Project Gutenberg and the Indian Connection

If you have not heard of Project Gutenberg, it is oldest digital library, in making since 1971, encouraging distribution of free e-books. Since then, it has not just made 30,000 e-books in various languages free to access but also many useful audio books and videos. For more information, we have Wikipedia. Now, you have one minute to free your mind and set it on thinking to guess what the Indian connection is. Think wild, set your imaginations free. Free your mind! For those of you bright minds who have guessed it right, hi-fi. And, never mind if you have not figured it out yet.

It is none other than our very own second century collection of Sanskrit writings by Vatsayana on Kama Sutra. This book is the most popular e-book on Project Gutenberg, scoring the most number of downloads. Apparently, Apple rejected an app on Project Gutenberg for iPhones because people could search and download this book on love through the app. Strange and funny, but true!

As always we have tough competition as to what India is famous for at international level, and this case does not help solving the issue. What do you think is India famous for - (a) head wobbling, (b) mystic and spiritual yoga gurus, (c) the curry smells, or (d) as Land of Love?

P.S. There are some excellent books in this website. If you are a Kindle person, then this is your gold mine because this resource lets you download versions of e-books for Kindle Explore it, leisurely! 

Midnight Musings

It is 02:00 AM on a Sunday night (rather Monday), and I am still trying hard to catch some sleep so that I can be ready for a work week ahead. The reasons were many. It is always difficult to call it a day when you could savour the wonderful moments you had afresh, just the way you would relish the taste of your favourite food item dished out by your mom leisurely. Reminiscing the fun moments, in general, brings a positive feeling inside. And, I will call this particular instance adventurous for my friend's sake. 

But what kept me awake until this point is the Shaheed Bhagat Singh's beautiful handwriting and the mental strength he showed at a very young age. I have watched films on him, we all did. And, have been inspired by the songs he penned. To read his writings in his own words is a different experience. Until today I have not had that chance. His choice of words, the command he had on legal proceedings and the courage he had shown at the most difficult times were exemplary. When today's young generation are busy raising their virtual farms, feeding their e-cattle and supporting every cause with a "Like", this 22-year old shackled a midst four walls dreamed of revolution and longed for change, for better. If only I could know how much he had gone through, mentally. If only we had access to the diary he maintained during his incarceration. If only all his writings are available to the public. 

Source: The Tribune

At the age of 21, Bhagat Singh published articles in Punjabi periodical on Anarchism. He dreamed of a society without obsession for money. A society free from God and money, two major reasons people fight amongst themselves. How many of us have heard of Anarchism at that time? How many of us know about it now? It was the books on Marxism and the life of Lenin he read in his condemned prison cell, while we comfortably read romantic fictional work by Sydney Sheldon and James Patterson. It was three month fast that this young man took part in only to be force fed by the authorities and to restart the fast later, while we care only a little for the brave Anna Hazare who is fasting for a better India and who gets branded as a corrupt person by this corrupt politicians.

We, the risk averting generation, who want a clean nation without our hands getting dirty can safely learn one thing from him. It is questioning and reasoning when we believe in what we do. Criticizing what we would otherwise blindly follow, only to build our own ideas on top of it. Can we do that, atleast for our own good?

If you have not heard of "Operation Trojan Horse", it is time to do so. Hit a search query with this term along with the words 'Bhagat Singh'. Ghastly as it sounds, but could be true from the controversy the British have created on the very unfortunate day we lost these three young people by imposing the penality earlier than the supposed time. 

Have you come across a statue of this legend in our country where we have statues for living people?

When the King lost the jewel in his crown

"Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we will redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance. We end today a period of ill fortune, and India discovers herself again." These were the words uttered by the first Prime Minister of India when British granted a dominion status to India and hence giving independence to its 40 crore people. But little do we about the detailed events that happened among the British in deciding to give India its independence. Alex Von Tunzelman in her book Indian Summer: The secret history of the end of an empire deals with, in detail, the lives of Nehru, Gandhi, Jinnah and the Mountbattens who are the crucial people in birth of India and Pakistan. These are the people who triggered various actions that led to the independence. And these countries endured a lot of struggle and suffering even after their birth.

The author, a history student at Oxford, starts with a startling perspective. There were two countries in 1577. One was a vast, mighty and magnificent empire, brilliantly organised and culturally unified, which dominated a massive swathe of the earth; and the other was an underdeveloped semi-feudal realm, riven by religious factionalism and barely able to feed its masses. Guess what! The first is India and the second is England. In 1857 it was the other way about! Now you know what alien rule does to the ruler and the ruled! But, the country divided by its diversity fell prey to the British who found a way to enter this land as traders in the name of The East India Company. And India became a prized possession in the King's crown.

