Can you guess where in India have these chatterboxes been caught in the act?

His talking has annoyed his brother?

When no one’s listening, we talk louder

After a lot of if, but and maybe it is now a fact… tomorrow I leave for India, a brand new adventure that I will experience just because of my football freestyle skills.

It will be an adventure including myself(Palle), Daniel Rooseboom, Nam The Man, Nori, Gomez and Petike.

I’m not sure what to expect but it will be a great experience… I’ve heard many stories but it will be great to shape my own opinion.

I will keep all of you who are following my blog updated on what will happen in India!

Septemer 26, 2009

Just saw the NGC show on the December 26, 2008 attacks. I will leave the rest of my thoughts for a post I want to make on the 26th.

Further, just read this post from Nussbaum: President Obama’s Asia Failure.

Interesting quote:

Obama came home empty-handed. He made little headway in his single most important mission—China’s revaluation of its currency, the yuan. A higher value for the yuan makes sense for the global economy, for the US economy and for the Chinese economy. But Obama couldn’t persuade Beijing of that because you can’t muscle your banker and China is America’s banker. And everyone in Asia knows this. You can feel the shift in the way people talk and in the way nation’s are beginning to accomodate China. Expect more visits from China’s growing blue-water fleet. Expect more Asian students studying in Chinese universities. Asian children are already beginning to learn Mandarin in a big way.

I wonder if anyone else can see the correlation between these two incidents – the December 26 attacks and China’s supremacy. One had a “Don’t you dare fuck with me” written all over it while the other had “Been raped, pillaged and plundered across centuries! Do come again! After all, Athithi devo bhava!” scrawled all over it. No points for guessing which one is which! I will obviously elucidate on this further when I feel like it…..right now, I’m just pissed

If you are an Indian (I am one, and I am extremely proud to be an Indian), you would be cursing the politicians for at least 10 times every day. You start for your office, and as soon as you hit the road, you are shaken, literally, by the n pot holes and you believe “Is desh ka kuch nahi honewala hain”. To borrow a line from swades, if we believe that that is the fate of India, one day you will wake up to see that it has turned into reality. You don’t wear a helmet or don’t carry your license and when a cop stops you, the first thing you do is to pull out a smiling Gandhi from your pocket and offer him as a bribe to the cop. For us, it is OK to be corrupt when it comes to the innumerable such scenarios, but we want the politicians to be spotless. We are fine with voting on the basis of caste, religion and so on.

The corruption among politicians is alarmingly high, but we are not doing enough to keep that in check. We don’t want to take any responsibility on ourselves to change it, not even one bit. Every time someone who you believe is decent says he wants to get into politics, the first thing you ask is why he/she wants to get into such filth. No one wants to clean the filth but everyone believes he is entitled to a fair and corrupt free world. I don’t how that can happen. Let us all do our bit to improve the society before we lose our right to talk. Spend at least one hour in trying to find out who the best candidate is . We watch numerous debates, but long before that we have already made up our minds as to whom we are going to vote for. Let us change that. Let us change ourselves for our own good. And if you believe voting is a waste of time, don’t ever complain because you are as good as dead.

There are always too many Congress MPs, too many BJP MPs, and never enough Indian MPs. (Indian adaptation of There are always too many Democratic congressmen, too many Republican congressmen, and never enough U.S. congressmen)

←सन 1931 में घोषित हुआ आज़ादी का परचम

सन 1921 का झंडा↓

विजयी विश्व तिरंगा प्यारा

झंडा ऊँचा रहे हमारा

— श्यामलाल गुप्त पार्षद जी का प्रिय गीत भारत के प्रत्येक नागरिक के मुहं से कभी न कभी स्फ़ुटित हुआ होगा| और यह गीत मुझे याद दिला जाता है मैनहन की उस झंड़े वाली जगह की ! जहां झंड़े जैसी कोई चीज़ मैने कभी नही देखी ।

यहां ये जिक्र करना जरूरी है कि मै डोमेनियन राज्य भारत के तिरंगे की बात नही कर रहा जिसे २२ जुलाई सन १९४७ में संविधान सभा ने ध्वनि मत से मंजूर किया था, तीन रंगों, केशरिया, सफ़ेद व हरे रंग वाला झंडा जिसके मध्य में अशोक स्थम्भ की २४ तीलियों वाला चक्र था, जो आज़ हमारा राष्ट्रीय ध्वज़ है।

मैं उस तिरंगे की बात कर रहा हूं जिसे सन १९२१ ईस्वी में कांग्रेस कमेटी की विजयवाड़ा बैठक में आन्ध्र प्रदेश के एक युवक ने बापू को एक झंडा दिया था जो लाल हरे रंग का था बापू के सुझाव पर सफ़ेद रंग और जोड़ दिया गया उस झंड़े में।

आगे चलकर वही झंडा आज़ादी की लड़ाई का परचम बना, सन १९३१ में अधिकारिक तौर पर इसे अपनाया गया और इसके मध्य में सफ़ेद रंग पर नेवी ब्ल्यू रंग का चरखा बना दिया गया जो बापू का अमोघ अस्त्र था और हर भारतवासी का भी। हां उस बालक का नाम कही प्रकाश में नही आया जिसने उस झंडे का पहला माडल विकसित किया था !

मैनें बचपन में अपने घर पर तकुली, और चरखा दोनों देखे पर तब तक इनका इस्तेमाल होना बन्द हो चुका था तकरीबन वह १९८० के बाद की बात है किन्तु इस बात से पता चलता है बापू के चरखे का जादू कॄष्ण की बासुरी से कही ज्यादा तकतवर था, भारत का प्रत्येक

बापू का सुदर्शचक्र→

नागरिक उनकी बात सुनता और उस को फ़ौरन अमल में लाता, और वो भी उन दिनों में जब रेडियों के अलावा कोई संचार माध्यम नही था। आज मोटीवेशन के तमाम साधन है कम्प्युटर, लैपटाप, प्रोजेक्टर, टेलीविजन, मोबाइल और न जाने क्या-क्या और लोग चिल्ला -चिल्ला कर मिटते जा रहे है मगर कोई नही सुनता उनकी अमल में लाना तो दूर…………….

खैर बात बापू के चरखे और झंडे की हो रही थी, जब मेरे बाबा व पिता, दाऊ को बाहर से आने में देरी हो जाती तो, मैने अपनी दादी से उन दिनों तमाम बार यह कहते हुए सुना कि झंडा तीर देख आऔ, तुम्हारे दौआ या बाबा, या पिता घर आ रहे हैं कि नही, यह जगह गांव के पश्चिम जहां आबादी समाप्त होती थी वहां थी, एक टीला जहां कुछ लोगो ने झोपड़ी बनाने के लिये खर-पतवार इक्ठ्ठा किए हुए थे और वह टीला भी ढ़ग से नही दिखाई देता था। बचपन की अबुद्धि ने कभी यह मन में विचार नही लाने दिया कि झंडा वाली जगह पर आखिर झंडा क्यो नही!

आज इस बात पर विचार किया तो पता चला उन दिनों भारत के प्रत्येक गांव में झंडा वाली जगहे होती थी और उन पर चरखा वाला तिरंगा लहराया करता था। अम्मा बताती है कि उनके गांव मे भी गावं बाहर एक मिट्टी के टीले पर एक लम्बे बांस में चरखा वाला झंडा फ़हराता था, यह बात शायद १९५५ ईस्वी की रही होगी। यानी आज़ादी की उस सुन्दर कहानी का असर अभी भी यानी आठ वर्ष बाद भी जीवित था।

मुझे याद है सन १९८३-८४ में भी स्कूलों में यही चरखा वाला झंडा फ़हराया जाता था मेरे प्राइमरी स्कूल में भी, या तो झंडे की अनुपलब्धता या जन मानस पर अमिट छाप कुछ भी मान सकते है आप। शायद आज़ादी की लड़ाई के वक्त का ये झंडा अभी भी लोगो के पास सुरक्षित था और आज़ाद भारत के राजसुख में लीन नेता ये भूल गये होगें की अब आज़ाद भारत का एक अलग झंडा है और लोगो तक उसे पहुंचाना है।

अब न तो उन्हे याद है और न मुझे मालूम हैं कि अब वह देश प्रेम के जज्बे समाप्त हो गये और लोग राष्ट्रवादी होने के बज़ाय परिवारवादी, जातिवादी, धर्मवादी हो गये और कुछ तो रूसवादी और चीनवादी विचारधारा में जलमग्न होने लगे। चीजे सामुदायिक न होकर व्यक्तिगत हो गयी!

