Flirting with Danger.

NO ONE SEEMS TO BE BOTHERED ABOUT THIS!!!

This is an an electric pole in a village called Bhaktrahalli about 80 Kms from Bangalore city. Look at the its condition. This is right opposite to a government primary school. I have sent this to the district collector of Chikaballaputr district. Hope Someone fixes this. Otherwise it will be a major accident waiting to happen

Ambedkar Aur Gandhi

Toady i had been to the newly opened restaurant called "Adithya" near Rangashankara (Bangalore) for an early dinner at 7:00 PM. Coincidentally, i met my friend Girish there. We had something to eat and then just went to Rangashankara to check out the schedule for the remaining month. We saw that there was a play to be staged at 7:30 PM today called "Ambedkar Aur Ghandhi". We got interested and decided to go to the play. The play was in Hindi and was about the relation between Gandhi and Ambedkar in the pre-independence period.


The play is written by Rajesh Kumar and directed by Arvind Gaur.The Play was enacted by a troupe called Asmita based out of Delhi. Most of the actors were from Delhi university and they had traveled all the way from Delhi to perform this play.

We all know that Ambedkar and Gandhi had differences between them on issue of un-touchability and awarding separate electorates for Dalits (Pre-independence). The play was all about this differences and how they were simply irreconcilable. It focuses more on personal relationship between the two and how the two champions of the crusade against un-touchability were so drastically different in their approach.

Two strong men revered by the whole nation , placed in the premise of the historical event of the poona pact of 1932, which saw a step forward in the cause of Dalits and against the practice of untouchability. Gandhi and Ambedkar were severely disturbed by the ill treatment of the Shudras or the lower castes of the society. However, they found themselves at odds when it came to achieving a solution to the problem. Though they had the same aim, their means were different. Ambedkar, who had experienced the excesses of the cruel practice, was seeking a political solution and law enforcement while Gandhi was seeking a human level change. As it is today even 80 years back these two paths are irreconcilable.

The first 45 minutes of the play goes into these arguments between Gandhi and Ambedkar in the second round table conference at London in 1932. The play very beautifully depicts the strange situation that these two stalwarts encounter. Both of them acknowledge each other that they are fighting for the same cause and yet unable to reconcile their means. It kind of shows our real life experiences. Whenever Gandhi asks ambedkar to "UNDERSTAND", the immediate reply by Ambedkar is that "WHAT TO UNDERSTAND, YOU ARE TELLING THE SAME THING AS I AM ".

Unable to break the deadlock, Gandhi goes on a fast in poona. Here the play very nicely portrays the milieu that ambedkar finds himself. He finds slogans against him on his way to work. At home he is visited by Gandhi's son Devdas who breaks down in grief. Ambedkar finds this situation very difficult. Despite their confrontations, ambedkar and Gandhi shared a camaraderie, which a scene in the play brings out poignantly. Rama bai, Ambedkar's wife serves him food, but he finds himself unable to eat . On being asked why, he tells with a heavy heart, it is difficult for him to swallow his food knowing Gandhi is on a hunger strike at that very moment. The next fifteen minutes of the play revolves around this theme and how Gandhi's fast was broken and a reluctant reconciliation achieved between them.

The next part of the play was most interesting for me. Ambedkar comes in to tell Gandhi that he will be changing his religion. Ambedkar argues that though he was born as a dalit, and a Hindu, he will surely not die as Dalit and Hindu. Here a strong argument builds up between the two. Gandhi argues that Dalits are a part of Hindu community and they must accept it. He says that ambedkar will be leaving his culture, his tradition, festivals and all related cultural settings if he decides to shift his "Dharma". Ambedkar responds by narrating his experiences right from his childhood and the cruel treatment he received even after acquiring a foreign degree. He very powerfully questions if these were what Gandhi meant by culture and tradition. Gandhi is left speechless. Gandhi picks up again reaffirming his faith in the varna system. He justifies the varna system and argues that a certain set of occupations are prerogative of certain varnas. He strongly refutes the idea of inter-caste marriage. Ambedkar very sarcastically says that Gandhi was practicing something contradictory to his preaching. He asks Gandhi why he is not doing any business being born in the Bania/vyshya community. Again Gandhi is left speechless.
This scene clearly shows hypocrisy in Gandhi. He totally justifies the menial jobs by the shudra and says that it is equivalent to a brahmin teaching wisdom. He argues in terms of dignity of labour. Ambedkar totally unconvinced by Gandhi leaves the scene. This is the face of ghandi that i had not heard of or read about.

