( വാര്ത്ത: ജോസ് പിന്റോ സ്റ്റിഫെന്)
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
KICK-OFF FUNCTION OF ‘WMC2010’
KERALA CHIEF MINISTER’S PRINCIPAL SECRETARY IS THE CHIEF GUEST
The kick-off of ‘WMC2010’ , the international conference of Malayalee Diaspora and 15th anniversary of World Malayalee Council, will be held on Saturday April 3rd at 4 PM at the TASTE OF INDIA restaurant [ 81 New Bridge Road, Bergenfield, New Jersey, Tel: 201-384-5880]. Ms. Sheela Thomas IAS the Principal Secretary of the Kerala Chief Minister will be the Chief Guest. Preparations are in progress to conduct ‘WMC2010’ in Holiday Inn, Edison, New Jersey from July 9th to 11th.
Mrs. Sheela Thomas, IAS, Has held several positions as district collector of Kottayam, Managing Director of civil supplies corporation, Director of Industries and Commerce, Secretary Agriculture, etc., before assuming the charge as the principal secretary to the chief minister.
All are cordially invited to attend the function.
For further information, please contact Dr. George Jacob [201-447-6609] / Dr.Sreedhar Kavil [516-223-5-34] / Varghese Thekkekkara [516-354-1680] / Alex Koshy [908-461-2606] / Kuriakose Varkey [718-347-7478] / Jacob Joseph [718-227-6080] Philip Maret [973-338-4009]
(News by philip Maret)
The kick-off of ‘WMC2010’ , the international conference of Malayalee Diaspora and 15th anniversary of World Malayalee Council, will be held on Saturday April 3rd at 4 PM at the TASTE OF INDIA restaurant [ 81 New Bridge Road, Bergenfield, New Jersey, Tel: 201-384-5880]. Ms. Sheela Thomas IAS the Principal Secretary of the Kerala Chief Minister will be the Chief Guest. Preparations are in progress to conduct ‘WMC2010’ in Holiday Inn, Edison, New Jersey from July 9th to 11th.
Mrs. Sheela Thomas, IAS, Has held several positions as district collector of Kottayam, Managing Director of civil supplies corporation, Director of Industries and Commerce, Secretary Agriculture, etc., before assuming the charge as the principal secretary to the chief minister.
All are cordially invited to attend the function.
For further information, please contact Dr. George Jacob [201-447-6609] / Dr.Sreedhar Kavil [516-223-5-34] / Varghese Thekkekkara [516-354-1680] / Alex Koshy [908-461-2606] / Kuriakose Varkey [718-347-7478] / Jacob Joseph [718-227-6080] Philip Maret [973-338-4009]
(News by philip Maret)
Friday, March 26, 2010
Presidential Inauguration
ABOUT DR. MOLLY EASO SMITHDr. Molly Easo Smith, a teacher and scholar of Shakespeare and Renaissance drama, comes to Manhattanville as the College’s eleventh president after a long and distinguished career as a faculty member, scholar, and administrator.
Born in Chennai (formerly Madras) in India, Dr. Smith graduated from Ethiraj Women’s College and Madras Christian College in the University of Madras, with BA and MA degrees in English, respectively, and from Auburn University with a Ph.D. in English Literature in 1988. She has lived and worked in several states in the United States as well as in Scotland, where she taught Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama at the University of Aberdeen. Dr. Smith has published two books on Shakespeare and his contemporaries as well as several essays on Renaissance drama and literature. Recently, she embarked on a journey of reflection by writing short stories based on her childhood in the southern Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
Dr. Smith believes in the transformative power of education, in inclusion and diversity as foundations for institutional excellence, and in the imperative to engage individually and collectively with the larger question of our place and purpose in the world and the universe. Passionately committed to student, faculty, and staff development and the concept of life-long learning, she brings to Manhattanville a deep interest in traditions and a desire to chart bold and sustainable directions for the College by engaging the entire community.
She attributes her deep commitment to education to the early influence of several women in her family, including her mother and grandmother, and her success as a scholar-teacher and administrator to faculty and colleagues in India, Scotland, and the US. Her most recent inspirations have been former presidents Mother Frances Burnett, Mother Grace Dammann, and Mother Eleanor O’Byrne, whose visionary leadership continues to propel the life of the College. To her spouse, Dr. Duane Howard Smith, who is both her most ardent supporter and her most candid friend, she owes more than she can account for in words.