It is difficult to make history an interesting read, but Alex overcomes this problem by making the text highly readable. Her research deals with treacherous politics and personal details of the key players and her presentation of the otherwise boring history, clear and restraint.

Of all the things this book had to offer, I was particularly disturbed after reading about the aftermath of the independence. The Indian summer of 1947 had witnessed the transfer of power by the British empire to the Indian Union and the Dominion of Pakistan. But, it had to also witness one of the worst tragedies mankind had ever seen. The tragedy in which about one million people were murdered in communal and religious clashes. Sad, we celebrate independence every year but fail to mourn the death of these countless civilians. Perhaps Stalin was right, 'Death of one man is tragedy; death of millions is statistic'.

And, these key players has achieved what had not been achieved in 130 years of Mauryan rule, 180 years of Mughal empire or 90 years of British Raj. A united India by bringing about 570 princely states together. But then, is India really united? I think Nehru's words during the hour of independence will achieve salvation only when India becomes united in the true sense!

What does this cricket world cup mean to you?

"Cricket is an Indian game accidentally discovered by the English." - Ashis Nandy

Google Logo for Cricket World Cup 2011. Doesn't the player in the doodle look like Sachin?

Beginning today, millions of people in India and around the world will be glued to their idiot boxes cheering their favorite teams. With cricket being one of the religions in India, world cup acts like a platform where in Indians come out of their cocoons and share a unique bond, unlike IPL where they take a dig at each other. And, the world cup fever only builds up more with the opening ceremony being a grand success.

This cricket world cup means different things to different people.

• To youngsters using social networks, it means a lot of spam with cricket related apps on facebook, and endless feeds on match and score details on twitter.
• To TV showrooms in India, it means lots of visitors outside their shops.
• To a corporate manager, it means decrease in the productivity of his/her subordinates.
• To a corporate employee, it means a reason to leave early in the evening to catch up with a cricket match.
• To bloggers, it means lot more topics to blog about.
• To people in movie business, it means off season.
• To news channels, it means no need to worry about their breaking news ticker tapes.
• To Sachin's fans, it means a reason to win the world cup.
• To any Indian, it means a topic to initiate a conversation.
• To my mom, it means an interruption to her in watching her favorite TV serials.
• And to me, it's nostalgia. 

What does it mean to you?

The Great Wall of India

A couple of weeks ago, an American national representing the company who sponsored our project at work asked me where in India I was from. Later on, he was telling me how he knew about the hatred between North Indians and South Indians. My response was "What!?!" He was telling me that people in India from North and South hated each other as much as they hated people from Pakistan. That was the first time I heard something like that!

But a quick search on the Internet about this issue gave me a much detailed insight. And yes, there is some coldness and indifference between the people from these two regions. They don't go well with each other for due to a variety of reasons like the Aryan and Dravidian divide, or the comparatively fair skin vs. dark skin or the food habits or languages they speak. We were those proud kids when we first learned of secular and diverse India during our primary and secondary school. I wonder what happened to all that cultural diversity lessons we learned. I wonder why we resort to silly reasons and superficial standards to judge and look down upon each other.

India from Google Maps at various zoom levels

In my version of Google Maps, I could not find a wall between North and South of India at any of its zoom levels. Does your version have that wall, that divide? I guess not! It's all in your minds and hearts.

I Dare To Dream

The Great Indian Robbers!

Do you worry if some one stole Rs. 200 from you? Probably you would not as much as when Rs. 2000 was robbed from you. Now, if you have not worried enough when you heard of 2G Spectrum scam then let me tell you that you need to worry. According to reports, the estimated loss due to this single scam is Rs. 1.76 Lakh Crores which approximates to Rs 1760 per every person in India's 1 billion population. If you start looking into other scams that have happened recently, then there is every reason for you to worry. An estimated 63 Lakh crores of Indian money sits in all the Swiss banks. There is no way we could ask these people to not rob the poor, because not even the animals were spared in this country.

The Give and Take Principle

During my college days, I often came across people who wanted to rag their juniors only because they were ragged by their seniors. When I go to a government office, I would have to deal with a bitter employee because he was treated with bitterness by his superior. A mother-in-law would want to make up for her bad experiences by treating her daughter-in-law in the same way. And this ill behavior only increases as it goes down the chain, because at every point one wants to feel good by venting out more than what one had experienced. Same is the case with our politicians. If the politicians pay Rs. 100 asking you to cast vote for them, they only expect to take back Rs 1000 or more from you after they win. 

