Sandeep, The Real Hero

On the Last month of the last decade, i.e. in December 2010, i had an opportunity to participate in an "Environment Awareness Program" at an Ashram in Magadi taluk. Magadi Taluk is one of the backward taluks in Ramnagara District in Southern Karnataka. In spite of its proximity to Bangalore, Magadi is a backward region. Land is little rocky and not very fertile. Large parts of Magadi depend on the Tipgonahalli reservoir built by Bharatha Rathna Sir M.Visveswaraya. Magadi Suffers from poor literacy and pathetic Sanitation.

Though i was invited to give a talk, it was more a learning experience for me. My audience were about 100 children of class 10 from the Dhudupanahalli Village. They were from the Kannada medium government high School. Most of them were children of small and marginal farmers. None of them had any idea about piped water to their homes. None of them had any great idea about underground sewerage system.

I am quite used to giving talks in Kannada. So it was not a great thing for me to talk at length for almost 2 hours on water, health and sanitation. There were some uncomfortable questions at the end of the talk but i could negotiate.

But the most important part of the program was meeting with Sandeep. Son of a small farmer from Dhudupanahalli Village, Sandeep is a real hero according to me.

People like me are mere "Talkers" or at best i could describe myself as made up of "Academic Non Sense". I speak more and do less or almost nothing. But Sandeep is not like me.

Till October 2010, Going late to school was almost a routine for Sandeep. On one fateful day in October he was punished for going late to School. On inquiry into his problem, it was found out that he had to walk almost 4 kms a day to fetch clean water for his family.

The punishment was a blessing in disguise. Sometime in October 2010, Sandeep decided to solve his problem by himself. On his way to school, he learnt that a program was going on somewhere close by ;where local politicians and bureaucrats were present. He went in there and learnt that the GP president was presiding over. Without caring for anyone there, he made a public remark that the local politicians were looting the water meant for his village. He publicly accused the local politicians of theft and made a representation to the ZP CEO that the water from the tube well in front of his house was transported elsewhere and that he and his villagers were put to hardship.

This was reported in the popular Kannada Daily Newspaper "Vijay Karnataka" the next day. The Authorities were forced to act the very next day. Immediately a New Tube well was sunk and now clean water is just a 4 minutes walk for this young hero Sandeep.

Surely we have a lots to learn here. Particularly people like me who enjoy criticizing the system over the dining table have to learn from Sandeep. I regularly get into discussions and very heated debates while on long drives, or at restaurants or at coffee shops on topics of corruption, inflation, bad system etc etc. We talk to each other and debate pointlessly and think it is "Sexy" to criticize the system (this is true with some super academicians at conferences in five star hotels debating the system eating cashew nuts) . While i agree that one has to raise his/her voice, but its most important to rise the voice at the right time and at the right place to the right people. Arguing or debating about the system over a cup of coffee in the local coffee shop is utter useless. We must have the courage to shout at the right place.

(Few Pictures of the workshop here)

(Pictures of a similar workshop at a school near Nelmangala  here )

Life is Unfaithful, One day it will leave you.

[I had written this  back in 2008 but never felt like publishing it in Public. Since its been almost three years , i thought of publishing it now]. 

It was in January 2003 (I was 19) that i entered the ICU (Intensive care unit) for the first time in my life. Actually it was called CCU (Cardiac Care unit) in the first floor of mallya hospital Bangalore. That was my father's first attack of pulmonary edema. This was my father's first major cardiac related hospitalization after his By-Pass operation in 1993. It was a very strange feeling . He had pipes all around his body and was looking a bit scary. I was seeing someone in such a state from mere 2 feet distance for the first time. To be frank, i did not want to stay in the hospital since i was actually very uncomfortable and a little scared. I had strange feeling of the idea of death, disease etc. Later of course i went to the cellar of the hospital and sat on a sofa all night.

The next day was strange in more than one way. I returned to the hospital only in the evening and was planning to stay back there for the night. That day i had a company. A middle aged man may be in his late 40s who had got his son to the hospital a couple of days back since the latter complained of chest pain. He was a jovial rajasthani who had actually come for his son's CET exam. We had a nice chat. He was happy about his son's recovery. He said that his son would be taken out of the CCU the next day. Within an hour's time he went off somewhere and i sat on the sofa outside CCU all night. I was all alone there outside the CCU in the night. Unfortunately, the 18 year son of the rajasthani died around 1:30 in the morning. I found myself in a weird situation. All night we were searching for his father who could not be traced till 7:30 in the morning. Once he came to the CCU, he could not believe the sequence of events and he simply could not control himself. The rest is the story of administration at the hospital which is not worth writing.

