Posted by Rishi on August 6, 2009
Articles from EPW – Aug1, 2009 – www.epw.org.in
Climate Change: India’s Options
India and Climate Change: Some International Dimensions
Climate Change: Challenges Facing India’s Poor
Keeping India’s Economic Engine Going: Climate Change and the Urbanisation Question
Climate Change and the Energy Challenge: A Pragmatic Approach for India
Posted in Climate Change | Tagged: Climate Change, India | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Rishi on August 6, 2009
Dear Mr. Ashok Chavan and Mr. Johnny Joesph and the law enforcers and all those behind the scene editors in the media -
The more I hear about the Ajmal Kasab drama doing the rounds the more I am convinced that Ajmal has no role in it and the same is being deftly coordinated by the real terrorists within in direct or indirect connivance with the media.
Is Ajmal asking for biryani or a rakhi such a big demand? In the first place do we really know that he has in fact made the demand? If he has also made the demand is it such a strange or shocking thing that the electronic media should devote so much time to such utterances – EVERYDAY? Are these guys being fooled, directed or paid to do this?
Ten days back I was closely following the massive scams happening within the NREGA scheme and the siphoning of THOUSANDS OF CRORES of money meant for poor people and did not hear the name of a single District Collector or local politician knowing very well that these scams did not require an LET operative but a very active hand of the local home bred terrorists. Ten days later there is absolutely no follow up but I hear Kasab everyday.
First of all I think the poor guy would be in too depressed a state of mind to be bothered about a rakhi or a biryani. Even if he asking one of the reasons could be loneliness and depression induced hallucination. I don’t think such utterances are shocking. Anyways an open and shut case is being prolonged for reasons which I have best guessed here.
On whose behalf are the electronic media making these utterances sound SOOO shocking? I am SHOCKED with the NREGA scams – please give me a daily expose of what each and every District Collector of the affected districts has to say about the irregularities. I want to know what they do in their evenings, the biryanis they have, the SUVs they purhase, the expensive booze they drink.
I DONT GIVE A DAMN ABOUT AJMAL – I WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THE TERRORISTS WITHIN.
There are easily a 100 very criminal IAS officers and and equal amount of politicians and businessmen and contractors who are proud nationals of this country who are every hour siphoning of money from some scheme meant to remove hunger and misery from the lives of millions of people and I hear ABSOLUTELY NO shocking mention of their escapades. These people conveniently give shape and conclusion to their nefarious evil plans and have the best of biryani and drinks in the evening and the media would dare not go after these incidences.
There are people stripping our wonderful forests, poisoning our rivers, delaying good policies which will make life in cities better and more environmentally friendly and all of them are INDIAN.
India’s super stupid position on climate change
Their activities either kill thousands of people every year or subjugate millions of people’s to a life which they had not bargained for. These miseries are silent but when added up make Ajmal and his colleagues activities pale into oblivion.
It is easy to bully a 20 something kid who has been brainwashed a good five years of his little life and then offered a little bit of monetary incentive into doing something which he was told is noble.
It seems to be difficult to go after people who have taken an oath to serve the country, people who utilise the bungalows and cars and other facilities, logistics and the funds provided by the people of India and then use it against the people of India themselves.
Atleast a terrorist can be justified in his objectives against your country. What justification can be there when those who claim to be the proudest Sons of the Soil go about ripping about the very fabric of the soil?
I remain convinced of what I said in the immediate wake of the 26th November attacks -
Thoughts on 26th November attacks
Terrorist attacks as diversionary tactics
and The train blasts
and almost eight months down the line I am even more convinced that these terrorist attacks are completely stage managed by a people within the country itself – a set of Indians with absolutely no ethical compulsions, ruthless people with no mercy who are so completely possessed with their greed and objectives that they will stop at absolutely nothing to diverting attention from their operations.
Is it too much of a conspiracy theory to believe that a small percentage of the blood money within is devoted to creating diversionary tactics? People who wouldn’t bat an eyelid when they can revel in luxuries from appropriating money meant for a starving child or an old mother would care much less to spend on some terrorists at frequent intervals to create a tequila shot diversion on the naive junta intoxicated on Bollywood and cricket.
It is time that every right thinking Indian (if something of this sort exists) start questioning the discretion’s of the media and law enforcers and started demanding an expose and followup on the real terrorists.