भारत के हर गांव में झंडा जो प्रतीक था उस संघर्ष का, देश का, संस्कृति का और अपने होने का, झंडा, या किला केवल  कपड़े या  ईट-गारे की बनी चीजे नही होती है ये होती खुद के होने का सबूत एक पहचान अपने अस्तित्व की,  और उस वजूद को पहचान दिलाने का ये सफ़ल प्रयास था जिसे पूरे भारत के गांवों, कस्बों और शहरों ने अंगीकार किया था, किन्तु अब वक्त बदल गया है अब हम न तो अपने देश के प्रति गम्भीर है और उसके झंडे के प्रति, इन सब के बिना हम सब की अपने प्रति, कुटुम्ब के प्रति या जाति-धर्म के प्रति गम्भीरता कोई मायने नही रखती।

क्या देश आज़ाद है झंडे के कोई मायने नही रहे, राष्ट्रभक्ति और राष्ट्र के प्रति हमारी कोई जिम्मेदारी नही क्या हमारा उन कुछ लोगों को लाल-बत्ती में बिठा कर देश उनकी जिम्मेदारी समझ कर चैन से सोना उचित है। क्या हम फ़ुरसत पा लेते है उन तमाम कर्तव्यों से ! फ़िर फ़र्क ही क्या रहा गुलाम देश के नागरिक होने और आज़ाद देश के नागरिक होने में। और हम  अपनी जिम्मेदारी से विमुख! उन चन्द लोगों को ये अधिकार देकर, अपने हक की भीख मांगते रहते है जीवन भर,

यदि हर ग्राम प्रधान या उस गांव का कोई व्यक्ति सोच ले कि हमें अपने झडे वाली जगह पर फ़िर से तिरंगा फ़हराना है तो उसे बांस के तने और दो गज खद्दर इकक्ठ्ठा करने में कोई दिक्कत नही होगी।

क्या फ़िर से प्रभात फ़ेरियां निकलेगी हमारे गांवों में क्या फ़िर से झंडे लहरायेगें आसमान में और लोग अगस्त क्रान्ति के वक्त जिस तरह शिरकत करते अपने गांव व शहर की कठिनाइयों को दूर करने के लिये क्या वो हालात वापस नही आ सकते ।

यदि आ जाये तो शायद बापू की आत्मा को शन्ति मिल जायेगी!

कृष्ण कुमार मिश्र

मैनहन-२६२७२७

भारतवर्ष

सेलुलर-९४५१९२५९९७

RBI recently released the draft version of Payment systems in India – Vision 2009-12 document for public comments. It’s an important document that sets the direction for the development of the payment systems in the country over the next three years. It can also act as a guide for the banks in designing forward-looking systems for their operations.

Some of the interesting points:

5.3 The Bank shall publish the Red Book on Payment Systems for India in collaboration with CPSS-BIS.

Red Book is a reference publication by the Committe on Payment and Settlement Systems under BIS on a country’s payment systems. It’s hightime we had this document published even though RBI’s payments section gives a comprehensive overview of the same along with statistics.

6.5.2 All bank branches will be enabled with IFSC and MICR codes. The intention is to leave the user with the choice of product for retail and small-value transactions viz. use MICR for NECS and IFSC for NEFT.

With close to 50K of the 64K (as of Mar ‘09) branches already NEFT enabled, this should be one relatively quick target to accomplish. And probably making all new branch licenses contingent on participating in NEFT/NECS should help!

6.5.6 Efforts would be made to provide positive acknowledgement to the remitter confirming credit to the beneficiary’s account for transactions initiated in NEFT will be introduced. This would give comfort to the remitter and enhance his usage.

Oh yeah, definitely! Senders naturally face anxiety in a Implied-positive-unless-negated scenario, and a positive confirmation should go a long way in increasing customer confidence in the system and consequently increase its adoption. Though a ping-back is easy to implement in a completely automated processing system, banks still using manual processing of NEFT messages for posting credits will face the increased burden of generating confirmation messages. Well, one more way to push banks for automated integration with the payment systems!

6.5.13 Further to the initiatives taken to operationalise Indo-Nepal Remittance Facility Scheme (for one-way migrant remittances from India to Nepal), operationalisation of electronic products like NEFT and ECS / NECS in Bhutan will be taken up….

Having a seamless cross-border payment systems would be a primary requirement for establishment of any single-currency system or a EMU-like structure for SAARC countries.

6.6.6 Cheque Truncation System (CTS) will be rolled out at Chennai. National roll-out of CTS will be considered once this project is operationalised.

The ‘…will be considered once…’ doesn’t really inspire confidence! Instead of setting a clear deadline, RBI still seems to be waiting for some more experience/data before deciding on the national implementation of the much talked about CTS.

Now to the really stand-out bits of the document:

India MoneyLine – A 24×7 system for one-to-one funds transfers – ….The Bank would pursue the suggestion to consider the need to extend NEFT to function on a 24×7 basis or to develop a new system akin to the Faster Payments Service in the UK which operates on a 24×7 basis

Apart from person-to-person payments, this would definitely be a great boost to the e/mobile-commerce with the merchant establishments now having to tie-up with payment gateways individually for credit card payments or net banking transfers for round the clock service. Having a 24×7 NEFT system should provide the next jump in electronic payment volumes.

India Card – A domestic card initiative –The concept of a domestic payment card (India Card) and a PoS switch network for issuance and acceptance of payment cards would be looked into. The need for such a system arises from two major considerations (a) the high cost borne by the Indian banks for affiliation with international card associations in the absence of a domestic price setter (b) the connection with international card associations resulting in the need for routing even domestic transactions, which account for more than 90% of the total, through a switch located outside the country.

This will be one awesome achievement! Though in conception stage since 2007, India Card can save a lot for the Indian Banks in the mandatory cut of the Intercharge fees typically paid to the card networks of Visa, MasterCard etc. China’s UnionPay is a similar system in operation since 2002 which seeks to achieve the same purpose.

Mobile payments settlement network – Mobile phones are expected to emerge as an important channel for transmission of payment instructions. Efficient mobile payments would require real time transfer of funds with adequate security. Currently all inter-bank mobile transfers are payment instructions for settling funds through existing payment systems. This would require building a national infrastructure for facilitating real time mobile payments.

The need for the mobile payments settlement network has been highlighted by RBI in its operative guidelines for Mobile Banking transactions in India, issued in Oct 2008. Though the guidelines themselves have been a bit of a dampener, RBI should hopefully open them up in the future to make setting this settlement network worthwhile!

As the headline say, I haven’t been very active in here, and that’s mostly due to me being lazy, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been about. So, I’m gonna let a few picture sum up the recent “abouts”.

There was a running-competition among the students in the colony, they were to run to me ..

.. tag ..

.. and run back.

I’ve tried some new food, this time my stomach was spared, and the food was tasty!

Visited the Gandhi memorial museum, walked down the path of his last walk and read many interesting things.

And tonight, at a “Braj” exhibition, a religious dance of unknown origin, nonetheless spectacular.

THE ART OF OUTSOURCING

By

VIKRAM KARVE

Short Fiction – One of my favourite fiction short stories…

One leisurely morning, while I am loafing on Main Street, in Pune, I meet an old friend of mine.

“Hi!” I say.

“Hi,” he says, “where to?”

“Aimless loitering,” I say, “And you?”

“I’m going to work.”

“Work? This early? I thought your shift starts in the evening, or late at night. You work at a call center don’t you?”

