Journey of life...!

moon

2012-01-19T23:22:00.001+05:30

that I know,
I can see moon
I now am easy
to lie to you
that I don't
find anything real
you don't know
that you can
keep it with you
the way you
made love
and me!

Srik

amateur

2012-01-12T13:08:00.001+05:30

Excerpt from the book The Accidental Masterpiece by Michael Kimmelman

I hope to approach the art of seeing here in the spirit of an amateur. I mean amateur in the original sense of the word, as a lover, someone who does something for the love of it, whole heartedly. The best amateur has the skills of a professional but true professionals stay amateurs at heart, keeping a lid on the cynicism and irony that can pass for sophistication in some circles. Skepticism is useful, and for critics, necessary.

Cannot agree more. And the best possible explanation I've read so far.

Srik

freedom to doubt

2012-01-11T14:48:00.002+05:30

Excerpt from the book The Meaning of It All by Richard P. Feynman

This freedom to doubt is an important matter in the sciences and, I believe, in other fields. It was born of a struggle. It was a struggle to be permitted to doubt, to be unsure. And I do not want us to forget the importance of the struggle and, by default, to let the thing fall away. I feel a responsibility as a scientist who knows the great value of a satisfactory philosophy of ignorance, and the progress made possible by such a philosophy, progress which is the fruit of freedom of thought. I feel a responsibility to proclaim the value of this freedom and to teach that doubt is not to be feared, but that is to be welcomed as the possibility of a new potential for human beings. If you know that you are not sure, you have a chance to improve the situation. I want to demand this freedom for future generations.

Absolutely! it is so important 'now' to teach that doubt is not to be feared. Else how will I know what I want to know? If I'm unsure of something, I surely can find out.

Srik

atoms with curiosity

2012-01-11T13:05:00.001+05:30

Excerpt from the book The Meaning of It All by Richard P. Feynman

It is a great adventure to contemplate the universe, beyond man, to contemplate what it would be like without man, as it was in a great part of its long history and as it is in a great majority of places. When this objective is finally attained, and the mystery and majesty of matter are fully appreciated, to then turn the objective eye back on man viewed as matter, to view life as part of this universal mystery of greatest depth, is to sense an experience which is very rare, and very exciting. It usually ends in laughter and a delight in the futility of trying to understand what this atom in the universe is, this thing - atoms with curiosity - that looks at itself and wonders why it wonders.

--
Well, I'm one of those atoms with curiosity. I'm deep somewhere in the game somebody designed and trying to think where am I or what am I really doing here? Mysteriously wondering in awe.

Srik

world without a living thing

2012-01-09T11:10:00.000+05:30

Excerpt from the book The Meaning of It All by Richard P. Feynman

Can you conceive, can you appreciate or fit into your ideas what can be the meaning of a world without a living thing on it? We are so used to looking at the world from the point of view of living things that we cannot understand what it means not to be alive, and yet most of the time the world had nothing alive on it. And in most places in the universe today there probably is nothing alive.

Well. Sigh. I had not even thought about it that way. Wonder why though?

Srik

Its Fungi

2011-12-29T11:31:00.002+05:30

It was sometime in October 2011, I went for a evening walk to embrace the last showers of monsoon in Bangalore. It was a beautiful evening and the moon was hiding behind the dark clouds. The rate at which I was walking was slower than the darkness taking over that evening. When I was walking back to my place, I noticed an unusual friend sprouted over a Bauhinia tree. It was barely visible and the buildings around the tree let some light on it allowing me to get a glimpse of what it is. I was awestruck and I think for the first time in 4 years or 5 years I witnessed this interesting fellow on the tree. I soon got curious and decided to come back the next morning.

I woke up to the early sun, took my lens and hit the road. It had poured throughout the night and the roads were very wet. I was also worried if the rain caused any damage to what I had seen in the night. I started looking around for the same surprise on all the trees along the road. I did not succeed in spotting it on any other tree.

I reached the place and the tree looked wonderful. The house owner was sweeping in front of the gate and started at me for a while. I ignored her presence and was observing the beauty in front of my eyes. After a while an old woman came out of the house. She was curious to know what this stranger-with-a-camera is doing at the tree. Then she instantly realized what it was. I guessed not many people stop for such things anyway. I told her "Ajji... this thing here looked interesting in the night and hence I came to see it". She said "that is very nice of you to come back to see it" "its beautiful" she said. I told her that "this is the first time I am noticing it in the past 4 years". She told me that its there since 2 months. I took her permission to capture some photographs. I was very careful and I did not cause any damage to them. Thanks to the BNHS field botany course that am doing currently, am getting curious about every little thing I see in nature. It was interesting to speak to that ajji as well. Even now she smiles at me whenever I walk in front of her house.

Its Fungi! (I do not know the ID yet)

2011, Srikanth Parthasarathy

art and emotion

2011-12-24T00:50:00.000+05:30

Excerpt from the book "Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman" by Richard P Feynman

I wanted to very much learn to draw, for a reason that I kept of the world. It's difficult to describe because it's an emotion. It's analogous to the feeling one has in religion that has to do with a god that controls everything in the whole universe: there's a generality aspect that you feel when you think about how things that appear so different and behave so differently are all run "behind the scenes" by the same organization, the same physical laws. It's an appreciation of the mathematical beauty of nature, of how she works inside; a realization that the phenomena we see result from the complexity of the inner workings between atoms; a feeling of how dramatic and wonderful it is. It's a feeling of awe - of scientific awe - which I felt could be communicated through a drawing to someone who had also had this emotion. It could remind him, for a moment, of this feeling about the glories of the universe.

Hmmm. I do not know whether he could actually draw what he wanted to. But he has conveyed the message of course.

Srik

illumination in sleep

2011-12-22T13:00:00.001+05:30

tis' a strange day for the spirit,
breathing cold on a warm mattress
thinking ahead, the time and distance
perhaps here or the world around
eyes gets closed, letting those dreams
to open, never mind the pain
but the stories that are left behind
every breath has a story to be told
and every story has its breath in hold
many are unfinished yet, and some
are now being written in dreams

when the window brightens, the light
slowly moves over the face, like
how sun crawls over the mountains
or like the river flows through the dawn
serene silence all around
I sit comfortably numb on a couch
gazing through the door, half closed
with an unfinished book, open
trying to read the mind, the other side
waiting to hear all the stories, untold
and are getting illuminated in sleep

Srik

Bhoga Nandeeshwara Temple at Nandi

2011-12-18T16:43:00.001+05:30

The Bhoga Nandeeshwara temple in Nandi village is one of the oldest temples in Karnataka dating back to the ninth century. The temple hewn out of rock consists of two complexes. While the first complex houses three deities, the second complex consists of a huge and majestic kalyani pond. The foundation of the temple was constructed by the Banas of ninth century. The Chola rulers of the 11th century constructed the roof of the temple. The marriage hall was built by the Hoysalas in the thirteenth century and a wall of the second complex was built by the Vijayanagar kings. (Source)

Recently during a friend's wedding, I could click some photographs of this temple.

The wheels made of stones. In the past these were used for the chariots I guess.

It takes skill to create gods. Certainly!

And when they are created...

Wonder who was in need of these stone made umbrellas. Carvings are just wonderful.

The stone made umbrella inside the main temple.

The top of the umbrella.

Ugra Narasimha on one of the pillars.

Pillars and Colors.

Pillars inside the main temple of Bhoga Nandeeshwara.

A mantap at the north-west corner of the 1st complex.

Snake gods and the red hibiscus.

Pillars at the marriage hall complex

Entry to the huge Kalyani

Mantap inside the huge marriage hall.

The gorgeous kalyani

Pillars and the reflection

Illumination in sleep

from here to eternity

Angles and Shadows

Thank you

the good earth is dying

2011-12-17T20:18:00.002+05:30

Excerpt from the book The Roving Mind by Isaac Asimov

The mass of humanity has been increasing throughout history; and it is still increasing, but is doing so at the expense of other forms of animal life. Every additional kilogram of humanity has meant, as a matter of absolute necessity, one less kilogram of nonhuman animal life. We might argue, then, that the earth can support, as a maximum, a mass of mankind equal to the present mass of all animal life. At that point, the number of human beings on the earth would be forty million million, or over eleven thousand times the present number. And no other species of animal life would then exist.

I re read - it is forty million million? hmm.. the good earth is dying for sure. And how do we even know we are ignorant? And our mass has no direction I guess.

Srik

worthy crop

2011-12-17T20:10:00.000+05:30

Excerpt from the book The Roving Mind by Isaac Asimov

If, then, we tried to develop a society that made sure that pregnant mothers were well cared for and babies well nourished everywhere, if psychological and social surroundings were healthy everywhere, if we developed a system of education that encouraged intelligence everywhere and if we made no artificial distinctions of appearance, language, or ways of life - if, in short, we developed a sane and just society - we would find ourselves harvesting highly intelligent children all over the world, and it would be a crop worth more to the human species than anything else conceivable.

--
Well, sigh. If we....

Srik

explore

2011-12-13T23:18:00.000+05:30

Excerpt from the book Feynman's Rainbow by Leonard Mlodinow

There is a flip side to the comforting knowledge that everyone is stumbling through the fog, and that is that it is a pretty good bet that many of them are not stumbling in the right direction. Who is going down the blind alley and who is on the road to success? Whose work will be remembered and whose forgotten? What is worth doing, and how do you know? - Leonard Mlodinow

~~
Explore. And like what Feynman says - 'Check out what other people are doing. Open yourself to others'.

Srik

finding potentiality

2011-12-13T23:13:00.000+05:30

Excerpt from the book Feynman's Rainbow by Leonard Mlodinow

A scientist's work is normal activities of humans carried out to a fault, in a very exaggerated form. Ordinary people don't do it as often, or, as i do, think about the same problem every day. Only idiots like me do that! or Darwin, or somebody who worries about the same question. "Where do the animals come from?" or "What is the relation of species?" A scientist works on it, and thinks about it for years. What I do, is something that common people often do, but so much more that it looks crazy! But it's trying to find the potentiality as a human being. - Feynman to Leonard

Finding the greatest potentiality of human beings' activity in a certain direction is the key. It is to do something with an intensity that is out of the ordinary.

Srik

the ordinary world

2011-12-13T22:59:00.000+05:30

Excerpt from the book Feynman's Rainbow by Leonard Mlodinow

Don't think it is so different, being a scientist. The average person is not so far away from a scientist. He may be far away from an artist or poet or something, but I doubt that too. I think in the normal common sense of everyday life that there is a lot of the kind of thinking that scientists do. Everyone puts together in ordinary life certain things to come to conclusions about the ordinary world. They make things that weren't there, such as drawings, such as writing, such as scientific theories. Is there something common in the process? I don't see such a big difference between that and the scientist's work.

For instance, an ordinary person can lie, and lying takes a certain imagination. And you have to make up a story that is sort of reasonable with nature, and it might even have to fit with certain facts. Sometimes they do a good job. They don't have to be scientists or writers.

-Feynman to Leonard -

~~

Well, there is a lot more an ordinary person can perform. All of us are ordinary in someway or the other. All it takes is to be and make! (SV's saying)

Srik

The Beautiful Tree by James Tooley

2011-12-06T22:04:00.001+05:30

Since I could not sustain my curiosity of reading this book, I boughtit and finished reading it. It is one of the best books I have ever read on thesubject of education. As thesignature line says, it’s the “personaljourney into how the world’s poorest people are educating themselves.’Thanks to James Tooley, the author of the book for his brave attempt to bringin some of the ignored realities across the nations. Without his radicalthinking and self motivated efforts, he would not have found out an alternativethat already existed to the current public education system.

James’s dedicated efforts and brilliant research in India, Nigeria,Ghana, Kenya and China challenged some of his previously held beliefs aboutthe importance of improving public education in the developing world.Contrary to the insistences of policymakers, bureaucrats, and developmentexperts, James found that there are very many low-cost private schools operatingin even extremely poor areas. I couldvery much relate to this because of my own experience and the places I grew upduring my childhood. Places were filled with private schools (they used to call‘convent’ schools). Even if they do not teach anything in English, they werenamed as ‘English’ Schools. After reading this book, it became very evidentthat it’s the same case with all the developing countries. The objective is togive ‘Education’ to all and the only option for the poor is to opt for the freeeducation at the government schools. But parents and children across thecountries are also concerned about having alternative options and the qualityof education at the government schools. As James writes, “The poor engage inself-help and vote with their feet,” leaving the state services for self-fundedand self-created alternatives.

James begins his journey in India and takes us on an unbelievablejourney to the East Asia and African countries. He closely observes the effortsof poor communities in education, and finds competent, committed entrepreneursin slums who have started schools in two-room apartments as well as entirebuildings, catering primarily to lowest income neighborhood children. In hisstories of these schools, he explores the young, passionate teachers, inspiringentrepreneurs, and self evolved teaching models that work to ensure thatstudents are engaged and learning. A large number of the schools James surveysare unrecognized, since getting the permissions required for a license remainhighly cumbersome. Yet he finds that even among the unrecognized privateschools, average teacher attendance, and English and math proficiency surpassthe apathetic government school system.

Although the existing system tries to give free education for the poor,it is inaccessible for a large mass of people. And in some countries it isexpensive (requirements like uniforms, books, transport) compared to otherprivate schools in the community. In our case in India, the universal educationhas been historically sidelined in government budgets, and school policy hassuffered in the tug of war between the center and the states. And if suchstate-funded education has suffered from politics or bad policy, the onlyalternative we see is the explosion of private schools.

