I am looking into the aspect of rural and urban development in India. I was talking about some comparisons about farmer sufferings. There was an argument from a friend that it is only based on farmers I have come to a conclusion that rural India has not developed as fast as urban India. Then I remembered this talk which I had with my cousin.
My cousin is a gynecologist. She has now started a clinic in my home town. I was talking to her about the set up cost etc. The scanning machine costs around 8 lakh Rs (the cost is the same even if it is bought in Bangalore). The consultation fee there is 20-50 Rs only. In Bangalore, it is 150-250 Rs only. The number of scans conducted here in Bangalore on a normal pregnant lady during her pregnancy is 4. This is actually not required unless the doctor sees something wrong with the baby or the mother. But people here are ready to bear the cost. In my home town the doctor can scan twice only. The people are not rich to pay for more scans. The scan charges are also almost 50% of what it is in Bangalore. The cost of the equipments is the same. The only thing that it cheap for the doctor there is the rent for the clinic. The competition is relatively less but the population is less as well.
When this is the case, how many doctors would like to settle in a rural area? When will they settle down their loans of education and infrastructure?
The cost of education, the cost of equipments etc are the same, but the income they are going to get is far less than what they could earn in cities.
Friday, June 10, 2005
Thursday, June 09, 2005
Simply blog madi
In the past 2-3 weeks, I have read, spoken and written mails about why people write blogs. 2 friends have started blogging but they are not very active.
One of them started to improve his English writing skills. One other friend of mine tries to improve her blogs and has started making some visual changes. She also asked for some suggestions on that. Another popular blogger gives sometips on how to improve the blogging and increase the viewer interest. I read an interesting blog on the life cyle of a blogger. There are magazines which talk about blogging and the trend of blogging is catching up.
Why do people write blogs?
My idea is to pur out whatever u feel like. Ofcourse this hould be within leagal limits. Whatever could be a guy sharing his sexual experience or a lady sharing her cycle experience. May be it's awkward for readers. But the blog for his\her satisfcation not for the readers satisfaction. Websters defines a blog as "to author an online diary or chronology of thoughts". Often the blog reflects a person's thinking and the his\her character.
But why should one break head about all these? Simply blog madi...
One of them started to improve his English writing skills. One other friend of mine tries to improve her blogs and has started making some visual changes. She also asked for some suggestions on that. Another popular blogger gives sometips on how to improve the blogging and increase the viewer interest. I read an interesting blog on the life cyle of a blogger. There are magazines which talk about blogging and the trend of blogging is catching up.
Why do people write blogs?
My idea is to pur out whatever u feel like. Ofcourse this hould be within leagal limits. Whatever could be a guy sharing his sexual experience or a lady sharing her cycle experience. May be it's awkward for readers. But the blog for his\her satisfcation not for the readers satisfaction. Websters defines a blog as "to author an online diary or chronology of thoughts". Often the blog reflects a person's thinking and the his\her character.
But why should one break head about all these? Simply blog madi...
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
"D"...easily avoidable
The much awaited Verma movie did come out on Friday and I did make it a point to watch it. The movie is a big let down. The reviews had told that it is a racy\pacy movie and the story takes twists and turns which makes you sit on the edge of the seat. Don't belive any of those.
The movie is slow, the story is predictable, the one liners are not very catchy and the shots are copied. For the guys who have seen "Sathya" and "Company", this movie is totally out of place. The scenes are a mixture of some Sathya shots and some Compnay shots. There is Chuny Pandey like Manoj Bajpai. There is a Deshu like Sathya. There are politicians who play wicked roles and there are people inside the gang who work against the gang. Bullets fly like mosquitoes in Bangalore drains. Songs like the Golimar Beje mein do exist where Chunky dances and pours beer all over his body. The so called prequel to Company does'nt stand anywhere close to the super duper Company.
As I mentioned, the story is predictable. A small guy is tortured by police and takes to rowdism and then becomes the don of Mumbai. The end of the movie is the start of Company.
Upendra's "Om", the Kannada thriller\don movie is still the best movie of that category.
