A Woman Should Have...

Today I received this beautiful piece by Maya Angelou

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A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...

enough money within her control to move out
and rent a place of her own,
even if she never wants to or needs to...
something perfect to wear if the employer,
or date of her dreams wants to see her in an hour...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ..

a youth she's content to leave behind....
a past juicy enough that she's looking forward to
retelling it in her old age....
a set of screwdrivers, a cordless drill, and a black lace bra...
one friend who always makes her laugh... and one who lets her cry...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE .......

a good piece of furniture not previously owned by anyone else in her family...
eight matching plates, wine glasses with stems,
and a recipe for a meal,
that will make her guests feel honored...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ..

a feeling of control over her destiny...
how to fall in love without losing herself..

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...

how to quit a job,
break up with a lover,
and confront a friend without;
ruining the friendship....

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW....

when to try harder... and WHEN TO WALK AWAY...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...

that she can't change the length of her calves,
the width of her hips, or the nature of her parents..
that her childhood may not have been perfect...but it's over...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...

what she would and wouldn't do for love or more...
how to live alone... even if she doesn't like it...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW.. .

whom she can trust,
whom she can't,
and why she shouldn't take it personally...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...

where to go...
be it to her best friend's kitchen table..
or a charming Inn in the woods...
when her soul needs soothing...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...

What she can and can't accomplish in a day...
a month...and a year...

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(courtesy email from Joy Deshmukh-Ranadive)

My remarks on this poem is that the word 'woman' can be read in a generic sense and that most of these things are relevant for both females and males. Thanks Joy. This is a beautiful poem indeed.

Sleep, Leap and Beep

My situation, now, is in a bit of quandary.
I am spending sleepless nights to put in effort,
But, effort falls short because of less sleep.

My eyes, now, devoid of sleep look dreary.
I dare not dream for fear of being in a spot,
But, spot eludes me because I cannot leap.

My prayers, now, are in search of a fairy.
I know that she can take me out of this lot,
But, lot needs to be done for me to beep.


(Inspiration from Prachya Deb Mukherjee at a facebook discussion forum is acknowledged.)

Not Toeing Your Line

As professed by yourself, you have a single point vision,
Interpeting matter not said, without rhyme or reason
To clarify, I just took example from your 'liberated' person,
And showed with fact their subjugation without treason.

Poor or rich, women and men, do not need your sympathy to shine,
Get out of your belief, and accept plural concerns without whine,
You are not the first one to castigate me for not toeing your line,
You are not the first one to castigate me for not toeing your line.

Proposed Rally Outside Indian Parliament by Right to Food Campaign

Request: Please share this even if you feel that a friend or a friend of a friend might be interested.

This is a message from the Right to Food Campaign announcing and inviting people to a rally outside parliament demanding urgent passage of the Right to Food Act and intervention in drought stricken areas.

Organised by: Right to Food Campaign, India.
Date-November 26, 2009 Time: 11.00 am- 5.00pm
Venue-Mandi House to Parliament Street, New Delhi.

Dear All,
Greetings from the Right to Food Campaign Secretariat, New Delhi. This is to invite you to a rally on the 26th of November, 2009 to put pressure on the UPA government to enact the proposed right to food act as pledged by the congress party in its manifesto and announced by the President of India on June 4 in the parliament and Prime Minister on 15 August from the red fort. All of us are also aware of the fact, that the country is faced by severe drought and spiralling food prices. The situation of hunger and malnutrition in the country is exacerbated even more than usual. In the midst of all this, the UPA government has failed to live up to its promise of enacting the right to food act within 100 days of its inception. The government is denying the need of enacting such a useful act urgently, in the guise of its involvement and efforts in tackling drought, which is a farce.

The drafting of the essentials demand and the working draft of the act has evolved as a participatory exercise, involving a range of groups and individuals with consultations held in Delhi on June 18th, July 11th, and 17th September. On the basis of this dialogue, the steering committee of the right to food campaign has put together a list of essential demands and a working draft of the proposed right to food act.

