Life is taking some shape and it feels beautiful !!

Last few weeks have been a roller-coaster ride, full of excitement and a yearning for more. First gave the GMAT and than embarked on my first exclusive project as an independent entity. I hope future has more such surprises in offer while I explore newer milestones along my way.

Now the opportunity is there and I can settle a few dreams with loads of hard work and little bit of luck. Amen!

Making the 'e' work for Uttarakhand!

The following projects give me an adrenaline kick (in images below), when I think of their scaled up forms. Without writing alot, let the newspaper cuttings do the talking while I pen down my sincere,respectful and loving accolades for Deepak, who has only strengthened my beleief that living the vision is possible working through it (so very true)..... looking forward to more pertinent things happening in very near future.... till than three cheers for you and "Utech computers" [our very own company]

"Will Manmohan Singh neuter the rapacious, brutal and greedy elements that thwart the people from getting their entitlements"

Will Manmohan Singh neuter the rapacious, brutal and greedy elements that thwart the people from getting their entitlements, asks senior journalist Mahesh Vijapurkar

The administration is "seen in the form of a rapacious forest guard, a brutal policeman, a greedy patwari", by the tribals towards whom the Indian Constitution has "bestowed" a "special obligation" on the State. The obligation is to bring the disadvantaged on par with the rest of the ordinary citizens, ordinary here being the well-off: educated, sufficient in food and income.

The rapacious, brutal and greedy dimensions of the State at the cutting edge was described not by a civil society activist but Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on July 14 when speaking to a conference of chief ministers who are running states which fall in what is now infamously known as the Red Corridor -- Maoists play havoc there.

Actually, that was a confession coming from the top guy holding the top job in the country and when he speaks, it is like a mea culpa on behalf of the government, much like the one from Rajiv Gandhi in Vadodara at a public meeting long ago: only 16 paise of a rupee trickles down to the people, the obvious inference being that rent-seekers and the corrupt are a barrier between the government and the people.

Rajiv Gandhi did precious little to check corruption, the main reason for leakages and shoddy work by government in all sectors. Will Manmohan Singh do better and neuter the rapacious, brutal and greedy elements that thwart the people from getting their entitlements? It is admittedly a hard task for anyone to correct the system to its textbook form, but a beginning now would help enormously. Being non-corrupt and incorruptible is one thing, but presiding over a system which is an antithesis of yourself is another thing. If Dr Singh so chooses, he can be a good enforcer and start the reform process.

Of course there are pitfalls. The politicians and the criminal dimension to them has led to the emergence of a new class which I would like to term 'the political entrepreneurs' who use politics for personal gain and use money to further politics. They have such clout that chief ministers are known to have been brought to tears when attempting to deal with them. The easy way of even the honest in politics has to accept them as colleagues but remain above corruption. But there are few of that kind.

Brutality, rapaciousness and greed are not the exclusive prerogative of those working in the distant and dark corners of this country where the tribals live and suffer. Such characters abound everywhere, including, even especially, in the cities as well. There is hardly a pocket left where clean politicians have a chance of surviving, if elected, till the next election. The sickening aspect is that politicians are of a class who believe that they are also above God: some complained that MLAs and MPs were not given preferential treatment when visiting the Vitthala temple in Pandharpur during the Hindu month of Ashad. 

Things have gotten so bad that the corrupt system fights back resolutely against those who want to cleanse it; there are far more concerned citizens at this task than there are politicians and bureaucrats. Activists who use the Right to Information as a means to an end, ending the system's mischief, are harassed, beaten up and even murdered. The stranglehold of the corrupt is to such an extent that even salaried people who pay their tax at source and have some nominal refunds due from the I-T department, have to pay a bribe. A policeman issues a summons to a person for drunken driving but at the same time, provides the cell phone number of a fixer who could ensure there is no jail term.

While we know, as obviously does Manmohan Singh, that the entire system has become rotten to the core, where nothing works without a quid pro quo, where back-scratching and cronyism hold sway, where the ordinary citizen has no role except to cast a vote from among several impossible choices, the least he could do is to ensure that at the cutting edge, the delivery improves. He said in his July 14 speech that "this state of affairs needs to be changed". People see the State not from what the top guy is -- Manmhoan Singh may be honest, but what about the rent-seeker who plagues the common man, especially the one who is in distress?

The common man, knowing that nothing works, complies, falls in line and perpetuates the system which gets worse by the passing day. It is here that Manmohan Singh has to call things to order. The common man, even the tribal, is not a beneficiary of the State's largesse -- that is what is being doled out, the instruments of the State assume -- but are people with entitlements on which the State has to deliver. 'Entitlements' crept into Pranab Mukherjee's budget speech only two years ago, which, one hopes, becomes the cornerstone of all policies and delivery mechanisms. That would make a difference to the people.