It was a very moving experience to read the stories of his journey tothese countries and the way he achieved his vision. It was also deeply disturbingto know that so called development experts, the funding agencies and thegovernment were not very helpful for James to carry out his research. All ofthem resisted him to perform this research in their countries. Sadly, none ofthem were even aware that the private schooling is creating such a huge impactin their own countries. Every person James meets with in any of the countrieshe visited kept repeating the same statement again and again – “there are no private schools for the poor.Private schools are only for rich people”. Some of them were even rude tohim as well. Without making all those enemies, James could not have becomecloser to many others who were in need of his wonderful work. Well, what wasdiscovered later was something miraculous.

It was delightful to read the chapter ‘The Men Who Uprooted The Beautiful Tree’. I was even more thrilledto know that the expression The Beautiful Tree was coined by Mahatma Gandhi. Starting with Gandhi and his efforts inmaking education available for all, James tells us stories about all thosephilosophers and thinkers in the past and made a world of a difference to theeducation system. I was also kind of surprised to learn that Dr. Andrew Bell inthe 18^th century learned from a school in Madras (now Chennai) regionon how a community can self-educate themselves. He called it as the ‘Madras Method’ and published about thesame. He was so impressed with this method that he returned to London in 1797and published the description of his ‘MadrasMethod’. Following that, he was in great demand to introduce the system inBritish Schools. By 1821, 300,000 children were being educated under thismethod. His ideas were adopted around the Europe, and as far away as the WestIndies and Bogota, Columbia. And eventually this method did so much to raise theeducational standards across the world. The chapter ends of course withMacaulay’s accomplishments and his greatest contributions ever to the field ofEducation with some unbelievable statistics.

The last chapter deals with the potential solutions for all thechallenges on hand. Some of them, includes, Milton Friedman’s voucher systemand James’ discovery of alternative low-cost private education. To achieve 100%universal education for all by 2015, as one can understand from the book,countries need not depend only on the public education. They have a lot ofalternative ways to look at it. Some of the problems that they need to address includedysfunctional/inaccessible public schools, educational quality and reliabilityon the system. What James proposes and also experimented in a smaller groups(of course ensuring complete care while implementing) are as under:

To extend the private schools to created targeted vouchers for the poorest
The schools (private) can cash these vouchers from the agency providing them ensuring they are sustained and work more towards earning more vouchers by creating good name by providing good education.
Furthermore the targeted vouchers can also include supplements for textbooks and even midday meals, to allow poorest to have the education that the wealthier-of-the-poor parents can afford.

James has given a very detailed explanation on all the potentialsolutions in the last chapter and also has worked on the potential objectionsthat may arise out of them. But like what he says in the end “Even as things stand now, with current levels of aid funding andwithout touching any government funds currently being spent on publiceducation, so with no need to reform and public finance, I reckon we couldafford to send every out-of-the-school child to private school”.

It surely is an inspiring journey into the lives of families andteachers in the poorest communities who have successfully created their ownprivate schools in response to the failed public education. James Tooley withhis outstanding efforts of growing ‘the beautifultree’ has touched the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. The book isa delightful read and gives a lot of hope.

Book: The Beautiful Tree

Author: James Tooley

Pages: 302
Publisher: Cato Institute

Published: April 2009

Srik

the beautiful tree

2011-11-25T23:27:00.001+05:30

Excerpt from the book 'The Beautiful Tree' by James Tooley

I say without fear of my figures being challenged successfully, that today India is more illiterate than it was fifty or a hundred years ago, and so is Burma, because the British administrators, when they came to India, instead of taking hold of things as they were, began to root them out. They scratched the soil and began to work at the root, and left the root like that, and the beautiful tree perished.

That was Mahatma Gandhi during his visit to London on October 20, 1931.

Srik

Festival Cow

2011-11-24T11:17:00.001+05:30

Excerpt from the book 'The Beautiful Tree' by James Tooley

The government, the principal told me, had said there were no funds to rebuild. Ruefully, he also told me that Nigeria got 18 billion naira (about $140 million) from the World Bank for universal basic education. "Where is the money?" he asked. None of it was apparent in his school. It was all like the parable of the festival cow, he said: The chief wants to celebrate and so gives a cow for the celebrations. The butchers take their cut as it were, so we now have the full cow minus the butchers' cut. Then the cooks take over, and they take their cut too, so we now have the full cow minus the butchers' cut, minus the cooks' cut. The waiters then take their cut, so now we are left with the full cow minus the butchers' cut, the cooks', and the waiters'. "That's like the education budget," he said: "We hear there are funds in the budget, but we don't see it in our community. We don't know where the money goes."

James Tooley's discussion with one of the government school principal in the Lagos State of Nigeria. It explains the problem clearly. And it does not vary too much in India or in any other developing countries I guess.

Surely a Festival Cow!

Srik

the A

2011-11-17T12:52:00.001+05:30

Excerpt from the book Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson:

For most things in life, the range between best and average is 30% or so. The best airplane flight, the best meal, they may be 30% better than your average one. What I saw with Woz was somebody who was fifty times better than the average engineer. He could have meetings in his head. The Mac team was an attempt to build a whole team like that, A players. People said they wouldn't get along, they'd hate working with each other. But I realized that A players like to work with A players, they just didn't like working with C players. At Pixar, it was a whole company of A players. When I got back to Apple, that's what I decided to try to do. You need to have a collaborative hiring process. When we hire someone, even if they're going to be in marketing, I will have them talk to the design folks and the engineers. My role model was J. Robert Oppenheimer. I read about the type of people he sought for the atom bomb project. I wasn't nearly as good as he was, but that's what I aspired to do.

Jobs goal was to be vigilant against 'The bozo explosion' that leads to a company's being larded with second rate talent. He was always looking for the A rate players. And no compromise on that in anyway.

(Woz - the co-founder of Apple)

Wonder how many of those at the top or those who are named 'leaders' worry about hiring only A players? or how many of them even invest their time in converting the B players to A. The point is to have only A players in the team. And hence if I am a C player, will I not be trying to get into the A category?

I like the aspiration to have only A players in the team.

Srik

simple

2011-11-17T12:30:00.001+05:30

Excerpt from the book Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

Why do we assume that simple is good? Because with physical products, we have to feel we can dominate them. As you bring order to complexity, you find a way to make the product defer to you. Simplicity isn't just a visual style. It's not just minimalism or the absence of clutter. It involves digging through the depth of the complexity. To be truly simple, you have to go really deep. For example, to have no screws on something, you can end up having a product that is so convoluted and so complex. The better way is to go deeper with the simplicity, to understand everything about it and how it's manufactured. You have to deeply understand the essence of a product in order to be able to get rid of the parts that are not essential.

Jonathan Ive, describing his design philosophy at the Apple's design studio. Ive is one of the closest soul mates of Steve Jobs who shared his values about the design and their quest for true rather than the surface simplicity.

I used to always think there is a lot more to just being simple or calling it simple. And it rang a bell when I read this paragraph.

Simple cannot be simply simple.

Srik

here's to the crazy ones

2011-11-17T12:20:00.001+05:30

Excerpt from the book Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.

--
The Think Different ad of Apple. Truly so!

Srik

picture

2011-11-13T00:41:00.001+05:30

tender and sweet
in my hands
long time past

a feel, a glimpse
i connect to
i still see

the music
and every breath
still that hmmm

the touch
that real one
touched' ...forever

a crazy feat
that made us
frozen 'n me

that joy
was,
and is

to be now
and to be
there

to my self
open now
deep,

a picture
be left
ever

Srik

be

2011-11-06T21:27:00.001+05:30

a lot

perhaps

to say and do

dare and to act

a far away moon

and a dark evening

wait,

to head on

a mountain pass

to the shine

and,

get to a closer self

is to just 'be'

srik

Intuition

2011-10-31T20:53:00.001+05:30

Excerpt from the book - Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

Coming back to America was, for me, much more of a cultural shock than going to India. The people in the Indian countryside don't use their intellect like we do, they use their intuition instead, and their intuition is far more developed than in the rest of the world. Intuition is a very powerful thing, more powerful than intellect, in my opinion. That's had a big impact on my work.

Western rational thought is not an innate human characteristic; it is learned and is the great achievement of Western civilization. In the villages of India, they never learned it. They learned something else, which is in some ways just as valuable but in other ways is not. That's the power of intuition and experiential wisdom.

-- Jobs after his visit to India in search of enlightenment when he was nineteen years old.

~~
Interesting paragraphs that made me wonder whether what he said is true even now?

Srik

Biking in Kemmangundi

2011-10-28T17:09:00.001+05:30

Every time I visit the Kemmangundi area I felt like biking there. And it was a long time wish. It was no more a distance but making free time that mattered to go there. Also I was sharing my wish every time I met with Kowshik that we have to do the biking trip to Kemmangundi. He used to readily agree. And finally on 2011, October 22 we were on the road with our bikes clipped to Kowz's Getz!

We started early in the morning when it was dark but very soon came out into the sun light. The roads appeared much straighter for this journey making it a perfect mood for biking. Good music and timely breakfast fueled us for the game. Losing track from the right way could not stop us from taking a long turn making the mountains much farther. Waiting at the railway crossing was nothing but a restless feeling; though it energized us to reach for the start.

Kemmangundi welcomed us with its beautiful landscapes. We drove into the heaven and parked ourselves at the guesthouse. It did not take too long for us to prepare ourselves for the most awaited downhill ride to Hebbe. I had seen the place and had even experienced the journey to the place in a jeep. 4X4s are only the options for people to reach Hebbe because of its downhill rocky terrain. Else they have to walk. We chose to bike.

Both of us enjoyed our downhill ride. Although we were careful, at places we could not resist the temptation of zooming into the valley. Both our bikes were in good condition and was in full control with us. It was a first time experience for me to do such a downhill ride and to do it in such a heavenly place was a bliss. It was a thrilling ride till we reached the hebbe falls. Many jeep drivers were excited to see us and speak to us. They stared at our cycle and our gear. They wanted to try a ride as well. We were answering many of their questions and there was no end to the excitement all around. It was a sense of satisfaction to see the magnificent hebbe falls in full flow. We quickly returned to our bikes and wondered at the uphill task we had. We had no choice but to climb back 13 kms to our guest house.

Well, the uphill climb was a tough one for sure. It was a 13km of trekking along with our bikes and at places our bums were on the saddle. It was the sense of excitement that we got from the downhill ride that pumped our adrenalin to overcome the uphill challenge. To add to it, breeze was becoming much cooler. We rested at many places. Some jeep driver tried telling us to take the short cuts and some other explaining the wild animals after the dark. We just continued. For a short patch, we were lucky enough to get a jeep ride as well. Sooner we saw the sun getting under the woods, quickly we got down from the jeep. That short ride was a big help for sure. But we had a lot more uphill task to do. It was a beautiful sunset before we hit the dusk.

It was a kind of dehydration for me that pulled my muscles for a while. But nothing to beat my excitement of completing this long awaited biking to hebbe. We biked back in the dark and reached our guesthouse by 8pm.

We woke up early the next day. We took our bikes and started cycling towards the Mullayyanagiri. The morning comfort gave us enough scope to do some photography and record some videos. We did about 8-10km of biking and went back to the guesthouse. From there we left to Mullayyanagiri and drove back to Bengaluru in the night.

It was absolutely a thrilling experience to me with the downhill ride and an awe-inspiring feeling having done in the Kemmangundi area. Thanks to Kowshik for his wonderful company as always. I now want to go back there again and again and do such trails.

A longing trip has left a longing feeling in me for more!

October 2011

they turned black and white

2011-10-12T01:31:00.001+05:30

Yet another opportunity to see these beauties in nature. For the love I have for this scenic habitat, although it appears dry, it is a spectacular sight whenever I see a blackbuck. The majesty and the elegance with which they observe you, perhaps! stare at you for staring at it is what makes me touched! Although I colored myself through my eyes seeing these heavenly creatures, I turned absolutely black and white. Some of the jewels I sighted on the day can never go off my memory!

Jayamangali Blackbuck Sanctuary - beautiful dry habitat

Huge tree and the mountains of Madhugiri at the back drop

Acacia flowers in bloom

A female blackbuck running alone

Long tailed shrike on sitting on a acacia tree

Green bee-eater

Long tailed shrike

Blister beetle and a flower

A tree up to the sky

Beautiful dry leaves

it turned black and white

flowers of grass or the leaves of grass?

flying away from the honey!

Two robberflies(?) at play

Black and white - Yellow pansy

A female blackbuck

A male blackbuck running alone

they paired together this time

oh! let me jump away from you!

Staring at you! Elegance personified

Whenever they notice someone around, they stare at you making a good pose!

A male blackbuck trying to escape from my sight

It was a rare sight for me to see two of them play or fight!

I absolutely love the way they look! A majestic male blackbuck!

a moon-lit dream

2011-09-30T22:32:00.000+05:30

perhaps! that night was on of the best night's i've ever witnessed. I do have a lot of good nostalgic memories of some events in the past. But this one beat them all!

Rain was playing with me beautifully, everyday; making me forget everything else and enjoy its play. I was completely in a trance for those three days of my visit to the Kaas plateau. It was 10.00 pm on the Sunday night and was about to rain. I could feel each rain drop falling on my face had a story to tell me and to move me out of this world. And we were on the move.