You can read all the developments till date towards the right to food act on the web link. In order to put across our demands forcefully in front of the Govt of India and our law makers, the Right to Food Campaign has planned to have a rally and demonstration of minimum 5000 people outside on 26th November, 2009 outside parliament house at Jantar Manter. The rally will begin from Mandi house. The route of the rally shall be communicated to you later in next communication. The rally will comprise of people from various states including different drought and flood affected districts, activists from various organisations, policy makers, members of parliament and political parties) Without your support of mobilising people, this rally will not be a success and therefore we appeal to you to own this rally as your own.

In the next 40 days, we request you to support this initiative by:
a) Organising signature campaign in the local areas by all groups against the demands circulated and bringing for display in the rally. The signatures can be collected in sarees or banners using the attached documents as a mobilising tool.
b) Distributing and communicating the charter of demands for the march to the local groups and mobilising as many as possible citizens to participate in the rally.
c) To encourage as many State and district Sammelans.
d) Helping to mobilise minimum of 5000 participants on 26th November Rally.
e) Helping to raise funds for the rally.

Please come with members of your organization and be a part of this rally reminding the government of its promises and immediate responsibilities to the nation. We request you to come with your own banners, placards of demands. We attach a list of documents namely
a) Charter of demands for the march to parliament in Hindi and English
b) Summary of the demands in Hindi and English in two short and longer versions, which can be circulated to the local groups. You are free to translate this in the local language of your choice for better communication.

Please drop us a line about your participation, including the numbers of people from your groups so that we can make adequate logistic arrangements. Please help us spread the word regarding this rally. You can contact below in case of queries on the rally.

Let us make this rally a success!!

With regards,
Steering Group of the Right to Food Campaign.


--
Secretariat - Right to Food Campaign
C/o PHRN
5 A, Jungi House,
Shahpur Jat, New Delhi 110049.
India
website: www.righttofoodindia.org
Email: righttofood@gmail.com
Phone - 91 -11 -2649 9563

Read all the developments towards Right to Food Act, 2009 here.

Teacher-centric Primary and Secondary Education

Today, I received an unsolicitated mail from Mr Ashish Putambekar of the Nataraja Foundation. With so many of spam mails coming I was about to delete it, but there was something in the lengthy subject line 'Project Proposal: The Indian Primary and Secondary Education Megaproject ... A Unique Teacher Centric Project' that made me open the file. A lot of work has gone into this. It is a worthy cause. I thought of putting their link in my blog, whcih will also come up as a link in my facebook. I request everyone to have a look and share this.

A couple of points that I have are as follows.
The asthetically cost-saving architechture was nostalgic for me. I studied in Trivandrum at the Centre for Development Studies, built by Laurie Baker. There is this anecdote. Prof KN Raj got some funds to begin the Centre and he was worried that all the money will go in just putting up the buildings. It is because of Laurie Baker than the cost of construction could be reduced substantially (perhaps, 25 per cent of the original estimate) and the money saved went to the library. While proposing such structures, the schools/megaprojet can claim green funds.

While travelling in remote parts of rural India, one observes that schools, health centres, banks are deserted because service providers do not reside due to absence of basic facilities (physical and human). Teacher mentions about the absence of health care, banking and other basic facilities. Health care providers point out the absence of good schools and other facilities. Bankers bemoan the absence of education, health and other facilities for their families. There is a need to keep other basic requiremnts in mind. One feels that 'The Indian Social Infrastructure Corporation' proposed should not limit itself to schools alone.

On a cautious note, if the goverment fails to take this initiative, what is the alternative. Can one not start this on a pilot basis. Or, maybe take it up in states where the governments are willing. It is worth trying to initiate the exercises in states of Bihar and Orissa. An example is the success of Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty in Andhra Pradesh. Yes, it was given full autonomy, not linked with any departments and worked as an independent body with the help of professionals.

I wish this initiative success.

Why, E is equal to MC square?