President and Dr. Smith are proud grandparents of five-year old Eldan Christopher Smith, and parents of Christopher Owen Smith.
Friends, Check out the Presidential Inauguration Web site at Manhattanville College:
Dr. Molly Easo Smith is being inaugurated as the President of Mahattanville College in New York on April 7, 2010.
(News forwarded By Mathew Jacao)
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Friday, March 19, 2010
A Letter From Jail
This is a letter from jail by Anand Jon to writer Sharon Waxman.
The 34-year-old fashion designer faces sex charges based on complaints in three states from 28 models, some in their midteens. Accusations from 20 of these women have resulted in 59 criminal counts that could go to trial as soon as the end of August in Department 102 of Los Angeles Superior Court. They include charges of forcible rape, sexual penetration by a foreign object, sexual exploitation of a child, sexual battery, and forcible oral copulation.
Whatever the outcome of this trial, Jon will face still more charges in New York and Texas. In a telephone interview with Waxman, he has said he is “100 percent innocent.” His letter has been edited for length and clarity.
I have not seen the sky in months – six, maybe seven. Kind of easy to lose track of time and yet be unbearably aware of its existence. I am awakened at around 5:30 a.m. usually and on court days (once or twice a month so far) about 4:30 a.m. and then remain in shackles while being “sergeant-escorted” to a tiny moving metal vertical coffin in a van and transported underground to the downtown court.
The time in front of the judge is the only time I am not in shackles and handcuffed. The wait in the holding tanks, usually 3 feet by 7 feet high, is among those disorienting experiences that are carved into your sensory memory, some days as long as 18 hours, surrounded in filth of both indefinable and unidentifiable sources.
Welcome to the strangest episode of my blessed life as I near one year in L.A. County jail.
There is a possibility I may not survive this ordeal. I realized this most blatantly while in a holding tank at court, the only place where you actually “interact” with another inmate with only steel bars separating you. “I’m glad we got to chat, Don Juan, ’cause based on what that detective said about you on TV, I was going to cut you,” grinned the inmate. Any doubts I had about him joking evaporated as he pulled out a homemade “shank” (jail term for “mini-knife”), which he had somehow snuck past two strip searches while being handcuffed.
The threats against me escalated over the first five months, and it got so bad that my food was being kicked around and there were all-night howling sessions and hurling sessions of substances with such aggression that it is better not discussed. One deputy demanded why I eat kosher and how it meant to him that a rabbi spit into the food as a blessing. When I was arrested, the detective’s severe racial and anti-Semitic comments echoed – the prejudice, the bigotry gave me a taste of what my ancestors endured.
Before I was moved to total solitary confinement, I was on a “high profile” row and was constantly made fun of due to my total ignorance of “crime as a culture.” A local drug pusher to the clubs who, being familiar with my case, commented, “I can see why they hate you…It’s your image and attitude. You come off as the perfect party guy, and these chicks, even if they don’t get to make it big, at least expect guys to pay for them to get high, party, and get laid, and that’s what they expect. And what do they actually get? A workaholic into passion and meditation who avoids substances and wakes up at 6:30 in the morning.”
Yoga, meditation, and the love of my family and God have sustained me as I grapple with blankets that have blood stains dried in tie-dyed patterns and battle nocturnal visits from entities that include, but are not limited to, rodents and insects (that I have not even seen in the jungles of India!). How much of it is my imagination? I’m not really sure. But the whole thing feels like a Stephen King novel turned into a movie directed by M. Night Shyamalan.
A fair trial is a wonderful concept but more of a satire in my case, based on how this has been manipulated and has been anything but fair. No one besides the parties involved (traditionally “two”) knows IF intimacy/sex even happened or much less if it was consensual or not. Wouldn’t one call 911? Get a rape kit or at least STD testing? Would anyone continue to follow, travel, live with someone who allegedly assaulted them?
How can one defend himself without access to his last eight years of life, witnesses, records, paperwork? And how is one supposed to possibly fund all of this without being able to work? The few hours that one can get a private investigator at $125/hr inside to meet, how effective can that be? All the while both hands of mine chained down to the table so I can’t even flip a page or write notes!
More ironic is the fact that none other than the very chaperone who was there to protect me, today she and her daughter are among the leaders of the pack.
