Period - Lets talk about it.

My village is very small with population of just 2500 (approximately). Like any other village in India women here also suffers from patriarchy. It manifest in low literacy , low female labor participation and almost no control over any economic resource.  These discrimination have become so ingrained that these hardly shake our conscience.  I keep trying my best to speak against these or at least keep my inner spirit alive to fight these. I understand that social changes have their own trajectory. But one thing made me really worried which need quick attention and quicker solution. More than 50% of women above 40 have their uterus removed. Every few months I keep hearing more women seeing a gynecologist and consulting for its removal.

When investigated I found that its not a disease these women were getting after 40 , rather its a disease-in-making. It starts with a girl's first menstruation. Use of dirty clothes, newspapers, plastics etc make them very vulnerable to various infections. By the time she has children and reaches 40 it deteriorates to a stage of need for removal of uterus.

Trauma for girls start with their puberty. The taboo around it is so strong that girls hardly talk about it. Our education system also fails her as it don't teach about good hygienic practices to be followed during those 5 days of every month. Even if she learns about sanitary pads from television advertisements availability of these is a luxury and using them is a privilege. In a country with right to food, work ,education and vote we have no right for these girls to use sanitary napkins. When a girl get periods it should be the duty of the family and the society to ensure that she get her basic rights. But I think this is too much to ask right now.  We are not even at a stage to discuss about it openly.  Various code names are used for referring to it, almost no space is available to dry the used cloth. Women often dump them in dark corners with no sunlight to use in next cycle.  All adult males know about it but very few consider it to be worth talking.

This is a serious health and mindset problem which needs to be addressed as soon as possible. Mindset can be changed by talking more about periods in public. Periods should be considered as normal biological cycle- like we have sleeping , breathing cycle etc. Any link to purity-impurity should be curbed.  Sanitary napkins should be made available through various government institutions like anganwadi centers, sub-health centers, schools etc.  Families should support their ladies in procuring and using them. Males will have to come forward and help break the barrier.  Women provide strength to the family and society . Its very important that her own strength and health is maintained.

Bread, Salt and Soap

Disclaimer: Before coming to the heading of this blog let me start with some background...Sorry for sounding out of subject in starting. 

History should not be seen as mere study of past events. History is much more than a subject. It is one of the aspect that makes a human being different from animals. We have history of our family, our society, our nation..animals don't.  History teaches us, history warns us and most importantly history gives us foresight.

From the same history I learnt that we should never undermine the power of common man. Most importantly (and with alert) never undermine their power to fulfill their basic survival needs. If a common man with no scientific innovation (some 1.5 million years ago) can cross thousands of mile in ocean and reach Indian coast from Africa believe me he can easily cross man made barriers to reach any king or administrator or state institution to get his share for survival.

Now let's link it to the heading " bread, salt and soap". Although these are among the cheapest item required by a household but these three have formed the basis for outbreak of world's major revolutions - Russian Revolution (1917),  Civil Disobedience movement (1930) and Disintegration of USSR(1991). I think now we are on the topic and you can get what I am trying to relate.

We may agree or disagree on exact real causes behind these movements and revolutions but what we will have to agree is that these were people driven triggered by such not-so-expensive daily use items. Russians were opposing world war (I) participation of Russia, rude monarchy, feudal privileges etc since long, but what tipped them off was the unavailability of bread. Britishers thought making fistful salt will attract no attention of masses but this very act of Gandhiji shocked them to their cores. Disintegration of USSR was evident in 1980's but hardly anyone contemplated that its strongest spark will be given by non-availability of soap to factor labors. The point is people can bring any regime or state on its knees if its survival demands are not met and history itself is the living example of it.

(Now little bit more diversion from the heading. Sorry again but promise to relate this also)

Ever since the state came into existence someone or other have tried to control people by snatching more and more power from them. This created artificial power imbalance. To justify it ancient and medieval rulers used concept of "divine monarchy". Modern rulers, in face of stiff opposition by democracy lovers have evolved much complicated system to hide the imbalance. It includes lobbying , contacts, money power, muscle flexing etc . This is the reason that even in 21st century, in most advanced democracies we can count on fingers the number of families that have held the state power. Be it America or India dynastic rule have not ended in real sense. What is worse is that smokescreen of democracy and elections have made people passive to question the imbalance and get back their due share of power.

In no way I am opposed to democracy or elections (I am an ardent democrat). Also I show my utmost respect to all people's movement and pain they are going to alter the power balance but my point is we are lacking far away from what we deserve. But what do we deserve ? We deserve equality. We are created equally by Almighty and no force on earth should undermine that.  We deserve dignity and respect. Being born as human being we deserve to live a dignified human life. No force on earth should force a man to search food from the same garbage that a dog do. 