“Not now. I quit. I’m on my own now.”

“On your own? What do you do?”

“LPO.”

“LPO? What’s that?”

“Life Process Outsourcing.”

“Life Process Outsourcing? Never heard of it!”

“You’ve heard of Business Process Outsourcing haven’t you?”

“BPO? Outsourcing non-core business activities and functions?”

“Precisely. LPO is similar to BPO. There it’s Business Processes that are outsourced, here it’s Life Processes.”

“Life Processes? Outsourced?”

“Why don’t you come along with me? I’ll show you.”

Soon we are in his office. It looks like a mini call center.

A young attractive girl welcomes us. “Meet Rita, my Manager,” my friend says, and introduces us.

Rita looks distraught, and says to my friend, “I’m not feeling well. Must be viral fever.”

“No problem. My friend here will stand in.”

“What? I don’t have a clue about all this LPO thing!” I protest.

“There’s nothing like learning on the job! Rita will show you.”

“It’s simple,” Rita says, in a hurry. “See the console. You just press the appropriate switch and route the call to the appropriate person or agency.”

And with these words Rita disappears. It’s the shortest induction training I have ever had in my life.

And so I plunge into the world of Life Process Outsourcing; or LPO as they call it.

It’s all very simple.

Everyone is busy. Working people don’t seem to have time these days, but they have lots of money; especially those double income couples, IT nerds, MBA hot shots, finance wizards; just about everybody running desperately in the modern rat race.

So what do they do? Simple. They ‘outsource’!

‘Non-core Life Activities’, for which you neither have the inclination or the time – you just outsource them; so you can maximize your work-time to rake in the money and make a fast climb up the ladder of success.

A ring, a flash on the console infront of me and I take my first LPO call.

“My daughter’s puked in her school. They want someone to pick her up and take her home. I’m busy in a shoot and just can’t leave,” a creative ad agency type with a husky voice says.

“Why don’t you tell your husband?” I suggest.

“Are you crazy or something? I’m a single mother.”

“Sorry ma’am. I didn’t know. My sympathies and condolences.”

“Condolences? Who’s this? Is this LPO?”

“Yes ma’am,” I say, press the button marked ‘children’ and transfer the call, hoping I have made the right choice. Maybe I should have pressed ‘doctor’.

Nothing happens for the next few moments. I breathe a sigh of relief.

A yuppie wants his grandmother to be taken to a movie. I press the ‘movies’ button. ‘Movies’ transfers the call back, “Hey, this is for movie tickets; try ‘escort services’. He wants the old hag escorted to the movies.”

‘Escort Services’ are in high demand. These guys and girls, slogging in their offices minting money, want escort services for their kith and kin for various non-core family processes like shopping, movies, eating out, sight seeing, marriages, funerals, all types of functions; even going to art galleries, book fairs, exhibitions, zoos, museums or even a walk in the nearby garden.

A father wants someone to read bedtime stories to his small son while he works late. A busy couple wants proxy stand-in ‘parents’ at the school PTA meeting. An investment banker rings up from Singapore; he wants his mother to be taken to pray in a temple at a certain time on a specific day.

Someone wants his kids to be taken for a swim, brunch, a play and browsing books and music.

A sweet-voiced IT project manager wants someone to motivate and pep-talk her husband, who’s been recently sacked, and is cribbing away at home demoralized. He desperately needs someone to talk to, unburden himself, but the wife is busy – she neither has the time nor the inclination to take a few days off to boost the morale of her depressed husband when there are deadlines to be met at work and so much is at stake.

The things they want outsourced range from the mundane to the bizarre; life processes that one earlier enjoyed and took pride in doing or did as one’s sacred duty are considered ‘non-core life activities’ now-a-days by these highfalutin people.

At the end of the day I feel illuminated on this novel concept of Life Process Outsourcing, and I am about to leave, when suddenly a call comes in.

“LPO?” a man asks softly.

“Yes, this is LPO. May I help you?” I say.

“I’m speaking from Frankfurt Airport. I really don’t know if I can ask this?” he says nervously.

“Please go ahead and feel free to ask anything you desire, Sir. We do everything.”

“Everything?”

“Yes, Sir. Anything and everything!” I say.

“I don’t know how to say this. This is the first time I’m asking. You see, I am working 24/7 on an important project for the last few months. I’m globetrotting abroad and can’t make it there. Can you please arrange for someone suitable to take my wife out to the New Year’s Eve Dance?”

I am taken aback but quickly recover, “Yes, Sir.”

“Please send someone really good, an excellent dancer, and make sure she enjoys and has a good time. She loves dancing and I just haven’t had the time.”

“Of course, Sir.”

“And I told you – I’ve been away abroad for quite some time now and I’ve got to stay out here till I complete the project.”

“I know. Work takes top priority.”

“My wife. She’s been lonely. She desperately needs some love. Do you have someone with a loving and caring nature who can give her some love? I just don’t have the time. You understand what I’m saying, don’t you?”

I let the words sink in. This is one call I am not going to transfer. “Please give me the details, Sir,” I say softly into the mike.

As I walk towards my destination with a spring in my step, I feel truly enlightened.

Till this moment, I never knew that ‘love’ was a ‘non-core’ ‘life-process’ worthy of outsourcing.

Long Live LPO!

Life Process Outsourcing!

Love Process Outsourcing!

Call it what you like, but I’m sure you’ve got the essence of outsourcing.

VIKRAM KARVE

Copyright © Vikram Karve 2009

Vikram Karve has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

http://vikramkarve.sulekha.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/karve

Appetite for a Stroll

http://books.sulekha.com/book/appetite-for-a-stroll/default.htm

vikramkarve@sify.com

A couple of days ago I visited the Nirmala Hospital, it is where people in the colony go when their wounds become to severe, it is also the place to where leprosy-patients from all over India come for treatment. No less then 80% of the people there when I was visiting was from outside of the Delhi area. See, everything is free, the food, treatment, rehab. The reason to why the leprosy-colony in new Delhi is the biggest in India is because of this hospital, it’s just that good. And who runs this place but the organization Mother Theresa once was head of. They have doctors, dentists, masseuses and acupuncturists coming rather regularly. They also have crops where they grow herbs and vegetables that they use in the kitchen. It was a nice peaceful place, I took a few photos..

The whole area surrounding the hospital and the wards was used for crops, this, just one of many.

The kitchen where the food for all the patients were prepared, I think they were making lunch when I visited, sure smelled like it.

The OR of the hospital. Every now and then, government doctors drop by and works for free, they get some tax-reductions and the people get free treatment, a win win it would seem. They hadn’t been there for a while tho, the dengue-fever has an outbreak right now so that’s where the attention goes, or so I was told.

“INDIA is modernizing rapidly, sometimes too fast. You have giant malls, but grandmothers afraid to use the escalators. There are villages in the middle of nowhere, with ornate temples soaring into the hot sky. Still, old Rajasthan endures, evoking rulers with giant mustaches, harems of beautiful women in the finest colored silks and some of the most spectacular palaces ever built.” - NYT

(my mom grew up in Pilani, Rajasthan – my father attended and taught school there – and I love the state, too. I’ve got a thing for the desert….)

*Oh, and speaking of the NYT, which we weren’t really, take a look at this article. Interesting.

HAPPINESS

The Epicurean Approach

By

VIKRAM KARVE

Musings on the Art of Happiness

HAPPINESS & PLEASURE

Are Happiness and Pleasure correlated?

They say:

1.  Pleasure is Quantitative; Happiness is Qualitative.

2.   Happiness is a lifelong goal.

3.       Happiness requires cognitive judgment.

4.       Pleasure is not essential to achieving happiness – here I do not agree. I feel happiness and pleasure are not mutually exclusive; in fact genuine pleasure can be the source of much happiness.

No philosopher has better explored the distinction between happiness and pleasure than Epicurus, a Greek Philosopher of the Third Century BC. Epicurus (341-270 BC) espoused a strategy for achieving genuine human happiness by emphasizing the delights of the mind (over which a person has control) rather than the delights derived from material things (which are so often beyond one’s personal control).

