National Health Profile highlights poor doctor-patient ratio

NEW DELHI, September 22, 2015 | Updated: September 22, 2015 23:34 IST

Rukmini S.

‘India spends less of its GDP on health than some of the world’s poorest countries’

Every government hospital serves an estimated 61,000 people in India, with one bed for every 1833 people, new official data shows. In undivided Andhra Pradesh, every government hospital serves over 3 lakh patients while in Bihar, there is only one bed for every 8800 people.

Union Minister for Health J.P. Nadda released the National Health Profile 2015 prepared by the Central Bureau for Health Intelligence (CBHI) on Tuesday along with officials of the Ministry, the Directorate General of Health Services and the CBHI.

Every government allopathic doctor serves a population of over 11,000 people, with Bihar and Maharashtra having the worst ratios. The number of qualified allopathic doctors registered with medical councils fell in 2014 to 16,000, or less than half the previous year’s number; the data was however provisional, CBHI officials said. India now has cumulatively 9.4 lakh allopathic doctors, 1.54 lakh dental surgeons, and 7.37 lakh AYUSH doctors of whom more than half are Ayurvedic doctors. India’s 400 medical colleges admit an estimated 47,000 students annually.

The Centre’s share of total public expenditure on health has fallen over the last two years, and India spends less of its GDP on health than some of the world’s poorest countries. Among all States, undivided Andhra Pradesh had the highest public expenditure on health in 2012-13. Goa and the north-eastern States spent the most on health per capita while Bihar and Jharkhand spent the least.

Out-of-pocket private expenditure on health has risen steadily over the years, with the cost of medicines, followed by that of hospitalisation accounting for the largest share of the household expenditure. Absolute spending, as well as its share in total non-food expenditure, rises with income levels. Kerala spends the most privately on health.

Communicable diseases

Deaths from most communicable diseases have been falling steadily in India. Despite recording over 10 lakh cases, deaths from malaria are officially down to just over 500 annually; Odisha accounted for over one in three cases of malaria in 2014. The number of recorded chikungunya cases has fallen since a 2010 outbreak, but Maharashtra accounts for nearly half of all cases. Just over 40,000 cases of dengue were officially reported in 2014 and 131 deaths. While the number of cases of Acute Diarrhoeal Disease has risen every year to 1.16 crore in 2014, mortality from the disease has been steadily declining.

However, 2014 saw a sharp spike in cases and deaths due to Acute Encephalitis Syndrome, a disease concentrated in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, and West Bengal. Japanese Encephalitis, concentrated in Assam and Uttar Pradesh also rose last year. Pulmonary tuberculosis remains the biggest communicable disease killer in India, accounting for over 63,000 deaths in 2014. Since disease data is largely reported from government health facilities only, it is likely to be heavily underestimated, CBHI officials said.

Non-communicable diseases are on the rise with cardiovascular diseases according for a quarter of deaths from non-communicable diseases and cancer accounting for six per cent.

Source: the hindu

A new cosy arrangement

September 13, 2015

Nistula Hebbar

File photo shows RSS chief Mohan Bhagawat, Mr. Gadkari and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Vrindavan.

The rise in comfort levels in the relations between the RSS and the Modi government at the Centre is an important change from the previous, slightly fraught relationship between the Sangh and the Vajpayee government.

The three day Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Samanvay Baithak or co-ordination meeting held in Delhi between September 3 and 5 was important in both form and content in informing the country of the structure of organisations which now greatly influence its government. The RSS ended the meet with a ringing endorsement of the government, and government ministers were volubly unapologetic at having presented themselves at the meet for a seeming “performance appraisal.”

It was a performance that, in the words of professor Walter Anderson, co-author of the seminal work on the RSS, The Brotherhood in Saffron, sought to establish not just the commonality of policy goals, but “signalling that the RSS aims to speak out more openly on policy issues of importance, rather than just being a mediator of differences and a supplier of workers, and that the Modi government is comfortable with it doing so.”

This comfort between the RSS and the National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre is an important change from the previous, slightly fraught relationship between the Sangh (RSS) and the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. It is a sign of increasing confidence in the RSS, with growing numbers of enrolment and mainstream support but also owes a lot to a conscious effort by the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to learn from the lessons of the past.

This is NDA 2.0

What are the contours of this new relationship? The first clue that most people got about this new communicative exchange was in September 2014, when Prime Minister Modi was informed, during a meeting at his residence 7 Race Course Road, that the RSS would be replacing Suresh Soni with RSS joint general secretary Krishna Gopal as the office bearer responsible for co-ordinating affairs between the RSS and the BJP. Mr. Gopal, from Mathura, is of a cohort group closer to the age of the current leadership in the party and shares Mr. Bhagwat’s rather pragmatic approach to things. The official announcement of this change was made in October that year, a full month’s grace period given to the party to adjust to it.

Indeed, the machinery of the relationship in its rivets has taken into account the likes and preferences of Prime Minister Modi and BJP president Amit Shah. “As soon as the elections were over, people more in tune with the new dispensation, both in age and inclination, like Ram Madhav, Shiv Prakash and Sunil Bansal (in the Uttar Pradesh unit) were seconded to the party,” said a senior BJP office bearer. When the ‘Ghar Wapsi’ agitation derailed an entire Parliament session, a key RSS office bearer heading the programme was asked to stand down, after Prime Minister Modi and Mr. Bhagwat got talking.



"For the government, it has been 15 months of filial endorsement by the RSS." Photo: AP

In 2008, the RSS had decided to crystallise some of its ideological preoccupations into viable policy documents and work, and had set up a string of think tanks such as the Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) and the India Foundation. In 2014, the two think tanks provided a rich hunting ground for appointment of ministers (Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, and Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha are from the India Foundation) and also important officials (National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Nripendra Misra were associated with the VIF). This created seamlessness in policy thinking, which was lacking earlier.

According to professor Pralay Kanungo, author of the well-regarded book, RSS’ Tryst with Politics: From Hedgewar to Sudarshan, the generational change in the BJP and the RSS cannot be over emphasised in explaining the new cosy arrangement. “During the Vajpayee premiership, he and L. K. Advani were like colossus on the Sangh stage, outflanking the sarsanghchalak K. S. Sudarshan. There was, in my opinion, a confidence deficit in the Sangh due to this, which manifested itself in a sharper tussle for control and dominance,” he said. “The new lot who are involved in mediating affairs — Krishna Gopal, Ram Madhav and Union Minister for Roads and Highways Nitin Gadkari are of a different ilk. Mostly there is a realisation that the mandate of 282 seats cannot be frittered away,” he adds.

The new rivets

BJP general secretary Ram Madhav, who handles many sensitive assignments for the party, pooh poohs suggestions that things were really bad between the RSS and the BJP in the Vajpayee era, but concedes that communication is better now.

“It’s not as if there was no ideological proximity then. There were many members of the NDA government then who were very close to the organisation. In 2002, in fact, we had a similar exercise between the RSS and the NDA government and then Prime Minister Vajpayeeji had also attended, albeit not with such a brouhaha being made about it,” he said. He added, however, that “mechanisms for co-ordination are better now, both formally and informally.”

An example of the formal mechanism is the recently held meet between education and culture ministers of BJP-ruled States, where the party’s office bearers and Union Ministers of those departments were present. “We prepared a lot for the meeting and we intend to meet at least twice a year,” said Union Minister for Culture Mahesh Sharma. The informal mechanism was at work on the issue of One Rank One Pension (OROP) where a gentle nudge from RSS second in command Suresh “Bhaiyyaji” Joshi sealed matters and within 48 hours an acceptable draft of the OROP settlement was announced to the country.

A senior BJP member who was part of the Vajpayee government and the current one says that the change is visible. “If you look at what RSS joint general secretary Dattatreya Hosabele said after the baithak on the Ram Temple issue—that they would not hand over a time table to the government on this, despite efforts by VHP leader Praveen Togadia—and contrast it with Dattopant Thengdi of the Swadeshi Jagaran Manch (SJM) offering dharna against the Vajpayee government on economic reforms, the picture will be clear.”

Individual ministers, he says, are encouraged to meet with Sangh affiliate organisations, on their issues. For example, the SJM met with environment minister Prakash Javadekar on field trials for Genetically Modified (GM) crops. The SJM was successful in getting the trials stopped despite recommendations to the contrary by the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC), advising the ministry. On issues relating to the economy and agriculture, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari frequently mediates between the Sangh affiliates and the government.

