Bicycles, and Rural Poverty

I am happy that some of my work done around 2008 on potential of bicycles in India to alleviate rural poverty now fetches about 1500 results on google, and has been quoted by many wikipedia pages concerning poverty alleviation and bicycles.

Visit www.bicyclepotential.org for that, and here's a link to my previous blog for that.

The next step should be to convince the micro-finance institutions in India and Bangladesh to adopt bicycles also as their main tool in alleviating poverty.

God, when would you give me time to do so? Are you so insensitive...  :-)  ?

Rahul Gandhi after being made Vice-President of Congress

"Last night everyone congratulated me.  Many of you came and hugged me and congratulated me.  Everybody congratulated me.  But last night my mother came to my room and she sat with me and she cried.  Why did she cry?  She cried because she understands that the power so many seek is actually a poison.  She can see it because of what it does to the people around her and the people they love.  But most importantly she can see it because she is not attached to it.  The only antidote to this 
poison is for all of us to see it for what it really is and not become attached to it.  We should not chase power for the attributes of power.  We should only use it to empower the voiceless"

"Direct cash transfer is going to allow us to respond to these dreams with an empowering delivering system.  My father used to speak about 15 paisa to the rupee reaching the people and we today are preparing the system that is going to  answer that question.  We are going to answer that question. And 99% of our people’s money can go to them. It is a revolution  that no other country has done.  And we are preparing that revolution."

-Having been a deadly fan of Rahul Gandhi for a long time and then being completely disillusioned with him after the U.P. debacle, 2G and the lokpal, it was good to read his speech recently.

Death Penalty for Rape: Should it be there??

सन 2000 के आसपास भी इस तरह के अपराध के लिए म्रत्युदंड की सजा की मांग उठी थी, और लाल कृष्ण आडवाणी, उस समय के गृह मंत्री और  उपप्रधानमंत्री, ने इस की पुरजोर वकालत की थी। आज देश गृह मंत्री से कह रहा है, उस समय गृह मंत्री देश में घूम घूम के पूरे देश से कह रहा था। मैं भी इसका बड़ा समर्थक था, और उन दिनों रोज़ अखबार में इस खबर पर आगे की प्रगति ढूँढता था। मुझे बड़ी निराशा हुई थी जब स्वयं महिलाओं के संगठन, National Commission for Women (NCW), ने इसे सिरे से नकार दिया था।

उनका कहना ये था की अभी तो पीड़ित को जिंदा छोड़ दिया जाता है, पर अगर मौत की सज़ा पक्की हो गयी तो कोई भी अपराधी पीडिता को जिंदा ही नहीं छोड़ेगा, simple! जब वो ये सब कर सकता है, तो अपनी जान बचाने के लिए पीडिता की जान भी ले लेगा।

मैं निराश हुआ, मुझे उन दिनों बहुत तेज़ गुस्सा आया, पर बाद में मुझे उनकी बात ठीक ही लगी।

मुझे आश्चर्य होता है कि यह सब किसी राजनेता ने quote  नहीं किया है, इस विषय पर एक समय पर बहुत मंथन हुआ है। Media वालो की तो बात ही क्या करें!

 इस तरह के cases के लिए सजा को बढ़ा कर पांच  गुना, कम से कम 25 साल कर देना चाहिए। इस समय ये 7 साल है। अलग से courts  होने चाहिए, जहा victim की privacy पूरी तरह ensure  की जा सके, speedy trial होना चाहिए, जहाँ 3-6 महीने के अन्दर ही केस का निपटारा हो, महिला पुलिसकर्मी और महिला जज ही हो, एक 24x 7 नेशनल हेल्पलाइन नंबर होना चाहिए जिस पर दर्ज कॉल पर कार्यवाही को  एक NGO monitor करे, (much like the anti-ragging helpline), F.I.R दर्ज करने महिला पुलिस पीड़ित के घर जाए, (जिस के साथ यह सब हो गया वो अब पुलिस के चक्कर और काटे!), और समूह-अपराध गैर ज़मानती हो जाये जिस पर और भी कड़ी सज़ा हो, और सरकार समय समय पर संचार माध्यमो में सन्देश प्रसारित करवाए (उपभोक्ता अदालतों और high way पर सुरक्षा के सन्देश तो ज़रूरी हैं, इसके नहीं! वाह!