A “fair trial” seems more like a “fairy tale” when ALL the exculpatory evidence has been kept hidden from the grand jury by the prosecution. When you find out about witnesses being coaxed by the detectives. Conveniently the texts and all traces of favorable evidence have “disappeared” from the cell phones and computers seized.
I realize that this is the test. While some get a trial of fire, some inherit an inferno, and all one can choose is how we face these adversities. Either we do so in despair or in dignity. A hundred lies cannot change the truth.
I do know that there is a purpose to all of this and it is beyond my own exoneration. God clearly had bigger plans for me than just influencing the hemlines, and though I can and will win this ordeal, I may not survive it, and this makes me concerned about the pain my loved ones will go through.
It is a fascinating concept that I think more about them than myself. My pencil (I only get two per week) is running out of lead, so I also learn patience. Maybe that’s what it’s all about – taming the ego and revealing love.
Love and Light,
Anand Jon
The 34-year-old fashion designer faces sex charges based on complaints in three states from 28 models, some in their midteens. Accusations from 20 of these women have resulted in 59 criminal counts that could go to trial as soon as the end of August in Department 102 of Los Angeles Superior Court. They include charges of forcible rape, sexual penetration by a foreign object, sexual exploitation of a child, sexual battery, and forcible oral copulation.
Whatever the outcome of this trial, Jon will face still more charges in New York and Texas. In a telephone interview with Waxman, he has said he is “100 percent innocent.” His letter has been edited for length and clarity.
I have not seen the sky in months – six, maybe seven. Kind of easy to lose track of time and yet be unbearably aware of its existence. I am awakened at around 5:30 a.m. usually and on court days (once or twice a month so far) about 4:30 a.m. and then remain in shackles while being “sergeant-escorted” to a tiny moving metal vertical coffin in a van and transported underground to the downtown court.
The time in front of the judge is the only time I am not in shackles and handcuffed. The wait in the holding tanks, usually 3 feet by 7 feet high, is among those disorienting experiences that are carved into your sensory memory, some days as long as 18 hours, surrounded in filth of both indefinable and unidentifiable sources.
Welcome to the strangest episode of my blessed life as I near one year in L.A. County jail.
There is a possibility I may not survive this ordeal. I realized this most blatantly while in a holding tank at court, the only place where you actually “interact” with another inmate with only steel bars separating you. “I’m glad we got to chat, Don Juan, ’cause based on what that detective said about you on TV, I was going to cut you,” grinned the inmate. Any doubts I had about him joking evaporated as he pulled out a homemade “shank” (jail term for “mini-knife”), which he had somehow snuck past two strip searches while being handcuffed.
The threats against me escalated over the first five months, and it got so bad that my food was being kicked around and there were all-night howling sessions and hurling sessions of substances with such aggression that it is better not discussed. One deputy demanded why I eat kosher and how it meant to him that a rabbi spit into the food as a blessing. When I was arrested, the detective’s severe racial and anti-Semitic comments echoed – the prejudice, the bigotry gave me a taste of what my ancestors endured.
Before I was moved to total solitary confinement, I was on a “high profile” row and was constantly made fun of due to my total ignorance of “crime as a culture.” A local drug pusher to the clubs who, being familiar with my case, commented, “I can see why they hate you…It’s your image and attitude. You come off as the perfect party guy, and these chicks, even if they don’t get to make it big, at least expect guys to pay for them to get high, party, and get laid, and that’s what they expect. And what do they actually get? A workaholic into passion and meditation who avoids substances and wakes up at 6:30 in the morning.”
Yoga, meditation, and the love of my family and God have sustained me as I grapple with blankets that have blood stains dried in tie-dyed patterns and battle nocturnal visits from entities that include, but are not limited to, rodents and insects (that I have not even seen in the jungles of India!). How much of it is my imagination? I’m not really sure. But the whole thing feels like a Stephen King novel turned into a movie directed by M. Night Shyamalan.
A fair trial is a wonderful concept but more of a satire in my case, based on how this has been manipulated and has been anything but fair. No one besides the parties involved (traditionally “two”) knows IF intimacy/sex even happened or much less if it was consensual or not. Wouldn’t one call 911? Get a rape kit or at least STD testing? Would anyone continue to follow, travel, live with someone who allegedly assaulted them?