But the sad part is that power imbalance have left many unequal and without any dignity. Gap between rulers and ruled might have got reduced in democracy to some extent but as stated above its far from what we deserve. Insensitivity and glaze of power have deprived many of their basic survival needs. Cutting trees have deprived forest dwellers of their bread, turning agricultural lands into industries have deprived farmers of their salt and haphazard mad-rush for city development have deprived its dwellers of soap. 

So I am back to my topic and want to emphasize that power imbalance making those in power oblivious to the survival needs of common people must learn from revolutions started on basic items. We must not alienate people and believe in their capacities. Any administration or state must exist for people and those in power should act as trustee of people's power. 

In the end just want to say that history do teaches us but if not learnt it repeats itself. 

                                                                                                                                  Jai Hind

Fortune is Notoriously Fickle

I guess fortune is one of the most misunderstood word.  Then also, its one of the most frequently used word, especially when some unwanted outcome arrives out of human action or inaction. Indians are mostly spiritual people(don't confuse with religious) and its very easy to make them accept this fortune concept for any political, social, economic setup or even day-to-day activities. A child born in dalit house is made to believe that its his fortune to be born in such caste and will have to live a life of illiterate, untouchable , cleaning other's filth throughout his life. A child born as girl is made to believe that its her destiny to live a subservient life. A poor child whose parents can't afford schooling is made to believe in so called fortune and forced to start work with his little hands picking up bricks or cleaning bartans.

Do not get me wrong on fortune. I do believe in it but only after we as human beings have given our best. We can't blame destiny for our wrongs or inactions. Condition of dalits, girls or poor are not outcome of bad fortune , these are outcome of bad intentions - intention of yielding power. Fortune is the easiest scapegoat and best way to relieve our-self of the guilt we should be feeling for making the life of others pitiable.

We have heard every great person saying that "changes come through self belief ". Its nothing but a call to believe in human power and be least dependent on fortune. If we all start realizing that good or bad happening around us are outcome of our own activities we will definitely make world a better place for ourselves and coming generations.

As I said earlier I do believe in fortune. I feel lucky to be born to parents for whom educated children were more important than hefty bank balances. I feel lucky to be educated in "English medium school" as that itself removes half of the competition in some exams. I feel lucky to get admission in that few numbered "good engineering" college in a country of 1.2 billion. I feel lucky to be married to a man in whose dictionary gender discrimination don't exist.

But, wait a minute. Don't you think getting good education, having fair competition in exams, having proportionate number of good colleges and being treated equally are my rights? Or for that matter rights of any human being born. Then why am I calling these as my good fortune and not rights? It's because we have a created such unequal, discriminatory society around us that even getting our due right is like a fortune.

I know how lucky I have been throughout my life. But somewhere this feeling scares me from inside because Fortune is Notoriously Fickle. I don't want my countrymen to be dependent on any fickle fortune. I don't want any children to be lucky to get good education. I don't want any girl to be treated equally just because she was lucky to be surrounded by good people. I want these lucks to be converted into rights. I want to create a society in which everyone will be empowered enough to write their own fortune.

Please support me and everyone around you to create such environment. Let's start from today, from now. Just do 2 things. Respect every human being as equal and start feeling the guilt for miseries of others. Directly or indirectly we all are responsible for pain our people are going through. Let's explore ways to end this.

                                                                                                                        Jai Hind.

Agriculture - The future of India

Gandhiji's these words are as true today as they were 70 years back. Might be in numbers we have moved to 31% urban population, but we should not forget that close to 70% of 1.2 billion population is a huge number. Huge enough that if we ignore them we ignore our future...our progress...our souls..

Also, another fact that have not changed in so many years is that villages are still dependent on agriculture. Agriculture is not just the most risky business but also tests the best values of human being. It teaches them to be patient, optimistic and hopeful. But since long we have neglected this empowering profession.

For long time even I was fascinated by other professions like medical, engineering, administration etc. I gave secondary status to farming as I thought those who can't excel in other fields end up in farming. But now I realize how naive I was. I seldom realized that its the strong foundation of agriculture on which others build. If the foundation shakes it can take everything else along with it.

