Yatra!

Many of u know of this already..the Kisan Swaraj Yatra !
A group of loosely connected individuals and NGOs together have decided to go on an yatra aroud the country prophesying about sustainable agriculture, against Genetically Modified food, ills of such unwarranted technology and chemicals in farming, policies that tamper the farmers’ livelihoods, “development’ in the real sense, apathy of Govts and public etc.
This covers 20 states and 14000KMs across with loads of events, public meetings, awareness programs, etc organized.
We shall soon be having the concerned links.. we expect some blogging, twittering etc to happen along the travel. You can find more details and regular updates here at www.kisanswaraj.in from 2nd october 2010.
My personal blogging can only be sporadic, as expected..
But do peep in for some juicy stuff, interesting experiences and ofcourse curious insights. It will all flow even well after the yatra itself..so a very interesting quarter ahead.

Meanwhile, be informed this Yatra is funded only from individual contributions. So if you are up to it, kindly do donate. For details ping me.

Ok, got to go and prepare..
Yes raring and preparing to go..

PS: BTW preparations are a bit slow..my mom suddenly developed some medical emergency..so even this post had to wait to be uploaded.. with crossed fingers and bated breaths,I wait..

PS2: while this post is still lying in my drafts here comes another update: The operation resulting in the removal of uterus went on fine..just that there is some doubts about malignancy of some growth in that area..so i wait still..but atleast the operation and post op went on well! so there are no more doubts about my joining the yatra.

Rajasthan bans plastic carry bags

Yay! Thats a great news!
We have seen this in many touristic places like Kodai, Darjeeling etc.
As a state Sikkim had implemented this long back! But that’s more or less like a touristic place.
But for a bigger state to seriously pursue this is a great news.
With time the whole state would become sensible in handling plastic and that would show up on road side garbage, water percolation and how easily people can cope up with its absence!

Wish more states go this route soon.
Till then lets encourage and bless such daring rare moves!

Anna Hazare on fast..

Heard of Anna Hazare? Pl see here .
He is an amazing person who transformed a village (a failing one at that) in to a model village. Brought about lotsa change and improved livelihoods. There was a detailed serial on him in pasumai vikatan (a tamil agri mag from the vikatan house).
His deeds are so impressive. The most striking for me is his work on watershed management. Later on he also became a big champion of RTI (Right to information Act) and has many achievements to his credit in that facet too. See here and here for more info. He, with his ingenious ways and ideas, transformed a barren & desolate village and uplifted so many rural lives. The village became self sufficient infusing all his idea(l)s touching ecology, environment, self sufficiency, upliftment of downtrodden, getting rid of drinking problem in the community, micro financing, local market n coop, community irrigation and what not! What impressed me the most is water conservation as the first point of his ventures and I always feel that water conservation shud be the moot point to any eco restoration or for any livelihood question.
A cricketer, ex-service man and a big social activist! What a resume!!

BTW what bothers me now is he is to go on a fasting from Oct 2nd. Pl see here ! He is fighting against corruption- yes, one of the rare champions against corruption today.
With elections due in Maharashtra will politicos play some tricks and hush him up?
I wish more people recognize his work and help him in Maharashtra. And he gets to have a say in maha-politics.
Pl follow this development closely and wish for his success folks!

(A)satyam

asatyam means false or opposite of truth in most vernacular languages. Thats what it was.
But I cant understand all this brouhaha esp by our media, asusual!

Hey, he fudged some accounts, he tried to merge or transfer funds to save his clan's firm, he even lied to u, me and the authorities.
firstly I dont have any qualms about him trying to (mis)appropriate funds. It was after all his own firm- what ever u say about his stake being low or its public money, bla bla..what public money? what was that % and why shud he respect that? what of public was ever respected or rated high in this country anyways?
Secondly which companies in India do not lie, misappropriate, under invoice, make unethical moves. or who doesnt play with share market and its lowly investors?

Now, hold on! dont construe Iam supporting all this subterfuge but why all this noise about Satyam, I beg! Anything unethical and fraudulent needs to be punished. But I have some questions: Its a company which has handled many projects and which was the blue eyed boy of many of u(s) - banks, politicos, traders, investors & public! why suddenly everybody leaves him in a lurch? Did any of us question how & why he showed huge profits/projects quarter after quarter? Did any of us suspect when he traded & brokered "peace" with politicos? Did any of us bat an eyelid when ever he made news or even when he (or his clan) won a big infrastructure contract? and all those who are condemning anything associated with satyam now bother to check anything when the stock value soared.
So we all got it right, now! We deserve such idiots bcos we are such idiots.
and now don't condemn that company, it employees & all those executed projects - they were real! only the collective greed was misplaced and too much. This thud was required for all involved. Its only the founder/chairman who is at fault, not the company. spare it.

remember Anderson guys? how many of u associate Accenture to that now? so it shall all be short lived- our this week's feed of scrolling breaking news & scam quota. Lets wait for the next scam to take over.

