Bar closed!

The man
I had referred “the man” a few times earlier. He is well known esp among the desis(diaspora)..i did propagate about his fiasco as a reality check here sometime ago and some blogste(a)rs also gave more mileage to it..
GNI used to be a fav site of mine and many of u knew about that from those days of mass mail in CH.
Most of us were maha thrilled and happy when ever we saw a new story as another incredible story unfolded. I have not seen a better designed informative site. The flair and style is inimitable. So no wonder he was there high up in my list of people to meet after returning. (its another matter it took so much time to get hold of him, thanks sangeetha)

The Meet:
So it happened atlast last week -a very productive week for me..We all somehow thought may be India was better off and started believing the numbers thrown by CII, finance ministries and MSM on us..add to that what GNI/DVSridharan had additionally to tell us all..and somewhere he thought things were not really as rosy he was projecting..so he is on a New mission. Firstly to convince himself and then the world of his new paradigm.
One can get some early snippets from point return.
For those who were always wanting to know, like me, how he covered so many fantastic stories here is the answer: he travelled in person to each of those projects/sites – either back packed or in his vehicle..stayed there, studied and documented..In spite of his enlightenment, disillusionment, the new mission – he gave us all lots to be happy about. And I thank(ed) him on behalf of all u(s).
I shud admit it was a long interesting meet. For all his views, bombastic statements, vision and observations, oof I just cant relive them all here..but believe me I mean the article “The” in all these titles.

The Mission
The new mission of his is outstanding. After spending some time with him one learns that’s what u expect out of him. He has bought a barren land, that has never been occupied or cultivated since time immemorial, at a foothill near maduranthakam (some 100 kms from madras) and is gonna get it to its natural best- with trees, ponds, some organic agriculture, more flora n fauna and what not...the point is to return as his by line says..return to mother nature? return to our roots? these r questions in my mind.
My op is replication of his self sufficient, nature respecting/reviving campuses wud stop the world from ending up in point of no return!

Bar closed
Ladies and Gmen! This exotic place on the net called GNI will not serve us all any more kick causing magic potion. It shall not have the rare success stories which were getting us all drunk and hence keeping us in dark from the perils that are overshadowing these small accomplishments in India. So u can’t drink that concoction any more. Rather return to point return folks!
I know what that means to many of us: the optimism his great work generated and the mileage it gave to such not-well-known-but-great-achievers will not be around. But may be its real that optimism is really low today..lets all wish for a point of return, soon.

PS: for those of u who skimmed and reached here fast, pl don’t miss that point return
Keep going there (on net or in person) and enrich urself.

Some quotes from the meet:
“All typos and flair are mine and mine alone- u see am a loner, not a team man..but the best part of that is I have myself to ridicule for the mistakes.”
“The biggest folly is failure of primary education. If a nation can’t give proper primary education to its citizens what else can it really bring?”
“what ever u do as a nation ignoring primary education, any number of IIMs and IITs is not going to solve”
“save water where it falls, its that simple..”
“it requires just to harvest water in 10% area and it shall sustain the rest 90%”
“Did u know- we have an average rainfall pf 1100mm i.e. a solid 1meter and more..imagine the whole length and breadth with 1 m water. And what we do? Ok, that falls in 100 days, but what shud a prudent nation do? Save it, simple ain’t?”
“at (age)65 the perspective is totally different. We check for options to ‘currency convert’ time with money” (the last one I thought was prophetic!)