Live Humbly... There Are People Fighting Tougher Battles Than You..

Shared by friend Ajith today..  A real story... If you have been the software industry, this will appeal to you a lot more deeper.

A conversation between a passenger and Software Engineer in Shatabdi Train. If you read it till the end, you will not only thank me and the person who shared this with me, but you will see life in a whole different way!



Vivek Pradhan was not a happy man.. Even the plush comfort of the Air-conditioned compartment of the Shatabdi express could not cool his frayed nerves. He was the Project Manager and was still not entitled to Air travel. It was not the prestige he sought, he had tried to reason with the admin person, it was the savings in time. As PM, he had so many things to do!!

He opened his case and took out the laptop, determined to put the time to some good use.

'Are you from the software industry sir,' 

the man beside him was staring appreciatively at the laptop. Vivek glanced briefly and mumbled in affirmation, handling the laptop now with exaggerated care and importance as if it were an expensive car.

'You people have brought so much advancement to the country, Sir. Today everything is getting computerized. '

'Thanks,' 

smiled Vivek, turning around to give the man a look. He always found it difficult to resist appreciation. The man was young and stockily built like a sportsman... .. He looked simple and strangely out of place in that little lap of luxury like a small town boy in a prep school. He probably was a railway sportsman making the most of his free traveling pass.

'You people always amaze me,' 

the man continued, 

'You sit in an office and write something on a computer and it does so many big things outside.'

Vivek smiled deprecatingly. Naiveness demanded reasoning not anger. 

'It is not as simple as that my friend. It is not just a question of writing a few lines. There is a lot of process that goes behind it.'

For a moment, he was tempted to explain the entire Software Development Life cycle but restrained himself to a single statement. 

'It is complex, very complex.'

'It has to be. No wonder you people are so highly paid,' 

came the reply.

This was not turning out as Vivek had thought. A hint of belligerence crept into his so far affable, persuasive tone.

'Everyone just sees the money. No one sees the amount of hard work we have to put in. Indians have such a narrow concept of hard work. Just because we sit in an air-conditioned office, does not mean our brows do not sweat. You exercise the muscle; we exercise the mind and believe me that is no less taxing.'

He could see, he had the man where he wanted, and it was time to drive home the point.

 'Let me give you an example. Take this train. The entire railway reservation system is computerized. You can book a train ticket between any two stations from any of the hundreds of computerized booking centers across the country. Thousands of transactions accessing a single database, at a time concurrently; data integrity, locking, data security. Do you Understand the complexity in designing and coding such a system?'

The man was awestruck; quite like a child at a planetarium. This was something big and beyond his imagination. 

'You design and code such things.'

'I used to,' 

Vivek paused for effect, 

'but now I am the Project Manager.'

'Oh!'

sighed the man, as if the storm had passed over,

'so your life is easy now.'

This was like the last straw for Vivek. He retorted, 

'Oh come on, does life ever get easy as you go up the ladder. Responsibility only brings more work. Design and coding! That is the easier part. Now I do not do it, but I am responsible for it and believe me, that is far more stressful. My job is to get the work done in time and with the highest quality'.

He continued, 

'To tell you about the pressures, there is the customer at one end, always changing his requirements, the user at the other wanting something else, and your boss, always expecting you to have finished it yesterday.'

Vivek paused in his diatribe, his belligerence fading with Self-realization. What he had said, was not merely the outburst of a wronged man, it was the truth. And one need not get angry while defending the truth.

'My friend,' 

he concluded triumphantly, 

'you don't know what it is to be in the Line of Fire'.

The man sat back in his chair, his eyes closed as if in realization.

When he spoke after sometime, it was with a calm certainty that surprised Vivek.

'I know sir,..... I know what it is to be in the Line of Fire......'

He was staring blankly, as if no passenger, no train existed, just a vast expanse of time.

'There were 30 of us when we were ordered to capture Point 4875 in the cover of the night. The enemy was firing from the top. There was no knowing where the next bullet was going to come from and for whom. In the morning when we finally hoisted the tri-colour at the top only 4 of us were alive.'

'You are a...?'

