Avinash Joshi's Musings

Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi (fondly known as Amma), during her 57th birthday address[1] raised her concerns about cleanliness in India. She said, “India is an atomic power. India is scientifically and economically advancing. Many reports say India is poised to be the third largest power in the world by 2025. But in terms of cleanliness, we still are in diapers.” In her address, she encouraged all, especially students, to come forward to clean Mother India. Amma then announced that MAM (Mata Amritanandamayi Math) is ready to take the responsibility for construction of toilets in government schools and public areas. Amma further said that with the support of the state governments, MAM would start this project in Kerala and then move on to other states throughout the country[2]. Amma questions that when we have copied the traditions like dressing and food habits from the west, why not cleanliness? This is a serious issue.

It was from Vipin Sir, that I heard about it, initially. I was on my way to Amritapuri. After my arrival there, I was informed that there is a Clean Up Drive scheduled on the following Sunday, that is the 10th of October, 2010. I was really charged up to take part in the campaign and to do my bit, my contribution to Amma’s drive.

On Sunday, my roomie Varrun and I got up early, went to the mess and had our breakfast (bread, butter and jam), after which we had to wait until the arrival of necessary tools like shovel, hoe, pick axe, compost fork and cycles. We also had to load waste bins (drums) that would be installed at the spot where we cleaned. My day started pretty badly: I got a deep cut while carrying the drums, but nevertheless, I carried on with the seva (help). Once the trucks were loaded, we all (students, faculty and staff, brahmacharins and brahmacharinies – around 500) sat in our respective buses and headed to our road side cleanup camp. There were 11 spots on the National Highway 47 from Puthiyakavu to Karunagappaly – which were chosen for the clean up drive.

I got down from the bus at the second spot and there I was asked to fill-up petrol and air in a bike, after which Vivek and I went around to all the spots asking if any tools or gloves & masks were required by the volunteers. After the initial set-up, I parked the bike and helped the brahmacharinies dig a pit. It was fun But with my finger wounded, I was not able to contribute much. Later, after digging at two spots, a few of us went to another spot which was in a total mess. It was stinking. I just cannot understand how the shop keepers could sell anything in front of such junk! But anyways, we had to segregate the biodegradable ones from the non-biodegradable ones. It was a tough job. All the plastic and like-wise waste were dumped in a sack to be taken to the Ashram’s recycling centre. Rest were buried in the pit, closed and waste bins were installed at selected points. I also had a fun ride on the truck

It was nice to see that a few of the local residents and shopkeepers joined the students to assist them in the cleanup drive to make their own premises and neighbourhoods clean. Mr. Gopakumar, Circle Inspector from local Karunagappally Police Station took an active part in the cleanup drive and pressed into service a JCB to remove huge piles of waste and garbage dumped over the years in front of Government Taluk Hospital, Karunagapally. Constables, Vijaya Kumar and Abdul Majeed, from Mata Maithri were present throughout the day to assist in the cleanup drive.

After all the garbage was cleaned up and sacked, we came back to Amritapuri at around 3 P.M., and then had our lunch. Varrun and I went back to the hostel took bath and I slept tight for two long hours. Later in the evening, I found out that few of the volunteers came back only by 5 P.M.! After dinner, we went to the ashram to get anti-tetanus injection, came back and slept.

Wow! What a day I had… It was just a wonderful experience to help. I also had a lot of fun… Looking forward for another such experience.

Update: BTW, Today, 11th of October I am having some body ache

Date: Sunday October 10, 2010
Please note: This is my personal writing and I have taken excerpts from relevant websites given below

[1] http://www.amritapuri.org/10509/globalization.aum
[2] http://www.amritapuri.org/10476/clean-place.aum
[3] http://www.ammachi.org/humanitarian-activities/get-involved/amrita-cleanup.html

Finally, the much-awaited Nokia’s first phone running on Linux Maemo operating system, N900 has finally made its debut in the Indian market. Today Nokia officially launched the much awaited Nokia N900 in India. The dream geek device will finally be available, but at a price of Rs. 30,639.

I have been waiting for a long time to get my hands on the Nokia N900. Mainly because it is powered by Maemo, a debian based distribution for mobile platform. N900 is a favorite of the geeks, and the reasons are clear! It has an actual, usable terminal!

You can run a virtualization application to actually emulate and run PC operating systems on it, and this is the famous phone that actually managed to boot an older version of Mac OS for PPC using the PearPC emulator! You can even install Debian, and run the LXDE, run Gimp and other softwares using the easy debian package/software!

