Farmers, Cauvery Calling

Munnekolala Lake Park, Bengaluru

It was 13 years ago when economist S. Janakarajan formed the Cauvery Family - a non-political initiative by farmers, engineers, hydrologists, and economists across Karnataka and Tamil Nadu (TN) in an attempt to find a ‘lasting solution’ to the 125 year old inter-state Cauvery water dispute. 

Almost a decade later, in 2012, they came close to a breakthrough. Five formulas were shortlisted of which one was nearly finalized to resolve the issue. Lack of government support stalled any progress and the Family was caught between the rigmarole and the red-tapism of Indian government.

---x---

Read the full article here as it was first published in sbcltr.

Web 1,2,3 point .. oh no.

FightTheTPP @Wikileaks on 13 Oct, 2015

TV fed us with whatever it wanted to, Shaktiman or Chitrahaar, we gulped it down with joy. Enter Internet and we liked it more, for its variety, class, and the choice to watch what we wanted to. So today, the American TV viewers have moved from 'cord-cutters' to 'cord-nevers', and broadcasters offered them this choice to sustain their own businesses.

"… arrange with telcos to give away bandwidth" "telcos may bundle internet access with voice by restricting it to a few hundred megabytes rather than to a few websites". We are not traveling on Indian Railways. As the open letter points out, 'Neutrality Violations have Started Already' - ".. all discriminatory practices by ISPs are forbidden, including zero-rating, throttling, blocking, paid prioritization, toll-gating.." I didn't know there was a term for it (throttling) as my 'Cisco & ex-Reliance' friend explained, "Haan! Danda upar-neeche karte hain (Yes! We manipulate the signal)." We laughed.

Silence and Jokes Apart

Rape is a natural phenomenon, common in the animal kingdom. The female animal adapts in these ways - (1) submission (2) changing habitat (3) forming alliances (4) resistance (5) developing bodily protection. But a raped female animal doesn't commit suicide, she moves on, and rest of the animal kingdom neither shames nor cares. But kingdom of the most advanced – the human – shames a raped female and doesn’t care. 

It’s a very old story - be it Draupadi’s Cheer Haran or Seeta’s Agni Pariksha. Yudhishtir questioned Draupadi even after her death, while Sita asked for death herself. Where was god? Or does it really help those who help themselves?

Taxpayer's Palace in the Sky

- Public Sector Under-achings of India.

So what’s new about civil aviation in India? Or what’s old, considering it is celebrating 100 years since its inception in 1911 when the first commercial flight was flown by a French pilot Henri Pequet from Allahabad to Nain on 18th February. It was a Humber Bi-plane, a humble beginning for a nation which is waiting in line to realize its dream of flying the Dreamliners. The 58 day long agitation by Air India pilots over rights to fly the aircraft has concluded with the abolishment of the IPG, some travel benefits, and a 25% salary cut for employees due to losing PLIs. Five and a half years since the merger Air India has suffered total losses of over Rs. 28, 046 crore, and even today according to the MoCA, 74% of the integration process is complete, but manpower integration - the most important is still pending.

Nayi Naveli Soch

We Are Born

“Breathe in, heavily, yes, now push.”

“Push harder; breathe, yes, yes, good …. good”. Silence. A sweet cry.

Somewhere, a mother is ecstatic and a father proud.

Somewhere else, a mother is scared and a father angry.

In Lyallpur a boy is born, in Amritsar a girl.

In Lyallpur, this birth will be followed by rolling out drums of liquor and distribution of sweets to friends and family.

In Amritsar, it will be followed by attempts to end a new life.

September 27, 1907 was marked by a quiet and sunny afternoon ensued by the birth of two beautiful children. But as darkness prevailed, darkness prevailed upon humanity, throwing light upon the differences between the births of two sexes. On this day, Bhagat Singh and I were born, few miles away from each other. Both of us grew up to be revolutionaries - he by actions, I by thoughts.

Baba’s Witch

Once again, a bright morning had started with a mourning. My father, Hardeep, was displaying his usual sorrow of not having a son to work with him on the farms. And on noticing an expected ignorance to this repeated act of his by his wife Kuldeep, he did next what he knew would make her flinch, would make her cry and in turn would make him content.  

Child Is The Father

This was the day I had to be mega-strict. It had taken two hours in just trying to convince Emma and Ben to get ready to go to the hospital. It would be another hour before they decide upon the clothes that suit their moods, and the food that suits their taste.