The movie is slow, the story is predictable, the one liners are not very catchy and the shots are copied. For the guys who have seen "Sathya" and "Company", this movie is totally out of place. The scenes are a mixture of some Sathya shots and some Compnay shots. There is Chuny Pandey like Manoj Bajpai. There is a Deshu like Sathya. There are politicians who play wicked roles and there are people inside the gang who work against the gang. Bullets fly like mosquitoes in Bangalore drains. Songs like the Golimar Beje mein do exist where Chunky dances and pours beer all over his body. The so called prequel to Company does'nt stand anywhere close to the super duper Company.
As I mentioned, the story is predictable. A small guy is tortured by police and takes to rowdism and then becomes the don of Mumbai. The end of the movie is the start of Company.
Upendra's "Om", the Kannada thriller\don movie is still the best movie of that category.
Friday, June 03, 2005
Agriculture suffers
In my native place, the main crops are paddy and coconut. In the spare time the crop is some dal and ground nuts.
From the past 4-5yrs, the variety of rice which i consume at home has costed me something around 18-20rs a kilo. Coconut costs something between 6-10 Rs.
This is good...thanks to all the treaties signed by the government and import of grains and some such stuff...Prices are under control, infaltion is less, food is available to a lot more people.
What does this mean to a paddy farmer?
From past 4-5 yrs the income for rice farmers has remained almost constant but expenses have increased. Everything has gone dearer. Power, water, petrol, lpg, education etc. He has to have these aswell.
Cocounut trees all over karnataka have been infected by some disease called as "nusi roga". The result - the size of coconuts have reduced and the number of coconuts per tree have reduced too.
How can the poor farmer survive?
This is the harsh truth of my village.
From the past 4-5yrs, the variety of rice which i consume at home has costed me something around 18-20rs a kilo. Coconut costs something between 6-10 Rs.
This is good...thanks to all the treaties signed by the government and import of grains and some such stuff...Prices are under control, infaltion is less, food is available to a lot more people.
What does this mean to a paddy farmer?
From past 4-5 yrs the income for rice farmers has remained almost constant but expenses have increased. Everything has gone dearer. Power, water, petrol, lpg, education etc. He has to have these aswell.
Cocounut trees all over karnataka have been infected by some disease called as "nusi roga". The result - the size of coconuts have reduced and the number of coconuts per tree have reduced too.
How can the poor farmer survive?
This is the harsh truth of my village.
Thursday, June 02, 2005
Yeh hai Mumbai meri jaan...
Last August I had been to Mumbai on some official work. This Monday I may have to go again for a similar work. During August 2004, I had not started blogging and so had written a mail to my friends about my experiences. Now I am publishing the mail here.
A few days back, I had been to Mumbai for a couple of days on an official tour. Though this was not my first visit to Mumbai, this was the first time I got a real good look at some very important parts of this great city.
I along with my 2 friends left B’lore in a night flight to Mumbai. When we landed the hotel cab took us on a 2 minutes drive to the hotel where arrangements had been made for our stay. This is in a place called Ville parle. Next morning we were supposed to travel some 20+ kms to a place called Sewree.
The first surprising fact I observed in Mumbai when I landed, was the amazing number of “Fiat Padmini” cars used as taxis. All of them had “Panvel, Bhayander, New Mumbai” written on the back shield in different styles. I think the company “Fiat” if they are making “Padmini” then it’s only for Mumbai taxiwalas! Though of late there are Tata Indicabs used as blue taxis I heard. I had a similar experience in Delhi. When the bike population is so rapidly increasing in cities like B’lore, Chennai etc, Delhi has a very large number of Bajaj scooters! So Bajaj-Scooters:Delhi::Fiat-Padmini:Mumbai.
Morning we left the hotel in a cab to our destination (Sewree). The next thing that struck us was the pathetic state of roads in the very heart of business of India. The cab driver told us that in summer the corporation gets the road tarred, but the tarring is so good(rather the monsoon is so good) that the monsoons takes away the tar too. Yeah, politicians and contractors also need to survive right! But there are some good roads in some places. These are concrete roads, which are quite smooth without potholes. May be most of you have read jokes about the Mumbai potholes in magazines like “India Today” and “The week”.
As the discussions on roads were going on, we suddenly started getting horrible smells. We had entered “Dharavi”, Asia’s largest slum. The scenes I saw there are a disgrace to any city or nation. As we just finish celebrating 57th ID, it’s really pathetic to see what we have done (rather what we have not done) to some set of people. I try to describe what we saw.
