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[1] From: Subhash Mendhapurkar <sutra992003@yahoo.com> Date: Sat Jan 14, 2006 Subject: Re: [indiathinkersnet] Shri Ramdev and the Divya Pharmacy workers We at SUTRA endorse the letter. Subhash Mendhapurkar Women's Centre <womcentr@...> wrote: Forwarding copy of support letter sent to AIDWA Ammu Abraham Friends, Baba Ramdev has been on the electronic media for quite a while, and apparently has a massive following. ----------------------- [2] From: Mujeebulla Chemnad <kvchemnad@yahoo.com> Date: Sat Jan 14, 2006 Subject: Re: [indiathinkersnet] Paralegal Certificate Course in Human Rights Dear Sir, Do you have any postal courses on the subject? Mujeebulla Training Initiative <training@...> wrote: Dear Sir/ Madam, India Centre for Human Rights and Law, is conducting a course for the grassroots' activists, students as well as for common man. This course will cover various issues attached to human rights and how to combat violations of these rights using law. --------------------- [3] From: Nithya Anand <nithya025@yahoo.com> Date: Sat Jan 14, 2006 Subject: Education in Bihar -guardian In a class of their own http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/worldwide/story/0,9959,1683695,00.html Indian students dream of getting in to one of the country's elite science colleges. And at one makeshift academy in poverty-stricken Bihar, two teachers are making that dream come true. By Randeep Ramesh Wednesday January 11, 2006 The Guardian It's the first day of school for the 500 students of the Ramanujan Mathematical Academy. This is Patna, a squalid, fly-ridden city in Bihar, eastern India, and to reach their classroom, the students must file past a cow rifling through pungent rubbish. Inside, they jostle and scramble for a place on the battered wooden benches; latecomers are obliged to stand. Under the hot tin roof, the students scrawl in diligent silence. A question from the teacher, and a hundred hands shoot into the air. The impression is not so much of a class, but a congregation. There's a good reason for this: the teenagers here hail from poverty-stricken villages and slums, and the stakes are sky high. Each student here dreams of getting into the Indian Institute of Technology, a network of seven universities founded after India won independence. Known collectively as IITs, these elite science academies are arguably the toughest in the world to get into, with only one in 40 of the 200,000 applicants successful. (By way of comparison, 10% of students applying to Harvard get in and a fifth of those who apply to Cambridge succeed.) These days, it's IIT, not Harvard, that is shaping the world. Among its alumni are the hi-tech titans of the modern age. The inventor of Hotmail is an IIT graduate. So was the last boss of management consultancy McKinsey's. The current head of Vodafone is an alumnus, as is the man behind the iPod's audio software. Nowhere have these success stories fuelled ambitions and aspirations more in today's India than in this classroom at the academy. Each young face is transfixed as the maths teacher paces in front of a blackboard and switches between Hindi and English to explain how to "find the minimum value of the function" and "look for the solution of this differential equation". Just by getting into this school, these kids have a good chance of becoming IITans. Astonishingly, Ramanujan succeeds in taking some of the poorest children in India and rocketing them to the top of the country's most techno-savvy generation. By selecting 30 of the brightest teenagers for intensive coaching each year, the academy has achieved phenomenal results. Last year, 26 children in the top class got into IIT. This year, say staff, the intake is so good that all 30 will make it. For the so-called Super 30, fees are waived and accommodation provided. The shared dormitories are basic: two mattresses and a couple of desks. The outside latrines are open to the elements. But for the hopefuls, these are small hardships. Krishna Kumar Rai grew up in a three-room mud hut, a bone-shaking two-hour drive from Patna, with no electricity and no running water. At his home, the courtyard doubles up as the kitchen; as we talk, chickens wander aimlessly through. "I am going to do aerospace engineering," Krishna, 19, tells me. "I want to go to Nasa and get into space. I used to be up all night here looking at the stars wondering whether I could ever get there." This peasant farmer's son, it turns out, is razor-sharp at science. Technology, he says, will transform the world and allow people to live on other planets. "We will need to do something soon. We need to explore. Otherwise the earth will get too full." His father, Gopal Rai, says he does not understand what his son is saying. Gopal is 63 and illiterate; he has mortgaged his fields to pay for Krishna's maths lessons. Although the academy fees are a mere 4,000 rupees a year (??51), the amount represents a small fortune in Bihar, where average annual wages are 6,200 rupees (??80). Gopal says his concerns are about land, not space. "I hope my son can buy some properties in the village when he gets a job," he says. "We need a brick house." Krishna has already managed to get a place at an IIT. He took the three two-hour exams last year and ended up just outside the top 2%. "I got a place for mining engineering," he says. "But I want to be in the skies, not under the ground. I'll just do the exams again." In the meantime, he studies 16 hours a day. Asked how he'll do this year, Krishna answers without hesitation: "I'll be in the top 100 this year. I have to make it." Almost two-thirds of India's 1 billion people are under 25, and for the vast majority, nothing in life can be taken for granted. For teenagers such as Krishna, the dash to the top is fuelled by their desperation to escape poverty. Two teachers are responsible for the academy, and they come from either end of India's social ladder. Abhayanand is a refined civil servant with a talent for coaching, who honed his skills on his own children. They both got to IIT. The other is Anand Kumar, a poor, brilliant mathematician, who could not take up an offer from Cambridge University to do a PhD because he had to become the breadwinner for his family after his father died suddenly. For anybody coming from Britain, where class rolls in