Epicurus’ name survives in the team “epicurean” which is used to refer to someone with elevated tastes and a lifestyle centred on pleasure. However, if you peruse his philosophy thoroughly, you will realize that Epicurus counsels a way of life very different from what the popular use of the term “pleasure” implies.

You may feel that Epicurean philosophy champions the pursuit of pleasure as the supreme goal of life, but this does not mean the unrestrained pursuit of excesses of any kind. Instead, Epicurus argues for a life of sober restrain and moderation in all things. The pleasures Epicurus recommends are those that are easy to achieve and simple in nature. The prolonged pursuit of pleasure is best achieved by restraint and enlightened choice.

It may be the prudent to moderate our single minded pursuit of “outward” success and achievement, the mindless acquisition of material possessions and accumulation of wealth, tendencies to showing off and ostentation, conspicuous consumption and lavish unrestrained pleasures; and focus more on the more authentic “inner” pleasures of life such as happy family life, enriching relationships, cultivating the mind and intellect, enjoying the pleasures of friends and companions, and living on the higher plane.

Epicureanism does not advocate the wanton pursuit of pleasure. Also, you must remember that pleasures and pains of the mind are of greater importance than those of the body. Epicurus set forth a strategy for achieving authentic human happiness by emphasizing the delights of the mind (over which a person has control) rather than the delights derived from material things (which are so often beyond one’s personal control). The fundamental premise is that presence of pleasure is synonymous with the absence of pain.

Genuine happiness emanates from pleasures that are easy to achieve and simple in nature. If you have only a few things, we will enjoy them more than if you had many things, and if you do not become used to rich and expensive foods, then simple fare, which is easier to obtain will satisfy you more.

In a nutshell: “The Art of Happiness is in keeping your Pleasures Mild”.

And how do you keep your pleasures mild?

DESIRE & PLEASURE

Are pleasures in any way linked to satisfying your desires?

There are two different types of pleasures:

1. “Moving” Pleasures

1. “Static” Pleasures

“Moving” pleasures occur when one is in the process of satisfying a desire – like eating delicious food when one is hungry.

These pleasures involve an active enjoyable titillation of the senses which most people call “pleasure”.

However, Epicurus says that after one’s desires have been satisfied, like suppose you are fully satiated after eating a heart meal; this state of satiety, a state of no longer being in need or want, is itself pleasurable. Epicurus calls this “static” pleasure, and says that these static pleasures are the best pleasures.

Hence, Epicurus says that there is no intermediate state between pleasure and pain. When one has unfulfilled desires, this is painful, and when one no longer has unfulfilled desires, this steady state is the most pleasurable of all. There is no intermediate state between pleasure and pain – either your desires are fulfilled or they are not.

Epicurus also distinguishes between physical and mental pleasures and pains. Physical pleasures and pains concern only the present, whereas mental pleasures and pains also encompass the past (fond memories of past pleasure or regret over past pain or mistakes) and the future (confidence or fear about what will occur).

The greatest destroyer of happiness is anxiety about the future, especially the fear of death. If you can banish fear about the future, and face the future with confidence that one’s desires will be satisfied, then you can attain a most exalted state of tranquillity.

This we see that the key to happiness is the effective management of your desires – Desire Management.

DESIRE MANAGEMENT

There is a close connection between pleasure and desire-satisfaction.

If pleasure results from getting what you want (desire-satisfaction) and pain from not getting what you want (desire-frustration), then there are two strategies you can pursue with respect to any given desire: you can either strive to fulfil the desire, or you can try to eliminate the desire.

Epicurus advocates the second strategy of scaling down your desires to the basic minimum which can easily be satisfied.

Epicurus distinguishes between three types of desires:

1.      Natural and necessary desires,

2.      Natural but non-necessary desires,

3.    “Vain and Empty” or unnatural and unnecessary desires.

How we tackle each of these three types of desires determines our tendency to happiness [or unhappiness].

Examples of natural and necessary desires include the desires for food, shelter, health, sense of security and basic physical needs, cravings which will necessarily lead to greater pain if they are not fulfilled.

These basic desires are easy to satisfy yet difficult to eliminate (they are ‘hard-wired’ into human beings naturally) and bring great pleasure when satisfied (“Happiness begins at the stomach”).

Furthermore, they are necessary for life, and they are naturally limited: that is, if one is hungry, it only takes a limited amount of food to fill the stomach, after which the desire is satisfied.

Epicurus says that you should try to fulfil natural and necessary desires.

Vain, unnatural and unnecessary desires include desires for excessive power, wealth, fame, and other egoistic ambitions which have all the trappings of status and prestige.

Vain desires are difficult to satisfy, in part because they have no natural limit. If one desires wealth or power, no matter how much one gets, it is always possible to get more, and the more one gets, the more one wants. These desires are not natural to human beings, but inculcated by society and by false beliefs about what we need; (e.g.) believing that being very powerful or wealthy or famous will guarantee us happiness. In fact, Opulence attracts thieves, and power and fame attract sycophants.

Epicurus says that such vain and empty desires should be eliminated.

An example of a natural but non-necessary desire is the desire for luxury food. Although food is needed for survival, one does not need rich expensive gourmet food to survive. Thus, despite his hedonism, Epicurus advocates a surprisingly ascetic way of life. Although you shouldn’t spurn extravagant foods if they happen to be available, becoming dependent on such food ultimately leads to unhappiness.

These natural but non-necessary desires are those cravings that do not necessarily lead to greater pain if they are not fulfilled. These desires are typically recreational in nature: Sexual gratification, aesthetic desires, entertainment, pleasant conversation, the arts, sports, travel etc.

In the case of natural but non-necessary desires you must approach life as a banquet. Think of your life as if it were a banquet where you would behave graciously, when dishes are passed to you, extend your hand and help yourself to a moderate portion. If a dish should pass you by, enjoy what is already on your plate. And if a dish hasn’t being passed to you yet, patiently wait for your turn.

To paraphrase Epicurus, “If you wish to make a man wealthy, don’t give him more money; rather, reduce his desires”.

By eliminating the pain caused by unfulfilled desires, and the anxiety that occurs because of the fear that one’s desires will not be fulfilled in the future, the wise Epicurean attains tranquillity, and thus happiness.

VIKRAM KARVE

Copyright © Vikram Karve 2009

Vikram Karve has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

http://vikramkarve.sulekha.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/karve

Appetite for a Stroll

http://books.sulekha.com/book/appetite-for-a-stroll/default.htm

vikramkarve@sify.com

pe astfel de ritmuri cu un pahar de

ceai cu lapte fierbinte in mana, ornamente din lut (cred), lumanarele si doi omuleti negrisori in fata noastra am intrat putin in cultura indiana.

a fost atat de dragut. am dansat, am cantat O Sanam teri yadoon ki kasaaaam, am mancat o chestie de-a lor -un orez cu niste condimente picanteeee, siii siii m-am capatat cu asta:D

I’m a hoarder by nature, so my drawers and cupboards are full of all sorts of useless old tat – buttons for shirts I’ve long since got rid of, Top Trumps cards I haven’t used since I was 11, that sort of thing.

But when I go on holiday I can legitimately hoard things, and often what looks like nothing to other people has great significance to me: sat in front of me, for example, is a big stone which I am using as a paperweight to keep an unruly pile of receipts in check.  But it’s not just any old stone.  It was a stone I washed Bosante the elephant with in a crocodile-infested river in Nepal in the summer. 

Having a bath with an elephant - out of shot to the left is a crocodile...

I’m probably a bit sentimental with souvenirs, and I do tend to keep nigh-on anything as a reminder or keepsake.  But I love buying things which show the culture of the place I’ve been to, and Nepal was brilliant for that.

Ganesh painting

Above is a painting of the Hindu God Ganesh which I picked up in Pokhara for less than £5.  It is painted onto cloth and the colours and design are stunning.  Held up to the light or placed in a well-lit window, the colours glow and shimmer – it took somebody hours to make, and I feel privileged to own it and be blessed by its ‘good luck’ charm.