When Gandhi passes away, feeling the loss, Ambedkar comments on how the dialogue has been left unfinished and that murdering someone is not the solution to a debate or a confrontation.

This was a very powerful play with outstanding performance by the actors. For a lay man like me, it puts me into deep contemplation on who was correct or rather who was wrong? In sociology this state of contemplation is called "Pattern variable" coined by the great sociologist Talcott Parsons.

Pattern variable aside, This play had a very interesting component which none of the play which i have seen so far had. At the end of the play, director Arvind Gaur comes on the stage and opens the gathering for questions and suggestions.
Here people can share their experience, their thoughts and give their comments. Quite a few people asked about the controversies in this play and how arvind handled it and how Arvind convinced the Gujarat police not to ban this play.
I also asked arvind if the gandhi's role was made more hypocritical than he actually was. Arvind was crystal clear in his reply. He said, each word in the drama is recorded in history and he has not tried to meddle with any of the historical content/sources. He also made a good remark. "We normally don't like to hear anything negative about someone whom we consider a hero".

All in all it was a very thought provoking and powerful play. I hope every young citizen of this country gets to see this play.

Visit to Flood affected areas in Guntoor District (AP)

“My house is gone... It’s no more...”, “I don’t know where my cattle is... Rather if it’s dead or alive...” this was a very common phrase I heard when we had reached a government school which was a relief camp for the people who were affected in the floods which recently took place in some parts of Guntur District (Andhra Pradesh, India). I was in Guntur to visit the flood affected area. (Hereon it will be called FAA).

We were in a team of 4 ,Avinash, Sheel,Parag and myself. We left Bangalore on 9th October to a city called Guntur. After travelling for almost 650kms and 12hrs we reached the city called Guntur. We had already made a contact person in Guntur who was going to accompany us as well as guide us in that locale. We were directed to an Institute kind of a place where our stay was organized for next 2 days. The institute name was BIRD (Bosco Integral Rural Development). We got freshened up and soon Mr. Bala Kumar; our contact person in Guntur, arrived at the place where we had been put up. After the self introduction session, we immediately started heading towards the flood affected areas and the relief camps. Toyota Qualis was arranged for us to roam around the places. En route we had brunch where we met Mr. Jagdish who joined us.

We got the news that the relief camp was soon going to be bunged as most of the villagers were going back to their native places. So we thought of having a look at the relief camp first. We reached a small village and then entered a government school. This school was a relief camp for the FAA people. There was a big line of men and women, quarrels going around everywhere, policemen trying to sort them, some government officials trying to regulate the process.


After a few minutes I comprehended what this havoc was all about. All the FAA people were getting food grains (rice) to take it to their home. This rice was being supplied by the government as a help for those who were affected. “My house is gone... It’s no more...”, “I don’t know where my cattle is... Rather if it’s dead or alive...” was quite a common thing to whomsoever I tried to talk. We were lucky to have Mr. Bala Kumar as he was a local person and well conversed with English and Telugu. Thus language was never a barrier for those 2 days. Around 2000 people were staying in a small school where they were provided with lunch, every day. They were also provided with clean drinking water pouches and biscuits. We clicked a few pictures of the provisions made in the relief camp and then we moved onwards to the actual affected area. We were watching all the flood affected farms, live, and till date had seen them only in the newspapers.