'I am Subedar Sushant from the 13 J&K Rifles on duty at Peak 4875 in Kargil. They tell me I have completed my term and can opt for a soft assignment. But, tell me sir, can one give up duty just because it makes life easier.On the dawn of that capture, one of my colleagues lay injured in the snow, open to enemy fire while we were hiding behind a bunker. It was my job to go and fetch that soldier to safety. But my captain sahib refused me permission and went ahead himself.

He said that the first pledge he had taken as a Gentleman Cadet was to put the safety and welfare of the nation foremost followed by the safety and welfare of the men he commanded... ....his own personal safety came last, always and every time.'

'He was killed as he shielded and brought that injured soldier into the bunker. Every morning thereafter, as we stood guard, I could see him taking all those bullets, which were actually meant for me. I know sir....I know, what it is to be in the Line of Fire.'

Vivek looked at him in disbelief not sure of how to respond. Abruptly, he switched off the laptop. It seemed trivial, even insulting to edit a Word document in the presence of a man for whom valour and duty was a daily part of life; valour and sense of duty which he had so far attributed only to epic heroes.

The train slowed down as it pulled into the station, and Subedar Sushant picked up his bags to alight.

 'It was nice meeting you sir.'

Vivek fumbled with the handshake.

This hand... had climbed mountains, pressed the trigger, and hoisted the tri-colour. Suddenly, as if by impulse, he stood up at attention and his right hand went up in an impromptu salute....

It was the least he felt he could do for the country.

PS : The incident he narrated during the capture of Peak 4875 is a true-life incident during the Kargil war. Capt. Batra sacrificed his life while trying to save one of the men he commanded, as victory was within sight. For this and various other acts of bravery, he was awarded the Param Vir Chakra, the nation's highest military award.

Live humbly, there are great people around us, let us learn!

EVERYONE U MEET IS FIGHTING A HARD BATTLE !

Do You Know About Ancient India's Scientific Heritage?

Today, a friend on Facebook shared this video of Khurshed Batliwala, Director of World Alliance for Youth Empowerment.  He was speaking at Ruia College, Mumbai.

I knew a bit about him, nicknamed "Bawa". But this video blew me off.. It had amazing amount of examples from ancient Bharat (India) that was hard core scientific. And Bawa being a faculty member of the Art of Living, under Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's guidance, his smiling way fo communicating was more captivating.

Technology of Spirituality

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9aR_xfm-gE

Earth is round/spherical: Ancient Hindus knew that the earth was round, long before Europeans theorized the same. If you look at Varaha avatara (Vishnu's 3rd avatara among the 10 major ones), the varaha or boar is lifting a round or spherical earth.. Not a flat earth!

Varaha Avarata: Pic from allhindugodgoddess.blogspot

No wonder the Sanskrit name for Geography is Bhu-Gola (Bhu = Earch, Gola = round/spherical) from time immemorial! Outside India, even today some religions and cults are believing that earth is flat, due to their books. Now contrast that with the scientific temper of Hindus.

Also, the Sanskrit word for our world is called Jagat (the one which moves) knowing fully well that the earth is moving all the time!

Indians knew about Antares twin star system: Nearly 5,000 to 7,000 years ago ancient Indians could recognize the 15th brightest object in the sky, the Antares twin star system.

Antares or Arundhati-Vasishta twin stars - pic from azurewebsites.net

This system was called Jeshta (in Sanskrit meaning the biggest, oldest or eldest). Now science shows us that it is the biggest start. 40,000 times or more bigger than earth. In fact, this Antares was wedded into Indian tradition deeply. This 2 stars system was named Arundhati and Vasishta stars. After marriage in south India, husband and wife should go out and look at these 2 stars after wedding's night!

And this particular Twin star system is unique. Both stars circle around each other, instead of hte usual one star revolving the other. So symbolically how a perfect marriage should be, was demonstrated by ancient Hindus 5000+ years ago, using a star system, that too a perfect one in twin rotation form, without any modern telescope!

Amazing Metallurgy of India: Many of us would have seen the iron pillar in front of the Qutub Minar in Dilli. That's over 1000 years old and still not rusted in spite of empires changing, weather changing and severe pollution of the capital city.

Kollur Mookambika temple's iron pillar. Pic: Flickr

Similarly, the Kollur Mookambika temple's iron pillar in coastal Karnataka, where it rains 6 to 8 months in a year, at a very high 750 cm level per year, has not rusted in over 2000 years! And this was built by tribals of the region, and not some well known architects of the 1st millennium BCE.