The GM crops victory, in fact, was balanced by the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) pulling out of the nationwide trade unions strike on September 2. “Therefore there is give and take, and the Sangh retains its role as the final arbitrator in any given dispute,” he adds.

Fraying accord

When the government was first sworn in, there was widespread talk of how the RSS has given it a free pass for at least a year to get things into shape. It has been 15 months of filial endorsement by the RSS. And yet, there are issues, analysts feel, the resolution of which will test the mettle of the new Pax Bhagwat.

Many say that clashes within the Parivar could emerge on three issues. The first is on the question of Indianisation of science and research. The RSS is promoting it but the government may be eager to retain the credibility of India abroad. The second is the economy, where the Swadeshi agenda may contradict ‘Make in India’, the Modi government’s manufacturing outreach, and finally, the question of appointments to institutions.

The government will have to assess how far it can go in getting appointments done without affecting institutions. Prof. Kanungo, in fact, says that the question of appointments has the most potential in creating rifts between various wings of the Sangh and the government. The fire over the appointment of Gajendra Chauhan as the head of the Film and Television Institute of India hasn’t been doused yet.

Heads of various educational institutions including Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University are yet to be appointed.

A senior BJP leader from Gujarat, who has observed Prime Minister Modi since his days as Chief Minister, says that more than anything, the sidelining of people like Mr. Togadia from the mainstream of Sangh affairs to fringe will be a hidden danger. “On the question of the Ram Temple and even on the religious census data, Togadia was asked to pipe down and a more middle path was to be taken. After being reduced to the fringe in Modi’s Gujarat, he is risking that in Modi’s India. The phenomenon of Hardik Patel is a sign of this restlessness of those marginalised to the fringes of the discourse,” he said.

“No government is in a position to tolerate political violence. Sangh affiliates who may have to accommodate government concerns on key issues may revolt. Ultimately that will be the true test of this new found arrangement,” he said.

Source: thehindu

Dear BJP, I’m a Hindu and I reject Hindutva

Don’t teach me about my own religion. Who I should worship. How I should dress or what I should eat.

POLITICS |  Long-form | 12-09-2015

Suchitra Krishnamoorthi @suchitrak

I am like most other urban Indians. Apolitical. Or non political. A novice. An outsider. But a well wisher. Because I love my India.

And like most other urban Indians, other than election time, when we dutifully go and cast our votes silently, politics has no impact on our lives. Yes we gasp over scams and purported stories, but just as quickly dust the sand off our feet and move on. Politics never enters our homes - certainly not our bedrooms and kitchens. Yes we cursed much when Shiv Sena changed our beloved Bombay’s name to Mumbai when they came to power in 1995, but quickly saw the rationale behind the move. Desi euphoria and jingoism bloomed. With the luxury of life digested with a silver spoon, it was easy to see the virtue behind a Shivaji statue.

Even when vehicles were set ablaze in Marathi Manoos prejudice and Biharis asked to return to their home state, we ignored them with the hope that sense would soon prevail. It didn’t. Sadly. Hindutva ideology had started to seep in. To even the most neutral amongst us, it was unacceptable.

Never mind the disappointment. Manmohan Singh is a brilliant economist and will herald a new India we were told. After all as India’s finance minister in the 90’s, he had introduced to us the concept of India shining. But his failure as prime minister that he was ushered into in 2004 was soon apparent - what was the power Sonia Gandhi wielded over him? OMG and why? What on earth for? Why did he look like a deer trapped under the headlights?

Sycophancy was the giant ogre in this Congress government - everybody was getting swallowed and the whole country was dying. An Italian accent became the most despised sound in the Indian psyche - even senior leaders like Digvijaya Singh had fallen into the Gandhi scion brainwash. Rahul Gandhi? Really? But Pappu can’t dance saala. Oh and not to forget that Vadra boy. What did Priyanka see in him ya? Looks like a total goonda and how did his whole family die so mysteriously ya? OMG? What? Forbes has listed Sonia Gandhi as the third richest woman in the world? Baapre! And she still wears those cheap cotton sarees?  What an actress ya. Better than Shabana Azmi!

Uff India and its Bollywood fixation. Anyway to cut a long story short, when it was time to re-elect a new government in 2014, I, like most other urban Indians reeling under the corruption of dynastic politics and a failed Congress government, was filled with hope. Hope for a new India. Hope for change. Hope that things will finally get  better.

Arvind Kejriwal and his Gandhi delusion (remember how he went on a fast every time and for anything and tried to project that he is a Mahatma Gandhi reincarnate while trying to hide the fact that he is CIA (Ford Foundation) funded? Of course, his common man phonyism gave away his own opportunistic game way too soon and he fell by the wayside. Phew! He was India’s first anti-corruption hope dashed. Who could we turn to?

Narendra Modi-led BJP seemed like the only hope in April-May 2014. Were we wrong to expect?

India was desperate. We needed a leader. Badly. We needed progress. We needed a semblance of honesty. We desperately needed hope again. It came in the form of Narendra Modi. Brilliantly packaged. Karmachari. Brahmachari. Sanskaari.

So well was the Gujarat model marketed that Modi became the one man capable of delivering us – India – into the future. A future built on the foundation of tradition. Indian tradition. As anti-Italian as one could get.

The fact that the only other prior perception the public had of BJP as a party was its Karnataka ministers – CC Patil and Laxman Savadi watching porn in Assembly in 2012, or the ban on women wearing jeans in the state and being beaten for consuming alcohol,  but all that was soon obliterated by Modi’s own five-star charisma and his PR machinery. If anybody deserves an Oscar for PR, it is indeed Sri Narendra Modi’s team.

So, swayed by a desperate hope as we were, longing pleading and begging for a better India as we were, I, like every other urban Indian, even went out on a limb urging my friends and family to vote for Narendra Modi. Stated on social media that Narendra Modi’s greatest ally was Rahul Gandhi. And I wasn’t wrong.

The BJP government won because we Indians had become so soooo Gandhi family intolerant - any alternative seemed like manna from heaven in comparison.

Had the Congress propped some other leader of calibre other than the gora chitta Rahul Gandhi or his Maa, the votes would have been divided. But Rahul sealed it. BJP owes him a lot for their victory.

But what have they done with their victory? It’s been disappointing to say the least. Not just disappointing. Annoying. Frightening. Unacceptable. Totally. Totally, totally unacceptable. Despicable really.

I remember whilst urging my friends to vote for Narendra Modi, a Muslim friend had joked that if BJP comes to power he will have to get on a boat to Karachi. So real loomed the spectre of the Godhra riots in everyone’s head, and so real the feeling of Muslim persecution. Was he wrong?

At that point I had reprimanded my Muslim friend that his fear rose from the fact that his allegiance was with the Islamic state in the first place; so he shouldn’t use the minority card to gain undeserved rights and privileges. If Karachi is emotionally a boatride away, surely it’s where he belonged? "You don’t understand SK,” he sighed. In retrospect I think he might have been right.

Reservation and minority status for the Muslims in my view was nothing but vote bank politics. The Congress party policy of divide and rule. But hey... I admit, I don’t really understand everything. Like I said I’m a novice. But hey.. I’m also an artist enough to understand that even a novice is entitled to her worldview and I’m common enough to understand that I express what a large number of people feel but are unable to elucidate. So, here goes.

It’s been barely over a year of the BJP government and just how disappointed are we? God OMG - more than disappointed, I believe. We are shocked and hoping it’s still all a mistake. Did we ever imagine we are voting for a despotic fascist regime? What exactly is going on? WTF!

*Beef Ban* – Dear BJP! Can u please explain what wrong did the chicken or the goat do that they deserve to be killed and not the cow? Yes, yes, Congress imposed it before you, but how come they didn’t bombard it on us as much as you? Why am I suddenly feeling embarrassed about being a Hindu?

*Meat Ban* – Yes, you want revenge and oneupmanship on your Congress counterparts and distract us from the fact that you are failing completely in governance. Farmer suicides, rape, children dying by falling into potholes, Gajendra Chauhan ... need I say more!

Meat ban looks like a cheap shot at making us forget about the governance failure on all counts.

Did you say sedition charges were to be slapped against those who dare to speak up!!! I mean really? I dare you, seriously.

And what was that drivel about eliminating western culture and reclaiming Indian culture?

What exactly do you mean by that dear education minister (HRD), Smriti Irani, you who is not even sure of what education degree you have acquired yourself or in what language? For someone, who doesn’t herself know if she is a BA by correspondence or a BCom by imagination, is not likely to know the difference between Hinduism and Hindutva, is she now?

