Contribute for Karnataka/AP/Maharashtra Flood Victims through Goonj

Financial Contribution

From India

• Send cash/cheque/draft in the name of GOONJ and send it to GOONJ.., J-93, Sarita Vihar, New Delhi- 76
• Send your full name, address & Pan No. with the contribution for receipt/accounting purpose. (All donations to GOONJ in India are tax exempted u/s 80 G of IT act.)

From outside India

• Through Cheque (in the name of GOONJ with your full particulars)
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Contribute to flood relief activities in Bihar!

In the unprecedented calamity that has struck Bihar, around 20 lac people are stranded. The following months are going to bring more challenges, but the immediate need is to rescue people. If you want to contribute through the people/organizations/NGOs working on ground, we are collecting some information here. If you know of any efforts, or have any news of stranded people, please do add through comments or e-mail at biharflood@yahoo.com

One of the immediate needs is that of more boats for rescuing people. Do you know organizations or people that can help and transport boats there is next 24 to 48 hours? Please do let us know. We are in touch with AID India volunteers on the ground.

Feeling IITish & Blogging Information

Thats how I describe the feeling these days. First PAN-IIT, then Priya’s and George’s visits (and revival of old jokes!) and meeting people from IIT out of suddent like meeting Prof. C. V. R. Murthy on Chennai airport…

The post had to be a big one. But it won’t be. Its a formal announcement that professional life is going to take its toll on my blogging frequency. I am not complaining. Hopefully, in some time I would learn to prioritize, focus and balance. Or it may get worse. I do not know. Another phase of life, another experience. As of now I am glad. Its different from how life has been earlier and I am happy about things I am doing.

Not to say that blog will be abandoned, but yeah – frequncy is definitely going to be less. Thoughts can not always be piled up. When they are not penned down in time, they often get lost. I regret this, but its okay.

Crosswords in Indiranagar

I almost jumped with joy when I received this communication from Shoppers’ Stop that a Crosswords has come up in Indiranagar and at a very identifiable place too – 12th Main, 5th Cross. Went there today. The size of the store fell far short of my expectations. Bad that my sense of measurement is, I always thought 4000 Sq. feet would mean a space much bigger than that

But still – even if a small one, it will be a good place to spend time once in a while. And I had a paniful realization that I have never splurged freely on books since I started working. I always seemed to have more money in my hand for that purpose in my student life… What the hell! One of these days, I am going to splurge – come what may

By the way, for those looking for an English Translation of “Umrao Jaan” Novel, I saw one copy from Rupa Publications for aroun 300 bucks. Probably you can try to check out for one in a book-store near you. Of course, the price does not beat Rs. 50 that I had paid for Hindi (rather Urdu in Devnagri) edition in Lucknow

Technorati : Bangalore, Book Store, Crosswords, Indiranagar, Umrao Jaan Novel

Trivia – George Orwell

Trivia of the day – George Orwell was born in Bihar. I had no idea, really. . See the effect of the soil. From Wikipedia:

Blair was born on June 25, 1903 in Motihari, Bengal (modern Bihar), in India, when it was part of the British Empire under the British Raj. There, Blair’s father, Richard Walmesley Blair, worked for the opium department of the Civil Service. His mother, Ida Mabel Blair (née Limouzin), brought him to England at the age of one. He did not see his father again until 1907, when Richard visited England for three months before leaving again.

Nice Lazy Timepass :)

Eric conveys an emotion – http://www.emotioneric.com/

A Project Completed

Finally, I have converted all my Hindi Poems to Unicode. They are all on this blog – मेरी कविताएँ.

Now, I can concentrate better on other ones like Ghazal Lyrics and Hindi Poetry Collection.

Downward spiral

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5329586.stm

And now this! Bomb blasts in Muslim dominated area in Maharashtra this time. What is it? Some kind of revenge for the serial blasts in Mumbai trains? Another downward spiral… Once again, do not know what to say!

It’s served boneless ma’m…

Its nice to be served boneless fish in the restaurant. I’m not so sure a boneless Prime Minister is much of a delicacy. This article puts it very nicely -

Failure in full Strength

I particularly liked the following

Finally, the country seems in no mood to digest all those stories about serial unhappiness at Race Course Road. We heard that the PM was “unhappy” with Natwar Singh but he, nevertheless, issued him a clean chit on the Volcker Report. He was “unhappy” that his HRD Minister started another quota war but he hasn’t moved his little finger to check the future onrush of divisive legislation. And now he is said to be “unhappy” and “anguished” that the DMK, backed by the Communists, has made a monkey of all plans to raise resources without imposing crippling new taxes. So severe was his distress that whereas M Karunanidhi asked for status quo on Neyveli Lignite, the Prime Minister ended up putting all divestment on hold.

And as if symbolically after 12 consecutive successful launches by ISRO, INSAT 4C/GSLV goes bust. And that too right on the day after Agni failure. No, no – I am not claiming that government had much to do with these. But the climate of the country seems to get only gloomier. If government played its part in it, other things like this are not sparing us either.

The memories of the day when this government had taken over and when I felt pretty good about the people at the helm of affairs (except for Mr. L. P. Yadav), mock me today. Somehow, Railways have rather flourished under the rule I am told. Even if it is so only by the non-intervention of the minister. May be other ministers should have taken some lessons from there (Dr. Ramadoss for example??). I can not help quoting a friend’s reaction on the recent-most AIIMS drama (sacking of the director):

A person decorated with India’s third highest civilian honour, one of the most famous cardiac surgeons of the country, first one to perform a heart transplant in India can be humiliated by a 37 years old minister, who doesn’t have credentials even for his own domain (was indicted in the party of his father few weeks before he became minister, has never won an election, was inducted into Rajyasabha after becoming minister).

Thanks to HC for putting a stay order, but I feel more and more worried about it. Of the three wings of governance – legislative, executive and judiciary – only one that we can still sort of look up to appears to be the judiciary. But isn’t that likely to get dangerous? After all, there was a balance of power envisaged when the three wings were conceived. It’s not at all healthy that judiciary needs to almost take over legislative and executive functions. And given the situation, they can not be blamed either.

I haven’t lived too long a life probably, I haven’t seen too much of the world probably and yet there are things I have seen. And I have seen them getting ridiculous. But such a series of ridiculousness seems unprecedented in my memory. They aren’t even thinking about their self-interest many a times. They are outrightly foolish.

Technorati : Gloom, India, Politics

AIIMS Director sacked…

AIIMS Director Venugopal sacked, docs go on strike

This government will end up doing only one of the two things for this country with its autocratic behaviour. Either it will awaken the youth towards their political role or it will put an end to the democracy and stable governance here.

If I have to analyze and discuss it, I do not have heart for it.

If I have to vent out my emotional feelings, I do not have enough swear words in my memory.

Down with Ramadoss and the likes of him.

Technorati : AIIMS, India, Politics, Ramadoss