If we look historically, we can better appreciate the importance of agriculture. Indian continent could witness its first ever civilization - Indus Valley civilization just because people from Mehrgarh area shifted to fertile land of Indus. Here they could generate surplus. This surplus enabled certain section of society to engage in trade and commerce. Then started the whole chain of surplus -> trade and commerce -> cities -> more trade and commerce -> bigger cities. In such big and intermingled chain  of events what we more appreciate is the cities and planning knowledge of Harappans. What we often miss is the great role played by agricultural surplus. Decline of Harappan civilization may be explained by many reasons but the most accepted view clearly underlines the imbalance created due to decline in agricultural production. That might have been due to river shifting or soil deterioration, that's not my point here, the important point is that agricultural production imbalance took with itself the millennium old civilization. It took another one and half millennium to reach such status of agricultural surplus so as to support another urbanization.

If I summarize in few words then M.S. Swaminathan's words resonate in my ears " if agriculture goes wrong, nothing else will have a chance to go right in our country".  

What I often wonder is if agriculture is so important then why do we accord so low status to it? Or why have we neglected it so far? I accorded secondary status to it because I was lacking a holistic view and also I had limited knowledge then. But I guess this is not the case with our policy makers. They are far read and experienced. Then why such dismal state? I have observed a list of problems in this sector, but for now I will start with a small incident. In my next writing I will jot down the ground level problems as observed by me and would pray that I get a chance in life to solve them. Let's see the story part first. 

I got married around 2 years back. At that time my in-laws completed harvesting and got moong at home. At that time moong was getting sold at around 7k. Within few days prices started falling. My in-laws thought it may be because of bumper production so they waited for right time. It has been around 2 years and right time never came. Currently the prices are around 4k. Now this may seem like a usual business case study in which demand-supply mismatch happened and prices of commodity saw downfall. However, if I mention other events of these 2 years then we will realize how economics failed in agriculture either due to poor policy or poor implementation of good policy. 

These events included:

1. Back to back drought in country due to El-nino

2. Huge pulses inflation , especially in cities. In Delhi I was buying moong dal at Rs 160/kg. when my in-laws were compelled to sell at Rs 50-60/Kg

3. Huge import of pulses from foreign. Indian government also signed many MoU with countries like Mozambique to maintain pulses supply.

There were many other like export ban on pulses, application of Essential commodities Act on pulses etc. Point is not that, what I want to emphasize is how come producer was not getting benefited when consumption demand was high and supply was limited. I read in my first economics chapter that demand-supply cycle decides the best price. In this both consumer as well as producers benefit. Then how come in agriculture, especially in case of moong farmers were getting no benefit from huge demand? 

On one hand even with huge supply and production of wheat farmers of Punjab and Haryana get handsome return (through high MSP) while on other hand, farmers of pulses in Rajasthan are not even able to recover their input. Worrisome part is that this condition exists when we are forced to import pulses closes to world's total pulses trade.

I will give the long answer in my next article but the short answer is that in Indian agriculture not economics but politics works. 

                                                                                                                                            Continued...

Various "ism" in life

I know the title itself is very mysterious. Let me make it clear in starting itself. By various "ism" I mean various ideologies that surround us and in many cases puzzles us. It includes 20th century buzz words - socialism, communism , nationalism etc. as well as recent-often-heard word: Feminism. May be the core of every ideology is somewhat clearly spelled , but there are so many connotations and modifications to each that it puzzles a common man deeply to find out what is actually correct.

I choose to pen down my thoughts on 2 very "hot ism" these days : Nationalism and Feminism. I will not divulge into defining these , I will just share my experiences and leanings about these two. Let me start with Nationalism.

The very first thing I want to say about Nationalism is that its not patriotism. Although both describe relationship between an individual and nation but there lays wide range of difference. The most apt difference has been described by Sydney Harris



In very layman language I will tell a story often told by my husband. Assume an Indian , say Arun go to another country He go to buy mangoes there. By looking at the mangoes Arun says " We have got better variety mangoes in India." The seller took it on his (or his country's) pride and said " these are the best variety in world and I challenge you India's can be no better" The seller was arguing all the time in-spite of his no knowledge about the variety of mangoes in world, which country has best variety etc. A passing by person, say X(i),  hear the conversation. He talks to Arun and request him to accompany him.  X(i) takes him to a near by shop, buy the best variety mango for him and handover to Arun. Instead of asking for money he ask for his forgiveness to the ignorance of the seller.  Also he request Arun to courier some best variety mango seeds to him so that he can also try cultivating them here so that even his country can become the best.

Here comes the difference between a nationalist and a patriot. In this story, seller was a nationalist because he considers his country best. On other hand X(i) is a patriot because he is aspiring to make his country best. X(i) took responsibility to work for his country.  Responsibility is what I consider, separates the thin line between patriotism and nationalism. I also consider that most people, especially Indians, are afraid of taking responsibilities. And this is the reason people slip into blanket of nationalism to show their love for country.