बहरहाल, NCW की बात मुझे ठीक ही लगी थी।

Reference links:
NCW rejects death sentence in rape cases: April 3, 2000

Advani favours death sentence for rapists

Advani proposes capital punishment for rape

Why LK Advani is Wrong

90 per cent Indians are idiots, can be easily fooled: Markandey Katju

New Delhi: Ninety per cent of Indians are "idiots" who can easily be misled by mischievous elements in the name of religion, Press Council of India (PCI) chairperson Justice Markandey Katju claimed on Saturday. "I say ninety per cent of Indians are idiots. You people don't have brains in your heads....It is so easy to take you for a ride," he said at a seminar in New Delhi.
He said that a communal riot could be incited in Delhi for as meagre an amount as Rs 2,000. He said that all somebody has to do is make a mischievous gesture of disrespect to a place of worship and people start fighting each other. "You mad people will start fighting amongst yourself not realising that some agent provocateur is behind this," he said.
Katju said that before 1857 there was no communalism in the country but the situation was different now. "Today 80 per cent Hindus are communal and 80 per cent Muslims are communal. This is the harsh truth, bitter truth that I am telling you. How is it that in 150 years you have gone backwards instead of moving forward because the English kept injecting poison," Katju said.

Justice (Retd) Markandey Katju said that a communal riot could be incited in Delhi for as meagre an amount as Rs 2,000.

"The policy that emanated from London after the mutiny in 1857 that there is only one way to control this country that is to make Hindus and Muslims fight each other," he said. He said that then there was a propaganda that Hindi was the language of Hindus and Urdu of Muslims. "Our ancestors also studied Urdu, but it is so easy to fool you. You are idiots so how difficult is it to make an idiot of you," Katju said.
Katju said that he was saying these harsh things to make Indians, whom he loved, to understand the whole game and not remain fools.

Found this post very useful!!

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/itslideshow/17349273.cms

6 simple tips to fix your damaged smartphone

...more often than not, the condition of your favourite gadget may actually not be as bad as it seems and you can fix the problem yourself by following some simple steps. Here are some tips.

The Energy Drink, The Man, and His Untiring Energy!

A person can do anything he/she wants! Just look at the ups and downs of this man, and how high he rose after being decimated to a construction laborer and a taxi driver!

-Gaurav.



NRI’s energy drink under lens for 13 deaths in US



WASHINGTON: A high-caffeine energy drink which has propelled an Indian-American businessman to the billionaire's club — and arguably to the top of the wealthiest NRIs in America list — is under scrutiny after being cited in 13 deaths over the last four years.

 Lucknow-born Manoj Bhargava, whose "5-hour Energy" drink has a cult following in the US, is at the centre of Federal Drug Administration (FDA) filings examining links between energy drinks and serious fatalities such as convulsions and heart attacks.

A Forbes magazine article earlier this year said that Bhargava may be the wealthiest Indian in America, and some estimate put his net worth at $4 billion.

Bhargava moved to the US with his parents as a teen and grew up in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, as his father pursued a post-graduate degree at Wharton. A math whiz, Bhargava Jr enrolled at Princeton but dropped out in his freshman year, returning to India in search of a spiritual education and living as a monk and mendicant in ashrams across India. He took on a variety of jobs, working as a construction labourer, cleaning contractor, accounting clerk, taxi driver, printing press operator and business manager, before starting a plastics raw material company in 1990 called Prime Conduit which he grew to $20 million in sales and then sold it to a private equity firm.

