Happy Independence Day!

I don't know the reason, but somehow this day each year spurs me to write something. I feel the strong urge to let my beloved friends know of my dreams and thoughts about our great country.

Before I go any further - Wish you all a very happy Independence Day! India turns 61 today.

Today, we get a chance to bow in reverence to the thousands of freedom fighters who put their homeland before everything else and fought the British oppressors. Their struggle finally bore fruit and we got our Independence 61 years back on this day.

Today, we also get a chance to look back and evaluate ourselves. Have we fulfilled the dreams and visions of our freedom fighters? Would our freedom fighters feel proud about the state of our country today? Or would they feel sad that their supreme sacrifice went in vain?

It is but natural to say that the feeling would be mixed.

They would be extremely happy and proud of a number of things that our country has achieved. India has become an economic superpower. Our business houses are expanding their footprint all over the globe. We have several great people who have made a mark on the global front. Our forex reserves are overflowing. India has become the global technology hub which engages in cutting edge R&D activities. We will shortly have the world's biggest refinery for crude oil. We also got a major break at the Olympics - Abhinav Bindra won India's 1st ever individual gold medal at Olympics. Yes, one gold for a billion people may still be bad - However, a beginning has been made and hopefully this will have a cascading effect to produce more medals.

Sadly, the story does not end here - Our freedom fighters would feel extremely sad and ashamed to know that their country is still suffering from a number of ills.

Poverty is the biggest problem facing our nation today. About 30% of the people in the country earn less than Rs 10 per day. These people are in a dire situation. Many of them are homeless. They don't have even one proper meal a day. Their health is fragile and the conditions they live in is pathetic.

Education is the next big problem. India is projected to be a country with the most number of youth by 2020. This is a huge advantage which will be squandered if we dont educate this large pool of young people. Though the situation is improving, India still has one of the highest number of illiterate people. We also have a high number of school dropouts. There are several reasons behind this - The most important one is the poverty at home which forces parents to look for additional income.

Corruption is something which we should all be ashamed of. Transparency International ranks India at a paltry 72 out of 180 countries. Our politicians are one of the most corrupt in the whole world. Each one of us is to be blamed for the pathetic state of affairs. We always seek the easy way out of any government work by paying bribe. This emboldens the corrupt officials who don't do any work without taking a bribe. Corruption has the potential to bring the progress of our country to a stand still. We have taken a few good steps towards eradication corruption - Like the RTI act. However, more needs to be done. Most importantly, we need to empower our Lok Ayuktha to prosecute corrupt officials.

I have deliberately omitted terrorism out of the list above. I strongly believe that if we eradicate poverty and educate people, terrorism will automatically disappear from our country.

All this makes me wonder how we - the citizens of this country - can contribute to make the dreams our great freedom fighters come true. There are a number of little things which we are capable of doing -

Firstly, we all should vote without fail. Voting is the most powerful way to influence our country's future. By consciously voting for good candidates we can ensure that this country is run by those who really care for it.

We (by we, I mean the people who are lucky enough to read/write this post), are the beneficiaries of the economic growth of our country. Yes, we are very talented people who made our own destiny by working hard. However, I would urge each one of us to spare a thought for the rest of our society. Economic inclusiveness is extremely important for a society to exist in harmony. The communal tension, crime and violence all around us is because all the sections of the society have not benefited from development.

No, I am not telling that we must donate our salary or our car to someone poor - Instead, I am asking us to empower the poorer sections of our society to raise their standard of living. Each one of us can ensure that our maid servant's children are attending school. We can also make sure that she has an investment plan for the future. We can ensure that the security guard at our apartment is adequatly insured so that his family does not suffer in case something untoward happens to him. We can spare some time to serve at an NGO and make a difference to some people.

I have little doubt that if at least some of us come together for this noble endeavour, our country would be able to overcome most its problems. We owe at least this much to the brave hearts of our Independence struggle.

Jai Hind.

Esperanto – The Universal Language

Esperanto is the first universally accepted neutral language. It was developed by an ophthalmologist Dr. L. L. Zamenhof in the year 1887. Esperanto is a language designed to facilitate communication between people of different lands and cultures.

The word esperanto means 'one who hopes'. Zamenhof's goal was to create an easy and flexible language that would serve as a universal second language to foster peace and international understanding. Although no country has adopted the language officially, it has enjoyed continuous usage by a community estimated at between 100,000 and 2 million speakers for over a century.

Esperanto is considerably easier to learn than national languages, since its design is far simpler and more structural. Also, unlike national languages, Esperanto allows communication on an equal footing between people, with neither having the usual cultural advantage favoring a native speaker. Esperanto's purpose is not to replace any other language, but to supplement them.