Posted in Governance, Terrorism | Tagged: 26/11, Ajmal Kasab | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Rishi on July 19, 2009
I had a very momentous trip to Nashik on 17th July 2009. Shantaram Shenai (Shantu) was the gracious host and the purpose was to showcase to Dr. Rebello and myself the ‘immense’ progress made in treating the sewage of Nashik city by using the Biosanitizer technology. [within the same link do read about the US patent that the product has got, which is a proud achievement]
We were joined by Yogesh Bhardwaj, resident of Nashik, who has actually implemented the application of the Biosanitizer process and Dhimant Joshi from Mumbai who is a friend of Shantu and a brilliant engineer who has himself followed the biosanitizer over the years and is skilled at understanding and deploying it.
The trip became even more interesting in the background of the recent climate change talks at the MEF G8 summit at L’Aquila, where confusion reigned on the 2 degree limit above pre-industrial levels of temperature and the apparent lack of a road map to achive the same. What I saw at the Nashik STPs clearly has the potential for revolutionary change and providing a very objective and measurable road map to contribute to cutting GHG emmissions.
I have known Shantu since 1993-94 when as a teen still in college I followed his appeals to segregation and experiments with decentralised waste management at Andheri(W). I contacted him around 1995 and literature from the Green Cross Society was among my first building blocks in my deep interest in decentralised waste management. So here I was again with my Guru on a trip to another of his projects.
I had been hearing a lot of praise about the work being carried out at the Nashik Sewage Treatment plants since 2 years. Virat Singh from Westside Plus had covered the experiment extensively (Andheri Innovation a success in Nashik). Last year in May 2008, I also had the opportunity to visit the work being done by Shantu for the golf course at the US Golf course where sewage water was being treated and used for watering the golf course. In the process the Biosanitizer effects had permeated the surrounding ecology and we had witnessed fresh water in the middle of the golf course which is surrounded by the sea.
And on 17th I finally got to be in Nashik to see the efforts.
The first plant I visited was the Tapovan plant which treats 78 mld [million liters per day] of sewage from Nashik before releasing it into the Godavari. The second facility was Morvadi [4.5 mld] and the third was Panchak. It is important to remember that this is the stuff generated in our toilets and in our bathrooms and kitchens – excreta and urine – the bath water, washing of clothes and utensils. All of it travels via a network of pipes and aggregates at such facilities.
At Tapovan the largest of the facilities the sewage treatment has been split into two streams. One stream is treated using the conventional method of huge aerators churning the turbid sewage and in the process creating a whirlpool which throws the sewage upto two feet above the surface, exposes it to oxygen and corrects the BOD levels.
In the second stream the treatment primarily comprises of letting the sewage be exposed to a correct quantity of the Biosanitizer, which is placed in pouches in various parts of the holding ponds. As the sewage is continuously exposed to the biosanitizer a large amount of oxygen is released from the biosanitizer thus correcting the BOD levels. The pictures below indicate what is happening. We began the trip by seeing the large holding ponds which were using the biosanitizer and ended with seeing the ponds treated with the conventional aeration technology. And the results can be called nothing short of phenomenal.
The sewage treated by the conventional method even after treatment and in the final holding pond before being discharged into the Godavari was extremely alkaline and corrosive. Froth was being whipped up as the wind created wave action. The froth was then flying away from the ponds and was completely burning away all the neighbouring vegetation, metal fences and anything else in the way.
Previously in the holding ponds holding the sewage treated with the bio sanitizer we could see thousands of small fishes, some of us dipped their feet into the water, all of us held the water in our hands and smelt it and Shantu even applied some in his eyes to show us that there was nothing to worry. It is important to remember that this is the outcome from what is sewage in the first stage.
After visiting the Tapovan plant we travelled 6 kms downstream to see what can only be called magic. The purpose was to see first hand the quality of water downstream.
We reached the destination and along the way also passed a sugar factory whose effluents are released into the Godavari.
At the designated spot we had a very beautiful view of the Godavari and did a tasting of the water. It was a most refreshing taste. We were told that almost 300 mld of drinking water is being observed available as a result of the bio sanitizer properties which have been introduced into the water. Once the treated sewage water is introduced upstream it is also impacting other effluents which join the stream. A missing piece of data was the amount of effluent being discharged by the sugar plant, which if not treated well would most certainly be very toxic and we were down stream of the same. But that apart the visible and the felt effects were most pleasantly surprising.