Hand-carved wooden face mask

Hanging beneath Ganesh on my wall is this slightly scary face mask which I picked up for the equivalent of about £3.50 in Pokhara.  I particularly like the third eye in the middle of the forehead, which I think is a nod to the wrath of the Hindu God Shiva whose third eye opens to see the evils of the world…

Buddhist prayer wheel

More religious iconography, this time recognising the influence of Tibetan culture into Nepal from the displaced refugees who have set up villages and monasteries throughout the country.  This prayer wheel opens up to reveal Buddhist scriptures and mantras which are chanted as the wheel is spun.

An Indian wall-hanging

To diverge away from Nepal, my greatest souvenir extravagance this summer was the above wall-hanging (£10.50) which I bought in Mandawa in the northwest of India.  According to the vendor, it was hand-stitched by “gypsy women” over a period of several weeks. 

I don’t doubt he was telling the truth, but maybe I do doubt his judgement (or his eyesight).  As I walked into his shop he beamed at me and shouted “James Bond!”

August 13 cont.

Dasaswamedh Ghat, Varanasi

Our lively bicycle rickshaw ride came to an end at the Dasaswamedh Ghat, the grandest steps down to the Ganges; “Ganga” as it’s called in India. The ghat was occupied by sadhus (holy men) in various stages of undress, body paint and emaciation; little girls charming visitors into purchasing their little hand-formed butter candles adorned with bright orange marigolds; freshly-shaved pilgrims; sellers of Hindu religious trinkets; cows and tourists.  Lots and lots of tourists.  To paraphrase a quote from the October 2008 Departures Magazine, Varanasi swarms with tourists more than it does with actual pilgrims and citizens.

Our guide, Devesh, pointed out the water line demarcating the extent to which the Ganga normally swells during the monsoon.  In a normal season we should have been standing under water; businesses along the river are used to moving out while the Ganges moves in for a few weeks. But given that the Ganga records human fecal counts 3000 times the safe limit not to mention harbours countless other unsanitary nasties, I was quite happy to be on dry land.

Devesh explained to Josh, Aaron and me that people travel from all over India to Varanasi for yatra, a Ganges pilgrimage. These pilgrims believe that the river is the incarnation of the Goddes Ganga who flows down from its Himalayan source on the strands of Shiva’s hair. By bathing in the Ganga, or Ganges (the “eez” comes from a suffix given in Hindu as a sign of respect – Devesh hence forward became “Devesh-ji”), Hindus believe they are cleansed of Karma – the measurement of deeds of previous and present lives – and prepared for death.  This in turn leads to rebirth and hopefully a better life.

I asked Devesh-ji if he had bathed in the Ganga.  “Once,” he said, “and I got sick.” I didn’t probe the nature of his ailments, but I sensed he was unhappy by it and perhaps a bit envious of those who ingested and bathed in its waters with impunity… if you disregard the infinite parasites and other ills they no doubt suffer on a constant basis, Ganges or not.

There are many old people in Varanasi who carefully navigate the steep and treacherously slippery back alleyways barefoot. They believe that anyone who dies on the banks of the Ganga achieves moksha, deliverance from the cycle of reincarnation.  This explains why dead bodies receive one final dip before cremation.

I asked Devesh when Hinduism began.  He answers that no one really knows.

We each bought a butter candle from a girl who flirted persistently with Josh and Aaron and walked down to our boat. Our boatman’s oars peacefully swept through the obliging river as we glided slowly toward the Manikarnika cremation ghat. Devesh-ji asked us to lower our cameras, out of respect for the mourners.

The orange flames of the pyres stood out starkly from the concrete steps. The heat of the crematorium pressed against my face, but I was amazed that there was no noticeable smell. Stacks of wood towered over the throngs of workers, mourners, cows and dogs who moved deliberately among blackened ashes strewn with the tattered yellow and orange remains of discarded shrouds. On the steps bodies wrapped in saffron patiently waited for family members to carry them down to the river for one final immersion.  Devesh pointed out an older man with a shaved head who had a white scarf wrapped around his privates – the eldest son of the deceased. He explained that the two main crematoria run 24 hours a day, every day of the year, and that the caste who manages this operation has become quite wealthy selling wood, sandalwood dusts, shrouds and other cremation accoutrements. We sat in quiet contemplation as the sky turned indigo with dusk.

On our return to the main ghat we lit our marigold butter candles and released them into the Ganga. Aaron’s fell apart as soon as it hit the water, a sign that he should stick to Buddhism.

By now the Dasaswamedh Ghat was buzzing with people preparing for the daily aarti ritual where Hindu priests pay homage to the Ganga in an elaborately-choreographed ceremony [Mariellen Ward wrote an excellent article on the Varanasi experience.] Devesh ensconced us on stairs above a raised platform next to a cow pen. We were soon surrounded by a group of chattering young Japanese ladies who jockeyed with us for precious bum space. I drank in the scene of hundreds of people and many cows milling about, extended families wedging themselves into narrow seated groups, the loudspeakers broadcasting tabla drums and monotone singing.  The tension and emotion palpably mounted as boats filled with tourists and pilgrims crowded into each other at the base of the landing, forming a nautical chain 12 boats deep in places. At the centre of the crowd were seven priest stands – one for each day of the week – and while the organizer fretted with the priests’ diyas (large brass candlesticks), tourists peppered the night with camera flashes. The sense of festivity and anticipation increased as more people streamed into the crowd, Westerners in their sober tech-wear colours amidst the rainbow of Indian saris. The slight breeze did nothing to stem the sweat trickling down my brow.

The priests ascended their posts.  The air filled with the sounds of accordion, tabla and chanting. The priests were quite young and a couple of them, with their short hair, glasses and seeming uncertainty with the lyrics, looked like they were better suited for a university campus than leading a Hindu service. I was captivated by one priest with long hair and incredible bone structure and watched intently as he swung his diya with purpose, spelling “Om” with his arms and chanting the prayers majestically. I decided to get closer.

Josh and I descended in the crowd and sat amongst the pilgrims.  The older gentleman next to me was very friendly and encouraged us to take lots of photos.  I was surprised at the ceremony’s informality – it was perfectly acceptable to move around, chat with your neighbour, take photos – and how little the congregation was directly involved in the ritual. Suddenly, the crowd burst into a flury of hand flourishes. They clapped, namaste’ed and raised their arms.  For a fleeting moment it was pure electricity. The priests gathered at the central platform to sing the Broadway finale, then distributed blessed flowers to their devotees like celebrities dispensing autographs.

We ascended the steps – tourists, locals and pilgrims criss-crossing each others’ paths. I was surprised to discover that our bicycle rickshaw drivers had been waiting patiently for us.  We had a marvelous ride back to the Surya hotel.  The crowd was happy and energized. Because of a power outage, many of the shops were lit by candles, making the experience dream-like.  Figures glided in and out of the shadows in a cacophony of bells, horns, motors, voices and rattling metal. An auto rickshaw behind us honked passionately. I looked over my shoulder and gave him a “what can we do?” smile.  He shrugged and smiled: honking is in the Indian’s DNA. We passed the ox. Given that it was after 8 pm, he was now outside the shop.

When we arrive at the Surya hotel, Josh and I decide to give the rickshaw drivers 200 rupees instead of the negotiated 150.  We pay Josh and Aaron’s driver first, and just as we’re sorting out the second driver’s payment by some perplexing motive Aaron runs over and gives the first driver another 100. Josh and I stare dumbfounded and the driver solemnly holds the money to his head in an extreme gesture of danyavad. The other driver waited expectantly. So we gave him 300 rupees too.  More head pressing.  Felt good to be generous.

