Alternative Perspective

Organisations as Defenses against Anxiety

2012-11-16T22:12:00.000+05:30

This was one of my favourite piece in my first book, "Understanding Organisations: Organisational Theory and Practice in India" (Chapter 11, Section D), where I could slink in my existential concerns...

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The most popular view of organisations is that they are socio‑economic entities, which are meant for producing goods or providing services in the most efficient and effective manner. Moreover, so pervasive is their influence in our lives that one tends to unquestioningly accept their existence as almost natural and given. In accepting this view, however, we neglect the basic truth that, organisations are man‑made, simulated, controlled and ‘artificial’ environments, which also serve some deep psychological purposes in the lives of their members (managers, staff members and workers).

At the most obvious level (as we noticed in Jefferson’s observation about the Shell executives), organisations, with their emphasis on rationality, reliability, control, etc., provide excellent mechanisms for warding off uncertainties and ambiguities of human condition. They help people to regulate their lives, to experience a feeling of predictability, and to derive a sense of mastery over themselves. In this sense, they serve as useful psychological defenses, which are often quite functional (in a task‑related sense) as well. Menzies (1960), for instance, described how the depersonalised work systems, procedures and practices related to a nurses’ job (e.g., strict “professionalism”, structuring work in precise routines, referring to patients as “bed number”, etc.) are aimed at increasing their interpersonal distance from the patients. Such psychological distancing may also be necessary for the nurses to do their jobs effectively.

The fact, nevertheless, is that organisations do provide legitimacy to defensive behaviours, and so help people to avoid coming in touch with their deep‑seated emotional or existential anxieties and dilemmas (Jaques, 1970; Chattopadhyay, 1986). Kets de Vries (1980) noted how people create structures and roles to avoid coming in touch with their deeply experienced feelings of alienation and emptiness. Behind the conscious concerns with tasks, responsibilities, obedience, etc., may lie the unconscious interpersonal anxieties aroused by close contact with people. In fact, Morgan (1986) showed through his analysis of the life of Frederick Taylor, the father of scientific management, how the unconscious concerns for controlling one’s impulses can get translated into socially legitimate aims of controlling organisations (see also Chowdhry and Kakar, 1971). He points out how Taylor’s life provides:

...a splendid illustration of how unconscious concerns and preoccupations can have an effect on organisation. For it is clear that his whole theory of scientific management was the product of a disturbed and neurotic personality. His attempt to organise and control the world, whether in childhood games or in systems of scientific management, was really an attempt to organise and control himself.

At a much deeper level, the very construction of organisations can be seen as a social defense against the anxiety of death. In his book, The Denial of Death, Becker (1973) argued that all the efforts of mankind (religions, ideologies, institutions, culture, etc.) are aimed at denying the finite and transient fact of human existence. The fact that we will all die is a fact which makes our existence devoid of any permanent meaning, and creates anxiety. In building organisations and institutions, and in identifying with them, we create something which is more durable and larger than life. Our roles and work activities, give us a sense of continuity, and make our existence real to us. In the introduction of their book, In Search of Excellence, Peters and Waterman (1982) quoted Becker: “What man really fears is not so much extinction, but extinction with insignificance... Ritual is a technique for giving life.” They go on to say: “In other words, men willingly shackle themselves to the nine‑to‑five, if only, the cause is perceived to be in some sense great.”

The implication of this defensive nature of organisations, is again for the accuracy of the perception of reality. If the involvement of the decision‑makers and organisational members is based on the unconscious motives of warding off deep‑seated anxieties, then they are less likely to accept psychologically threatening realities. Janis (1982) pointed out how decision‑making groups develop filters and shields (illusions of invulnerability, stance of self‑righteousness, stereotyped perception of the problem and the “enemy out there”, etc.), which do not allow the members to come in contact with an unacceptable reality, and reinforce a process of groupthink. Similarly, Argyris (1970) noted how in the organisational change process, managers tend to neglect, deny, and distort dissonant information:

...the clients may tend to forget controversial information suggested by the interventionist and recall in its place the information from the past substitutes for the controversial 0information. It means clients will expose themselves to learning the information that maintains their present degree of self‑acceptance... (and) will tend to interpret relatively threatening information in line with their values...

According to Pauchant and Mitroff (1992), these distortions result from the bounded emotionality of the managers, i.e., from the defects in their capacity to feel and experience certain emotions. They found that these inadequacies in the emotional capacity of the decision‑makers (i.e., their faulty and unhealthy mechanisms of dealing with their own feeling and impulses) were significant contributors in making organisations crisis‑prone. One only has to look at some of the major industrial disasters and organisational failures (e.g., Bhopal gas tragedy and the Challenger shuttle accident) to realise that in all these cases, there were individuals (sometimes, even everyone involved) who were aware of the possibility (or certainty) of the crisis, but somehow they “decided” to ignore it. What is also significant is the fact that these defenses are, by nature, unconscious, and do not yield (in fact, often become more rigid) in the face of crisis and failure. As Starbuck, Greve and Hedberg (1978) noted:

Denials that crises are developing and that strategic reorientation is needed arise, to no small degree, from sincere conviction... (managers) really do believe that they should act only on the basis of reliable information and that communi-cations should flow through channels... it is a normal human characteristic to adhere to one’s prior beliefs, inspite of evidence that they are incorrect.

songs of twins separated in the sub-continent

2012-06-04T00:00:00.000+05:30

Hindi films abound with stories of twins who got separated during "Kumbh Mela"... one becomes a criminal and the other a law-abiding policeman

Here is a story of two such twins of this sub-continent, who still sing the same song, with similar (identical?) context

... both these videos happened at the same time:

Pakistan: उम्मीद-ए-सहर

http://youtu.be/f6wxbN7Ag3E

India: तुम चलो तो हिंदुस्तान चले..

http://youtu.be/A0M0EZ8T5J8

capabilities beyond "eyes" and "ears"

2012-04-20T23:21:00.000+05:30

Many years back - mid-'70s - , when I was doing my post grad in Psychology from Lucknow Univ, there were 2 of us males (out of a class of 32!.. my elder brother classified us as "protected minority" :0)
We were supposed to administer experiments/ questionnaires on unwarying folks - and then write and submit a report on that to get our marks

So, I administered a so-called "culture-free" IQ test to my other male classmate (a topper from Gorakhpuur Univ from the village), which had no requirments for knowing the language/ english... but just matching patterns..

and he scored below 5%-percentile!!..
.. we pulled his leg, naturally... and he smiled sheepishly

We came out of the Psy dept. and it was a hot summer afternoon, with a blazing 40C+ sun and a cloudless sky in April-May

My friend made one more statement to be ridiculed; he said, smelling around: "it should rain tonight"

We laughed and made fun of him - threw the below-5% percentile IQ on him...

But, that night it rained heavily... we even had a hailstorm of sorts...

To me, that was one learning experience, viz:
- that we measure the intelligence/ IQ/ capabilities on very narrow bandwidth..

- that we have 5 senses from which we 'learn', and the so called 'education' caters to only two of them, "eyes" and "ears"...

perhaps the other 3 senses - touch, smell, taste - hold much more wisdom...

two faces of "happiness"....

2012-02-14T11:59:00.005+05:30

A mining giant claims in its recently launched ad campaign, that it is "Creating Happiness" for the tribals of Eastern India:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWOwat5FO00

The following clip was shot in the land where happiness is being created, around the same time when this ad campaign was launched nationally.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdCbRhPMAYM

well, the clips say it all....

