Masterpiece

I have been thinking about arts for the past couple of months...about the beauty it emanates, how it plays with the emotions and rises our thoughts...amazing...its even more amazing because I can't understand most art, I am blind to the beauty and is usually baffled, failing to identify the meanings that are hidden beneath the obvious...I read about art, I listen to it, I see it, but I can't feel it...so that's me.

Now, coming back to the story, I was sitting in this classroom of a school for attending an exam. It was a 11th grade classroom. I was sitting in a chair beside a desk and writing, afterwards something else caught my attention. Art, in its raw and crude form, telling stories, emotions, heartbreaks, ideas, and debates to me. I was like an archaeologist who had found some ancient cave paintings. I leaned in to see it and there before me were pictures drawn with pencils, pens, and compasses, carving of such elegance, designs of such magnificence. I saw a designer, an artist, a script-er, an architect, a lover, a poet, attempting their frustrations or creativity on that slab of wood as their canvas, mostly to escape the boredom of an infinite lecture. Each one of them had a story to tell. I could see many messages to lovers, something I guess that was never said. Many broken hearts that were bleeding. Many gangs with their epic tales of glory. Many equations which gave them a rope to climb out of the hell they went through. Each had a story of its own. And this, I could understand, having gone through exactly these same stages years before. And I felt art, it took me back to memories and emotions attached to it. It made me feel stuff I had forgotten for years. And finally I understand art. What masterpieces couldn't do was achieved by this raw fresh carvings. I see it now. 

Life

Life... Can we decide what we are going to do with our life... I don't know... When I was younger, I used to think that we can become whatever we want to be... Of course... I know... You must be laughing now... But I guess everyone thinks that they have figured out life at least once... Some plan it carefully, keeping checkpoints in a time line, others just face life as it comes, spontaneous. I don't know what I am, or what I want to do or where I want to reach for that matter. I used to plan too, like I should do this, I am good at this, so this should be my career, go ahead and become successful in life... But now, after all these 'education'  and learning,  I ponder over the very definition of success, of happiness, of career, of the basic idea of life.

I am a polymath.  Basically someone who is good at a variety of things. Believe me, it's not always a good thing. I learn stuff very fast, so I get bored very fast too.  It's really hard to just focus on a single thing. It's my nature to learn many things. Not a good quality if are looking for a job, I guess or even becoming a specialist.

Then what should I do with all this knowledge that I accumulate. Why do I need this.

Liberal Arts

There are so many things that I understand so easily, but there are more things that I will never be able to fully comprehend that deeply, to see the real meanings, to savor the core essence, some things will always elude me, somethings that I wish I could see and enjoy. Reason and logic can make you see what others can't...but creativity and imagination, they make you see what is there beyond...Arts. literature, music, no wonder they are called liberal...it liberates your mind, lets it go free, its a dance of thoughts and emotions, the height of human intellect...to be unbound by rules...It would be nice to experience it, for once to see that beauty, the wonder, to stand in awe at those masterpieces that opens a new dimension of perception...

Hurricane

You, my hurricane, you lifted me up to dance with you

and weightless I felt...with dreams and love.

Now that you are gone, I am bereft,

standing in the ruins of my heart.

Devastated, I see emptiness around me,

and I understand with pain, finally,

why hurricanes are named after people.

Philosophy of Albert Camus

When life obviously has no meaning...it is important to judge whether life is or is not worth living...

State of Contra - Brexit (Article 50)

This vote shows what a referendum can do if you offer a binary choice to an electorate, even an educated electorate with a long history of democracy, and push messages based on fear, in the context hings that are economical with the truth and plain lies, a number of misinformation was handed out.
The core issue was : Immigration. The entire blame of failure of economy and everything wrong with the country was put on the shoulders of immigrants.And the solution was to stop immigration and the EU was standing in the way, so BREXIT.

Now Britain is basically screwed. They had this amazingly stupid idea that they can leave EU unscathed. The economy will start to grow and employment will increase. But all they made sure was piss off Germany and other other European giants.

Now Britain wants an open market with free trade, but EU won't accept free trade without free movement of people.

There goes democracy: Parliament voted for something else, the people voted for something else.

Shantaram

"The world is run by 1 million evil men, 10 million stupid men, and 100 million cowards. The evil men are the power – the rich men and the politicians, and the fanatics of religion – – whose decisions rule the world, and set it on its course of greed and destruction. ... The stupid men, who number ten million, are the soldiers and policemen who enforce the rule of the evil men. ... They are often brave, I'm sure, but they are stupid, too, because they give their lives for governments and causes that use their flesh and blood as mere chess pieces. Those governments always betray them or let them down or abandon them, in the long run. ... And the hundred million cowards, they are the bureaucrats and paper shufflers and pen-pushers who permit the rule of the evil men, and look the other way. ... They are managers, and officials, and mayors, and officers of the court. They always defend themselves by saying that they are just following orders, or just doing their job, and it's nothing personal, and if they don't do it, someone else surely will. They are the hundred million cowards who know what is going on, but say nothing, while they sign the paper that puts one man before a firing squad, or condemns one million men to the slower death of a famine."