While listening to the stories about the floods from the local people accompanying us, our vehicle suddenly stopped and then we realized that there was a low lying area ahead and water was flowing over the road. It was a distance of 100 meters approximately to cross, but the water was quite high and we had to take a boat to cross this area. On the other side of the road an auto rickshaw tempo was waiting for us to take us to the villages. The first village we halted was Panchalanka. The scene was catastrophic as most of the houses were in water and mud slurry. The whole area was water logged. People were walking in the mud, in the garbage and whatever was there on the ground. The houses had buckled and people were trying to clear their spaces. We met few villagers and asked about the problems they were facing. It was really bad to know that their cattle were flown away with the flood water. A very few of them were lucky to have their cattle safe and sound. We then travelled to another place called Kullur. We were welcomed by applause. I still wonder what they were thinking about us! I guess they were thinking about us as entertainers, four crazy looking boys in shorts and cameras. A relief camp was setup in the village school and was still very much needed as half of the village was in water. The flood water was still flowing through the village. I feared to step into the water for a second, but then built the courage to get into it. I was having a look at a house and then the toilet grasped my attention. The water was gushing out from the toilet as the soak pit under the toilet had got filled with flood water.


We observed few damaged houses and spoke with the house owners. They had accepted the circumstances without any scowl on their face. They took us inside their houses. The beds were hanging to the ceiling, just to avoid them from getting wet. At the other sight, a shack made from dry tody leaves had collapsed. The lady owner was smiling cheerfully and was ready to show what all had got trapped inside her house. We came back to the place where our tempo was parked. A small shop in the village refreshed us from the scorching sun by providing us cold drinks. We started to our way back by taking a ring route. Our Qualis was waiting on the other side. All had stunned after witnessing the devastating scenes. Mean while we had a late lunch in Tenali town. We asked Mr. Kumar if it was possible to visit some nearby village and have a dialogue with the villagers about sanitation. He immediately called a contact person and arranged for a meeting in a village. These people were from Self Help Groups (SHG). They spoke very freely about their concerns of sanitation and toilets. They had no other option than open defecation that too at a minimum distance of 1km from their house. They had separate areas for men and women. They had no solution for it. All this was adding to my experience and was not a bookish knowledge. It was late, we took their leave and went back to the city where we were put up. At the end of a hectic day, we wanted rest, after taking a wash!

Day 2

The day started with heavy breakfast at a roadside eatery. We met Mr. Bala Kumar in his office for a small meeting about the potential of development in the villages. A Qualis was arranged again for visiting villages nearby, but this time it was non-flood affected areas. We had a visit to village Lam, a hilly and rocky area.

This village was surely a big potential for EcoSan toilets according to my readings and knowledge. An interesting case in this village was about a handicapped girl, who had no other option than to walk about 1km as all the villagers do, for the big job. Most of the houses in this village had a small bathroom in the kitchen garden, but the water coming out from the bathroom was allowed to run in the open areas in the village. We visited one more village called Tillur. This village looked a little bit economically sound than others. The houses were having toilets as well as bathrooms. The wastes were allowed to flow to a septic tank. But rainy season was a big problem for these toilets as the water tables used to rise and the drain came out from the toilets. The village had open gutters flowing all around and was a major breeding hub for mosquitoes. The third village we visited had a surprise for us and welcomed us with a home prepared food with the country side taste. Very well prepared 9-10 varieties and to end it up, we were offered Kheer (porridge). After resting for a while and brief talks with the SHG leaders, we headed back to Guntur. We realized the potential these villages have to install EcoSan toilets. With enthusiasts and dedicated people, I am sure that sanitation will not be a dream for these villagers. It was a very much enriching experience to understand the state of Sanitation in the rural side. I hope that all the villages in India will cope with the problem of Sanitation and help to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

(Few Pictures of the trip here)

Monetary policy and Food inflation.

The whole sale price index-based (WPI) inflation has come back to positive line at + 0.12 percent for the week ending on 5 September, mainly on the wake of surging prices of essential commodities.

What is the real significance of this inflation number? It only means that the prices of articles have gone up by 0.12% compared to its prices last year when the year on year inflation stood at 12.42 percent (September 2008). Similarly if we compare the current prices with the prices in 2007, then the price has gone up by 12.54%.