We left exhilarated from the site to visit even more magic at the Morvadi plant.
At the Morvadi plant 4.5 mld of sewage is treated only through the biosanitizer method. No aerators are used and only the sewage is pumped to a height from where by gravity the sewage flows through a series of tanks containing the biosanitizer. The plant must have once been the outskirts but is now surrounded by urbanisation. Even at the primary inlet chamber of the plant where the sewage is allowed to enter there is faint smell of the dark turbid liquid being sewage (the exposure to biosanitizer starts here itself.) As we came to the first pond we were greeted with a dense mass of vegetation, which had formed a green carpet over the sewage. Underneath, the sewage was continuously being worked upon and flowing into the secondary and tertiary ponds. Instead of any offensive smell of sewage the place had a feeling of freshness to itself and a number of vegetables were seen growing. The lack of any smell indicated that no CO2 or methane, very important GHG gases were being produced. The lack of any mechanical aerator clearly leads to enormous savings in electricity bills and consequent emissions from power plants. The whole combination is more than win-win.
We finally came back to our hotel room for a break. We still had to meet Satish Magre the Chief Engineer who took the initative and the risk two years ago to use the bio sanitizer. Thankfully around 6:45 pm he indicated he was free and we were quickly into the car and off to Panchak STP which Mr. Magare wanted to show us. Panchak is the latest STP set up by the NMC. It was great being with the eco-hero himself. Mr. Magare had taken a big risk in going for a technology which eliminates capital expenditure in the current form and makes the requirement for certain kinds of human resource redundant. Being a mechanical engineer himself he had to face the wrath of peers for using method which made mechanical engineering less important.
At Panchak, which a new plant we could see numerous improvements in design and the same marvelous results with the added benefit of a passionate guided tour by the man himself.
I have previously seen the effects and working of the bio sanitizer in Dec 2005 where Dr. Bhawalkar himself had come to apply a dose to the Lokhandwala Lake which I have been involved in saving since a decade. Around that time the lake had a very bad bloom of red algae as a result of the persistent washing of clothes on one of its sides. Over a period of six months we had seen the red algae disappear completely.
As I understood better on this trip the Bio sanitizer crystals (four come in one pouch) are in effect a whole rain forest in themselves. Just as in a forest you dont get any offensive smells even though a lot of death and decay is taking place, the bio sanitizer has in effect powerfully packed the properties of one whole forest in itself and releases need based oxygen, which is an important ingredient for correcting a number of situations. Those tiny, silent, life less crystals doing so much is nothing short of amazing.
While more tests and assessments are certainly required along with peer review, it is quite clear that the bio sanitizer represents a quantum leap in our understanding of handling numerous environmental problems and places at our disposal a corrective means, which clearly removes excuses for inaction.
[There is some more data which I need to collect and will keep adding to this link.]
1. Even as we approach COP15 one of the most important data sets will be the accurate estimates on the GHG emissions resulting from the complete life cycle of the sewage treatment process. Also what are the changes if any in the emissions arsing from the mechanical process vis-a-vis the bio sanitizer process.
Posted in Environment, Urban | Tagged: Environment, nasik, sewage treatment | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Rishi on July 2, 2009
Even as there has been a lot of drama, adulation, sense of pride and hype over the opening of the Bandra Worli Sea Link, I have found myself going through a confusing set of emotions, all of which have been tossing around in my salad bowl of a mind.
Yes I certainly feel proud of the link. At all such instances I get reminded of a childhood essay I wrote long back in 1986 for which I received a proud second prize. The essay was about my ambition to become an engineer and make awe inspiring symbols of civil engineering like the Sears Towers and Expressways like they are found in the US and the Europe and Japan. Machines, buildings, civil engineering processes fascinated me as much as nature if not more since childhood.
Some where along the way the more normative side in me overtook the scientific and I gradually started paying more attention to the problems which were difficult to be solved by engineering.
And in the sea link it was again the normative which has been over riding the engineering interest in how much of concrete was poured and how many times the steel cables can circle the earth. Is this how things ought to be?