How can one defend himself without access to his last eight years of life, witnesses, records, paperwork? And how is one supposed to possibly fund all of this without being able to work? The few hours that one can get a private investigator at $125/hr inside to meet, how effective can that be? All the while both hands of mine chained down to the table so I can’t even flip a page or write notes!
More ironic is the fact that none other than the very chaperone who was there to protect me, today she and her daughter are among the leaders of the pack.
A “fair trial” seems more like a “fairy tale” when ALL the exculpatory evidence has been kept hidden from the grand jury by the prosecution. When you find out about witnesses being coaxed by the detectives. Conveniently the texts and all traces of favorable evidence have “disappeared” from the cell phones and computers seized.
I realize that this is the test. While some get a trial of fire, some inherit an inferno, and all one can choose is how we face these adversities. Either we do so in despair or in dignity. A hundred lies cannot change the truth.
I do know that there is a purpose to all of this and it is beyond my own exoneration. God clearly had bigger plans for me than just influencing the hemlines, and though I can and will win this ordeal, I may not survive it, and this makes me concerned about the pain my loved ones will go through.
It is a fascinating concept that I think more about them than myself. My pencil (I only get two per week) is running out of lead, so I also learn patience. Maybe that’s what it’s all about – taming the ego and revealing love.
Love and Light,
Anand Jon
Monday, March 15, 2010
World Malayalee Global Conference in New Jersey
News from Bangalore:
(Forwarded by Abraham Maret)
The WMC Bangalore gave a grant reception to the former Global President and one of the founders of WMC Mr. Alex Vilanilam Koshy on Feb 28, 2010.
President Mr. PA Davis introduced the Chief guest . Chairman Shevaliar Joseph , Secretary Wing commander KJ George and Ass.Sec N Rajan gave feliciation speeches and requested the senior most and founding General Secretary of WMC to educate the members on the history and status of the organization.
The former Global President of WMC thanked everyone and briefly explained the vision and mission of WMC. He reviewed the history and activities and encouraged all to get involved in a positive direction to help each other and their children . He invited all to attend the celebration of the 15th anniversary [WMC2010 from July 9th to 11th] of the first global networking of pravasee/Marunadan Malayalees in its birth placep New Jersey USA. All the executive Council and Life members of the Province attended the function with their families.
(Forwarded by Abraham Maret)
The WMC Bangalore gave a grant reception to the former Global President and one of the founders of WMC Mr. Alex Vilanilam Koshy on Feb 28, 2010.
President Mr. PA Davis introduced the Chief guest . Chairman Shevaliar Joseph , Secretary Wing commander KJ George and Ass.Sec N Rajan gave feliciation speeches and requested the senior most and founding General Secretary of WMC to educate the members on the history and status of the organization.
The former Global President of WMC thanked everyone and briefly explained the vision and mission of WMC. He reviewed the history and activities and encouraged all to get involved in a positive direction to help each other and their children . He invited all to attend the celebration of the 15th anniversary [WMC2010 from July 9th to 11th] of the first global networking of pravasee/Marunadan Malayalees in its birth placep New Jersey USA. All the executive Council and Life members of the Province attended the function with their families.
വേള്ഡ് മലയാളി കോണ്ഫ്രെന്സ് ന്യൂജേഴ്സിയില്
(Forwarded by Abraham Maret from Bangalore)
Friday, March 12, 2010
Wisdom from Amal Rozario
Wisdom from Amal Rozario
Last weekend, I met Jose for a cup of coffee. He told about his latest experimentations with facebook, internet friends, making movies and writing articles. I told him that I will write an article that he can publish in his blog. He replied 'You always tell that, but you r busy'. I reminded myself that I will write him an article sooner than later. And so here is my 1st article for Jose.
Ever thought that we are all connected? When we see other people, strangers especially, what do we feel? If you are like me, probably nothing. I am starting to think we all are connected because we have so many common things. We all share the planet earth. We live, breath, eat, sleep, we have to work for a living directly or indirectly. Our needs are more or less similer.most of all, we all came from the same source.now what? Why would I say that?. While its night and day to see the differences we have based on the region we hail from, our religious affiliations, our language, culture, beliefs and so on, take a moment to think this possibility. here are my supportig facts.