There is a double road (road is partitioned) along which we are moving. On either side of the road is “Dharavi”. The traffic was slow moving for 2 reasons.
1. It was peak hour.
2. Tough the road was wide, half or at least 1/3 of the road cannot be traveled on. Why?
There are no footpaths existing as footpath. Small huts\houses are built all along the so called footpaths. Each hut has the area of approximately the area of an asbestos sheet i.e. approx 5ft * 2.5ft. The walls of the huts are again asbestos or sometimes some unstructured brick arrangement. The openings (call them windows) are covered by plastic covers with Govinda, Amitabh bachan etc on them. The bigger opening which looked like a door had a tarpaulin hanging (the ones you can see on trucks). The driver (by chance he was a Kannadiga from Udupi!!) said that such a house shelters a couple with a kid and sometimes parents and siblings i.e. 4 to 5 people. Such huts could be seen till where we could see. In-between we could see 1 storied and 2 storied cement brick structures mostly of the same size (asbestos sheet size) each. There were small uneven gullies (paths, they looked very slippery because of the rains) which people used to commute from the interior huts to the road. May be the scene from “Agneepath” where the villain has kidnapped AB’s sister is taken in this slum, though that scene had lots of multistoried huts. There are chai sellers, barbers, and small traders all along the road partition itself, doing their business.
Coming back to the footpath huts, how do people manage to have a decent living in such huts?
In B’lore, if you have been to (or seen) some slums, there is some free place near the slum for people to attend nature calls. Or at least they have railway tracks near by! But in a city like Mumbai, though there are lots of railway tracks, there is no free space. And there are beaches which cannot be used during rains. In the Dharavi area we passed, there was no railway line, nor a beach. Now comes the explanation for the smell and unusable 1/3 portion of the road. Road is their toilet, bathroom, washing machine etc. We could see kids and adults attending to the nature calls/taking bath/washing utensils/washing clothes on the road in front of the slow moving traffic at 8am without much hiding or covering. This is shocking and horrible but it’s a bloody fact. As it was rainy season, nature cleans the human dirt but we were wondering what happens in summer. The driver explained us that the people there are not necessarily that poor, but there is a major space problem. In-fact, that’s the origin of slums. Real estate prices are really very high in Mumbai. Not everybody can afford to stay in very decent localities. Relatively the prices in Dharavi are less. He added that this is a heaven for mafia for their all kinds of “Dhandha”, as obviously its difficult for the police to enter and conduct any sort of operation in the slum. As we moved on, we got to see such footpath huts in many other places. People used roads as washing machines in lot of places. It was a real pathetic sight. It’s a “Shame”. Interestingly “Dharavi” was shown to Prince Charles when he visited India, as if it’s a matter of “Pride” to have the biggest slum. Hail the authorities.
When we were kids, if another kid was seen in undergarments in school or somewhere else we used to say “Shame Shame puppy shame, all the donkeys know your name” (of course without realizing that we were calling ourselves donkey). But today not just showing of the undergarments, but showing of the ugly butt cleavage is not a “Shame”, but it’s a matter of “Pride” the name of fashion for the so called forward people. And the same thing shown on the roads of Dharavi by the poor still is a “Shame”. There’s a thin line between “Shame” and “Pride” and that in this case is money.
At one place we passed parallel to a railway track. This was the time when we saw the local metro rail filled with passengers chugging along. The driver asked us to travel in the local train at least once to see the hectic Mumbaikars. An interesting stuff the driver shared was that of a formation of a user group by people who used too travel regularly in the coach. This user group talks to business houses to sponsor some short plays to be staged inside the trains on some social causes. This has encouraged theatre groups in the cinema crazy city. Everybody would have read about the kind of things that happen in those coaches. Generally the media highlights the bad stuff, but this good example was never highlighted.
Another thing noticed was the great number of so called B and C grade movie posters all around the city. I don’t think these films will the darkness of any Bangalore theatre even without this 7 week delay.