I use the public transport in Mumbai quite frequently and even more now in the hype surrounding the sealink I found myself noticing that every bus stop that I passed in a journey from my house near home in Oshiwara to Juhu had a huge puddle of muddy water in front of it. So people would be standing in their bus stop and when the bus came those who were getting out and those who were trying to get in were jostling with each other and negotiating the puddle of muddy water as well.
At each bus stop my mind went through a violent commentary of abuses and remarks on society and the state of things even as my outward self refused to look away and kept gazing lifelessly into the chaos at each stop – a sadistic enjoyment even, thrusting a hot iron rod somewhere near my eyes but not within and enjoying the pain. School children, women in sarees, old men all went through enormous difficulty. Some of the more agile youth took it as a nice acrobatic challenge being able to leap from the dry patch directly into the bus. This is where our sports prowess stops – we dont long jump longer than this.
And then my mind started having images of the kind of banners and newspaper advertisement I would like to see in the papers this week. Would somebody calculate the number of such puddles of water in the city? There must be a good million I suppose?
Can we have a full page advertisement which proudly proclaims that our city has
1,00,7512 puddles in front of bus stops in the city,
1,33,214 instances of missing manholes in other wise normal footpaths because of which people still prefer to travel on the road,
23,732 instances where footpaths have been dug up for some utility work and have been such since more than two weeks,
34,237 instances of hawkers completely having taken over footpaths.
Why cant we feel proud of these numbers? Aren’t these also significant achievements of the great Indian intelligence that we like to tom-tom about from here to New York and beyond?
Then the banners -
Cant solve small puddles of water
Will become world class city (Bombay First and CAG )
Cant solve small puddles of water
Will feel proud of Sealink (this is aimed at the hordes which decided to take the first ride)
Cant solve small puddles of water
Will rush to name sealink after Veer Savarkar (yes this is to the Shiv Sena)
* I dont have the money but sponsors for the banners are welcome – if I cant do a turnkey job of putting up a bridge from scratch, atleast I can take up this contract. Maybe I can monetise the eyeballs also with some kind of an infra red toll machine which tracks the eye balls.
Another of the salad bowl image was a hallucination of an alternate to the opening ceremony. I imagined a scenario, where each of the senior leaders present for the opening ceremony were similarly taking pride in being photographed with Sonia-ji in front of the biggest puddle in the city contest. A nice polygon of muddy water, whose depth one would hesitate to test with ones own feet.
Before that there would have been a mad scramble with all the leaders having pulled Madam in different directions. Madam-Madam see my puddle..please-please..madam..this is not fair, you are spending too much time admiring Kripashankarji’s puddle..please see mine also..then some leader deciding to splash in his puddle like I would have done in the same sixth standard I wrote the essay in..all in joy with a glee..splashing muddy water on his spotless white kurta pyjama and those around him..Madam..smiling elegantly teeth to teeth..so happy with the work of her boy…another leader who had a chottu puddle would decide to pose with another leader with a big one and get pushed away with a “get your own puddle” line.
And then there would be a red ribbon the size of the diameter of the big award winning puddle to cut which all the dignitaries would wade half way through and after cutting the ribbon everybody would do an impromptu filmi jig! Madam the lead heroine and all the others the hero’s trying to woo her. They anyway have all those filmi’s under their belt.
And then I started thinking of the hordes which rushed for the first day first show and some of whose adulation for the link was covered in the papers. These would mostly also be the people who are most unconcerned about any dialogue at comprehensive transport and traffic management in the city. The types who will enrich the sealink makers with their 50 rupees, but not the numerous poor NGOs and initiatives – a number of which I have been part of – where cutting edge thinking about a holistic solution to the city keeps leading a still born existence for lack of nutrition.
I found myself cursing them with a full realisation that in the times we live in the curse would eventually rebound on me leading to more misery to my existence.
And then the mustard. Sharad Pawar did what should land him the top three if not the top position in the Maratha Hall of Shame. In the midst of the enormous allegations of corruption and impropriety I have always had a considerable amount of awe and admiration about the ease with which the man juggles agriculture and cricket and enormous influence of land politics and god alone knows how many other interests. He disappointed so much with his – Madam madam lets name the bridge after Rajiv-ji thing. I could imagine myself part of a heist, which whisks him away only to send him overboard mid-way of the link.