1. we all know that the worlds population is increasing. We see that the population rose from 5 billion to 6 very recently? I remember when India crossed the 1 billion mark. If population grows with time, it sure was less when we go back in time. And if we intrapolate back enough, we can see we all came from a few people. may be from one family. ( Adam and Eve perhaps? )
2. I recently saw a national geographic program about the human genome project. The author spenser studies dna variations among humans of different groups and based on the mutations, he kind of traced back geographically where we all came from. He traced that we all came from central africa. The first humans migrated north into asia. One branch came south to India and went as far as Australia. One brance migrated north west and became Europeans. One branch north east into Russia, and came to America walking over ice, into the Latin America, long before Columbus discovered the new world. He traced all this based on DNA mutations found in people from different parts of the world.
How long have we existed? Biblical historians say its about 5000 years. Evolutionists puts the number around 40,000, before we branched off form apes. When I went to Niagara Falls, I learnt 2 things that facinated me.
1.The great lakes which feed Niagra will all drain to the ocean in 1500 year. After 1500 years, there will be no Niagara Falls. Can you imagine that? The base of the falls erodes inwards at a rate of 3 feet per year. Which means, the Niagara Falls itself is moving at 3 feet per year! What is my point? We are living in a world that is so dynamically changing every moment. And human life from our first parents to now is just a speck. In that speck is our complexities and difficulties and differences as white, black and brown(?), latino,tamil & malayalees and gultes and devar and pallar and so on.give me a break!
So the next time you see a person, see him or her as your long lost distant cousin. and then, think how you feel.
(Forwarded by Jothi George)
Monday, March 8, 2010
Dr. APJ Abdul Kalaam's speech in Hyderabad
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
"I have three visions for India. In 3000 years of our history, people from all over the world have come and invaded us, captured our lands, conquered our minds. From Alexander onwards, The Greeks, the Turks, the Moguls, the Portuguese, the British, the French, the Dutch, all of them came and looted us, took over what was ours. Yet we have not done this to any other nation. We have not conquered anyone. We have not grabbed their land, their culture, their history and Tried to enforce our way of life on them. Why? Because we respect the freedom of others.
That is why my first vision is that of FREEDOM. I believe that India got its first vision of this in 1857, when we started the war of Independence. It is this freedom that we must protect and nurture and build on. If we are not free, no one will respect us.
My second vision for India's DEVELOPMENT, For fifty years we have been A developing nation. It is time we see ourselves as a developed nation. We are among top 5 nations of the world in terms of GDP. We have 10 percent growth rate in most areas. Our poverty levels are falling. Our achievements are being globally recognized today. Yet we lack the self-confidence to see ourselves as a developed nation, self-reliant and self-assured. Isn't this incorrect?
I have a THIRD vision. India must stand up to the world. Because I believe that, unless India stands up to the world, no one will respect us. Only strength respects strength. We must be strong not only as a military power but also as an economic power. Both must go hand-in-hand. My good fortune was to have worked with three great minds. Dr. Vikram Sarabhai of the Dept. of space, Professor Satish Dhawan, who succeeded him and Dr.Brahm Prakash, father of nuclear material. I was lucky to have worked with all three of them closely and consider this the great opportunity of my life.
I see four milestones in my career:
Twenty years I spent in ISRO. I was given the opportunity to be the project director for India's first satellite launch vehicle, SLV3. The one that launched Rohini. These years played a very important role in my life of Scientist. After my ISRO years, I joined DRDO and got a chance to be the part of India's guided missile program. It was my second bliss when Agni met its mission requirements in 1994.
The Dept. of Atomic Energy and DRDO had this tremendous partnership in the recent nuclear tests, on May 11 and 13. This was the third bliss. The joy of participating with my team in these nuclear tests and proving to the world that India can make it, that we are no longer a developing nation but one of them. It made me feel very proud as an Indian. The fact that we have now developed for Agni a re-entry structure, for which we have developed this new material. A Very light material called carbon-carbon.
One day an orthopedic surgeon from Nizam Institute of Medical Sciences visited my laboratory. He lifted the material and found it so light that he took me to his hospital and showed me his patients. There were these little girls and boys with heavy metallic calipers weighing over three Kg. each, dragging their feet around.
He said to me: Please remove the pain of my patients. In three weeks, we made these Floor reaction Orthosis 300-gram calipers and took them to the orthopedic center. The children didn't believe their eyes. From dragging around a three kg. load on their legs, they could now move around! Their parents had tears in their eyes. That was my fourth bliss!
