Imagine

ankitaprasad @ 2009-03-31T11:24:00

2009-03-31T06:25:32Z

Someday when I say I am from Patna, people will not smirk and say : "oh from the land of Lalu".

It is also where Buddha attained enlightenment and where the Nalanda University was. But that doesn't mean a thing in the present context because the truth is that for past 20 years (before the Nitish Kumar government) Bihar had become the fiefdom of Lalu and his family.

However a friend sent me this article today morning that totally made my day. The article is by Suhel Seth and was published in Telegraph Graphitti and talks about the change that is happening in Patna courtesy the new government.

Here is what he says in the article:

I don’t know how much real progress Lalu Prasad Yadav is making with the Indian Railways, the IIM sojourn not withstanding, but there sure is a silent revolution taking place in Bihar under Nitish Kumar. I never ever imagined that I would visit Patna. For anything. But I did just that last week and am delighted I did. For starters, it is a better-looking city than most I have ever been to in India. It is certainly better than most parts of Delhi; there are more schools and colleges which have first-rate syllabi and students than the ones run in Delhi and Mumbai: most of which with dubious ownership! The Bihari people are more large-hearted and far brighter than we would have ever believed, and in many ways Bihar today is at the cusp of what I would imagine will be a boom time in its rather sordid history. And much of the blame for that must rest with people who’ve governed Bihar.

I sincerely feel that the rulers of Bihar have consistently damaged the cause of Bihar more than anyone else has or will ever do. There are perceptions about it being a mafia state, which are completely untrue. I saw Bihar’s chief secretary drive in a Tata Indigo without any escort, whereas in Delhi and Mumbai every third-tier secretary also uses a silly red light atop his car with fancy escort vehicles. There was none of the red tape that Bihar is so well-known for. I had gone for some work and the presentations that were made by some officers of the Bihar government were first-rate; and it was only then that some interesting trivia about Bihar became all the more relevant.

Bihar today consumes pharmaceutical drugs worth Rs 1,500 crores per annum: the largest consumption amongst any state, and yet the tragedy is, there is no pharma company in Bihar — an outcome of the negligent manner in which Bihar was run at the state-level and the treatment that was meted out to it by the Centre. Bihar today sends more people to the administrative services than any other state in the country. Of the 47,000 odd medical professionals working in the United States, 50 per cent are from Bihar. Bihar contributes 50 per cent to the patient inflow at AIIMS in New Delhi and so on and so forth.

The attitude of the Bihar government has also seemingly changed and it was no surprise that in the week gone by they’ve had Ratan Tata, Ashok Ganguly, Analjit Singh visit them, with people like Anand Mahindra and others expected this week. There is the obvious influence that the well-regarded N.K. Singh wields over the corporate world in India which plays a large role in getting these corporate honchos there. But having said that, one must applaud the changes that are being slowly brought into the very fabric of Bihar. And with N.K. heading the Planning Commission in Bihar, expect some more miracles.

The fact that you finally have a chief minister who is not a clown but a serious politician also helps, aided by people like G.S. Kang, the chief secretary whose integrity is unquestioned. I guess what Bihar now needs to do is cleanse itself of the past it so remarkably engendered and entrenched into people’s minds. In the serious talk for creating better infrastructure, for encouraging medical tourism, optimising the value of the hot sulphur springs in Rajgir, not to mention religious tourism in Bodh Gaya, you have a blend that just might work.

I believe from a marketing point too there is a lot of potential in Bihar that most of us, sadly, have not woken up to. I saw stretches of markets, not some odd number of shops, and I saw for myself the pattern of frenetic consumer buying: much more than what happens in our malls in the metros. I sometimes wonder why people have missed the Bihar bus.

Finally, the fact that the families in Bihar continue to lay a lot of emphasis on education, augurs well. I feel there may also be some merit in Bihar also becoming an important destination for the services backbone that Eastern India so desperately needs. I know Patna sounds a very incredible destination, but I guess this is what Incredible India is all about. We are so consumed by what we see and what we are fed by the so-called urbane media that we fail to observe the silent changes that are occurring right under our noses.
''Go to Patna and see how India is really changing.''

Come September by Arundhati Roy

2009-01-30T17:49:43Z

A brilliant 45 minute talk by Arundhati Roy given a year after 9/11. The talk is split in 5 parts and available on YouTube. The first one being: http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=CAoIwJKfExA&feature=related

Some excerpts from the beginning:

....to call someone anti-american indeed to be anti-american, or for that matter anti-Indian,or anti-timbuktuan is not just racist but it is a failure of the imagination. An inability to see the world in terms other that those the establishment has set out for you....

and the end:

...But fortunately power has a shelf life... For all the endless empty chatter about democracy, today the world is run by 3 of the most secretive institutions of the world, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade Organization... all three of which in turn are dominated by the US. Their decisions are made in secret. The people who head them are appointed behind closed doors. Nobody really knows anything about them, their politics, their beliefs, their intentions. Nobody elected them. Nobody said they could make decisions on our behalf. A world run by a handful of greedy bankers and CEOs who nobody elected cannot possibly last. Soviet style communism failed not because it was intrinsically evil but because it was flawed. It allowed too few people to usurp too much power.. 21st century market capitalism American style will fail for the same reasons...
--------

makes one wonder, eh? :)

Books!