Esperanto’s properties are derived from a host of languages including Sanskrit, Latin and French. Esperanto is pronounced as it is spelt and hence there is very less confusion when compared to English. Also, there are no exceptions in Esperanto, unlike English (where there are 100’s of them). Esperanto has 22 consonants, 5 vowels, and two semivowels. The words are derived by stringing together prefixes, roots, and suffixes. This process is regular, so that people can create new words as they speak and be understood.

The different parts of speech are marked by their own suffixes: all common nouns end in -o, all adjectives in -a, all derived adverbs in -e, and all verbs in one of six tense and mood suffixes, such as present tense -as. Plural nouns end in -oj (pronounced "oy"), whereas direct objects end in -on. Plural direct objects end with the combination -ojn (pronounced to rhyme with "coin"): That is, -o for a noun, plus -j for plural, plus -n for direct object. Adjectives agree with their nouns; their endings are plural -aj (pronounced "eye"), direct-object -an, and plural direct-object -ajn (pronounced to rhyme with "fine").

The core vocabulary of Esperanto was defined by Lingvo internacia, published by Zamenhof in 1887. It comprised 900 roots, which could be expanded into the tens of thousands of words with prefixes, suffixes, and compounding. In 1894, Zamenhof published the first Esperanto dictionary, Universala Vortaro, with a larger set of roots.

Today there are more than 2 million Esperantists world wide. In India, the number is close to 10000. Esperanto has caught the fancy of the youth world over due to its appeal for brotherhood and extreme ease of learning.

More information on Esperanto can be found on the following web sites –

http://www.uea.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto

http://www.esperanto-usa.org/node/3

There are plenty of online tutorials to learn Esperanto. Here are a few of them –

http://en.lernu.net/

http://www.esperanto.ca/kurso/home.htm

http://www.esperanto-chicago.org/key.htm

Here are a few online Esperanto dictionaries –

http://www.kisa.ca/vortaro/

http://www.websters-dictionary-online.org/definition/Esperanto-english/

People in Bangalore who are interested to learn Esperanto can contact –

Mr. S.S Pradhan

Ph. No. – 9448083629

sspradhan01@gmail.com

Things holding India back from being a developed nation - 2

Before I continue with my next post, I must apologize for making you wait for such a long time. The problem is that my computer has conked off and I am yet to get replacement for the parts which have gone bad.

Today, I continue my effort to explain my take on why India has not yet crossed the line, though it is standing on it for years.

My next grievance is - Poverty and Illiteracy.

Yes, both are mammoth problems. But I feel they are interlinked. If illiteracy is eliminated, I feel poverty will be eliminated automatically. Even after 60 years of independence, there are more than a third of uneducated people in India. This is a shame - given the amount of (supposed) interest every government shows to this sector. Crores of rupees are allocated every year for education - both primary and higher. However, this money is not always translated to results on the ground. We still have schools functioning under trees, without benches and tables, without toilets and with only one teacher for the entire school

Given these facts, it is not surprising that the drop out rate is very high. Parents who see that such schools don’t add any value to their living, often put their children to work. What is going wrong? Why are we not able to convince parents that education is the only panacea for eliminating poverty? The government, which is in the best possible position to help, is least interested. It's ministries are busy passing the buck - you ask the education minister and he tells that there is a lack of funds; you ask the finance minister and he tells that he is ready to release more funds only when he is satisfied that the money already given is put to good use and so on. Ultimately, the grand schemes announced just remain on paper with no one taking the onus of taking it forward. The best these politicians can do is divide us among the lines we don’t want them to (read - reservations based on castes in education) for their votes.

With this being the reality, expecting our children to compete on the global scene in this globalised world is just out of question. This is the primary reason why we often keep hearing that there is a demand-supply gap for skilled workers in all professions. Unless we achieve significant levels of literacy, it will be impossible for us to become a developed nation. All the gains we have made so far, say in science, IT or telecom domains will dwindle and go to our competitors if we don’t have a steady supply of talented professionals.

I feel that we citizens can make a huge difference in this particular aspect. There are hundreds of schools which are in need of teachers, infrastructure, books etc. It would be great if we can help these schools, and it doesn’t take much - some amount of time and maybe a small amount of money. We must know that every drop counts.

The next one in my list is Poverty - arguably the biggest pain for most of the people in this country. Even after 60 years of independence, it is a shame that more than a third of our population is living below the poverty line. Lakhs of people don’t have enough food, clothing and absolutely nothing to make a living. Their lives are filled with miseries; lack of education and large families have made them so. Often they suffer from some or the other disease and with little medical help, their life expectancy is low. True, India's life expectancy as a whole has increased - but when we break it down, we see that for BPL (Below Poverty Line) people, there is hardly any change.

