Mahatma Gandhi on Bhagawad Gita

Mahatma Gandhi

Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will - Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi on Bhagawad Gita:


The Gita is the universal mother. She turns away nobody. Her door is wide open to anyone who knocks. A true votary of Gita does not know what disappointment is. He ever dwells in perennial joy and peace that passeth understanding. But that peace and joy come not to skeptic or to him who is proud of his intellect or learning. It is reserved only for the humble in spirit who brings to her worship a fullness of faith and an undivided singleness of mind. There never was a man who worshipped her in that spirit and went disappointed. I find a solace in the Bhagavad-Gita that I miss even in the Sermon on the Mount. When disappointment stares me in the face and all alone I see not one ray of light, I go back to the Bhagavad-Gita. I find a verse here and a verse there , and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming tragedies -- and my life has been full of external tragedies -- and if they have left no visible or indelible scar on me, I owe it all to the teaching of Bhagavad-Gita.

Kanu Banega Crorepati: Current Affairs rewind

Picasso painting sets world record price at auction
1932 canvas entitled Nude, Green Leaves and Bust sold for $106m (£70m) at Christie's in New York, a record for a work of art sold at auction


India joins list of 135 countries in making education a right (Hindu)




Tulips in Kashmir

* The Tulip garden Siraj bagh, overlooking the Dal Lake in Sri nagar
* Over 12 lakh tulip bulbs, of around 60 varieties, are ready to attract the visitors
* Around 25,000 people visited Tulip garden in one week last year.


Reuters senior photographer Adrees Latif is seen in this 2005 file photo. Reuters won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography on Monday for a picture of a Japanese videographer killed during a demonstration in Myanmar. Latif won for "his dramatic photograph of the Japanese videographer, sprawled on the pavement, fatally wounded during a street demonstration in Myanmar," the Pulitzer Prize board said. The 92nd annual Pulitzer Prizes in journalism, letters, drama and music were announced at Columbia University in New York City.

****

Reuters wins Pulitzer for breaking news photography

Kenji Nagai of APF tries to take photographs as he lies injured after police and military officials fired upon and then charged at protesters in Yangon's city center September 27, 2007. Nagai, 50, a Japanese video journalist, was shot by soldiers as they fired to disperse the crowd. Nagai later died.


Former Deputy Prime Minister and BJP leader L K Advani’s book My Country My Life has run into controversy with Congress president Sonia Gandhi on April 3 questioning Advani’s claim that he was not aware of the decision to send his cabinet colleague Jaswant Singh on the plane with dreaded terrorists to Kandahar during the IC-814 hijack incident in 1999.
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Current Affairs:-

To crack BCJ you need to have command over current affairs. Current affairs play a key role.

The perfect 10:-

1. Contemporary issues: - Issues of the Nation, State affairs. Affairs of our neighbours.
2. Defence system: - Airforce, Navay and military developments. Agreements with different countries. Research and development.
3. Committees and Commissions: - National and State level committees and its reports and their heads etc.
4. National and International meetings: - National, International bilateral, trilateral and multilateral meetings.
5. Space: - Satellite launching, ISRO, DRDO etc.
6. Reports: - Various agencies reports like, UNO, UNDP, WHO etc. India’s position, AP’s position. Indians place in various magazines like Time, Forbes
7. Places, Persons and appointments: - State, National and International level appointments. Persons and places in news.
8. Awards, achievements: - Nobel, Magsaysay, Pulitzer, Booker prizes. Oscar, Filmfare, Nandi awards etc.
9. Sports: - National and International level sports. Award winners from AP and India.
10. Miscellaneous: - Headline News which occupy front page of news papers. Books and authors. Major controversies.

Current affairs refresher:-
Russia elections
Pakistan elections – Benazir Bhutto assassination, place. Party position in elections
Bangladesh military rule, cyclone
Kenya political turmoil.
Fidel Castro
Democracy in Bhutan
Malaysia and Indians agitation.
US Presidential elections
Palestine
G-8, SAARC, Commonwealth, APEC, ASEAN, IBSA meetings.
Elections in various states. Disputes between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu
Rama Sethu,
Administrative Reforms Committee,
Sixth Pay Commission
Delimitation
Centre- State relations commission
Indo US nuclear deal
SEZ
Sachar Committee
Taslima Nasreen
World military games
State government schemes
Books and authors

Read news papers, magazines watch Television and listen to Radio.