The next day was even more eventful. I went home trying to digest a shocking news.Meantime my father had recovered and was doing well. He had also got to know the unfortunate event that had taken place last night. I returned to the hospital the next day afternoon. My father was doing fine and there was talk about his discharge the next day. I had a brief chat with him and came out and i was offered sweets by a lady. She had just become a grandmother. (At the mallya hospital, the labour ward is just next to CCU). This was probably the strangest feeling i have had. Six hours back, at the very spot there was an helpless man who had lost his son. Now at the same spot is a lady who is happy to serve doodh peda (A sweet made of milk) to everyone there. This may sound very casual. People are born and they die, so what? Yes so what? That is the big question. Why was that very person die and why did this very person take birth. Why was there such a change in the atmosphere within 6 hours? The distance measured in absolute linear scale between death and birth was only 10 meters (distance between labour ward and CCU). The time gap was less than 12 hours.


Anyways this was my first meeting with the phenomenon of death. As a matter of fact the first dead body i saw from a distance of less than 3 feet was that 18 year old boy.

From 2003 to 2008, my father had many such attacks and recovered. He used to have attacks at odd hours like 2 or 3 in the morning. But i was never scared, he used to recover in less than 5 hours thanks to super-fast treatment from Dr.Prakash, our Family doctor who is actually responsible for 5 year extension to my father's life.

It was only on 7 February 2007, that i got scared again by phenomenon of death. It was around 9:30 in the morning that i got a call from my mother saying that my father is complaining about numbness and feeling very cold. My Parents had returned from gurvayur that morning. I was in the library and i immediately rushed home. Father was standing near the gate completely covered with a jeans jacket. He said, we cannot wait for the car and i immediately called for an auto. My father vomited close to half a mug of blood in the auto.He was very uncomfortable. I had never seen him in that state. I had actually thought that that was the end. Never before was he so serious. Never before had he complained about absolute no sensation in both the arms. I thought that he would not survive till the hospital. That day, we did not get stuck at any signal, the traffic police at a junction immediately cleared us seeing my father's condition.But as usual appa was up and running within 12 hours and he let me proceed with the tirupathi trip the next day.

Exactly one year later, 7 February 2008, my father was taken to Mallya hospital never to return home alive. From my memory, probably the 15 days from 7 to 21 February was the most anxious days for all M.B.Brothers and family.( I was too young when my grandmother passed away and i cannot recollect clearly the mood in the family few days before her death.)

But this time my father was not in CCU but ICU. One floor above CCU. Few days before my father's death, another death happened one floor below, in the labour ward. The death was of a baby which did not open its eyes.


How unfair the world is? What was the purpose of that baby's life? (was it to give employment to the doctor who operated on its mother or was it to give business to the companies which manufacture nutrition to expecting mothers?or was it to bring some revenue to the hospital which can create secondary employment? may be or may not be it is a mixture of all this. i do not know.) . Five years back a happy lady had given me doodh peda at the very spot. Five years later i witnessed uncontrollable tears on another grandmother.

It was then on 21 February 2008 that the inevitable happened.There was a strange,weird and helpless silence around .


My father's life is the story of grit,courage, compassion and generosity. A mighty spirited man who fought an open heart surgery when he was 27 (In 1970, he traveled unreserved, standing from Baroda to Mumbai to undergo the surgery). That was followed up with a By-Pass surgery in 1993. He scaled Badrinath and kedarnath in 1999. With all that he faced in life, he was in absolute love with life. He never complained against anything and had no regrets in life. He was the first person to offer a helping hand, at times at the cost of his own health. He was known for his generosity. No one who came to him asking for help in cash or kind were turned down. 
His spirits were so high  that even in his death bed, when he got the news that my brother will be flying in from America to see him, he sent a note to me to ask my brother to get few bottles of whiskey . When i enquired him if he wanted whiskey in his present condition, he said it was not for him but for his Brother and few of his close friends. 