Here again, the government has done a pathetic job. Most of the schemes it announces remain on paper. No one knows the whereabouts of the crores of rupees allocated to these schemes. Best example was the recent Vidharba episode. The PM himself visited the area after a spate of farmer suicides and announced a 2000+ crore package. He later toured it again only to find that there was absolutely no change in their lives!! As a result, the suicides continue. There is no one to help these poor farmers.

The people who suffers the most from poverty are the children. The parents, who cannot support themselves, let alone their children, often use their kids for some additional income. Hence, for the child, education is a distant dream.

I am hard pressed for a solution in this aspect - the investment needed is enormous. The change has to be sweeping and radical. Only the government with its massive reach and money can make the difference.

God knows when the people ruling us will wake up! Right now, they remember the poor only when there is some election round the corner - And even during these times, they don’t contribute anything concrete. They lure them by giving money (which they don’t know how to manage) and liquor (which ruins them even more). So, until these politicians do something concrete, you will find many people like me who keep cribbing :)

However, I have a request to make - recently, I met a person (in fact, he is a software engineer) who is doing a lot of social work and is running an initiative called Youth for Seva. Please visit their web site - youthforseva.org. I leave it to you, as to how you can contribute.

Things holding India back from being a developed nation

In a series of posts, I intend to present my take on why India is unable to take the next big step and announce its entry into the world's elitest nations; Why are we in a situation which is very alike to "So near, yet So far"; Your comments, criticism, encouragement are most welcome!!

1. Corruption - Corruption is, by far the biggest ill that our country faces. From a college peon to a minister, only money makes them sing. Taking bribe has become a part of a government official's duty. There are instances where bribe was taken and deadly criminals were let off; Crores of rupees worth of items are illegally siphoned off after paying bribes; Drugs which are intended to be given freely to the poor are being sold in open markets; The food grains which are intended to be rationed among the BPL people is being sold in open markets; And not paying bribes resulted in gross neglect and inaction in hospitals which have taken poor peoples' lives.

These and hundreds of other instances show that corruption is our biggest enemy.

My heart bleeds. It asks, Why is corruption such a big menace? Cant something be done about it? Isnt there someone who can put in some basic moral values into these people?

The answer is a flat NO. Noone has the courage to do it. The mafia behind them is so strong that no person who has the power to punish is ready to take the risk. This was evident when Justice Venkatachala was the Lok Ayuktha of Karnataka. He caught hundreds of corrupt officers red handed. Unfortunately not even 1% of them were punished. The government was clearly unwilling to play ball and invite the ire of govt officials who form an important vote bank. Justice Venkatachala was promised suo moto powers to prosecute by 3 CM's. But the promise remained on paper. They knew they had made a mistake by placing a man who wanted to bring a change at the top. This was evident when they didnt want to give him a second term.

Most of us must have realised by now that we can take the next big step towards being a developed nation only when this ill called corruption is nipped from the root. My eyes are eager to see someone come in - one who is not afraid to do the right things; One who doesnt care to lose his position by doing the right thing; One who takes stern action against those who hold this country at ransom and are preventing it from becoming a true superpower.

(This series will continue; Please stay tuned for my following posts)

I have applied for the TOI's lead India campaign. I urge my readers to apply also. We should want to be this someone. For long, we have waited to witness change. Now that it is not happening, we must take the lead. The future is in our hands.

Farewell, Dr Kalam

Dr Kalam resigned as President of India yesterday. Its time for us to get up in unison and bow in front of the great man. His 5 years at office as President were the best 5 years for presidency atleast since I was born.

Dr Kalam dedicated his entire term for the upliftment of the poor and downtrodden. He traveled widely (all Presidents do, but to foriegn locations) to remote areas and smallest of villages. His strength lies in understanding problems. He has great visions and dreams. But what is special about him is that he also has clear cut ideas to solve specific problems. He knows what exactly is coming in the way of India being a developed nation. And he has ways to resolve them. As an example, I quote PURA (Providing urban amnities to Rural Areas).

Unfortunately, the office which he held didnt have much powers to implement his ideas. However, Mr President was relentless and did his best to implement them. His farewell speech (Read here - http://www.ibnlive.com/news/i-will-always-be-with-you-dear-citizens-says-kalam

/45527-3.html) mentions a fewof the initiatives taken at his behest. More importantly, if you had watched the speech, you would have come to know what an unassuming and kind person Kalam is. There is no pomp or attitude. He is as gentle as a baby.

The recent election for President's post was the murkiest of all. People went to all possible extremes to win. There was also some talk by some opportunist people (Read UNPA - the big joke!!) to give Dr Kalam a second term. Maybe for once in their life they were trying something good. But as expected, Madam Sonia would have none of it. She was determined to install a puppet - in which she finally succeeded.