We bid Devesh goodnight, arranging a 4:45 am pick up. To our surprise the Surya at night looked like a wedding reception, with candlelit tables distributed across a perfectly-manicured lawn. Because all the tables were full we tried to persuade the waiter to let us site on the grass, picnic style, to which he disdainfully replied, “No. We treat our guests with respect.” We eventually crashed a table with two very blond English gals from Bath who extolled the virtues of Indian goat and mutton meat but who couldn’t wrap their heads around “cheese curry” (paneer).  Listening to carnivore culinary stories challenged Josh and Aaron’s commitment to their vegetarian diet, notwithstanding Aaron’s dreadful spring roll experience in Rajasthan. To drink I ordered a “sahlab”, described as “warm, thick milk with cinnamon, coconut and raisins”. The table made fun of my selection until they tried it – hot, creamy, sweet and textured (thanks to cashews), it was like pudding in a glass.

At midnight we closed down the joint. I went to bed and Josh and Aaron tried to walk back to their hotel. As Josh told me the next morning, they were stalked by a persistent bicycle rickshaw who wouldn’t go away.  They got lost and ended up on the main road. Who should find them but their bicycle rickshaw walla from earlier in the evening, pissed out of his mind.  Whether it was alcohol or drugs wasn’t clear, but he was speaking Hindi to them in dramatic, unbalanced sweeping arm gestures.  Yet again Aaron showed wacky judgement and hopped on the rickshaw before Josh could stop him.  A terrifying 50 rupee ride later (during which said walla careened blindly into oncoming traffic), they made it home.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Will Varanasi and Sarnath join the World Heritage list? (gadling.com)
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• India plans £2bn cleanup of the Ganges (telegraph.co.uk)

estas son fotos de  ICISA y el hostel

cuando por fin salgamos las fotos se volveran mas interesantes

Last week, eyebrows were raised over yet another media appearance by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief, Mohan Rao Bhagwat. This time, the fuss centred on his categorical public announcement that the next national president of the Bharatiya Janata Party would not be a Delhi-based leader, and that L.K. Advani would soon relinquish his post as leader of the Opposition. Fortuitously for the Indian foreign policy establishment, his prognosis that Pakistan and Afghanistan “are a part of us and will return one day” did not arouse corresponding attention. (via The Telegraph – Calcutta (Kolkata) | Opinion | A shift in position).

From Ashvakan to Afghans

The task of subduing the Afghan, (a possibly corrupt form of Ashvakan, meaning horse specialists in Sanskrit), from the time of Alexander  to the latest Russian and American misadventures in Afghanistan underscores, the nature of the Indo-Afghan relationship. From the time of Tomyris (Thamyris), when Indian elephant units helped the Afghans to massacre Persian invaders under Cyrus the Great, or when the Afghans hopelessly tied up Alexander.

Alexander’s Indo-Afghan campaign ‘gave him the runs’ (dysentery), his soldiers deserted him in droves, he had to make a marriage alliance, pay nearly 1000 talents (25,000 kg in gold) for an alliance, his dear horse Bucephalus died, he was himself injured twice, made to release prisoners (without a ransom).

End result – he massacred defenceless non-combatant populations and armies alike, when ‘opportunities’ presented themselves.

Islamic ‘conquest’ of India

While Islamic armies were marauding Europe, Central Asia, Africa, India held out. When Genghis Khan’s Mongol armies were running rampant, Islamic refugees found shelter in India, during the reign of Iltutmish. In 1221 Genghis Khan’s Mongol armies pushed Khwarezm-Shah and other Persian refugees across the Indus into the Punjab, India.

During early Islamic rule, when India was still viewed as militarily difficult target, the Mongols did not think of attacking India.  India, the richest economy of the world at that time, with known and famous for its wealth, was spared by Genghis Khan! Just why would a looter, invader, pillager, do that? Encyclopedia Britannica says ‘Fortunately, the Mongols were content to send raiding parties no further than the Salt Range (in the northern Punjab region), which Iltutmish wisely ignored …” (emphasis mine). As Indian reputation waned, the Mongols could succeed in India only under the foreign rule of the much-derided Islamic Tughlaks.

End of foreign Islamic rule

The 200 Islamic foreign rule from 1206 AD to 1400 AD ended when Ibrahim Lodi, an Afghan horse trader, cobbled together an alliance and sent the incompetent foreign rulers packing. The Lodis were in turn deposed by another Afghan family, the Mughals.

The Mughals realized, early on, that freedom to Indians was non-negotiable – and enlisted Indian generals, kings, allies to expand their boundaries. The depredations of the foreign ‘Islamic’ rulers were partly reversed by these rulers of Afghan extract – with land reforms, tax reforms, reduction in forceful conversions, et al. The Lodis and Mughals partially reformed the Indic political model – deformed beyond recognition, during the 200 years of foreign Islamic rule. Land holdings remained concentrated in a few hands. Taxes were imposed and increased on the trading classes. Licenses and firmaans were reduced – but remained.

In the last 200 years

The only people who could win against the Afghans were the Indians – last under Ranjit Singhji. The British, and more recently, the Russians and Americans have failed miserably. British possessions of Afghanistan and Balochistan, which were handed to Pakistan on a platter, were a part of the Sikh-Punjab Empire, which fell into the British lap.

Till about 1960’s India-Afghanistan trade and relations were close and neighbourly. Rabindranath Tagore wrote the short story, ‘Kabuliwalla’. Subhash Chandra Bose escaped from Colonial Raj imprisonment during WW2, using the Afghan route to reach Germany finally.

In early 1970s, in Hyderabad,  कागजी बेदाना अनार (seedless pomegranates) from Kabul, were available at around Rs.4 a kg – at today’s value is about Rs.100 a kg (based on gold prices). Local varieties were sold at less than Rs.1 a kg.

Between 1950 to the post-1973, Nixon Chop world, saw increasing of walls, barriers, battening down of national boundaries. Marxism-Communism seemed relentless and inevitable. Closed economies were seen as the panacea of all problems. Trade was a dirty word. During this period, something momentous happened – a complete and total closure of the Indian mind. India’s international profile underwent a profound change. Indians, who earlier saw the world as a their stage, suddenly retreated into a shell.

Right and wrong

So, yes RSS view is right.

India and Pakistan are a part of the Indic family. What this means is to see Pakistan and Afghanistan not as troublesome neighbours, but as prospective future allies. The Indian political construct was always to surround the Indian heartland by buffer states – like Bangladesh, Nepal, Tibet, Pakistan and Afghanistan. It was not to take over these countries and expand into an unwieldy land mass.

So, when RSS, dreams of an Akhand Bharat, they are wrong. The idea of Bharat was value driven and not power-driven or ruler driven. What Bharat needs to focus on is not to create an Akhand Bharat, but a real Bharat, which will become a model for other countries, especially of the Greater India.

Back to the future

But the Indic model was never to have one king who ruled over others. The Indic model allowed for smaller kingdoms to compete for populations – based on opportunities, freedom, equity. Land holdings in the hands of the populations remained a unique Indian feature for thousands of years – and the West saw this feature only in the last 150-250 years. Religious restrictions in India were not even discussed – unlike the Desert Bloc where the ‘Cuius regio, eius religio’ principle (meaning whose land, his religion; CRER) was established.

In the Desert Bloc, the land, the religion and the very life of all subjects belonged to the king – unlike in India. And that is the Akhand Bharat that we all need to work for!

The truth is, I had a reason to travel north. Humana People to People is an international NGO engaged in holistic community development. One of their offices is located in Virat Nagar, and staff travel to villages in the region in order to share resources, skill development, and organizational structures. There is healthcare training and mobilization, a solar lighting entrepreneurship program, a “green action” program planting jatropha fences to make biodiesel, and there are 11 schools for around 300 girls who would otherwise have none. Halim Ina is a photographer who has been making portraits of these girls for several years and has begun using this art to raise funds that go directly back to the foundation. I wanted to observe his process, and I wanted to learn about the way that Humana works on a local scale.

I literally laughed, wept, and danced for joy during my three days there. Oh, there are so many pictures I want to show you. I came to see the work -

I began meeting the people -

we shared a few hours and a few chai everywhere we went.

And then we started having fun.