At the end of the day, for how much he loved his life and how much others loved him , few lines written by the Hindi lyricist  Anjaan will be the perfect tribute to the life and death of the great man 

"Life is unfaithful, one day it will leave you

Death is a lover, it will take you with it

The one who will teach the world

How to live after dying

will be called the king of destiny, my dear"

[This Experience made me to write another blog long back in 2008. Read it here]

Inspirations: Girish Bharadwaj ;The Bridge Builder.

I came across an article in Economic times sometime back about an engineer Mr Girish Bharadwaj building low cost suspension bridges in villages of Karnataka. Last week me and another engineer friend of mine Girinath M Reddy decided to meet him. He was very warm in our E-mail interactions and asked us to meet him on 11 of December 2010.

Mr Girish Bharadwaj is a mechanical engineer from the coastal town of Sullia in Karnataka. He runs his own Fabrication workshop Ayas Shilpa, meaning Sculpture in steel at sullia for his livelihood.

He is better known for his untiring work in building Bridges. He specializes in low cost suspension bridges.It all started in 1975 when Mr Bharadwaj started his fabrication shop. He was approached by the local villagers of Alletty to build them a bridge. He outrightly rejected their request saying that he does not know anything about Bridges. But the villagers persuaded him so much that he had to yield. So he started referring structural engineering books and finally he came out with a suspension bridge design. He somehow erected the bridge but as he says "I could not sleep properly for the 4 months that it took to construct the bridge and i stood at the middle of the bridge during the inauguration so that i am the first person to fall down if the bridge collapses on the load of hundreds of people who had turned up for the ribbon cutting".

He has not looked back from then. Till now he has designed and built 96 suspension bridges. He has a lot more in the pipeline.Girish takes lot of satisfaction in his work of building Bridges. He says the work is all about "Connecting villages, Connecting Lives and connecting hearts". He has had his share of problems with the bureaucracy, with the professors at NIT proof checking his designs.But all that is not deterring his spirits. He says "People in cities do not understand that connectivity is a problem in villages". He put his commitment towards his work very well by quoting Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's complete poem "Psalm of Life"

Tell me not in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou are, to dust thou returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each tomorrow
Find us farther than today.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act, - act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sand of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solenm main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us then be up and doing, 
With a heart for any fate; 
Still achieving, still pursuing, 
Learn to labor and to wait. 

Our conversations were very good and educative. He was very very down to earth. He explained to us the nuances of bridge building particularly in remote areas,the bureaucratic system within which certain things have to be worked out. He was very candid and humble.

My friend is a structural engineer from IIT. So Mr Bharadwaj took out a few designs and drawings to get help from him. We were fascinated by his attitude. Mr Bharadwaj has designed and built about 100 bridges and he was asking our opinion about the next bridge. He kept on saying that he is still learning the art of bridge construction and he was exploring different designs and methods to cut costs. He asked us to study his designs and drawings and to give him feedback.

We ended the day with a visit to one of his foot bridges connecting the village dodderi to the town of Sullia where we could meet a few users. One chap walking over the bridge told us that "Sir, the road to sullia from Dodderi is 8 kms and it is very bad. It was very tough for us to get to the town, the bridge has made it just 2 minutes walk, we can get our daily domestic supplies very easily".

(Pictures of the trip are here )

Disqualification of MLAs

[The article below contains some knee jerk recommendations and opinions. These have come out more because of frustration and not out of any clear cut and sound analysis. Nonetheless its worth giving a thought.]

Over the last ten days, Karnataka has been the ground for very ugly Political activity. Never has the state seen this degree of Horse-trading and corruption. Blatant misuse of power and audacious use of bad language in public has become quite common with the politicians in Karnataka. No doubt the politicians have put 5 crore citizens of karnataka in Shame.

Two constitutional positions Viz, the Governor of karnataka and the Speaker of the lower house have become major players in the ongoing crisis.

The former gave political directions and the latter's decision to disqualify certain members has been questioned in the Courts.

The question in front of the court is that, How could the Speaker disqualify independent MLAs when they do not belong to any political party?

Well let the court decide that.

But there is another law in our constitution which i think applies to most MLAs sitting in the present Assembly. Article 191 Clause 1 (b) says "A person shall be disqualified for being chosen as , and for being, a member of legislative Assembly or legislative council of a state if he is of unsound mind and stands so declared by a competent court"

Given the kind of behaviour of some of the MLAs who shifted sides in matter of few hours, they can be best said having "Unsound Mind". Anyone with sound mind will not change ideologies in 24 hours. Anyone with sound mind will not tear his shirt in the Floor of the assembly. These kind of behaviours must come under the ambit of "Unsound mind" and these MLAs must be disqualified under article 191. Constitution must be amended and these behaviours must warrant disqualification. There must also be a law which prevents withdrawing support more than once to any government in power in a span of 5 years.

