In Love, For Love, From Love, To Love...

In love there is no Miss only Bliss.
Love is never Lost it Lasts.
In love we are always Assured never Anxious.
In love we are United never Unsure.
In love there in no Pain only Praise.
In love there is never Other One but only Oneness.
Love is never Over it is always Over-flowing.
Love Reaches never Ditches.
In love You and Me are ONE not Us.
Love is Pure not Possessive.
Love is Enhancement not Excitement.
Love is Space not Spice.
Love is Spiritual not Special.
Love is Perennial not Personal.
Love is Care not Control.
Love is Share not Show.
Love is Glad never Sad.
Love is Insight not Sight.
Love is Divine not Only Mine.
Love is Flow not Feel.
Love is Twinkle not Tear.
Love is Heal not Seal.

(I received this Valentine's day message from Shri Laxmikant Singrodia via email.)

Kakkadan Nandanath Raj

Kakkadan Nandanath Raj (K. N. Raj, 13 May 1924-10 February 2010) is a planner, visionary, economist and institution builder. Straight out from the London School of Economics in 1950 he helped in the drafting of the first five year plan, 1951-56, building the new India. His vision was not only as a planner with a socialist zeal, but also as a researcher and teacher inspiring generation of students.

I happen to be one among the last batch of M.Phil. students at the Centre for Development Studies (CDS), Trivandrum - now Thiruvananthapuram to whom Professor Raj gave some formal lectures. I still remember he introducing us to Hicks' A Theory of Economic History, a classic book, which as Professor Raj said gave you something new every time you read it. His paper The Politics and Economics of Intermediate Regimes, through which he discussed a concept taken from Michal Kalecki. While discussing economic history, he exposed us to the point that econometric tools and techniques can be used and a gelling of the two is known as cliometrics.

The informal atmosphere of CDS in known to residents, but I quote a remark from my supervisor and fatheer-in-law Professor G. Niranjan Rao, "I joined the faculty of CDS in the year 1980. On my first day at the CDS, when Prof P.G.K.Panickar, the then Director intruduced me to him as a new colleague, I addressed him as "Sir". He told me firmly but politely " Don't ever address anybody as "Sir" in CDS!" That was the culture of informality he nurtured at CDS." The informal atmosphere on campus led to discussions beyond the classroom and seminars and these were very learning experiences.

One folklore in the building of CDS is this. Professor Raj was given a budget by Shri Achuta Menon, then chief minister of Kerala to start the campus. Professor Raj thought the budget, though generous, would just be enough to put up an infrastructure, but building an academic institution requires a library. This is when he roped in Laurie Baker who put up the structure with substantial cost reduction. Thus, the rest of the money could go for the library. Generations of students and academia who passed through CDS have benefited from the library, the culture of informality and the persona K.N. Raj.

Whirlwind Tour of Odisha

A very happy new year to you all. I have just returned from a whirlwind tour of Odisha. The initial purpose was to attend the Indian Economic Association 92nd annual conference held at Bhubaneswar and perhaps combine it with a meeting of friends from School after 25 years. The latter could not materialize. Thus, I combined my visit with some other work and made a whirlwind tour of rural Odisha.

I visited places in Banki (one flood prone village where I had a two-hour discussion with villagers), Nayagarh (two farmer field school groups (FFSGs) - one in their field one in their village, two civil society groups that facilitate formation of FFSGs and Selh-help Groups (SHGs) and additional livelihood activities, and one farm house), and Puri (a cluster of two-three villages in and around Birapurusottampur, which happens to be my native village) and also had discussions with various stakeholders. It will not be appropriate for me to reveal the contents of my discussion now, but it does reiterate the grim agrarian scenario in Orissa. The macro observations indicated earlier in Poverty and Agrarian Distress in Orissa (nay, Odisha) is more or less substantiated by these field visits.

A disturbing picture that one observed during this visits is reportage of farmers' suicides by the media almost every day. I did disucss this with many and the responses were familiar as these are similar to the ones that one came across when I was starting the study on Suicide of Farmers in Maharashtra. People have to get out of the denial mode (that this is just a media hype) and the least that they can do is to stop blaming the farmers for this. The media can have a look at the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines on suicide reportage. This is a symptom of the larger Agrarian Crisis in India, elaborately discussed in the book edited by D. Narasimha Reddy and me and published by the Oxford University Press. There is need for technological and institutional innovations that reduce costs and improve returns.

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.