A recent report by Transparency International sent the Pradesh’s political brass in a tizzy. According to the report, India actually managed to climb up 1 full place in the Corruption Perceptions (a measure of domestic and public sector corruption) index to rank a dismal 84^th (previously ranked 85^th). An all party meeting was called to discuss the grim situation and chalk out plans on how Pradesh could contribute to further pull down India on the corruption scale.

Maya memsaab sitting demurely on a chair specially made out of the back bones of IAS officers loyal to Softy Singh Jadhav was not all happy.

‘How could this happen? I had made every effort to siphon off the money granted for development of Pradesh into making larger than life statues of me? This is bloody bullshit’, Maya memsaab fumed in disgust.

Special directives were issued to all the public servants to intensify their efforts in pulling Pradesh into a quagmire of nepotism, inefficiency, misgovernance and corruption. It was hoped that other states would take inspiration and follow suit. It is being predicted that India will soon be able to give Zimbabwe a run for its money (non-existent) very soon in the coming decades.

Softy Singh Jadhav and Anaar Singh quietly lauded the proactive action taken by Maya memsaab from their houses.

               4 days and its 26/11 ,We have been treating a special guest for the last one year … you all know him….. it’s  quite a familiar face.. yea it’s Amir Ajmal Kasab.

               As an Indian I am really frustrated at the treatment that’s being offered to this “inhuman Terrorist” .I am angry and frustrated …I just don’t understand why it is taking so much of time for our judicial system to punish him .what’s stopping them from handing him the capital punishment. Do you need bigger proofs than the destruction in Mumbai??????? What message are we wishing to give out of this???? Does any other country take so much of time in punishing a person who has waged a war against it ??????Looking at the media coverage …..and statements of Amir Ajaml Kasab…….  At times Balasaheb Thackrey sounds correct ….Are we becoming a country of Spine-less idiots…….We are not able punish a man who waged a war against us …. is this unfortunate or is this  the sorrow state of this country ????

               Dear Judiciary , We have a lot of faith in you … Judiciary is one  of institutions Indians really really adore … we have a lot of faith in you….It’s the supreme court which gives us a lot of hope.Dear CJI please intervene , Please see to it that he is punished quickly……We are already making a laughing stock of ourselves ……

La deessa índia Mariatale dominava els elements, però només podia conservar aquest poder si mantenia el cor pur. Quan anava a buscar aigua, en feia una bola i se l’emportava a casa com qui porta un meló. Una vegada que s’havia apropat a l’estany, va veure a la superfície uns éssers voladors bellíssims, una mena de silfs. Seduïda pels encants d’aquelles criatures, Mariatale va sentir un desig voluptuós, i la bola d’aigua que havia creat va desfer-se tot d’una. A partir d’aleshores, no va poder pouar mai més sense servir-se d’un atuell.

Aquesta llegenda l’explica l’explorador Pierre Sonnerat en el Viatge a les Índies Orientals i a la Xina dels anys 1774-1781, i Goethe s’hi va fixar justament en una època en què li agradava lliurar-se a fantasies orientalistes. Era l’any 1814, i a la mirada plàstica dels grecs, a la seva preocupació per la forma, que havia fascinat Goethe anys enrere, el poeta sexagenari hi oposava ara un espai cultural sense contorns precisos, on es confonien la sensualitat i el misticisme, i que abraçava com a mínim des d’Aràbia fins a l’Índia i la Xina. Aquesta visió no corresponia a cap món real, naturalment. A Goethe, però, li va servir per a escriure poemes ben reals, com ara el que es titula «Lied und Gebilde». Us en proposo una traducció:

CANÇÓ I FIGURA

Ja pot el grec anar fent formes,
pastant la seva argila,
en el fill de les seves mans
trobar una joia viva;

que a nosaltres prou ens delecta
ficar la mà en l’Eufrates,
moure’ns amunt i avall
en l’element de l’aigua.

Si apago així de l’ànima l’incendi,
ressonarà una cançó vera;
si poua la mà pura del poeta,
l’aigua es tornarà esfera.

Sai Baba In The News – November 2009

Aswamedha Trust in service of the poor
Express News Service
First Published : 22 Nov 2009 03:55:00 AM IST

ANANTAPUR: Inspired by Sri Sathya Sai Baba and Mother Teresa, Aswamedha Charitable Trust, the brain child of NT Chowdary was founded in 2007 to sponsor education of poor students in drought-prone Anantapur district.

The trust helps poor students, irrespective of caste, creed or religion, to pursue higher education. It also provides free coaching for Public Service Commission examinations, ICET etc.

Scholarships are also being provided to the students pursuing MBA, MCA, B.Tech, MBBS, degree, Inter and nursing courses. So far 850 students were given scholarships.

Group insurance facility was also extended to 850 students by the Trust.

Differently abled and mentally challenged students are also being taken care by the Spandana Orphanage and the the Trust has donated Rs.50,000 to the orphanage. The trust has provided mid-day meals to nearly 650 students for a period of 45 days and donated Rs 2 lakh to NTR Trust through Governor ND Tiwari.

In order to eliminate corruption from the society, the District Collector N Sreedhar had organised a 3K Run on anticorruption in Anantapur. The trust distributed biscuit packets and fruits to those participated in the run. It donated Rs 2.5 lakh to the Teachers Associations and Unions.

Under Anantha Pratibha programme, 300 students have been provided help to secure admission in corporate colleges.

Free coaching for clerks recruitment examination in State Bank of India was given for 600 candidates by the Trust.

Expess Buzz Reference

Indian Express Reference

It has been a month since I posted something on my blog and I still don’t know what to write. No, nothing very serious. I know this from my experience with blogging for the last two years. It happens at times and then things start getting into place.

But I will write something today. Indiblogger decided to lower my rank, and I decided it was high time to get back to writing. Old memories come the easiest to me, so memories be it.

Now that winters have finally descended upon Delhi (despite the warmth warned by Global Warming experts), lemme tell you what I remember most about winters, in fact this is about food.

Before Gobhi (Cauliflower) began to be sold all through the year, we had to wait until the winters to relish this vegetable. I know everyone loves ma ke hath ka khana but my mother’s aloo gobhi ki sabji was really very tasty.

There is no particular recipe that I am going to share here. The ingredients too varied except for the aloo and gobhi. As tomatoes, peas and coriander leaves became cheaper, they too added in their small little ways, only to make the curry tastier.

As we were bent over our books minus interests, we waited for the 8:30 PM call for food. The aroma had already won us and father appeared as the monster wall between us and the tasty treat.

And then Ma called us. Father kept on cribbing about spoilt kids, but we had already assembled  near the chulha. At Dhanbad, coal was available in plenty; the chulha or coal stove was used for preparing food as well as to keep the house warm. On a cold wintry night, this was the best place to be. The first one to reach got the closest place near the chulha. Of course, this was not as simple as that. I remember fighting it out with my brother once for holding on to a place near the stove.

With the garma garam subji, there were siki hui rotiyan. The already prepared chapatis were put on open fire for a second and it was ready to eat.

Many winters have passed and I am miles away from Ma, the fiery hot chulha that spread warmth all over our home, the tasty Aloo Gobhi ki Subji, those small fights, but little did I know that the taste will continue to haunt me until now.

Nalbari|Assam (India)

In a series of two blasts triggered in the Lower Assam town of Nalbari, at around 9.45 am on Sunday, at least 7 people have been killed and more than 50 have been reported injured. Police sources have named the terrorist organization, United Liberation Front of Asom, (ULFA) to be behind the blasts.

The militants used Improvised Explosive Device (IED), which they had strapped to two bicycles parked within 50 meters of the blast sites. The first blast at 9.55 am, was of low intensity and did not cause any casualty. The second blast came nearly 15 minutes later near a police station which led to casualties and injuries.

Police sources said that they had intelligence inputs that the militant organization is likely to carry out violent activities prior to what ULFA calls the Protest Day on November 27. The banned militant organization observes the Protest Day to mark the launch of military operations on it and declaration of ULFA as banned outfit by the Indian government in 1991. ULFA is also looking to avenge the arrest of two of its senior leaders, self-styled foreign secretary Sasha Choudhury and finance secretary Chitrabon Hazarika.