These things may be slightly contrary to the true spirit of democracy, but as the supreme court hearing a case on anti defection law in Kihoto Hollohan Vs Zachillhu rightly remarked, they become necessary "to curb the evil of mischief of political defections motivated by the lure of office or other similar considerations"

Memorable Monsoon Drive..

Few weeks back (September 2010), we drove to New Delhi from Bangalore and Back. Over the fifteen days in the middle of the monsoon we drove close to 6000 kms. It was an adventurousness and enriching drive. Onward we drove on the country side via Madhya Pradesh (MP). In MP we traveled on NH3 touching Indore, Shivpuri and Gwalior. (The route)

Onward Route

I must say that the drive was quite an experience. To start with we visited the historic town of chitradurga and reached Belgaum. Belgaum is a town for food lovers.Over the three days at Belgaum ,we tried out various chats (Shetty's snack bar), sweets, juices and many local delicacies. Ginger Juice at ramdev's and Solkadi at Rani chenamma circle were just mouth watering.We camped at belgaum for three days and set out for the drive for the next fifteen days. (Photos Ramakrishna Ashrama at Belgaum are here)

   
From Belgaum we reached kolhapur. We had a good darshan of Mahalakshmi and proceeded towards Shirdi. We lost our way at Pune and took a wrong route to Shirdi. Shirdi was crowded than expected. We reached Shirdi at 11 PM after driving for more than 12 hours from Belgaum and we had to wake up at 2:30 AM the following day to get the darshan of Baba. After the darshan of Baba, we visited the Shani shinganapur, the temple of Swambhu or Lord shani. No building in this village have doors. yes, I mean it. No building here have doors.

After the Darshan of Lord shani, we visited The historic city of Aurangabad. We managed to visit the Daulatabad Fort (Photos are here). But we had to Skip ellora and Jyothirling thanks to very very heavy rains. Our bad Experience with the monsoon hit bad roads started from here. Not that roads were good till Shirdi, but at least they were drivable. But after Aurangabad, it was hell all the way till Agra. It was called national Highway, But it is best called "NATIONAL SHAME".

The NH3 Stretch ,Unthinkable Highway

We had planned to reach Indore that night. But roads were simply undrivable. Believe it or no, Our car got stuck in the Slush on the highway somewhere near the border of Maharashtra. It was dark and was raining. so we hit a town called Sendhwa about 100 kms from Indore. My god, the hotel was so dirty and it was impossible to stay there. We were welcomed by an armed security guard. As we dint have a choice, we checked into the hotel at 12 in the night. Yeah we made the impossible POSSIBLE !!!. We got up early the next day and planned to drive up to Gwalior. The road improved and the last 80 kms till Indore was a four lane road. So Gwalior by night was thinkable. But Indore welcomed us with some pot lakes and very heavy rains. We went into the city to get our car checked up. The city was flooded and it was quite annoying and frustrating to drive in the city. We somehow manged to get out and hit the highway. The road from Indore to Agra was Unthinkable. By any standards other than may be that in Afghanistan, this cannot be called as a National Highway.

Throughout Madhya Pradesh we were accompanied by heavy rains and bad roads. NH3 is the only road that connects Gwalior and Indore and the road exists only on paper. In reality it is only Pot lakes and pot wells.

The rural folk in MP, i guess dont understand the meaning of "Development". They call this unbelievable and hopeless roads as "Good" roads (Badiya roads). If these roads are "good" for them, then i guess bad roads do not exist for them. Rural Madhya pradesh is pitiable. Throughout NH3 on Madhya Pradesh, i did not find a school let alone hospital or any other basic facilities. . (I have traveled atleast 60% of karnataka by road. I have found primary schools in the most remote regions of karnataka where even state grid power has failed to reach). People in Rural Madhya pradesh are atleast fifteen years behind their counterparts in Karnataka. Only good thing about the drive in Madhya Pradesh was that the GPRS connectivity on my phone was active. It was 6 in the evening and we had covered just 360 Kms after 13 hours of torturous journey. It was just impossible to reach gwalior. So we checked up on my phone for any hotels close by. We were about 80 kms away from the district of Shivpuri. We covered this 80 kms in about 3 hours accompanied by heavy rain and not to mention some rivulets on the road. In retrospect, this journey was risky. Nonetheless, we reached shivpuri, checked into a relatively descent hotel (to MP standards). We were too tired for the mosquitoes and other insects to disturb us. So like partial dead bodies we slept with cottons in our ears.