Already discussions have begun in the media on the response of the monetary policy towards positive inflation. On this backdrop it is worthwhile to look at the impact of monetary policy on the current food inflation (positive or negative).

The food inflation today stands around 8% year on year. Though the WPI based inflation was on the negative side over the past several weeks, the food inflation per se was very much on the positive side. With quite erratic monsoons this year, the food inflation is only going to rise over the next few months. Our country needs to address this on top priority. We are still by and large a poor country with crores of people having no sustained access to food, water and sanitation.

With the WPI inflation crossing on to the positive side, there is already a talk on rolling back soft monetary policy in order to stem inflationary pressures. Will hardening of monetary policy stem the surge in prices of food articles?

We must understand here that, the current inflation in food articles is mainly on account of poor supply and not on excessive demand. Though the demand has gone up, the supply of food articles have come down drastically. The situation will only worsen on account of bad monsoon. Monetary policy per se cannot do much to augment the supply. Increasing or decreasing the key interest rates will not get down the food inflation. On the fiscal side, the short term solution is to import food at affordable prices and to distribute this food at affordable prices. Monetary policy can help in doing this in the short run.

In the short run, contrary to conventional theory, following a softer monetary policy will help in stemming the food inflation. A softer monetary policy can act positively in three ways vis-à-vis food inflation:

1. Lower interest rates owning to softer monetary policy will push spending on food and non food articles. Obviously more money will be spent on non-food articles. There will be more credit flow and more economic activity. In this scenario, more money will be at the hands of more people. More unorganized people are likely to get employment and there will be some trickle down if not complete. Under the inflationary condition caused by supply constraints, more economic activity will at least make food articles more affordable thereby controlling the net impact of surge in food prices. Though food inflation will not be controlled a great deal, at least the net impact of surge in food prices can be controlled by increased affordability. On the other, in the short run, a harder monetary policy will stem economic activity and render people with lower or no wages and make food unaffordable and at the same time push the food prices since the food prices are controlled by supply factors and not by monetary policy.
2. Softer monetary policy will give incentives for import of food articles. Again, in the short run, it can help in reducing the impact of food inflation.
3. Since the current food inflation is not controlled by demand and supply of money inside the economy, a softer monetary policy will help in boosting revenue to afford food import.

On the long run, monetary policy will not help in making food more affordable. The government must come up with concrete plans to boost the farm economy, moving into a greener economy will yield rich dividends. Government must come up with clear renewable energy policy, must encourage spending on greener technology and get the energy prices lower and make it affordable. Watershed development and sustainable sanitation programmes must be given an unprecedented fillip.

In conclusion, at the current scenario, hardening the interest rates will only worsen the situation with food inflation and the current monetary policy must not be rolled back. On the long run, protecting the environment and boosting farm economy are the only way ahead if we are seriously thinking about a hunger free nation.

Rainwater harvesting at accept society.

I have already written about the good work being done by ACCEPT society. You can read in detail about accept on here .

ACCEPT is located off Hennur road in Bangalore where the water situation is pathetic. As a matter of fact the land given to ACCEPT by government of karnataka was a landfill land. So the land was virtually given for free to ACCEPT and few more NGOs around them.

ACCEPT is run by a gentleman by name Raju matthew. He left his booming business in USA to start this NGO to rehabilitate and care for HIV patients, particularly children. To reduce the water problem faced by ACCEPT and to contribute his bit for the environment, Raju Matthew decided to install a rainwater harvesting system at the NGO. For funding, he contacted KPMG, a leading audit firm.Thankfully KPMG agreed to fund the project through their CSR arm. Today the campus of ACCEPT society captures and uses directly for domestic purposes about 6,75,000 liters of water annually and puts about 10,00000 liters of water into the water table. every year. This is a fantastic example of how precious water falling on one's head can be used effectively using very simple technologies.