Whether one writes an epic,
Or, dons the hat of a poet.
The only measuring stick,
Will be its literary bit.
If, I were a genius,
Like Einstein.
I would show my prowess,
In a single line.
Thank my parents,
For bringing me here.
Thank my stars,
For being still there.
But, I still do not courage to dare,
Why, E is equal to MC square.

(In my Facebook, there is a note Scribd is Looking for the Next Great American Author! There was a query, "Is there a length requirement for the work?" I thought I will respond and ended up writing this sonnet.)

Calculating Gini Coefficient from Grouped Data: An Update

Eurekha!

Since yesterday, I have been trying to work out a method of calculating gini coefficient from grouped data. A quick search in the web took to some literature - the most interesting one being Approximation of Gini Index from Grouped Data by Nuria Badenes-Plá. Our suggestions would be independent of this paper. Now, let us give some prelimnaries.

We have a population divided into i=1,...,n groups, which have been ordered from the poorest to the richest. Let X-axis denote cummulative share of population, x_i, and let Y-axis denote cummulative share of wealth (or, something like that), y_i. The shares of population and wealth for each group is denoted as a_i and b_i respectively. If we compute the area below the Lorenz curve then we get:

(Σ_ia_ib_i/2+Σ_i(1-x_i)b_i)

In a conventional sense the gini coefficient is:

1-2(Σ_ia_ib_i/2+Σ_i(1-x_i)b_i)

The peoblem is that in complete inequality when n-1 groups do not have any wealth and the n^th group has all wealth then the area above the Lorenz curve is not half, it is less than that by a_n/2. To address this, we correct for the anomaly and propose a method for calculating gini coefficient:

((1/2)-(Σ_ia_ib_i/2+Σ_i(1-x_i)b_i))/((1-a_n)/2)

or

(1-2(Σ_ia_ib_i/2+Σ_i(1-x_i)b_i))/(1-a_n)

Our suggested method satisfies three properties. (1) At complete equality, if wealth share for each and every group is equal to its population share, its value is zero. (2) At complete inequality, if there is no wealth for n-1 groups and all the wealth is with the n^th group, its value is unity. (3) The calculation is population invariant - we do not have to know the size of the total population. Thus, it follows that if a population is replicated m number of times then the inequality computed will remain the same.

If instead of wealth, we are dealing with share of poor (or some other deprivation) then X-axis denotes proportion of poor and Y-axis denotes proportion of population. The above formula continues. This formula can also be used for unit level data whether weighted or unweighted, but one should be careful in calculating the shares.

Let us get back to Badenes-Plá's paper. Here also the area being lower than (1/2) at complete inequality was discussed and a suggestion proposed in its equation (12). This makes use of total aggregate wealth, W, as well as wealth for each group, w_i, ranks for each group, i, and population shares, a_i, and the formula is:

1-((1/W)(Σ(n-i)w_ia_i)/(Σ(n-i)a_i²))

We tinker with the formula by replacing wealth with wealth shares, y_i, and instead of ranks, the population shares and what we have is:

1-((1/x_n)(Σ(x_n-x_i)a_ib_i)/(Σ(x_n-x_i)a_i²))


I am not sure about Badenes-Plá's method satisfying the third property, but our tinkering of that method will satisfy the three properties that we have discussed earlier, but they are not the same as the area under the Lorenz curve normalized by the area under total possible inequality. Thus, I would strongly suggest our proposed method. To reiterate,

(1-2(Σ_ia_ib_i/2+Σ_i(1-x_i)b_i))/(1-a_n)

A final problem is that our method has been ignoring the population, N. The question that comes to mind is the richest group having all the wealth is not the same as only one single individual having all the wealth. In such case, the area above the Lorenz curve will fall sort of (1/2) by a factor of (1/N)/2, not a_n/2. This means we deal with discrete data or consider an additional group and both these can be handled with our suggested method. A note of caution for discrete data is that the third property will not hold because our correction factor will be population dependent. This is fine, because when we consider one individual as an independent group it also means that the population cannot be replicated.