Early last decade, Bhargava founded the consumer products company Living Essentials, and in 2004, introduced 5-hour Energy, a caffeinated and vitaminized energy booster that he developed. Sold in two-ounce shots in stores across US, the drink became a monster hit, racking up a billion dollars in sales within seven years.

At a personal level though, Bhargava has earned a reputation as a philanthropist, signing up with Bill Gates-led Giving Pledge by billionaires to donate 50% of their wealth. A minimalist who does not believe in excessive personal consumption, he plans to offload as much as $1 billion in charity in India over the next decade through a non-profit foundation he has established.

For now though, his energies are being consumed by the FDA scrutiny of the product that brought him the billions.

Will Power

"I told my players there was someone called Albert, Albert Einstein, who said that there is a force more powerful than steam, electricity and atomic energy: Will Power."

-Jose Mourinho, worlds most respected football coach, who has transformed some of the weakest teams into unexpected achievers.

Rahul Dravid

Rahul dravid, the perfectionist. His wife, on him:



"Before he went on tour, I would pack all his other bags, but his cricket kit was sacred - I did not touch it; only he handled it. I know if I packed only two sets of informal clothes, he would rotate them through an entire tour if he had to and not think about it. He has used one type of moisturising cream for 20 years because his skin gets dry. Nothing else."


"He doesn't care for gadgets, and barely registers brands of watches, cologne or cars. But if the weight of his bat was off by a gram, he would notice it in an instant and get the problem fixed," 


Rahul's humility off and on field is well known and Vijeeta did write about that trait of his personality. 


"People always ask me the reason for Rahul being a "normal" person, despite the fame and the celebrity circus. I think it all began with his middle-class upbringing, of being taught to believe in fundamental values like humility and perspective. He has also had some very old, solid friendships that have kept him rooted." 


Vijeeta also wrote that Rahul had this "fantastic ability to switch off" after the game. 


"His batting may bother him, he will be itching to go back and try again, but he can compartmentalise his life very well. He won't order room service or brood indoors, he would rather go out, find something to do - go to a movie or watch a musical, which he loves. He will walk out to the sea to wind down or go to bookstores, or find something else to do." 

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Here's another post i blogged in 2007 on Dravid

Advices from Warren Buffet

The great prize in life is work worth doing

In continuation of this of my post (Aamir: I do what makes me happy), I found a very good article today that echoed my views on how I live my life.

 -Gaurav

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The great prize in life is work worth doing
http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/men-and-ideas/entry/the-great-prize-in-life-is-work-worth-doing

Excerpts:

People have forgotten that "far and away the best prize that life offers is a chance to work hard at work worth doing," as the former American President Theodore Roosevelt once observed.

For the first time in history, young Indians have begun to ask: what do I really want to do in life? The lucky few will discover a passion and make a living doing work they enjoy, and like Steve Jobs they will win the prize of life!

Passionate work touches the core of one's being. The majority, alas, will live unrequited lives, making a living, not making a life. A tragic loss when you think that one spends a third of one's life working.

The Book, The Life, and The Person Hrithik

I have been, a couple of times, very strongly advised to read The Geeta by someone I have a lot of respect for. Almost 10 years back I indeed started for it, but could read only one page in a couple of hours that day, as the book appeared to me so deep in its content. Completing that 400 page book then appeared almost impossible for me, given I was so lazy with things.

Then one day I chanced upon a book named The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by some Deepak Chopra. And what a book it was!!! I was so much influenced and impacted by that book that for a long time it guided my philosophy towards life, and I kept on coming to it whenever time permitted or the situations warranted.