Test your current affairs:-

1. Books: Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri; Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh; The Echantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie.
2. The X factor: NDTV 24x7
3. Who are the two ministers out in the Cabinet reshuffle at the Centre: Dasari Narayana Rao and T Subbirami Reddy
4. Yousuf Raza Gillani was sworn in as Pakistan’s 25th Prime Minister
5. The US listed Nandigram violence as a human rights violation.
6. OIC: Organisation of Islamic Countries (57 member organization)
7. 2012 London Olympics slogan: Make Britain Proud
8. First space tourist: Denis Tito
9. A biography of Rahul Dravid, the nice guy who finished first book by Devendra Prabhu Desai
10. Raghupathi Venkaiah award for 2006 – D. Rama Naidu
11. NTR National award for 2006- Waheeda Rehman
12. Speaker of Orissa Assemply Mahewar Mohanty resigned from his post following sexual harassment charges against him.
13. NR Narayana Murthy would join global banking giant HSBC.
14. For the first time in eight decades, Indian men’s hockey team has failed to qualify for the Olympics; Great Britain beat India in the final match of the Beijing Olympic qualifier in Santiago.
15. Five past midnight book written by Dominique Lapier
16. Which Indian cricketer was charged of racially abusing Australian all rounder Andrew Symonds – Harbhajan Singh
17. Hindraf: Hindu Rights Action Force
18. Russia’s Maria Sharapova won her first Australian Open title by beating Serbia’s Ana Ivanovic in the final. This is her third grand slam title.
19. The Wagah border will henceforth be known as the Attari border on the Indian side.
20. Ratan Tata unveiled the Rs 1 lakh car Tata Nano at the 9th auto expo in New Delhi.
21. Name the Pakistani lawyer for the deposed chief justice Iftikar Chaudhary who is leading the campaign for the reinstatement of the ousted Supreme Court judges – Aitzaz Ahsan.
22. Which software company was penalized by European Commission? Microsoft Corporation was penalized with a fine of $ 1.35 billion for failing to comply with a 2004 anti-trust order.
23. United States Ambassador to India David C Mulford.
24. Meghalaya governor:- S S Sidhu
25. Which country recently introduced new visa system for all potential Indian immigrants to pass through the “Points Based System (PBS), Tier 1 : UK
26. Salwa Judum (self-defence groups) by the Chhattisgarh government.
27. Civil Aviation minister – Praful Patel
28. ADC: Access Deficit Charge
29. SIMI: Students Islamic Movement of India
30. National Security Advisor: MK Narayana
31. UNPA: United National Progressive Alliance
32. The Hindu is published from 12 centres.
33. Two-time Haryana Chief Minister Bhajanlal, who rebelled against the Congress, was disqualified from the assembly under the anti-defection law.
34. Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama resides in Dharmasala.
35. Agni-1, a product of the Defence Research and Development Organisation.
36. Advanced Systems Laboratory is in Hyderabad
37. LeT: Laskar –e- Taiba
38. Nirupama Subramanian is The Hindu’s Islamabad (Pakistan) reporter.
39. Biggest fall in sensex – 1408.35 points on January 21, 2008.
40. The Goa government decided to scrap all the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) projects in the State.
41. Communal violence hit Kandhamal headquarters Phulbani is in Orissa.
42. ICC replaces umpire Steve Bucknor for Perth Test (between India and Australia)
43. Which Tollywood star is involved in a divorce case – Pawan Kalyan
44. Terror attacks on the CRPF group centre in Rampur were involved by Lashkar-e-Taiba
45. Television rights of Indian Premier League (IPL):- The Sony Television network and the Singapore based World Sports group have purchased the event’s television rights for the next 10 years for $ 1 billion.
46. Which TV channel is involved in a fake sting operation of a government school teacher – Live India
47. 299 inmates escape from Dantewada jail, Chhattisgarh
48. Leading first wicket stands in Tests:- N. Nckenzie – G Smith 415, South Africa V Bangladesh, Chittagong, 2008. Vinod Mankad – P Roy, 413 India V New Zealand, Chennai 1956; V. Sehwag – R Dravid, 410, India V Pakistan, Lahore, 2006.
49. This year’s World Health Day (April 7) theme: “protecting health from climate change”.
50. Hogenakkal issue is between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
51. What is the controversy surrounding Hindi film Jodha Akhar? Historians dispute the existence of the fiery Rajput princess named Jodha in Akbar’s life.
52. With $ 104 billion, India is now the second largest source of foreign investment in the UK.
53. Veteran actor Shobhan Babu dead: The 71 year old actor, Uppu Shobhana Chalapathi Rao passed away in Chennai.