Here are some of the N900 specifications:

o 3.5-inch screen 800×480 16 million colour resistive touch-screen
o ARM Cortex-A8 600MHz
o Up to 1GB of memory with 256MB RAM and 768MB virtual memory
o Up to 48GB storage,
o Full browser (with an Acid3 score of 94), with full Flash support (v 9.4 not 10.1)
o 5MP camera with Carl Zeiss Tessar lens with up to 800×480 video recording at 25fps
o Integrated GPS with A-GPS
o Integrated FM transmitter (will work in India)
o Composite AV connector for TV-out
o All the other usual wireless connectivity options

More detailed specs @ http://maemo.nokia.com/n900/specifications/

After putting so much into one little device, unfortunately Nokia decided to give it a resistive screen, which does not do justice to its capabilities. The price too, at around 30,000 is much higher than what it sells for across the sea. If you can afford it — lucky you — you can pick up from Nokia retail stores later this month. I will surely be picking one from the nearest Nokia Priority Dealer.

Keep watching this space for more details on N900

Here are some images

Links:
[1] http://maemo.nokia.com/
[2] http://maemo.nokia.com/n900/
[3] http://www.thinkdigit.com/Mobiles-PDAs/Nokia-unleashes-N900-on-Indian-geeks-for_4717.html
[4] http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Nokia_N900_Arrives_in_India_Officially/551-111623-893.html

“Dipped in hues of love and trust has come the festival of Holi. ”

March winds are coming in and winter begins to bow out. Holi is the festival that carries the country into the bright days of summer…

Holi – the festival of colors – is undoubtedly the most fun-filled and boisterous of Hindu festival. It’s an occasion that brings in unadulterated joy and mirth, fun and play, music and dance, and, of course, lots of bright colors!

Holi – the festival of color is marked as the opening festival in Hindu calendar, falls on the full moon day in the month of PHALGUN. People enjoy themselves playing with several colours and celebrate the whole day with much pump and gaiety.

It begins about ten days before the full moon of the month Phalgun (February-March), but is usually only observed for the last three or four days, terminating with the full moon. This is the spring festival of the Hindus. In the spring season all the trees are filled with sweet-smelling flowers. They all proclaim the glory and everlasting beauty of God. They inspire you with hope, joy and a new life, and stir you on to find out the creator and the Indweller, who is hiding Himself in these forms.

Originally Holi was regarded to be the festival to celebrate good harvests and fertility of the land. There are several legends and stories behind Holi. A popular legend says that Holi is remembered for the sacrifice of Holika who burnt herself in fire on this day.

Celebration of Holi festival is characterized by performing Holi puja as per Hindu tradition. Dhuleti, which falls day after Holi Puja, is considered to be the actual festival of colors. Children and youngsters vie with each other use fast and sticky colors to celebrate Holi. It is all fun and joy for them.

Source: http://www.festivalsofindia.in/holi/

HIndu Fasts and Festivals – Swami Sivananda

How has the nation fared since we gave ourselves the gift of democracy? Vikram Raghavan, Gopal Sankaranarayanan, Gyan Prakash,Nandini Sundar and Pamela Philipose look back at the Republic’s often-troubled journey….

Photo: The Hindu Photo Archives

Momentous:The first President of India, Rajendra Prasad, signing the calligraphic copy of the constitution.

On a cold winter’s morning 60 years ago today, 271 men and women huddled together in New Delhi’s Legislative Building. As members of the Constituent Assembly, they had spent the past three years debating a governing charter for India. Together, they had produced the world’s longest national basic law. They now assembled for their final session and could barely contain their excitement. Before them lay two large blue books with the Constitution’s 90,000 words carefully handwritten in English and Hindi. The books were also illustrated with events from Indian history exquisitely prepared by the great national artist, Nandalal Bose of Santiniketan.

The Assembly was established under the “cabinet mission plan” after Prime Minister Clement Atlee concluded that Great Britain could no longer rule India. Under the mission’s plan, legislative elections were held in every British India province with eligible voters having to satisfy certain property qualifications. Provincial legislators then elected the Assembly’s members under a formula, which ensured that each member represented approximately one million people. Members were also elected or nominated to represent the native princely states.

In the Assembly, the Congress commanded a significant majority. Yet, the body’s membership remained heterogeneous and diverse because the Congress high command strove to ensure that different shades of opinion were adequately represented. With remarkable foresight, the party also arranged for the election of several non-Congressmen, including B.R. Ambedkar, who had repeatedly clashed with Congress leaders; K.M. Munshi, who had left the party; and S.P. Mookerjee, the Hindu Mahasabha leader. Despite some inevitable differences, they worked closely with the Congress’s stalwarts, Nehru, Patel, and Azad. This “team of rivals”, to use the American historian Doris Kearns Godwin’s phrase, later ensured that the Constitution quickly acquired widespread legitimacy and popular acceptance.

Unique character

Constitution Of India

There were no foreign consultants involved in framing the Constitution. This is in sharp contrast to the considerable external influence evident in other contemporaneously written national charters, notably the post-World War Japanese Constitution, or closer to home, the first Sri Lankan Constitution of 1946. Our founders were adamant that Indians should have full control over the drafting process. They accomplished that objective with the assistance of several lawyer-members including Nehru, Prasad, Ambedkar, and Alladi Krishnaswami Ayyar and eminent non-partisan experts, such as N. Gopalaswami Ayyangar, a veteran administrator and Jerome D’Souza, a Jesuit educationalist, who had also joined the Assembly.