Hinduism is a philosophy. The doctrine of which allows me the choice of acceptance or rejection. Ram or Ganpati or even atheism. Upanishads or Gita or tantra or mantra. Hindutva, on the other hand, is militant imposition of wrongly interpreted tenets of Hinduism. Hindutva is a political tool - nothing to do with the religion itself.

I’m not showing off or being patronising, I promise you. My grandfather and my ancestors were temple priests - my father still recites the Vedas verbatim. My sister recites them without having ever studied them - it is so in my bloodline. That’s how Hindu my lineage is.

So do not teach me about my own religion, dear BJP. Don’t tell me how I should think. Who I should worship. How I should dress or what I should eat.

I am a Hindu - by definition purer and a higher form than you can ever b e- and I reject your Hindutva. Just as Islam must reject the Taliban or Isis.

To be a Hindu is to be tolerant. It’s why we have survived as a race in spite of invasion, conversion and unimaginable attempted destruction. If you do not understand that tolerance or exercise that compassion so intrinsic to our religion, you do not deserve to call yourself Hindu. Or a leader of a democratic nation.

So dear BJP. I reject your Hindutva.  I reject your fascism. I reject your despotism.

Dare me if you will. For I speak for all of India.

Mind it! :-)

Source: dailyo

Menstruation Innovation: Lessons from India

By Jennifer Weiss-Wolf September 1, 2015 3:20 pm

Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, right, with Annie Lascoe and Arunachalam Muruganantham
at his factory in Coimbatore, India.Credit

In recent months, a wave of period-positivity has captured headlines – from Kiran Gandhi’s bold free-bleeding run of the London Marathon, to the successful repeal of Canada’s national “tampon tax.” Donald Trump catapulted menstruation smack into the middle of  the Republican presidential debate when he ridiculed Megyn Kelly’s inquiry about his prior sexist rants, telling CNN she had “blood coming out of her wherever.”

This spike in media attention has helped promote a dialogue about eradicating the stigma around menstruation in the United States, as well as addressing the financial burden it often poses. Visible progress has ensued, including: introduction of legislation to eliminate sales tax on feminine hygiene products in Ohio and New York, two of the 40 states that impose it; convening of New York City’s first-ever roundtable on menstrual health, with a forthcoming pilot project in the public schools; a proliferation of creative donation and “buy one-give one” initiatives; and an array of savvy hashtag campaigns, including #TheHomelessPeriod and #JustATampon (both gone viral after starting in the U.K.).

In the quest to address issues of menstrual health and hygiene, however, most of the ingenuity and innovation has been spearheaded in the developing world, where millions can’t access sanitary products, often resorting to dirt, leaves and bark to absorb menstrual blood. Lack of plumbing and access to toilets further exacerbate the problem, and superstition and religious tradition leave countless women isolated and ashamed. In fact, India — where only 12 percent of women in India use sanitary products — offers many lessons that can be adapted here in the United States.

This summer I had the opportunity to join Annie Lascoe, founder of Conscious., an organic tampon business that will partner with Los Angeles-based community organizations and shelters to help low-income and homeless women meet menstrual needs, on a trip to India. We went directly to the source: Arunachalam Muruganantham, the creator of a menstrual micro-enterprise model that is nothing short of revolutionary. A school dropout from a poor family in southern India, Muruganantham first became aware of the issue in 1998; newly married, he was shocked to witness his wife’s struggle to manage (and hide) her monthly bleeding. At great personal cost – financial and social – he dedicated himself to inventing a machine to make low-cost sanitary pads out of pulverized wood fiber. Today he supplies machines to more than 400 production sites serving 1,300 villages in the poorest and most under-developed regions of India. All are managed and staffed by women, who make and sell the pads at minimal cost (approximately 2.5 rupees per pad, mere pennies in U.S. currency).

Muruganantham’s work has been celebrated by world leaders and philanthropists, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and last year he was named one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People.

Amitaben, owner of a Sakhi production site based in Vadodara, India.Credit Jennifer Weiss-Wolf

Appreciating the vast and desperate need for sanitary products, Muruganantham is refreshingly open to allowing others to build on his model. One such innovator is Swati Bedekar, a former science and math teacher in the western state of Gujarat. After observing that girls missed school several days every month due to menstruation, Bedeker sought to help. She started with Muruganantham’s machines – but went on to simplify the production process, and also created a slimmer, more modern pad with “wings,” beloved by Indian women who adore the American touch. Shes since launched 40 production sites, run by women who are paid per pad they produce – which are sold in packages of ten for 20 rupees (around 35 cents) under the name “Sakhi” (Hindi for “generous). The workers also receive training in menstruation education – which they impart to women and girls, men and boys alike – as well as in basic financial management.

Bedekar’s husband, Shyam, a textile engineer and farmer, invented a special incinerator to dispose of the pads. Made from terracotta or cement and resembling a flower pot, the incinerator is brilliant in its simplicity: Because it doesn’t require electricity, it can be operated discreetly, burning the used pads and turning them into ash without spreading smoke and eliminating odor. Other benefits: production of the incinerators has become a source of livelihood for local potters; and the ash that is produced, when mixed with soil, is beneficial to locally grown plants.

One of Aakar Innovations’ production sites, based in the Dharavi slum of Mumbai.Credit Jennifer Weiss-Wolf

Aakar Innovations, a Mumbai- and Delhi-based hybrid social enterprise founded by Jaydeep Mandal, employs a similar model – and has created pads that are 100 percent compostable and biodegradable, meeting a higher environmental standard than much of what is on the commercial market. Aakar’s 40 women-run and women-staffed production sites are often established in partnership with local NGOs, which provide a full array of social and educational services. The NGO partnership also enables women to be paid a regular, reliable stipend, rather than on a per pad basis. Each site employs 15 to 30 women who produce 1,600 to 2,000 pads per day, enough to meet the needs of 5,000 women each month. Aakar is being recognized by the United Nations next month for its socially responsible and sustainable programs that empower women.

The work happening in India and elsewhere in the developing world provides lessons for us here at home:

Collaboration: we must aspire to be as forward-thinking and generous as Muruganantham in sharing a winning model and letting others improve upon it.

Education: we must be as holistic as all three of these innovators, linking dialogue and information to any product, whether purchased or donated.

Ownership: we must think about charity not just as a way to provide for those in need, but also to enable them to participate and take the reins of their own destiny.

The slew of period-focused news spiraling the Internet – what I’ve come to refer to as 2015’s Menstruation Sensation – stands in contrast to how little is being done to meet the menstrual needs of poor women here at home. Those who are homeless or incarcerated in the United States face similar health risks when they can’t access or afford sanitary products. Our current public benefits system often leads women to trade food stamps for tampons. Are a handful of sales tax reform bills – saving women eight cents on the dollar – and community donation drives the very best we can do? I hope not. Women in America, and around the globe, deserve a comprehensive and innovative policy agenda that addresses the very real crisis of menstrual hygiene management.

Jennifer Weiss-Wolf (@jweisswolf) is vice president for development for the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law.

Source: The New York Times

What poetry has to do with math

We stand to gain much from developing an understanding of ancient India, its deep and diverse ideas.

Written by Rohan Murty | Published:August 31, 2015 12:06 am

      Illustration by C R Sasikumar

Over the past year, I have heard my friend, mathematician Manjul Bhargava, give several public lectures on the deep connections between poetry, Sanskrit and mathematics. Like many other mathematicians before him who have written or spoken on this topic, Manjul gave an array of examples that demonstrate the tremendous depth and contributions made by ancient Indian (for the purposes of exposition, stretching perhaps from present day Afghanistan to Burma) philosophers and poets to mathematics, often before their counterparts in Western societies did the same. Manjul’s quintessential example is from roughly 11th century India, when Gopala and Hemachandra discovered a delightful connection between the number of syllables in Sanskrit poetry and mathematics. The answer, it turns out, is what we now call the Fibonacci series (also appears in the number of petals in certain flowers in nature), which was eventually rediscovered by Leonardo of Pisa, better known as Fibonacci, about 50-80 years later.