physics, chemistry and maths have been declining, the gap between reality and aspiration for the students at Ramanujan is bewildering. The teenagers say that shabby Patna is the most glamorous city they have visited. Few can converse in anything but Hindi, yet the exams they pass are taken in English. Almost none has a computer or ever used the internet, yet when asked who is their hero almost all reply: "Bill Gates." "It is not just because Bill Gates is rich, it is because he became rich using his brain," says Abhayanand, who only uses one name. "These kids believe that they are clever enough to do the same." The children have an unshakeable optimism; they believe that technology can save them from the life their parents led. Biharis are acutely aware that their part of India is the worst the country has to offer, that it remains a feudal society where opportunity is bounded by gender, caste and religion. Fewer than half of Bihar's 90 million people can sign their name, and only one in 10 of its households have electricity. Despite being the land where Buddha found enlightenment, Bihar is India's heart of darkness. On the day the school opens, Maoist guerrillas execute an audacious jailbreak just 30 miles from Patna by blowing up a prison. Four hundred inmates escape. This week, there has been a news story from the region about a woman and her children being burned alive by a gang from another caste. The school is only partly insulated from such horrors. Teachers have received death threats and there have been warnings that students will be snatched for ransom. The school gates are patrolled by a policeman and armed private guards. "It's normal in Bihar," Kumar shrugs. He points out that the state's only growth industry in recent years has been kidnapping. With a year to go before his IIT entrance exams, Nishant Nayan, a farmer's son, rises at 5am and studies on his own, by the light of a kerosene lamp, for 13 hours a day, seven days a week. He breaks only for lessons and meals. He says he does not care what becomes of his peers. "We had a tough life growing up. I have to give my family a better life and only by beating the other students will I get it," says Nayan. This is what determination looks like in a one-shot society. The fierce competition has led to depression for some: those who fall behind may fall slowly into despondency. Mr Kumar says that although India is changing, "failure is something we do not deal with well". ------------------------------ [4] From: Regi P George <george_regi@yahoo.com> Date: Sat Jan 14, 2006 Subject: India tilts to the west as the world's new poles emerge http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1684259,00.html India tilts to the west as the world's new poles emerge Despite public hostility, the country's elite is convinced that its interests are best served by alliance with the US Charles Grant Thursday January 12, 2006 The Guardian http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mahajanapada/message/8614 ----------------------------- [5] From: Regi P George <george_regi@yahoo.com> Date: Sat Jan 14, 2006 Subject: 'There Is No War On Terror' -Chomsky: 'There Is No War On Terror' & Waiting for Bush Waiting for Bush And Chomsky: 'There Is No War On Terror' By Geov Parrish, AlterNet. Posted January 14, 2006. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mahajanapada/message/8612 ----------------------- [6] From: Sukla Sen <suklasen@yahoo.com> Date: Sun Jan 15, 2006 Subject: Fwd: Invitation: FAST TO SUPPORT HUMAN RIGHTS OF KASHMIRI PEOPLE asha <ashaashram@...> wrote: Date: Sat, 14 Jan 2006 03:33:49 -0800 (PST) From: asha <ashaashram@...> Subject: Invitation: FAST TO SUPPORT HUMAN RIGHTS OF KASHMIRI PEOPLE FAST TO SUPPORT HUMAN RIGHTS OF KASHMIRI PEOPLE A one day fast is being organized at Rajghat, New Delhi on 30th January, 2006 from 10 am to 4:30 pm in support of the human rights of citizens from Kashmir. Whereas the Government of India and almost every political party in India very assertively claims Kashmir to be an integral part of India, when it comes to trusting them as equal citizens, the Government and political parties of India are less than generous towards the people of Kashmir. Immediately after every terrorist attack, even before a full enquiry has been made, a J&K link is publicized, with mass media becoming a pliable instrument in the hands of the State, and views of common public are further biased towards people of Kashmir. In some cases, the most notable example being the implication of S.A.R. Geelani in the Parliament attack case, we have seen how cases are fabricated against Kashmiris. Kashmiris face human rights violations not only inside Kashmir at the hands of the police, the military and militants but also outside Kashmir. Kashmiris are looked at with suspicion and often subjected to humiliating questioning. The Kashmiris living in a place like New Delhi are routinely harassed before every 15th August and 26th January and these occasions become a good excuse for extortions from them. Kashmiris have difficulty in obtaining a house on rent, getting admission for their children to schools, buying vehicles, etc. There is the more serious issue of disappearance of thousands of people, especially youth, from Kashmir. Custodial killings are also very common in Kashmir. Just like in the North-East,the military does not have to keep a record of firings in Jammu & Kashmir as well. As a first step towards bringing normalcy to Jammu & Kashmir, the military must be held accountable. It is to defend the human rights of the people of Jammu & Kashmir that this fast is being organized. We believe that India and Pakistan have to find a political solution to the satisfaction of people of Jammu & Kashmir as soon as possible so that the troubles faced by Kashmiri people inside and outside of Kashmir must come to an end permanently. Asha Parivar, National Alliance of People??™s Movements, INSAF, PEACE, Lok Raj Sangathan, Association for India??™s Development, Nature Human Centric People??™s Movement Contact: Faisal Khan, 9313106745, Mayank Singh, 9818361619, Sandeep Singh, 9868413332, Kaushal Kishore, 9810405050, Rajeshwar 9871602612 Mail-id : aid_rajeshwar@... |
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January15, 2006 - [India Thinkers Net] On IITB etc >> |
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