2009-01-28T06:01:21Z

I love reading books. Last year was hectic and tumultuous. It felt as if I was always running to catch up and all I would want to read then would be Mills and Boon, Nora Roberts, Amanda Quick, Julia Quinn and the like. It was escapist and nice. But I was also running scared. Had I lost the capacity to read anything non-romantic?

When suddenly I discovered Neil Gaiman (and his blog :)) and in the process rediscovered the science fiction/fantasy genre. Then came along Samit Basu and now Kazuo Ishiguro.I have never had so much fun reading before. Everywhere I look there are new books to be bought, new worlds to be explored (Also thanks to this). My romance books still line my book shelf (yes I have a bood shelf now!!), but there is a lot more there.

Not just with novels, but one of the benefits of having more time is that I read my newspaper over a bowl of cereal in the morning and get the time to read the Economist after I get back from office.

I like my life right now and hopefully I am not jinxing it by saying it out loud!

Life Update

2008-05-03T08:16:03Z

Borrowing the title from mekin as I have good news to share. :)

For sometime now I have been in a space of going with the flow that is life. Not easy for someone like me, who earlier needed to justify, explain or analyze everything that people around me did or said. I judge less and it is a relief. Life seems easier. This does not mean that i am not in the thick of it. I love my work and will blog about it once I have permission to do so. I just came back from a wonderful, action packed trip to Egypt. And to top it all of my brother has just gone ahead and done us all proud!

My brother is younger to me, but he is by far the more responsible, the more intense, the more sensible between the two of us. He is my voice of caution, at times reason. He is the one who has in the past asked me not to react so quickly. He has taught me to be more considerate.

He is finishing his engineering from IT-BHU and will join IIM Indore right out of it. It is a victory for this guy who has battled against illness and has come up a winner every time. I am so proud of him, that words will never be sufficient.

In other news, my bhabhi ( my first cousin's wife) is pregnant. I am about to become a Bua. :D. We are a close family and the news has generated a loud peel of laughter in our entire family. I don't think I am sentimental, but the news made me smile a mile wide. My cousin is scared shit and he is not very amused right now, but I guess as the days pass, the news will sink in and he will be tickled pink at the prospect!

Raghu Dixit Project and Music Yogi

2008-03-04T17:27:18Z

Once the Raghu Dixit album was released and derherr pointed me to Music Yogi - the place from where you can buy their album, I promptly went ahead and ordered the album. Got the album delivered today. Needles to say loved the album and have been listening to it all day long. The packaging of the album is absolutely beautiful. The little paintings of the band members are life-like and my colleague who has seen Gaurav once or twice, promptly recognized him in these paintings. It has probably got something to do with Gaurav's long curly hair! ;)

To buy music on Music Yogi you need to create an account with them and people are generally not too keen on creating accounts and going through the entire registration process. So I ended up buying two more albums from my Music Yogi account for two of my friends, each album ordered separately.

10 minutes after my second order of the day , I got a call from Music Yogi. They wanted to know whether I had actually placed two orders of the same cd separately. On my confirmation, the guy on the other end offered to give me a gift certificate worth the shipping charges of the second cd as both the cds would be shipped together. I had long back given up expecting great service from any commercial establishment in India, and although the shipping charge of the cd anywhere in Bangalore is just 10 rupees, I was pleasantly surprised. The guy was polite and the entire exchange left me with a good feeling. I am definitely going to buy more stuff from them from now onwards.

You can buy the Raghu Dixit album from here.

Now I am waiting to meet Gaurav so that he can autograph my cd!

ankitaprasad @ 2007-06-04T13:06:00

2007-06-04T18:15:52Z

Hello People!

So I decided not to wait till I grow old and hoary to do something that would make a difference! ;-).
I am involved with the Lovedale Foundation (www.lovedalefoundation.org), which works towards providing disadvantaged children with quality education. To raise funds for Lovedale's "Littlewoods Learning Centre" a bunch of friends and I are organizing a 5 km celebration Run/Walk called the "Run for Hope" on the 10^th of June 2007. We are gathering people from all over Bangalore to participate in "Run for Hope". The details are as below:

Participation fee: Rs 200 for professionals and Rs 50 for students.

Contact (Tickets): Praveen Shivananda - 9886084397
Arjun Manjunath - 9448663894
runforhope2007@gmail.com

Route Map: Click here

It would be great if all of you could come there on the 10th of June , run/walk with us and give Lovedale and me(;-)) some much needed support!

Hope to see all of you there!

Happy Budday to me!

2006-11-29T07:18:17Z

Yesterday was my birthday. A lot of my friends were out of town.I had envisaged an evening spent at home watching TV and eating awesome sambhar that Bharati had made, from the evening before. Instead it turned out to be one of the best birthdays I have ever had, courtesy Arun (rudugudu.)

