Friday, January 14, 2011

The Hundred Rupee Note

Thought for the week:

A story that somebody sent me years ago, popped into my vision as I was going through some old stuff yesterday.
It's worth sharing.

A well-known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a hundred rupee note. In the room, there were about 200 people. He asked: "Who would like this hundred rupee note?

Hands started going up.
He said, "I am going to give this 100 rupee note to one of you but first, let me do this.
He proceeded to crumple up the note.
He then asked, "Who still wants it?"
Still the hands were up in the air.
"Well," he  said, "What if I do this?"

And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe.

He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty.

"Now, who still says it's good enough, who wants it?"
Still the hands went into the air.

Then he said
"My friends, we have all learned a very valuable lesson.
No matter what I did to the money,
you still wanted it because it did not decrease in Value.
It was still worth a hundred rupees.

Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled,
and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make
and the circumstances that come our way.

We feel as though we are worthless.
But no matter what has happened or
what will happen, you will never lose your value.

Dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased,
you are still priceless
to those who DO LOVE you.

The worth of our lives comes not in what we do or who we know,
but by WHO WE ARE.

You are special- Don't EVER forget it."

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

News Flash

There's such a lot happening around that it's difficult to keep track of the news, and to really digest the import of a lot of the headlines.

There's some rotten weather rampaging through Australia, and the pictures of what looked like a huge brown flood of destruction just a hunderd kilometres or so from Brisbane, was certainly not good news for me. They said on the news that the people of Brisbane may be asked to evacuate, and right now, this is the news that is more important to me than the cold wave sweeping though the town where I am at or the onion dealers in Delhi going on strike, or the MLAs in Karnataka misbehaving in the House. It's because there are a whole lot of people I care about in Brisbane.
Ergo, lesson in News value: News of those closest to your heart has the greatest value of all

Friday, January 07, 2011

Discussions on Education 1

I was privileged to attend a consultation on the Draft Rules being prepared by the Education Department in December. The Draft Rules are for the implementation of the Right to Education Act in the State of Bihar.

Here is an extract from my notes. Vinod Raina , member of the National Advisory Council on RTE replies to a few questions.

Principal Patna Central School: Due to RTE Act, will an estimated 18.9 percent private schools of 1.5 million will shut down?


Reply: Unaided elementary [age group 6 to 14] schools are only 8 percent of the total primary schools. 80 percent are government schools and 12 percent are aided primary schools, and 8 percent are unaided. It is not only private schools will be shut down, but government schools which do not fulfil these norms and conditions after three years cannot continue.
This Act has given a right to the child to an education where it defines what will be the minimum conditions for giving that education.
And this is the right of an Indian child, and the Act says no matter who is giving education they have to give this minimum standard. We cannot look at the rights of the child in a differentiated manner, as a matter between private and public.
The question that needs to be asked is whether the Indian child deserves this minimum right or not? The question is not what will happen to the private schools. The law says that the government must provide neighbourhood schools to every child by 2013, because article 21 A says that the state shall provide free and equitable education to every child.

Question: What is the concept of ‘common education system’?

Reply: Though not relevant to the present consultation which is to discuss the rules, briefly, the answer is common school system was based on the premise of access of equitable education for all and advocated that all schools, including private ones, would not charge fees of any kind.

Does every Indian Child, including the Dalits, Musahars, and marginalised have the right to quality education?
The Kothari commission mentioned Common school system in section 1.36, placed the concept of common school, but in section 10.77, dealing with implementation, it mentions a constitutional problem: under Article 19E and G which is a fundamental Right, private schools have a right to exist. Therefore private schools would have to be kept out of the common school system.

Remembering Hari Uppal

Dancer Hari Uppal passed away a few days ago, on the second of January. News of his death in Calcutta ,at the age of 84, was even carried in newspapers in Shillong. The Khasi newspaper U Nongsain Hima carried news of the Padmashree winner. Hari received the Padmashree last year.
That would have pleased Hari, who had an enduring affection for the people North Eastern India and Darjeeling Tea.


I met Hari Uppal about 15 years ago, and spent a lot of quality time with him, sipping excellent Darjeeling tea on the lawns in front of his Bharatiya Nritya Kala Mandir in winter or in his residence inside the Kala Mandir complex. He was always a courteous and dignified host.

I remember one of his students, Dhanesh, who was learning Bharat Natyam being near terrified of him. Seventeen at the time, Dhanesh told me that he had to face the Spanish Inquisition before Uppal granted him admission to the course. The old man was making sure that the boy hadn't joined the class because he had a crush on one of the girl students!

Hari Uppal was eccentric, and had a flash-fire temper, and had been known to throw a tantrum or five in his day, or so I am told. But then, he wouldn't be the creative genius people say he was if he were a docile door mat.

His exasperation grew with the decline of the arts in the Laloo Prasad regime, and with political (and perhaps lumpen) moves by certain ’powerful’ individuals close to wrest control of the premier dance institute. As he had founded the institution, he was pained to see the scant respect given to the arts in the days of the lantern.

Happily, perhaps, the past five years brought him more comfort.

He is missed and mourned in all cultural circles.

Monday, January 03, 2011

Onion Flakes

Several years ago,I authored a column in the Times of India called 'Onion Flakes'.
Onions have several layers, as you very well know.

And the prices of onions have recently made many people cry -- and cry foul!

I was browsing through my friend Thomas Lim's paper, The Meghalaya Times, the other day.

I was surprised to learn that the Shillong administration actually slapped notices on traders for selling onions for seventy rupees a kilo, more than the 'stipulated price of Rs 63 for white onions and Rs 68 for red onions'.

And here we were cribbing that onions are selling at an all time high of forty rupees in Patna!

The District Monitoring Committee in Shillong has fixed retail onion prices at Rs 46 to 60 for the first week of this year. How about that?

Saturday, January 01, 2011

New Day in the Morning

Everybody talks about a new day in the morning
New Day in the morning so they say
I myself don't talk about a new day in the morning
New day in the morning... that's today.

Mother Earth has completed yet another revolution around the sun
and we've probably made enough noise and have executed thousands of rituals
to mark the event.
So, in theory, today, we're back at the same spot we were a year ago.
Except that with the universe expanding,

and the glaciers melting,
and the sun cooling,
and the earth warming,
and the rivers drying up
we're not really sure where we are at all.

Lest auld aquaintaince be forgot
and never brought to mind
Let's drink a cup o' kindness yet for Auld lang Syne
For Old Times' Sake
There's a lot of doin' to be done
And that's a thought I begin the New Year with.

Peace to all ye creatures of good will .....