I had never seen such a beauty around me in the night and those Sahyadri slopes looked gorgeous in the night. Moon light was all over and the black shades overtook most of the moments; leaving the rain drops fall helplessly. The road wasn't straight but our direction looked right. Many toads on the road - a few jumping, a few waiting for us to go away, and some lying flat on the road. Many road kills; as many killer roads. We could hear calls everywhere, and we tried reaching them. We saw a lot of beauties and we were moving on to see more.

As we moved on, the rain danced along. Within some time, we reached the woods and habitat drastically changed. It turned more humid and wilder by the distance. We saw couple of hares shying away from us. And some eyes that were blinking through the trees. It was a place more known for many mammal movements. We slowed down our bike after sighting him standing tall. On the road, staring straight into our eyes. The light made him notice us and he started coming towards us. As he approached we tried to bend down and escape. He flew away. A majestic Eurasian Eagle Owl appeared wilder in the night. It was a whew! moment for us.

The night turned much wilder with the dramatic rain play over the woods. We stopped the bike again. And we noticed some mammal crossing the road and running into the paddy field. We searched with the torch light but we failed spotting it. We thought it was a Civet. (guess)

Finally we reached our destination for the day. An empty tourist bungalow welcomed us. There was no human in the bungalow. It was as silent as a valley. We started walking towards a small trail that goes into the woods. We saw some more frogs and we were not yet sighted any snakes. The place is supposed to be known more for Sloth Bear movements and I also heard some stories of their attacks as well. After all, it is their territory. So we had very less time to get out of that place. We climbed down for about 20 minutes into the valley and our torch lights were no effective because of the bright moon light.

For the first time something happened to me. I stopped talking, I was completely blank to see what I was seeing. I thought It was a dream. I had to pinch myself to reassure that what I was seeing was real. Mouth wide open and eyes stuck with a sight; I witnessed something that I had not seen in my life. It was the moon-lit waterfall gorgeously flowing down into the valley. I got goosebumps looking at it. I had only 2 minutes to absorb the beauty in my eyes. I could not hear anything else other than my heartbeat and the wild roar of the waterfall. It never did notice our presence there. But we thought every frog, every small insect, every leaf of a tree were noticing our presence very much.

(I was struggling to get a picture. It was a real test for me to prove myself that I have learnt some photography in the past. With what I was seeing around, I forgot how to take a picture. The picture i took may not be 1% justification of what I witnessed)

What I saw was a moon-lit dream for sure!

Thoseghar waterfall under moon light. Photographed on 12th September, 2011 at 00:45 hours.

With a beautiful dream captured in my eyes, with goosebumps all over my body, with an unbelievable expression on my face, I returned back to my room in Satara by 3 am.

Thanks to Vishal Prasad who is based out of Satara and working towards conserving Kaas Plateau, for taking me to Thoseghar waterfalls in the night and giving me so much learning on the amphibians and reptiles. It was a thrilling night for sure. Vishal is a herpetology enthusiast and is also doing his research with BNHS.

Srik

We commit to bring change

2011-09-26T09:37:00.003+05:30

September 17^th, 2011

It was the final round of the Jnana Fellowships– 2011 selectionprocess and I was all excited to walk through the plans for the day. Out of the400+ who completed the written test, top 50 were selected and were called forthe interviews. Interviews were scheduled at the Vikasa Soudha from 9.30am. Candidates started walking into thevenue from 8.30 am onwards; they were also served with breakfast and coffee.All the candidates were made to sit in a conference hall and registerthemselves for the interviews.

Two groups of panels were calledto carry out the interviews. The general panel was a mixed set of leaders fromGovernment, Private and Non-Profit Organizations. The department panelconsisted of the secretaries from all the respective departments where thefellows will be posted. I was very happywith the mixed set of people in the panel and I was sure of them doing a greatjob in selecting the final list of fellows. Candidates were called based on the1^st preferences of departments they had opted in their applicationform. Out of the 50 candidates, 48 of them showed up for the interviews andeach interview took about 10 minutes.

My job was to keep talking to thecandidates and panels; and make note of some observations. I was speaking tomost the candidates and tried understanding their expectations. I was happy tomeet some very interesting people with brilliant set of ideas to bring inchange. I was ecstatic to hear about their plans and their confidence levelwith which they decided to risk’ coming out from their current jobs. Based onmy interactions, I could categorize the candidates in to the following threesets. First set of people were those with a clear vision of what they want towork, a passion to work with the government, wish to use their experience andtalent to bring in change; Second set of people were those who were waiting forsuch opportunities to use their talents and were ready to work on any assignmentgiven to them and learn from the system; and the third set of people were thosewho had no specific plans and were mostly there to look out for an alternativejob for themselves. I was very happy about the first two sets of people and wasmoved with the kinds of ideas they had. I was also certain that the third set of people will get eliminatedduring the interviews. After all, they never expect candidates to see this asan alternative job.

As and when the panel were donewith their interviews, the next department panel were called. And I used to runbehind the panel who took the interviews for the feedback. I did get someexcellent feedback and some good suggestions from them. Some of them weredelighted with the quality of the candidates and their desire work with thesystem. I even heard that some of them were literally fighting over someexceptional candidates to take them to their departments. It was the eureka moment for me!

Feedback from the panel on theinterviews summarized as under:

So far everything looks perfect; we are waiting to see the results at the end of the fellowship period.
Excellent presentations from the candidates.
Candidates are certainly meeting our expectations.
Process is designed very well. For the first time we are seeing a different way of doing things within the Government.
More information about the departments to be given to the candidates much before the selection starts so that it would help candidates getting to know the work area better.

Almost all the interviews werereally good. I could see a sense of satisfaction with the panel on theirselection. After all, they were the ones who will be working with the fellowsfor the next 8 months. Some candidates did exceptionally well and some of themtried their best in convincing the panel. Even the panel did their best to giveenough comfort to the candidates during the interview so that none of thecandidates were disappointed while leaving the interview hall. Most of thecandidates offered their help to make a positive difference to the system andsome of them did carry the ‘I’m ok, youare not ok!’ attitude during the interview. But the panel were at theirbest to assess them before selecting them. Here are some of the key points thatspoke candidate’s minds to convince the panel:

It is very difficult to do things being inside the system and hence this platform will help me doing things that I want to do (some of them who are working with the Govt already)
Quality issues and the lacuna in the existing system.
Bringing the change at the grass root level.
To implement some of the proven scientific methods and low cost methods in the System.
To rework on the existing outdated policies in the system.
I have seen how things work being outside the system and I want to see how it works within the system. I want to assess how I can bring in more value addition being inside the system.
This is an alternative way to work with the government.
System is in need of new methodologies and techniques. We are here with what is required.

Finally all the interviews gotover by 6.00 pm and candidates were getting exhausted sitting inside the room. Theywere served with timely snacks and couple of rounds of coffee/tea. We even gavethem a round of chocolates so that they can keep themselves awake till the endof the day. We were impressed with the way the candidates conducted themselvesthroughout the day.

In the end, Dr M K Sridhar,Member Secretary of Jnana Aayogaaddressed the candidates and explained them on how the Jnana Fellowshipsevolved and the integrity and transparency with which the process is beingcarried out thus far. Candidates did acknowledge on the process and praised theJnana Aayoga on undertaking such ameaningful effort. The forum was open for candidates to give feedback and hereare some interesting points:

We gained more confidence in Jnana Fellowship because of the excellent process and the transparency with which everything is being executed.
It was completely a different experience. First of its kind.
We will certainly commit to bring change.
Selection process was the best and it should be replicated to all other departments as well.
Preference option in the application was a very good idea.
No reservations and only ‘capability’ was accounted.
This opportunity to be extended for those who can work from places other than Bengaluru.
This was like my second innings to the experience gained in private sector.

Dr Gopal Mahapatra, Senior Director -Organization and Talent Development at Oracle,who was a part of the general panel addressed the gathering for a fewminutes. Having enormous experience working on talent acquisition and humanresources in the past, he said the process was very unique and was the best hehas seen thus far.

I felt very good to see things beingexecuted as per what we had planned. It always feels heavenly to walk throughthe plans. Even I am eagerly waiting to see how the selected fellows keep uptheir wonderful spirits till the end of their fellowship term. I am sure ofsome good results.

No great improvements in the lotof mankind are possible, until a great change takes place in the fundamentalconstitution of their modes of thought - J. S. Mill

Flowers of the Kaas Plateau

2011-09-22T16:18:00.000+05:30

It was absolutely like a dream walking through my dream. It was a long pending trip for me to this plateau and fortunately I managed to visit the place this time. It is a plateau of flowers located in the Sahyadris (Western Ghats). This plateau, Kaas, is about 135km from Pune, near Satara town. The plateau of Kaas has becomes home to millions of wild flowers in late monsoons. In monsoon the whole area transforms into an unbelievable carpets of flowers like yellow carpets of Smithia , Pink carpets of Impatiens, Purple carpets of Carvia etc

Because of its sensitivity around issues like mass tourism, destruction and commercialization, I was very hesitant to go to this place. But as a nature wonderer I could not resist myself without seeing this valley of flowers once in my life time. I was fortunate enough to get into BNHS, they organized the visit very well. Unlike tourists, we were a bunch of nature enthusiasts and some of us were interested in Botany as well. The botanist with us, Santosh, was at his best in giving us enough details about the plants and flowers. Many species of wild flowers are endemic to Western Ghats and several species are endangered too. However, till date no serious steps have been taken for protecting the Flora and Fauna of this place and very few organizations are committed to conserve Kaas. We also met with some volunteers who are seriously committed to work on Kaas conservation and it was a good time brainstorming with them on a lot of ideas.

And I could not stop wondering at what I witnessed for three days.

Eriocaulon

Pogostemon

Senecio grahmii

Cyanotis

Utricularia

Fungi

Butterfly enjoying the Paracaryopsis flower

Impatiens lawii

Impatiens oppositifolia

Eriocaulon

Smithia hirsuta - the mickey mouse

Ceropegia

Euphorbia

Murdannia

Exacum

Drosera

Eriocaulon

Pinda

Lichens

Phipson's shield tail snake

Green keel back snake

Indian Bull Frog

Based on my observations at the Kaas on several aspects, I sincerely request the fellow travelers to consider the following:

1. Flowers are not for you. Please do not pluck them. Enjoy them just by seeing, they look more beautiful.

2. Kindly do not sleep/ walk / sit on the flower beds. It is not a garden.

3. Do not try to take plants from the plateau thinking it might look beautiful in your garden. It will not survive and you will be cursed for its death.

4. Do not take your vehicles over the plateau. Park as soon as the plateau starts and walk around on the foot path. I know you have more energy to walk.

5. Kaas is not a place to host parties or a picnic. Do not drink, eat and throw the garbage over the plateau. Be more respectful to nature, nature will respect you.

6. Be careful while walking. You may step on a beautiful flower and cause its death.

7. Avoid plastic in your travel bag. Do not even let your ignorance to spoil the place.

8. Do not play football or any game over the plateau. It is not a play ground.

9. Drive slow on the roads. You may hurt a variety of fauna. Watch out for road kills.

10. Resist your temptation to allow the beauty to tempt you more.

Thank you!

More photographs of Kaas on my flickr here.

Srik

kaas landscapes

2011-09-16T22:48:00.000+05:30

Grass lands of Sahyadri hills at the half way to the kaas plateau

Lonely tree welcoming us to the kaas plateau.

Nature enthusiasts enjoying their time at the kaas plateau

Yellow carpets of smithia giving a grand look to the lonely tree.

Beautiful sahyadri slopes at the kaas plateau

A forest guard carefully watches to ensure the flowers are not dis-respected.

White carpets of eriocaulon

Pink carpets of Impatiens at the kaas plateau

Many varieties of flowers seen at the plateau. Blooming together smiling together.

Pink carpets amidst the carvia plants

A time comes when all these carvia plants will be in bloom. Guess once in 7 or 9 years.

Gorgeous looking trees, a small pond amidst the impatiens flowers makes it a spectacular sight.

Sun play over the plateau

Tiny water stream at the plateau cuts through the pink carpets.

Sahyadri slopes overlooking the Urmodi dam.

Flat grass plateau and the yellow carpets here and there

Gorgeous tree at the kaas lake

September 2011

kuch kaas!

2011-09-14T10:37:00.000+05:30

Much awaited visit to this plateau and was worth going all the way from here. Some panoramas from the plateau are here.

a welcoming kaas plateau looking west

Sahyadri hills and the Urmodi dam to the north

Yellow carpets of Smithias

Misty morning on the kaas plateau

Pink carpets of Impatiens on the plateau and white Eriocaulon's on the right

picturesque plateau full of flowers in bloom during September

A gorgeous tree at the kaas lake

Cloud play at the kaas lake

September 2011

abstract freedom

2011-09-06T08:59:00.003+05:30

Excerpt from the book 'Roving Mind' by Isaac Asimov

It takes a calm sense of security to be willing to let each person have his say in speaking and writing, regardless of the content thereof. The security may arise out of the conviction that in the free conflict of ideas, truth and sanity will prevail, even if that takes a little time, or out of an abstract devotion to free thought, whatever the outcome.

----
And we think we have freedom of expression but we still draw our own limits.

Srik

control

2011-09-05T22:52:00.000+05:30

Excerpt from the book 'The Drunkard's Walk' by Leonard Mlodinow

"Our desire to control events is not without purpose, for a sense of personal control is integral to our self-concept and sense of self-esteem. In fact, one of the most beneficial things we can do for ourselves is to look for ways to exercise control over our lives - or at least to look for ways that help us feel that we do."