However, Dr Kalam is not perturbed. He has decided to pursue his goal - even if he is not the President any more. He plans to take up teaching. Isn't it the best way to impart his dreams? Lets wish him all the best and help him in whatever way possible.

Pirates Of Caribbean: At World's End

I feel sad for Jack Sparrow. Not because the third part of Pirates of the Caribbean is dull, uninteresting and confusing. I feel sad because, Johnny Depp is wasted in the movie. If only he had more screen time, things would have been drastically different.

Frankly, I was looking forward to the 3rd edition of the Pirates (At World's End) with a lot of curiosity and eagerness. After an awesome 2nd part (Dead Man's Chest), who wouldn't?

Unfortunately, At World's End does not live up to the expectation. Yes, it is breaking all records in terms of collection. But the movie in itself is totally confusing from the word go. A new character is added every ten minutes and this contributes a lot to the chaos.

The movie starts from where the 2nd part ended. The party (Gibbs, William, his love Swann, Calypso and the crew) goes in search of Jack (who has been killed and imprisoned by Davy Jones, the captain of the Dutchmen) in the leadership of captain Barbosa. For this, they seek the help of another Pirate Lord (I don't remember his name).

After rescuing Jack, it is time to face both the enemies. The East India Trading Company with Beckett as its commander and Davy Jones. Now, Beckett is in possession of Davy Jones' heart and he holds the latter at ransom.

The movie interspersed with some utterly unrelated sequences of the ship wreck code. The 9 pirate lords meet to discuss what the next course of action is. In a bizzare turn of events, Elizabeth Swann is elected as the 'King' of the pirates and she decides that they must fight the East India Company.

Captain Barbosa in the meantime frees Calypso, she disappears after that. The war is one of the few saving graces in the movie. It is really a rib tickler and also the action sequences are quite breathtaking. One of the few moments where Depp shows what he is capable of. You would, however, be reminded of some bollywood movie when William and Elizabeth exchange marriage vows even when they are wielding the sword.

At the end, Jack manages to get Davy Jones' heart. Jones, unafraid, stabs William. Jack in turn makes William pierce Jones' heart. Jones dies and William becomes the next captain of the flying Dutchmen. Swann gives him company. Jack sets off on a new voyage in search of the most desirable thing.

Camera work and Depp are the only attractions, though Depp gets a little fraction of the 2 hour long screen time. The sequences where he talks to himself; asks Gibbs to throw his hat upon winning the war, only asking to get it back are just amazing.

The trilogy has finally come to an end. Sad that it doesn't get a fitting tribute.

Auto Menace

I don't travel much in autos. And predictably, the few times I have used them as means of transport have left me in rather bitter taste.

I know, there are enough people who have already ranted about autos. But I wanted to put in my views and experiences (I see many of my readers giving a wry smile :D. I give up- I have nothing else to write).

Firstly, the arrogance with which they refuse to come to your destination hits you like a slap on the cheek. A popular saying has it that the auto driver is willing to go to any location except your destination!!

No, your troubles don't vanish when an auto guy agrees to pick you; It is highly probable that he will ask excess fare. Don't be astounded if the auto wallah asks you to cough up one and a half (Sick way of putting it) even when you are the only traveler and it is in broad daylight. You try to reason, he says that he needs to come back empty (Though you are going to some busy area). You try to fight, you will lose the hard earned auto. You agree to pay up.

As you start the journey, you see that the auto and its meter runs at rocket speed. I have experienced strange cases where the different autos over same distances always show different meter readings. Moreover, none of them will be correct. One guy would have cheated less and the other more; No meter is accurate. The sad part is that even after you agree to cough up so much money, the ride is very very unsafe. The only thing on the driver's mind is to dump us ASAP and to catch the next bakra.

I have had some funny albeit bad experiences during my auto travels...

Once I found out to my shock that the meter ran even when the auto was stationary at a signal light or a traffic jam!! When I demanded an explanation the auto driver coolly said that it was waiting charges!! I almost fainted. Upon threatening that I will take him to the police, he reduced some amount.

In another instance, I clearly made a fool of myself. I generally avoid autos with the old kind of meters in the belief that they will be manipulated to run faster. In this particular case, there were 4-5 autos in the stand and I chose not to board the first 3 as they were fitted with old meters. Upon questioning, I told the same and I boared the 1 with the new meter. Soon I realised why the drivers were all giving wry smiles. This meter was no better and I had chosen the driver by whom I would get cheated!!

All such experiences make me stay away from autos as much as possible. However, there are times when they become unavoidable. God knows when the government will wake up (will it ever?) and take some strict measures to control this auto menace.

So, why don't you share your bad experiences (I bet you have 1) with autos?