kollam tribe, there are no health care facilities and the nearest PHC is again a few kilometres away. What worsens the absence of health care facility is the complete lack of connectivity of this settlement with the outside world. There are no roads and often the ill die on their way to the hospital and women deliver on the roads.

Each of Vidarbha's 11 districts has a government hospital, and every tehsil, a rural hospital, but most of them are ill-equipped. Besides, the region has a network of close to 400 PHCs, but given the poor efficiency at these primary referral centres, the patients opt for private health care. Many of those PHCs are dysfunctional, or have no doctors, as a result of which the patients often travel to cities like Nagpur for treatment, even if it comes at a premium.

India is considered as one of the hubs for “medical tourism”. And this is perhaps the biggest irony of all. The disparities are only widening between the urban and the rural, with the government turning a blind eye to those in need.

Vijay Jawandia- Robin Hood of Farmers

2008-01-16T23:21:00.000+05:30

Vijay Jawandhia (60) has been a farmer activist for over 36 years. He heads the most known among farmers’ organisation, the Shetkari Sanghatana of Maharashtra. The thousands of farmer suicides across the country, he says are a direct result of the liberalisation and globalisation policies adopted by the country and because of the removal of subsidies for farmers under the WTO rules, thereby impoverishing the farmers’ households.

Vijay Jawandia was born and brought up in the city of Nagpur. Born in a family of zamindars, he led a comfortable life. His maternal grandfather was a rich trader and paternal grandfather a zamindar. He would visit the village of Waifad where his grandfather owned close to 1300 acres of land during his summer vacation. He discontinued his MSc in 1969 to return to farming. His land hardly sustains his family, but has given him a cause to fight for farmers’ rights.

He spoke to D.V.Padma Priya, on the agrarian crisis that Vidarbha has been plunged into.

What do you think are the reasons for the present agricultural crisis?

Farmers’ suicides began only in 1994 when the GATT was dissolved and replaced by the WTO. Before liberalisation when crops failed prices rose in the market but this cushion of market price was removed by cheap imports. Farmers’ suicides are not just in Vidarbha or only by cotton farmers. Farmers in plantations in Kerala are also committing suicides. So also in Punjab, where every inch of land is irrigated. It is impossible to make a living by agriculture in our country now. The input costs have increased and the costs of living too. Therefore, indebtedness is also increasing.

What is the role of the State in the present scenario?
As the food prices in the international market go up, so does the price of fertilisers. Maharashtra was the only state which had a Cotton Monopoly Procurement Scheme. This was removed in the year 2004. Till then farmers were given advance bonus (the price given before you grow the actual crop).This too was removed because of pressure from external forces. Another problem is that agriculture is a state subject but all the policies being taken are at the centre. This too is creating confusion as the centre allocates funds for schemes according to its whims. The role of State is very important for a farmer. Agriculture cannot sustain without the support of the government. When the government can afford to give heavy subsidies for urbanisation and I.T sectors, why can’t it give subsidies to farmers? Also there is no clarity regarding the calculation of the Minimum Support Price.

How effective do you think is the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act?

The NREGA policy is very necessary and it should be implemented for boosting agriculture and not for eliminating it. The government has to include farming activities under NREGA thereby ensuring employment for small farmers every year in the village. What work will be available in village under the present NREGA? With rising aspirations, the village youth is not willing to lay roads for their own village. Are the people in the city laying their own roads?

What is your opinion on the on going controversy over the Special Economic Zones (SEZs)?
As long as the farmers are compensated according to the market price I don’t see any problem with the SEZs’. The Land Acquisition Act should not be used to acquire land from the powerless farmers. Also the market value given should be according to the value after the completion of the project, i.e give the farmers an extra 20% on the existing market price. Also the industries that come up here should give employment guarantee to the villagers.

What are the changes in policies you want to see?
Food grains are very crucial. And the food producers have to live in this inflationary economy. We should not forget this. They too require the minimum cost to live and they should get wages according to the work. The government should give prices according to the production and there has to be an increase in subsidies on food grains to be given to the poor, not decrease price to be given to the producer. Also how right is it to support mechanisation of labor by the government? In a country like ours, where there is abundant supply of human labor, the policy should support human labor and animal power. Instead of subsidising tractors, subside bullock carts. Also the government needs to think about the non-irrigated farmers and those who are dependent on one crop land. Most of the present subsidies are for the irrigated farmers. The government should arrange for non-interest loans for the non irrigated farmers.

Will a separate statehood for Vidarbha ease the problems of the farmers?
A separate state of Vidarbha would certainly ease the problems of the farmers. Electricity is generated in this region in surplus but more than 50% of the power goes to Western Maharashtra ie Pune and Nagpur. This region has assured rainfall. However most of the major irrigation projects are in Western Maharashtra with the excuse that it is a drought prone region. The leadership of Vidarbha has always deceived the people of Vidarbha. The day Telangana gets separate statehood, so will Vidarbha.

Interview to be continued...

@ Waifad, Wardha-Health at Waifad.