----

Well, I know its completely dependent on ones ability. I may be completely in control in an environment I am more comfortable with and I may be completely out of control with the same activity elsewhere.

Srik

almost there

2011-08-29T10:45:00.000+05:30

Monsoon in Manchikeri

2011-08-23T22:57:00.000+05:30

It was a long pending trip to the Uttara Kannada (North Kanara) district of Karnataka. My crave for visiting this land of scenic beauty during monsoon was persistent. Thanks to the long weekend, a spontaneous plan of visiting this place during the peak monsoon became a reality. Without any second thought I took one more day off and set myself for a 4 day trip. There was no schedule decided and there was no plan on how to move around. On a beautiful Friday morning, the red bus dropped me off at Manchikeri. It was since a long time I visited a typical 'Malenad' house and we were fortunate enough to become painful guests for Ajith and his parents for 4 days. Ajith and my friend TS work together at ITC in Bangalore. And it was Ajith's recommendation that we visit his place. Manchikeri is 37 km away on the way to Yellapur from Sirsi.

Since we had no specific plans for 4 days, we were free to go anywhere we wanted to. And we decided to not worry much about visiting all the places around and instead spend some quality time seeing some beautiful waterfalls. Uttara Kannada is the home for many such beautiful waterfalls, perennial rivers, moist deciduous forest and abundant flora/fauna. And over the next 4 days we got to see some stunning creations of nature. Thanks to Ajith and his friends, we even got to travel around on motorbikes. And not to mention the food at his place, it was a delightful Konkan feast on all 4 days. His mother took so much trouble and introduced us to some authentic Konkan dishes. I have to write a separate blog post altogether to explain all those mouthwatering stuff.

Worrying about my camera equipment in the heavy rain, I could somehow managed to capture some photographs. It was a thrilling experience to visit all the places in-spite of the heavy rains. That even saved us from sighting too many humans as well. Here are some of the photographs:

Sathodi, Dabbe and Kanchin Gadde:

We walked for about 6 km one way through the Kodasalli dam back waters to reach the Sathodi falls.

Sathodi falls in Yellapur taluk

Sathodi falls in peak monsoon

Kanchin Gadde falls near Sathodi

Dabbe Saal Falls near Sathodi

Chandaguli, Magod, Jenkal Gudda and Kavadi Kere:

Chandaguli Gante Ganapathi Temple

Misty woods at Magod

Magod falls during the peak monsoon

Bedthi river flowing at Magod powerfully!

Majjige hole falls near Magod

Kavadiamma temple on the banks of the 62 acres Kavadi kere.

Yana, Vibhooti and Unchalli:

The historic limestone rocks at Yana

Gorgeous Vibhooti falls near Yana

Finally after waiting for 30 minutes, we could see the Unchalli falls. This is my second attempt to see Unchalli in full flow.

Sirsi and Sahasra linga

A random water falls near Sirsi

Sahasra Linga. During monsoon only a few will be visible.

Some interesting flora and fauna:

Blue Oakleaf

Cup Fungi

It was a very tiring trip after a long time. Legs are full of leech bites and even now one hand is on key board and the other is scratching on my itchy legs. We were very lucky and thankful to get to meet Ajith and his family. Their hospitality was one of the best.

Talking about the developments and the tourism, all these beautiful places are being commercialized. There are neat roads till many of these destinations to which one can drive easily. Concrete structures are being erected amidst the woods. For a typical 'tourist' getting to see and enjoy in 'Nature' is becoming easier day-by-day. I had gone to Yana 8 years back (I think) and I had to trek for 6 km to reach the rocks. Now it is not even a 1km walk on a concrete road! Similarly access to Madod and Sathodi is very easy. People come in thousands to visit and at the same time they leave thousands of tons of garbage. Perhaps, many people have not yet realized that 'Nature looks beautiful only if it is left Natural'. Mind you, If any of you are travelling to all the above places after reading this blog post, you better be responsible and care for environment.

Link to more pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/srikanthap/sets/72157627508883636/

Srik

Quality, Innovation and Change

2011-08-22T22:42:00.002+05:30

It was 9 am - 21st August, 2011, Sunday and I was pleased to see those impressive banners welcoming me inside the RC College compound. There were a lot of people gathered inside and I had literally no place to park my bike. I could somehow create some space for my bike and embraced the venue. The banners read 'Department of Higher Education and Karnataka Knowledge Commission - Jnana Fellowship - 2011'. Hundreds of people were waiting to enter the building and there was no space for me to walk through them. When I tried asking people to leave some space, they thought I am being rude enough to enter the building first. Some of them did block my way. But I somehow managed to enter the building and met the team inside.

I was pleased to be there on time (may be just in time) and entered the orientation session being conducted for all the volunteers and organizers. The program for the day was to verify the documents of all the shortlisted candidates and to conduct the written test for them. The activities were distributed to the representatives from several organizations. I was absolutely thrilled to see the high energy levels of all those who represented their respective organizations. The event started on time and all the candidates walked into their (allotted) rooms.

Candidates' profiles were a culmination of various professions. There were Doctors, Lawyers, Housewives, Software Engineers, Management Consultants, State Government Employees, Professors, Scientists, NGO workers, Artists, Entrepreneurs and more. It was delightful to see such diverse set of people from all walks of life.

While I enjoyed coordinating between several rooms for all the concerns and spontaneous issues, I also had set an objective for myself to talk to some candidates and understand their expectations.

All those who could satisfy all the criteria and produce the required documents were given hall tickets for the written test. All others who were unable to fulfill the requirements were rejected. Some of them raised genuine concerns and some tried to produce false claims. Some of them had taken the whole process for granted in the name of 'Change' they envisioned to bring into the Government systems. Some just lacked patience and got into arguments. All of us, who were coordinating between many rooms, tried our best to address their issues and could succeed in convincing a few of them.

Some of the candidates (say 12 to 15) volunteered themselves to speak to me and convey their feelings about the Fellowship program. They said this is a brilliant, first of its kind initiative and they are looking forward to contribute their best. Many of them had gone through the KKC website and the fellowship approach paper. They were curious to know more details on the final selection process and the mode of working for projects. Some of them were disappointed and they expressed that they had not expected the written test and the document verification processes. Some of them tried explaining their achievements in the past and how they can contribute to the system. I was just listening to all their talk and tried my best to nod my head.

I volunteered to speak to some of them. I asked what is their expectation from the Jnana Fellowship (JF)? and if given an opportunity what would they like to achieve? Most of them were excited to answer my questions and I was really pleased with a few answers. It was my effort to know how JF is positioned in their minds?

All of them had three things in common to share or rather these three topics were the key highlights during my conversation with them. Quality, Innovation and Change. Most of them said they are expecting to work with the government to make a difference.

I was ecstatic to hear that from those candidates and I said to myself - "I think we have set the right expectations". Hopefully the same momentum flows through the next 8 months to 1 year and hopefully there are some notable results at the end of the JF term. And hopefully JF will continue to work towards making a difference.

I shared this experience during the end of the day meeting. And I felt absolutely great to have volunteered with such a thoughtful initiative.

Srik

More details about the fellowships here.

movement

2011-08-19T13:01:00.000+05:30

it took one upatma
who follows the spirit
in his breath, his nerves
smiling with strength
inspired and taken by
mahatma's approach
moment by moment
leading from the front
fast after fast
for the people
and the nation
against the bad
and the bad people
growing by every soul
listening their pain and his
sacrificing own self
unshaken by critics
empowered by millions
creating a movement
to bring in light!

more power to you!

Srik

North Kanara and Monsoon

2011-08-18T14:51:00.001+05:30

Here are some of the panoramic shots from North Kanara during this monsoon. Specifically from the North Western Ghat ranges in Sirsi and Yellapur taluks. It is a home for many beautiful waterfalls.

Sathodi falls in Yellapur taluk. This falls is a collection of small streams through various valleys.

Kanchin Gadde falls in Yellapur taluk. This is 3 km from Sathodi falls and is not easily approachable during monsoon.

Kavadi kere temple in Yellapur taluk. The ancient temple dedicated to goddess Kavadiamma.

62 acres spread Kavadi Kere. Till date the lake has never dried up. More can be read here.

Muregaar falls in Sirsi taluk.

Muregaar main falls. Situated 25 km from Sirsi town.

On the way to Sathodi, backwaters of the Kodasalli dam built across the river Kali.

Backwaters of the Kodasalli dam built across the river Kali.

View from the Jenu Kallu Gudda. 17 km from Yellapur. Bedthi river flows through the ranges.

Lime stones of Yana. Wonderful rock formations located 40 km from Sirsi town.

depth in change

2011-08-11T12:29:00.000+05:30

Excerpt from the book - Five minds for the future by Howard Gardner

Conditions in the world are changing significantly. consequent upon these changes, certain goals, capacities and practices might no longer be indicated, or might even come to be seen as counterproductive. For example, before the invention of the printing press, when books were scarce, it was vital for individuals to cultivate a faithful and capacious verbal memory. Now that books (and notebook-sized search engines) are readily available, this goal and the attendant mnemonic practices - are no longer at a premium. On the other hand, the ability to survey huge bodies of information - print and electronic - and to organize that information in useful ways looms more important than ever. Changing conditions may also call for new educational aspirations. - Gardner

----

and we still continue to follow the old style, we continue to no-follow the change, we continue to teach the same for generations, we continue to say - "we have been doing it this way for so long that we know it is right"?

Srik

world of the future

2011-08-10T10:07:00.000+05:30

Excerpt from the book Five minds for the future by Howard Gardner:

Why the shift from description to prescription? In the interconnected world in which the vast majority of human beings now live, it is not enough to state what each individual or group needs to survive on its own turf. In the long run, it is not possible for parts of the world to thrive while others remain desperately poor and deeply frustrated. Further, the world of the future - with its ubiquitous search engines, robots, and other computational devices - will demand capacities that until now have been mere options. To meet this new world on its own terms, we should begin to cultivate those capacities now.

- Gardner

----

I think the key thing for us to strive through the change or to get into the future that is evolving, is to learn to survive.

Srik

Right to...

2011-08-07T00:08:00.001+05:30

pulsar, honda

I never asked

BMW, benz

I never asked

TV, radio

I never asked

Movie, theatre

I never asked

Coca cola

I never asked

Pepsi, fruit juice

I never asked

Bisleri

I never asked

Whiskey, Vodka

I never asked

Laptop, computer

I never asked

Mobile, Telephone

I never asked

MP3 player

I never asked

access to school

I asked

hospital, health

I asked

medicines

I asked

place to stay

I asked

good life

I asked

---

(I may not have given the accurate translation of the hindi song by MKSS team, I have tried my best to post what I have heard. Some of them, I may have exaggerated a bit more(!))

Sincere apologies to the MKSS team who sang this during today's public series. This song is sung at different places to explain the expectations of the common man. What we deserve vs what we get? Right to Information is what emerged out of such campaigns.

Srik

as always

2011-08-05T15:16:00.000+05:30

curious to know, how my mind thinks'

mostly always it stays ahead of me

out of my control, without any blink

triggers out of a random input

from the past or even a dream

any new idea, or unknown

surmising over the path defined

rushes to the edge and awaits me

asking me to confirm, proving it right

biased in my own act, I again wonder

am being misguided by my mind

rather proving it wrong

that I did not try anything new.

Srik

obviousness!

2011-07-27T10:28:00.002+05:30

(when in answering mode)

A theory is a theory, if it remains a theory!

If you cannot think of it, you cannot think of it!

Its true, because it is true!

If you think you can, you can!

If you do not know, you do not know!

It is not done, if it is not done!

You cannot say no, if you cannot say no!

I do like it, if i like it!

I mean it because I do mean it!

oh! it is something else, absolutely something else!

Its unbelievable, I cant believe this!

Okay! will see you when I see you!

Lets catch up when we catch up!

You are a volunteer, if you say you are a volunteer!

The more I go into nature, the more I go into nature!

continues...

Srik

Healthcare innovation

2011-07-23T13:00:00.001+05:30

I participated in the open forum discussion on 'healthcare innovation models' organized by Innovation Alchemy at the Idiom DREAM:IN Centre in Indiranagar on 22nd July at 4.30 pm. Basically it was a platform to interact with the entrepreneurs who have developed innovative models in the healthcare sector. There were three presentations organized for the day and the entrepreneurs were all set with their content.

NationWide:

It was a brilliant presentation from the founding team - Dr. Shantanu Rahman and Dr. Satish Jeevannanavar. First time I had heard about them was from one of the doctors I met during my bus journey a few months ago. It was a very interesting concept that caught my attention. NationWide is an initiative by a team of Indian doctors that are attempting to bring the 'Family Physician' or a 'Community doctor' model back into homes and neighborhoods.It was interesting to hear their story and the way they worked on the idea. And ofcourse it was triggered out of the fact that there is a huge demand at the ignored 'Bottom of the Pyramid'. But as of now they are looking for establishing themselves in the urban system, gain some credibility and then scale across to the grass roots. They also share the fact that Primary Healthcare is a much neglected sector in India and see a great need for accessible and affordable facilities in cities. Although, if it was not their pricing model that was promising; but their intention to bring in the traditional 'Family physician' back into the system. Right now they have 5 centres in the city (what they call it as hubs), each handling a volume of 12000-15000 population. Every main centre has 5 sub centres and 4-5 GPs run the show. Their one more strength is that they are planning to have all the patient records online. Online Medical History record reduces the time a GP has to go through the physical records when a patient visits them and also it will be very easily manageable. Like, once I register with them and undergo the initial check up and formalities, the record will be updated and will be accessible to me anytime with a secure password access. More information can be read on their site.

