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It is shocking and unbelievable to read things like this post of 10 Shocking Facts About Global Slavery in 2008. Very sobering, especially given all the economic turmoil the world is currently in. Please take a moment and read it.
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Hello World!
My name is Avi Vishwa Kaul and I'm here (baby!).
I arrived on Nov 28th, 2008 at 1:00 AM weighing 8 Lbs and 14 Ounces (4 Kgs) and measuring 22 inches long.
I and my mom are doing well. I am currently very busy eating, sleeping, pooping and getting entertained by these funny folks around me.
For all those of you wondering what my name means, Avi means "the Sun".
Lotsa luv and hugs!
Avi
Name: Avi Vishwa Kaul
Date: Nov 28th, 2008
Time: 1:00 AM
Place: Overlake Hospital Bellevue
Weight: 8 Lbs 14 Ounces
Height: 23 inches
P.S. - Check out my big bro, Aadi Bhaiya, giving me his Ashirwaad. He's the Best Brother of the World! :)
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It feels incredibly nice to see that one of the premiere indian magazines, India Today, has written about and honored someone that I deeply admire and respect, Dr. Sunil Kaul (who is a cousin of mine). He is featured as one of the 50 Pioneers of Change (main article written by former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam) and I cannot resist pasting the whole content here in addition to the link to the article. Kudos to him and so many others like him, who are an inspiration in a million different ways, for the rest of us.
Doctor at large |
June 26, 2008 |
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He is a product of India who is trying to save Bharat. That, in a gist, sums up the good doctor who, in the middle of Bodoland in Assam’s Chirang district, is bringing about a silent movement eradicating the deadly malaria, running a weavers’ network and guiding other NGOs in the region.
An MBBS from Pune and trained at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Dr Sunil Kaul realised that his true calling lay in the rural heartland where even basic healthcare was a rarity.
In 2000, he quit the army and, with his wife Jennifer Liang, founded the Action Northeast Trust (ANT) in Bongaigaon. They have a daughter whom they have named Aman Gwjwn. The last name means “peace” in Bodo.
The foundation’s most powerful impact has been in controlling malaria in Chirang. Kaul set up laboratories in remote places and trained locals in conducting blood tests and identifying the malaria parasite.
He taught local chemists the correct dosage of medicines. A local boy, Carlos, is a much-trusted lab technician.
Dr Sunil Kaul
And though now a government-run clinic has come up close by, old loyalists still come to Carlos and voice their faith in Kaul when it comes to treatment.
“I have often been accused of helping quacks. But no MBBS doctor wants to stay here,” he says.
Each ANT centre covers about 80-90 small villages, reaching out to nearly 6,000 people. Ever since he began ANT, Kaul has trained 11 persons, of which eight are still with the project.
They run the labs independent of ANT, presided over by a local managing committee.
“I wanted them to be responsible for each unit and they do take an appropriate fee from the people for the tests. I had hoped this would not only provide healthcare but also be an economically-viable profession. Some of them are doing well, but with the National Rural Health Mission now setting up clinics, these centres may not do too well in the future,” he says, not ready to take credit for almost showing the way to the Government.
—Elora Sen |
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Wohooo! Really great to see the first official article written by my sister, Neha Kaul, published and available on the web site of the Banking and Business Review (BBR) magazine. A big CONGRATS to her and here's wishing many, many more writings from her.
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Here's wishing my dad, myself and all the other dads of the world, a Very Happy Father's Day! I wanted to thank my dad for instilling a life-long love of poetry in me and have attempted to do this by recording a recitation of a poem by Sahir Ludhiyanvi (by the name of Parchaiyan) that he loves and introduced to all of us. He still knows most of this poem by heart, and so I have attempted to recite it by memory as well (so cut me some slack on the slip ups!).
You can view it on SoapBox or download from the FTP share: Video: Parchaiyan - Sahir Ludhianvi
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 You don't think there can be such a thing, right? Well, let me introduce you to Aditya Phatak! Amazing stuff! He's 3.5 years old now but the videos on the site are from when he was younger (you know - in his younger years! :)).
Now let's see if I can get Aadi to do this!?
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Oooohhh! I finally got my hands on I Am a Strange Loop and am just dying to dig into it. It promises to be a good read. I hope it doesn't take as long as GEB though - I took 6 years to go through that one!
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Very interesting article in the NY Times highlighting some of the high-tech solutions people are coming up with to help solve sme of the oldest problems - Poverty.
Here is the site that the article is actually about - will be interesting to see where this site lands up 4-5 years from now and how much of a difference it manages to make: http://babajob.com/
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I was hunting for an effective way to backup all my photos and videos etc. to an external 500 GB hard disk and came across this really great FREE tool which allows you to keep various folders in sync (works on Windows XP only as far as I can see): SyncToy. Check it out! Frees you from having to keep track of what you have and have not backed up and what has changed etc. etc. etc.