Political Party Co. Pvt. Ltd.

Starting a political party is a profitable venture in this country. With nepotism having its strongest roots in Indian political scenario, politics is now a family-owned family-run venture mostly. And, like any other business there is competition in this as well. Be it at the central level or the state level, most of the ruling party's time is invested in devising methods to retain the power for a better future for their children, who would eventually be the politician of the next generation. So when your hard earned money is taken away and stashed in Swiss banks by politicians now, their children would increase their family assests by taking from your children. After all that is what BS Yeddyurappa said "I have done what my predecessors did".

Gifts for being Honest

It was Shanmughan Manjunath and Satyendra Dubey earlier, and this time only the name changed. Yashwant Sonawane was murdered for doing his job honestly. The unexplained deaths and murders of Right To Information activists and corruption whistleblowers only reasserts the fact that being honest in this country has its own risks. And how difficult will it be to find an honest person in any government organization? Very easy, the one who is termed outlier by his/her colleagues, who had most number of transfers and who is the most constrained economically. What would you tell your children when they read the newspapers and ask you if honesty is the best policy?

I hate what is happening and yet I love my country. Despite all this, I dare to dream of a corruption free India. Do you dare to dream? To make our dream come true, this time we cannot wait for a savior to lead the march. We cannot even trust any butterfly effect so that an instance in a far away land can trigger the movement here. We are by ourselves. Let us together fight against our common enemy "corruption" and make India a better place.

Source: www.5thpillar.org

India Against Corruption http://voteforindia.org

Also, do read what Zephyr has to say. 

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This post has been selected by BlogAdda under "Spicy Saturday Picks".

  

Micro Finance Institutions, the Indian scenario

What

Organizations that offer financial and banking services to low income people are called Micro Finance Institutions (MFI). Low income population, more specifically poor people, who do not have any assets for mortgage formally and/or proper employment cannot get credit benefits from the mainstream financial institutions like banks. These MFIs accesses financial resources (money) from the banks and give the poorer people the benefit of credit. Their prime target is to help microentrepreneurs (from the low level income strata).

How

Some of the main goals MFIs try to achieve through their services are to understand and identify what helps people to move out of poverty by creating self-employment opportunities. And, they also provide financial resources to the under-previleged and train them in putting the resources to their best use and generate income and employment through it. Micro financing is also profitable because if properly it can generate upto 50 percent returns on investment and it also helps the clients to pay higher interests.

Challenges

One of the major challenges that our MFIs come across in promoting micro-financing is the client illiteracy and lack of experience managing their finances. This requires people trained in micro-finance to deal with people in training them, and their unavailability affects the growth of the organization. And other challenge is in distributing the funds that government releases in support.

The Indian Scenario

Major Indian population resides in villages, and there has been a consistent effort by various governments after independence to develop rural India. The governments have tried to reduce poverty by providing grants, subsidies and credit through the main-stream banks. But these schemes proved to non-profitable for the banks and often led to their misuse. And it was also ineffectiveness on the governments' side in helping out the targeting beneficiaries. This scenario gave a platform for local money lenders to dominate the poor by lending money at exorbitant interest rates, which often leads to selling of assets and suicides due to inability to pay the debts. This has also led to the urban migration in search of a better living. With this, India adopted the micro-credit concept.

Just like anything else, the MFIs could not even protect themselves from the face of corruption in India. These non-profit organizations with a 25,000 Crore INR industry gradually turned out to operate for profits. And these "for profit" MFIs have grown spectacularly in the recent times by charging greater interest rates. Which made, MFIs a paradox in India. A recent study revealed about the coercive practices used by some MFI agents to recover the loans. There were incidents which have led to lots of suicides in the recent past, and which were allegedly coerced by the agents so that the loan money gets repayed through their insurance. And, government has recently taken steps to monitor these MFIs after they have faced the allegations at various levels.

But do these people, who face hardships through out their life for making a living, need to face exploitation at this level also?

Attention Problem!

I always knew that Siddharth Narayan is an intelligent actor, but only recently did I know about his intelligence as a person too. Have a look at this video and you will know what I'm talking about. The major point in his talk is how the current generation of Indian population have this "Attention Problem" and how we cannot focus on something even for a little while.