Group 1 preliminary examination APPSC select questions:-
1. The venue for the 58th International Astronomical Congress in September 2007 was – Hyderabad (Group 1, 2008)
2. The Indo-Vietnam Friendship Festival, 2007 was held at: Kolkata (Gr 1, 2008)
3. Which film won the Best Film Award at the Eighth IIFA Awards 2007 – Rang De Basanthi (Gr 1, 2008)
4. Which city will host the 2012 Olympics – London (Gr 1, 2008)
5. Molpah rebellion of 1921 took place in Kerala ( Group 1 , 2008)
6. The venue for the ASEAN Mekong Basin Development Cooperation Meeting in August 2007
7. Central Plantation Crops Research Institute is located at Kasaragod
8. Red ribbon express train was started for HIV awareness.
9. Without feat: life and trial of Bhagat Singh book by: Kuldip Nayar
10. As per National Crime record bureau ‘Crime India 2006’ report Delhi is first in crime, Andhra Pradesh is placed third.
11. NDTV’s Entertainer of the year – Rajnikanth
12. Blitz editor R Karanjia died in Mumbai.
13. TRAI allowed News broadcasting through FM radio
14. Sekhar Kapoor got Oscar award for costume design for the film Elizabeth: The Golden Age.
15. Due to sub-prime crisis America’s biggest investment bank Bear Stearns was sold for through away price.
16. In India, where Google is opening IT campus for the first time – Hyderabad
17. MS Dhoni became the first wicket keeper to captain India in test match when he captained India in Kanpur Vs South Africa.
18. The Times of India has started its Chennai edition recently.
19. Deccan Chronicle has started a new finance newspaper – Financial Chronicle
20. The end of India book written by Kushwant Singh
21. Development is Freedom book written by Amartya Sen
22. Dmitry Medvedev elected as Russia’s president
23. First tribal university in India – Indira Gandhi National Tribal University, Amarkantak, Madhya Pradesh.
24. The former Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Priyaranjan Dasmunshi has been selected winner of the “Best Parliamentarian of the Year” Award.
25. The former World No.1 Martina Hingis has been banned for two years after being found guilty of taking cocaine at Wimbledon
26. Ramnath Goenka Excellence Awards: Journalist of the year – Rajdeep Sardesai CNN-IBN (TV); Ritu Saren – Indian Express (Print media)
27. Which country started “Press TV” 24 hour satellite TV – Iran
28. SBI opened its 10,000th branch in Puduvayal dist: Sivaganga, Tamil Nadu.
29. Business Line is the business newspaper of The Hindu group.
30. Founder of Andhra Jyothi newspaper KLN Prasad.
31. Tabloid suspended: Owners of the Russian tabloid Moskovsky Korrespondent have suspended its publication after Russian President Vladimir Putin refuted a report in the paper that he was planning to wed a gymnast. Its editor-in-chief has resigned.
32. Reserve Bank of India increased CRR (Cash Reserve Ratio) from 7.50% to 8.00%

News quiz ( Test your nose for news)

dt: 28.4.2008

. The U.S. accused which country of working with North Korea on a nuclear reactor?
Syria
At a stop at a diner in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Barack Obama brushed aside a question about former President Jimmy Carter's meeting with Hamas with the comment "Why can't I just eat my..."
Waffle