Note: some shrill noises about the need to have govt interference and new laws of regulation made me ROFL! hey, whats up with all the existing laws, regulations etc? If these shall be side stepped any new one shall be too.

GM foods!

Heard of Genetically Modified food or genetically engineered food?
Yes or No, you shall have them on your plates too soon.
So as well get to know of that evil.
Companies like Monsanto who were intoxicating our food with pesticides and other chemicals aren’t satisfied with just slow poisoning us. So they thought out and came out with a terrific plan of tampering the genes our food and so screw up the civilization in toto! But isn’t that cutting the golden goose, you may ask. Pl be informed you are talking logic, where as what matters is filling in the coffers at all costs, today and now!
While the US has already many GM crops like the corn, soya, cotton, canola, etc lets be warned not to consume any product that has the above in the ingredients. Once GM crop enters our food chain its going to be very tough to have non GM variety of the same. That is a reality now for cotton in India! Remember BT cotton and its impact? Monsanto and its cohorts here tried and reduced the noise saying cotton is after all a non food crop. Firstly, Cotton projected as not food crop itself is wrong. If you ever bought oil outside, in open market, mostly it had cotton seed oil. Also,cotton seeds are one of the main input for cattles. Secondly who certifies that these non food items donot affect the food crops? What happens to the soil? What happens to the next/inter crops? What happens to the neighbouring crops?
But that’s a digression now. These agri demons now are entering our plate directly. They are ready to sow BT Brinjal in the immediate future. If we don’t oppose like hell and if we don’t get our way, then all we free democratic citizens will actually have no right or say in what enters our food cycle. Its not that only the genetically engineered BT Brinjal is waiting at our door steps, there’s more to come- cabbage, tomato, groundnut, castor and even Rice!
Do you get the enormity of the problem we are facing?
Now, what?
Go here, here and here..
Send a message to the Health minister from here
And spread the word to all and sundry so that who ever can with their contacts and concern shall take it further and may be you would not only have saved your own plate but our country’s.

Its very much irreversible and there to stay for years to come and damage the ecosystem irreparably. Any argument that any new technology shall have two sides, some people oppose all new things etc doesnot hold water here. Agri technologies are not like other technologies! They impact humans and hosts of other living beings in a major way and for years to come.
So move it. Do something. Atleast spread this to as many – not only to create awareness, just in case that some one with some strength to pull strings in the top echelons does so after understanding the enormity of this issue.
Lets hope to stop the BT brinjals immediately and all the other GE food that are looming large over us- the biggggg market for the world!

Note1: When I asked many of the activists why is it that they are addressing most of their petitions and pleas to the health minister and not the agri minister, they all said its bcos Dr.Anbumani is the only hope there in the ministry to raise the voice against such strong moneyed lobby!

Note2: It has worked to an extent that Anbumani has infact raised his voice against GM foods here!

Teachers day!

Sep 5th! Teachers day!
Of all those amma days, standing days, sitting days, aaya days mainly created by archies & others, I value this sep 5th!
This reminds us that a teacher, Dr. Radhakrishnan actually made it as a president of our nation and that he insisted his DOB be celebrated as the teachers day.
In effect not only honoring him but the whole teacher fraternity.
The teachers are a very under rated and undervalued currency in our society. I always make it a point to give animated and noisy approvals for teachers. For eg in a bus, I would shout " oh! you are a teacher! hey, he is a teacher. give way, give him seat" just to glorify their status. In the process not only elevating that teacher's self esteem but also to budge in to the people that we need to respect them.
They are very under paid and still if we see so many good and Honorable teachers it only means there is some Dharma that drives this nation. Try giving it a thought- selflessly trying to upbring kids and make them & their future better (than your ownself that is) inspite of rotting in the same place and how many of us would be doing that with a smile and that assurance?
If ever I get a hand to make some mark on the Indian polity, the first move would be to increase the salary of the teachers at one stroke just because a happy and economically contended teacher means lotsa Honorable students, which in turn means a great nation.
Salute your teacher!
Go out and wish some of them and if ever you hear of any of your old teacher struggling, collect from your friends and help the teacher. even better, just pay a visit. They deserve it.
'appy teachers day folks!

petition one shud sign! to save our coastal lines

The Government of India wishes to put the CMZ notification into effect anytime after 30 June 2008. This will spell disaster for our coastal environment and tens of millions of coastal fishers and fishworkers. Please read and sign the petition(s). Please also circulate this and ask the your friends/recipients to sign them asap.

http://www.petitiononline.com/d4c3b2a1/
or
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/cmz_objections/

The CMZ notification, in terms of its character and contents, in the nature and course of its preparation and in the way it is being thrust upon us, is the perfect embodiment of callousness, injustice and assault on environment and livelihood.