We shy from taking responsibility to improve our education system , we shy from taking responsibility to create an equal society , we shy from taking responsibility to at-least create one world class level university or research center. What can be more sad that we even shy from taking responsibility of changing mindset of our son, brother, father  or husband to shed them of patriarchy.
The day we will start taking responsibility, we will start looking at ways to improve our current positions. The day we will start looking at ways, we will open ourselves to others, The day we will start opening to others , we will start respecting diversity and they day we start respecting diversity, we will become true Indians. We will together strive to be patriots then. I guess on that day we will not like someone calling us just nationalists. We would like to be recognized as patriots.

Love is a great , Love for nation is honorable. But always remember love is antithetic to hate and as law of nature goes, two antithetic feelings can't coexist. So love for our country can't coexist with hate for other countries, love for our nation can't coexist with hate for our countrymen. If you find somewhere in past (or present), where love and hate coexisted, believe me that was not love. That was madness taking nations to wars and communities to riots. Such wars and riots produced no success. Only losses were there and the worst sufferer was humanism.

With Humanism we land up to third "ism" and also my favorite one. Out of all "ism" the one which has never changed its form and importance is humanism. Humanism is the belief that all human beings are good by nature and only circumstances make them bad, its the belief that all human beings are equal and must be loved for being born as human being. It transgress all divisions and is much above the talks of politics, self interest, protectionism etc. It just teaches one thing - open you arms for every human being. We all must practice humanism and then I believe patriotism, nationalism etc will be automatically taken care of.

                                                                                                                                        Jai Hind

What holds this great nation back

Guest Post

India is country which holds the distinction of having the second largest agricultural land in the world only after America. There is no dearth of mineral resources in the country whether it is iron, coal, manganese or limestone, we have enough of all these. Moreover, according to recent World Bank Report half of India’s 1.2 billion people are under the age of 26, and by 2020, it is forecast to be the youngest country in the world, with a median age of 29 . Ours is the oldest living civilization in the world with treasure of cultural heritage and civilizational values. Our country is lucky to have leaders of global standing in past as well as in present. People like Buddha, Mahaveer, Vivekananda , Gandhi and Nehru are born in our country who not only had influence on people of India, but also had great following worldwide.

Thus we have all ingredients which are required for making a nation great,  like physical and human resources, leaders who guided us on path of progress and values which make us humane and civilized. It is not that our country is not great but it far short of its rightful place in path of human progress.

Despite of having all these , there are many dark spots on the face of this beautiful nation which are shaping the perception as well as reality of our country. Still there  are 300 million people who are living below poverty line. Every year thousands of farmer do suicides. A country which had 25% share in world GDP and was the largest exporter of manufactured goods few year back, is struggling to find its position among top 10 in world trade. These are not the characteristics of the greatest civilization in the world. Everyday these realities intrigue me and many others who wish to see this nation again as world leaders in every aspect of life.

So where are we lagging behind? What all things which are creating friction for wheel of the progress ? Why are we not able to end poverty, become global manufacturing hub and gain our rightful position in Human Development Index?

There are many answers to these question depending on the way we look at the problem and possible solution. But according to me the problem lies in software. The hardware is pretty robust in our country. There are three biggest challenges which this country is facing : Castiesm, tolerance to injustice and corruption. I will be talking about last two in coming articles. In this article I will focus on the first one which is more relevant in today’s context due to politically charged environment.

I would like to explain the gravity of this problem of casteism through a story from Ancient India. We all know about the greatest warrior and brave soul Porus who fought against Alexander when he invaded India. Alexander was so impressed with his courage that he returned all the territory which he won from Porous and even gifted extra territory. The legend goes that it is this battle which lowered the morale of Alexander’s forces and they refused to fight further. If a small kingdom gave them tough fight then there are no chances of surviving against mighty Nandas.

But, many historians including the western ones believe that Porus could have even won the battle, had he been able to understand the very basic problem in his military administration. For our surprise the main cause of Porus’ defeat  was the casteism. His cavalry consisted of soldiers from upper caste while his infantry was having low caste soldiers. Both cavalry and infantry fought valiantly but they lacked coordination because upper caste soldiers did not want to fight along with low caste soldiers. Don’t you think that we are still losing many battle against poverty, corruption, hunger, malnutrition because of this same malaise.