That there should be an inherent connection between the number of syllables in Sanskrit poetry, a product of human thought, and the number of petals in flowers in nature must startle any reasonable person. Another extraordinary example that Manjul highlights is the discovery of the binomial structure hidden in Sanskrit poetry, as discovered by the ancient Indian poet Pingala, roughly in 200 BC. This was about 1,800 years prior to the French mathematician Pascal’s Traité du triangle arithmétique, which we today learn as Pascal’s triangle. Other examples include the use of techniques that resemble modern error-correcting codes, synchronisation, and formal language definition in Sanskrit poetry and prose. These are all modern inventions (or reinventions, in some cases) that impact almost every aspect of our lives, from computer languages to wireless communications.

It would, of course, be foolhardy to claim the ancients invented or knew of computer languages or wireless communications. That would be like claiming Copernicus built space ships to fly to the moon. Rather, what these examples do highlight is that a long time ago, in or near the region we live in today, there existed a thriving civilisation that produced extraordinary intellectual thought and ideas which continue to have fundamental connections with the way we live today. We appear to have lost knowledge of this ancient past through the vicissitudes and vagaries of time. And with it, a significant source of pride and the ability to influence modern Indian identity. Few people of my generation appear to be aware of these facts.

Part of our ongoing ignorance of the past appears to be structural. Case in point: At my high school in Bangalore, as part of the ICSE syllabus, we read Hamlet, Merchant of Venice, works by Wordsworth, Tennyson, James Joyce, Dickens, etc. We even read Walt Whitman wax eloquent about the end of the American Civil War and Abe Lincoln’s death in “O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done”. Never mind the fact that none of us in class knew what a civil war was at the time, or that America had one, or how or why Lincoln died. We read the tremendously uplifting lines from Tennyson’s “Ulysses”: “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield”, all while lacking the context of ancient Greece or even knowing how to say “Ithaca” (we learnt it as EYE-THA-KA). We had little or no context for these strange ideas, words, phrases, stories, heroes and worlds.

And yet, we read these poems, short stories, novels, and wrote essays about them to pass our school exams. This was an enjoyable experience and I would do it again. However, such an educational experience and exposure was severely stunted in its diversity of thought and ideas. What strikes me as odd is that we students never read any classics that originated in this part of the world — that is, ancient India — despite having a cultural advantage of perhaps being able to understand the context better. We knew of no texts, poems, plays, great prose, science, mathematics, civics, political life or philosophy from 2,000-plus years ago from ancient India. My friends and I, stereotypes of the urban educated populace, remained entirely unaware of the intellectual contributions of this past. The most we seemed to know were a couple of random dates and trinkets of information on the Indus Valley civilisation, Ashoka and Chandragupta Maurya, all of which seemed almost perfunctory and without any depth in the manner we read them in school.

As students, we were well versed with Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, Copernicus, Newton, Leibniz, Pascal, Galois, Euler, etc, and their tremendous contributions to mankind. And yet, most of us had never read about Aryabhatta, Brahmagupta, Pingala, Kalidasa, Hemachandra, Madhava, the Nyaya or Mimimsa Sutras, or the Therigatha.

But why bother with any of this? After all, we were never part of these accomplishments and they were so long ago, by a people so far removed from today’s reality, that attempting to create any link to the past is surely irrelevant. But I would argue this discovery of the past is no less relevant than what we already study and acknowledge in the earlier cited examples in our schools and colleges. Besides, these sources of knowledge from ancient India are products of creative human thought and hold genuine value for the world, irrespective of where they come from, or geographic affinities. For example, any child on this planet will find mathematics far more amenable when learning parts of it through poetry, as opposed to the dry, dull methods espoused by most mathematics pedagogy today.

While national identity is a complex phenomenon, perhaps in some proportion it relates to the intellectual contributions made by societies to help advance knowledge and improve the human condition. Newton is a hero to many like me, who read in wonder about how he unravelled the basic laws of the universe. Great literature and philosophy from Western societies have helped us reflect on the human condition. Such examples from the Western world have magnified our respect for societies that could harbour, enable and encourage such curiosity. In the same vein, we stand to gain much from developing an understanding of ancient India, its deep and diverse ideas, which are no less extraordinary than those we have come to marvel in Western civilisations. I am not suggesting we lose respect for contributions made by other societies or civilisations, or that everything of note was discovered in this part of the world. Rather, we ourselves have much to gain when we dispassionately discover, examine and acknowledge the intellectual history of ancient India. We may be surprised to find it was perhaps a more open, tolerant and diverse society than even the one we have lived in since Independence. If you need more convincing or inspiration, look up Manjul’s talk on YouTube. Or try reading the Therigatha.

The writer, junior fellow in the Society of Fellows at Harvard University, is founder, Murty Classical Library of India.

Source: indianexpress

Girl loses way, walkers fly her to Coimbatore for admission

CHENNAI/COIMBATORE, August 10, 2015

Vipasha Sinha
Karthik Madhavan

Swathi and her mother Thangaponnu at Anna University in Chennai on Saturday.

Instead of TNAU, Coimbatore, the girl and her mother reached Anna University in Chennai by mistake.

For a group of walkers in Anna University, Saturday morning was no less than a page out of a movie script.

Around 6.30 a.m., they saw a woman and a young girl asking people for directions. Curious, some of them approached the duo to offer help.

R. Swathi, who had scored 1,017 marks in her Plus Two, came with her mother Thangaponnu, a shepherd from their hometown of Musiri in Tiruchi. “They were asked to come to Anna Arangam, Tamil Nadu Agriculture University, Coimbatore, but they reached Anna University by mistake,” said M. Saravanan, a former student of College of Engineering, Guindy and a member of a walking group called Twalkers.

Counselling was to start at 8.30 a.m. in Coimbatore. Both mother and daughter had lost hope. One of the walkers brought them breakfast, another went to book and print out the flight tickets, while another was speaking to TNAU staff in Coimbatore. Tickets were confirmed and Twalkers’ members decided to share the cost of Rs. 10,500. Some of the walkers, who are teaching at Anna University, spoke to TNAU registrar C.R. Ananda Kumar, explained the problem and asked for extra time.

“We took off at 10.05 a.m., landed at 11.28 a.m. and in the next hour we had the admission letter on our hands,” Ms. Swathi said. She will now pursue B.Tech. Biotechnology at the Coimbatore campus. “It looks like a miracle now,” she says. The Twalkers did not stop there. They called up Thangaponnu to confirm if they had secured the admission. “It was very kind of them to do so. They came around like an angel when we had lost hope,” Swathi said.

After getting the seat and back in their hometown in Musiri, the mother-daughter are now planning to visit Chennai again. “We want to return the money they spent to buy our flight tickets. How else can we say thank them,” Ms. Thangaponnu said.

Source: thehindu

Revealing the secret behind Gayatri mantra

Most probably, the first god that humans recognised and worshipped was the sun.

LIFE |  Commonsense Karma  |  07-08-2015

Hari Ravikumar  @hari_ravikumar

Which is the oldest religion in the world? Nobody knows. Ask the foremost historian or the greatest saint but they will not have an answer. We know so little about the earliest humans who inhabited our planet. But we can take an educated guess about the first god. Keep aside for a moment the view that god created the universe and just consider how humans visualise god. Most probably, the first god that humans recognised and worshipped was the sun.

Also read: How I became a sun worshipper

There are many reasons for this. The sun is the most magnificent object in nature. The sun gives us light and energy. Without the sun, there would be no life on earth. Our existence depends on the sun. Also, the sun was considered the master of time. The sun creates days and nights, thus making us grow old. So the ancient people treated the sun as a god. Most of the ancient cultures that we still know about have a reference to the sun god. (George Carlin uses the same idea in one of his brilliant sketches on religion.)



George Carlin --- Religion is Bulshit


From the limited information available about our past, we know that Hinduism is the oldest religion (or "way of life", as some people prefer to call it) and in this tradition, the Rigveda Samhita is the oldest work. The Rigveda Samhita is divided into ten sections (known as maṇḍalas) and each section has several poems (called sūktas). Each poem is further made up of verses (known as ṛks). Perhaps the most famous verse from the Rigveda is the savitā gāyatrī mantra.

The Gayatri mantra is a 6,000-year-old verse recited by millions of Hindus every day all over the world. This mantra – Rigveda Samhita 3.62.10 – was composed by sage Vishwamitra. He composed most of the poems in the third section of the Rigveda.

This verse is called the Gayatri mantra possibly because it is composed in the poetic meter called Gayatri. A verse written in this poetic meter should have three lines and each line must have eight syllables. It is interesting to note that the etymology of the word Gayatri is gāyantaṃ trāyate iti gāyatrī, "Gayatri is that which protects the person who recites it."