Earlier this week ULFA militants blew up wagons of a tanker train carrying high-speed diesel (HSD) and petrol.

Meanwhile Hira Saraniya, commander of ULFA’s 709 battalion, called up local newspapers and claimed that ULFA has no role in the explosions. He said that some elements are trying to derail the proposed peace talks between government and ULFA.

ULFA’s history of terrorizing the region is not new and spans over two decades. They have claimed responsibility in bombing military as well as civilians locations. They have also been known to attack soft-targets like railway tracks and oil-pipelines which has often left the area economically as well as logistically crippled. Situated in the North-Eastern hilly regions of India, operations against these outlaws and several other such armed outfits has been a challenge for security forces.

Previously, neighboring Bangladesh used to be a safe haven for these armed terrorist groups but with the current Bangladeshi government launching an offensive against them, their desperation has aggravated. The recent capture of the two prominent ULFA leaders was a result of Bangladesh pushing them out of their territory.

NowPublic

In the five years I worked as a reporter in India, I sat through many uncomfortable silences during interviews about Pakistani terrorists, the pervasive caste system and Indian Muslims — sensitive issues that, on the face of it, seem more controversial than carbon parts per million. But these subjects rarely stirred up as much ire as India’s stance on climate change. The topic has become a matter of national pride, a symbol of sovereignty and growing global clout. If you want to make an Indian government official really angry, bring up his carbon emissions.

This fall, when I mentioned to the Indian government’s chief economic policymaker that the United States considers India “intransigent” on climate change, the poised, Oxford-educated Montek Singh Ahluwalia looked slightly stunned for a moment. Pursing his lips, he seemed to struggle to suppress anger. “If I were using a cool description, those are either gross misperceptions or deliberate distortions,” he said in clipped British English. “The Indian approach on this has been, ‘Let’s first decide a fair pollution entitlement for different countries.’ “

India’s position on climate change — as the hard-line negotiator standing up for the moral rights of the developing world — is a familiar one. India is the world’s fourth-largest emitter of carbon dioxide, but for months now, it has come across as an obstinate child, leading the developing world in insisting that industrialized countries bear the brunt of the responsibility for global warming and have no right to dictate reductions to poor countries.

The international climate conference in Copenhagen next month won’t be the showdown it was originally billed as, but the United States and other nations are certainly not going to let up in their insistence that India and China accept hard emissions targets. During Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s visit to India this summer, the country’s environment minister, Jairam Ramesh, rubbed the United States the wrong way when he had a climate outburst of sorts. Standing beside Clinton, he declared to a bank of reporters, “There is simply no case for the pressure that we, who have among the lowest emissions per capita, face to actually reduce emissions.”

In a country where almost half a million children die each year from water-borne diarrhea, providing access to basic services such as clean drinking water is more pressing than cutting emissions. And to do so requires energy. “You cannot say that because there is climate change the developing world shouldn’t grow,” was the outraged response when I asked Chandra Bhushan of the Center for Science and Environment, a New Delhi-based research group, to explain why it is unfair to ask India to cut its emissions. “You’re essentially saying, ‘No more electricity to your house, close your factories, go back to the fields.’ “

Even under the spinning ceiling fans in his office, drops of perspiration kept springing onto Bhushan’s forehead as we talked. Like many in India, he draws a bright line between India’s “survival emissions,” from burning energy to produce food, for instance, and American-style “luxury emissions,” from things like SUVs and central air conditioning.

In every conversation I had about climate change in India, the lines were clearly drawn: Americans, who emit 20 times more than the average Indian, are greedy over-consumers refusing to make lifestyle changes that would allow the rest of the world to grow. There was no dissent among the ranks. In a country with a healthy tradition of civic engagement and anti-government protests, I was surprised that no environmentalists were urging India to accept international limits. But high-minded nationalism has a proud history there, too; when officials use phrases such as “climate injustice” and “Gandhian moral authority” to describe India’s position, it rings a bell.

Although India accounts for only about 5 percent of the world’s emissions, that includes a wide range of carbon output. The 800 million people who earn less than $2 a day have a carbon footprint of almost zero. But the tiny fraction of rich Indians who use air conditioners and drive big cars are “eating into the carbon space of millions of poor in India,” in the words of Vinuta Gopal of Greenpeace. The polluting middle class should be forced to pay a kind of carbon tax, she says, just as the industrialized world owes a debt to the developing world for its historical emissions.

Most U.S. officials consider it unhelpful and misleading to assign blame according to the past hundreds of years of emissions, since we did not know then what we know now. But in India, environmentalists often bring up the greenhouse gases the West emitted not only during its decades of industrialization but also in fighting wars. And they aren’t referring just to Iraq and Afghanistan — the world’s carbon waste in 1941 was mentioned in my interviews more than once.

Essentially, the United States wants India to commit to reducing its emissions, and India wants to be able to do so at a pace of its own choosing. But the two countries actually have a remarkably similar position: The international community isn’t going to tell us what to do. This doesn’t bode well for action on global climate change — not next month or in the sessions that are sure to follow in the future, now that world leaders have agreed that there will be no binding agreement at Copenhagen.

India’s Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, will be in Washington this week, and the Obama administration will almost certainly use the visit to try to wheedle India into softening its position. India, for its part, will try to pressure the United States to commit to giving it funding and low-carbon technology transfers, its key demand from Copenhagen. But no one expects any “deliverables” — despite the fact that India has lately assumed a more flexible posture internationally, with Ramesh, the environment minister, making the case in New York and Washington in September that India is a “dealmaker, not a deal-breaker.”

Meanwhile, at home, the government has proposed sweeping laws to help steer a less-polluting path to development. India will tighten fuel-efficiency standards by 2011, set voluntary targets to improve energy efficiency and aggressively promote solar power generation. The domestic initiative is a diplomatic volley at the industrialized world, showing that India doesn’t need an international agreement to do the right thing. It is also a tacit admission that the country needs to mitigate global warming for its own sake. Environmentalists warn that rising sea levels and melting glaciers will hit India especially hard because of its long coastline and its proximity to the Himalayas.

Nevertheless, the question in India now is not whether its emissions will increase, but how, and by how much. Spending time there is a good reminder of how far India has to go. At least half of the population — mostly people in rural areas — have no access to electricity. Even in the capital city of one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, the pretty middle-class enclave where I lived from 2002 to 2007 suffered almost nightly power cuts during the long months of summer. The neighborhood guard would blow his whistle and holler “Light gone!” in Hindi, as though he wanted to make sure no one managed to sleep through it. Without the AC, my room would soon become unbearable, and I would join the rest of the neighborhood in shuffling out to our patios to take advantage of what breeze there was. Each summer, bands of furious city residents decide they’ve had enough of this and storm through the streets to protest their unsteady power supply.

To try to meet their demands, India plans to build more coal-fired power plants; more than 70 percent of India’s power needs are already met by coal — the most carbon-intensive source of power — and that is sure to increase in the coming years. As far as India is concerned, it has no choice but to use dirty power. Now that it has opened up its economy and given its citizens a taste of the good life, it can’t just call it all off and leave half the country behind.

But government policy adviser Ahluwalia promised me that India knows better than to make the mistakes of other nations that rapidly industrialized. “We are willing to guarantee that our per capita emissions will never exceed of those of the industrialized countries,” he said, spreading his hands generously, as though revealing a major dispensation. “If, as a result of technology, self-denial and determination, you were to cut your emissions by 50 percent — the moment you achieve it yourself, we will accept that cap.”

When I pointed out that it was inconceivable that that United States would halve its greenhouse gas emissions anytime soon, he smiled ever so slightly, with just a hint of righteousness, like a man who knows he has played a match fairly — and won.

Miranda Kennedy’s book about women and globalization in India will be published in January 2011. Her latest reporting trip to India was funded by the International Reporting Project.

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Full article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/20/AR2009112004309.html