How my breakfast caused "food inflation"!!

2011-11-26T15:52:00.003+05:30

This morning I had an egg for my breakfast along with my customary glass of milk…. And it suddenly dawned on me how this innocuous act must have added to the food inflation, as the "storyline" from the top brains and policy-makers in the government has been pointing out during recent months (guiltily, I also recalled having fish on last Tuesday :((

“What prices are going up are those of vegetables, eggs, fish that are secondary and tertiary food items. That is a reflection of the demand for these commodities exceeding supplies... That in turn, to some extent at least, is a sign of growing prosperity of our country.” - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Cannes (November 8)

“Food inflation is still going high. It’s dangerously above the double-digit figure. This is the effect of festive season demand. November onwards, the trend for the remaining four months (of the fiscal) would be available.” - Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee (November 3)

"…food inflation (can be explained by) somewhat less known Bennett's Law which says that as incomes go up, people eat less of serials and eat more of protein and which is what we are seeing in India happening today. Protein food inflation was evident even earlier, but it has been much sharper in recent period reflecting among other things accelerated increase in nominal wages.” - Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, D Subbarao (Nov 22)

“High inflation number points towards people eating healthier food, better lifestyles.” - Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia (Jan 20, 2011)

“Food habits of people are changing. Their purchasing power is up. This is causing food inflation. They are consuming more milk and eggs, so why blame the government?” - Union Food Minister K V Thomas (Oct 29, 2011)

…meanwhile, I recall reading a in a report that during last 3 years, the retail price of sugar has risen by 100%, wheat by 150%, lentils by 300% and vegetables by 300% - and one of GOI’s own report mentions that per capita availability of grains has decreased from 163kg to 161kg per annum during the past decade or so.

…though that is another “story”…

A State of - & in - Denial !!?

2010-09-10T15:46:00.012+05:30

This clip has been doing round on the net - on YouTube, Facebook and numerous other distributed sites since last few days.

Some reaction to this clip, are mentioned in this article:

"A formal case is being registered against the YouTube and Facebook networks and investigation is on to locate the persons responsible for uploading this baseless and malicious clip" a police spokesman told PTI.

...the video has not been verified as yet and therefore "to attribute it to security forces with the intention of maligning them and spreading disaffection among the people is highly regrettable. Action shall also be taken against other organisations who tried to propagate it"

"No one has been able to authenticate the video so far," Home Minister P Chidambaram told reporters... "Until it is authenticated and the persons identified, I think it would be unsafe to rely on such a video."

"Such a thing is not possible in Kashmir,” CRPF spokesman Prabhakar Tripathi was quoted by the Indian Express as saying. “The video seems manipulated to tarnish the image of the force and police.... In this place, even rape doesn’t remain a secret.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAVGu_KBy70

Worth reading too, is this article Kashmir’s Abu Gharaib? by Shuddhabrata Sengupta.

Guns and Daughters

2010-07-15T12:41:00.001+05:30

Glimpses of lives, torn in what someone has described as "India's very own civil war" - where some are drawn unknowingly into taking sides, and some make a conscious choice....

...but as this documentary by Shikha Trivedy says:

"...today there are ideas of many India at war with each other. And in any war, women are the worst off..."

...at least, there is "no corruption in corruption"!!

2010-06-08T21:54:00.003+05:30

Last evening, I had an interesting meeting with a 'friend' who is also a local entrepreneur where I live. We had met after some months, and we chatted about many things - and he shared his travails with various govt agencies to make his venture grow... Some excerpts from our conversations (not verbatim, but as I remember them... and do convey the gist):

He: "It is very difficult to grow and expand... There is so much corruption here in these states in the East. One has to pay for anything to move."

Me: "What about your expansions elsewhere? In the western and southern states? I understand things are much better there. No?"

He: "Oh yes, much better there! I have been able to move much faster... which actually is a pity! This is my state - I was born and brought-up here - and I am not able to do much here - at least not as much as I would like to do."

Me: "You mean that this part of the country is more corrupt than those states..."

He: "Oh, no!!... They are as much corrupt and need bribes - in fact, more! - sometime they ask for more than what they ask for here..."

Me: "Then...? - this puzzled me.

He: "oh, there! - there at least, if you give them the "Speed Money", your work gets done. Over here, even that does not work."

Me: "meaning?..."

He: "Arre bhai!.. Over there, if you pay bribe, there is certain amount of honesty; they deliver what they promise... At least, there is no corruption in corruption there..."

We had a nice evening together, but I came back with a couple of queries in my mind:

What kind of society we have become (or were always), where:

it is so very nonchalently easy to talk about corruption and giving bribes (in whatever name)
&

we have created terms like "speed money" and phrases like "no corrption in corruption"

Don’t know, really!... Good night!

[NOTE: Over last 30yrs or so, since I started working, I have had the benefit of knowing, befriending and getting acquainted with very wide bandwidth of people - ranging from students, factory artisans, grassroot activists, entrepreneurs... to some who are CEOs. They have been nice to have remembered me over decades, and when we meet we meet as friends... With some I have differed on issues, but have always found them well-meaning, honest people with their own issues in life - as all of us have.

Some of those interactions have created dissonance in me, but I have also learned from those differences... And in any case, I have emerged wiser through those... So, in some ways, they have been my teachers to help me understand life (within and around me) - because they raised questions for me...
...this interaction was one of the many of those!]

India.. a nation divided by "Caste"! ?

2010-05-27T23:26:00.003+05:30

...it is always useful to take a stock of what-we-are-most-critical-about... Specially when the media is abuzz with Khap Panchayat - with what-the-ground-realities-are...

And so, some news-items of the past weeks (click on the headline to read the news-items):

Maharashtra seeks Facebook ban
The Maharashtra government has asked the Centre about the possibility of blocking social networking site Facebook following such a demand from Muslim and Christian organisations...

77 per cent oppose same gotra marriages: HT survey
Even as the government proposes tougher laws against honour killings sanctioned by khap panchayats, a survey carried out by Hindustan Times in Haryana shows most people are against same gotra (sub-caste) marriages... The survey shows as many as 77 per cent of the respondents do not support same gotra marriages. The survey was carried out in Chandigarh, Rohtak, Jind, Bhiwani and Kurukshetra. Surprisingly, even in Chandigarh, 65 per cent of the respondents have opposed same gotra marriages....

Now, honour killings in Andhra
Honour killings came home to Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday night when two lovers were stoned to death by the relatives of a girl who had eloped with a man from another caste in Tadwai mandal in Nizamabad district....

After khaps, Arya Samaj shocker for lovers
After khaps, it is the Arya Samaj that has shocked couples in Haryana. A section of the sect has decided to ban marriages without consent of parents and villagers....

No.. Frankly, I don’t know where are the solutions
....but do believe that we will never find them, unless we accept that there is a problem!.....

Nira Radia Papers - Raja, Tata, Ambani connection

2010-05-13T21:42:00.004+05:30

I had read about Nira Radia in a recent issue of Outlook magazine on Corporate Lobbying... Her name again cropped up in an article in The Pioneer about the phone-tapping issue

These 14 internal GOI's documents, scanned and posted in the link below show the outcome of tapped conversations:

The Radia Papers– Raja, Tata, Ambani connection
http://indiasreport.com/magazine/data/the-radia-papers-raja-tata-ambani-connection/

Given the industry big-wigs and the media houses involved, this scam may never achieve the kind of publicity in the mainstream media, which the IPL/ Lalit Modi issue got.