Production of Zinc in ancient India: India had the sole knowledge of Zinc production for nearly 4000 years during our human history. This is because Zinc is very tricky. When you heat the ore, at
997 degree C it melts, but at 1000'C it vaporizes. So you have only 3 degree window to pull the Zinc out, after heating up the ore. This must have been very difficult for pre-modern humans. But ancient Indians found a technique. They heated it from the top, with an ice bath below to collect that molten liquid. China stole this technique from India after 4000 years. Then British (William Champion) stole this from the Chinese in 1543 CE.

Value of Pi: Then Bawa shows a shloka in Sanskrit on Lord Krishna. It looks like a simple one starting with Gopibhagya ...

Then he explains the Katapayadi Samkhya (number system), using which, this simple 2 liner gives us the value of Pi into 30 decimal places!! 3.1415....

A Gujarati guided Vasco da Gama to India: We all have learnt that Europeans found naval route to India through Vasco da Gama. There's even a place in Goa today named after him. But Bawa explains the actual "finder". Portuguese wanted to to India. But it was not Vasco who discovered India. The story is in Vasco's own journal in Lisbon. Columbus and Vasco were the first to search India. Christopher went in the opposite direction and found Americas. Called the natives there Indians.

Vasco went in the right direction. He had the biggest ship available at that time in Europe. He reached Cape of Good Hope the tip of Africa, without venturing too far from the coast all along. But then he had to sail over a massive Indian ocean. There he met a Gujarati. Kanha was a trader from Gujarat. Kanha's ships were 12 times the size of Vasco's ships!! His ships escorted Vasco's ships to Goa in India. We never heard of this in our text books. In fact, ancient India's naval technology needs lot of research.

In summary: The amount of knowledge India had was phenomenal. 5 to 10,000 years ago itself when Europe was in pre-civilization mode. But how did they acquire so much knowledge?

Because ALL our scientists were saints! Our scientists did Yoga, Pranayama and did meditation.
They could focus mind into smallest of the things and farthest of the things. Basis of science is spirituality. This wealth of India was systematically destroyed by foreigners. They rewrote our history. Made Indians of the 20th century ashamed of their own culture. They broke the education system and traditions.

So what is this Technology of Spirituality?
A human has 3 Gunas: Tamas (brings sleep), Rajas (ability to act), Sattwa (Rajas and Tamas are balanced). Learn to meditate to keep Sattwa in place throughout the year. Balance Rajas and tamas, and increase sattwa. Spirituality is not about renouncing. For example, Narayana is the God of knowledge. Lakshmi is the Goddess of wealth. And they are married to each other!

To succeed in this world, soft skills are far more important than the core domain expertise. But more than 90% of the money, time and effort is going into acquiring domain expertise. Exactly opposite of what's needed! That's the main reason India has become a country of crores of unemployable educated people.

Get back to roots. Learn to meditate. Learn to increase Sattwa guna. You will start understanding how our ancient scientists excelled so well in so many amazing technologies!

Thanks Bawa for this lecture :)

Education in Matrubhasha

Yesterday  the Supreme Court of India came up with a very significant judgement.

It was a long process and involved judgment, but the summary was this.

"No government can force a student to chose his or her medium of education. It of course means, the parents or guardians of the child have absolute right to pick any medium of education for their children."

And a few of this morning's front pages in Kannada news paper world.

"Setback to Kannada"

Vijayavani

"Kannada Medha", roughly meaning the sacrifice of Kannada. 
"Public opinion is that this verdict is against the very concept of linguistic states"
"Central government (UPA) has kept mum on this topic"

Kannada Prabha

"English medium not accepted"
"A result due to the lack of experts"

Samyukta Karnataka

 "Can't force medium of education says SC"

Udayavani

Overall, a situation of gloom in Karnataka. 6 to  8 news TV channels in Kannada were abuzz since yesterday itself that this is a big setback to Kannada language.