Therefore, although there are thousands of verses composed in the Gayatri metre, when we say Gayatri mantra, it specifically denotes this verse:

tat saviturvareṇyam |

bhargo devasya dhīmahi |

dhiyo yo naḥ pracodayāt ||

In Sanskrit, every word has several meanings. So it’s important for us to understand the context in which a certain word is used. Let us take a look at what each word in this mantra means:

tat = that

savituḥ = the sun; literalley "one who permits", "one who stimulates", "one who vivifies"

vareṇyam = best, excellent, worthy of the highest respect

bhargaḥ = light, lustre, radiance

devasya = of god, of the lord, of the deity

dhīmahi = (we) meditate, contemplate

dhiyaḥ = intellect, wisdom, mind, consciousness

yaḥ = the one who, he who

naḥ = to us, for us

pracodayāt = (one who) inspires, motivates, stimulates, empowers

(An astute observer will find that the first line has only seven syllables instead of eight: tat-sa-vi-tu-rva-re-ṇyam; therefore while recitation, we add the syllable om in the beginning or we say tat-sa-vi-tu-rva-re-ṇi-yam).

Let us try to arrange this in the form of a sentence. One who (yaḥ) stimulates (pracodayāt) our (naḥ) mind (dhiyaḥ) – we meditate (dhīmahi) on that (tat) excellent (vareṇyaṃ) radiance (bhargaḥ) of the lord (devasya), the sun (savituḥ).

A simple English translation would give us:

We meditate on

the wonderful radiance of the sun god,

who stimulates our mind.

The same Gayatri mantra also appears in the Yajurveda but with an additional line in the beginning:

oṃ bhūrbhuvassuvaḥ |

om = the single-syllable word that represents brahman, the Supreme Being

bhūḥ = earth

bhuvaḥ = atmosphere

suvaḥ = sky, heaven

With this line, we bring our awareness to the three spheres of existence, thus connecting with something bigger than our tiny selves.

In the Hindu tradition, we believe that there is only one Supreme Being (brahman) but there are several gods. These gods may be realized in any form.

The forces of nature – wind, lightning, thunder, fire – are deified. The animate and inanimate beings – animals, plants, rivers, mountains – are deified. The celestial objects – sun, moon, planets, stars – are deified. We may also see god in a sculpture, a painting, or even in a song.

Among all these various possibilities, the sun is the most magnificent. Of course, an astrophysicist might tell us that the sun in our solar system is a veritable pygmy in front of some of the other stars in the universe. Even so, the sun remains the most brilliant object we can see with our naked eyes. Not only do we see it but we also feel its presence. It removes darkness and brings light. It removes the cold and brings warmth. The radiance of the Supreme represents Knowledge (which removes the darkness of ignorance) and Vitality (which removes the coldness of lethargy).

So the Gayatri mantra is a prayer to the Supreme, in the form of the sun, which stimulates our mind and empowers us. Just like the sun wakes us up every morning, we pray that the Supreme light wakes up our intellect. It is indeed a prayer for internal strength.

In the 1990s cartoon series Captain Planet, there is a beautiful symbolism for this – whenever Captain Planet is on the verge of defeat, he draws energy from the sun. He gets revitalized. He’s ready to face his enemies – those trying to pollute the earth. The Gayatri mantra does something similar, but within.

(In preparing this article, I have drawn heavily from the lectures of HH Sri Rangapriya Swami; my discussions with Shatavadhani Dr R Ganesh; Dr Koti Sreekrishna’s article on the Gayatri mantra; and Vol 17 of the 36-volume Rigveda Samhita translation in Kannada brought out by the Maharaja of Mysore, Sri Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar during 1948-62.)

Source: dailyo

Benevolence Vs Malevolent: Stories of opposite ending

Uttar Pradesh man helps wife marry lover, sees her off with gifts

Besides throwing out a lavish lunch, Phoolchand and his family members also gave gifts to the newly wed at the time of `Vidai.

Rajat Rai   |   Mail Today  |   Lucknow, August 7, 2015 |

It could well be a perfect script for a Bollywood romance block buster but for Phoolchand it was sort of a heart break when he performed the marriage and `vidai' of his wife with smiles on his face.

Chanda, a resident of Bikapur village of Faizabad district, had an affair with a youth Suraj of the same village. However, bowing to the wishes of her parents, she married Phoolchand in 2012. Phoolchand, a native of the adjacent village Palipoorab, happily took his bribe to his house.

However, as fate could have it, he had to leave for Jalandhar immediately to earn money. Though the husband wife talked to each other frequently on phone, Chanda's and Suraj's love further blossomed as Suraj used to visit his relative in the Palipoorad village. His relative's house is close to Chanda's house and to ensure a meeting, Chanda used to visit his house on one pretext or the other.

Meanwhile, Phoolchand returned back on August 4 only to get a shocker. Chanda, not only returned the jewelery, clothes and other items that Phoolchand gave her at the time of marriage, but also told her the truth.

"I was happy that she relied on me and told me the truth. I got angry and sad for some time but decided to take out a solution", Phoolchand said.

After discussing the matter with his father, Phoolchand reached Chanda's village along with his father and confronted the village panchayat. "I kept forward my suggestion that Chanda and sooraj whould be allowed to marry and I have no objections", Phoolchand said.

After a long discussion, the Panchayat agreed to Phoolchand's offer and Sooraj and his family were also summoned. Sooraj and his family members agreed with in no time and the marriage was performed at the village's shiv mandir on Thursday.

 "This shows the mental level and strength of our youths these days and we salute Phoolchand for this brave step. It is better to accept the truth and act accordingly than to linger on with a forced relationship throughout life", Ravindra Yadav, the village head of Bikapur said.

Besides throwing out a lavish lunch, Phoolchand and his family members also gave gifts to the newly wed at the time of `Vidai' with blessings of a happy married life.

Source: indiatoday

In Modi's Varanasi, lover's head tonsured

The head of a lover-pair were tonsured and they were paraded all over in village Koirajpur under Bargawan police station in Varanasi on Sunday night.

Piyush Srivastava   |   Mail Today  |   Lucknow, August 4, 2015 |

Much against the belief that the west UP is brutal towards lovers, this time a similar incident took place in east UP. The head of a lover-pair were tonsured and they were paraded all over in village Koirajpur under Bargawan police station in Varanasi on Sunday night. When the father of the youth, who has run away with a girl, rushed to the police station for help, the cops allegedly said: "Go and make a complaint with Prime Minister Narendra Modi."

Incidentally, Varanasi is Parliamentary constituency of Modi.

The villagers were angry because the lovers eloped from the village last month when they were prevented from marriage. However, they had returned back four days ago.

"They tonsured our head and thrashed us while forcing us to parade in the village. This happened against the wish of our parents. Although our parents were against our marriage, they had accepted us two days ago", said Lalji Kumar, 19, the youth.

"When we went police station, the policemen rebuked us and asked to make a complaint with Modi, because he is our MP", said Shyamji Singh, a relative of the youth. 

Source: indiatoday

శ్రీ కౌముది ఆగస్ట్ 2015

Source: శ్రీ కౌముది ఆగస్ట్ 2015

Govt. job portal lists manual scavenging as ‘career option’

Mohit M. Rao

BENGALURU, August 4, 2015

Cleaning of sewers, descending into manholes, removing night-soil (human excreta) using a broom find 
a place in the National Career Services portal.

The job profile of a “Safai Karamchari” and a “scavenger” is listed as being “mildly hazardous or dangerous” – putting them in the same category as “astrologer”

What was conceived by the Narendra Modi-led NDA government as bringing employers and job seekers on a single platform, seems to now promote and allow the hiring of the prohibited act of manual scavenging at the click of a button.

Cleaning of sewers, descending into manholes, removing night-soil (human excreta) using a broom find a place in the National Career Services portal that was launched recently as a part of Skill India.

For instance, under the ‘unorganised sector’ panel of the website, a “Sweeper, Sewer” is “expected to” clean sewage systems by “using various cleaning instruments,” including bamboo or iron rod, and collecting debris and refuse in a bucket using a spade and handing this bucket to “helper outside manhole.”

Similarly, the “Sweeper, Wet” description lists a “key competency” of removing “night soil using spade and broom.”

On its launch by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 20, the portal was to link two crore job seekers with nearly nine lakh establishments. Mr. Modi had then said: “…it is essential for Indian society to develop a consciousness towards ‘dignity of labour’.”