The other reason for believing this is also because I got to know about this link through a group mail from a journalist friend, who works with a well-known and respected mainstream newspaper - obviously, if he could have published a story on this in his own newspaper, he wouldn't have shared the documents to all!!

International Labour Day - The Forgotten Story

2010-05-01T22:30:00.007+05:30

I had a vague idea about the origins of the "May Day"/ "Labour Day" (but not much) - besides of course that it coincided with some of the pre-Christian pagan festivals in Europe...

So, today when one of my senior colleague, who has spent more than four decades dealing with Industrial/Labour Relations, both as a practicing manager and then as an academic (besides being the author of "one of its kind" book on Industrial Jurisprudence, sent this mail, I thought that this forgotten history is worth sharing. I am reproducing his mail below:

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Today is celebrated as a "Labour Day" all over the world. Quite a few of us may not be knowing "why May 1st only"; "why not some other day"; and "why at all should there be a special day of commemoration for working class"? Here is the story in a nutshell.

Explitation by US Industry - Long Working Hours
There was no law in US in the19th century (and until even as late as 1932), which conferred a right on the working class to form a union. Secondly, any attempt of workers to organise themselves was considered "criminal conspiracy" attracting prosecution under the criminal law of US. Thirdly, the US industry was guilty of forcing the workers, including women and children to work for long hours stretching to 15 to 18 hours a day.

Anarchist Movement - Strike by 400,000 Workers in Chicago on May 1, 1886
This was the state of affairs which prompted a few workers called as "anarchists" to secretly organise workers in Chicago in 1886 demanding "8-hour workday". The first strike in this regard was in McCormick Harvester Company, on 1st May 1886, in which workers of other industrial units numbering some 4 lakhs joined, sending shivers down the spine of business captains and the government. Police entered the fray leading to violence (including the throwing of a bomb by anarchists at the police party with the latter opening fire killing and wounding a few hundred protestors.

Trial and Execution of Seven Union Leaders
Finally, police picked up eight men stood trial for being "accessories to murder". They were: Spies, Fielden, Parsons, Adolph Fischer, George Engel, Michael Schwab, Louis Lingg and Oscar Neebe. The trial commenced on June 21st 1886 in the criminal court of Cooke County.

The trial was whimsical and wishy-washy in so far as no evidence was offered that any of the speakers had incited violence and indeed, in his evidence at the trial, Mayor Harrison described the speeches as "tame". No proof was offered that any violence had been contemplated. In fact, Parsons had brought his two small children to the meeting.

On August 19, 1887 the Court sentenced seven of the accused to death, and Oscar Neebe to 15 years imprisonment. After a massive international uproar, the state government relented and commuted the sentences of Michael Schwab and Fielden to life imprisonment. Lingg cheated the hangman by committing suicide in his cell the day before the executions. On November 11th 1887 Parsons, Engel, Spies and Fischer were hanged.
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It also occured to me that for many people this history would be seen as a thing of past - a mere blot in the march of history. After all, we live in a more enlightened age, with the constitutional rights in a democracy, and the "rule of law" governing the social arrangements...

...till one comes across items like these:

2010 Games: Labourers go empty handed?

Migrant Worker Munee in Rural Bihar

...and not just in India, but across the world - numerous labour camps in Dubai, sweatshops in Third World countries...

Third World Slaves Making OUR Bargains to Buy

How Main-Stream Media/Propaganda Works

2010-04-15T21:04:00.002+05:30

Maoists Worst Human Rights Offenders
...is the Headline of a news-item on the IBNLive (April 14th). It goes on to say:

New Delhi: Naxalites are India's worst human rights offenders, says a new report on Torture in India. But Maoist supporters maintain that the Naxals are fighting for survival.

A report on Torture in India has made the startling revelation. The Asian Centre for Human Rights says that the Maoists are the worst violators when it comes to torture. For the first time ever, a top human rights group in India has accepted and highlighted that fact.

So to find out the details I went to The Asian Centre for Human Rights site. The Press-Release of the report - Torture in India - quoted by IBNLive is titled

41.66% increase of custodial deaths under the UPA from 2000
- Government urged to hold public debate on the Prevention of Torture Bill, 2010 -

It starts...
New Delhi: The Asian Centre for Human Rights today released its report, Torture in India 2010, at a press conference in New Delhi and stated that taking 2000 as the base year, custodial death have increased by 41.66% persons under the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government between 2004-2005 to 2007-2008. This includes 70.72% increase of deaths in prison custody and 12.60% in police custody.

“It is the aam aadmi who are the majority victims of torture and other inhuman and degrading treatment. However, the UPA government has failed to do address the issue of torture and other human rights violations” – stated Mr Suhas Chakma, Director, Asian Centre for Human Rights..... “If government of India can hold public discussion on the Food Security Bill, why is it treating the Prevention of Torture Bill, 2010 as a secret document? It shows that the government has more to hide as its earlier draft, Prevention of Torture bill, 2008, contained only three operative paragraphs relating to (1) definition of torture, (2) punishment for torture, and (3) limitations for cognizance of offences. The Prevention of Torture bill, 2008 was highly flawed.”... Etc.

The full-report can be downloaded here

In this 99-page report,:

33 pages are devoted to Torture in Police Custody, which includes 20+ pages on "Patterns and Practices of Torture in Police Custody" and other sections on "Custodial torture of women and children" "impunity" etc...

1 page on Torture in the Custody of the Armed Forces

3 pages on Torture in Judicial Custody

2 pages on naxalites' use of torture

Moral of the Story: There is no Moral in the Story!

Between Hope and Despair (2): Hunger amidst Abundance

2010-04-13T15:43:00.008+05:30

I had posted an article by the same title - Between Hope and Despair... a couple of years back... and some vague mental association brought it back today.

Read a news-item Food-shortage forcing children to eat mud today. Some excerpts:

"Under an unusually hot April sun, skinny, hungry children silently poked around on the dusty edges of a stone quarry in Ganne village, 45km east of Allahabad and a 12km walk from the nearest road.

“It tastes like powdered gram, so we eat it,” said Soni, 5, a listless girl with a protruding belly. It’s a learnt experience. Older children such as Soni wait for the excavated moist mud. The younger ones imitate them.

With most families reduced to one or two daily meals of boiled rice and salt—with a watery vegetable on a lucky day—the mud is a free but deadly option at the 20 stone quarries sustaining the poorest villagers.

Eating the mud worsens malnutrition and disease, but these families are not eligible for subsidized food and other state programmes, though each of a family of five earns about Rs400 a month; UP’s official poverty line is Rs435 per person per month."

What an irony, when another news-item informs us: Food grains rotting away in Indian godowns, streets:

"India has godowns to store 16 million tones when it needs almost three times that. What that means is wastage in these times of shortage.

Agricultural scientist Ashok Gulati said, "The total storage capacity is 28 million tonnes .. this leads to losses of 10 – 15%. Translate this into value... that is 6 million tonnes of grains damaged, unfit for human consumption ... it amounts to Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 crores annually."

...and one also comes across news-items like these:

along with one like this:

I have experienced this irony in the microcosm of life I live in - the XLRI Campus. Here we have a reasonably well-off educated community, secluded from the rest of the world, and even families of "domestic help" living in the out-houses are much better off than their counterparts elsewhere. Their kids go to schools, play in the campus with other kids, they have TVs at home - some even have air-coolers fitted in their windows....