Before anyone starts wondering why I am writing this, the issue is closer to my heart. I am a product of Kannada medium schooling and it worked very well for me even when I switched to English medium for higher education. My medium of education never became a hurdle even when working in top levels in IT industry for long number of years. In fact, the ease with which we could pick up Maths, science, social studies etc. when taught in our mother tongue, was something I am quite happy about.

Now some observations:

In my view, most Kannada papers and news channels are overreacting. Activists are also over reacting. Supreme Court's constitution bench has quoted Article 19 (1) to arrive at this judgment. No government or organization can go against the constitution.

Secondly, this is not anything specific to Kannada or Karnataka. The same judgment will be held as a benchmark, like the SR Bommai case in article 356, for other states too in the future. This is a landmark judgment that will have long term effect.

Thirdly, there is no need to beat the chests that there's been a "defeat" or "setback" to Kannada. Look at the actual reality. Nearly 74% of the one crore students in Karnataka are ALREADY studying in Kannada medium. All the government has to do is to make sure that the quality of education for these folks, plus those 6% studying in other Indian languages, is at the same level as the 20% who are studying in English medium. Can they do it? That's the big challenge.

Fourthly, the state government already has control over 69% of the schools in Karnataka. They are either fully government owned or government aided. Made the quality of education in here top notch, and the 2 to 3% shift happening each year to private schools will slow down. Why do parents send kids to private schools that mostly teach in English medium? Because they want "better" education and "better" career. If the government or aided schools can provide the same at competitive levels, who would pay higher amount to switch to private unaided schools anyway?

Fifthly, India has nearly 1400 mother tongues. When a continent sized country with so many mother tongues are in place, it is extremely difficult to come up with any kind of language formula. The three language or two language formulae have to factor in the important fact that English is as Indian today, as any other Bharatiya language. Take the examples of Poschim Bongo or Uttar Pradesh. Opposing English just won't work as ordinary parents for the past 3 generations are seeing English as a way for their children's "better" career. The governments need to understand the "better" part well. Then everything will fall in place. So far there is no practical linguistic policy for schools, that make every Indian boy or girl go through equal linguistic difficulty level, yet practical enough to earn living in the future. Presenting here a quick summary sheet on the language categories of India that I had prepared earlier. There may be crores, or even 10s of crores of Indians who might not have practical access to their mother tongue medium of education, strictly following the freedom that the Supreme Court outlined. In my view, crores of children already might be forced to go through a medium of education that is already violating the Supreme Court's judgment, across India.

Lastly, no one is opposing teaching Kannada or other language. The issue is with forcing the medium of education. If a large group of people, like 25 to 35% in the state now, mostly in urban areas, see a value in English medium education, the governments and activists have to sit back and think.

• Why are they preferring English? Is it blind westernization? 
• Is it better salaried jobs for English medium educated students compared to Kannada or other Bharatiya language educated students? 
• Is it the poorer quality of education in Bharatiya language schools in most cases? 
• Is it much beyond language like Science/Math which are easy to learn in English medium? 

What needs to be done? 

It's time for experts to talk to 1000s of parents.. Maybe lakhs. Find out what is working in English medium and why people are even willing to fight for 20 years in courts, all the way to Supreme Court to oppose imposition of medium by the government?

I feel that the majority of the parents won't be against Kannada or other Bharatiya langauges that they speak at home. Their focus will be more business oriented. Investment on their children for a better return for them and children in the future. When a vast chunk of urbanized parents, and now even semi-urban parents, are thinking in education as investment, the government has only ONE option. To make the schools under its control supremely competent a global level. Then everything will fall in place. That's my opinion.

What do you think?

ನಿಮ್ಮ ಅಭಿಪ್ರಾಯಗಳನ್ನು ಖಂಡಿತ ಕಾಮೆಂಟ್, ಟ್ವೀಟ್, FB ಪೋಸ್ಟ್ ಅಥವಾ ಇಮೇಲ್ ಮೂಲಕ ನನಗೆ ತಿಳಿಸಿ.
ಧನ್ಯವಾದಗಳು!

Rise and Fall of Anti Corruption Movement

Here's what happened in India.

Pre 2013:
Congress was winning elections due to ill-informed middle-class and mostly freebie enjoying rural population. In 1994, India's middle class population was just 2.5 crores. Now it is 10 times that. And one thing I observed is that middle class has more or less moved away from Congress. I don't have a single sane friend in my close circle, who vehemently supports Sonia Gandhi's party.