In the evening, we had a dinner appointment with a family who were related to one of the guys who was with us. Because it was very near to the hotel we stayed, we walked to their house. The lady of the house stayed in Bangalore for some 15+ years and has moved to Mumbai after her marriage. The house was small, 1BHK. They have a kid. I was surprised to see such a beautiful arrangement in such a small house. Not a sq foot was wasted in the house. The walls were decorated with paintings but also with newspaper! Yes, why waste space on the floor to keep newspaper\magazines etc, put a hanging to hold such stuff. Footwear was kept in the drawer attached below the sofa. Fridge was kept on an elevated stand, so that the space below it could be used, and one need not bend to take articles out of the fridge. May be the lady could see me observing the space utilization. She told us that coming from Bangalore and adjusting to such small space was difficult at first but now they have settled down well. She brought a container from the kitchen and showed how she could manage in such small kitchens. One single container had some 3 varieties of dal in different plastic covers. In Bangalore, she said we have space and so we waste space. I realized that we at our home had the same quantity of dal in 3 containers wasting not only space inside the container but also the space for 2 additional containers. But then we have space. The dining table was a collapsible door of the shelf in the kitchen. When down it’s a table else it is covering for the materials stored in the shelf. It was another space saving measure. We had a nice meal with vada pav. She said that she misses the leisurely walk in a park, weekend outings to scenic places, the climate which all of us and her friends in Blore enjoy.
The next day was more hectic than expected and we could not go to Juhu, Coloba, new Mumbai or choupati. So we could not see the posher localities of Mumbai nor could we visit any beach. So to a Mumbaikar, I haven’t seen Mumbai.
But to me I saw the Mumbai which most people hate to see.
A few days back, I had been to Mumbai for a couple of days on an official tour. Though this was not my first visit to Mumbai, this was the first time I got a real good look at some very important parts of this great city.
I along with my 2 friends left B’lore in a night flight to Mumbai. When we landed the hotel cab took us on a 2 minutes drive to the hotel where arrangements had been made for our stay. This is in a place called Ville parle. Next morning we were supposed to travel some 20+ kms to a place called Sewree.
The first surprising fact I observed in Mumbai when I landed, was the amazing number of “Fiat Padmini” cars used as taxis. All of them had “Panvel, Bhayander, New Mumbai” written on the back shield in different styles. I think the company “Fiat” if they are making “Padmini” then it’s only for Mumbai taxiwalas! Though of late there are Tata Indicabs used as blue taxis I heard. I had a similar experience in Delhi. When the bike population is so rapidly increasing in cities like B’lore, Chennai etc, Delhi has a very large number of Bajaj scooters! So Bajaj-Scooters:Delhi::Fiat-Padmini:Mumbai.
Morning we left the hotel in a cab to our destination (Sewree). The next thing that struck us was the pathetic state of roads in the very heart of business of India. The cab driver told us that in summer the corporation gets the road tarred, but the tarring is so good(rather the monsoon is so good) that the monsoons takes away the tar too. Yeah, politicians and contractors also need to survive right! But there are some good roads in some places. These are concrete roads, which are quite smooth without potholes. May be most of you have read jokes about the Mumbai potholes in magazines like “India Today” and “The week”.
As the discussions on roads were going on, we suddenly started getting horrible smells. We had entered “Dharavi”, Asia’s largest slum. The scenes I saw there are a disgrace to any city or nation. As we just finish celebrating 57th ID, it’s really pathetic to see what we have done (rather what we have not done) to some set of people. I try to describe what we saw.
There is a double road (road is partitioned) along which we are moving. On either side of the road is “Dharavi”. The traffic was slow moving for 2 reasons.
1. It was peak hour.
2. Tough the road was wide, half or at least 1/3 of the road cannot be traveled on. Why?
There are no footpaths existing as footpath. Small huts\houses are built all along the so called footpaths. Each hut has the area of approximately the area of an asbestos sheet i.e. approx 5ft * 2.5ft. The walls of the huts are again asbestos or sometimes some unstructured brick arrangement. The openings (call them windows) are covered by plastic covers with Govinda, Amitabh bachan etc on them. The bigger opening which looked like a door had a tarpaulin hanging (the ones you can see on trucks). The driver (by chance he was a Kannadiga from Udupi!!) said that such a house shelters a couple with a kid and sometimes parents and siblings i.e. 4 to 5 people. Such huts could be seen till where we could see. In-between we could see 1 storied and 2 storied cement brick structures mostly of the same size (asbestos sheet size) each. There were small uneven gullies (paths, they looked very slippery because of the rains) which people used to commute from the interior huts to the road. May be the scene from “Agneepath” where the villain has kidnapped AB’s sister is taken in this slum, though that scene had lots of multistoried huts. There are chai sellers, barbers, and small traders all along the road partition itself, doing their business.