About two years back, on an early morning, while in my balcony, I saw these two small girls diligently and furtively looking for something from the ground below. I found their innocent seriousness and concentration quite delightful - and trigger-happy as I am, clicked a photograph.

Suddenly they looked up and saw me, and became diffident and apprehensive. When I smiled and asked them what were they looking for, they became slightly relaxed. One of them mentioned a name, and then explained that it is a wild weed. What will you do with that, I asked.

I still remember her matter-of-fact reply, "Amma will cook it for our meal."

just about 100 meters away, in the students' hostel mess, everyday a huge amount of un-eaten food is thrown away, wasted...

As the 12 Myths about Hunger mentions:

"Abundance, not scarcity, best describes the world's food supply. Enough wheat, rice and other grains are produced to provide every human being with 3,200 calories a day. That doesn't even count many other commonly eaten foods: vegetables, beans, nuts, root crops, fruits, grass-fed meats, and fish. Enough food is available to provide at least 4.3 pounds of food per person a day worldwide: two and half pounds of grain, beans and nuts, about a pound of fruits and vegetables, and nearly another pound of meat, milk and eggs- enough to make most people fat! The problem is that many people are too poor to buy readily available food."

Dantewada, Naxal Attack and "Restoring Administration"

2010-04-10T13:12:00.005+05:30

The attack by the Maoists/Naxals on the CRPF in Dantewada, Chhatisgarh on April 6th has caused much high-decibel outrage, anger and pathos across the media, political establishment and urban discourse... "surgical strikes", "coordinated multi-pronged approach", "fitting reply", "SriLankan Solution to LTTE" etc., seem to be flavour of the day...

One of the stated objectives of the "Operation Green Hunt" is that it will "clear, hold and build", i.e., clear the ultras, hold the place till governance and development can be brought in - and thus bring the local tribals into the fold.
(Note: "Operation Green Hunt" is a term which the government says is a media-creation - and perhaps it is - though large-scale deployment of CRPF and para-military forces has been done. Those who have been deployed find this denial that the operation exist, by the government strange, and even demoralising - check: Chidambaram says no, but troops believe ‘Green Hunt' exists, The Hindu, April 10).

Noble and logical as this aim to "Clear, hold and build" may seem from a distance, its success clearly depends on the capabilities of the forces to achieve the first step, i.e., "clear" in the first place.

Before "restoring the administration" of the cleared area, there is also the issue of the 'governance'/'administration'/'capacity' of the deployed forces - a point which is mostly ignored in the jingoism about the might of Indian forces... so here are some reportage, which I could pick up - which are less visible/ less discussed - and so may complement the picture...

Slain CRPF jawans never trained to fight Naxals (One India)
"Army chief General V K Singh said on Thursday, Apr 8, that the 76 CRPF personnels who were killed by Maoists were never trained in jungle warfare to fight the Maoists... Responding to the query on the Dantewada massacre, Army Chief said that what had happened in Dantewada was the result of internal deficiencies."
Read on...
(Note: this has been denied by the Ministry of Home Affairs - so one is left with the choice whether to believe the words of the 'training agency', which is Army, or those who send the forces for training.)

On Naxal trail, they haven't fired in a year (The Times of India)
"It's war. And every officer and constable of Jharkhand police deployed in Maoist-hit areas is well prepared for it. Right? Wrong. In the last three years, most of them have not fired a weapon at a paper target — far less a Maoist bent on killing them.

Brandishing AK-47s and Insas rifles, they are good at inspiring awe among children and villagers, but how are they in combat? "In a crunch situation, I don't know how my men will react or even if they fire, whether they will make the bullets count," admitted an inspector."
Read on...

No medical evacuation plan for paramilitary forces (The Hindu)
"Around the world, medical experts are agreed on the concept of the “golden hour” of evacuation in which the maximum lives can be saved. “All trauma patients, particularly in warzone situations, must be evacuated to a tertiary medical centre within 60 minutes if they are to survive,” said retired Admiral S.K. Mohanty, who served as a surgeon in Kashmir during the Kargil War...

...“In Chhattisgarh, we are lucky if we get information about an attack within the golden hour, let alone evacuating people in 60 minutes,” said a senior police officer. “The lines of communication are poor and the telephones don't work.”
Read on...

No water, food or medicines. Now, go fight 'biggest threat'(The Times of India)
"For six years, the government has cried hoarse about Maoists being the single biggest security threat to India. Yet, the Indian state is sending its footsoldiers into battle on an empty stomach, without adequate drinking water and medical facilities.... "We are losing lives in a battle that can be sorted out. There are many ways in which our force can be better utilized," said the jawan."
Read on...

Anger spills over in CRPF camp (The Times of India)
"People are issuing statements, expressing grief over the incident, but how many have tried to see the condition we work in," yelled a jawan from inside the camp. "Media are flashing fabricated reports about senior officers making visits or camping at our site. No one has actually turned up," he added.

He said politicians were finding faults with them. "They say it was a mistake. How can they pass such a judgment sitting in Delhi?" asked another jawan. Another jawan joined in to take a dig at the politicians.
Read on...

The Solution??... There must be many serious changes which must be being contemplated, but when one comes across examples such as this one, one wonders...

Now, motivational classes to boost jawans (The Times of India)
"The Dantewada massacre of CRPF personnel at the hands of the Maoists has given the paramilitary forces in this state the opportunity to go for motivational classes and interpersonal exercise to boost the morale of the jawans... Senior CRPF officials said they would soon ask the authorities concerned to hold motivational classes to pump the morale of the jawans engaged in the anti-Maoist operation in the border districts of the state connecting West Bengal, Orissa and Chhattisgarh.... Measures, including yoga, motivational classes, inter-personal meeting and sports comprises the broad exercise that goes into the building of a high morale of the jawans during their normal stay in the base camps."
Read on...

Commenting on and analysing this lack of capabilities and preparedness, in a rather incisive article "India's Maoists and Dreamscapes of 'Solutions'", Security Analyst, Dr Ajai Sahni had pointed out last month:

"...under the Centre's projected operational plans, that is, 28,000 or 42,800 CPMF personnel, as the case may be, for six worst-affected States with a total area of 1.86 million square kilometers and a total population of over 446 million. This is like trying to irrigate the desert with dewdrops.

Of course, the Centre's 'operational strategy' seeks to concentrate this Force in areas of specific Maoist dominance, to 'recover' these areas, and 'bring them under civil administration'.

....What is fascinating in these narratives is their exquisite simplicity and their utter divorce from reality. It would, indeed, be quite miraculous if the state could even 'restore civil administration' to vast expanses of rural India where the Maoists have no presence whatsoever, but where virtually the entire apparatus of governance has vanished. At least some of these areas are little more than a stone's throw from Delhi.

The problem with these various 'strategies' is that they aren't 'strategies' at all. These are borrowed ideas with no reference to capacities, capabilities, resources and the conditions of the ground."

***

about "senseless violence against innocent citizens"

2010-03-26T22:43:00.010+05:30

When I had started this blog in Sept '03 [actually, it used to be a newsletter circulated through the "alternativeperspective" yahoogroup since 2002 - and the posts here still reach about 400+ members of the group], the purpose was:

"to widen our awareness about issues related to business, environment, role and influence of media, geo-politics, culture, etc. It aims to share, on a regular basis, some of those pieces of news and information, which do not find place in the highly monopolised mainstream media."

Therefore, the name of the blog/newsletter - Alternative Perspective"

But, such remeniscences apart...