It is not the technology but the far sightedness of Mr Matthew that has to be appreciated. Though rainwater harvesting is doing its rounds in the academic circles for quite some time now, it is yet to get wide scale acceptance and appreciation in the society. Only now government is contemplating seriously about bringing a law to make rainwater harvesting mandatory. Mr Matthew had confidence on the technology and took great personal interest in executing the project.
In the grip of a very tight financial rope walk, Matthew persuaded a firm to fund his venture. In fact he always wanted to do this. He had collected all the articles written by colleague in the Hindu on the subject of rainwater harvesting. Moment he got the funding, he immediately got the ball rolling.

I was involved with this project in capacity of a consultant for KPMG. Below is a small write up on the technical aspects of the project at ACCEPT.

ACCEPT Society runs a charitable care and support home for HIV patients in Dodda Gubbi off Hennur Road on about 3.5 acres of land. There is a main building housing about 35 patients. There is also a children's home for about 24 children. About 20+staff is also present on campus. There is also a small dairy,poultry and piggery on campus. Some agriculture is also done on the premises. There are totally 3 tube-wells out of which one has completely dried up and the yields from the other two are quite low. Currently water is sourced from 2 tube-wells for all domestic purposes apart from private water supply through tankers . At present Accept society is not connected by BWSSB (municipal) piped water supply or underground sewerage. Approximately 10KL of water is required per day for domestic use

There is a large open perennial well outside of this campus. Water from this well is also used for irrigation. ACCEPT Society wants to secure its water sources (ensure that tube-wells do not run dry). In this context Accept society invested on roof top rainwater harvesting and ground water recharge with financial assistance from KPMG foundation.

Rooftop rainwater harvesting:

Rooftop rainwater harvesting is done for the main building, the conference room and the cowshed. 10” PVC gutters are fixed on two sides and rear side of the building. After first rain separation, the water is filtered by overground filters. Totally 6 filters of different capacities are installed at various positions to filter the water. All the filtered water flows into a 25KL underground sump through underground piping. (The sump roof is also serving as a training area and a good platform for drying utensils)

Submersible sump is installed in this sump to pump the water to the main sump. The main sump is about 13 KL capacity. The water from this sump is pumped to overhead tanks.

Provision is made to either pump the harvested water to the main sump or to take the water for gardening through a valve mechanism.

Details of the catchment, storage and cost are given in the table.

Parameter	Measure
Total roof Area (terrace area)	760 m2
Estimated Daily demand	10 KL
Size of rainwater sump constructed	25 KL
Recharge Well	One recharge well of size 5 feet dia and 20 feet deep and another 7 feet dia and 30 feet deep
Cost of system	Rs 4,10,000

Ground water Recharge:

Apart from this, two recharge wells are dug to recharge the aquifer. The surface runoff from the field and large open areas is channeled into a drain. 5 silt traps are constructed at appropraite places to hold the silt. The relatively clear water which flows over the silt trap is filtered through an in-drain filter and then the water flows into the recharge well. One well is 5 feet in diameter and 20 feet deep and the other 7 feet in diameter and 30 feet deep. Both the wells are yielding water. The 5 feet dia well started yielding at around 18 feet and the 7 feet dia well around 25 feet. The last 5 feet was dug by continuous dewatering using a dewatering pump.

Temple at "Soorya"

Last Sunday and Monday, me and couple of my friends went driving for a pilgrimage to a couple of temples in western ghats; Dharmastala and Kukke Subramanya. Enroute to these places, we visited a small wind farm and the historic temple of Belur.

I shall write in detail about the trip some other time. But here i am writing about an unique place we visited on the second day of the trip. This was a temple in the town of Ujire in Dakshin Kannada district, about 15 Km north of Dharmastala.

On sunday evening at Dharmastala, my dear friend Kiran gets a call from his mother asking him to visit the "Soorya" (sun) temple near Ujire. Apparently his mother had made a wish (ಹರಿಕೆ) that if gets a job in UK, she would ask him to visit this place. Thank god, he did get a Job in UK. So since we were anyway very close to this place, his mother asked him to visit the place.

I was surprised that there is a soorya (ಸೂರ್ಯ, sun) temple in Karnataka. I had only heard of a sun temple at Konark in Orissa. When enquired with kiran, he said, he has no idea and his job was just to visit the temple the next day as per his mother's instruction. Even i was eager to find out where and what was this temple.