However, advocates Clifton D’ Rozario and Maitreyi Krishnan — who had taken the issue of manual scavenging to the Karnataka High Court — say: “These dehumanising [definitions] are the very practice due to which the manual scavenging community has been stigmatised, ostracised and discriminated. [It] is now being proudly promoted as a ‘career option’.”

Furthermore, employing persons under these definitions have been made punishable with imprisonment under the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, the advocates say.

‘Inhuman practice’

They also point to the Supreme Court order (dated March 27, 2014) in the Safai Karamchari Andolan vs. Union of India case, where the court observes that handling human excrements with bare hands, brooms or metal scrappers or in baskets is an “inhuman practice,” while in November 2008, the Chennai High Court had directed that the cleaning of sewage could only be through mobile mechanical pumps or other devices.

Acknowledging that the description did indeed become promotion of manual scavenging, M. Shivanna, Chairperson, National Safai Karamchari Commission, said, “This is definitely wrong, and amounts to promoting such activities. Though we have been insisting that Sucking and Jetting Machines should be used, the website implies that descending into manholes is also a part of the job.”

The commission will issue a notice seeking clarification on Wednesday, he told The Hindu.

In same league as astrologers

Incredibly, the job profile of a “Safai Karamchari” and a “scavenger” is listed as being “mildly hazardous or dangerous” — putting them in the same category as “astrologer” and “palmist” that come under unorganised sector careers.

While the risks for “Safai Karamchari” include “lung, respiratory, neurological diseases, infection, biological diseases, suffocation, fatigue,” for an astrologer or palmist or money lender, the dangers include “heart diseases, depression and anxiety, fatigue, stress.”

The website similarly contains unfortunate, now antiquated phrases for describing jobs. “Domestic Servant” is described as “performing the general house-hold duties and attending to the personal comforts of master or employer” — terms that show “underlying feudalism,” say advocates Clifton D’ Rozario and Maitreyi Krishnan.

Source: thehindu

The politics of the execution of Yakub Memon

Thursday, 30 July 2015

Parsa Venkateshwar Rao Jr

There is need for the right-wingers to be less belligerent in their attacks on their liberal opponents. In a similar manner, those who had pleaded for the commutation of Yakub’s death sentence will have to accept that the Indian legal system is not vindictive, and that Yakub was given a fair opportunity at all stages of the judicial process.

The sentiment across the jingoistic media, whipping up the emotion of people, is that the execution of Yakub Memon, the first accused (A1), in the 1993 Bombay Blasts Case, brings closure to the trauma of the victims – the families of the 257 dead and the 750 injured -- of the terror blasts on March 12, 1993. There was also the corollary that anyone who talked of commuting the death sentence of Yakub to a life term is unpatriotic. Both the views are misplaced.

It has to be understood that the closure to the families of the victims came the day Judge P.D. Kode of the TADA Court delivered the verdict in 2006. He sentenced the more than 100 accused different periods of imprisonment, and he gave the death sentence to Yakub Memon and 10 others. The Supreme Court had commuted the death sentence of the 10  to a life term, and upheld the death sentence of Yakub Memon. If in due legal course of review and curative appeals, the Supreme Court had reversed the death sentence of Yakub as it did in the case of 10 others, it would not have meant that there has been no closure. What brought closure to the blasts case was the legal verdict of the TADA court. Death sentence was not a necessary part of the closure.

In the meanwhile, there came to light an article by former Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) chief B.Raman, who had expressed the opinion that Yakub Memon had returned to India voluntarily and that he had cooperated with the prosecution and he had passed on crucial information about the location of the masterminds of the blasts – Dawood Ibrahim and Yakub’s elder-brother, Tiger Memon – in Karachi. This information was collaborated by senior journalist Maseeh Rehman, who had talked to Yakub in 1994. The family members of Yakub had also said that the investigation agencies had promised that they he would be dealt with leniently because of his cooperation. The point made by Raman and Rehman was that Yakub had come back voluntarily because he realised his folly, he was willing to face the punishment for his crime and he expected that he would be given a fair chance by the Indian legal system and his cooperation would be given due weight when fixing his punishment.

It is based on this information that Yakub had surrendered, that he had cooperated with the prosecution that many eminent persons and civil society activists came out pleading that Yakub’s death should be commuted to a life term. Some of them based their appeal on their belief that death sentence is a barbaric practice and that states should give up death sentence altogether. This is a principled plea. It is not necessary to agree with this view. But it does not follow that these people were supporting Yakub’s crime or that they are condoning terrorism.

There are others in the group who were of the view that there is need to include the information about his surrender and cooperation, and that these should form part of the extenuating or mitigating circumstances for the crime committed by Yakub. It is questionable that if this part could have ever been weighed as legal evidence because India does not follow the convention of ‘plea bargain’, where the prosecution pleads for a lesser sentence. It is a common practice in the United Stated legal system but it is not as yet part of Indian legal conventions. In the present case, the prosecution did not disclose that Yakub has turned an approver. Public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam had said that he did not know that there was any tacit understanding between Yakub and the investigating agencies. The question is as to why the investigation agencies did not take the prosecution into confidence, and as to why Yakub’s lawyers did not reveal this information about Yakub’s surrender and cooperation with the investigation agencies. It appears that the prosecution did not want to weaken its case in any way, and the defence team too believed that it would not be right to concede to Yakub’s guilt right at the beginning. But we will not know the truth unless Yakub’s family or lawyers reveal the facts. There is reason to doubt the versions of Raman and Rehman. What we need to know is as to why the investigators changed their mind as they prepared the case along with the legal team.

We turn now to the politics of it. Unfortunately, there is the political dimension to the issue. The political right-wingers, though majority of them belong to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies, the hardliners are to be found in all political parties, and they all believe that the hanging of Yakub Memon is necessary and that it will send out a strong message that India is not a soft state. There are the far-right supporters who hold the view that the death of Yakub Memon will bring a sense of justice to the victims of the blasts. The far-right activists are infuriated by the gesture of the civil rights activists who sought a life term for Yakub. They are interpreting it as an anti-national gesture and of sympathising with terrorists who had killed innocent civilians.

The people who had argued for commuting Yakub’s death to a life sentence were not condoning the terror act of Yakub and they are not soft on terrorism. And to be sure, they are not unpatriotic or anti-national. There is need for the right-wingers to be less belligerent in their attacks on their liberal opponents. In a similar manner, those who had pleaded for the commutation of Yakub’s death sentence will have to accept that the Indian legal system is not vindictive, and that Yakub was given a fair opportunity at all stages of the judicial process.

It is also very important to note the fact that Yakub had been sent to the gallows under Section 120B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which is being a conspirator. It is also necessary to remember that the Terrorist And Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act 1987 does not prescribe death sentence. Yaakub had been sentenced to death of conspiring to cause death of people. He was not condemned for treason. Yakub and his family are Indians and they hold on to their Indian nationality. Yakub had died for his crime and he died as an Indian. He had not renounced his national identity. 

As it was a terrifying fact that hundreds of people had died or were injured on March 12, 1993, the hanging of Yakub Memon will remain a grim act. The death of even a convict cannot bring cheer to even the families of the victims. This should indeed be the civil and humane way of dealing with each other. Yakub Memon’s family cannot be treated with either suspicion or hostility after this. It is cessation of bitterness on all sides that is the real closure. There is no room for triumphalism. Justice is not revenge.

Source: dnaindia

Marc Meets Obama

“This is a big day for our country, for me and for my cats. 

— Marc Maron

 

Marc Meets Obama

WTF with Marc Maron Podcast

Episode 613 - President Barack Obama

Marc welcomes the 44th President of the United States of America, Barack Obama, to the garage for conversation about college, fitting in, race relations, gun violence, changing the status quo, disappointing your fans, comedians, fatherhood and overcoming fear. And yes, this really happened. This episode is presented without commercial interruption courtesy of Squarespace. Go to MarcMeetsObama.com to see behind-the-scenes photos and captions.

Episode 614 - The President Was Here

From the minute the Presidential motorcade pulled away, Marc began recording his reaction to the momentous event that just occurred in his garage. Hear Marc’s ongoing reflections in the aftermath as well as a discussion with WTF producer Brendan McDonald about how this happened in the first place. 

This episode is sponsored by Stamps.com, Squarespace, Comedy Central, and Vegas.com.

Blogger Comment:

President of United States of America find time for conversation with Marc at his garage and it is the best one I ever listened. This event is one of a kind!!

How Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam's lived his last day

Tuesday, 28 July 2015 - 10:53am IST | Agency: dna webdesk

During their journey to Shillong, Singh says Dr. Kalam expressed his concern over the terror attacks in Punjab. He also discussed the dysfunctional running of the Parliament and tried to come up with solutions to make the institution run more productively.


Image credit: Srijan Pal Singh's Facebook page

Read Singh's full post here:

Srijan Pal Singh added 2 new photos — with Veekshit BMath and 30 others.
Public Figure · 42,655 Likes · 19 hrs ·

What I will be remembered for.. my memory of the last day with the great Kalam sir...

It has been eight hours since we last talked – sleep eludes me and memories keep flushing down, sometimes as tears. Our day, 27th July, began at 12 noon, when we took our seats in the flight to Guhawati. Dr. Kalam was 1A and I was IC. He was wearing a dark colored “Kalam suit”, and I started off complimenting, “Nice color!” Little did I know this was going to be the last color I will see on him.
Long, 2.5 hours of flying in the monsoon weather. I hate turbulence, and he had mastered over them. Whenever he would see me go cold in shaking plane, he would just pull down the window pane and saw, “Now you don’t see any fear!”.
That was followed by another 2.5 hours of car drive to IIM Shillong. For these two legged trip of five hours we talked, discussed and debated. These were amongsthundreds of the long flights and longer drives we have been together over the last six years.
As each of them, this was as special too. Three incidents/discussions in particular will be “lasting memories of our last trip”.
First, Dr. Kalam was absolutely worried about the attacks in Punjab. The loss of innocent lives left him filledwith sorrow. The topic of lecture at IIM Shillong was Creating a Livable Planet Earth. He related the incident to the topic and said, “it seems the man made forces are as big a threat to the livability of earth as pollution”. We discussed on how, if this trend of violence, pollution and reckless human action continues we will forced to leave earth. “Thirty years, at this rate, maybe”, he said. “You guys must do something about it… it is going to be your future world”
Our second discussion was more national. For the past two days, Dr. Kalam was worried that time and again Parliament, the supreme institution of democracy, was dysfunctional. He said, “I have seen two different governments in my tenure. I have seen more after that. This disruption just keeps happening. It is not right. I really need to find out a way to ensure that the parliament works on developmental politics.” He then asked me to prepare a surprise assignment question for the students at IIM Shillong, which he would give them only at the end of the lecture. He wanted to them to suggest three innovative ways to make the Parliament more productive and vibrant. Then, after a while he returned on it. “But how can ask them to give solutions if I don’t have any myself”. For the next one hour, we thwarted options after options, who come up with his recommendation over the issue. We wanted to include this discussion in our upcoming book, Advantage India.
Third, was an experience from the beauty of his humility. We were in a convoy of 6-7 cars. Dr. Kalam and I were in the second car. Ahead us was an open gypsy with three soldiers in it. Two of them were sitting on either side and one lean guy was standing atop, holding his gun. One hour into the road journey, Dr. Kalam said, “Why is he standing? He will get tired. This is like punishment. Can you ask a wireless message to given that he may sit?” I had to convince him, he has been probably instructed to keep standing for better security. He did not relent. We tried radio messaging, that did not work. For the next 1.5 hours of the journey, he reminded me thrice to see if I can hand signal him to sit down. Finally, realizing there is little we can do – he told me, “I want to meet him and thank him”. Later, when we landed in IIM Shillong, I went inquiring through security people and got hold of the standing guy. I took him inside and Dr. Kalam greeted him. He shook his hand, said thank you buddy. “Are you tired? Would you like something to eat? I am sorry you had to stand so long because of me”. The young lean guard, draped in black cloth, was surprised at the treatment. He lost words, just said, “Sir, aapkeliye to 6 ghantebhikhaderahenge”.
After this, we went to the lecture hall. He did not want to be late for the lecture. “Students should never be made to wait”, he always said. I quickly set up his mike, briefed on final lecture and took position on the computers. As I pinned his mike, he smiled and said, “Funny guy! Are you doing well?” ‘Funny guy’, when said by Kalam could mean a variety of things, depending on the tone and your own assessment. It could mean, you have done well, you have messed up something, you should listen to him or just that you have been plain naïve or he was just being jovial. Over six years I had learnt to interpret Funny Guy like the back of my palm. This time it was the last case.
“Funny guy! Are you doing well?” he said. I smiled back, “Yes”. Those were the last words he said. Two minutes into the speech, sitting behind him, I heard a long pause after completing one sentence. I looked at him, he fell down.
We picked him up. As the doctor rushed, we tried whatever we could. I will never forget the look in his three-quarter closed eyes and I held his head with one hand and tried reviving with whatever I could. His hands clenched, curled onto my finger. There was stillness on his face and those wise eyes were motionlessly radiating wisdom. He never said a word. He did not show pain, only purpose was visible.
In five minutes we were in the nearest hospital. In another few minutes the they indicated the missile man had flown away, forever. I touched his feet, one last time. Adieu old friend! Grand mentor! See you in my thoughts and meet in the next birth.
As turned back, a closet of thoughts opened.
Often he would ask me, “You are young, decide what will like to be remembered for?” I kept thinking of new impressive answers, till one day I gave up and resorted to tit-for-tat. I asked him back, “First you tell me, what will you like to be remembered for? President, Scientist, Writer, Missile man, India 2020, Target 3 billion…. What?” I thought I had made the question easier by giving options, but he sprang on me a surprise. “Teacher”, he said.
Then something he said two weeks back when we were discussing about his missile time friends. He said, “Children need to take care of their parents. It is sad that sometimes this is not happening”. He paused and said, “Two things. Elders must also do. Never leave wealth at your deathbed – that leaves a fighting family. Second, one is blessed is one can die working, standing tall without any long drawn ailing. Goodbyes should be short, really short”.
Today, I look back – he took the final journey, teaching, what he always wanted to be remembered doing. And, till his final moment he was standing, working and lecturing. He left us, as a great teacher, standing tall. He leaves the world with nothing accumulated in his account but loads of wishes and love of people. He was a successful, even in his end.
Will miss all the lunches and dinners we had together, will miss all the times you surprised me with your humility and startled me with your curiosity, will miss the lessons of life you taught in action and words, will miss our struggles to race to make into flights, our trips, our long debates. You gave me dreams, you showed me dreams need to be impossible, for anything else is a compromise to my own ability. The man is gone, the mission lives on. Long live Kalam.

Your indebted student,

Srijan Pal Singh
(pic .. Dr APJ Abdul Kalam meeting the jawan who stood in the gypsy)


Srijan Pal Singh's photo.

Source: dnaindia

Security as a broadcasting bogey

July 27, 2015

K. Venkataramanan



In the wake of the denial of security clearance to the Sun TV group, a fresh look at the law is needed at a time when visuals are disseminated over the Internet.

Both subversive activities and state surveillance to curb them require advanced technology. New, invasive laws are said to be required to regulate freedoms in the name of protecting national security. This situation may imply a dynamic and ever-evolving relationship between the exercise of fundamental freedoms and the reasonable restrictions that the state wants to impose on them: a relationship in which old processes are constantly revisited and new forms of communication are factored into regulations. No, not always. There are situations in which outdated procedures and archaic requirements can easily pose a potent threat to the very existence of some form of legitimate activity. The Union Home Ministry’s denial of security clearance to the Sun TV group, which operates 33 television channels and several FM radio channels, is one such example. After over two decades of operations, the group promoted by Kalanithi Maran finds that a regulation that says the MHA’s security clearance is required to be renewed from time to time has placed its television and radio stations under the threat of closure.

Regulatory laws routinely contain provisions that operate more as emergency powers than as routine requirements. The idea of requiring a broadcaster to obtain security clearance implies that such clearance can be suspended or denied to bar some entity from operating a network. It is inherently a power that can be used when some contingency arises that needs to be dealt with urgently, and the Government of India finds that it has no other means to shut down a network. It involves taking a call on curbing the freedom of not only the entity or institution or individual concerned, but also the right of their regular customers or subscribers to viewing their content. Security clearance for broadcasters is somewhat outdated and requires a fresh look as visuals and images are now disseminated to a global audience through the Internet and social media too, and except for the potential for a cyber-shutdown, there is no prior clearance provision for the worldwide web.