Of course he will have the last laugh. A decade or two down the line we will have his daughter as the Speaker of the house – much like Jagjeevan Ram’s daughter got rewarded. The Congress are good to sycophants.
The Shiv Sena would do better at aiming to name the bridge after one of their Standing Committee Chairmans in the past few terms who has made the most money. I would most certainly second such a proposal. Their bogey of doing good for the Marathi manoos and Marathi asmita is all too jaded now. Veer Savarkar could do best without them.
Feeling proud of the bridge between Sweden and Denmark or the ones in China or the Golden Gate bridge comes not out of the bridges themselves but simultaneously for cities and administrations which have a manic fascination for improving each and every small and big aspect of their cities and lives of the commonest of people, not just 50 buck toll payers.
Feeling proud comes when you are proud of being a city which is good to millions of its pedestrians, not so ruthlessly indifferent and cruel. Not so heavily skewed in favour of only those who will travel in air conditioned vehicles.
Out here bridge innaugarations and pride over them become and extension of the cheap, ostentatious, me too existense of what seems a cursed land.
Posted in Urban | Tagged: Bandra Worli Sealink, Mumbai | 5 Comments »
Posted by Rishi on June 25, 2009
I had the opportunity (25th June) to listen to the historic full speech of Barrack Obama on 4th June at the Cairo University. Follow the speech here.
The hearing followed by a discussion was kept at the American Center with a panel lead by Sadaf Aboli the President of NSUI-Mumbai and Mohammed Wajehuddin, Special Correspondent with the Times of India and moderated by Elizabeth Kauffman the Director of the American Center.
The speech by all means is a path breaking one, one which will in times to come serve as a good reminder should memory fail us about the good efforts started by this speech and there be moments of great tension in which all we can think of is applying swords to our throats.
It is only in America I think that such a quick turnaround is possible from a regime just a year ago whose ethos was so contrary to the one being pursued today. Many other parts of the world silently suffer totalitarian indifferent regimes even in so called democratic setups without being able to do much. India can be a prime example in my mind. Whether the complete lies of the Congress about a secular agenda and do gooder of the Muslims or the Shiv Sena’s blatantly to the contrary claims of having done any good for the Marathi manoos or Hindu religion (they cannot defend themselves against fellow Marathi breakaways, forget saving from the Muslims)
During the discussion session I had the following to share:
1) one of the key elements in my opinion was centered around one sentence ” But I am convinced that in order to move forward, we must say openly to each other the things we hold in our hearts and that too often are said only behind closed doors.” It touched upon something which has become characteristic in the Indian context. When did the general public or even organised groups and institutions speak their mind about what they feel about a particular situation or a party.
Yes the speech was historic and inspiring but more than that I see it as a long to-do list and more importantly I see it of relevance in the Indian context.
The binding thread through the speech was sincerity. It is sincerity which builds trust and which enables to be able to engage in mutual activities which heal wounds inflicted over years. And what I had to share with the group present somewhere was guided with my concern with the lack of sincerity in the Indian context about the deep communal divide which still exists within the Muslim and Hindu communities.
2) I shared with Sadaf Aboli my distrust of the so called secular agenda the Congress has followed in the past six decades which in my opinion is clearly psuedo secular and has very unabashedly and shamelessly worked at using the Muslims as a votebank with little regard for uplifting their conditions.
I shared the incidence of the fire at Behrampada as indicative. These are the very pockets, which bring the Congress to power recurringly time after time after time. And the kind of mind bogglingly bad conditions these people live in. One almost gets the impression that they do so out of an enormous love for living such. Because if things had to be improved then between Priya Dutt and Baba Siddique (not to forget the ‘very concerned’ humanitarian Sunil Dutt) and half a dozen other Muslim leaders that they have things would have improved 2 decades back.
http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_behrampada-toll-now-5-two-more-bodies-found_1266953
http://firozeshakir.blogspot.com/search/label/muslims%20love%20killing%20muslims
It is being able to address these kind of issues which were required before teh Cairo speech and after nothwithstanding whether you were inspired or not.