Life

So less a time, and vastness spread,

forever and ever, in the path ahead.

I stand and see, with fatigue & loss,

a journey that far, will never be close.

I start my steps, already I lost,

for in this race, time is my host.

Melancholy thoughts, my mind I blind,

will never find things, I want to find.

I can't read books, I want to read,

nor listen to whom, I want to heed.

Not know things that, I want to know,

for there's no rock, that stop its flow.

I recognize my cause is lost,

still persistent to give my most.

The majesty, wonder, just a peek,

a little glimpse, that's all I seek.

The path leads on, but I will rest,

for in my time, I did my best.

Who Am I?

Participatory Budgeting

Participatory budgeting (PB) is a process of democratic deliberation and decision-making, and a type of participatory democracy, in which ordinary people decide how to allocate part of a municipal or public budget. Participatory budgeting allows citizens to identify, discuss, and prioritize public spending projects, and gives them the power to make real decisions about how money is spent. When PB is taken seriously and is based on mutual trust local governments and citizen can benefit equally. PB has the potential to provide social inclusion and social equity in the decision making of the allocation of resources in communities with low socioeconomic statuses.

Most broadly, all participatory budgeting schemes allow citizens to deliberate with the goal of creating either a concrete financial plan (a budget), or a recommendation to elected representatives. In the Porto Alegre model, the structure of the scheme gives subjurisdictions (neighborhoods) authority over the larger political jurisdiction (the city) of which they are part. Neighborhood budget committees, for example, have authority to determine the citywide budget, not just the allocation of resources for their particular neighborhood. There is, therefore, a need for mediating institutions to facilitate the aggregation of budget preferences expressed by subjurisdictions.

PB generally involves several basic steps:

1. Community members identify spending priorities and select budget delegates
2. Budget delegates develop specific spending proposals, with help from experts
3. Community members vote on which proposals to fund
4. The city or institution implements the top proposals

A comprehensive case study of eight municipalities in Brazil analyzing the successes and failures of participatory budgeting has suggested that it often results in more equitable public spending, greater government transparency and accountability, increased levels of public participation (especially by marginalized or poorer residents), and democratic and citizenship learning.

Participatory Budgeting (PB) programs are innovative policymaking processes. Citizens are directly involved in making policy decisions. Forums are held throughout the year so that citizens have the opportunity to allocate resources, prioritize broad social policies, and monitor public spending. These programs are designed incorporate citizens into the policymaking process, spur administrative reform, and distribute public resources to low-income neighborhoods. Social and political exclusion is challenged as lowincome and traditionally excluded political actors are given the opportunity to make policy decisions. Governments and citizens initiate these programs to (i) promote public learning and active citizenship, (ii) achieve social justice through improved policies and resources allocation, and (iii) reform the administrative apparatus. Participating Budgeting programs confront Brazilian political legacies of clientelism, social exclusion, and corruption by making the budgetary process transparent, open, and public. By moving the locus of decision-making from the private offices of politicians and technocrats to public forums, these public forums foster transparency. Participatory budgeting programs act as “citizenship schools” as engagement empowers citizens to better understand their rights and duties as citizens as well as the responsibilities of government. Citizens, it is hoped, will offer helpful and creative solutions to the myriad social and economic problems found in Brazil’s urban centers and small towns. Citizens learn to negotiate among themselves and vis-à-vis the government over the distribution of scarce resources and public policy priorities. It is important to keep in mind that there is no precise or exact model for PB programs. While there are similar tenets and institutional mechanisms, PB programs are structured in response to the particular political, social, and economic environment of each city or state. While alluding to the differences, this report will present a synthesis of the most representative cases.

More info on PB (click)

Harvard Graduation Speech - The Most Powerful

Rassundari Devi – “Amar Jiban”

RASSUNDARI DASI  “AMAR JIBAN: Review of a very inspiring and motivating book “Amar Jiban” , tracing the life of the first full length autobiographical writer in Bengal -Rassundari Dasi.

Dasi, Rassundari (c 1809-?) a self-taught woman to leave behind an important autobiography. In the age of 19th century Reformism in Bengal, the first full length autobiography was written not by a man but by an unknown, self taught, high caste Hindu housewife from a conservative rural household – Rassundari Dasi.

Rassundari Devi, wrote a story of her life, Amar Jiban (“My Life”), that was published in 1876. This detailed memoir revolves around her day to day experiences as a housewife and mother. Obsessed with a desire to read, she stole a page from a book and a sheet of paper from her son and kept them hidden in the kitchen where she furtively pursued her education.

