How Delhites curse the blessings in their life?

After r2i'ing last year, my most precious moments using public services are very few -- actually only two. One when I am walking on the inner circle of Cannaught Place and the second one when I am travelling on Delhi Metro. Both the interactions have something levelling or equitable about them. While walking in the inner circle in CP, I for one time feel that a chaotic city like Delhi can also provide that equitable ambience to its citizens - where one is not rudely reminded of the various classes that exist in Delhi (rich -- people who have big cars and the poor pedestrian).

A similar actually much more deeper feeling of equity can be experienced when one travels in Delhi Metro. It's for the first time in Delhi that one gets a feeling of being equal. No body is rich, poor, Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian for one time -- we are all travellers wanting to reach our destinations and enjoying the mode of travel. We are very proud of this mode -- it has inculcated in us the culture of standing in queues, the culture of being respectable to our elders, the culture of compassion towards other travellers, it has saved so much creative energy in us -- some economist can compute the productivity, it has provided much needed freedom for our women. All in all, I think Metro has done something that hundreds of temples, yagnas and political speeches have not been able to achieve for Delhi -- its contribution is incredible and we should be thankful to all those who were involved in the making of the METRO.

So, when I saw this article a desperate plea from a man whom many of us respect from bottom of our heart, I could not wait but promote the plea on this blog -- so I would request all the readers of this blog to contribute in their own way to eliminate the curse looming large on our blessing. May be you can talk about the ways in which we can improve our Metro as well.

Note: The above pic has been taken from the website of Hindustan Times (www.hindustantimes.com).

colors/chaos of India

Yesterday! again I got this question why back to India? I heard about this new Nike commercial on cricket in India. I thought that it may aptly explain the reasons of why I completely belong to India and not somewhere else :).



True! urban India is completely chaotic and we all have contributed to it and possibly we all will solve this problem as well (I sincerely wish in my lifetime). However, you cannot discount the guts and never-dying-spirit of a common Indian who manages to smile amidst all this chaos. And, that's something that brought me back to my motherland.

Happy Republic Day

It's after almost four years that I got a chance to celebrate the Republic Day in India (i.e after I r2i'ed). It was a great feeling and especially in a very innovative educational institution like Eklavya, the satisfaction quadrupled.

The chief guests for a change were the grand parents of the school students and not your usual run of the mill politicians or powerful people. Well in some sense it was good as the skit prepared by the senior school students would not have gone well with the politicians.

Anyways, as I have already shared with the school authorities about my experience of Eklavya. I thought I must talk about it very briefly on the blog -- it was phenomenal. All the things that a school needs to provide: experiential learning, physical activities, spiritual learning, civic responsibility is happening here. If someone wants to provide holistic education, you just need to buy a ticket to Ahmedabad and you will say what is the practical definition of that. And, mind you the school has processes in place that ensure that the children are not stressed out at all.

Well, if I continue to talk about Eklavya, I would require 2-3 more posts and I will do that once I get back to Delhi. In the meantime, I wish everyone a very Happy Republic Day.

r2i

the title stands for return to India (r2i) -- I was earlier adamant with Yogita that I would not talk about my background and stay in US on this blog. However, everytime I am involved in a decent conversation with anyone about my stay in US and leaving my cozy job voluntarily -- I have to go through this long discussion of whether the decision was 'right'. To me the decision was crystal clear about what I am getting into and more importantly the reasons behind it. However, what sickens me is the simple fact that why can't a person come back to his/her country and be a contributing citizen in the society that helped him/her shape in what he/she is -- is it so illogical afterall?


The other reason that I have given this heading the importance (see the hdr above) is because I do want to share my experiences with others so that everyone understands that India offers a lot of opportunities -- and not only problems. Even if there are problems, who else is more capable to solve then the educated youth of the society.

If you differ in your opinion on this basic premise, please share your opinions.

(BTW, the above picture was taken by Yogita and I on our last day in Seattle).