There Is An Alternative!

If you think of the political scene in our country, over and above despair, the query ITNA (Is There No Alternative) invariably brings up the cliché 'TINA'. Perhaps we can now look forward to an immensely possible alternative.
You'll find Hasan Suroor's explanation on exactly such an idea
A Gandhian idea gets a British makeover extremely heartening - a change for the better is after all quite possible. In the UK there is a "high-profile campaign to reduce the dominance of organised political parties and provide a platform for citizens to contest elections as independent candidates".
Captain Gopinath of Air Deccan seems to have precisely these ideals when he decided to enter the election fray.
One would like to think there's still time now for someone to put together the Indian equivalent of The Jury Team - Politics without Parties (started by Sir Paul Judge)

(I realize I may have gone around in circles around this very same idea in these two posts - Leadership in short supply and Fittest minds in Needy Places.)
Cross posted from Feast for Thought

Update:
1. The Professionals' Party of India (PPI) is fielding candidates who want to make a difference.
2. Mallika Sarabhai, Meera Sanyal are candidates with intentions of making difference, independently of any party.

Helping the domestic help

Anita, Saroja, Veeramma, Sarojini, Munni amma, Ashu...

Anita in Kanpur - a very quiet worker. She'd come with her gate-pass twice a day, and do all that she needed to, silently. It was difficult to get her to talk or have any dialogue with her - she was content to listen and proceed. In a smooth takeover, she had replaced her sister Susheela who got married and 'went away'.

Saroja in Bangalore is special. The only language she knew was Kannada. Neighbour-talk consisted of warnings that 'language problem' is likely to result in the house looking unkempt. We established a rapport on day 1, even as her husband apologetically said 'amma, she does not know Hindi' (the expect-you-know language in our circles). Because of her I learnt to make not only 'akki rotis' and parathas, but also conversation in Kannada - she is the reason that I can easily impress a localite with a better-than-average smattering of Kannada. Even now we exchange updates once in a while, and that routinely turns out to be a comfortable refresher course for me (continuing education programme!)

Veeramma in Sulur - Not at all quiet by any standards, but a reliable help to take care of the housee-cleaning routine. She wouldn't mind chopping spinach occasionally or readying methi leaves, but would leave for her mother's place for brief stretches, thankfully after arranging a substitute Sarojini, whose efficiency belied her rather large frame.

Munni Amma, here in Delhi, a senior citizen who is pretty quick (to leave soapy residues in vessels). But our mutual ways are set, and she's not a complaining character and is happy to work to meet her financial commitments. But her substitute Ashu - is lightning personified. I was bemused to find that she 'completed' a half-hour job in one-third the time.

After that long prologue you'll finally get to read the purpose of this post - my way of marking this significant day (IWD, March 8). In an effort to help the domestic help, I have offered to teach each of these ladies - members of the unorganised labour sector in India - their mother-tongue, with mixed results.
- Susheela and Anita - they had to get back home quick, and alphabets had to wait.
- Saroja, that devout vegetarian. Twice a week, after completing chores at my place and hers, she'd bring her notebook and pencil, and sit with the beginner's book I had got for her. I had got familiar with the Kannada alphabet and simple words through making out route-boards on buses, an alphabet chart, and the helpful series '30 days to Kannada' (through Tamil). So you can recognise the need for me to stay ahead, if Saroja had to become lettered! Her keenness to learn, and her hopes for her school-going boys to become toppers, her diligence in all that she did, and her ready giggles helped a lot, and I like to think that she's well on the way to minimum literacy. (Our mutual understanding even saw us through a tough period when the local police placed her family also among the suspects in a daring daylight robbery at our place).
- Veeramma - 'No, madam, I can't spend time or effort on studies'. But she let her children attend some extra classes.
- Sarojini had too many domestic responsibilities, and a drunkard for a husband, and I was not successful in taking her mind away from her worries.
- Munni Amma is lettered and even knows a few English words, draws pension, and runs a happy-enough household.
- Ashu - all of 18 and, a mother of a two-year-old. She's never been to school. When I offered to teach her -
"What will you charge?"
"Nothing"
"I'll have to ask" and later "My family said 'no'"
"Why?"
"Need to look after kid, so I have to get back home ASAP"

If each of us (any member of the household including elders and teenagers) can spare a couple of half-hours a week to help (at least the willing) domestic help, methinks we are doing our mite to help our nation's womenfolk take further steps forward, remember - "If you educate a man you educate a person, but if you educate a woman, you educate a family."

Perhaps we can light a lamp instead?