Hats off Mrs.Sukhpreet Kaur!

Sarabjit singh’s wife shud be commended for her great patriotic reaction..seriously dunno how many of us in that situation wud have done the same! She has told the govt not to trade any paki terrorist for her husband..highly commendable indeed!
Meanwhile the recently released Kashmir Singh put us to shame by publicly crying he was a spy and that the govt let him down..and ofcourse followed that up with a denial..

2020 – success and excess

Hmm..its all happening there! Even Joginder singh smiled twice in 2 successive days! Phew!
and we won it..a world cup final..a world cup for which there was no interest for our BCCI nor us general junta (atleast in the initial stages)..and what a win..
to add a cliché here: nothing succeeds like success..and so the viewership (and so the advts), interest and the following tremendously increased!
from the south Africa match on, our guys turned the close ones in our favour, which normally wud have been the other way..as a norm, esp at bigger stages, we wud be losing matches we shud have won..
the power of youth, eh? Worth all the fun, this win..special mention needs to be spelled about Dhoni..kept his cool all along in all matches, rotated well, field placings were good..looks fine..more assessment after 1st 3 ODIs against aus..looks a good long term prospect though!

Once back we will have the 3 stalwarts back and come to think of it- where will the new captain hide them in the field?? And what will happen to guys like gambhir, Rohit, joginder who performed well?
Ok, lets spare all these ponderings now and join the euphoria..it was fun to win and esp against Pak..(oh, what was that about thanking all muslims in the world- by pak captain..man! how much they luv their foot and inside their mouth too bloody often!)
Oh man! What a welcome rally it was and how politicians enjoyed stealing the thunder..and the vulgar amounts of money and prizes being showered on the cricketers.
Why don’t they think?? Are these cricketers short of money at all? Is the system or board lacking it?? Why such nonsensical shower? Esp when none of these people moved a bit to even congratulate other sportsmen (eg. Vishy when he excelled even recently or the hockey team which won Asia cup or shooting or other little known sportsmen) or offer such currency rains..what a pity..
And add to that the news starved TV channels all going gaga and covering the neighbors to maids of all the cricketers..vulgar excesses all these..
Now, I wonder- if these cricketers took all this with great smile and happiness, will they treat the abuses, complaints, cries and little bit of painting when they fail miserably..If they think the answer is NO, they better behave and behove.
Did u see all those sms about 1962,1971 and 2007 or about men in blue and sensorable comparisons? ROTFL..

‘appy I’day

60 years since..do u rate that young or old for a nation? If so on what scale do we really evaluate? I mean if one needs to, else u can join the euphoria and shout happy Independence day or have that small flag on ur pocket and eat that ‘pulippu muttai’. (that sticky candy distributed after flag hoisting)

We got Independence, right? Or did we?? So many things really keep me pondering on that question! Just see a few of these below that are still under the clutches of brits..

1.Why do we still have “collectors” who were primarily ‘collecting’ taxes on behalf of the queen?
2.Why do we still have remains of the stupid west minister style brit democracy like governor, president (exact replacement of their queen/king) etc..
3.Why do we still continue their distorted history? (eg. Aryan invasion)
4.Why do we still have the ties and suits even in places like Madras in 48 degrees, phew..(ok, I too put that act when I had to bark for my salary, sic)
5.Even this all occupying_water_hyacinth was brought as an ornamental plant by the queen during her visit then and we are yet to get out of its clutches even. so many such weeds all over..
6.When will we come out of the loss of pride injected in to our systems by the brits after ‘the minutes’ of macaulay?
7.Why the inefficient bureaucracy of the brit style – filled with sycophancy and corruption to the boot?
8.not to forget the ‘English medicines’ and their specialized diseases..when we had excellent wholistic approaches like ayurveda, siddha etc. Typically this attention to symptom instead of cause attitude spread to all our issues. Eg: we took to DDT instead of taking to tidiness and hygiene!
9.Freedom? But when will we ever get that from the corruption at all levels that spread all over our society during the colony days..
10.No! their influence did not leave even our toilets..the western toilet- an amazing example of totally unfit (physically, climatically,positionally, attitudewise or any wise) product occupying more houses/toilets..che..che..

Theres more, I know u all know too..when time permits and when I have bettered my writing skills lemme cover all those, till then u all ponder as well