3. Apple Inc. posted a rise in quarterly profits. In the coming months, analysts expect the company to come out with a faster version of which product?
iPhone
4. Nervous shoppers at Sam's Club and Costco have been stocking up on these food items as food shortage concerns mount:
Rice, flour
5. Actress Megan Fox was named the world's sexiest woman by readers of FHM magazine. Who scraped by at number 100?
Britney Spears
6. The U.S. lost its status as the the world's largest Internet-using population to...
China
7. Theater producer Bill Kenwright revealed this week that Elvis Presley secretly visited which city 50 years ago?
London
8. A Chinese primary school teacher and a beautician have filed a suit against CNN over remarks they say insulted the Chinese people. How much are they suing for?
One dollar for every person in China
9. What tip did Microsoft's Steve Ballmer offer to help people recognize him among the many Steve Ballmers on Facebook?
He's hitting a golf ball
10. Hand-held laser pointers have been banned in a major Australian state because...
They have been used to temporarily blind airplane pilots

1. AajTak TV conducted sting operations on K Jothikumaran of Indian Hockey Federation, who resigned later.
2. IPI: Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline deal $ 7.4 billion
3. Director of the film Chak De India whose subject is Indian Hockey - Shimit Amin
4. Super Star India: From incredible to unstoppable book written by Shobhaa De
5. Prem Bhatia Award for Nirupama Subramanian:- Nirupama Subramanian, The Hindu correspondent in Pakistan, has been awarded the Prem Bhatia award for the best political reporting for 2008.
6. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) successfully launched Cartosat-2, the Indian Mini Satellite (IMS) and other eight nano satellites, using the PSLV –C9 from the Satish Dhawan Space center
7. The Indian Olympic Association on 28th April 2008 suspended the Indian Hockey Federation, bringing to an end the 15 years reign of its chief, Mr Kunwar Pal Singh Gill.
8. Harbhajan Singh was handed an 11 match ban after pleading guilty to slapping his India teammate Shantakumaran Sreesanth at the end of the Mumbai Indians versus Kings XI Punjab Indian Premier League match in Mohali on April 26, 2008

News quiz (3.5.2008)
1. Which highly anticipated video game debuted to rave reviews?
Grand Theft Auto 4
2. Which word did Barack Obama not use to describe comments by his former pastor Rev. Wright?
Feisty
3. The Federal Reserve cut interest rates by a quarter point to 2 percent. How many times has the Fed cut interest rates in a row?
7
4. What annual salary does billionaire investor Warren Buffett draw to run Berkshire Hathaway, which holds its annual shareholder meeting on Saturday?
$100,000
5. Mars is buying chewing gum-maker Wrigley. According to the book "Crisis in Candyland," what was Mars' response to a child who wrote asking how the Milky Way candy bar got its name?
The information is classified and confidential
6. Five years of cancer care for America's elderly cost Medicare $21.1 billion, a study showed. Which cancer cost Medicare the most?
Lung cancer
7. "American Idol" judge Paula Abdul stirred controversy this week when she:
Judged a contestant on two songs when he only sang one
8. Television star Miley Cyrus threatened to damage her wholesome image by:
Appearing half naked in a Vanity Fair photo shoo

9. Which U.S. city is the worst for short-term particle pollution, according to the American Lung Association?
Pittsburgh
10. Some cricket cheerleaders are in trouble in India because:
Their costumes expose too much flesh

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* World Press Freedom Day

3 May

Throughout the world, 3 May serves as an occasion to inform the public of violations of the right to freedom of expression and as a reminder that many journalists brave death or jail to bring people their daily news.


*Congressional Gold Medal recipeint:Aung San Suu Kyi


*S Ramachandran is appointed as Chairman of Committee on Sethusamudram

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Sakshi, which means witness, is being brought out in 23 multi-coloured editions by Jagati Publication, of which Jagan Mohan Reddy is the chairman.

US-based Mario Garcia designed Sakshi - the first Telugu daily with all the pages in colour.