It began with Arun categorically saying " we are going to do the little things that you want to do" when he met me outside my office. At that point I was talking to my mother, who was wondering whether I was planning on going to the temple or not. So our first pit stop was the Ganesh Temple near my house in Koramangala. The non creative I, did not have any bright ideas after that. I guess doing things spontaneously is not something that comes naturally to me anymore. Another sign of old age..;-).

At this point the ever amazing Mr. rudugudu took it on his shoulders, the task of giving me an amazing birthday. It was decided that our next stop would be the "Central Tiffin Room(CTR)" in Malleshwaram where you get awesome benne masala dosa and the best coffee. I am not a coffee enthusiast. The company of a certain Mr. umang Jaipuria was sorely missed. It was the perfect moment for two coffee connoisseur( read Arun and Umang) to ooh aaah over the coffee. The dosa was heavenly and I could not keep the grin off my face. We also went in search of Amruth ice-cream where one gets home made ice cream, but alas the place was closed! It was just 8:15 pm. It felt as if we were in a different Bangalore. A Bangalore which was once famous as the pensioners' paradise. While traversing the roads of Malleshwaram I found out interesting things about old Bangalore like the famous town of Malgudi gets its name from joining Malleshwaram and Basavangudi.

From CTR we headed towards Elements on Nandidurga Road as Arun was raving about the Coconut Cooler that they serve. The place was nice. We sat outside and talked about how bangkok was a horrible experience but how much fun we had anyway! Laughing over the entire SE Asia backpacking experience and remembering the good times.We also tried to figure out what was the extra something they added to coconut water which made the cooler so remarkably nice.

After dinner, it was time for dessert. Hence we headed towards the famed Herbs&Spice in Indiranagar. There is something so indescribable about moving around the roads of Bangalore at night on a Motorbike. There is a chill in the air which invigorates you. There is a feeling of freedom. I have always loved being driven around on motorbikes at night. It makes me feel young. Brings to mind these lines from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

"On a Cycle the frame is gone. You're completely in contact with it all. You're in the scene, not just watching it anymore, and the sense of presence is overwhelming. The concrete whizzing by five inches below your foot is the real thing, the same stuff you walk on, it's right here, so blurred you can't focus on it, yet you can put your foot down and touch it anytime, and the whole thing, the whole experience, is never removed from immediate consciousness."

Eating scrumptious walnut cake with vanilla ice cream and talking about complicated names that people give their kids, ensured that i was in stitches all the while. At this point there was a mention of a famous head ache which comes on when one laughs a lot, which made me laugh like mad for another 5 minutes.

At around 10:00 o'clock we had this bright idea of watching a movie. So off we went to the Forum mall. At 10:20 we bought the tickets to "Vivah"(i know, i know....but there is no accounting for taste!). We were half an hour late and wow was I glad for it or what! The movie's first half is horribly bad, but the second half is okay. I had fun nonetheless. Laughing at the inane things that they showed and passing horribly rude comments about the movie in general.

The movie got over around 1:00 am. I reached home at 1:30 am. One and a half hour into the next day, having had one of the most amazing birthdays, the day before.

Thank you Arun! I had a great time.:-)

ha ha ha

2006-10-09T05:21:29Z

Your Scholastic Strength Is Deep Thinking

You aren't afraid to delve head first into a difficult subject, with mastery as your goal.
You are talented at adapting, motivating others, managing resources, and analyzing risk.

You should major in:

Philosophy
Music
Theology
Art
History
Foreign language

What Should You Major In?

Europe

2006-09-06T12:26:58Z

So I am back from my backbacking trip across France, Germany And Italy. Had an awesome time. Europe is one of the most beautiful places I have seen. I fell in love with Paris . Have uploaded the pics of my Rome trip as well. The rest of the pics will be up hopefully soon.

After i get over my travel fatigue i guess it will be time for me to plan my next trip. Machu Picchu in Peru perhaps .... Any other suggestions?

Cambodia Pictures

2006-04-25T11:59:31Z

I have uploaded pictures of my trip to cambodia. Hopefully thailand and singapore pictures will be up soon.

Bayon Temple, Siem Reap, Combodia

2006-04-03T06:56:05Z

I WAS HERE! http://www.flickr.com/photos/92125127@N00/39475740

Just came back from an awesome backpacking trip(on a shoestring) across Combodia, Thailand and Singapore. Will upload pics soon.

ankitaprasad @ 2005-12-06T09:59:00

2005-12-06T04:33:12Z

Saw "Bali-The Sacrifice", a play by Girish Karnad at Chowdiah yesterday. It was a part of the Bangalore Habba Theatre Festival. The theme of the play - Violence and non-Violence.

A good play.

Also a thought, related but then probbaly not:

"Note that we're all ninety-nine per cent pacifist.Sermon on Mount, provided we're all allowed to play Tamburlane or Napolean in our particular one percent of selected cases.Peace, perfect peace, so long as we can have the war that suits us. Result: everyone is the predestined victim of somebody else's exceptionally permissible war. Ninety-nine per cent. pacifism is merely another name for militarism. If there's to be peace, there must be hundred percent pacifism."

---Eyeless in gaza, Huxley

ankitaprasad @ 2005-11-29T22:21:00

2005-11-29T16:53:11Z

"We are given only a spark of madness, We musn't lose it"
- Robin Williams