This division of society on the basis of caste and religion become the most visible during season of election. We can find many candidates who divide us on basis of caste, religion and  region and capitalizing on the hatred generated out it. The caste identities are so deeply imbibed in us that we lose rationality in deciding the right candidate who can think for progress of nation as a whole.

There are people who are flogged and tortured in name of caste. We stereotype the people restrict their social mobility just because they belong to lower caste. We not only stereotype people but we  rank the jobs as dignified and non-dignified depending on which caste carried out that job in past. According to noted writer Sh. Gurcharan Das in his book, one of the reason behind India not experiencing the industrial revolution was that we see floor jobs/manufacturing with feeling of contempt. Because in past manufacturing was carried out by Vaish and Shudras.

We do not see the larger issue of hunger and poverty because before every election someone will come and make you realise that interest of your caste is in danger. People of other caste are taking your jobs. People of other caste are raping your women. For god sake please accept the fact that criminals are criminals. They are found across all the caste and religion.  It is really bizarre that people in our country protect even the most notorious criminals and vote a criminal during election just because he/she belongs to their caste.

There is nothing wrong in thinking about and working for betterment of the people belonging to your own caste. Because, in India unfortunately caste still coincide with class. There are high chances that people belonging to particular castes are poor and some of the castes are rich. Thus, people of same caste shares same economic background as well as problems.There is no problem in opening hostels or facilitating community marriages for poor of particular caste.

But, the problem arise when we develop strong in group feeling or to be specific ill feeling for other castes. When we start thinking that people belonging to different caste are not our own people. When we start giving priority to people of our caste and depriving others of their rights. When we justify violence and lawlessness in name of caste. When forget rationality and basic human values in name of caste.

Then, what should be the solution ? I don't know the real solution of this centuries old problem. May be with time we all will realize that above all we all are human being first. May be we will understand the fact that man and society came first and then came the caste just as a division of labor in Vedic period for convenience of man. May be someday we will  realize that man does not exist for caste but it is the caste which came into existence for comfort of man.

Many says that with education man become wise and rational. But rising casteism among educated people is not in consonance of this belief. We are using technology ( whatsApp, facebook ) to further reinforce the caste identities. But giving benefit of doubt I would say that it happens with every society or nation whenever it is in transition. I will go with Gunar Myrdal that ours is a prismatic society and it will take time to become truly modern. Till that time let us be wise. Let us do our own part to to stop casteism within our capacity and within our own means. Let us rise for humanity as well while rising for cause of fellow caste members.

P.S. This post is written in line with my insistence of inviting others to pen down their thoughts and enlighten me. Mr. Om Prakash is Bits Pilani graduate and is currently working as an IRS officer. Coming from rural household in Rajasthan he has closely observed these problems . I am thankful to him for not just giving an insight into what holds us back but also giving a foresight of where to look for giving India the position it deserves in world.

My hidden love for history:

In childhood I am sure allmost all of us enjoyed listening to stories.  Similarly whether real or fiction every kind of story fascinated me as I used to love imaging the past, the way people might be dressing, the way they might be communicating or eating etc. My parents used to narrate the stories and I used to just get lost in my own thoughts imaging kings, queens , their palaces etc.  Least I knew that this is my hidden passion. My inherent love for knowing about past. 

I also hold one belief very close to me. I used to think and still believe that one person's life is too short to gain all knowledge through one's own experience. Wise person is one who can see, interpret and learn from past or other people's experience. This belief made me much curious to know about past. But I never co-linked my this liking for past with formally reading and knowing history. 

For this I should thank UPSC preparation which made me realize my hidden love for history. The more I read about the past the more I want to read about it.  When I started reading about India's ancient times I had no idea what I was digging into. But slowly as the pages turned I felt if I was entering into a fairy world. I was so mesmerized and awestruck of ancient way of living, thinking of rulers, rationality of people of this sub continent that I if allowed I would like to call our ancient times as "modern phase" of civilization on this land. Reading about ancient India not only added to my knowledge but made me to fall in love with this country much more than earlier. Every chapter filled me with sense of pride and belonging.  In my upcoming article I will separately take each phase of Indian and world history and illustrate what past has to teach me. 

I feel my history books are my silent gurus now. These books are like my well wishers and guardians who not only want me to succeed in my career but also teaches me best values in life which helped leaders in past and can help me in future. It teaches me that every thing which is now past for me was present for someone at some point of time , so what is present for me today will also become past for some one else tomorrow. This is inevitable like mortality. Only thing which I can do is add enough meaning to it so that it becomes worth-full enough to be a read as history by many others.

I would like to end this writing with following quote which aptly summarizes the importance of knowing the past: