Wednesday, February 23, 2011

A different team India to rid what ails the country - The Times of India

A different team India to rid what ails the country

Sanjay Sharma, TNN, Feb 23, 2011, 04.24am IST

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Tags:Indian Foreign Service|Cyberspace

CHANDIGARH: A campaign that was born in cyberspace from London to free India of its ills, is exploring possibilities of taking roots in northwest India comprising Punjab, Haryana, Himachal, Chandigarh and Jammu and Kashmir.

The brain behind the campaign, one of the most popular on the net, Shantanu Bhagwat, who quit his lucrative job of an Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, to plunge into politics, on Monday met a group of youngsters from the region here. He was accompanied by a former nuclear scientist Dr Akalpita Paranjape and a software technologist Dipinder Sekhon.

Around 150 such leaders have come together to form a Freedom Team of India (FTI) to act as a "forum for policy, strategy and leadership development to promote the freedoms of the great peoples of India."

Dr Paranjape who retired from Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and Bhagwat said the grouping hopes to offer its leadership to India along with the world's best policies to improve governance in India.

It is driven by a citizen leadership concept where there is no leader but a collection of bright people who shape policies and prepare citizenry. Adharshila, one of the activities, is focused on preparing citizenship. Adharshila is being designed and may be launched in a few months.

Bhagwat said, the forum's mission is, "An India where everyone is guaranteed equal opportunities and equal dignity and has freedom to pursue his or her own happiness under an accountable and participative government." He added, "We favour a change in the body of systems to bring about this situation."

Though during the interaction, they did not offer any specific policy framework, yet they indicated why there should be an electronic accounting system in which each deal is tracked and why tax collection and distribution is left to the lowest bodies of governance. Socialistic policies, according to them, have lost their relevance and a true capitalistic system, unlike the crony one India has, appears to be their guiding philosophy.

The concept of FTI was proposed in mid-2006 on the internet in the manuscript of a 2008 book, "Breaking Free from Nehru". Bhagwat spends a fortnight in London and India each to run the campaign.

In an open letter released to citizenship, the team has made it clear that it is a formation away from socialistic framework and wedded to liaises faire to unleash opportunities and freedoms for individuals to grow and the nation to benefit from their growth.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

The people of poverty

It seems it is the poverty not the abundance that breeds greed. Where there is poverty, there is law breaking. When there is no hope to deal an issue with dialogue, comes the need to answer a call with brute physical force. The deep seated animal instinct of human comes out. It crashes out on others till it gets satisfied.

The rage and rationality are two different things. The out come depends on which takes the upper hand. The battle ground is human. Even if one of these is two is in command, the other tries to comes out at times and cause unrest. When the rage is all over and the sheer power is showing it's presence all over, the rationality comes to conscience in the form of a child's face, a helpless lady's pleadings, in a powerless man's situation. When the rationality is in command, the rage brings an unrest when some people try to take advantage of our rationality. When our humbleness is taken for granted, when our kindness is misinterpreted and we are called traitors.

This is the moment that needs your highest 'super ego' to start working. THE MORAL VALUES SHOULD BE HELD HIGH NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS. If you fail, the people who believed in you also fail. IF YOU FAIL, WITH YOU TEN PEOPLE FAIL.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Being taken for granted

తీసి పడెయ్యడం నేను ఒప్పుకోలేను. I do not accept taken for granted. I do not like being put aside. I do not like to be out side lime light. I do not accept people talking about me in a careless manner. I want to be talked about my accomplishments. I will make every one know. I will be acknowledged. I will not 'one among many'. I am 'The one'. I am a person of accomplishment. I do not like being treated unwanted. Never Never Never. My work, the world needs. My thought, the world needs. My life, the world talks. I am the person. I am the lime light. I am the creator. I am not the god. I am not a power. I am the module. I am the continuum. I am the process. I am not god. I am the man of will. I will cry if i fail. I will suffer if i fail. I will not accept if i fail. I never compete with people. I never compete with people. I will compete with concept. I bring new ideas. I bring more understanding. I will help people see their destiny. I will give my knowledge to the next generation. I want my fellow people to have my knowledge. I spent vast amount of energy to get and understand what i understood. I will give this to you. You do not go all the way i have gone. Finish it fast and go beyond where i have gone. I am one among those few who carry the baton. I love you. I do not like to be taken for granted. If i am forever, you will take me for granted. I am not forever. I will leave, once my part is over.

In this govt school, people make things happen - The Times of India

In this govt school, people make things happen

TNN, Feb 17, 2011, 11.13pm IST

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Tags:Government Schools|Amenities

HASSAN: Most people have a perception that government schools lack amenities, but in Mallapanahalli, Holenarsipur taluk, the villagers join hands with students and teachers of the government higher primary school every year during the harvest season in the month of January and February and donate paddy to help them buy the necessary equipments for the school and to organize union day (school day).

Speaking to TOI, K S Srinivas, a teacher with Mallapanahalli government higher primary school said, "Since the year 2002, the school has been organizing a unique programme every year where students and teachers go from house to house to collect paddy from the villagers. Later, we sell the donated paddy and generate around Rs 12,000 to 15,000 which also includes the money donated by the villagers for developmental works of the school."

He says though the school was started in 1970, the school authorities never organised a union day due to the absence of a stage. But the contribution of paddy and money has helped school authorities construct a stage and the money has also been utilised for the past eight years to organize union day in a grand manner.

The paddy donating system of the villagers has helped the school authorities immensely -- today, the school has a drum set, 200 steel plates, mikes, speakers, computer tables, three cupboards and a DVD player to televise documentary movies, says Manjunath, a villager. "We should not depend on the government for everything. Every government school should organize these kinds of unique programmes for the development of the school," he added.

"We are proud to say that after seeing our development, 10 students who were with private schools in Holenarsipura have joined our school in 2010-2011. Now the school has a strength of 182 students. This year, so far, after selling the donated paddy, we have earned Rs 13,800 and with the help of the gram panchayat we have started constructing a compound around the school," said teacher K S Srinivas.

Character of the week: Petrus « Paulo Coelho's Blog

Character of the week: Petrus

The first symptom of the process of our killing our dreams is the lack of time. The busiest people I have known in my life always have time enough to do everything. Those who do nothing are always tired and pay no attention to the little amount of work they are required to do. They complain constantly that the day is too short. The truth is, they are afraid to fight the Good Fight.

The second symptom of the death of our dreams lies in our certainties. Because we don’t want to see life as a grand adventure, we begin to think of ourselves as wise and fair and correct in asking so little of life. We look beyond the walls of our day-to-day existence, and we hear the sound of lances breaking, we smell the dust and the sweat, and we see the great defeats and the fire in the eyes of the warriors. But we never see the delight, the immense delight in the hearts of those who are engaged in the battle. For them, neither victory nor defeat is important; what’s important is only that they are fighting the Good Fight.

And, finally, the third symptom of the passing of our dreams is peace. Life becomes a Sunday afternoon; we ask for nothing grand, and we cease to demand anything more than we are willing to give. In that state, we think of ourselves as being mature; we put aside the fantasies of our youth, and we seek personal and professional achievement. We are surprised when people our age say that they still want this or that out of life. But really, deep in our hearts, we know that what has happened is that we have renounced the battle for our dreams – we have refused to fight the Good Fight.

When we renounce our dreams and find peace, we go through a short period of tranquility. But the dead dreams begin to rot within us and to infect our entire being.
We become cruel to those around us, and then we begin to direct this cruelty against ourselves. That’s when illnesses and psychoses arise. What we sought to avoid in combat – disappointment and defeat – come upon us because of our cowardice.

And one day, the dead, spoiled dreams make it difficult to breathe, and we actually seek death. It’s death that frees us from our certainties, from our work, and from that terrible peace of our Sunday afternoons

words of Petrus, my guide during The pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela

My Diary

Wednesday, February 23, 2011