Since most political parties have their own designated votebanks (DMK, ADMK, BSP, SP, RJD etc.), by default middle class, that too in tier 1, 2 and 3 cities were supporting BJP in large numbers. But many were disillusioned with BJP too as those who were imported for quick power, did not stand up the scrutiny in many cases. And BJP is always disliked by those who have lesser connection to true Hindu roots. No matter what, for them BJP is dangerous.

This vacuum was exploited by Kejriwal. He could fool a few middle class disgruntled youth, who were encouraged by revolutions in the middle East, Occupy Wall Street and many other contemporary movements. They saw a messiah in him, even after he blatantly used Anna Hazare, Baba Ramdev and many more to only dump them to achieve his goal to grab power. And the hype continued 24*7 on TV.



Late 2013 and early 2014:

The small success in Dilli was portrayed by media as a great achievement. In reality, AAP had only 0.68% of MLA seats in India. In most countries such parties are not given the space they got in India. Why they got so much space?

2 reasons:
1) They had close media links as it was exposed in "bahut hi krantikaari" video -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hj6ScbJ3sY

2) Some middle class folks saw their potential to challenge BJP and Congress as a third front.

In Dilli, the situation is worse now. They have no government after Kejri ran out giving excuses and hence earned BhagodaKejri title.
The rapes, the crime, the water mafia, and everything is rampant.
Worse, the much publicized electricity "subsidy" drama has been exposed too. Kejri never left any money to pay for the subsidy.

http://zeenews.india.com/videos/setback-for-aap-delhi-hc-puts-electricity-subsidy-on-hold_27946.html

So in essence AAP and Kejriwal defaulted on ALL his promises to Dilli voters. The long list of u-turns and lies earned the title Kejri-Turn.
If an election is held in Dilli today, a vast majority of those who funded AAP just 4 months back may be reluctant to repeat the funding.

After running away after 49 days:

The 3 cities that had donated most to AAP, seeing hope in them were Dilli, Mumbai and Bengaluru.

Dilli was an utter flop episode. In fact, Sheila's government at least provided some governance and did not run away like Bhagoda Kejri.

In Mumbai the second most contributing city to AAP, he tried to test waters, but the show was bad. It resulted in AAP Chaos and people cursed the drama company.



Then the drama queen went down south to test waters in Bengaluru, the third highest contributing city to AAP.

It was so bad that the next morning's paper had flAAP show as the headline. The road show was cut short miles before the planned finish. Dinner saw only 175 and next day's rally was nowhere near the enthusiasm shown to Anna Hazare's rallies 2 years back at Freedom park. The local people almost fully dumped Kejri and gang with only some North Indian migrants still sticking to sloganeering.



So now what?
Modi wave is clearly predicting an NDA government now. The third, fourth, republic and AAP fronts are all collapsing. Congress is staring at 100 or so seats only. So what's now for Kejri whose political existence is at stake?

The one and only option. Go anti Modi in full force. At least that way he would be in news for 2 more months.

So the 2014 election battle is back to the familiar BJP versus "secularism". This time even within BJP, Modi has overshadowed everyone, sending them to non-striker end.



Another way to showin the same desperate effort of all anti BJP forces trying to dislodge Modi's tsunami, keeping Kejri was a poster boy.



That my friends, is a summary of the rise and fall of anti-corruption movement in India. Now we are back to election time secularism and communalism debate, but the only change this time is... Modi has turned communalism debate in most cases into Development debate. Even Mulayam Singh Yadav and Arvind Kejriwal, with zero development track record, have been forced to talk of development (or talk negatively about Gujarat where development is clearly visible to the local people).

Modi has already won 2 battles.

1) He has emerged as the clear winner within BJP camp. It took him lot of effort.
2) He has forced casteists, communals and even anarchists to talk of development topic. In fact, Modi's clear emergence as leader has already secured NDA 20+ allies before the election itself! That's comparable to Vajpayee's ally strength at the peak of NDA :)

Now the third and the last step in his 2014 battle would be to demolish the pretentious anti-corruption squad and their sponsoring corrupt Congress team by big margin. Let's hope he does!