I might have had something to argue either on behalf or against his point, but after I went through the comments in that youtube video above I don't. There is this man trying to make a point, trying to motivate us. And we just abuse each other without caring for anything at all. And, this is a common case with all youtube videos or forums or anything which have India as their central theme. Seriously, what's the problem with us! Can all these abuses attributed to anonymity these online forums provide when the users comment? May be, given a chance to go anonymous or invisible these bunch of shameless people would start looting the country in every possible way just like the way they loot the country's pride by posting shameless comments against each other.

And what's with these fan groups in India? Fans of a certain hero cannot withstand fans of another. Followers of a politician cannot bear followers of others. When all these heroes and politicians are friends in reality, their fans and followers go on fighting with words on online forums for no reason. What's wrong with their gray matter, and what happened to their thinking ability?

Will the father fail?

Ram Singh, a single father to two sons and a daughter, belongs to lower middle class. He used to look after his family by farming in the small piece of land he inherited from his father. His youngest son has a health problem since birth, and it would cost Ram Singh a little more for his son's medicines. But that's no reason for him to worry since it's nothing beyond what he earns. Very recently, the father chose to invest his money in a business in an attempt to provide better quality of life to his children.

All in good intention, the father decided to use all his savings. Slowly, the investment to start his own business was turning out to be more than expected. He had to sell his land and started borrowing amount from many places. He had to also cut down what he would use for his youngest son's medicines. Only in a hope that everything would come back to a better place once his business starts.

But it wasn't as easy as it should be. The father did not foresee all different problems he could face. Life is a bitch. The not so friendly local politicians would not let the things happen smoothly. Only with more money he could achieve what he had dreamed of. Now, with all his saving gone and with nothing to spare for medicines for his son, Ram Singh is broke. So are the kids. The kid with health problem is now bed ridden, and only timely medicines can get him back to normalcy. Did the father fail? Was his decision wrong? Should he have not dreamed of a better life when he was good at what he was?

It's not a huge amount that he requires to get his small business running. Chipping in a little amount from our side is all it takes to make his life better. All he needs is a little support from you and me. I'm ready to support and to not let the father fail! Are you?

Yeah, I've been talking about the whole Common Wealth Games scenario. The father is the country and the ill son is the poor population. How the father had to sacrifice medicines for his ill son simply reflects on how being a host to CWG effects the poor in our country. Instead of investing in eliminating poverty directly, the government chose to spend money by becoming a host which would further increase the taxes on the common man. But, the negative effect on the poor is expected to be only for a short period since this whole thing is worked out on a wonderful revenue model. Had it not been for the corrupt politicians and bureaucrats, the country is expected to profit a lot from being the host. I feel India, currently, is in a deep confusion which puts pressure in projecting itself as  a developed country while we still are developing one step at a time. Unknowingly and unfortunately, this creates the  scenarios for India-Bharat divide, the divide between urban and rural. Between the rich and the poor. And it is this confusion that wants to see ourselves as a capable country by becoming host to such a grand event. Had it all turned out the way it should have. Had it not been for all the corruption!

One thing we can do is to shed the negative vibes and the bad publicity. All it requires is our support as citizens. We had done it by uniting against terrorism earlier, and now we can do it again by supporting the event and sharing the positive energy. Please don't let the father fail!

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Freedom Struggle

Days of freedom struggle

Thou shalt never forget

Lest history repeats

We cannot take things for granted for our freedom wasn't achieved easily. 

In order to achieve freedom from all the social evils, we have to do our part.

P.S.: My first attempt at Haiku. Will be very happy if my fellow bloggers correct, criticize or comment on my attempt.

Written for

Economic Imbalance

Last night I was reading an article on how China overtook Japan in becoming World's second largest economy. As I dug deeper, I was surprised (read it shocked) to learn that India is World's Eleventh largest economy. May be, I need to read my high school social textbooks again! But, can someone here clarify what Economy means and how India happens to be 11th.

Our ranking based on per capita income is 139 out of 192 countries on the World map. Does this say something? According to an estimate by World Bank, one-third of the people below poverty line in the entire world resides in India. Yet, India is also the country with more than One Lakh super rich people. While the number of rich people account for those pretty numbers which puts our country in the top of the world's charts, nothing much seem to change with the Poor. Except for the fact that the poor gets poorer and the rich gets richer.

I was reading the post Economic Independence I wrote 3 years ago on the occasion of Independence day. Nothing much seemed to change!!! I'm afraid to even think that we are failing. Failing of being a democracy, of being an independent country. Are we? I hope not. Can we do something? Wish, we can.