Currently, the MSM (main-stream-media>, politicians, GOI, metropolitan conversations, etc., in India, are screeching phrases like "senseless/brutal violence against innocent civilians" or something similar, etc. - and we have "Operations Green Hunt" going around the region where I live to comb-out (intersting metaphor - like you comb out the lice from the hair) the maoists/naxals/ultras... whatever...

The beheading of a police officer, derailing of trains, blasts and bombs, burning villages and killing its inhabitants, etc. are the images which occupy our mind - and reinforce the message about the "violence against innocent civilians"...

I downloaded these images from somewhere on the net... and thought them worth sharing... after all, even is we all have a point-of-view about this "Operations Green Hunt" vis-a-vis "Maoist/Naxals" - at least one needs to know what is not covered in the media matrix....

and there has to be an educated awareness when one has to consider, binary questions such as:

Do You Support "Development" or do you support "Violence"?
(of course, as an adage of public deception goes:
"If you get them to ask wrong questions, you will never have to give the right answers."

Indian Budget:...of "Economic Incentives" and "Populist Subsidies"

2010-03-16T17:57:00.006+05:30

I had some inkling that the the Annual Budget of the Govt of India must be quite a blancing act. After all it involves the complex task of allocating resources to so many different set of competing socio-economic objectives.

However, only this year, I realised that the Annual Budget exercise also involves another delicate act of balancing - of obfuscating facts by putting them under intersting nomenclatures.

I discovered, for instance, the Annual Economic Survey 2009-10 describes Rs 5 lac crores (actually, Rs 499,340 crores - to be exact) as "Tax Revenue Foregone" - an amount consisting of exemptions of:

Corporate Income-Tax: Rs. 79,554 crores,

Excise Duty": Rs 170,765 crores, and

Customs Duty: Rs 249,021 crores

While these maybe seen as "incentives to stimulate economic growth" - as the media, politicians and captains of the industry love to describe these - the Survey also informs that in the year 08-09, India Inc. had a combined declared taxable income of Rs 449,085crores - on which it paid Rs. 153,280 crores as taxes...

i.e., the tax incentives are:

almost equal to the India Inc's combined taxable income, and

more than 3 times the total taxes paid!!!

On the other hand, if one compares this amount to the budget allocations for some of the GOI's high-decibel "flagship" social services programs, the confusion compounds:

National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS): Rs 40,100 crores

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA): Rs 15,000 crores

National Rural Health Mission (NHRM): Rs 15,440 crores

Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS): Rs 8,700 crores

(that 1/10th of this amount qualifies as "Food Subsidy" or "Fertliser Subsidy" etc. - and that removal of Rs 12,000 crore "petroleum subsidy" created so much headlines -adds to surrealism)

And just to put things in perspective the "Tax Revenues Foregone" is slightly more than the entire Planned Expenditure of government for 2009-10, as given in the table below:

er.. if only someone can explain to me the difference between the "economic incentives to increase market efficiencies" and the "wasteful subsidies which are doled out as populist measures" (^_*?)\

India's fastest growing state - and it's underbelly..

2010-02-19T20:07:00.005+05:30

About a year back, I had posted some links in a post about India's fastest growing state - Gujarat's stance on "India Inc. vs Mera Bharat"...

Gujarat's model of Economic Growth is one model of Growth - even though, all growth is not necessarily good, e.g., cancer cells...

Today, I was forwarded - by a friend - Mallika Sarabhai's open letter to Gujarat's "Brand Ambassador" Amitabh Bachchan. Here are some excerpts, which details the underbelly of the Gujarat Story:
----------

....So, as a Gujarati, permit me to introduce my State to you.

Everyone knows of our vibrancy, of the billions and trillions pouring into our State through the two yearly jamborees called Vibrant Gujarat. But did you know that by the government's own admission no more than 23% of these have actually moved beyond the MOU stage?

That while huge subsidies are being granted to our richest business houses, over 75,000 small and medium businesses have shut down rendering one million more people jobless?

You know of Gujarat's fast paced growth and the FDI pouringin, you have no doubt seen pictures of the Czars of the business world lining up to pour money to develop us. To develop whom?

Did you know that our poor are getting poorer? That while theAll-India reduction in poverty between '93 and 2005 is 8.5%, in Gujarat it is a mere 2.8%? That we have entire farmer families committing suicide, not just the male head of the household?

You have heard of how some mealy mouthed NGO types have been blocking the progress of the Narmada project, how the government has prevailed, and water is pouring down every thirsty mouth and every bit of thirsty land. But did you know that in the 49 years since it was started, and in spite of the Rs.29,000 crores spent on it, only 29% of the work is complete?

That the construction is so poor (lots of sand added to the you-know- which cement perhaps) that over the last nine years there have been 308 breaches, ruining lakhs of farmers whose fields were flooded, ruining the poorest salt farmers whose salt was washed away?

That whereas in 1999, 4743 of Gujarat's villages were without drinking water, within two years that figure had gone up to 11,390 villages ? (I cannot even begin to project those figures for today - but do know that the figure has gone up dramatically rather than down.)

With our CM, hailed as the CEO of Gujarat, we have once again achieved number one status - in indebtedness. In 2001 the State debt was Rs.14000 crores. This was before the State became a multinational company. Today it stands at Rs.1,05,000 crores. And to service this debt we pay a whopping Rs7000 crores a year, 25% of our annual budget.

Meanwhile our spending on education is down, no new public hospitals for the poor are being built, fishermen are going a begging as the seas turn turgid with effluents, more mothers die at birth per thousandthan in the rest of India, and our general performance on the Human Development Index is nearly the first - from the bottom.

One rape a day, 17 cases of violence against women, and, over the last ten years, 8802 suicides and 18152 "accidental " deaths of women are officially reported. You can imagine the real figures.

You have said that you are our Ambassador because we have Somnath and Gandhi. Somnath was built for people. Gandhiji was a man of the people. Do the people of this State matter to you?....

Mao-ists vs. MoU-ists

2010-02-10T20:01:00.003+05:30

Today, India's Home Minister, P Chidambaram made a statement to the media: "We are willing to suspend all memorandums of understanding [with mining companies] until we talk to the Communist Party of India (Maoist) and review them".

This is a significant statement, since as I had once mentioned in one of the earlier blogposts that there is a huge overlap among the "poverty map of India", the "maoist-infected map of India" and the "mineral map of India" - reproducing the 3 maps below:

Poverty Map of India

Maoist/Naxal Affected Areas of India

Map of Mineral Resources and Forest Cover in India

The Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) are strange documents, which are signed between the government and the corporate entities, with no representation from the people whose life will finally get affected - mostly for the worse - by them (economists - of the Milton Friedman kind - call these "externalities").

I first realised this when I read the bookCatterpillarand the Mahua Flower: Tremors in India's Mining Fields (click to download pdf), which is collection of case-studies. Here is an excerpt (once again quoted in an earlier blogpost):

"...That companies are coming by the dozen to Chhattisgarh to mine its mineral wealth is hardly surprising. The state is rich in natural resources, with abundant deposits of iron, gold, tin, diamonds, coal, uranium, bauxite, corundum, dolomite, copper, limestone and other minerals. It’s estimated that the state has 35,000 million tonnes of coal, 2,336 million tonnes of iron ore, 3,580 million tonnes of limestone, 606 million tonnes of dolomite, 96 million tonnes of bauxite, and 29 million tonnes of cassiterite. With such bounty, Chhattisgarh accounts for over 13 percent of India’s total mineral production, worth around Rs 4,000 crores a year. Most importantly, 23 percent of the country’s iron-ore deposits are located here. The deposits in Bailadila in Bastar are considered to be among the best in the world....