Recent generations of Bhaaratvaasis adopted several practices from newer societies and cultures, with or without fully understanding (or even attempting to know about) the ethos of our own. Blowing out one or more candles is one such 'alien' custom. I for one never knew why the candle(s) were blown out, but found a possible explanation here "The blowing out of the candles on the birthday cake originated from an early tradition that believed that the smoke from the candles would take one's wish or petition up to God."
A senior citizen (can we call them Gen W or earlier?) - my mother - is amazed that most families follow and perpetuate such new 'traditions', come each red letter day.
In India, and likely elsewhere, the 'light goes out' to symbolise the instance of a transition from light to darkness. Even this Rabindranath Tagore explains as: “Death is not extinguishing the light; it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.”
Recently a family celebrated the 80th birthday of its matriarch who declined to blow out the candle, instead she lit a lamp. Let us salute this anonymous octogenarian-trendsetter.
Is the next red letter day due very soon? Get ready to light up, don't waste your lung power to blow out.

Look behind the glitter...

Have you ever thought of the lengthy process after which a piece of gold jewellery reaches the showroom's display? If you want to understand the magnitude of the environmental costs of mining, take time to read Kamala Balachandran's article Gold is costlier than you think.

The glitter and dazzle portrayed in the media, and the way jewellery outlets (want you to) go gaga on Akshaya Tritiya and Dhanteras are such a far cry from the desolation wrought by mining, and this contrast reveals a lot about the attitude of gold-collectors. No wonder then that "the more you know, the less gold glows", as No dirty gold points out!

As long as corporate houses and nations delude themselves that material upliftment signifies progress, the demand for yellow and white metals, and black gold will continue to abet the crime of increasing environmental costs.

If we have to redifine prosperity, let's start now. That re-definition can be as simple (or as complex) as accepting the fact that Kapalbhati pranayama gives you a glow no 'precious' trinket can.

"Buy Green, Buy Fair, Buy Local, Buy Used, and most importantly, Buy Less"

Surely that message is plain enough to understand and follow?
If you were too busy generating trash, you most likely didn't find the time to calculate your human footprint. If you can, do spare the time for The Story of Stuff - a 20-minute video on (what's wrong with) the material(istic) economy and mindless consumerism.
What presenter Annie Leonard conveys to the viewer is a simple axiom - A linear system of consumption in our finite world is unsustainable. The viewer is conducted through harsh facts of consumer goods production - extraction of natural resources, factory process, distribution in the market, consumption levels and goods disposal. The presenter frankly admits all the wrongs in the average American's consumption pattern - the Government-Corporate nexus, the exploitation of the Third World, the addition of enormous amounts of toxins - yes, toxins - energy, and natural resources to produce toxic products and by-products.
So, whatever kind of consumer each of us is, we could try to be more responsible by trying to "Buy Green, Buy Fair, Buy Local, Buy Used, and most importantly, Buy Less".

Calculate your 'human footprint'

Ever wondered about the impact of one human in one lifetime on the environs? How do the volumes of consumption of daily necessities, luxuries and extravagances add up? Watch this documentary Human Footprint (1 hr 13minutes) on the consumption levels of an average citizen in a modern society.
If you think green and would wish for more people to start thinking green, take this rather staggering lesson on 'Human Footprint'. You'll get figures that tell several sad stories. At the end of it you are likely to feel sober, but much, much wiser.

Trees Vs Foundation Stones

Many defence campuses date to pre-independence times, like the one in Sulur, near Coimbatore. Such self-contained residence-cum-office complexes are pretty green oases in cities and elsewhere. I have seen that the IISc campus is a welcome 2 degrees cooler than the areas outside its peripheral boundary. Traffic is never dense, most staff cycle to work and children can really walk to school.
Yes, the campus is green. However, at every turn, the presence of a 'foundation stone' is at odds with the ambience. There are nearly as many such plaques as - hold your breath - the number of heads of organization(s) over the years, visiting VIP's and their spouses. Imagine the accumulated concrete and granite over the seven decades of the campus's existence. Understandably, the stones have been 'planted' to mark the inauguration of parks and sports courts, construction of building X and subway Y and achievement Z. You may even find two stones per landmark event (when the task was seen through by more than one person at the helm).
It's not too impractical, or idealistic, to dream of an even greener campus, is it? In the place of each stone, why not plant a sapling of a local tree variety? Within campuses also, but more so at the venues of much-tom-tom'ed public inaugurations by political, bureaucratic and industrial bigwigs.
A couple of years ago someone asked me to check out the presence of such a stone dating to 1982. I did, it was in place, albeit well-weathered. I hope to happily reply to such queries henceforth: 'Oh, yes, under that tree the local children attend regular evening classes'...