Photo: The Hindu Photo Archives

Historic occasion: The first Cabinet of the Republic, January 1950.

The Assembly’s members were initially divided into several committees to study such specific topics as fundamental rights, minorities, and centre-state relations. Relying on their inputs, the Assembly’s Constitutional Adviser B.N. Rau, a brilliant ICS officer and judge, prepared an initial draft constitution in February 1948. Rau’s draft was further revised by Ambedkar’s drafting committee and issued in November 1948. The Assembly took almost a year to discuss it. Members insisted on reviewing every clause, and in some cases, every word and sentence. More than 2,000 amendments were considered and several were accepted. The house also received a large number of comments and suggestions on the draft from societies, chambers of commerce, government agencies, academics, and ordinary citizens. The drafting committee produced a revised draft, which was eventually adopted by the Assembly, with some changes, as the Constitution on November 26, 1949.

When the Assembly convened for its final session on January 24, 1950, its secretary, H.V.R. Iengar announced that Rajendra Prasad had been elected unopposed as India’s first President. After accepting members’ congratulations, Prasad announced that Jana Gana Mana would be the National Anthem and that Vande Mataram would have equal status. He then invited members to sign the Constitution’s calligraphic copies. Nehru was the first to do so and members from Madras followed him. After the last member had signed the books, Prasad decided that he, too, must do so. But, rather than signing behind the last signatory, he clumsily inserted his name in the small space between the last line of the text and Nehru’s signature.

Two days later, the Constitution became fully effective with “the fanfare of trumpets, the booming of guns and scenes of rejoicing.” At a ceremony held in Rashtrapathi Bhavan’s Durbar Hall, Governor General Rajagopalachari solemnly proclaimed India as a “Sovereign, Democratic Republic”. He then exchanged seats with Prasad, and Chief Justice Kania swore-in Prasad as the first President. Twenty years after the Lahore Congress’s Poorna Swaraj declaration, India had finally reclaimed its own sovereignty and formally severed legal links with Great Britain. Later that afternoon, Prasad rode in a carriage built originally for Viceroy Hardinge to witness a ceremonial parade at the Irwin Stadium.

Significant step

In many ways, India’s birth as a republic in 1950 was more significant than its emergence as an independent dominion in 1947. First, in a completely radical break with the past, the Indian people chose to place themselves under a supreme law instead of being ruled by a monarch’s diktat. They adopted a system of governance that meticulously defines the powers and responsibilities of the three branches and regulates relations between the centre and the states. Second, the Constitution is the bedrock of India’s parliamentary democracy. It ensures that the governments are made and unmade through universal adult franchise supervised by an independent election commission. Third, through its unprecedented abolition of untouchability, the Constitution serves as a powerful emancipation proclamation ending centuries of caste-based discrimination and social exclusion. Its lofty Directive Principles of State Policy further underscores its commitment to social justice. Fourth, the Constitution expressly guarantees every citizen important fundamental rights, which may be subject to only certain restrictions. These rights include the ability to freely speak and express oneself; the freedom of conscience and to profess, practise, and even propagate a religion; basic protections against arbitrary arrest and detention by authorities, and various cultural and educational guarantees.

In an editorial on January 26, 1950, The Hindu welcomed the new republic’s creation but emphasised the need to keep “a crusading spirit alive”. It pointed out that the Constitution provides a “shell of democracy” and that it is up to the Indian people to breathe life into it. It reminded readers that the German Weimar Republic had also fashioned an admirable constitution. But that charter became “waste paper” because it lacked “fire in its belly”. It was that fire, The Hindu argued, which had to be kindled if India was to establish a fair, equitable, and viable polity. Those words ring loudly this day as they did 60 years ago.

Vikram Raghavan is a Senior Counsel in the World Bank’s Legal Vice Presidency. He is a contributor to the blog Law and Other Things.

Source: http://www.hindu.com/mag/2010/01/24/stories/2010012450050100.htm

I got up at 8am today to start studying for my internals that will be starting on Monday. I thought, before I start studying, I should read todays paper and thats where I stumbled upon this wonderful article, very nicely written by Suchitra Srinivas. I thought, I must share this with all and thats how I am posting this entry today. Happy Reading.

Source: Jan 31, 2009 – zeitgeist, The New Indian Express
Main article: http://epaper.expressbuzz.com/NE/NE/2009/01/31/ArticleHtmls/31_01_2009_371_008.shtml?Mode=1

Mera Bharat Mahan

“India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. Our most valuable and most artistic materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only!”

- Mark Twain (Writer, America)

I came across this super cool website My India, My Pride which tells you almost everything about India, the current affair that are happening in India. There is section in the website where you can download badges, logos, our national flag, Our National Song and Anthem (mp3 format), National Anthem video and much more. (more…)