Strange reason

In the case of the Sun TV network, the reason for denying security clearance is quite strange: that the promoters face criminal cases, one concerning corruption, one of money-laundering and one related to operating an illegal telephone exchange. Regardless of the outcome of these legitimate prosecutions, shutting down a media house during the pendency of investigation or trial raises a number of constitutional questions concerning freedom of expression. It is not clear if there is a precedent for an operational network to be denied security clearance for the sole reason that some cases are under investigation or prosecution.

The link between a pending criminal prosecution and the alleged threat posed by a media house to national security is hopelessly tenuous, unless the charge itself is based on the content available on it. There is a good deal of content regulation already in place, and the Information and Broadcasting Ministry diligently issues notices, advisories and warnings to private television channels for violations of the content code. Moreover, the principle is alarmingly extendable to non-electronic media too, as there are registration requirements for the print medium too. It is somewhat strange that the Union Home Ministry is doggedly holding on to the opinion that a particular channel is ineligible for security clearance even after the Attorney General has given a fairly strong opinion that the stand is illegal.

Freedom of expression

There is a long list of cases in which the Supreme Court has recognised that freedom of expression includes the right to disseminate information as well as receive it. In the context of an election, it has even recognised the voter’s right to know details about a candidate’s qualifications and criminal antecedents, if any, as part of the same freedom. In the light of the direction in which the law has evolved, it is unimaginable that the government could believe that it can force a network to shut down by merely denying it security clearance, without regard for the injury it does to the freedom of expression, which covers both dissemination and receipt of information, communication and knowledge, of both broadcasters and the general public.

Legal framework

The existing legal framework for the broadcasting media is acknowledged to be inadequate. A draft bill for a broadcasting legislation was open to public debate in 2007 but is yet to be acted upon. The idea of a broadcasting law came about because of the Supreme Court’s landmark verdict in 1995 declaring airwaves as public property and calling for an independent public authority to regulate them. The draft envisaged the creation of an independent Broadcast Regulatory Authority of India, and it is precisely the absence of such a credible body that makes actions such as denying security clearance to a particular network appear dubious. Any use of discretionary power has to appear to be truly independent, and vesting it in the political executive without clear guidelines on the manner of using that power is bound to seem to lack legitimacy. It is not that security considerations will have to be abandoned altogether and unfettered or unregulated freedom conferred on those applying for broadcasting permission. Even the draft bill envisaged vesting the Central government with certain powers to be used in times of external threat or war or extraordinary circumstances. It is futile to argue that pending prosecutions constitute such an extraordinary circumstance.

“ The existing legal framework for the broadcasting media is acknowledged to be inadequate. ”

Admittedly, regulations and conditions of licensing for the broadcasting sector operate as constitutionally permissible reasonable restrictions on those freedoms, and that national security is a clearly identified ground for such curbs. The Supreme Court has held that any heavy-handed measure that places an “excessive or prohibitive burden” on a newspaper is violative of the freedom of expression under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution. In the case of broadcast media, as airwaves, which are public property, are involved, the right is both subject to reasonable restrictions and regulation by a public authority. Yet, it cannot be denied that a bland denial of security clearance, citing an indeterminate concept of ‘economic security – an issue said to arise out of the fact that the accused in the relevant cases are accused of economic offences – will undoubtedly have a chilling effect on free expression, especially the media. It is not difficult to see that linking the prosecution of one of the promoters in cases unrelated to the content of any of the channels and their right to function is one such measure. Even if it was conceded that the amount involved in the alleged money-laundering case arising out of the Aircel-Maxis transaction is huge, accepting the denial of security clearance on that ground would set a dangerous precedent for the rest of the media industry. In times when non-government organisations are under the scanner for strident criticism of some aspects of policy that the government is particularly sensitive to, when activists are seen as “anti-national” for campaigning against major projects on environmental or ecological grounds, and when the government appears to closely monitor the extent of coverage by private media houses of its pet projects and seeks to classify them into those in ‘compliance’ (media outlets that give adequate coverage) and those in ‘default’ (those that do not seem to show much enthusiasm), any precedent will be good enough to justify a sudden crackdown on such ‘defaulters’. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the government to avoid the impression that extraneous considerations are at work in its enforcement or use of existing regulations.

venkataramanan.k@thehindu.co.in

Source: thehindu

Our man in Dublin, Yeats

Gayatri Jayaraman    25-07-2015

It is the Irish poet's sesquicentennial and the world is rediscovering him. Why has India forgotten him?

If you were in England this summer, you would have seen Yeats verses up all over the Tube... "Sailing to Byzantium", "Versus he made when a stranger asked who he was" by Lady Gregory, (of the Irish Literary Reform movement and whose son, Robert Gregory's death is the subject of Yeats' "An Irish Airman Forsees his Death"), and "What is Truth" by Louis MacNeice, whose criticism of Yeats and his beliefs is crucial to knowing the poet and the man.

I was reading Yeats in the rain recently and was reminded of American poet Vijay Seshadri's evocative casual recitation of my personal favourite lines from "Sailing to Byzantium" at the Kitab Khana in Mumbai on a trip late in 2014, to illustrate another point he was making.

"Had I the heaven's embroidered cloths,

Enwrought with golden and silver light,

The blue and the dim and the dark cloths

Of night and light and the half-light;..."

Writing for Poetry Ireland this month to commemorate the year, Seshadri writes: "His subject matter wasn't exactly incidental to the pleasure I got from him, but it was improbable enough, even though it was often political, to a teenager living in the American Midwest during Vietnam and the civil rights movement, and in the rising tide of second-wave feminism. His feeling and allegiances were just as distant. At the same time, though, his language was immediate and stirring, and his voice was recognisable because he was a major, often unacknowledged, influence on a whole generation of contemporary American poets, black-and-white, I was reading at the same time I encountered him."

Seshadri, who is better known as he who composed "The Disappearances", which ran on the back page of The New Yorker in the aftermath of 9/11, but whose best known work I see as "The Long Meadow" which bears the distinct mark of the Mahabharata, admits he has been deeply influenced by Yeats, whom he says taught him to read John Ashberry, while yet claiming to bear an Indianness that is incidental to his Midwest upbringing. Seshadri is more an American poet, a Pulitzer-prize winning one, than an Indian, a self-deceit I wager borne out by the stamp of Yeats, who was equally an influence on a generation of Indian poets, upon him.

Not only did Yeats write the introduction to Tagore's Gitanjali, and push for his Nobel, which he would never have got left to the opinion of those such as Philip Larkin (who referred to him as "Rabindrum Tagore", "some Indian" and his work as "f*ck all"), but was instrumental in having The Post Office performed at the Abbey Theatre in 1913. While he disagreed on Tagore's later books, he was not the be all and end all of Yeats' Indian influence. Influenced early on by Vedanta, the Vivekachudamani, via Mohini Chatterjee whom he met in Dublin, the Bhagavad Gita, and striking up a friendship with Purohit Swami with whom he translated the Upanishads in 1935, but also built lasting friendships with Indian poets, the likes of Sarojini Naidu and Manmohan Ghose. It was much of Yeats' ready embracing of the mysticism of India that found in him the problematic for critics like Ernest Rhys and Louis MacNeice. It spawned a poetic pagan Irish possessiveness of Yeats, with Rhys saying of him: "It was Ireland, not India, gave Yeats his poetical birthright and mystical bias."

Yet, Yeats fought for the integrity of the poetic identity of India like few before him and none till TS Eliot, though more detachedly, had done. From Mansarovar to the Himalayan shrines they reminded him of Irish pilgrim trails and he spoke of consciousness like it was but natural to Irish mysticism that he have one.

Among the later poets, Yeats and his trimetre would continue to haunt Dom Moraes' lyricism, early Nissim Ezekiel, in the antithesis that he was to Kamala Das, and in Keki Daruwala's longing for mythological escapes, amongst others.

It is amazing, and gratifying, that the nationalistic Yeats is not turned into a Hindutva icon, a Max Mueller of sorts, in the deeply divisive modern day Indian sociopolitical context. So monumental is the channelling of Yeats that he becomes the unwitting (though Yeats would surely argue otherwise) catalyst by which a poetic identity of India is passed on.

So when Seshadri begins by saying "There were almost no points of contact, external or internal, between Yeats' experience and my own," he is hurting to be reminded:

"Who has not felt a little of the despair the son of righteousness now feels, staring wildly around him?

The god watches, not without compassion and a certain wonder.

This is the final illusion,the one to which all the others lead."

... You, Seshadri my friend, are in denial of all the India we are steeped in. As are we.

Source: dailyo