Coming back to the footpath huts, how do people manage to have a decent living in such huts?
In B’lore, if you have been to (or seen) some slums, there is some free place near the slum for people to attend nature calls. Or at least they have railway tracks near by! But in a city like Mumbai, though there are lots of railway tracks, there is no free space. And there are beaches which cannot be used during rains. In the Dharavi area we passed, there was no railway line, nor a beach. Now comes the explanation for the smell and unusable 1/3 portion of the road. Road is their toilet, bathroom, washing machine etc. We could see kids and adults attending to the nature calls/taking bath/washing utensils/washing clothes on the road in front of the slow moving traffic at 8am without much hiding or covering. This is shocking and horrible but it’s a bloody fact. As it was rainy season, nature cleans the human dirt but we were wondering what happens in summer. The driver explained us that the people there are not necessarily that poor, but there is a major space problem. In-fact, that’s the origin of slums. Real estate prices are really very high in Mumbai. Not everybody can afford to stay in very decent localities. Relatively the prices in Dharavi are less. He added that this is a heaven for mafia for their all kinds of “Dhandha”, as obviously its difficult for the police to enter and conduct any sort of operation in the slum. As we moved on, we got to see such footpath huts in many other places. People used roads as washing machines in lot of places. It was a real pathetic sight. It’s a “Shame”. Interestingly “Dharavi” was shown to Prince Charles when he visited India, as if it’s a matter of “Pride” to have the biggest slum. Hail the authorities.
When we were kids, if another kid was seen in undergarments in school or somewhere else we used to say “Shame Shame puppy shame, all the donkeys know your name” (of course without realizing that we were calling ourselves donkey). But today not just showing of the undergarments, but showing of the ugly butt cleavage is not a “Shame”, but it’s a matter of “Pride” the name of fashion for the so called forward people. And the same thing shown on the roads of Dharavi by the poor still is a “Shame”. There’s a thin line between “Shame” and “Pride” and that in this case is money.
At one place we passed parallel to a railway track. This was the time when we saw the local metro rail filled with passengers chugging along. The driver asked us to travel in the local train at least once to see the hectic Mumbaikars. An interesting stuff the driver shared was that of a formation of a user group by people who used too travel regularly in the coach. This user group talks to business houses to sponsor some short plays to be staged inside the trains on some social causes. This has encouraged theatre groups in the cinema crazy city. Everybody would have read about the kind of things that happen in those coaches. Generally the media highlights the bad stuff, but this good example was never highlighted.
Another thing noticed was the great number of so called B and C grade movie posters all around the city. I don’t think these films will the darkness of any Bangalore theatre even without this 7 week delay.
In the evening, we had a dinner appointment with a family who were related to one of the guys who was with us. Because it was very near to the hotel we stayed, we walked to their house. The lady of the house stayed in Bangalore for some 15+ years and has moved to Mumbai after her marriage. The house was small, 1BHK. They have a kid. I was surprised to see such a beautiful arrangement in such a small house. Not a sq foot was wasted in the house. The walls were decorated with paintings but also with newspaper! Yes, why waste space on the floor to keep newspaper\magazines etc, put a hanging to hold such stuff. Footwear was kept in the drawer attached below the sofa. Fridge was kept on an elevated stand, so that the space below it could be used, and one need not bend to take articles out of the fridge. May be the lady could see me observing the space utilization. She told us that coming from Bangalore and adjusting to such small space was difficult at first but now they have settled down well. She brought a container from the kitchen and showed how she could manage in such small kitchens. One single container had some 3 varieties of dal in different plastic covers. In Bangalore, she said we have space and so we waste space. I realized that we at our home had the same quantity of dal in 3 containers wasting not only space inside the container but also the space for 2 additional containers. But then we have space. The dining table was a collapsible door of the shelf in the kitchen. When down it’s a table else it is covering for the materials stored in the shelf. It was another space saving measure. We had a nice meal with vada pav. She said that she misses the leisurely walk in a park, weekend outings to scenic places, the climate which all of us and her friends in Blore enjoy.