Still, I feel I haven't been able to incorporate even 20% of that book into my life. And today I read an interview of Hrithik Roshan. Only once in a year you read such interviews, and this person appeared to me a real personification of the way life should be led, as suggested in that book. And it's the life, its hard earned experiences, that have made this person what he is. Life, indeed, is a much bigger teacher than a book!
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Hrithik's Interview:  Click Here

Excerpts:
(The interview was so good, excerpts are also about 60-70% of the whole. Please click "Read More" at the end to read all the excerpts.)  

when someone says anything bad about you, the way I look at it is – there is no truth, there is only a point of view. It depends on where you are standing. If a person tells me, 'Hey, I don't think you're a great actor, you're an idiot, you over-act,' or whatever, that's his point of view. In such a situation, I feel it's my responsibility to demonstrate that you should never counter an attack with more attack.

That's the essential path to peace. I want to feel good about myself, and so, what I do is, I type back – 'Well, I try, and now I will try harder; thank you for your feedback.' And I feel good about myself. And he relaxes, nothing has hit his ego, and so he's not going to attack any more. I have brought about peace in this war – even if it is the micro level.

अस्पताल ज़रूरी या फ़ॉर्मूला वन रेस ट्रैक?

कुछ दिन पहले अख़बार के पहले पन्ने पर छपी तस्वीर ने भारत में अस्पताल और चिकित्सा व्यवस्था की असलियत हालत उजागर कर दी. ये तस्वीर उत्तर भारत के सबसे बड़े अस्पताल एम्स में इलाज करवाने आए लोगों की थी जो अस्पताल के बाहर शौचालयों में रहने को मजबूर थे.


दूसरी ओर एम्स से साठ किलोमीटर दूर ग्रेटर नोएडा में लाखों डॉलर क़ीमत का फ़ॉर्मूला वन रेस ट्रैक बनाया जा रहा है जिसमें अक्तूबर में अंतरराष्ट्रीय कार रेस होने वाली है. उसी नोएडा में सरकारी अस्पताल बनाने की जगह गोल्फ़ कोर्स बनाने में ज़्यादा खर्च किए गए हैं.


http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/ws/hi/thread.jspa?forumID=14345

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पता नहीं UP में कोई नीतीश कुमार, शीला दीक्षित या नरेन्द्र मोदी जैसा administrator  कब आएगा!!!  अंधेर नगरी, चौपट राजा | और धन्य धन्य UP की जनता जो ऐसे vultures को चुनती है |

-गौरव 

Driver stabbed when insisted on stopping at the designated bus stop

This is the way our people are, our society is. North India is host to a host of people like these.

-Gaurav

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NEW DELHI: A 28-year-old DTC bus driver was allegedly stabbed by three youths after the driver refused to stop in between bus stops. The incident was reported at ITO near the police headquarters at 6.30pm. 

"According to the victim, the three youths who had boarded the bus at Anand Vihar demanded that the bus be stopped right after the ITO bridge. When the driver insisted on stopping at the designated bus stop at ITO, the youth allegedly tried to stop the bus by grabbing the steering wheel. 

"One of the youths then allegedly took out a blade and stabbed on Devender's thigh. The youth was immediately caught by the public while the other two escaped. The accused has been identified as Pankaj. Devender was taken to LNJP Hospital where he is recovering," said a senior police officer.

"The most valuable thing for us"

Narayan Murthy- A name synonymous with integrity, shear intelligence and wisdom. Despite being at the helm of India's one of the most powerful companies (I remember Vladimir Putin, then Russian head of the state, going to Infosys campus at Bangalore and meeting him to request to set-up a center in Russia also, and then the Chinese premier going to meet him, and not the other way round, that he goes to meet them when they visit India!), Murthy has remained an utterly down-to-earth man, following principles of righteousness to the very root. Although many industrialists have achieved success by adopting every possible- right or wrong- mean, I admire Narayan Murthy, Azeem Premji and Ratan Tata (yes, still) very much for their achieving success following a path of truth and exemplary honesty and concern for the customer.


Here's an excerpt from Murthy's last address to Infosys this week as he retires, and what a moment of time he picks down his memory lane to sum-up his success in the last line!!


-Gaurav.


