Another travel photo blog: देल्ही and गोवा!

Since the last time I put up a few pictures on हैदराबाद as a photo blog, decided that once in awhile share some of the photograph based content on a few issues I can share! Combined with the fact that Google now provides हिंदी text, nice ocassion to test out the feature!!

Last week in Delhi, a good friend invited me to the thanks giving function of the Mirambika Progressive School in the Aurobindo Ashram campus. Amazing place! The school situated in the beautiful campus has 8 section (grades) for the child's progress. Emphasis is placed on growing within as much as knowing from the without. The child evolves as she grows from one grade to the other. There are no exams, competitive marks or grading during the course. Children learn by doing things as well as by interaction with the sisters in the ashram. An interesting observation from the friend was that, in this kind of learning, the parents too learn to evolve with the children! They learn many things afresh!!

Anyway it was nice to see on the thanks giving day so many parents (considering the fact that the number of children enrolled each year is limited to 20, which in a sense makes it exclusive) had congregated, most of them seemed to not only know the staff but each other (I suppose quite a few were from the IIT across the road from the Ashram) and many had prepared food from home to be shared apart from whatever food was served at the school as part of the festivities। This congregation is one of the last days for the current academic year and they all get together to learn and celebrate। There were stall where children produced toys with clays, tie-and-dye work, paintings, paper models, etc. an ex-Prof. was holding court in one corner over a cup of tea as to how children can teach us mathematics better! I enjoyed


If you are in पंजिम in गोवा and would like to taste some Goan sweets, Mr. Baker is the place to go, I have been assured. Had an opportunity to try them out while there recently, learnt that this old elegant bakery was started in 1922 (as the giant clock behind the counter says),with its old wooden decor and very warm and friendly owner really gives an experience of another age and time. I tried their apple pie, dodul and b____ (never get the names of Goan dishes or places), and found myself agreeing with the locals about the place. The old lady in the shop realized that I was seriously trying out things, recommended what to have and separately packed me a dinner, breakfast for the next morning and some sweets to be carried home after a few days and all the times mindful of the fact that I didn't spend too much yet got the taste of their best! Now that is hospitality!

SEZ follow-up 2: 'Now you deal directly with the developer' says the Government

Even as we understand the significance of the ministerial statement on SEZ, comes the next news:

After the recent killings in Nandigram, the Centre announced changes in the rules and made developers solely responsible for rehabilitation of the displaced persons.

“The developer (of special economic zones) shall make adequate provision for rehabilitation of the displaced persons as per the relief and rehabilitation policy of the state government," a Commerce Ministry notification said.

The sudden change in rules by the Commerce Ministry, the nodal agency for approving SEZs, has even preceded the finalisation of the rehabilitation policy being worked out by the Ministry of Rural Development.

Now, the government cannot be blamed for Nandigrams. As it happened with the soft drink giant (the Benaras protest couple of years back in which protesters including Sandeep Pandey were reportedly beaten up by hired goons while the police looked the other way), corporate houses will be permitted to directly deal with the local communities.

Follow-up on SEZ

So now we know that Mr. Pillai was wrong after all. In his interview referred to in an earlier posting in this page, he had mentioned how the farmers are benefiting because of the sky rocketing prices, and how they can all sell their lands, take the money home and be happy ever after, blah-blah. But, no the area the farmers will have to sell is not that much says the minister now. Says he in the Parliament:

"In the 234 SEZs, given formal approvals, the total land acquired is 33,807 hectares. This extent of land would not hamper the agriculture production as the total land under cultivation in the country is over 100 million hectares," Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh told Rajya Sabha in a written reply to a question.

Of the total land, he said, needed for the SEZs, with formal approval around 17,800 hectares was already with state government agencies while the remaining land has been acquired by private developers. ...

There is enough land for everyone, blah-blah. The question is about the kinds of lands being acquired and compensation promised (read Medha Patkar on Singur)? But, Simple Ramesh is a technological-mathematical wizard, long before the GM technology was driving farmers to suicide he had predicted that this is the future of India. Writing on GM Rice as early as 2001, he wrote that GM-Rice is the Rice of the future ( India Today, 26 February 2001).

What if (as a friend suggested recently) all the farmers decide that 'we want to sell our lands for SEZ' and offer them to the Government? Why this discrimination against farmers, after all, Mr. Pillai did mention in his interview that the farmer will never get as much money as he would if he sold his land to SEZ. Let all farmers make money and whats more if we have so much lands for developing SEZs and that much of FDI flowing in, imagine the country will be prosperous in no time!?