 {Credit to pictures - social media}

My Visit To Prabodhini School - A Perfect Indian School

We live in a world, where talking about Hindu culture or tradition is usually frowned upon by the self-declared progressives. I know many people who think Hinduism is full of superstition and upbringing children in a solid Hindu environment is impossible. I also know a few of them blindly aping Europe and America, with an unapologetic message that if the future of a kid has to be bright, a westernized education system is a must, keeping away the ಗೋಡ್ಡು ಸಂಪ್ರದಾಯ (useless traditions) that a primarily Hindu traditional school would offer. Let's not even get into the medium of instruction, as English medium education right from the start is more preferred than Indian languages, in most cases.

Don't get me wrong. I love English. I strongly believe that there are lots of good western values that should be inculcated into a child, during the growing years. Things like charity, cleanliness, social involvement, scientific temper are great things. But aren't there schools which get all these into children, while giving education in a local language, and deeply sustaining the rich Indian (primarily Hindu) culture and tradition?

To my surprise, I was invited to visit one such school for their annual function, as a chief guest. My friend Guruprasad Bhat from Mumbai, got this arranged as his family runs a school called Prabodhini, at a gorgeous place called Kalasa, tucked in the beautiful ಮಲೆ  ನಾಡು (western ghats) area of Karnataka. And to put it simply... I was blown out! The school is run by RSS volunteers, deeply rooted in Indian tradition, and the quality of education is outstanding. Yet, the school treated students from all castes, languages and religions equally, preparing the best batch of future citizen of India.

The family and friends who run this school. 

The serene setting of absolutely charming greenery, where the school is located.

This school is run so well, in spite of no money coming from the government, that it has scored 100% result year after year, this century! In fact, it was started by Mr. Raghavendra Bhatt and family, for a few really poor kids whose parents were busy throughout the day on daily labour. It has expanded now into nearly 800 students capacity!

Coming to the function we were invited for.. They greeted us with traditional Hindu Vedic prayers.

Then we witnessed top class meditation and discipline.

The chanted Bhagavad Gita and other Vedic Shanti mantras. Crisp, clear and fully involved prayers for the ಸರಸ್ವತಿ ವಂದನ (Saraswati Vandana) part. Traditionally students are expected to always begin any major function with Saraswati prayer, invoking the Goddess of education. But off late I see lot of resistance to this citing secularism, which for me is a meaningless argument. How is praying the deity of education against secularism? This Prabhodini school surprised us pleasantly!

Then every part of the day long function fascinated me. The 10th standard children were asked to bring their parents and do ಕೃತಂ ಸ್ಮರ (felicitating the parents, Kritam Smara). The literally worship the parents, thank them for all the support to get them educated till this level, and get their blessing to continue their study further.  All this happens right in front of Goddess of Education, Saraswati.

 

And, caste or religion is no bar. I saw even Muslim women in their burqa and hijab, participating in this function, happily blessing their sons and daughters for a bright future! The self-declared seculars would get a heart attack seeing this :)

Then the outgoing students (10th standard) are made to take a oath that they would keep up the good tradition, behave well in life, and make their parents proud.

Not only that, the outgoing senior batch is made to hand over ದೀಪ (Diya) to the next batch, asking them to safeguard the tradition and future of the school. Great camaraderie!

The cultural aspect of respecting the elders by touching their feet after award ceremony, was quite visible. I even saw the Head Master following this tradition himself.. Here is the head master taking blessings from the generous Guruprasad Bhat, who has served this school even when away from the town of Kalasa for decades.

Saraswati Mata, the primordial ಪ್ರಣವ (Om) and Bharat Mata were prominently visible in the school, along with 100s of pictures of pictures of great Indian educationists, freedom fighters, spiritual gurus and so on. Students get an overdose of the feeling of nationalism and dedication to Indian society in such a school.

And the dance and cultural event after all the speeches and prize distribution was so special. They covered so many folk dances, story telling, inspirational events... I was overwhelmed as to how deeply the students are rooted in the Indian culture and tradition, while keeping a very good scientific and mathematical temper!

The more interesting part was the boys and girls equally performed in various events, keeping 100% gender equality.

And how can any event happen in coastal and western ghat area of Karnataka, without the colourful ಯಕ್ಷ ಗಾನ - Yaksha Gana costume?