Image Source: Citizenx.org

Will the call to our Indian rich people by Bill Gates be answered? Will it begin the end of many sad stories we see around? Will there be any difference in the lives of those kids who beg alms when you stop near traffic signals in your luxury cars, when you dine at costly restaurants, when you take your kids to malls?

~Vee...

Goodbye

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 13; the thirteenth edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

There are two types of people in this world.

Those who give up and kiss goodbye to the world, those who fight till the end no matter what!

Where do you belong?

Afraid of this materialistic world as an eight year old kid, Amar could have given up when he envied how peaceful his mother looked in death. But he didn't.

Unable to withstand the abuse by her malik where she worked as domestic help, Priti could have ended her life as she didn't have any where else to go and live. But she didn't.

After seeing his world - his wife and little child pulled away by death in the form of mud slides due to the floods, Raheel could have said goodbye to this world. But he didn't.

The long wait for monsoon didn't seem to end to Sivaiah. Not sure if pesticides would work on eliminating pests, but it  sure would have worked on him had he wished to end his life. But he didn't.

Not coping up with the expectations of an engineer father and doctor mother in academics in the competitive world, Vidya could have ended her life. But she didn't.

Brain-washed by the power hungry politicians, Nachiket could have set fire to himself in the name of a protest against ruling government. But he didn't.

Every goodbye is the birth of a memory, except death.

Try to become a memory, not history.

For history doesn't remember the weak!

• Amar means long life. It's unfortunate that many children in our country experience a lot of physical and mental trauma due to poverty.
• All Priti wanted is a little affection and love in her life. There are more than 11 million abandoned children in our country with 90% of them female. What are we doing to ourselves?
• Raheel means the fearless one who shows way to others. It's important to have brave people to lead us, especially in the crucial times. This is also a reference to the current floods situation in Pakistan. May it all end soon.
• Lord Siva sure has Ganga on his head, but not many such Sivaiahs who are taking their lives after untimely monsoon thrashes all the money and effort they put in their fields.
• Suicides by students is one of the things that bothers me a lot. Why do they have to resort to such an extreme step? Isn't it true that today's students are tomorrow's future?
• Nachiketa means fire. And these days we hear many such Nachiket's taking their lives for their politicians! I'm definitely talking about the Telangana issue.

All we need to do is give them a little support and help them face the challenges. I will do my best, I hope you will too.

~Vee...

The fellow Blog-a-Tonics who took part in this Blog-a-Ton and links to their respective posts can be checked here. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

This post is also written as a part of Mera-Bharat-Mahan-India-Shining-Proud-Blogadda-Contest  and this is my product of choice from Pringoo.

Economic Independence

“At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance..... We end today a period of ill fortune, and India discovers herself again.”

This is a part of the speech delivered by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru at the stroke of midnight on 15th August 1947 when India became an independent nation. And today we are an independent nation for over 60 years. But I still wonder if we can really call India independent! It is estimated that 20% of the population is below the poverty line and we call ourself independent. What are we independent of? Ignorance, poverty, superstitions, illiteracy, ethnic clashes, religious riots and the list goes on and on. Yes, we are independent of slavery, torture and injustice from the clutches of our imperialistic rulers. But does that mean we are completely independent. May be we should start celebrating August 15th as the day on which India became Politically Independent and that reminds us of the fact that we are yet to achieve Economic Independence. Gheorghe Elian, in his book "The Principle of Sovereignty Over Natural Resources", rightly says "One can hardly speak of a State's complete independence without its achieving economic independence, after freeing itself from political dependency." Political independence without economic independence can in no way free the teeming millions of the developing world from the poverty trap they are in.

Gandhiji is in a way lucky as he knew what or whom he should fight to achieve a politically independent country. But now we have many to fight against, and some are so trivial that we tend to neglect them even though they matter a lot. According to a recent report by UNESCO India has the highest rate of teacher absenteeism. As a consequence, we have failed to meet universal elementary education targets and we have the largest number of illiterates for any country. Need I say anything about corruption which is prevalent amongst every section of the society at every level. And we talk about independence in this nation where one third of its population earn less than Twenty Rupees a day. Being a part of independent nation, what do they have to celebrate?

We are independent in true sense only when we are economically free, only when no Indian goes to sleep hungry; only when every Indian can lead a life of dignity free from poverty, ignorance, and ill- health