Why is the media here so negative? Why are we in India so embarrassed to recognize our own strengths, our achievements? We are such a great nation. We have so many amazing success stories but we refuse to acknowledge them. Why?
We are the first in milk production.We are number one in Remote sensing satellites.We are the second largest producer of wheat.We are the second largest producer of rice.Look at Dr. Sudarshan, he has transferred the tribal village into a self-sustaining, self driving unit.There are millions of such achievements but our media is only obsessed in the bad news and failures and disasters.
I was in Tel Aviv once and I was reading the Israeli newspaper. It was the day after a lot of attacks and bombardments and deaths had taken place. The Hamas had struck. But the front page of the newspaper had the picture of a Jewish gentleman who in five years had transformed his desert land into an orchid and a granary.
It was this inspiring picture that everyone woke up to. The gory details of killings, bombardments, deaths, were inside in the newspaper, buried among other news. In India we only read about death, sickness, terrorism, crime. Why are we so NEGATIVE?
Another question: Why are we, as a nation so obsessed with foreign things? We want foreign TVs, we want foreign shirts. We want foreign technology. Why this obsession with everything imported. Do we not realize that self-respect comes with self-reliance? I was in Hyderabad giving this lecture, when a 14 year old girl asked me for my autograph. I asked her what her goal in life is. She replied: I want to live in a developed India. For her, you and I will have to build this developed India. You must proclaim. India is not an under-developed nation; it is a highly developed nation.
Do you have 10 minutes? Allow me to come back with a vengeance. Got 10 minutes for your country? If yes, then read; otherwise, choice is yours.
YOU say that our government is inefficient.YOU say that our laws are too old.YOU say that the municipality does not pick up the garbage.YOU say that the phones don't work, the railways are a joke, the airline is the worst in the world, mails never reach their destination.YOU say that our country has been fed to the dogs and is the absolute pits.YOU say, say and say.
What do YOU do about it? Take a person on his way to Singapore. Give him a name - YOURS.
Give him a face - YOURS. YOU walk out of the airport and you are at your International best.
In Singapore you don't throw cigarette butts on the roads or eat in the stores. YOU are as proud of their Underground Links as they are. You pay $5(approx. Rs.60) to drive through Orchard Road (equivalent of Mahim Causeway or Pedder Road) between 5 PM and 8 PM. YOU come back to the parking lot to punch your parking ticket if you have over stayed in a restaurant or a shopping mall irrespective of your status identity. In Singapore you don't say anything, DO YOU? YOU wouldn't dare to eat in public during Ramadan, in Dubai. YOU would not dare to go out without your head covered in Jeddah. YOU would not dare to buy an employee of the telephone exchange in London at 10 pounds (Rs.650) a month to, "see to it that my STD and ISD calls are billed to someone else."
YOU would not dare to speed beyond 55 mph (88 km/h) in Washington and then tell the traffic cop, "Jaanta hai sala main kaun hoon (Do you know who I am?). I am so and so's son. Take your two bucks and get lost." YOU wouldn't chuck an empty coconut shell anywhere other than the garbage pail on the beaches in Australia and New Zealand. Why don't YOU spit Paan on the streets of Tokyo? Why don't YOU use examination jockeys or buy fake certificates in Boston? We are still talking of the same YOU. YOU who can respect and conform to a foreign system in other countries but cannot in your own. You who will throw papers and cigarettes on the road the moment you touch Indian ground. If you can be an involved and appreciative citizen in an alien country, why cannot you be the same here in India?
Once in an interview, the famous Ex-municipal commissioner of Bombay, Mr. Tinaikar, had a point to make. "Rich people's dogs are walked on the streets to leave their affluent droppings all over the place," he said." And then the same people turn around to criticize and blame the authorities for inefficiency and dirty pavements. What do they expect the officers to do? Go down with broom every time their dog feels the pressure in his bowels? In America every dog owner has to clean up after his pet has done the job. Same in Japan. Will the Indian citizen do that here?" He's right. We go to the polls to choose a government and after that forfeit all responsibility. We sit back wanting to be pampered and expect the government to do everything for us whilst our contribution is totally negative. We expect the government to clean up but we are not going to stop chucking garbage all over the place nor are we going to stop to pick up a stray piece of paper and throw it in the bin. We expect the railways to provide clean bathrooms but we are not going to learn the proper use of bathrooms.