My only concern was that all such innovations are happening and getting concentrated in the tier-1 cities. And where there is a huge need and gap, there is none. Even though they say that initially they want to establish themselves and become self sustainable (like what all others do), there is a huge poverty in thinking towards the grass root level. And those who are working at the grass roots are really very few and are struggling to fill the gap. Innovations at that level is the need of the hour.

Anyway, since there is a need for such innovations in primary healthcare even in the cities, I will wish them good luck to establish themselves well and succeed in this entrepreneurial journey. I am very certain that they will do well and consider helping the real BOP.

Please visit their website here: NationWideDocs

mDhil:

This was one of the finest presentations I've seen. Nandu Madhava, the founder of mDhil is a University of Texas, Austin [BBA] and Harvard Graduate [MBA], a TED India 2009 fellow and has volunteered with the Peace Corps [a brilliant successful initiative during the period of John F. Kennedy] as a translator in health clinics.

mDhil provides basic healthcare information to the Indian consumer via text messaging, mobile web browser, and interactive digital content. It may sound simple but the need for such initiatives is huge. Health education plays a very important role and is being ignored by the wide majority of the people. Any initiative with respect to Health education will be accepted and will be sure enough to be a success. They have partnered with many mobile service providers like Airtel, Reliance etc and even partnered with huge pharmaceutical companies like Biocon. One can subscribe to their services through their mobile phones, they can ask questions, watch out videos on any health topic, they can learn about healthy food habits and more good stuff. They are actively promoting themselves on all the social networking sites like facebook and twitter.

In the future, Nandu hopes to leverage on the 3G technology and wants to reach to as many people as he can. Launched in 2009, they have already got the initial success of 150,000 paid users subscribing through SMS. Their website is full of information and they own the complete content. They create the content on their own with a lot of good doctors on board and they also ensure accuracy of the information.

When we questioned Nandu on leveraging the available information and providing the service across the rural areas in various regional languages, he said he will surely go for it. He said he is really looking forward to have all such services once the 3G takes over completely. It is absolutely a great venture and I really hope and wish Nandu and his team to do well.

Please visit their interesting website here: mDhil

Idiom: Dream In

Its one of the finest auditoriums' i've seen in Bengaluru. And the owner/founder of the Idiom consulting Sonia presented to us on design in innovation. Since there was not much of time left, she had to wrap up the presentation very quickly. But the last video that she played grabbed our attention to all the brilliant stuff they are doing.

It was a great show and brilliantly organized by Parvathi Menon and her Innovation Alchemy team. Will look forward to more such forums. They were actually live streaming the whole show. Good stuff!

Srik

today

2011-07-21T10:02:00.002+05:30

party over last night
dance is still on...
today is a new song

last evening was red
so as this morning...
clouds are smiling

the rain has stopped
but the feel hasn't...
wet breeze says it all

its a riot of colors
leaves me in blue...
and I see it new

it gives me a start
to free my heart...
i continue the hmm

Srik

wide-eyed beauties from Kannur

2011-07-19T10:52:00.000+05:30

Here are some panoramic shots from my recent trip to Kannur district in Kerala. Photographs are captured on 9th, 10th and 11th of July 2011.

Serene Perumbadi Lake seen near Makuta on the way to Kannur via Virajpet.

Beautiful water stream seen on the way to Kannur just after crossing the Perumbadi Lake near Makuta

The Moppila Bay Fishing Harbor seen from the St. Angelo Fort on the Arabian sea shore, Kannur

Blue evening colors of Muzhappilangad Drive-in beach in Kannur. The only drive in beach in Kerala.

Sunset at Muzhappilangad beach

A colorful evening at Muzhappilangad beach. Many folks were playing football on the beach.

View at the Aralam Wildlife Sanctuary, North-east of Kannur district.

A view of Valapattanam river from Parassinikkadavu Bridge, near the Muthappan temple.

ahead of me

2011-07-15T22:37:00.000+05:30

cluttered weekends
uncertain targets
adhoc plans
lengthy 'to-do's
demanding events
awful talks
new challenges
high-tuned arguments
random ideas
misplaced experiments
last-minute goof ups
perfect disagreements
'oh! shits' and 'holy-cows'
skipped family functions
bunked social meet-ups
discontinued reading
unanswered phone calls
confusing schedules
'too-bad's and 'very-mean's
lazy emergencies
known misunderstandings
I'm-not-well reasoning
forceful tolerances
wishful ignorance

and the list goes on...

Srik

Auto Driver's India

2011-07-08T23:40:00.000+05:30

It was funny. Today, because of a friend I had to take an auto rickshaw to come back home in the night. Anyway, it was completely worth my hesitation to get into an auto. When I got into the auto, the driver was calm and did not speak much. Once we started moving he turned out to be a driving comedian. And the comedy aspect is not because he cracked jokes, but because of his speaking style. He was not drunk. It was absolutely very good Kannada and at times a surprisingly good English. I was just nodding my head and at times make 'ha-ha' 'he-he' sounds to make sure he is in flow. It was a 20 min journey and here are some of the interesting eye-opening observations he made:

Saar- in India, people have become so foolish saar. They are not worried about all the 'nidhi' [meaning treasure] they have secretly sent outside the country and deposited in Swiss bank. They are worried about how to find such treasures in temples and exploit it more. Can you believe it saar, they are now spoiling the temples in Kerala [in English]?

Is there any news about the money they have secretly deposited out side India? no! why? because they want to exploit more and fall for themselves and their greed.

Other countries struggle hard to constantly pull back their citizens in good shape saar. But in India people seem to force everyone into a dumping ground. And people listen to them saar.

Corruption - why is it that only Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev wants to fight against it saar? why cant others do such stuff? I think people do not even know how to make a revolution these days. I am a patriot saar. I do not know how I got it in me. But I read a lot [in English] saar!

In India there was literally no poison saar. Even if it was there it was there only in Snakes. Now it is in each and every human being saar. I do not know what to say.

There is money for every beggar and every person in India with Indian government saar. They do not know how to distribute it properly. The major problem is taxation. [in English]

I know who pays the tax and who dont pay the tax saar. All these people who have more money and the businessmen are the culprits saar. [He made some calculations and all which I could not follow properly. But the highlight was that he was very knowledgeable]

Our ex-chief minister HDK challenges CBI to prove him a thief. So does it mean, only if CBI says he agrees that he is a thief. What kind of a joker he is saar. And CBI has to make that statement for him to believe his own noble deed.

These days Farmers are also becoming bad saar. All because of our ex-prime minister Devegowda. They will listen to whatever he says and they end up digging their own grave.

Some lady from Italy came and conquered India saar. Everything is in her hands now.

You know how bad SM Krishna saar? most of the corruption cases in the past got generated from him only. It has reached till Sonia Gandhi. You won't believe it. [in English].

In Mandya people call her as our 'Sose' [ meaning Daughter in Law]. I tell them, first they call her 'Sose' and then they call her 'soole'.

People are being called as 'Educated' not because of their quality saar, but because of their 'face'. If they are good to you, they are 'educated' [in English].

TV news channels have become 'only entertainment' [in English] channels saar. They make money like crazy. And people sit and watch whatever they say on the screen and it is easy money. There is no value for 'earning money' these days saar. Money has become a joke saar [in English].

When I was a kid I did not have any sense of what money is saar. I thought money is nothing. Now I realise saar, money is everything and there is nothing else in the world.

My daughter tells me not to crib about these things at home. She says I alone cannot fight against corruption. She tells me - for that I have to do a PhD course on how to reduce corruption in India [in English]. See saar, kids are talking like this these days. Tell me what is the solution saar? [in English]

When we reached and I was about to get down he said, One final thing saar [in English] - India got independence in 1947, but I will tell you saar, People are not free saar. We do not have real freedom yet!

In the end, he said, bye-bye saar! Good night, there is a lot to talk about India you see!

I got a good 'educated' feeling out of this 20 minutes auto rickshaw journey today.

Srik

the age of imagination

2011-07-08T10:21:00.000+05:30

A post that moved me!

Excerpt from the article here:

We say we want children to achieve at the highest level—to be the next generation of great scientists and innovators and artists and world leaders—yet the system we’ve put in place makes it nearly impossible for each child to reach their potential. Those worst off are typically the ones whose unique skills and talents we need the most—the most creative thinkers, the natural innovators, the ones who find comfort in the discomfort of not knowing, fearless in the pursuit of their vision.

Link to the article: The educational value of creative disobedience

----

Well, I can also relate to the story very much and it is in sync with my life in many cases. While we realize the importance of the experimental learning, we still tend to think on how are we supposed to do it. There are a lot of folks around who are struggling hard to do such things. I was talking to a friend of mine today and he said he is trying his best to make his son learn the experimental attitude. In spite of the current system not supporting the current generation kids in learning what is actually 'essential'. And not to let them waste their age of imagination as it is rightly pointed in the article.

All that is required is to help them think, fail, think, fail, think, fail and the process goes on. In the process, the actual learning happens! and hopefully something gets created.

Srik

Amboli, in the rain

2011-07-05T10:21:00.003+05:30

Long time ago, I used to do a lot more travels and treks. Yeah! really long time ago is what I feel now.

Anyway, It was an invitation for my friend's wedding at Hubli, gave me some hope of seeing some magic in nature. After the two day wedding, it was a blissful weekend to be accommodated in a green patch of western ghats. So, I went with my friends.

We decided to go to Amboli, that is considered as the rain heaven of Maharashtra at an altitude of 700 meters. Well, yeah, its in Maharashtra. We stayed overnight in Belgaum on Friday and Saturday early morning we were already in the ghats of Sahyadri hills.

The highway that connects Belgaum and the Goa is literally in the heaven. Even though I felt like travelling by bus is a loss, I just controlled my breath until we reached a place that had no visibility. The bus dropped us in the clouds and flew towards the next cloud.

And the rains showered on us giving that feeling of comfort that I had not even experienced in my dream. After all, what is the fun of visiting Amboli without the rain? It is told that Amboli gets the incredibly high rainfall in Maharashtra (about 7 meters) and it is fun to experience the rain. And to see some of those beauties that can survive only in the rains.

We wanted to walk around the place and we were not particular about visiting any of those tourist attractions. However, Amboli waterfalls attracts every one who visits Amboli and hence we decided to go there. I always love the mist and I absolutely enjoyed my walk with those green things around me in between the white patches of clouds. Sometimes it used to get dark and at times we were lucky enough to get the clear view of the Sahyadris.

There were numerous waterfalls on the way and it was absolutely awesome feeling to see them in full flow. One best thing that happened was that our visit to the waterfalls was on a Saturday. And not Sunday. You know what i mean!?

Another place that we visited was the Mahadevgad. This breathtaking edge is also at a distance of 3km from Amboli. There were many orchids in bloom on the way and a variety of fungi as well. I also enjoyed the wild jamun (?) that I ate on the way.

I also had another objective during my visit. It was to use my new macro lens and experiment some shots. Unfortunately I could not use it much, but for some of these shots below.

Amboli, is a beautiful and a worth seeing place. However, as in the other parts of the Sahaydri Hills, denudation of the forest cover and unregulated government assisted "development" (read "hotels, resorts & highways") are gradually ruining a once pristine environment. And ofcourse those criminals who come and throw their plastic here!

Experiencing the rain in Amboli made me super happy! After a scrumptious dinner followed by some nostalgic discussions at my friend Gajanan's place in Belgaum, headed back towards the concrete jungle!

More pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/srikanthap/sets/72157626994661911/

Srik

A New Culture of Learning

2011-06-16T23:19:00.003+05:30

More than the reviews that I had read on this book, the title itself attracted me to read the book. I could not sustain my curiosity of getting to know what exactly is described in the book through those excellent reviews. In fact this book has been quoted as one of the must read books for this year.

It is a very small book and is power packed with a lot of ideas for the world that is in constant change. It addresses the current world and the current state of minds when it comes to learning. The kind of exposure that we get in these internet advanced societies has transformed the whole culture of learning. While reading the book, I used to think about myself and compare it with my own ways of thinking and learning habits these days. And the kind of access I get with respect to the technology is unbelievable. I can read a lot more stuff by a click and even express my thoughts through my networks. Sharing has become easy too. It used to be so difficult a few years back to share something what I have newly learnt. Now it is just a click away! I feel I am always connected to my environment in one way or the other.

Douglas Thomas and Thomas Brown have beautifully captured the essence of what it means to learn and play in a world that is constantly changing. The book ends with a statement that effectively communicates the meaning of the book – “And where imaginations play, learning happens”.

Here is a short excerpt from the 1^st chapter of the book.

When people think about learning, they usually think about schools. And when people think about schools, they usually think about teachers. In this book, we take a different approach. In our view, the kind of learning that will define the twenty-first century is not taking place in a classroom – at least not in today’s classroom. Rather, it is a happening all around us, everywhere, and it is powerful. We call this phenomenon the new culture of learning, and it is grounded in a very simple question: What happens to learning when we move from the stable infrastructure of the twentieth century to the fluid infrastructure of the twenty-first century, where technology is constantly creating and responding to change?

Seriously, that is what most people still think. And we all are beginning to realize this phenomenon now because the growing networked infrastructure is amplifying our ability to access the unlimited resources. It is the combination of the information network around us and the structured environment making the new culture of learning so powerful.