"It is not easy for me to deliver my last address at this forum. As I speak, a mosaic of images from the past whizz through my mind. The list seems endless, and it would be difficult to narrate them all. The day we assembled in my tiny apartment in Mumbai to decide that respect from every shareholder was the most valuable thing for us, was momentous."


P.S.:  Here's another post by me on Premji's thoughts on education.

Brass best bet to store water: Indian and UK scientists discover

Well, again a link, instead of a blog this space has become a sharing place, cant help it!  :-)

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http://www.indianexpress.com/oldStory/68227/


Brass best bet to store water: Indian and UK scientists discover

Ancient Indian wisdom that drinking water should be stored in brass vessels for good health has now been proved scientifically by researchers. Microbiologists say that water stored in brass containers could help combat many water-borne diseases and should be used in developing countries rather than their cheaper alternatives, plastic containers, researchers said.

Just you watch. I'm going to take them there.

From NDTV's website:
http://sports.ndtv.com/world-cup-2011/features/specials/item/171576-mature-india-refused-to-be-beaten



After defeat to South Africa at the group stages in Nagpur, India's biggest stumble in the World Cup, Yuvraj had told a friend, "I have to take us to the World Cup final. Just you watch. I'm going to take them there."



-Amazing, awesome! what transformation a person has when he or she decides to accomplish something no matter comes what. No Matter What!

Destiny of a nation is changed.

बटुकेश्वर दत्त

India sometimes disappoints me to the dead bottom! A person ruined his life with Bhagat Singh for the nation, and what did the country do with him? Is there anyone in establishment who can now do something for the family of this freedom fighter?


-----------------------------

http://www.bbc.co.uk/hindi/india/2010/12/101230_batukeswar_book_skj.shtml

भारत में स्वतंत्रता सेनानियों और क्रांतिकारियों की उपेक्षा आम बात है और इसी श्रेणी में बटुकेश्वर दत्त का भी नाम लिया जा सकता है.

बटुकेश्वर दत्त ने भगत सिंह के साथ मिलकर 1929 में तत्कालीन ब्रितानी संसद में बम फेंका था और उसके साथ पर्चे भी. दोनों क्रांतिकारी वहां से भागे नहीं और गिरफ़्तारी भी दी.

बटुकेश्वर दत्त देश की आज़ादी देखने के लिए बचे रहे लेकिन सारा जीवन उन्हें उपेक्षा में ही बिताना पड़ा.

अनिल वर्मा बताते हैं, ‘‘बटुकेश्वर दत्त को कोई सम्मान नहीं दिया गया स्वाधीनता के बाद. निर्धनता की ज़िंदगी बिताई उन्होंने. पटना की सड़कों पर सिगरेट की डीलरशिप और टूरिस्ट गाइड का काम करके बटुकेश्वर ने जीवन यापन किया. उनकी पत्नी मिडिल स्कूल में नौकरी करती थीं जिससे उनका घर चला.
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Shameful!!!

अच्छा हुआ की भगत सिंह को अंग्रेजो ने फांसी दे दी, नहीं तो आज़ादी के बाद वो ये सब देख के खुद ही फांसी लगा के मर जाता!!! 

"If you have a goal in life that takes a lot of energy, that requires a lot of hard work, that incurs a great deal of interest and that is a challenge to you, you will always look forward to waking up to see what the new day brings."

Some of my posts on Education

Below is a link to some of my posts on education...



Click Here

And here also!






.

इस जीने का क्या मतलब था?

‘‘...अपनी ज़िंदगी में तुमने क्या किया?  किसी से सच्चे दिल से प्यार किया? किसी दोस्त को नेक सलाह दी? किसी दुश्मन के बेटे को मोहब्बत की नज़र से देखा? जहाँ अँधेरा था वहाँ रौशनी की किरन ले गये? जितनी देर तक जिये, इस जीने का क्या मतलब था..?...’’


-कृश्नचंदर, प्रख्यात उर्दू साहित्यकार