Our fate continued the next day all the way till Agra. We had to tread on the progressively worsening roads and once in a way ill tempered people. Anyway, we left Shivpuri at about 7:30AM and reached Gwalior by noon . For a change we were greeted well at the Maruthi service station at Gwalior. After getting the car checked we proceeded towards the Gwalior fort and palace (Photos of Gwalior are here).  We then proceeded towards Agra. We got into some rough with a few localities at Agra but nothing serious. We saw the lovely Taj Mahal and tasted the awesome Agra peta and left to Delhi by 7 :30 PM (Photos of Taj are here ). We reached Mathura by 11 PM. But the traffic jam was so bad that we could leave Ballamgarh only by 1 AM. Finally we reached IIT-Delhi at 2:30 AM. Jai Ho Madhya Pradesh we were expected the previous day by 12 noon. 

I feel that there is a problem in investment ecosystem in India. Madhya pradesh needs far more investment both by Government and private sector. If things go as it is, we will have uncontrolled social unrest in places like Madhya Pradesh.


Nonetheless, We camped at IIT Delhi for a week. We had a series of meetings and demonstrations at IIT-Delhi, ONGC energy center and Solar energy centre at Faridabad.  

While returning, we did not repeat the mistake. We came on the Golden Quadrilateral route via Jaipur, udaipur, Ahmedabad, vadodara, Vapi, Mumbai,Pune, Belgaum and Chitradurga (Return route). Except for a small stretch near Gurgaon and between Ahmedabad and Mumbai, the road was Exemplary.

Return Route

The good monsoons had decorated the highway. Unlike the onward journey, where the monsoon had created lakes on the highway, the monsoons , on the return route had decorated both sides of the highway by lush green vegetation. The border between Rajasthan and Gujrat was in particular a treat to a nature lover.  There were many small water falls on the ghat roads. The early morning drive accomapanied by the golden sunrise was just beyond words. 


Gujrat was as expected. Excellent highways, very hospitable people and lovely food. I could touch 170 KMPH on the Ahmedabad--Vadodara express highway. 


By far, this has been my longest driving experience. It was quite an experience and will be remembered for a long long time. Many thanks to my friends Sundar, Vijay and Rakesh who accompanied me in this trip. 
(Some pictures of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh are here)

Safar (Suffer): A rambling Journey

This blog is copied from Pavan N Rao's blog with Copyright permission (http://thoughtpaisa.blogspot.com/)

Play: Safar

Language: English

Duration: ~100 minutes

Genre: Humour (satire)

Rating: Watchable

Troupe: Header and Footer Club, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore..

We checked out 'Safar' at K.H Kala Soudha on 26th Sep 2010 Sunday. Directed by Vysya Shastry , who also plays the role of the protagonist, 'Safar' is a play made by the students at IISc.

The story is about a research student (Not co-incidentally, Vysya Shastry is a real-life researcher at IISc) who begins in postgradual research with IISc. The character is overconfident and has a misplaced sense of importance. As the narrative unfolds, reality dashes his dreams and he is all set to turn into just another research Joe.

While the synposys appears grim, the play itself is punctuated by many a laugh. The writer has not spared cricket, Bollywood, spiritual leaders or IISc faculty.Written, directed and played by a closed group, one does not grudge that portions of the play are better enjoyed by the group. The plot is rather rambling but then it was probably intended to capture the life and time of the 'hero'. For an amateur hobbyclub production, the performance was brillant. For us, (me and Pavan) it was welcome to watch the performance of an original script after long time. Presumably, written originally by someone within the club, it was welcome. The researchers turn out to be fine artistes too managing off-stage with equal aplomb as onsite. The need for onstage set and props were eliminated by use of an LCD projector. However, one is disappointed with the promotional literature. Even allowing for self-aggrandisement ("Smash hit") the play failed to showcase 'apathy against initiative'. Yet, one does not regret the show, as the performance is eminently watchable. A pity that were very few in the audience who were unrelated to the cast and crew.