After the darshan of lord shiva the Sunday evening and again on monday morning, we set out to this "Soorya" temple. We entered the Ujire town and enquired a few people for the road to the temple. Nobody knew where it was. Finally, we asked a taxi driver. Even he was surprised about a "Sun" temple in his town. Thankfully, kiran told him that people offer mud idols there if their wish (ಹರಕೆ) is granted. Then, the taxi driver smiled and told us that it is not the sun temple but the place is called "SOORYA"( ಸೂರ್ಯ). This was a Shiva/Rudra temple in the place called "SOORYA".

So we three "champions" set out on the muddy and bumpy ghat roads to the "SHIVA/RUDRA" temple at "SOORYA". Thanks to the wish kiran's mother made, we were blessed to see a beautiful place. Though the roads were bad and it was raining heavily, it was quite a sight. It was so beautiful. It was so good to be there.


We did manage to reach the temple. It was really pouring heavily when we reached there. After a little while, the rain stopped and we got out of the car with our umbrella and headed towards the temple. There were not many people out there.

The deity in the temple was "SOORYA SADASHIVA RUDRA DEVARU" (ಸೂರ್ಯ ಸದಾಶಿವ ರುದ್ರ ದೇವರು). It was very interesting for me. The village where the temple is situated is called "Nada grama" (ನಡ ಗ್ರಾಮ). But the name of the deity is derived from the place called "Soorya". The localites told me that "ಊರಿನ ಹೆಸರು ಸೂರ್ಯ ಹಾಗು ಗ್ರಾಮದ ಹೆಸರು ನಡ ಗ್ರಾಮ". It means the name of the place is "Soorya" in the village called "Nada grama". I am yet to figure out the difference between them. Anyways i dint have much time to enquire more about it.

More interesting was the temple. The main deity here is Shiva/Rudra. The people who perform pooja here are all Madhwas (They belong to the madhwa community, a sub caste of Brahmins who are Vaishnavites) . No doubt the deity is called Rudra devaru .(orthodox madhwas call shiva as Rudra devaru). It was a clean and pretty big temple built in traditional coastal architecture.


The belief here is that, you make a wish and if it comes true, you have to go to the temple in person and offer to the deity an associated idol(s) made of mud and go to the nearby kalyani(stepped well) and another small temple and offer prayers. There is a specific mud idol associated with every wish. Provided the wish is granted, one has to purchase the idol and offer it to the God there. The list of mud idols is exhaustive. They are very specific too. It starts from dogs, cats, to lorry,bus to computer,mobile phones to masonry and RRC roofs to even Beedi bundle.


It is quite strange that the list of offerings can be so specific and so exhaustive. One can imagine that there may be myriad wishes of people. But it beats me to imagine the list of offerings associated with such wishes. Obviously, the fields of wishes can be still far far greater than the associated list of offerings.

So as instructed by his mother, my friend Kiran purchased a small mud table and chair and offered it to the god. There is a small rite associated with the offering. One is supposed to keep it over some rice and offer it at a specific place.

From there we went to the Kalyani (stepped well) outside the temple. It is one of the most beautiful Kalyanis that i have seen in the recent past. It is covered by vegetation on all sides. There is a small paved path way leading to the kalyani. The kalyani is about 55 feet deep and the water is blue in colour. Yes, the water was blue in colour. It was really beautiful. I don't know exactly why it was blue in colour. But i think it is because of the thick vegetation all around and its depth.

We spent about 10 minutes near that kalyani and went to a small prayer place. It is basically a small temple like structure where people stand and pray.

We finished all that and returned to the main temple. After performing the sankalpa for Rudrabhisheka (ರುದ್ರಾಭಿಷೇಕ) there we left towards Kukke suramanya again in the beautiful but bumpy roads.

Without debating normative issues of beliefs here, i can say that we were really lucky to visit such a beautiful place in an obscure temple village.

(Few pictures of the trip : http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=20660&id=1020055458&l=2f04df83ca )