And I feel more than having academic debates about the semantics and the content of the speech, it is important to use the speech as a good springboard to jump into action whereever it is needed. And the speech was not just about restoring the divide between the American and the Muslim world. In the Indian context there is a lot of work which remains to be done even inspite of the Muslim community being an integral part of the country.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Cairo, Muslims, Obama, Obama speech in Cairo | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Rishi on June 15, 2009
I watchethe India Tonight show on CNBC where Karan Thapar spoke to (promoted) Kamal Nath, the new Minsiter for Roads and Highways. The show was a cleverly planned sequence of questions aimed at potraying the new Minister as dynamic and in a good light. This MO of asking just the right questions and putting words into the mouth has become a too mundane strategy by now.
But besides that Kamal Nath mentioned that he would like to see the rate of highway creation go up from 2-3 kms per day to 20kms per day during his term leading to the addition of a ‘whooping’ (Karan said it many times over) 30,000 kms of highways during his five year term.
All through the show Karan had no mention of the beginning of the highway program during the NDA government or the fact that it was during that government that the real changes began and which are still the benchmark considering the poor preformance during the previous UPA term.
Also Karan did not have any studied reports to corroborate some of the claims he was making. Much as he is a intelligent person and I consider him so it is pretty clear that such shows are pre-scripted and even the most intelligent of people cannot come about for a new show every night prepared with all the information on a topic within less than 24 hours.
Its time the old school boys network stopped licking each other and got down to taking their role of leading the country seriously.
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Posted by Rishi on June 12, 2009
I was there today evening to hear the experiences of the ‘Waterman’ Rajendra Singh and Janak Daftary who were part of the recent Ganga Yatra, which saw two teams from opposite ends converge at Ganhar near Varanasi. It was a motley crowd of around 10 people who un-filled the large Babubhai Chinai Room at IMC.
Pollution, encroachment and exploitation were enumerated by Rajendraji as the key drivers of Ganga’s sad state of affairs, which I may almost identify as demise. He discussed in detail the various measures (half hearted at best) since 1985 when Rajiv Gandhi decided to announce the Ganga Action Plan more as a political strategy to as late as last year when the Manmohan Singh government decided to give the status of National River to the Ganga (another political strategy which yielded as good results as in 1985).
In the beginning he also highlighted the deep connections of Mumbai with the Ganga even as we receive no water from the river and are as further can be. He shared how visitors from Mumbai were the largest category of visitors visiting the Gaumukh and Char Dham Yatra as also maybe among those taking a dip at various places along the river.
This and his other answer to a question about involving the politicians along the Ganga were the chief areas of interest to me which I also raised during the Q&A. Rajendraji expressed his inability to understand the mind and the working of a politician which was primarily driven by the votes he gets. He did not mention the notes(bucks) but I would presume that to be the other flip side.
My views during the discussion were linked to people from Mumbai being one of the largest contingents to Gaumukh and yet such an event in Mumbai drawing only ten people for discussion. A lot of those present in the room were not the kind to be paying any serious religious obeisance to the Ganga but still having a deep sense of reverence and responsibility towards her. How many of those who travel the Char Dhams and visit Gaumukh and take dips are the ones who find discussions on the state of the Ganga relevant and would be doing something to improve the state of the river? Where is the aastha? and who are these people?
The need of the hour is to take the discussion about the Ganga to far beyond the thousands who take interest currently and into the minds and lives of lakhs and crores who currently only treat her as a ritual or an adventure sport. The politician along the Ganga or anywhere in the country for that matter is very closely in touch with his/her voter and knows that most of these people dont give a damn about what, who or how the Ganga is. And once we are able to change the state of mind of millions then reviving the Ganga will not be difficult.
A massive communication campaign is needed to highlight the fact that the National River has indeed become a sewer and everyone who has been involved in any ritual which invokes the Ganga needs to be clearly involved in discussions surrounding issues like grey water recycling (the sewage which defies the Ganga comes grey water) and energy conservation (the dams that devastate the upper reaches of Ganga are for generating electricity)
Pushpa Vijula one of the participants opined that most people in Mumbai are so caught up with the daily roti and kapda that there was no time for giving time to these things. To which my strong retort was that my mirror was not shown at the people in that category. It was clearly shown at the rich and educated classes from all castes and tribes and especially the Marwari’s and Gujrati’s a lot of whom are patrons of IMC and have enough time to spend time in casinos around the world and money on expensive liquor and cruises and multiple char dham yatra trips but will not spend time to come for such a talk and much less spend a dime on supporting organisations and individuals who support the cause.