Among other interesting things, I have picked up a Canon Rebel XTi and am finally entering the world of SLR Photograpy. So far I am completely blown away by it - especially the portraits - there is a world of difference from the point and shoot Canon S1 that I was using thus far! Looking forward to our DisneyWorld trip and the millions of photos we'll be shooting over there (ok - maybe not "millions"!).
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Sometimes you should stumble across from links to links on the internet and finally land upon a real gem. I went through such a discovery process today which started with the following article. In case you think Untouchability in India is a thing of the past, think again. Excerpts from this article below.
Cry Freedom!
Of the many forms of untouchability that persist in modern India, unarguably the most unconscionable is the wide prevalence of discrimination against dalit children within schools
Harsh Mander
In a dilapidated slum shanty near the banks of the Ganga in Patna is settled a group of families whose profession is to clean dry toilets with their bare hands, and to carry human waste on their heads to throw into the forgiving waters of the mighty river. I found that not a single child studied in the government school, which, as it happened, was located literally just across the road from the scavenger colony. It took a while to coax from the guardians the reason for their steady resolve to keep their children away from school. It transpired that they had indeed sent their children to the school initially. It is a custom in many government schools for the teacher to send children on errands. The upper-caste children were assigned tasks such as to fetch tea. The children from the scavenger colony were asked to wash the toilets, or to clean up after a dog had soiled the school premises. The children could not bear the shame, and refused to return to the school.
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A survey of practices of untouchability undertaken in 565 villages in 11 major states of India reveals shockingly that in as many as 38 per cent government schools, dalit children are made to sit separately while eating. In 20 per cent schools, dalit children are not even permitted to drink water from the same source.
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The recently released report of perhaps the first nationwide survey of the continued prevalence of untouchability, jointly authored by social scientists Ghanshyam Shah, Sukhadeo Thorat, Satish Desh-pande, Amita Baviskar and myself (Untouchability in Rural India, Sage), finds such untouchability in all local state institutions. Almost 27.6 per cent dalits are prevented from entering police stations and 25.7 from ration shops; 33 per cent public health workers refuse to visit dalit homes, and 23.5 per cent dalits still do not get letters delivered to their homes. Segregated seating for dalits was found in 30.8 per cent self-help groups and cooperatives, and 29.6 per cent panchayat offices. In 14.4 per cent villages, dalits were not permitted to enter the panchayat building. They were denied access to polling booths, or for-ced to form separate lines in 12 per cent of the villages surveyed. Despite being charged with a constitutional mandate to promote social justice, local ins-titutions of the Indian State facilitate untouchability.
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In nearly half the surveyed villages (48.4 per cent), dalits were denied access to water sources. In over a third (35.8 per cent), dalits were denied entry into village shops. They had to wait some distance from the shop, the shopkeepers kept the goods they bought on the ground, and accepted their money similarly without direct contact. In teashops, in about one-third of the villages, dalits were denied seating and had to use separate cups.
In more than 47 per cent villages, bans operated on wedding processions on public (arrogated as upper-caste) roads. In 10 to 20 per cent villages, dalits were not allowed to wear clean or bright clothes or sunglasses. They could not ride their bicycles, unfurl their umbrellas, wear chappals on public roads, smoke or even stand without head bowed.
We found that restrictions on entry by dalits into Hindu temples were as high as an average of 64 per cent in 11 states, ranging from 47 per cent in UP to 94 per cent in Karnataka. Such restrictions endured even after conversion of dalits to egalitarian faiths. As many as 41 of the 51 villages surveyed in Punjab reported separate gurudwaras for dalit Sikhs, and even where dalits worshipped in gurudwaras frequented by upper caste jats, they were served in separate lines at the langar, and were not permitted to prepare or serve the sacred food. In Maharashtra, despite mass conversions of Mahars to Buddhism, dalits were denied temple entry in 51 per cent villages. Reports from Kerala and Andhra Pradesh chronicled divisions in the church between dalit converts and others, even discrimination against ordained dalit priests.
Untouchability persists even into death; in half the villages (48.9 per cent) dalits were debarred from access to cremation grounds. In Maharashtra, even where dalits have their segregated cremation grounds, these are permitted only on the eastern side of the village, so that upper castes are not polluted by the winds that pass from west to east.
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With untouchability persisting unashamedly in State institutions like schools and police stations, in public spaces like temples and shops, in farms and markets, and in homes and hearts, the dalit still lives in India waiting hopelessly, and sometimes in anger, for the long betrayed dawn of equality.
The writer is a former civil servant and Convener, Aman Biradari
This interested me and I started reading up about Harsh Mander and Aman Biradari. Very impressed with the work of Harsh Mander especially around the Gujrat riots.
Next I bumped into HardNews and another similar news outlet, India Together, which seem like a breath of fresh air.
From there I learnt about the 2007 winner of the Ramon Magsaysay award for journalism, literature, and creative communications arts, Palagummi Sainath and his amazing work.
All in all a very inspiring online trek! :)
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If you ever found yourself feeling bad for the poor buffalo getting killed by a lion, you need to see this video . Put it on, sit back and relax - this is like a condensed 8-mintue action movie.
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