Yahoo News. #1 Online News Site.(tpgblog)


Benazir Bhutto posthumously awarded Tipperary International Peace Award


News quiz dt 17.5.2008

A devastating earthquake may have killed 50,000 people in China this week. When was the deadliest earthquake on record?
1556 in Shansi, China

General Electric is selling its 100-year-old appliance unit. Which appliance company is the biggest in the United States?

Whirlpool

According to a study published in the Lancet, which health issue contributes to global warming?
Obesity

Mexico's Manuel Uribe, once the world's most obese man, is now vying for which record?

The human who has lost the most weight
-----------------

* Which country is mediating indirect peace talks between Israel and Syria?
Turkey
President Bush eased restrictions to Cuba, allowing Americans to send which device to family members in the Communist country?

Cell phones
Who is the youngest women's singles champion ever at the French Open, which starts on May 25?
Monica Seles
Which tactic helps prevent jet lag, according to U.S. researchers?
Fasting
Which Oscar winning actor plays Ernesto "Che" Guevara in the film "Che," being screened at Cannes?
Benicio del Toro

--------

A study this week showed that vitamin D was not effective in cutting the risk of this type of cancer:
Prostate

The latest James Bond novel, "Devil May Care", was released this week. When was the last Bond novel, "Octopussy and the Living Daylights", published?
1966

Face to Face with Palagummi Sainath

Face to Face with Palagummi Sainath

Platform for the poor
- By Ashok Mahadevan

For a newspaper reporter who normally keeps a low profile, Palagummi Sainath was unusually visible in the media just before he talked to Reader’s Digest. A fortnight earlier, he had received the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award for journalism, literature and the creative communication arts. Then he sparked off a row after criticizing Union Textiles Minister Shanker Sinh Vaghela and Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilas Rao Deshmukh for disparaging Maharashtra’s cotton farmers-a charge both politicians predictably denied.

In fact, we were lucky to find Sainath in his Mumbai home because he travels upto 10 months a year, chronicling the travails of India’s poor. He’s been doing this for nearly a decade and a half, and his reports reveal a country far different from the “India Shining” of the mainstream media. The economic reforms that began in 1991, Sainath says, while bringing unprecedented prosperity to the middle and upper classes have only deepened the misery of the poor.

Sainath, 50, comes from a distinguished family-his grandfather, V. V. Giri, was the fourth President of India. After a master’s in history from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Sainath became a journalist in 1980. In 1993, thanks to a fellowship from The Times of India, he investigated living conditions in the country’s ten poorest districts. The articles he wrote during this period were collected in a best-selling book called Everybody Loves a Good Drought. Sainath, now rural affairs editor of The Hindu, continues to specialize in writing about the poor because, as he puts it, “I felt that if the Indian press was covering the top five percent, I should cover the bottom five percent.”

Apart from the Magsaysay, Sainath has won many other awards for his work. The economics Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has described him as “one of the world’s great experts on famine and hunger.”

Reader’s Digest: Given your background, you could have had a very conventional and comfortable career. What prompted you to become a student activist when you were young and then a journalist covering the poor?
PS: I come from a very political family. We didn’t grow up with this middle class notion of politics bad, politicians bad. Because of my grandfather, we met people across the political spectrum.

Many other members of my family were also involved in the freedom struggle. Our approach to society was interventionist-you did not wait for things to happen, you participated in them.

In India the press is the child of the freedom struggle. All the nationalist leaders also doubled up as journalists. Mahatma Gandhi founded journal after journal and wrote for them every day. Nehru founded newspapers. Bhagat Singh bombarded newspapers with letters to the editor. Ambedkar’s journalism has enduring appeal.

RD: So you see yourself in that tradition?
PS: I am very rooted in the Indian tradition of journalism. It’s a very humane tradition in which the illiterate masses create the space for journalistic freedom, not the elite. Whether in 1857 or now.

In 1857, the great merchants of Kolkata and Mumbai held public prayers for British troops to prevail over their countrymen. When Tilak was arrested for sedition in 1908 it was not the great household names of Mumbai who protested. The textile workers of Mumbai came out, and 22 of them were left dead in the streets when the police opened fire.