....While the government cheered about the MoUs with Tata and Essar, the locals were curious about the agreements’ terms. How much land had been given to these two steel giants? Whose land was it? Would tribal land be confiscated? Would there be compensation, rehabilitation, or employment for the locals at these units? But no replies were forthcoming from the government on these issues.

MoUs have always been considered as public documents but a veil of secrecy hung over the government’s agreements with Tata and Essar. When the people demanded a copy of the MoUs under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, the answer they obtained was both shocking and surprising: it was stated that a condition in the MoU prevented the government from revealing it to a third party! ..."

An Invisible Revolution in Rural India

2010-01-05T09:52:00.006+05:30

Wall Street Journal published my article on the Self-Help Groups

An Invisible Revolution in Rural India
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, JANUARY 4, 2010
By Madhukar Shukla

Mahua Devi is a petite woman in her early twenties. She cycles through 10 to 12 villages of the Koraput district in Orissa [one of India’s most backward states] everyday.

"I help these women keep their accounts," she tells me as we walk towards a group sitting in the shade under a tree

When she says "these women" she is referring to one of India’s millions of self-help groups, or SHGs. Each group has 15 to 20 women who pool their tiny savings of only 5 rupees to 10 rupees at a time. They use the money to give loans to members for income-generating investments like chickens, seeds or goats. The interest on the loans then adds to their savings pool.

Driving from the nearest city to the village, I don’t see any bank branches. Even if there is a branch, it’s unlikely it would be equipped to open even simple savings accounts for these women, given their meager savings, lack of assets and inability to read or write. For most of the village women the SHG is the only bank they have ever had.

Ms. Devi keeps the accounts for 20 groups, for which she gets a commission of 2% of the value of all the transactions. "On average, I earn about 5,000 rupees per month," she tells me.

That, I quickly calculate, works out to 250,000 rupees in cash transactions per month - an amazing economic engine, silently working in one of India’s poorest regions.

Self help groups are a transformational phenomenon which has swept the Indian countryside over the last decade and a half. The groups are India’s own social innovation. In a country where almost two-thirds of the population have no access to formal financial services, SHGs are a unique route to financial inclusion, increasing incomes and helping build productive assets among the poor.

Though similar groups were promoted by many non-government organizations in the 1980s the turning point of the SHG movement was a pilot project by the National Bank for Agricultural and Rural Development (NABARD) in the early 1990s.

Despite India’s network of around 30,000 bank branches in rural areas, a majority of the poor still remained outside the fold of the formal banking system. NABARD studies showed this was because existing bank policies, systems and products were not aligned to meet the financial needs and constraints of the poor. What the poor can earn and save varies widely each day. Meanwhile their tiny savings – as little as 50 rupees per month - make providing banking services to them too expensive for banks.

To bridge this gap, NABARD and a group of NGOs started a pilot project o 500 groups of women to be used a vehicle for financial intermediation through its SHG-Bank Linkage Program. Typically, these were informal groups of up to 20 women, who would meet regularly and pool their savings.

After saving for six months and proving the group had developed the required fiscal discipline through consistent savings, on-time loan payments and maintaining records the group becomes eligible to be "linked" to the local bank branch. The innovation here was that the group, rather than the individuals in it, could open an account with the bank and use that account to save and take loans.

The pilot was a remarkable success and within a year more than half of the first groups had become eligible for the bank-linkage. Even more impressive was the fact that 90% of the loan payments were on time and there were no defaults. The success of this pilot project sparked the SHG movement which has been an unparalleled, albeit under-reported, revolution in financial inclusion.

The number of bank-linked SHGs crossed 10,000 in five years. By 2004, there were more than one million groups with their own bank accounts. By the year ended this March, the number of groups had grown to about 4.7 million, touching 59 million rural families through their members. Meanwhile, the average loan size per group has increased from 1,137 rupees in 1992 to 74,000 rupees this year. That shows the women’s rising capacity to manage, utilize and pay back loans.

So is everything fine with the SHG movement? Not entirely.

According to one 2006 study (EDA Rural Systems and Andhra Pradesh Mahila Abhivruddhi Society’s "Self Help Groups in India: A Study of the Light and Shades") the groups still suffer from many inadequacies. For instance, the study found that a large proportion of SHG members remained poor even after being in the groups for seven years. Another report (Access Development Services’ "Microfinance in India: The State of the Sector Report 2009") underlined the popularity of SHGs has so far been a regional phenomenon tilted towards the southern and eastern states of India.

In spite of such inadequacies, however, self help groups have emerged as a critical vehicle for creating social equity and empowerment.

I once sat with women from three SHGs in the community hall of Madanpur in Haryana. The women had assembled for a workshop on "legal literacy" organized by a Delhi NGO. There was jubilation in the air and the village women were talking animatedly.

"We got the license of the local liquor shop stopped yesterday," one of the members told me with glee. "It was a drain on us because the men-folk would squander away their earnings, spoil their health, and often physically abuse us. This time we protested and kept the liquor license from being renewed."

The self help groups have gone beyond financial inclusion and become a platform to provide a voice to a marginalized section of society. Some SHGs have become forums for women to discuss everything from health and sanitation to legal rights and human trafficking. They are also being used to promote education and skill building. The groups are so respected now that they have been called upon to implement government and donor-driven programs such as the mid-day meal program for school children and HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns.

Between 2006 and 2008, more than 600,000 new self help groups were linked to banks. Assuming an average group size of around 13 or 14 members, that means more than 400 women are joining a SHG every hour!

Now if that’s not a revolution, then what is?

---------------
—Madhukar Shukla is a professor of organizational behavior and strategic management at the XLRI School of Business & Human Resources in Jamshedpur.

Alchemy of Inequity - A Photo Essay

2009-11-23T21:47:00.026+05:30

A picture is equal to a 1000 words - or so it is said!

Here are 23 pictures from Alchemy of Inequity: Resistence and Repression in India's Mines - A Photographic Enquiry...

... a story, one may say...

The "Greatest Threat to India's Internal Security" !!??

2009-11-03T21:20:00.004+05:30

The Prime Minister of India, Dr Manmohan Singh had recently - and even earlier - described the Naxalites/Maoists as the "the greatest internal security threat to our country”.

This 95-page document says something just the opposite. Some excerpts:
----

"India is today proudly proclaiming an above 9 per cent growth rate and striving to achieve double digit growth. But it is a matter of common observation that the inequalities between classes, between town and country, and between the upper castes and the underprivileged communities are increasing. That this has potential for tremendous unrest is recognized by all. But somehow policy prescriptions presume otherwise. As the responsibility of the State for providing equal social rights recedes in the sphere of policymaking, we have two worlds of education, two worlds of health, two worlds of transport and two worlds of housing, with a gaping divide in between. With globalisation of information, awareness of opportunities and possible life styles are spreading but the entitlements are receding. The Constitutional mandate (Article 39) to prevent concentration of wealth in a few hands is ignored in policy making. The directional shift in Government policies towards modernisation and mechanisation, export orientation, diversification to produce for the market, withdrawal of various subsidy regimes and exposure to global trade has been an important factor in hurting the poor in several ways....(p. 8)"

"Much of the unrest in society, especially that which has given rise to militant movements such as the Naxalite movement, is linked to lack of access to basic resources to sustain livelihood... (p. 18)"

"The development paradigm pursued since independence has aggravated the prevailing discontent among marginalised sections of society. This is because the development paradigm as conceived by the policy makers has always been imposed on these communities, and therefore it has remained insensitive to their needs and concerns, causing irreparable damage to these sections. The benefits of this paradigm of development have been disproportionately cornered by the dominant sections at the expense of the poor, who have borne most of the costs. Development which is insensitive to the needs of these communities has invariably caused displacement and reduced them to a sub-human existence. (p. 36)."