How can they miss Ishwara and family, when they are from a Kalaseshwara town?

Cute girls showing village costume from Karnataka.

And some nice energetic village dances.

And their patriotism..

Their energy levels of drum beating..

Their Karate..

Bhuvaneshwari.. the Karnataka mata.

Ever loving glorious Bharat Mata..

Outstanding acrobatics involving pyramids...

 ಮಲ್ಲ ಕಂಭ - Malla Khambas..

The display of energy, culture and tradition was so overwhelming that I had to think about it for days after that..

Such a school also exists in today's world where children are mostly forced into rote learning, with very little physical activities making them obese, in the highly polluted cities with very little green nature around them, stripping their cultural roots for most part in the name of westernization and/or secularism??

That too in a location which is just one hour walk from this gorgeous hill near ಅನ್ನಪೂರ್ಣೆಶ್ವರಿ - Mata Annapoorneshwari temple at Horanadu!

They are just 10 to 12 KM from a gorgeous trekking spot, high above western ghats.. so high that most vegetation disappears. It's called ಗಾಳಿ ಗುಡ್ಡ or the windy hill.

And when they are just 30 minutes walk from this beautiful ಅಂಬಾ ತೀರ್ಥ - Amba teertha area of Bhadra river..

100% results.. great science education involving computers too.. dedicated staff giving an all round modern education... deeply rooted in India's glorious 5000+ years culture and tradition.. and amidst one of the heavenly locations of the planet next to big mountains and lovely rivers, plus moderate temperatures throughout the year!

I wish you all studied in such a school.. if not, at least your children or grand children. This is as close to the ancient Guru Kula education that you can get in 21st century, as possible :)

Two notes:

1) If you have more time, browse through nearly 300 pictures here:  https://plus.google.com/photos/110981894709471519856/albums/5978739794695073985?banner=pwa

2) Since this amazing school caters to some of the lowest income families, and completely supported by private donors, you can also sponsor children for their studies. Contact @gbhat_ or @KiranKS on twitter. Or just leave a comment and I will have the school management contact you.

Bharat Nirman Ads - Bogus Claims Of Jobs And Growth

It has been almost 9 months since India's tax payers money is misused to a wide extent to bombard Indians that a massive "Bharat Nirman" (India building) is happening. Every print or visual advertisement will surely have Sonia Gandhi (no one is sure what is her active and constitutionally sanctioned role in the government) and PM Manmohan Singh. More or less all these ads are hypes and I have spent time debunking many of them earlier.

Over 100 crores are clearly burnt in various Bharat Nirman ads. The one ad that always catches my attention is the Jobs related ad. The "revolution" in job creation as claimed via MNREGA has burnt crores of valuable tax money, in just the print and digital ads.

Bharat Nirman ad on jobs - source: vifindia

Keep in mind, there are three kinds of major jobs in India.

1. The regular jobs - salaried either in government or in private sector.
2. The casual jobs - like the one being advertised. These are seasonal either in private or public sectors.
3. The self employment jobs - Majority of Indians make their living in self employment or casual jobs.

"Earlier we used to search for work.. now jobs come to us" claims the young man, in that UPA ad.

Are you really sure Mrs. Sonia Gandhi?
Have you really created the crores of jobs that you claim using our tax money?

Let's explore.

Devinder Sharma, an expert in food and agriculture policy, has written a very important, fact filled article in DNA on 17th February 2014. The title of the article is Migration back to villages. If we don't understand the plight of the 60,00,00,000 farmers in India who are actively into agriculture, we just can't comment on the economy in any sensible manner. This article paints the most current picture of Indian agriculture. It not only exposes the jobs creation myth of UPA, and also exposes the hollowness of their claims on food security and land acquisition bills.

Some key excerpts from that tell us an entirely different picture.


Farmers are leaving the cities and moving back to the villages. Why? The economy has tanked in urban areas.

In the coming months, about 1.5 crore farmers who quit agriculture in the past seven years, are likely to trudge back into the villages. In normal circumstances such a massive reverse migration — from the cities back to the villages — would have been a sign of inclusive growth. But economists are taking this U-turn as a sign of economic slowdown.