During the Emergency the people of this country brought back freedom. There has always been an organic link between Indian writers and the Indian masses. But it is a link that has been very severely eroded in the last 15 to 20 years.

RD: What are the main areas in which the Indian state has failed its people?
PS: Who are the Indian poor? About 40 percent of them are landless agricultural labourers. About 45 percent are small and marginal farmers, mostly people with less than one hectare, many with less than half a hectare at that.

The problem of 85 percent of the poor is connected to land. But barring Bengal, Kerala and Tripura, we never addressed the issue of land reform. Which government in the Centre for the last 20 years has had land on its agenda?

We have not addressed the issues of water and lack of forest rights. These will create hell in the coming years. We have not tackled basic structural inequalities in ownership of resources.

In addition, there are disparities of gender-women are poorer in every category-caste and region. The middle class has simply closed their minds on the issue of caste. It is not that there are no poor Brahmins or no poor upper-castes, but the poor are predominantly at the lower end of the caste spectrum.

There are twelve regions in the country where 80 percent of the poor are concentrated and the gap between those regions and the rest of the country keeps growing with the solitary exception of Kerala, which has bridged its development gaps. We also never set a fair national minimum wage which was a living family wage. That is one of the spurs to child labour. We severely disadvantaged agricultural labourers by classifying agriculture as unskilled labour. There is no more skilled and more important activity of the human race than the production of food. It’s more risky than manufacturing software.

RD: What are some of our successes?
PS: We are an extremely innovative, vigorous electoral democracy. A live democracy where people are searching for answers. It is not the chattering classes who vote in India. The poor value their vote as the one weapon they have to discipline their leaders and they use it. A vigilant public of that kind is a treasure

RD: What do we need to do to be not just a political democracy but an economic and social democracy too?
PS: Follow your constitution-you have been in serious violation of it for the last 15 years. Nobody ever talks about the Directive Principles in the Indian Constitution because they are not enforceable legally. The Directive Principles are the vision of your society.

RD: A vision no one seems to be interested in following?
PS: It is not in the interest of the ruling elite to follow it. But thousands of people daily address the issues in the directive principles-for example when they say, “Don’t throw me off my land.” Incidentally, I never claim to speak for the poor; I think the poor are fully capable of speaking for themselves. My role as a journalist is to report what they are saying. It is in the interest of us all to listen to them.

RD: What do you think of the Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme that the government started last year?
PS: There are only three things that this government has done that are of value. The first is that it significantly lowered the communal temperature prevailing in this country in the late ’90s and early 2000s. Another is the Right to Information Act. And the third thing is the Rural Employment Scheme itself.

RD: Do you think the RTI has been used sufficiently?
PS: No. But it has opened up spaces. It will work differently in Kerala than in Kalahandi [Orissa]-the societies are different, the circumstances are different, the quality of governance is different.

RD: What about the Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme-the third thing of value?
PS: That was something the government fulfilled kicking and screaming and now they will kill it by underfunding. One way of killing the scheme is by not publicizing or popularizing it amongst the people. In Andhra in 2004, within the first seven days of the announcement of the scheme, 27 lakh people stood in queues and applied for it. The Maharashtra government did not popularize the scheme, yet lakhs of people applied, showing the desperation of the rural poor. I found people with six and seven acres of land standing in the queues because they wanted work. Unlike a chief minister who thinks his farmers are lazy, people are demanding work; they are not demanding pity, they are not demanding a dole.

RD: Are they getting work?
PS: First of all it is restricted to 100 days for one person per family. In the 2007 budget the number of districts covered went up 40 percent but the money allocated went up only six percent.*

It is a despicable lie to say that there is no money for it. It would cost about Rs25,000 crores* each year to run your minimum modest rural employment guarantee program. See the defaulters’ list of the central board of direct taxes (CBDT). With the dues of the giants on the defaulters list you could run the program for a very, very long time. Just two of the defaulters according to the CBDT owed them Rs31,000 crores. Shake their pockets loose!