"There are also large areas of labour not governed by the Minimum Wages Act. This includes categories where there is no discernible employer, which is for this reason included in the category of self-employment. Since the Naxalites are in any case not bothered whether or not there is a law governing the right they are espousing, they have intervened and determined fair wage rates in their perception in all labour processes in their areas of influence. This includes wages for washing clothes, making pots, tending cattle, repairing implements, etc. Naxalites have secured increases in the rate of payment for the picking of tendu leaf which is used for rolling beedies, in the forest areas of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Maharashtra, and Jharkhand. This was a very major source of exploitation of adivasi labour, and while the Government knowingly ignored it, the Naxalites put an effective end to it. (p.57)."

"However, the Naxalite movement has to be recognised as a political movement with a strong base among the landless and poor peasantry and adivasis. Its emergence and growth need to be contextualised in the social conditions and experience of people who form a part of it. The huge gap between state policy and performance is a feature of these conditions. Though its professed long term ideology is capturing state power by force, in its day to day manifestation it is to be looked upon as basically a fight for social justice, equality, protection and local development. The two have to be seen together without overplaying the former. Its geographical spread is rooted in failure to remove the conditions which give rise to it (p 66-67)."

"The public policy perspective on the naxalite movement is overwhelmingly preoccupied with the incidents of violence that take place in these areas and its ideological underpinnings. Though it does concede that the area suffers from deficient development and people have unaddressed grievances, it views the movement as the greatest internal security threat to the country. Accordingly, the attention of the Government is concentrated on curbing violence and maintaining public order to achieve normalcy. While area development is also being speeded up, the security-centric view of the movement accords primacy to security operations. The contextualization of this violence is missing from this perspective. The scale, intensity and approach of security operations cause considerable collateral damage leading to greater alienation of common people. The strategy of security forces to curb violence has also encouraged formation of tribal squads to fight naxalites, with a view to reducing the security force’s own task and risk. This has promoted a fratricidal war in which tribals face the brunt of mortality and injury.(p. 83)"

"The government’s Status Paper on the Naxal problem appropriately mentions a holistic approach and lays emphasis on accelerated socio-economic development of the backward areas. However, clause 4 (v) of the Status Paper states that “there will be no peace dialogue by the affected states with the Naxal groups unless the latter agree to give up violence and arms”. This is incomprehensible and is inconsistent with the government’s stand vis-à-vis other militant groups in the country.... The government has been conducting peace talks with the Naga rebels of the NSCN (IM) faction for the last nearly ten years, even though the rebels have not only not surrendered their weapons but continue to build up their arsenal. What is worse, the NSCN (IM) have taken advantage of the peaceful conditions to consolidate their hold and establish what could be called almost a parallel government. In relation to ULFA also, the government is prepared to have a dialogue without insisting on the insurgents surrendering their weapons. In J & K, the government has more than once conveyed its willingness to hold talks with any group which is prepared to come to the negotiating table. Why a different approach to the Naxals? The doors of negotiations should be kept open. (p 67-68)"
----

...and before one concludes that this must be some propaganda material, or writings of some "bleeding-heart liberal/intellectual", I must also share that these exerpts are from a Planning Commission Expert Groups Report, entitled "Development Challenges in Extremist Areas, which was submitted to GOI in 2008. The document can be downloaded from:
http://planningcommission.gov.in/reports/publications/rep_dce.pdf

This document was either not read by the Home Minister, or was just shoved aside for a trade-off, since as the Prime Minister told the parliament on June 9th, '09: "...if Left Wing extremism continues to flourish in important parts of our country which have tremendous natural resources of minerals and other precious things, that will certainly affect the climate for investment.'

... In the meanwhile, from 51 maoist-naxal affected districts in 2001, India has now 231 districts in the category (out of 640 or so)...
(*_^?)\

Related Posts:

My "Encounters" with Maoists/ Naxals

A Rich Nation of Poor People

East is East, and West and West...

6 Novel Ways to Celebrate Diwali

2009-10-15T20:21:00.004+05:30

Came across this article by Vandana Rana in TOI, which makes so much sense...

6 Novel Ways to Celebrate Diwali

How do you celebrate Diwali? By lighting diyas, bursting crackers and eating sweets! But as we do this every year, how about bringing in a positive 6 novel ways to celebrate Diwali change this time, which will help people around as well?

Traditional way to save electricity
Diwali is also known as the Festival of Lights. So this time let's decorate our houses with traditional lamps and diyas rather bulbs. This was how in earlier times, people touched up their homes with cotton wicks dipped in ghee or oil. This will help you save electricity as well. This will add a traditional stroke with social responsibility in the festival.

Food wise
There are many people who cannot afford even one square meal so, how can they afford Diwali celebrations? In this season cut short your list of crackers and use that money in buying them food. Your joy will be doubled and your kitty will brim over with blessings and wishes.

Celebrate with a new expression
Our country is a blend of several religions and festivals too. Then why not celebrate this Festival of Lights with our Muslim, Christian and Sikh friends? Use this opportunity to introduce one culture to another. Such an act will encourage unity and teach new morals to your kids.

Make a new family
Diwali is family time. But what about those elders and kids who have no families. Wouldn't it be nice if we all could take out some time this Diwali to meet them. There are several old age homes and orphanages dotting the city so finding them shouldn't be a problem. This is the time to exchange your happiness with their gloominess. So go ahead and put a smile on at least one such pretty face.

Have a healthy Diwali
Post Diwali pollution is always on an all-time high despite there being a ban on crackers. Say no to crackers if you have'nt done so already and gift saplings to friends and relatives along with sweets. This effort will sweeten the celebrations of your loved ones. Plants are great for a pure and positive environment.

Decorate the neighbourhood
Every year we paint and touch up our homes. But no one pays attention to that garbage dump in the corner. It stinks to the high heaven and is a veritable house of all ills. Have it cleaned up and painted afresh. At least for sometime, flies and mosquitoes will be less. Let's join hands to clean the society as well as it will encourage positive atmosphere in neighborhood and double the joy of festivity.

Happy Diwali to you!

And he said....

2009-10-02T20:17:00.004+05:30

...and he said...

There is no way to peace. Peace is the way.

...and he said...

Satyagraha does not begin and end with civil disobedience.

...and he said...

My notion of democracy is that under it, the weakest should have the same opportunity as the strongest.

...and he said...

To me I seem to be constantly growing. I must respond to varying conditions, yet remain changeless within.

...and he said...

True democracy cannot be worked by twenty men at the center. It has to be worked by the people of every village.

...and he said...

What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism, or the holy name of liberty and democracy?

...and he said...

We are constantly being astonished at the amazing discoveries in the field of violence. But I maintain that far more undreamt of and seemingly impossible discoveries will be made in the field of nonviolence.

...and he said...

There is more to life than simply increasing its speed.

...and he said...

Today the cities dominate and drain the villages so that they are crumbling to ruins. Exploiting of villages is itself organized violence. If we want freedom to build on non-violence, we will have to give villages their proper place.

...and he said...

As soon as we lose the moral-basis, we cease to be religious.

...and he said...

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.

...and he said...

The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problem.

...and he said...

It may be long before the law of love will be recognized in international affairs. The machineries of government stand between and hide the hearts of one people from those of another.

...and he said...

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

...and he said...

Whatever you do will become insignificant, but it is very important to do it.

... such was that fussy old man who changed the destiny of an Empire with a fistful of salt!!

The Economics & Physiology of "Joy of Giving"

2009-10-01T23:43:00.004+05:30

Question 1: How do you "monitize" this act of "Giving"???.... What is the economics of "Giving"?

Ramaa wrote a beautiful piece about "The Joy of Giving - What Price, Happiness?"... (which thankfully, was rescued out of Facebook and reproduced on his blog by Ninja...)

Lots of events are happening in XLRI as we celebrate the "Joy of Giving Week" & the "Jamshedpur JoyFest"... e.g.

...and Ramaa's note was about one of them - the visit to the old-age home "Nirmal Hrudayalay"... her note ended with an observation:
---
"I walked out of the gate, smiling a little, wondering about the price of happiness.

To Mala: her bangles and the promise of a big stool to sit on.
To the boy: strumming a guitar.
To Poorni: talking to me in Tamizh.
To the children there: playing throw ball.

To Nirmal Hriday: Two hours of our time.

I had all of these things they each wanted, and yet I had never been so happy. Giving it to them created the happiness, the priceless joy- of caring, of sharing and giving."
---

Question 2: What is the "physiology" of "Giving"?... Why do people indulge in "unselfish acts"... and self-lessly "give" - money, time, service, resources - in this age of an oxymoron - the "enlightened self-interest"?

So, I also came across an interesting study by National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Maryland - reported by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences... and converted into an article on "Altruism" by The Economist". To quote... because we "feel good" - the study reports....because "giving"/ altruism...

"...also engages the part of the brain that plays a role in the bonding behaviour between mother and child, and in romantic love. This involves oxytocin, a hormone that increases trust and co-operation"
---------

Ah! Good to know that !!... Good to know that the science/econmics has found out - what any decent human being would know in his/her heart!!

India Votes...

2009-05-07T22:01:00.005+05:30

I got two messages - on the net - today from old friends/ students/ alumni... Both from the NCR region - the penultimate "Indian Dream of becoming USA"...

One read, which was posted:

"I voted. I am sad. Not sad because I voted but sad because an old myth got shattered. The myth that education makes you responsible. The myth that education enables to make decisions and a better decsion. The myth about education has been shattered. Abysmal 16.67% of polling in an area populated by primarily educated guys. You will have shell out INR 10 million to buy an apartment in the area. It hurts!"

The second one - an e-mail:

"...had to tell you this, had a strange experience voting today.

Gurgaon is one confused city in many ways - there are high-rises stumbling over villages with their crumbling houses and still sustainable lifestyles. The voting centre was in some govt school just behind the apartment block we stay in, but somehow I had never known that it even existed. Its a government school after all, sad in many ways. I do know about the swanky school not too far away, and another interesting school that follows an alternative kind of education system but i am digressing.

Anyway the approach road was dusty, clogged with buffaloes heat flaking off their skin, and fancy SUVs, pigs lay about in the open sewer lines that ran by (and that was scary) and barber shops and grocery stores abutted right onto this road.

But the contrast hit hard when i stood in queue. A far more skimpily dressed young woman stood in front of me, and behind - because there were separate queues for either sex - were several veiled women. The ghunghat reached down to their waists, and their arms were covered with bangles up till the elbows and some could not understand the instructions of the lone police guard manning that centre.

But they understood after their men, tall, strong Jats most of them, I would think, with their turbans, proud moustaches, and lathis explained things to them. Most of them inked the form with their thumbs and the election officer was understanding and courteous. I dont know why, but the sarpanch of the village was striding around the booth - the election guys however, were courteous to him too, usually mumbling a word or two in reply to his pleasantries. I suppose he was just showing off.

Like me, the veiled women and the girl in the short sequinned skirt ahead of me pressed the beep on the EVM. In that sense, in that one moment, all differences between us melted away.

I know this must be usual, but time and again when i see a demonstration of India's strange and immense contrasts, and the understanding that still remains, I am somehow moved."

From the same - NCR region - Ritu Sharma had posted an article -Rich Residents of Gurgaon too Busy to Vote? - a couple of days back:

"They are affluent, educated, well travelled and vocal about their rights. They want the best equipped gyms and swimming pools in their high-end condominiums. But many residents of this 'millennium city' won't be voting this Thursday.

Notwithstanding awareness campaigns, voting in urban Gurgaon is likely to be low with many staying away from the polling booth - some because it is a conscious decision not to, others because they don't have voter identity cards as they have moved recently or just haven't bothered to find out how to get it.

Gurgaon in Haryana is presented as the shining India, a symbol of urban success promising a better life for everyone behind the gateway of development. But away from the oasis of glittering malls and privately-developed housing complexes, basic infrastructure like power, water, roads and sanitation are lacking.

The affluent denizens of the gated townships of the city voice their grievances but have their own excuses for not casting their votes in the Lok Sabha elections on May 7....

....The figures tell the story. According to official records, only 6,947 voters have been added under the Gurgaon parliamentary constituency after a summary revision in the last five years. This is far less than the total number of people who move into the city each month. At present, the total number of voters registered with urbanised Gurgaon is 166,000, out of 1,230,949 voters in the constituency..."

Meanwhile, an article in Hindustan Times, informs:

"Dalits may be at the bottom of the country’s socio-economic order, but when it comes to fielding educated candidates in parliamentary elections, Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party scores over the others.

The BSP has fielded more graduates and post-graduates than any other national party. Also, the share of graduates among BSP candidates has risen sharply from 38 per cent in 2004 to 50 per cent in this election, according to an analysis of data available for the first four phases of polling.

According to data compiled by National Election Watch... the BSP is slightly ahead of Congress in fielding more graduates and post-graduates... BSP has 264 graduates and post graduates in the fray, while Congress has 258.

Experts said the numbers reflect a trend wherein the first generation beneficiaries of affirmative action are now seeking a bigger say in the country's affairs.

"The rich among upper castes are turning apolitical and dalits are now seeking electoral power," said Arun Kumar, professor of economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University. Mayawati was a teacher before she joined politics, and her party was built on financial and intellectual support of such Dalits who made it to government jobs and bureaucracy with the help of affirmative action...."

OR...
... as a certain survey across 172 countries shows that in terms of the voter-turnout (since 1945), India - the 2nd (or 1st??) largest democracy', ranks 105th (out of 172 countries).

Perhaps this mail floating on the net says much:

10 reasons why South Mumbai didn't come out to vote on April 30:

Clashed with Salsa class

Election whites were not drycleaned

No candidate was a hottie

Tony Jethmalani contesting from suburbs. Sigh!!

There was no valet parking at booth

I spotted servant in queue ahead of us

Driver did not come

But eElections over dude! aren't they?... Obama won!

No party is tackling real issues, eg, reduce Golds Gym rates.

There was no "home delivery!"

In any case, India (or the rest of it) trudges on...

Related posts:

One Single Vote!... that's India's Democracy is all about!

Yeh Mera India!!!

India... between "Masses" and "Classes"