Rassundari was born in a remote village in Pabna into a poor family. In her father’s house a missionary lady had a small pathshala where boys went for lessons. As a female, she of course had no access there, but she would sit close by and pick up the rudiments of reading by watching the boys learn. At the age of 12, Rassundari was married off to Sitanath Ray, a landlord in Faridpur. A Vaisnavite like her husband and his family, Rassundari was deeply religious.1n her autobiography she states that the impetus to read, an act forbidden to Hindu females of the time, was born from an ardent desire to read religious texts specially the chaitanya bhagavata.

Rassundari fascinating autobiography records the details of her life, her childhood, marriage, the daily round of domestic chores in a large joint family, the clandestine manner in which she taught herself to read anew in her husband’s household at the age of 25, and later to write, by secretly studying her husband’s religious manuscripts. The book contains a picture of the changing rural world, the status and role of women and Rassundari’s own views on changing times and life in this earth.

Rassundari was widowed at the age of 59 in 1868 and the following year she finished and published the first version of her autobiography Amar Jiban (My Life). (Ghulam Murshid, however, is of the opinion that it was first published in 1875) She added a second part in a new version published in 1897 when she was 88. Jyotirindranath Tagore wrote the preface to this edition. Unfortunately there is no mention of her in the standard histories of literature from those times, nor is her death mentioned. Rassundari’s life was lived out far from the din and hustle of Calcutta, the cultural epicentre of Bengal. Yet she has the honour of being the first writer of an autobiography in Bengal, a genre just coming into vogue.

Written in chaste Bangla, Rassundari’s Amar Jiban portrays the changing world of rural Bengal and situates woman there. In her life and text Rassundari maintained many of the restrictive norms and rituals enjoined upon a traditional Hindu housewife, yet through her dispassionate, objective style and subject matter, through the very act of writing, forbidden to women not so long ago, Rassundari Dasi was engaged in a unique act of emancipation.

 Post Contributed by: Vijeta Pai, India

STATE OF CONTRA - 5 : VIVA O BRAZIL

Politics at its best...

A president being impeached for corruption charges which she didn't commit by a senate of politicians who are all facing corruption charges. And I thought India had issues in politics.

Well..I guess you can't expect much from a country who has a women's party with all male members in legislature. I guess having a female president is still not enough for gender equality.

I guess this is what you get when you have one of the witless constitution. Like nearly everything has to be either written or amended.

A country that was flying high with its economy crashed like a dead bird within no time. It's surprising how they concealed all this cracks while putting a great show outwards. Well, I guessing giving false optimistic hopes of one's economy is the new trend. Greece got away with it. Didn't they?

First they loose the football world cup...well loosing is me being a bit too sympathetic...they were screwed by the German's. Now, it seems like Olympics is going to be a gone too.

Art 1

STATE OF CONTRA - 4 : Full of crap

Manual Scavenging - cleaning of human excreta ...ewwww....shit...yeah real human crap...by people who are employed to do just that. This is the sickest version of social discrimination and economic exploitation. Patriarchy, poverty, hunger and caste plays a major role in these people's woes. 98% are women. Well..Amen to gender equality. Why are such undignified tasks left to the lower caste women. Caste and gender is rising its ugly head all over the place. Most of the time they are paid in kind, mostly food grains. 

Lower Castes get  100% of  jobs as manual scavengers, and no one bats an eye. But they ask for 50 % of other jobs and everyone loses their minds.

Women getting 98% jobs in manual scavenging and no one bats an eye. They ask for 33 % seats in parliament and everyone loses their minds.

The funny this is that these people are hired as unofficial contract laborers by the Indian railway to clean tracks and municipal corporations to clean urban areas. But there is actually a law (prohibition of employment as manual scavengers and their rehabilitation act, 2013) which Govt. has passed outlawing this shit. But, who cares about puny laws. Laws are meant to be broken, Right. 

We pass them, We break them. That is how we rule. 

Each job has its own dignity, well...cut the crap...it doesn't. This is not a fucking job, its bloody exploitation. Its human rights violation.

