mayank's bak-bak

education reforms in india

2009-06-14T12:37:00.006-04:00

another interesting piece from S. A. Aiyar..
Back to school: An open letter to Kapil Sibal
i love his rationale, the way he analyzes a problem convering all aspects...and the best part is that he proposes solutions unlike a lot of other columnists who just crib about what is wrong! they too play a vital role but his approach is better! :-)

aaj bhi!

2009-06-06T13:40:00.002-04:00

in Pudupatty in Madurai district in Tamil Nadu -

"It was noted that out of 708 respondents, 83.05 per cent of the population did not receive any newspaper. 61 per cent of the respondents believe that radio can help them solve the major problems they are facing. 66.7 per cent radio owners tuned to FM Channels."

complete story -

T. Pudupatty in Tamil Nadu to have Community Radio Station

US protectionism may help India!

2009-05-31T11:09:00.006-04:00

read this - US protectionism may help India

this is s very interesting take on protectionism. the tax-breaks if revoked would not only benefit india by making indian cos more competitive, they would create more business for indian service providers e.g. - the tax-breaks would affect a finance co which offshores jobs to its india unit; so this co would simply outsource the jobs to an indian service provider!

one more on the trust vote...

2008-08-03T15:00:00.005-04:00

an interesting event that occurred during the trust vote sessions in the Parliament was the speech by Omar Abdullah of the National Conference.
he speaks of his pride in being an Indian; being a Muslim and acknowledges not quitting the NDA when Godhra happened as a mistake! - this is something which isnt very common in politics.
Watch it!

more on the trust vote...

2008-08-01T14:14:00.006-04:00

an interesting comment on the trust vote comes from Rajdeep Sardesai...there's cash involved in any politicking...in India all of that is black money clandestinely changing hands - increasingly becoming more open.....in the US, the money that flows in the political channels is usually in the form of cheques, open and accounted for...maybe we could learn from this...maybe we can make at least some of the money in our politics open and accounted for...maybe......

this reminds me of one of the early posts on this blog where i'd talked of political will and its power to make the unthinkable happen - remember the Indian Railways turnaround!

"trust vote" or 'trust note'

2008-07-29T22:50:00.005-04:00

hot crisp notes scattered all over the parliament during the "trust" vote.....the stinging irony is the picture of Gandhiji across all these notes!
i dont know what the Mahatma might have done had he been alive or may be Nathuram did him a favor - by not letting live into a time when people might have disrespected and ignored him; dont matter that he was the one who made a "nation" out of this country of princely states stuck in medevial mindsets even in the 20th century!

another shade of india :-) मेरा भारत महान!!

2008-07-17T22:10:00.005-04:00

Its nothing less than a miracle!! A 5 ft long 4X4 inch iron-angle pierced through the body of a man in Delhi!!! and yes, he did survive to tell his tale!! this is another shade of india........we may still be developing, but we have what it takes to get this miracle done!

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Saving_Supratim_How_the_miracle_cure_took_place/articleshow/3247466.cms

shades of india

2008-07-15T21:19:00.006-04:00

lakes in srinagar (Dal lake) & patna - heaven n hell; all on earth itself! India 4 u! :-) मेरा भारत महान!!

all is not lost...

2008-06-29T16:49:00.005-04:00

all is not lost! what with rising crime, corruption, ethics, moral standards...u feel the world is only going one way...DOWN! This one man (Guru Das Agarwal) restores hope back (at least for me) that all is not lost; there still are people who care about the world and trying with all "their might" to make this world a better place!

read about him here

this septuagenarian (he's 76) is fighting with all "his might" to save the Ganges and apply some brakes of conscience and care on mindless "development" - if we can call it that.

even if we ignore the contentious religious aspects of his fight, he has enough scientific reasons to justify his opposition to the hydel power projects being planned/executed north of uttarkashi on the ganges/bhagirathi. this is further strengthen by the backing of other scientific bodies - not that he needs their backing to prove a point.

he's been fasting for the last fifteen days and all i can do is pray for his success and health! and yes, i'm writing this to do my little bit to help. request all of you to spread the message too! Thanks.

civilized world??

2008-05-04T17:40:00.003-04:00

"...the 73-year-old electrician confessed to the imprisonment, fathering his daughter's seven children and incinerating the body of one of the children who died in infancy..."

n we thought this happened only in the poor, uncivilized third world!!!

source: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gdI0YfeJ78M9DHXK6YF71fjFnJCwD90F1LEO0

inspirations :-)

2008-03-28T20:32:00.014-04:00

check these out>>

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkuGm_7sWdA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p_7eKlr15o&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpl5146AAyU&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjcR5y1sYQ4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7yjBxoeNTE&feature=user

you may wanna redefine the word "inspiration"!! :-)

Need to thank the "Maverick Artist" for these!

something finally gets me dn to writing but then cudnt it hv been something happy???

2008-03-24T23:46:00.007-04:00

In fact the judge even seemed to compliment the former Inspector General of Police. The judge said that the murderer had ''rendered distinguished services to our country''. He also added, ''except for the crime in question, RK Sharma was an asset to this nation'', which is why he did not get the death penalty.

heard of rk sharma?? shivani bhatnagar?? read on...

Suspended IPS officer RK Sharma and three others have been awarded life sentence in the Shivani Bhatnagar murder case by a city court on Monday.