The book begins with a lot of good examples or stories. Those stories are focused on the kind of learning that is happening across all the age groups. Be it a school going kid or a grandmother sitting at home. They talk about how the current infrastructure is enabling them to learn things in a faster way and in a more efficient way. Learning through games and plays is one of such examples. Each of the stories illustrates how the new culture of learning is taking root and transforming the way we think about information, imagination and play.

The authors argue that, for most of the twentieth century our educational system has been built on the assumption that teaching is necessary for learning to occur. Accordingly, education has been seen as a process of transferring information from a higher authority down to the student. And I completely agree with what they say. The old model just can’t keep up with the rapid rate of change in the twenty first century. We believe, learning should be viewed in terms of an environment-combined with rich resources provided by the information network and the context in which learning happens. Teachers, students and information are all being party to the environment and are all expected to grow.

The book also highlights on the critical aspect of embracing the change. Embracing change means viewing the future as a set of new possibilities, rather than something that forces us to adjust. It is so hard to believe that we can be taught or trained to handle each new change on a case by case basis. One example I can quote is about the social networking. There are so many new things happening around and people are trying to learn day in and day out through their own ways. Who taught us to use Wikipedia, facebook or twitter to share, contribute and learn something from it? It was very interesting for me to learn about Wikipedia outperforming Britannica only because of making the change visible.

And one more very important shift that is highlighted in the book is of how we think about our presence? As the authors address this as the ‘personal’ combined with the ‘collective’. The balance between the personal and the collective is the key. And the distinction between the collective and the community is also important to know. Authors assert that the communities can be passive but the collectives can’t. Their distinction in terms of learning is very much straightforward: “in communities, people learn in order to belong. In a collective, people belong in order to learn”. Blogging can be a better example here. I blog whenever I want to. It is my personal experience. And it is always subject to change and revision by others, the influence of collective can powerfully and meaningfully shape my views, just as a blogger, at the same time, can shape the collective.

In the chapter - ‘We know more than we can say’ the authors highlight the difference between the explicit knowledge and the tacit knowledge. While the old culture used to focus almost on the explicit knowledge, the new culture has the ‘tacit learning’ as its core. The reason for the difference is that learning tacit knowledge happens not only in the brain but also in the body, through all our senses. It is an experiential process as well as a cognitive one. It is not about being taught knowledge; it is about absorbing it. We learn by inquiries and we learn by dwelling into something.

Authors also highlights on the three dimensions of learning. They are - Knowing, Making and Playing. They say that they are already beginning to emerge and are happening if we just observe around. The same examples of what kids do today on social network and social media sites. In addition to all these some more tools that can help amplify the learning experience are by hanging out, messing around and geeking out. We see a lot of people following these tools these days and they will be in complete flow and the learning will be at it best when they are at it.

In the end authors say - the new culture of learning is a culture of collective inquiry that harnesses the resources of network and transforms them into nutrients within the petri dish environment, turning it into a space of play and experimentation. Only when we care about experimentation, play and questions more than efficiency, outcomes and answers do we have a space that is truly open to the imagination. And there learning happens!

It is a must read book for all of us to understand and explore the new ways of learning and connect ourselves to the environment around us. Perhaps, I wish all the educational institutions will embrace this new culture and create a world of possibilities.

Book: A New Culture of Learning

Authors: Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown

Published: January 2011

Pages: 140

Srik

ಪ್ರತಿಬಿಂಬ

2011-06-10T21:30:00.000+05:30

ಎಲ್ಲರಂತಲ್ಲ ನಾನು

ಎನ್ನಲಾರೆ,

ಎಲ್ಲರಂತೆಯೇ ನಾನು

ಎಂದೂ ಎನಲಾರೆ

ಎಲ್ಲರಿಗೂ, ಎಲ್ಲರಂತಾಗುವ

ತವಕವಿಲ್ಲ

ಎಲ್ಲರಂತಾಗದಿರುವ

ಬಯಕೆಯೂ ಇಲ್ಲ

ನಾನು ನಾನಾಗುವ

ಜೀವನದ ಮಾಯೆಯಲಿ

ನೀನು ನೀನಾಗುವ

ಮಾಯೆಯೇ ನನ್ನ ಪ್ರತಿಬಿಂಬ

ಶ್ರೀ

ಮೂಕ ಜೀವ

2011-06-10T21:12:00.000+05:30

ಮನಕೆ ಇಷ್ಟವಾದ

ಯೋಚನೆಗಳೇ ಬಾರದ

ಆಲೋಚನೆಗಳ ಮಧ್ಯೆ

ಬಯಸಿದ ವಿಷಯಗಳಲ್ಲಿ

ಸ್ವತಂತ್ರವಾಗಿ

ಕನಸು ಕಾಣುವ ಬಯಕೆ!

ಮನಕೆ ಬೇಡದ ಕೆಲಸವ

ಹಿಂಸೆ ಸಹಿಸಲಾರದೆ

ನಗುವನು ನುಂಗಿ

ಕಪಟ ಮುಖದಿ ಕಲಿತು

ಬೇಡವೆನುತ್ತಲೇ

ಕಣ್ಮರೆಯಾಗುವ ಕಾತುರ!

ಅಡೆ-ತಡಗಳಿಗೆ ಸಿಲುಕಿ

ಮುಖದಿ ಅರ್ಥವ ಹಿಂಗಿ

ವಿಧಿ ಇಲ್ಲದೇ ಬದಲಾಗಿ

ಮನದ ಬಯಕೆಯ ಮೀರಿ

ಕಪಟ ಮುಖದಿ

ಮೂಕವಾಯಿತು ಜೀವ!

ಶ್ರೀ

Poke yourself!

2011-06-09T22:13:00.000+05:30

I recently read this power-packed little book titled Poke-The-Box by the well known entrepreneur and a popular blogger Seth Godin.

The title of the book and Seth's interview on the domino project site made me read this book without fail. After reading it I felt, oh, well, this kind of poking is very much required for myself.

The author, at the beginning of the book, asks a very fundamental question that we may fail to ask ourselves - When was the last time you did something for the first time? and the question made me think for a while and all my answers were filled with some guilt of not being completely honest.

Poke the box is the manifesto about 'starting'. Starting something, making a ruckus, taking what feels like a risk, leaping, committing or making something happen. If you haven't been doing something that you planned to do and waiting for something, this book pokes you to start. Starting is everything. If you start, you will get moving, no matter you fail or succeed.

There will be many examples in our lives for which 'poking' is necessary. We need to initiate something somewhere. And why we do not start? or why we do not initiate? is not to be answered anymore. Go! is what is required.

The book also answers a lot of questions like what can we start? When to start? and some very good real time examples for us to grasp the importance of 'starting'. It also highlights some of the happenings all over the world in terms of excellence, mediocre performance, hard work, quality and related concerns.

Why do we have fear in starting something? why do we hesitate taking risk? and what makes us really start? all such questions will be never asked after reading this book. Getting into the habit of shipping things is what matters in the end.

We certainly do not like to regret for not doing certain things or for missing opportunities. Seth advises us on not missing them. Start the thing that you are thinking of doing. Let us fail at something or do something worth doing. But for that to happen, we need to start.

While reading the book, I recalled a statement by one of my very good friend - "Give us an opportunity to fail". It made more sense to me.

His (Seth's) own recent experience of initiating a new book publishing project itself is a terrific example for us. Read about it here - The Domino Project.

I have extracted some interesting excerpts here. And this book made me think and 'start' on all those things that I was sleeping on since a long time. I poked myself for a better Go.

It is a must read for all of us.

Srik

Laufen gut

2011-06-05T22:40:00.003+05:30

Well, I can say that this was a good start to begin the monsoon this year. The weather was absolutely beautiful and it was a perfect day for running. I just want to post some of the random running thoughts that came to my mind while running this year's TCS World 10k Marathon.

I entered at the Gate number 6 and it was completely crowded with corporate category runners. They were then sent to a different venue as the Gates 5 and 6 were for Open 10k runners. Initially I wondered at such a huge participation.

We were about the start the run, I noticed a lot people jumping the fens rather than waiting in the queue to start the run. Policemen were trying to avoid those people but they hardly could succeed. I said to myself, we were supposed to be responsible citizens and what is the urgency to start the race when you know that the run will be anyway considered as per the start time at the first beep till the last beep? And I just moved on. I also overheard someone saying "The whole nation has this mindset of letting down themselves." (I have forgotten the actual words. But this is what he meant)

By the time I reached the flag off point, it was 8.10 am. And at the first beep I said to myself, 'you will finish the race.'

It was a beautiful day and a perfect weather for running. I went past 1 km mark and heard somebody saying, 'Hey, 1 km got over, lets go!'. I just continued to run.

Every 1 km the drinking water arrangement was made. But I did not feel like drinking at the first km.

At the 3rd km there were a group of drummers playing the typical regional folk 'death beat' kind of stuff. It was a real motivator for many folks for sure. Instant energy listening to those beats and that kept me running.

Between the 4th and 5th km, I overheard a guy telling his friend - "dude!, there are so many people out here, and there are so many body shapes; each body is in a different shape. Some look like a pear, some are like mangoes and some are like apples." I looked at them and smiled. They laughed and I moved on.

I wanted to stop at the 5th km and drink water. I did and I continued my run. (that was my first break; although I was running very slow)

A lot of people were walking. I was running. I had not given any other option to myself.

I gave the empty water bottle to a lady who was collecting all the bottles thrown away by many folks. She smiled at me. I smiled back.

I noticed a guy with a T-shirt saying "Save Water" and saw him throw away water bottle with half the water left in it. I said to myself, I wish I had my camera to capture the ironical moment. I also thought whether people are ignorant of what they are trying to communicate?

At the bus stop opposite to the Chinnaswamy stadium, a beautiful lady with her little kid were cheering for us. She was saying "Come on! you guys can do it". I said to myself, yeah! and continued to run.

I noticed a lonely crow sitting on the rain tree and watching us run. It looked cute.

At the 8th km, I saw Oranges on the table. It looked very tempting. I picked one and enjoyed eating it while running.

When I was on the road in front of Vidhanasoudha, I noticed two wheel chair participants running faster than us and asking for the way. I said, it is all yours and cheered for them.

There were huge flocks of doves flying in front of the High Court. May be they were cheering for us saying, just fly off. I said to myself, I wish I could.

When I reached the Cubbon Park entrance, I stopped looking at the Km marks as I knew where the end point was. In fact my mind had already finished the race and it was just waiting for my body to complete it physically.

Inside the Cubbon Park I noticed a small kid waving hands at us and cheering for us. I thought may be the kid was not aware of what exactly is happening. He might have thought this is an event to support Anna Hazare or Baba Ramdev against the corruption. I thanked him anyway.

I noticed a guy wearing a T-shirt saying "It is tough, Are you?" I said to myself - What is tough?

When I was nearing the Cubbon Park exit gate towards the Hudson Circle, I noticed a group of old people cheering for us. I felt good.

I was almost 300 meters away from the finish line and I noticed a guy wearing a T-shirt that said - "Born to run, forced to work". I agreed.

Shakira was welcoming us with the famous Soccer World Cup 2010 song 'Waka Waka' which gave a perfect spirit to end my race. I touched the final beep and felt heavenly.

I collected my finisher medal. And I asked for one extra bun to eat at the refreshment counter. I offered them to take back the glucose biscuit packet. They said they cannot. I said, ok sorry!

Today is supposed to be the World Environment Day and most of the people who took part in the event were (at least in my understanding) responsible citizens. But it was disheartening to see them waste water (people were celebrating their run by pouring water on themselves) and throw away plastic on the roads without even thinking that there are designated garbage bins (or at least search for it?). I am glad my friends Abhi and Kowshik tried telling them not to waste water. I tried telling the same to some folks. But I don't think it worked.

Ich bin laufen gut! :)

And the eighteenth horse ran with me till the end!

Srik

all in the game

2011-05-31T21:10:00.000+05:30

Excerpt from the book - A New Culture of Learning by Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown

Imagine an environment that is constantly changing. Imagine an environment where the participants are building, creating, and participating in a massive network of dozens of databases, hundreds of wikis and websites, and thousands of message forums, literally creating a large-scale knowledge economy. Imagine an environment where participants are constantly measuring and evaluating their own performances, even if that requires them to build new tools to do it. Imagine an environment where user interface dashboards are individually and personally constructed by users to help them make sense of the world and their own performance in it. Imagine an environment where evaluation is based on after-action reviews not to determine rewards but to continually enhance performance. Imagine an environment where learning happens on a continuous basis because the participants are internally motivated to find, share and filter new information on a near-constant basis.

----

I know, it sounds almost impossible to create such an environment. But the interesting fact is that we have seen and experienced such environments. Yes, through these new generation games that are available. That is where our tacit knowledge comes in to picture.

Yet, this aspect needs to be much debated because it is not given enough importance. In fact educators constantly dismiss games as a learning tool.

Where as, all the learning is in the game, or, in the form of game. Games enhance learning.

Srik

Gandhian

2011-05-25T10:14:00.000+05:30

Excerpt from the book - Great Soul by Joseph Lelyveld

In India today, the term "Gandhian" is ultimately synonymous with social conscience; his example - of courage, persistence, identification with the poorest, striving for selflessness - still has a power to inspire, more so even than his doctrines of nonviolence and techniques of resistance, certainly more than his assorted dogmas and pronouncements on subjects like spinning, diet, and sex. It may not happen often, but the inspiration is still there to be imbibed; and when it is, the results can still be called Gandhian, even though the man himself, that great soul, never liked or accepted the word.