“I don’t like the smell of the hospital”, 5-year old Ben, the younger of my two kids would whimper. Ever since he had come to hear of hospitals this was his reason for not wanting to go to one. Someone told him that hospitals had white-tiled walls and green carpets, and everybody wore either white or green coats.

“White and green – doesn’t sound fun”, Ben told himself, and came up with a smelly reason to not go to the hospital. So now he would eat slow, dress up slow and even walk slow, to delay the visit. He wouldn’t talk much on the way and reply only in monosyllables – an expression of extreme sadness for him.

Fighting Against Time

- the spirit of Mumbai

Centuries ago people were either fighting for land, or for women, and with time it was for oil, which is still a fight for land. But in Mumbai, the Sainiks are fighting for land even today. They fail to understand the very basic nature of this city where dreams come true. To most this city is an amusement-park; some can’t stop wondering what drives it, and others, what holds it together.

Everybody believes in the spirit of Mumbai - broken, bruised, it will move on. Now imagine that Mumbai is a car and its People, the driver. The driver has to get to a place, and real fast - that’s why he chose this car, it takes you there quicker. If the car breaks down in between what will the driver do?

Always 1st - Happy People driving Mumbai

Will he wait for help of any kind (like his old Grandpa Government, or the so slow Uncle Police, or too little Aunt Aid)? Or will he fix the car himself? He has the tools and he knows just how much repair-work the car needs, to get going for now. Remember, he is driving a Mumbai, so time is a worry for him.

Quizzing with an Idiot Box

Television is not just an Idiot Box anymore. It keeps my mind at work at least. We are always playing a guessing game - truth or lie? I have been left on the guessing side since Television drifted from giving to selling. Now it's a fish-market out there. Modest to ambitious fisherwomen/men. Grunted to greedy customers. Fishes - of all kinds. But it's a market, and some decided to stay home. They started watching Television on mute, lip-sync and laugh.

And how moral can a market get? So soon Television started lying. In the days of Colour Television, it became more so difficult separate the black from white. With a solid backing from everyone - the businessmen, the audience, and the entertainers - the show went on. Everybody found a way out.

Badchalan Aurat

Knock knock.

Who's there?

Badchalan Aurat.

.… Knock knock.

…. Knock knock.

This too went unanswered. In my world, wishes were granted depending on who’s knocking on whose door. A man was always entertained, for my door was always answered.

It's not like I did not have a choice to leave, but I feared if my existence in any other form mattered to anyone else, anywhere else. Chances are I probably dint want to serve any other purpose. My body was too numb, mind too frozen, soul too bruised, for myself to care. Each time I shared my bed with a stranger a part of me was chipped away. So much had been lost that any effort to get the pieces together, to rebuild my life, would only begin and end with, “Who was I anyway?” And so I’m accustomed to what I am, and accepted what I don’t have. My world is a small place, maybe the size of a dingy room with no room for emotions. And its okay as it gives me my bread and butter.

Don't need no AIDucation

Being aware and being wise are two very different things. Wisdom essentially is a quality that comes from values, and values to a large extent stem from our mindset. Time will give you the kind of experience one needs to become wise, but it’s up to you to learn the lessons.

This is especially applicable to the ever-growing problem of AIDS and ways of tackling it. For a long time now, AIDS awareness programs have been considered as one of the most steadfast solutions emphasizing on the core message of ‘indulging in safe-sex’. This solution might be feasible in a western country where the culture is different to the extent that a condom might find home in a cabinet or the pocket of a youth at all times. In a place like India, sex is not pre-planned or expected at all times. It’s that ‘moment- of truth’ that catches you unaware, and without a condom. One wouldn’t want to spoil it due to the absence of it. And so they risk it.

Corporates Empowering Women

An empowered person is one who has control of the decisions which impact his/her life. The same applies to a group. Empowering marginalized people is merely working towards helping them gain the kind of control over their lives that the rest of us enjoy. To get it, they have to do it for themselves - albeit with external help for a while. 

We will lionize him, but will we ever listen to what he's saying? - Amartya Sen 

Amartya Sen points out that when he took up issues of women's welfare in India he was accused of voicing ‘foreign concerns’. He was told, ‘Indian women don't think like that about equality’. But he argued that, 'if they don't think like that, they should be given a real opportunity to think like that.'

(dissertation contd.)