Nandigram: What actually happened???

The influential English media which to a large extent is controlled by the left wing and people sympathetic to it has tried to centralize and objectivize what happened in Nandigram. The local media has finally made available some details, please checkup the Calcuttaweb (http://www.calcuttaweb.com/nandigram.shtml) for some of the worst details of the carnage:

"...Bands of CPM goons aided by platoons of Eastern Frontier Rifles and Commando forces were entering every village and paras [mahallas]. They brought the men out of home, they took no prisoners, no witnesses, they shot them, bayoneted them, ripped apart their stomachs and then laid them down the canal to the sea and confluence. They then brought out the young girls, gathered them in open space, raped them multiple times till the girls collapsed, they then tore their limbs, in some cases cut them to pieces and let them down the Haldi river and/or Talpati canal. They made sure that there were no witnesses. And even if there were some, they know that the young girls in traditional Medinipur would never come out to say what really happened and who will believe...."

I may be excused (and hopefully not clubbed as a right-winger) for remember Gujarat riots? Gujarat could be blamed on communal fanatics, what was this battle for at Nandigram? Reformed Communists wanting to become the new age Capitalists and butchering their people for that purpose? Reformed Communist fanatics?

In fact, since the carnage at Nandigram, more and more of the kind of 'admirable' rule by the CPI-M in W.Bengal largely through their goons is coming to light. Vir Sanghvi writing in the Hindustan Times a few days back writes about how the supposedly peaceful rule of W. Bengal was maintained by the iron fisted rule where the cadres maintained the law and order by being the law. He starts with a very pertinent question, "why is it that Bengalis all over the world are becoming prosperous whereas the bengalis in their home land despite having the longest single rule in the country remain poor and backward", that is an interesting question to ponder.

The role of english media is once again is to be questioned in this case. The sheer volume of the demand for Modi's resignations that came immediately after the Gujarat carnage and the willingness to cooperate line that is being adopted by the english media is adequate evidence that the left has been effective in silencing any kind of independent inquiry or understanding. I have heard it repeatedly that the English media in India is managed by different regional groups at different times and currently this is completely ruled by Bengalis. If this be true, it explains the attitude of the media on this issue.

Pray for Nandigram (or do something, sign a petition available, share this information with as many people as possible, amke others sign petition too) and all the other untold stories that are the victims of the SEZ, a greedy and unrealistic policy being promoted by a government that has no authority over how the projects will be implemented and is willing to allow the state governments to decide and manage the 'local' issues any which way they want to manage it. The entire SEZ initiative needs to be questioned and put on hold until there is clarity on who actually benefits.

India will win the world cup?!

A question that probably the entire nation will debate in the next month and half or whenever the Indian cricket team's chances are incinerated in the field.

I think India will win the world cup.

I have not followed cricket in the past many years now. But, I have been following the advertising and commercial world. There has been a lull in the number of cricket players appearing for advertisements. All the big guns of Indian team who a few years back were commanding larger contracts seem to be carrying on earlier ones and not signing any large new ones. Perhaps the Indian cricket team's performance has made them less popular with the followers and the advertisers have realized the futility of having them as brand ambassdors, ministers, models, etc.

But where else can they mobilize so many names at one go? The world of advertising and commerce have a potential 16 faces that can be recognized across a market of a billion people and can launch a million products. A country that speaks a hundred languages and wears a dozen different attire in its daily life, cricket players, the 'men in blue' (as successfully planted in our minds by the soft drink major) are the most acceptable common mascot for any products. Sachin can sell shaving cream in rural Andhra and Kumble can sell tyres in Himachal and Dhoni can sell hair oil (and colour, and an entire industry of hair dressers who can create the 'Dhoni shtyle') all over the countryside.

It must be desperate for the advertisers to have such fantastic possible models and only use them for small time work. It should be possible that these men will command more loyalty and following in the growing consumer market of predominantly young people. Which means they can SELL. And it makes sense to ensure that they are seen as 'hero's. And cricket being played as it is today, what more do you need than a big time commercial back-up to ensure that a given team wins?

India will win for the sole purpose of promoting adequate consumer goods. If it doesn't make it, it is a failure of the corporate India.