(It was Joseph Lelyveld in the above paragraph, making his ending remarks about the Great Soul)

----

We surely know when the term 'Gandhian' is chanted and when it is not. It is an inspiration for sure but for the actions that still are un-welcomed in 'Gandhian' way.

And perhaps, many are not even aware of what it actually means.

Srik

test

2011-05-25T10:06:00.000+05:30

Excerpt from the book - Great Soul by Joseph Lelyveld

"Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test: Recall the face of the poorest and weakest man whom you may have seen, and ask yourself if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him. Will he gain anything by it? Will it restore him to a control over his own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to swaraj for the hungry and spiritually starving millions? Then you will find your doubt and your self melting away."

(It was Mahatma Gandhi in the above paragraph)

----

A challenging test for sure. I do not know how many of us take up such tests on 'self'.

Srik

essence of the man

2011-05-18T13:09:00.000+05:30

Excerpt from the book - Great Soul by Joseph Lelyveld

"the essence of his teaching was fearlessness and truth and action allied to these," Jawaharlal Nehru would write. "this voice was somehow different from others, it was quiet and low, and yet it could be heard above the shouting of the multitude; it was soft and gentle, and yet there seemed to be steel hidden away somewhere in it...Behind the language of peace and friendship there was power and the quivering shadow of action and a determination not to submit to a wrong."

(the words of Nehru in the above paragraph describing the Mahatma)

--
The leader. Need I say more?
It is the essence of true, spirited leadership to make the change!

Srik

pianist

2011-05-18T13:04:00.000+05:30

Excerpt from the book - Great Soul by Joseph Lelyveld

I can't devote myself entirely to untouchability and say, "Neglect Hindu-Muslim unity or swaraj." All these things run into one another and are interdependent. You will find at one time in my life an emphasis on one thing, at another time on [an]other. But that is just like a pianist, now emphasizing one note and now [an]other.

(It was Mahatma Gandhi in the above paragraph)

----
Loved the above paragraph.

Of course many things are interdependent on many more other things. One has to realize the importance of them and take appropriate step. Just like a pianist.

Srik

plan for freedom

2011-05-18T12:56:00.001+05:30

Excerpt from the book - Great Soul by Joseph Lelyveld

"I am biding my time," Mahatma finally wrote in a letter dated May 1928, "and you will find me leading the country in the field of politics when the country is ready. I have no false modesty about me. I am undoubtedly a politician in my own way, and I have a plan for the country's freedom."

(It was Mahatma Gandhi in the above paragraph)
----

Well, It was his determination to lead the country towards freedom. An inspiration for sure. How many of our current politicians or leaders have such plans for the country?

Mahatma was a true visionary.

Srik

Indian Economic Model by S. Gurumurthy – Day 1

2011-05-17T10:12:00.003+05:30

As we all know S. Gurumurthy is a well known Economist, Thinker and an excellent writer. Many of us used to follow his articles published in the Indian Express. And of course many of us are his critics for several reasons. But his radical thinking and his brilliant analysis drags our attention to him. Yesterday was the Day 1 of his three day lecture series on the ‘Indian Economic Model’ being jointly organized by the Bangalore University and the CESS (Centre for Educational and Social Studies) in Bangalore. Here are some of the interesting excerpts from his talk. I have tried my best to extract these from the points I made. Some of it may be inaccurate but I have tried to be my best in projecting the right information.

Day 1: The whole discussion was on the Global Meltdown and on the American economic model.

We (India) were the super power during 1700s. Our GDP share to the world was approx 21%. China over took us during 1600 and we over took China again in 1700. Where are we now?

We (India) follow American system. We borrow ideas from them. We do not think original and contribute to the system. I speak about America because the whole world is dependent on America and they are adopting ‘proven’ American models. We are the carbon copies of others thinking.

Indianness of economic development is a concern. We do not think because we do not read economics. We have stopped reading good books on economics. Students never read good books on economics and are not interested in economic development.

None of the top economists in the world could arrive at the reason for the recent economic downturn. And none were hence able to come up with a proper solution. Quoted examples from the 11^th May article in ET, Economist magazine on the global meltdown, other articles from FT.

America is a stock market led model. 55% of the population invests in stock market. Whereas Japan is a bank led model and only 9% of the population invest in Stock market. In India only 2.5% of the population invests in the stock market. We do not risk and we want to be safe.

One line answer for the downturn is the “Families bankrupted, they were made government dependent and corporate were enriched”. The family savings in America used to be 70% before the corporate took over. And in 2005, the family savings is reduced to 9.5% and now it is in negative.

Corporations took over the family savings in 1996 and by 2006 it had crossed 512 bn$ compared to the family savings of 90(?)+ bn$.

In America, families have collapsed compared to Asian countries. Divorce rate is 55% (second marriage divorce rate is 60 %(?) and the third marriage divorce rate is 75%). 27% of the American population live single. Hence there is no question of savings. In Asian countries families are the institutions. We save money to take care of them. In America, Government takes care of the families. They give money for them to survive. They give mortgage loans, they ask people to borrow money with high interest rates.

Japan reduced their interest rate to make its population spend money. The interest rate got reduced to 0.8% and still people were saving money than spending. Government had to come up with the interest rate to deposit the money in the bank. And Japanese continued to deposit money in the bank. They have the highest cash reserves that cross trillions of dollars.

Jagadish Bhagawati, the guru of Paul Krugman, was invited to India to suggest on the economic model by the Finance Ministry. (I don’t remember when). And he had given a 72 page document on the same. The two interesting problems shared were the following:

Indians save unnecessarily. More than what they need to spend.
Housewives are stingy and they don’t spend.

So more efforts were put towards making people spend. Attract global brands so that the housewives will get attracted towards those products and spend more. But efforts were not enough as the housewives continued to save rather than spend.

‘The idea of family’ is very strong in India and hence we save money. Savings in India is close to 35-37% and out of that the household savings are close to 75%. In the next 10 years approx 1.7 trillion will be spent on infrastructure and all the money will be generated by the household savings. This will drive not only Indian development but also the global development. We will not borrow any money from outside.

In America every individual will have close to 10 credit cards. They will be offered to take loans. For the population of 220 million (not sure of the year), there were about 1.2 billion credit cards and the debt amounting to trillions of dollars. American mortgaging is now called as ‘Jingle’ mortgaging.

American borrowing is close to 1.5 trillion dollars now. More than Americans investment in India, we have our savings in America. In 2011, America’s total debt is equal to its GDP. And in UK that follows American model, the debt is equal to 4 times its GDP. The reason is the product of culture and decline of families.

We are asked to follow such system for 20 years and we have come up with no other alternatives.

(End of the lecture)

---

The interesting observation for me was on the 'idea of family' and the savings pattern with respect to the same.

Srik

Special Sunday visitor

2011-05-15T20:29:00.002+05:30

Well, after a long time I thought of spending a lazy Sunday, without much of activities. Now that all my treks and outdoor trips have come down drastically since the last couple of months, thanks to all my new projects and long meetings during the weekends, there is no other option but to be in Bengaluru.

More than anything, I thought of just resting today and sleep enough to catch up with all my pending sleep hours. I did not turn on the alarm on my mobile. I was all set for a 24 hour sleep (just saying). Yeah! that was required.

But, to my bad luck, I forgot all about my friends who would wake me up exactly at 6 am irrespective of how deep I am in my sleep. It does not matter if I am in a sound sleep or unconscious in my dreams. They come, they wake me up and if I dont listen to them, they shout harder to make sure I wake up and say 'good morning' to them. Today it was a bit more special; I had an unusual visitor, I heard a sweet voice amidst all the others. But, in my usual way of avoiding them, I closed my ears with my pillow and tried getting back to sleep.

I could not sustain my curiosity and that sweet little voice was persistent enough in my ears so that I wake up and see who it is. In my half sleep state, I opened the door and started looking for the new friend. There are two big trees in front of my house. One is the Pongemia and the other is the Bauhinia (I think Bauhinia purpurea). It was a real test for me to connect that voice to my eye sight. And there it was, sweetly sitting on the Bauhinia tree and shouting out 'Good morning' to me. I connected with it through my eyes and through my ears and lost in its melody for a while. It was sitting beautifully amidst all my Koel friends, my regular 6 am visitors. This was my first sighting of this beautiful bird - Great tit - on this tree since 3 years (in Vijayanagar).

Great tit (Parus major) on the Bauhinia tree

My day was made. It was as good as me opening my eyes on a Saturday morning in a forest or on a mountain.

When I took out my camera to photograph it, it looked as if it did not notice me and was lost in its own world singing and jumping; allowing me to wonder in awe to make my sighting worthy enough.

Hope the bird stays on for a little longer and hope I hear its calls every day and feel good to start my day! The only fear for me is that these birds keep jumping on the electric wires. They anyway look camouflaged in all these trees on the streets. No idea how to make these birds avoid them.

I only wish I can talk to these birds and they listen to my words!

Srik

...under construction

2011-05-11T09:22:00.000+05:30

Ah! I could finally visit the site to check on the progress. All seem to be working fine as of today. But more of what is to be done is still a challenge.

Construction workers from Andhra Pradesh at the Site

Aerial view of the building under construction (South-west corner)

This particular visit was very helpful in getting a lot of clarity on several issues. Be it the community support, or understanding medical facilities in the surrounding villages, availability of doctors and volunteers. We also visited the nearest PHC at Muddenahalli and interacted with the duty doctor. Perhaps! I think we are moving in the right side of the history. And may be we can hope for some good breakthrough.

a sorry affair

2011-05-03T09:07:00.001+05:30

Excerpt from the book - Great Soul by Joseph Lelyveld

Those who depend on what he called "truth force" were "strangers to disappointment and defeat," he claimed in his book. Yet here he was, at the end of his days, expressing chronic disappointment and, sometimes, a sense of defeat. He'd had more to do with India's independence than any other individual - in declaring the goal and making it seem attainable, in convincing the nation that it was a nation - but he was not among those who celebrated that day. Instead, he fasted. The celebrations were, he said, "a sorry affair."

That was Mahatma Gandhi in the above paragraph.

In a way it is so true that it was not an occasion to celebrate. It was a defeat in his own mind that the real freedom was not achieved.

Srik

walking in circles

2011-04-25T16:27:00.000+05:30

Excerpt from the book - Poke the Box by Seth Godin

Dr. Jan Souman, of the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, studied what happens to us when we have no map, no compass, no way to determine landmarks. I'm not talking about a metaphor - he researched what happens to people to people lost in the woods or stumbling around the Sahara, with no north star, no setting sun to guide them.

It turns out we walk in circles. Try as we might to walk in a straight line, to get out of the forest or the desert, we end up back where we started. Our instincts aren't enough. In the words of Dr. Souman, "Don't trust your senses because even though you might think you are walking in a straight line when you're not."

-----
Absolutely interesting!

Ok, so the point is to be brave, draw one and make people follow . Human nature always is to need a map.

Srik

the seventh

2011-04-23T00:16:00.002+05:30

Excerpt from the book - Poke the Box by Seth Godin

... be aware
of who you are

... be educated
of what's around you

... be connected
as you engage

... be consistent
on what to expect

... build an asset
something to sell

... be productive
be well-priced

well, the point is the seventh imperative, that is

'you are on your own'!

----

So well said. Almost all the B Schools and all the management books only focus on the six imperatives. Even I feel they are taught all the time and given more importance. But the seventh imperative is so critical that without which there cannot be any outcome. It is to initiate. It is to have guts and the heart and the passion to ship.

Srik

The Failing Logic of Money

2011-04-21T08:57:00.002+05:30

Here is my latest review of an excellent book that I wrote for the BookRack.

I received this book couple of weeks back from Duane Mullin. And I was pleased to see the note by him saying ‘Thanks for your time’ with his autograph. Actually now I need to thank him for all the time he has taken to write such a brilliant book. Sometimes I felt he spoke my mind. Absolutely!

Please read the detailed review to understand the summary of the book. It answers some of the critical questions like why poor becoming poor and the rich becoming richer?, why do we experience recession when the money is not disappeared anywhere? and explains the failed logic of money very well. The book is also power packed with a lot of radical ideas to make ourselves shift from the current money based economy to the 'Earth' based economy. Duane Mullin has done a brilliant job in presenting his radical ideas through this book.

Please feel free to give your feedback about my review either at my original post or here.

Link to the review here: The Failing Logic of Money

Thank you

Srik

midnight

2011-04-21T00:06:00.002+05:30

the rain has stopped
ground is still damp
flowers fallen on the street
the trees, deep in sleep

the street is lonely
and the night, is dark
wind chill blowing hard
street light, on and off

my steps are noisy
neighbors are silent
dog is staring at me
and stars are smiling

shadow is following me
not behind, but next to me
and I touched it quietly
laughing in the midnight!

Srik

gainful employment

2011-04-13T09:43:00.001+05:30

Excerpt from the book - The failing logic of money by Duane Mullin

We exchange our time for money at a task we may or may not enjoy; this is called gainful employment. The money received is never enough because it is as little as the employer can get away with to pay taxes (usually paid first), accommodation and food. We often work 40 years at the end of which we are only tired, broke, not always with a guaranteed adequate pension and the money we are able to save is subject to tax and inflation. We are now discarded to feed for ourselves just as any slave was hundreds of years ago, uncertain that we will have access to the bounty that surrounds us and meet our needs.

Because we don't think there's any other way, and have nowhere to run, we content ourselves with a bit of time off now and then and polite treatment from our employers. We stick at the task, whilst the corporation prospers, because we don't recognise our options.