2008-01-15T22:58:00.000+05:30

The first village we visited was Waifed in the Wardha district of this region. We reached Waifed around 11 am when a video conference was being carried out at the Village Resource Center. The Village Resource Center or VRC as it is generally called is maintained by the MSSRF in some villages across the country. The farmers are given guidance on new schemes, seeds and other inputs here. The First National Virtual Congress of Mahila Kissan was being carried out at the same time. We met Mr Vijay Jhawandia, a member of the Shetgari Sanghatan who has been constantly fighting to bring about a change in the government policy to help reduce the agrarian crisis. Waifed is a big village with a population of around 4000+ and has one Primary Health Care Center. I was primarily looking into the condition of the PHC in all the villages i covered. The first stop was Waifed. The PHC of Waifed has just one MO, Dr Shwetha Talwar. Essentially a PHC should have 2 MO's, ANM's and sanitary workers. But apart from the presence of one doc and an attendant, this PHC has all the other positions vacant. This PHC is at the top of 7 other sub-centers. According to the doctor, the PHC has 76000 people under it with very very limited resources. The center lacked in Anti-rabies and Anti-venom. Also according to the villagers, the doctor is restricted to treating only emergency cases and is in no state to carry out deliveries etc especially if a woman gets into labour in the night. The nearest hospital to waifed is in Sevagram where we stayed, which is 30-45 minutes drive. One positive thing that i noticed in every village i covered is that the pulse polio drive was being carried out effectively however remote the village might be.
Waifed reports high number of chikungunya, malaria and filariasis cases. The village lacks basic sanitation facilities. Open drains are a feature of this village. There are no community toilets and many villagers defecate in the open. The situation only worsens in the rainy season when mosquitoes create a havoc in the villages.

Health is the second largest reason for the farmers to be debt-ridden. With no proper health care facilities reaching them, the villagers are forced to go to a private doctor and spend a lot of on health. We have to remember that a farmer is paralyzed economically if his health is hit.
The PHC in waifed gets medicines just once a month and depends on the whims of the higher ups. According to the Doctor and other sources, the water in the village has been tested and has high levels of flouride and e-coli. Also there are many cases of women suffering from Sickle-cell anemia here who are expected to buy the costly medicines. Most villagers due to the lack of proper health facilites fall back on the traditional doctors or "quacks"
There was a time when a villager treated the doctor as God, but in today's day and age where corruption has reached every level from the Tahsildar to the DMO, it is not a suprise that doctors are looked at with suspicions, PHC's are not trusted places anymore.
The money is available, but it doesnt reach the right people. This PHC had recieved a grant of 1.75 lakhs but the cash never reached the PHC. The cheque was recieved almost six months back..and no one knows what happened to it. The annual budget for this PHC is a meagre 5000-6000 rs--this is for a population of close to 4000 people in that one village itself.....
It is very frustrating to see villages in such dismal conditions...the disparity between the urban and the rural instead of narrowing down is only widening..and widening at a rapid pace.. at the cost of another.....Next time you throw those unused medicines in the house..think for a minute about these people who are dying coz of lack of health facilities and donate those medicines to the nearest Help Age India center...In one village i had been too..Bhudumri, the villagers depended entirely on a mobile HelpAge India unit which came to their village every 15 days to treat and give medicines...

Region of Vidarbha

2008-01-15T22:40:00.000+05:30

Vidarbha is the eastern region of Maharashtra state made up of Nagpur Division and Amravati Division. It occupies 31.6% of total area and holds 21.3% of total population of Maharashtra^[3]. It borders the state of Madhya Pradesh to north, Chattisgarh to east, Andra Pradesh to south and Marathwada and Khandesh regions of Maharashtra to west. Situated in central India Vidarbha has its own rich cultural and historical background distinct from rest of Maharashtra. The region is famous for growing oranges and cotton. Throughout its history Vidarbha has remained much calm during the communal troubles than rest of India but it is plagued very much by poverty ^[4] and malnutrition ^[5]. It is less economically prosperous compared to the rest of Maharashtra.^[6]

The largest town in Vidarbha is Nagpur. A majority of Vidarbhians speak Marathi language. In recent times there have been calls for separate state of Vidarbha.

Source: Wikipedia

Covering Deprivation

2008-01-13T15:10:00.000+05:30

This blog is a result of a 7-day visit to the suicide capital of India- Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. This region has reported thousands of farmer suicides and suicides still continue. Covering deprivation is a part of my course at Asian College of Journalism, Chennai. I, along with 9 other classmates and a professor Mahalakshmi Jayaram visited a couple of villages in the Wardha district and Yavatmal district, spoke to lot of farmers and met a couple of widows. This trip has been an eye-opener for most of us and the apathy of the government is but apparent. It is shocking to see the farmer who provides food for us is starving and is constantly pushed to the edge.
I will write a series of posts...village wise and try and put in words, all that we encountered there...apart from posting some related articles and links. Will also put up some pics. This blog is my attempt to reach out to my fellow Indians out there, who are but oblivious to the real world out there..Its easy for us urban Indians who have had access to everything from electricity to education to crib for IT corridors and golden quadrilaterals..and feel good when the rupee strengthens..but we have to also realise that all this is happening at a cost...often at the cost of those millions living in the rural part of our paradoxical country..

Hope to get a good response...or atleast reach out to some people!!