RD: Are the people who enrolled in the scheme getting their salaries on time? Are they getting the Rs60 a day they are supposed to?
PS: No. They might be getting Rs45. But before that they were getting nothing, many of them. Please note that the purchase of grain went up massively when this program came into being because people have just that little bit more purchasing power. In 2000-01 the government was boasting of a 63 million tonnes surplus of food grains. But there was a surplus of hunger, not of food. Purchasing power had collapsed. The moment people got some purchasing power, the government had to import wheat.

The availability of food grains has plummeted in the last 15 years. In 1991, when the economic reforms began, per capita availability of food grains was 510 grams per Indian. By 2003 it was down to 437 grams.* This has incredible implications.

RD: Wouldn’t it imply that far more people are starving?
PS: It implies that the hunger of far more people has become far more intense. By 2001 the average poor family of four was eating one hundred kilos less of food grains than it used to ten years earlier.

RD: People are a lot hungrier than before?
PS: We will never understand the deprivation of Indians if we do not understand the prosperity of other Indians. If you belong to the top 15 to 20 percent of urban India or the top 10 to 12 percent of rural India, you are experiencing standards of living that you never dreamed of in your lifetime. If you belong to the bottom 40 percent you are experiencing levels of deprivation that you never dreamed of in your lifetime.

Thousands of people in urban centres are rushing to weight loss centres. Millions of other Indians are trying desperately not to lose any more weight.

RD: You are not a great proponent of non-government organizations. You think they give the government an excuse to duck its responsibilities to the poor. But in your book, you wrote favourably of one NGO, the Arivoli Iyakkam [Light of Knowledge] Movement in Pudukkottai, Tamil Nadu. Can you talk a little about it?
PS: When the government launched the National Literacy Mission in 1988, there already was a vigorous activist movement in Pudukkottai. The government offered people who were working for the state or for public sector organizations to go on deputation to the movement without loss of seniority or salary. So a lot of very progressive people volunteered.

They used extremely creative methods. They found, for instance, women teachers were needed to approach conservative women. To go to the villages, the women teachers learnt cycling. And they found that the women in the villages were far more interested in cycling than in literacy. So cycling was incorporated as a component of the literacy movement, and a hundred thousand women in that district alone learnt cycling.

There were two implications to all that cycling. The human implication was one of liberation and freedom. The cycle has been a very revolutionary vehicle for human beings. It is a far better indicator of human well-being than an automobile. Poor women said cycling is like flying an aeroplane, it’s like being yourself. You are in control.

The economic gains were very real too. Most of the women in Pudukottai were small producers, dependent on their fathers, brothers, husbands, or sons to get their produce to the market. So their arc of coverage was very limited. But once they had cycles, they could put the vegetables at the back on the carrier, and put the baby in a basket on the front. They could leave any time and come back any time. The markets they could cover increased.

But the women assured me that their major consideration was a sense of freedom. In Pudukottai, I saw a lot of women from very conservative Muslim families cycling, fully clad in burkhas. It was quite something!

RD: Whenever you write about women, you portray them as strong and capable.
PS: Society functions because of them.

RD: You see women as the hope of this country?
PS: Most agricultural work in this country is done by women. Have you ever seen a guy doing paddy transplantation? It is a horrible job. You stand shin deep in muddy water that has disease and insects and God knows what other stuff. You strain your back-the highest number of birth miscarriages occurs in the paddy transplantation season.

But women are banned by custom from ploughing. That allows the male to keep control. We have to move beyond the old slogan of “Land to the tiller,” to “Land to those who work on it.”

RD: When well-meaning middle class people think about India’s poverty, they often feel despair. What do you feel?
PS: Anger. Despair produces nothing but despair. The character, quality, and resilience of the Indian people ought to be a source of optimism. They have done incredible things. They brought an empire to its knees. Bhagat Singh said they will make the deaf hear and the blind see. I am very optimistic.

RD: Will things get better?
PS: Yes, but they will get a lot worse first, because of the track we are on now.

*Since this interview was recorded, the scheme was extended to all
districts in India, but funding has not been proportionately increased.


(source: readers digest Dec 2007)

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