The need of the hour is to clearly bring a sense of shame and responsibility to these shameless people, a lot of whom also have an exaggerated sense of India’s greatness in coffee table discussions but are clearly the cause of the lack of any greatness left in Indian culture.
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Posted by Rishi on May 6, 2009
We have now gone through an election which has been landmark more for the wrong reasons. Going forward we need to take the learning and benefits forward and note the mistakes. The thoughts I list below are not group or party specific. If some of us can work across our identities then that is where the magic will happen. The need for change in political culture is overwhelmingly there.
The way forward clearly involves the following:
1) Building networks of people around various issues. People concerned with police reforms, judicial reforms, water, slums, transport, governance, taxation etc. These networks will have to play a role in 2) and 3) below also. This is also where democratic consensus gets developed on various policy requirements, whether better armed police and intelligence or water recycling or housing.
2) Having consistent activity around the issues This will have to be at the level of the local community and the larger policy. If there can be consistent activity week after week then only can there be trust established. if there is random, far spaced activity then forget it. You need to be available to the community.
3) Aligning donors. Politics is fund intensive. Back end office, full time people, activity logistics, the requirements are endless. Anytime we need 10,000 people on the donor, membership list. This in turn is dependent on 2) and 3) above. If you are not doing great work then donors are questioning. And at the same time you need funds to do great work.
4) Communication. This is very critical. Politics is about large numbers of people being in touch with what you are doing and if after doing all of the above you fail in communicating properly then it is reduced to nothing.
Please do share your views and it would be good to work together.
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Posted by Rishi on May 3, 2009
These are pictures I took on 19th March 09.
Stones throw from the corporate glitz and record land deals of Bandra Kurla Complex. Hadnt watched Slumdog Millionnaire then or now as I upload this. Cannot help wondering how many people employed at BKC must have seen the movie but not the reality of Kherwadi just next to them.
In the first picture I would like to meet the school boy sometime.
These pictures were taken during low tide at around 2 pm when the tide was such -http://www.mobilegeographics.com:81/locations/658.html?y=2009&m=3&d=19
Cannot imagine what the situation must be in a 4m + tide.
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Posted by Rishi on April 14, 2009
Same coin – head and tail. When I see the coverage going on in the mainstream news channels I cannot help but get amused about the ways in which they try to make subtle, their not so obvious support to the Congress.
It almost seems that the mainstream media has somewhere clearly come to understand its role (in no unambiguous terms) as one of propagating the views of the mainstream parties (read mostly Congress). The idea being that even if there is a lot of discontent out there in the public the lack of visibility of other options will keep forcing the people into the Congress’s hands. Doesn’t require rocket science to plan it out once you have the resources in hand.
Being mostly a NDTV follower (and I would like to understand why) I can best comment about that channel and can so clearly see the channel being out of sync with so much of the discussion I see in my meetings and interactions with the public.
People are fed up of just seeing the same Rahul Gandhi’s, Milind Deora’s and the Singhvi’s and other spokespeople. Public would much rather be knowing about the wave of discontent with the mainstream parties and the views and efforts of the new entrants. Of course people who are already there will get a bit more time but whatever happened to media having a pulse on the society. What happened to doing own research as opposed to relying on press relation teams?
I clearly see myself as a very unique proposition and somewhere an outcome of 26/11, which has enormous news value with a lot of people even mentioning to me that they would love to hear me on TV but somehow I or a lot more like me never get invited to give a byte or analyse public issues. And I certainly will not run after them for coverage or be mum about their obvious gaps.
Most of the talk shows and bytes invariably end up having Milind Deora as if no body else in the city had any view? As if nothing beyond South Mumbai existed. I think most of the anchors should stop hob nobbing with the elite and also spend some time among commoners.
Or have most of us got it wrong. Here is only a business with no moral compulsions. Whoever pays or builds a vested interest gets through.
What certainly does not seem to be in the picture is a conscience which apparently is supposed to be associated with the media.
I hope some impartial media observer (if we have some such thing, we are so boringly medieval in such matters) can do a factual study and do a good number crunching on the various points I have made above to come to a clear picture. I dont think I am much off mark. And I wonder what the arrangement must be for such a relationship.
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