STATE OF CONTRA - 3 : Finance 101

Seriously, people should learn how to get a loan from Vijay Mallya. Hats of to you man. Not just because you ran away money that actually belong to poor people of the country, but because of the way you got away with it so coolly. If it was some poor farmer who had pledged his property, the banks would have jumped on him like a pride of lions attacking a deer. Mercilessly throwing him out of his livelihood all because of a failed monsoon or something which he couldn't control. And Mallya, the banks are trying to find him, to get him answerable to court, no hooliganism, no acquiring of property, no freeze. I personally like to ask Mallya how he got the bloody loans in the first place. I can't even get a loan for 1 million, without giving security for at least 10 million. Also, don't forget all those legal documents one has to submit. oh my god. Pheww.. But, not Mallya. He just asked and they gave him the 9000 crore just like that. I am impressed.
The funny thing is now he is actually deciding the terms of how he is going to give the money back. WOW.
And to make the matters still hilarious, the RBI and Supreme court is having a tug of war to whether disclose the names of the other major defaulters. It is said that SC was stunned on seeing the list and amount of money they owe. If you have to blow the mind of an SC jury, I guess it should be a really HUGE amount of money. And we have a Govt. crying India needs investment. Dude, just get back these loans, there will be enough money to lend to all farmers and entrepreneurs to Make for India.

STATE OF CONTRA - 2 : Cooperative Federalism

Reading about the 14th Financial commission. Horizontal devolution. its just a fancy name to say that the states will be given a larger share of tax revenue from the consolidated tax income generated by the central Govt. But why, mainly because they need the states to withdraw their claim to many taxes they currently collect and pass the Goods and Services Tax bill. Well, the states will lose their income directly which the center will reimburse them afterwords. But there is catch, the states who are high earning loses their ability to generate tax revenue while the funds are channeled to the poorer states. The big, populous, poor states will get a greater share of the revenue which they can spend on development. But the question is will they, the states who actually do well by earning better won't get any money to sustain its economic and social development projects. If in the name of equity, the states which are growing are not nourished, this will pull back the whole fucking economy. These better states could only reach this current position by implementing welfare measures like population control, school and healthcare, roads etc. The poorer states first needs direct action by the Center first to develop an infrastructure after which the fund given by center will be actual used other than just vanishing in the pockets of few.

STATE OF CONTRA (pun intended) - 1

Everyday, I read the news, a bad habit I started for the past 4 months. Really...it all stated with that...odd- even, sedition, nationalism, dissolutions , Productivity, beef ban, elections, and what not.

The statistics that show poverty in India gives a varied picture between 27 % to 52 %. why the hell is this so high? It has been 6 decades since independence and still we have so much poverty. Govt. shows predictions of a 7 % economic growth; where the hell is the growth, seriously, who is growing. We have the largest youth population in the world, but lucky for us, most of them are unskilled, unemployable, or unemployed. There has been lots of initiatives to rise employment through Skill India, Startup India, Make in India but can such a weak manufacturing sector provide jobs for our rising unemployed workforce which is growing like rabbits. The service sector growth is not providing more opportunities as it is incapable of such large employment. On top of that, water management is joke in this nation. We either have floods or droughts and we blame climate change. Yeah, I agree, Climate change is a bitch, but we can take measures to mange water resources, reduce wastage, provide methods for recharge of ground water, prioritize usage. There are ways to solve almost any problems. Then again the new question comes up. who will solve it?. No, In India that question is meaningless...it's more like, Who is there to fucking assign blame to?. The state of institutional fragmentation is so huge that there are multiple departments which should do the same fucking job but won't do shit and blames each other for their own freaking delay. I still haven't got a clue where the Govt. is spending the money it gained by the lowering of international oil prices and rising domestic oil prices. Like, seriously, they should have earned a fortune with the trade deficit so low and the low inflation..They could have done something huge. But what do they do, cut the expenditure in public health. Bravo. That too, in the primary and secondary healthcare. They don't care if there is malnutrition, communicable diseases, pregnancy deaths or something...they are trying to reduce population, by spending on contraceptives and awareness for sterilization, well..now that I think it that way...it makes sense...of course...How do we reduce population...stop people from making new ones and letting the ones already born, die soon. And what more, we need more innovation, Let's not increase the expenditure in R&D. Innovation will come from vacuum. out of the blue. Isn't it. To make things interesting, there is this guy from some temple saying all rapes are happening because women enter temples. Holy shit. I can't for the loving mother of god, connect that line of thought. Dude..seriously...how can you blame all that to some poor woman who just wanted to put a garland on some deity. But then I remembered - Indian gods hate women, they should be prohibited from doing this, doing that...but I shouldn't be too judgemental ... all gods hate women for that matter...haven't seen a matriarchal religion yet. Guess that is one thing they are united for, Even though they hate women, there is one thing they love..yup you guessed it...Cows...cows shouldn't be slaughtered, people should.I mean ..in our country there is no scarcity of human lives..you don't find another country so serious about conservation and protection of animals than us..the dedication...its actually safer to be a cow in India than a woman..pretty screwed up I guess...And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Well..still...I am hopeful. Why?..I haven;'t got a clue. just an optimistic intuition. The new generation is the hope. The old cannot be corrected. but the new can. Maybe they can find order within the chaos.

[1]This content is subjected to the invoking of Article 19 (1) (a) of the constitution of India.

[2]No intention to incite violence.