Governance is best judged by finding out if the target groups get their entitlements efficiently, swiftly and at the least cost. But in our country, the goods of welfare that are sought to be delivered cost much less than the expenses involved in delivering them to the people. One hopes that Manmohan Singh delivers on his words, "This state of affairs needs to be changed". And swiftly too, though it cannot be at the point of start or in his career, be much but at least a start.

by Mahesh Vijapurkar

YOUTH (engrossed, obsessed, indulgent) -- CHILDHOOD (begging,battered,strayed)

"I was waiting for a bus enroute office recently, when I captured, for what has been a routine sight for me and a puzzling one too, while I kept talking with the friend on phone who now lives far away, was drunk and (claimed) happy........."

Dont you think we need to wake up now... or the slumber will take us to a point when anything will be too little too late.

I wish these kids could vote, as that would atleast have ensured greater interest in the polity for them, and that would have been mighty useful in the present context when we leave all good things for the "Government" to do ......

".........I kept talkings with my friend, laughed a bit....bus had come and I moved in... felt cozy in a snug little corner happy being...engrossed, obsessed, indulgent"

a Gift for your progeny...better accept it !!

Do you remember "what did you do last time (and lets say you were on a roadside) when you ate chocolate ..or..charged your mobile with a coupon...or...drank a Pepsi from a can ... or...used anything out of a poisonthene (polythene)....." I hope you do and I wish we all do something about it.

The beginning as always (and will always) has to be from I, and we need only a few I's to change it all and I know you are one of those....

"I cannot run, I cannot hide.... I want to live... Please put me also, behind the cages, as you have done to my dearest friends...I want to live...please "

IT in development projects....

"A bullock cart may still suit best to the village roads..... " 

The statement suits best to the state of IT implementation across development projects in India. Having looked the sector from very close quarters for almost 3 years now, I feel a need to say that it needs a lot more than sheer optimism, for IT to reach the rural masses.

The gory side of the story is this that that IT is being increasingly misused by the opportunists in pseudo-IT-companies who thrive on the 21st century non/semi/neo-IT-literate-development-professionals. All this is happening at the expense of public money and that also money which is meant only to be routed to the most vulnerable section of the society.

The need of the hour is not a forced or whimsical use of IT in development projects -which unfortunately is the most common state of affairs- but a very balanced,systematic and scientific infusion of IT into the two major facets, one for the development professionals and the other for the community, as both have their own sets of challenges and opportunities.

    

My experiences with the last few involvements of mine have taught me a great deal about one more fight I am preparing myself for......and I wish I can make a difference here..... and that is there, the maverick in me for you :)

I wish the road is soon ready for the nextGen vehicles to traverse through the rural realm...  Amen !

Living MIS and computers with the community

“A SHG woman (Smt.Sushila Devi) who felt very shy to reveal her schooling status to begin with, surrounded by people half her age and twice as educated, but determined she was, ended up pounding questions and expalinations rendering insignificance to her qaualifications and spreading a message in the air around, that she was a women with mission and she meant business''

The training of Group Promoters and Data Entry Operators was meant to provide an insight into the accounting needs of the SHGs and use of the existing accounting system in a uniform manner across SHGs in the district and project. The training also delat with the computerised MIS and its applicability in the context of SHGs and federations in future.

The first day of the training involved experience sharing among the participants, the points of discussion involved SHG accounting registers and practical scenarios handling within the same. The excercise not only helped in bringing forth a set of practical copmlicated accounting scenarios to solution using the existing SHG registers but also helped in developing a common debated-and-agreed upon understanding for the same. Practical excercises with the new registers, introduced recently by the project, helped in clearing plentiful of doubts and will help in having an error free accounts management at SHG level.

Second day of training was more oriented towards the computerised SHG MIS, which clusters are working on for 6 months now. Cluster wise problems were collated and lacunaes were identified and noted. A lot of issues related with the MIS were solved and demonstrated during the training.The training ended on the third day with the installation of latest SHG MIS into the cluster systems and detailed explaination and demonstration of the same.

Some of the Group Promoters who came in to the training having never seen the computerised MIS seemed thrilled and excited on being provided an opportunity by the project to get exposed to the MIS.

The training aimed at providing training to the DEOs but more importantly imparting seeds of interest and inquisitiveness among the Group Promoters envisaged as part of a sustainability drive by the project and more women like Sushila Devi will do exactly that.

Heading where no-some-no where?

"Jumping and crying while in between the the mess, does never help,moving on DOES" these were the words which fell on my ears while I was going through the biggest crisis of my life.

Two years having gone by, I feel i should actually have heard them. But hearing/doing the right thing at the right time has all been serendipitous for me,till date.

Life never stops it moves on,though sounds cliche, but is something I have to learn and learn quickly and stop sticking on to things especially those which no more tinkle-twinkle natural and pristine feelings anywhere and are laden with fabricated junk.

I need to balance my words and deeds and try to match later with the former. I have garnered some clarity of late but it will all be in vain if I still cannot overwhelm the doubts whatsoever.

Twilight and dawn have come and gone,
I am still standing there with a frown.

Waiting for it all to stop and move on,
Naive I was to see, there always is a dawn.

Hopefully I will now move on, I have to.