Shivani Bhatnagar was murdered in her own apartment in east Delhi on January 23, 1999. She had been stabbed 39 times and her three-month-old baby had turned blue in the cold before he was found.

n even after all this, this was considered just another murder; not the rarest of rare that might shake the conscience of the nation and hence no death penalties.........its not that i'm fond of death penalties but just that anything less than the highest punishment in any justice system seems like a let-off in this case! had life imprisonment been the highest punishment in the Indian judicial system, it wud not hv seemed fair. we are expected to take solace in the fact that he is probably the first IPS officer to be convicted of murder.

one of the country's highest ranking police officers - sharma was Officer on Special Duty in the Prime Minister's Office then - befriends a journalist and is a party to her murder - she is stabbed 39 times!! - and can also be held responsible for the death of her 3 month old baby; and this is not rarest of rare??? this is not enough to shake up the conscience of the country of the MAHATMA???

src: http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080044885&ch=3/25/2008%201:30:00%20AM

सही है!!

2008-03-23T23:00:00.002-04:00

वाह वाह!! अब हिन्दी में भी लिख सकते हैं :-)

true democracy - protest but peacefully

2006-12-04T21:00:00.002-05:00

the maharashtra state govt has declared a rally planned to protest the killings of a dalit family and the desecration of Babasaheb's statue illegal. the govt has turned nagpur into a fortress and has detained some of the dalit leaders. the delicate law and order situation is the reason provided by the govt for its actions.
the govt's fears are understandable taking into consideration the delicate law and order situation and the damage caused by the last "protest rally". but denying prople the right to protest is in violation of the fundamental rights guaranteed by our constitution.
this suppression of the protests will only stoke the anger within the dalits. it will further alienate them from the present govt.
the govt has already deployed forces in great numbers and turned the city into a fortress. i believe with enough forces deployed the govt should let the rally take place as long as it remains peaceful. let the forces stand guard and be ready to take action the minute the rally starts taking the law into its own hands.
this will be the true show of democracy where protests would be allowed but only as long as they are peaceful.

democracy or anarchy - what are we?

2006-12-03T04:16:00.001-05:00

i wonder sometimes if india is the greatest democracy or the greatest anarchy!!

in a country where the number of farmers committing suicide is going up with every passing day, the "leaders" are busy discussing who should/should not be playing in the cricket team!!

the minute somebody "powerful" is convicted, he/she lands up in a hospital instead of the jail!! while there r ppl who have spent more time in jails as under-trials waiting for their trials than they would ever have had to even if they would have got convicted with the maximum sentence possible!!

law and order - its condition is similar to the roads in this country......just like u are forced to wonder at times which one is actually the road - the series of potholes or the comparitively smoother dirt track beside it........similarly u wonder whether it is lawful and orderly when an entire family of a particular community is murdered and the community reacts by burning trains and going on a rampage throughout the state - and mind you all of this happens in one of the most industrialized states of india.
why is it that destruction of public property seems to be a crime easier to get away with than even pick-pocketing?
why is it that one hardly ever hears of rioters getting punished?
why is it that more n more political parties are treating legislative assemblies like kabaddi maidans or kushti akharas?

somewhere we should draw a line. we need not be like any other nation. we can be our own nation but with a little more rationale and a little more order. i guess we need to start by electing the right ppl first!

The Art of the Start - Guy Kawasaki

2006-12-02T05:56:00.001-05:00

ppl, check this out!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3755718939216161559&q=guy+kawasaki

this is a talk by Guy Kawasaki on entrepreneurship and start-ups. Guy is a venture capitalist or what is also known as an angel investor. even though the topic may not interest u, the talk is worth a watch! the way Guy discusses the topic continually resorting to humor and funny anecdotes makes it a lotta fun to watch.

So, watch n enjoy! :-)

pesticides in colas and...

2006-11-24T09:31:00.001-05:00

it seems that india needs to wake up to high pesticide levels in all its foods/drinks and not just colas!

in bhubaneswar, my family was witness recently to a demonstration of a water purifier based on reverse osmosis. the sales guy had brought along an instrument which he used to perform electrolysis on the water to separate the dissolved impurities. he took 3 samples of water. the first was tap water which comes from a bore well. second was water supplied by a popular packaged water company. third was water which had been 'treated' by reverse osmosis. as it turned out the first sample was the best and the worst one was the packaged water!!

i am surprised by 'environmentalists' who choose to target only the colas! the govt. usually puts other considerations before public well being . so inaction on their part is not new. it is shameful though not surprising that the same politicians who were all over tv smashing cola bottles do nothing to get the BIS specifications in place.

The Rail Budget

2006-02-25T03:44:00.001-05:00

With Lalu Yadav driving the Indian Railways, it has gone from bankrupt to almost profit making.....the change is significant.....as the minister himself tells us from depending on the govt. for 2/3rds of its budget to needing 1/3rds...that too in such short a span of time - is indeed an achievement!!
The minister has proved all those economists - who said that there was no alternative to raising fares for the masses - wrong!! He has turned the railways around in ingenuous ways and must be applauded for that!!
It just goes to show what the right political will can achieve.......the govt. and its bodies have immense resources at their disposal.....any person willing to do the right thing can work wonders....but then that’s the keyword!! The WILL.

pehli bak-bak

2006-02-05T04:58:00.002-05:00

hello world,

there's a lot i'd like to talk about. but right now right here, i'll just say "Hi!!!" :)

luv,
mayank.