I absolutely agree to the above. And at times I do think in the same way that we are not choosing our options right. The same questions linger in me - Why does this continue? Why is it that intelligent humankind has been unable to solve the simple matter of caring for our own and our environment? And it is true that our current system is clearly failing us, yet no-one does anything to change it.

Srik

failing logic

2011-04-13T09:37:00.000+05:30

Excerpt from the book- The failing logic of money by Duane Mullin

It is simply more profitable to kill, destroy and maim than it is to re-think and restructure the energy needs of the aggressor nation peacefully. It remains the principal of slave and slave master played out on an international stage; it remains the lazy but aggressive neighbor. Another clear benefit of war to the establishment is that each missile, each tank, plane, gun and bullet, body armour and body bag represents an item of profit for a corporation somewhere. While people are dying and civilian lives disrupted there is an elite group of people growing fat from the financial profits of suffering. They are remote and distant from the smell of death, living fantastic lifestyles whilst the profits they make but respect that they don't deserve and acceptance when they should be vilified and exposed as the inhuman beasts they are. But of course these people can buy us and are even seen as role-models of success, so we try to please them for an opportunity to earn some of their money.

The more I think about how it all works, the more I am convinced that there is nothing good in the whole process. It is because of our engineered dependence on money that we compromise on our basic good nature and accept a role killing people we don't know. And because we are in need for money we accept terrible things that happen around us; in fact, the dependence on money causes people to feel helpless, stop thinking and close down their humanity.

Srik

A rustic story

2011-04-06T23:00:00.003+05:30

It was one of those days when my mind was not functioning in sync with my senses. All my actions were driven by only one message. All I wanted to do was reach my village as early as possible without letting my ears listen to more on the message. It was during the late winter but I was fuming with the sun rays piercing into my helmet. I was riding my bike, not less than, perhaps the speed of an arrow shot in anger. I noticed it was almost thirty-minutes-past-three in the afternoon and the road was absolutely empty. Like a desert. Like a night without moon.

Although I had a very long distance to cover, the destination looked very near to me; as if I was there already. Thinking about how it was in those days and how past had influenced me to remember those frames in my mind without missing any single scene. It was as if a long history written in the book of my mind and I was going through each page of it; One after the other.

It was a very strange story of my granny, and how she carried the characters around her for such a long time. It is a very strange phenomenon to relate each person surrounding me to the same person I am so close with. As in, my granny used to carry all her friends, helpers, neighbors in the village who were so close with her everywhere; mentally. And those characters used to interact with my granny all the time; both when in the village and when not in the village. I used to wonder in awe and think how lucky those people are; that they are remembered almost 24 hours in some way or the other; in some form or the other. Perhaps, the bonding between them was much stronger than what they even realized in their relationship. And those five or six people became very critical part of my granny’s life in all possible ways. She used to come to Bangalore, to my house, and she used to call me by some other name (random pick out of those 5-6 people). She used to talk to me about something that she wanted to talk to the other person. And she used to repeat this wherever she goes and whoever she meets. And I was helpless but to watch this interesting phenomenon. Dumbstruck!

My granny’s world was those people who were with her all the time. Nothing else! She was in her late eighties and the only possible worst thing one would expect was the obvious. And when the message reached my ears, l could not do any good but to try reaching the village as soon as possible. The empty road, the noise of the engine, the constant fluttering of my bag’s strap, once-in-a-while the cars speeding towards the divine Puttaparthi, were all giving me the same feeling that I wanted to avoid. The entry to the village looked absolutely deserted with the rows of thorny shrubs either side of the road. Raptors were making enough noise above my head to make sure that the message was heard. Village roads looked very unwelcomed to me for the first time. People never connected to my eyes for the first time. They did not ask me any question to my surprise for the first time. They did not look at my bag, they did not check if I am wearing my sunglasses or not. It was as if they hated me to go there that particular day. But they had no options but to ignore me. I helplessly entered the village and moved towards my granny’s house.

The street was empty; there were no signs of any human presence. I entered the house and I saw my dad coming out of the room. His eyes were filled with tears. He was looking as if he had controlled his tears for a big event ahead. I got to know that my granny’s corpse had not arrived yet. She was at her daughter’s place two hours away from the village when she passed her last breath. People started walking in to the house and some gathered outside. I could see people waiting to pay their respects. All those characters who were part of my granny’s life were also present. Waiting. Crying.

Finally my granny’s corpse arrived. She was made to sleep on a wooden bench outside. People started crying. They started lighting the agarbattis and one by one started paying their respects. It took a bit longer than I expected for the crowd to get clear. And finally there were a few left out other than my relatives. And those were these soul mates of my granny. They were worried and crying for some reason. I was surprised to see no actions from their end. They were holding their breaths to touch my granny and hug her and say good bye. But they were very reluctant to do that. I could not understand their problem. I tried asking them, they did not open their mouth to answer. They just stood staring at my granny. After sometime, one person made an attempt to touch my granny to which somebody objected. Then I got to know that they were not supposed to touch. It was the same old village untouchability problem. They were scared to touch even the body. I was shocked for a while and could not control my tears that I had controlled till then. It took too much of a courage for me to digest the fact before I made them touch her and pay their respects.

Those great souls that were part of my granny’s life were not even eligible to touch her? More than any of us, it was them who accompanied my granny throughout her life. More than anyone else they were remembered all the time. Yet, they were the ones who were untouchables. All their lives they served a person with so much love and they would’ve missed out on even touching her in the end. I still have a tough time believing what happened on that day and still not able to come out of that.

Srik

ಮತ್ತೆ ಮತ್ತೆ...

2011-04-04T14:29:00.000+05:30

ಮತ್ತೆ ಅರಳಿತು ಹೂವು

ಸೂರ್ಯನ ನಗುವಿಗೆ ಒಲಿದು

ಮತ್ತೆ ಹಾರಿತು ಹಕ್ಕಿ

ಹೊಸ ಪ್ರಪಂಚದ ಕಡೆಗೆ

ಮತ್ತೆ ಹೊಸದೊಂದು ಕನಸು

ಬೇರೆ ನೆಪವ ಹೇಳಿ

ಮತ್ತೆ ಕೇಳಿತು ರಾಗ

ಹಾಡಿನ ಪದವ ಮೀರಿ

ಮತ್ತೆ ಕಾಣಿಸಿತು ನಗುವು

ಮನದ ಮಾತ ಕೇಳಿ

ಮತ್ತೆ ಹಗುರಾಯಿತು ಮನವು

ನಗುವ ಮುಖವ ನೋಡಿ

ಮತ್ತೆ ಹುಟ್ಟಿತು ಆಸೆ

ಆ ತುಂಟತನಕೆ ಸೋತು

ಮತ್ತೆ ಬಯಸಿತು ಹೃದಯ

ಕಣ್ಣಿನ ಸನ್ಹೆಯ ತಿಳಿದು

ಮತ್ತೆ ಮೂಡಿತು ಪ್ರೀತಿ

ನಿನ್ನ ದನಿಗೆ ಕುಣಿದು

ಮತ್ತೆ ಕಾಯುತಿದೆ ಜೀವ

ನಿನ್ನ ಕೂಗಿನ ಕರೆಗೆ...

ಶ್ರೀ

chere

2011-04-01T16:06:00.000+05:30

and it begins...
like an oasis amidst desert
like a rain in summer
like a new leaf on a old tree
like a new life on a new planet
like a flower blooming out of thorns
like completely new and unknown
like a road to heaven
like love

this year... for many more years!

Photographs by Manjunath Thimmapura.

for more details click here.

Srik

Let's unleash India

2011-04-01T00:30:00.001+05:30

Here is my latest book review I wrote for the Bookrack. Bookrack facilitated this book to me from Sanjeev couple of weeks back and I tried to give my best feed back about the same. One can read the review on the Bookrack site at the below link. This book is all about unleashing India and bringing the real 'freedom' for India. It is also a good handy guide for all the citizens of India in overcoming a lot of problems that we are facing everyday. Unfortunately, after all his great efforts in changing the system, accepting his failure (perhaps, due to lack of support) the author has left India and now is an Australian citizen. Nevertheless, he is still a game to free India from many of the systemic failures that are caused due to the early Nehruvian socialist policies. Please read my detailed review to know more about the book.

Please feel free to give your feedback about my review either at my original post or here.

Link to the review here: Breaking Free of Nehru

Thank you
Srik

Mandalpatti

2011-03-29T23:25:00.001+05:30

It all happened in a day, Including the one that caused me a week of house arrest. It was a place that I wanted to visit since a long time and there was that opportunity on that day to be there, serene, wild and weathered.

Mandalpatti is a magical beauty and an absolutely scenic place in Coorg. Stands mightily at 30th km from the place Somawarpet. The only disappointment and the only concern for all of us who care for nature is that there is a road till the peak. But the access to it, the canopy and the woods through which we pass through is unbelievably wild.

A lonely tree stands impressively welcoming all those and more.

One can see the whole range of the Western Ghats of Coorg

When it is about to set, It doesnt matter where we are, we will be blown away anyway

And I so much liked this view!

One can camp here if they take permission from the forest department in Madikeri. We were lucky enough to get the permission and experience the wild in the night. The wind, like a monster consistently tried to knock us down the peak; but, it could not sustain the force when the other side was heavy enough with 5 hooligans.

Just before the sunrise.

Sun peeking out over the Kotebetta - the 3rd highest peak in Coorg.

It is an absolute joy to see the woods in the early morning

It looked as if it was lit up with the golden flames of the morning sun.

The flora and fauna were abundant. Many forms, many varieties. Some of which I had seen, and some were absolutely new. Whatever form they were in, they looked stunning when they were in full bloom.

The forest office at the peak. The road connects till this point.

Colorful forest with tall trees, some in bloom. Some not.

One of those wild flowers in full bloom.

Some orchids looked breathtakingly beautiful (Coelogyne sp)

Some more beautiful epiphytes (Dendrobium sp)

some wild flowers in style. (Sida sp)

It may look beautiful, mind you, dont play!

One of the beautiful riverbed I have seen, One can stay here for any long!

If one wishes to go, take prior permission, take huge responsibility on your shoulders, not to spoil the place and not to be harmful for anything in Nature. Keep it clean, natural and beautiful.

Srik

reservations

2011-03-29T19:46:00.000+05:30

Excerpt from the book - Breaking free of Nehru by Sanjeev Sabhlok

"Let India become a place of respect-worthy people and not a land of cowards, each coward begging for a little 'extra marks' from others. If you were to call me backward I would be extremely angry. And yet today, entire groups of people seek to be labelled as backward! This is a clear sign of great people who have lost their way. Let all men and women of India forget their social and economic past, and stand up as Indians - no less, no more. Let each person meet the great challenge of making the greatest possible contribution to society by dint of his or her determination, hard work and merit. Let the best man or woman win in every field of life in India."

Powerful. Yet, how many more to be empowered? to be free. How many more to be touched? to be free. How many more to be made responsible? to be free.

Srik

passing on the cost

2011-03-28T11:02:00.002+05:30

Excerpt from the book - Breaking free of Nehru by Sanjeev Sabhlok

The problem is that we are all guilty, to a lesser or to a greater extent, of such violations of justice. Our collective neglect of the environment has now created a situation where many animal and plant forms are seriously threatened, apart from the damage caused to millions of other human beings. As an example, each time we buy products made from a tree that has not been fully replaced, we pass on at least the following (small) cost to others:

the cost of increased flooding and damage to topsoil is passed on to those who live downstream of the forest from which the tree was culled;
reduced opportunity to make a living by those who make a living off the by-products of the trees;
slightly less oxygen to breathe for all citizens of the world; and
slightly higher temperature and excessive climatic variation consequent to the reduced absorption of Carbon dioxide - faced by all citizens of the world.

In addition, there is a loss to the food chain in the wild, as well as loss of habitat provided by that tree to birds, bees and other animal and plant life.

Thinking seriously on the above excerpt, or even if I think of the process itself, we are causing too much of damage to many such things out of absolute ignorance. Since our lives are intricately bound by the continuing success of all other species of life, how can we be so ignorant on such things? Are we a free society yet?

Srik

1757

2011-03-23T19:45:00.001+05:30

Excerpt from the book - Breaking free of Nehru by Sanjeev Sabhlok

"But while Europeans explored new ideas and sent exploratory expeditions to all parts of the world, while they discovered new continents as far away as Australia and America and populated them, India put on blinkers around its eyes and turned inwards to save its soul. Not only was individual freedom not on the agenda of pre-1757 India, there was no ambition even to conquer the world. Great ambition is a great driver of progress but India displayed none; it still perhaps has none. Arrogance without ambition - a combination destined to guarantee mediocrity."

----

Sigh! I often think why we remain backwards compared to other western societies; both in terms of thinking and the growth. Wonder whether there were at least some people like now, how there are let-us-google-and-see kind of people existed during the past when it was really required! or whether there were just the frogs in the deep wells and now wondering where was the actual GAP?!

Srik

Randomness

2011-03-16T19:16:00.003+05:30

We often walk on the same road

we meet with the same faces

we go by the same bus

and we chose the same seats

perhaps everyday

we talk with the same voices

and we share same stories

we hear the same pain

and we connect same dots

and almost always

we read the same newspapers

perhaps same old boring topics

we follow the same leaders

and we make similar opinions

we do by choice

we almost do the same job

we eat at the same place

we smile the same smile

we stare at the same person

everyday unconditionally

but, what if, we change

to be different

when we have all the time,

choices in our hands,

and an ability to be free!?

Srik