The next day was more hectic than expected and we could not go to Juhu, Coloba, new Mumbai or choupati. So we could not see the posher localities of Mumbai nor could we visit any beach. So to a Mumbaikar, I haven’t seen Mumbai.
But to me I saw the Mumbai which most people hate to see.
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Chamarajpet and Shimoga elections
Karnataka is in election fever again. Chamarajpet and Shimoga are going for polls tomorrow. The reasons for them going to polls twice in a span of 1.3 years are very unusual. SM Krishna who won the Chamrajapet assembly seat was posted as the governor of Maharashtra and had to vacate the post. Bangarappa, ex BJP MP of Shimoga quit BJP and has joined Samajavadi party. This resulted in the re-election for the lok sabha seat.
Chamarajapet - This is a unique constituency in terms of the composition. The area has lot of old Mysorians and is considered as a kannada belt. This would also mean that the upper caste population is high. But the constituency includes KR Market, where the Muslim population is very high. Traditionally people here have voted for BJP or Congress. This time both these parties have to face a 3rd front in JD(S). Congress and BJP have experienced candidates in Devaraj and Pramila Nesargi. Both of them have tasted victory and defeat. Their opponent would be JD(S)'s Zamir Khan. This new entrant is supposed to take some Muslim votes from the market area. Zamir Khan is also relying on the votes from slums after his party chief's (Deve Gowda) hugely popular 'Daridra Narayana samavesha'. But what could turn against the Congress and JD(S) is the anti-government sentiments prevailing in Bangalore. The rest rains and the havoc caused because of it have not helped the ruling combination in any way. Samajavadi party has also fielded a muslim. He is not expected to get back the deposit. With JD(S) and congress splitting the muslim vote BJP have their chances bright. Although the BJP have nothing to boast of after their rout in the center, they seem to be the inevitable choice.
Shimoga - This is an issueless election in shimoga. Bangarappa won in the BJP ticket last time, but to his shock BJP could not come to power in Karnataka and in the center. So his aspirations of becoming the CM or a minister in the center were watered off. Bangari was not even given the BJP chief post in Karnataka. He quit the party and joined Mulayam's samajavadi party. Opposition has termed him as a party hopper and that’s their only point against him. BJP could not field a strong candidate against him and so the battle is between him and Ayanur Manjunath of Congress. The ex-CM looks to be heading for Delhi again.
The result will definitely show a direction for the present Karnataka government. If they win, then they would treat that they are on the right track. If they loose its time for them to correct themselves.
Chamarajapet - This is a unique constituency in terms of the composition. The area has lot of old Mysorians and is considered as a kannada belt. This would also mean that the upper caste population is high. But the constituency includes KR Market, where the Muslim population is very high. Traditionally people here have voted for BJP or Congress. This time both these parties have to face a 3rd front in JD(S). Congress and BJP have experienced candidates in Devaraj and Pramila Nesargi. Both of them have tasted victory and defeat. Their opponent would be JD(S)'s Zamir Khan. This new entrant is supposed to take some Muslim votes from the market area. Zamir Khan is also relying on the votes from slums after his party chief's (Deve Gowda) hugely popular 'Daridra Narayana samavesha'. But what could turn against the Congress and JD(S) is the anti-government sentiments prevailing in Bangalore. The rest rains and the havoc caused because of it have not helped the ruling combination in any way. Samajavadi party has also fielded a muslim. He is not expected to get back the deposit. With JD(S) and congress splitting the muslim vote BJP have their chances bright. Although the BJP have nothing to boast of after their rout in the center, they seem to be the inevitable choice.
Shimoga - This is an issueless election in shimoga. Bangarappa won in the BJP ticket last time, but to his shock BJP could not come to power in Karnataka and in the center. So his aspirations of becoming the CM or a minister in the center were watered off. Bangari was not even given the BJP chief post in Karnataka. He quit the party and joined Mulayam's samajavadi party. Opposition has termed him as a party hopper and that’s their only point against him. BJP could not field a strong candidate against him and so the battle is between him and Ayanur Manjunath of Congress. The ex-CM looks to be heading for Delhi again.
The result will definitely show a direction for the present Karnataka government. If they win, then they would treat that they are on the right track. If they loose its time for them to correct themselves.
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