When UPA talked of employment generation, it did not tell that 50,00,000 farmers of India left their farming jobs each year, to take up menial and highly unstable jobs. Who calculated these lost jobs?

In the seven-year period between 2005 and 2012, according to CRISIL an estimated 3.7 crore farmers quit agriculture. Economists view this trend as a sign of economic growth. In other words, while 50 lakh farmers are forced out of agriculture every year, growing farm unemployment is being considered as a sign of economic growth. How can pushing farmers out of agriculture sector and then finding an alternative employment for these millions displaced from agriculture constitute economic growth?

India saw mostly temporary and casual jobs that were counted as "Bharat Nirman". Here's the reality.

we are told that an estimated 70 lakh jobs are created in the non-farm sector. Considering that most of the non-farm jobs are in construction, what is not being told is that these menial jobs are temporary and do not carry any social security.

Except agriculture, everything else is collapsing during "Bharat Nirman" phase of Manmohan Singh.

At a time when there is an all round doom and gloom — industrial output failing to keep pace, manufacturing sector declining, joblessness growing, fiscal deficit mounting and the current account deficit growing to a worrisome level — it is only agriculture that provides a glimmer of hope.  

Here is a very worrying part. India emerged as the biggest exporter of rice during the years immediately after NDA government. But the so-called Bharat Nirman is almost making India an importer of rice in 3 years.

India emerged as the world’s biggest exporter of rice, and farm exports zoomed exponentially. And yet the fact remains that agriculture is the most neglected sector. Even the Prime Minister acknowledges that India is faced with terrible agrarian distress.

Already there are indications that India will turn into an importer of rice in the next three years.

UPA government is killing even the only sector that has some decent future, the agriculture.

In fact, at a time when government employees have been promised a further pay rise from the 7th Pay Commission, farmers remain at the bottom of the pile, neglected and forgotten. On an average, 2,500 farmers quit farming every day to join the army of landless workers.

UPA is not reducing the poverty, but infact making it worse. All the "garibi hatao" slogans are just eye washes, by reducing the scale with which poverty is measured.

With joblessness growing and the policy thrust on reducing subsidies for the poor and needy, the number of poor in absolute terms has been increasing. By reducing the poverty line to Rs28 in urban areas, and Rs24 in rural areas, the government can play around with figures, but the fact remains that poverty is on an upswing.

 UPA government burns public money to claim that the National Food Security Bill (FSB) is a great thing.

Food Security Bill ad - source: castingnb

But the reality exposed by Devinder Sharma is that UPA's failed policies have deliberately displaced farmers and now this FSB is just to reduce the chances of food riots when people have neither jobs nor food.

The enactment of the Food Security Act ensuring a monthly entitlement of 5 kg of rice/wheat/millet  to 67 per cent of the population or 830 million people is not only aimed at offsetting the additional burden of the unprecedented price rise, but more importantly, it is aimed at minimising the possibility of food riots that can erupt when a large section of the population is being deliberately displaced from an assured livelihood.

UPA 2 has killed India's economy. Proof.

From a high of 9.3 per cent two years ago, the GDP has fallen to less than 5 per cent in 2013.  

As opposed to UPA's Bharat Nirman claim, jobs are disappearing in India.  All the growth we saw on paper was jobless growth in totality. This is not going to help India that has 18% of the world's population.

At a time when GDP was galloping at 8-9 per cent between 2005 and 2010, the report shows 140 lakh people were displaced from agriculture. Generally it is believed that those who quit agriculture would be joining the workforce in the manufacturing sector. But the report showed that even in the manufacturing sector 57 lakh jobs were lost. A clear pointer to the jobless growth the country is witnessing.

 And lastly,  Rahul Gandhi keeps harping about the Land Acquisition bill as a great achievement of UPA government, even though he has no official role in the government (meaning, will take credit for all positive thigns, but escapes all blame for negative things like scams).

But Devinder exposes the hollowness of Rahul Gandhi's claim:

With the new land acquisition law coming into force, more people would be driven out of their meagre land holdings and forced to migrate to the cities looking for menial jobs.

Wake up India.. It's not Bharat Nirman. It's Bharat Nirnaam (ruin) that UPA government is doing.
India needs a leader with a growth track record. Not tape records. Think and vote in 2014.