We want Indian Airlines and Air India to provide the best of food and toiletries but we are not going to stop pilfering at the least opportunity. This applies even to the staff who is known not to pass on the service to the public. When it comes to burning social issues like those related to women, dowry, girl child and others, we make loud drawing room protestations and continue to do the reverse at home. Our excuse? 'It's the whole system which has to change, how will it matter if I alone forego my sons' rights to a dowry.'
So who's going to change the system? What does a system consist of? Very conveniently for us it consists of our neighbors, other households, other cities, other communities and the government. But definitely not me and YOU. When it comes to us actually making a positive contribution to the system we lock ourselves along with our families into a safe cocoon and look into the distance at countries far away and wait for a Mr. Clean to come along & work miracles for us with a majestic sweep of his hand or we leave the country and run away. Like lazy cowards hounded by our fears we run to America to bask in their glory and praise their system. When New York becomes insecure we run to England. When England experiences unemployment, we take the next flight out to the Gulf. When the Gulf is war struck, we demand to be rescued and brought home by the Indian government.
Everybody is out to abuse and rape the country. Nobody thinks of feeding the system. Our conscience is mortgaged to money.
Dear Indians,
The article is highly thought inductive, calls for a great deal of introspection and pricks one's conscience too....
I am echoing J. F. Kennedy's words to his fellow Americans to relate to Indians.....
"ASK WHAT WE CAN DO FOR INDIA AND DO WHAT HAS TO BE DONE TO MAKE INDIA WHAT AMERICA AND OTHER WESTERN COUNTRIES ARE TODAY"
Lets do what India needs from us.
Thank youAbdul Kalaam
[Dr. APJ Abdul Kalaam is the President of India]
(News Forwarded by Ninan Maret)
Dr. APJ Abdul Kalaam's speech in Hyderabad
"I have three visions for India. In 3000 years of our history, people from all over the world have come and invaded us, captured our lands, conquered our minds. From Alexander onwards, The Greeks, the Turks, the Moguls, the Portuguese, the British, the French, the Dutch, all of them came and looted us, took over what was ours. Yet we have not done this to any other nation. We have not conquered anyone. We have not grabbed their land, their culture, their history and Tried to enforce our way of life on them. Why? Because we respect the freedom of others.
That is why my first vision is that of FREEDOM. I believe that India got its first vision of this in 1857, when we started the war of Independence. It is this freedom that we must protect and nurture and build on. If we are not free, no one will respect us.
My second vision for India's DEVELOPMENT, For fifty years we have been A developing nation. It is time we see ourselves as a developed nation. We are among top 5 nations of the world in terms of GDP. We have 10 percent growth rate in most areas. Our poverty levels are falling. Our achievements are being globally recognized today. Yet we lack the self-confidence to see ourselves as a developed nation, self-reliant and self-assured. Isn't this incorrect?
I have a THIRD vision. India must stand up to the world. Because I believe that, unless India stands up to the world, no one will respect us. Only strength respects strength. We must be strong not only as a military power but also as an economic power. Both must go hand-in-hand. My good fortune was to have worked with three great minds. Dr. Vikram Sarabhai of the Dept. of space, Professor Satish Dhawan, who succeeded him and Dr.Brahm Prakash, father of nuclear material. I was lucky to have worked with all three of them closely and consider this the great opportunity of my life.
I see four milestones in my career:
Twenty years I spent in ISRO. I was given the opportunity to be the project director for India's first satellite launch vehicle, SLV3. The one that launched Rohini. These years played a very important role in my life of Scientist. After my ISRO years, I joined DRDO and got a chance to be the part of India's guided missile program. It was my second bliss when Agni met its mission requirements in 1994.
The Dept. of Atomic Energy and DRDO had this tremendous partnership in the recent nuclear tests, on May 11 and 13. This was the third bliss. The joy of participating with my team in these nuclear tests and proving to the world that India can make it, that we are no longer a developing nation but one of them. It made me feel very proud as an Indian. The fact that we have now developed for Agni a re-entry structure, for which we have developed this new material. A Very light material called carbon-carbon.
One day an orthopedic surgeon from Nizam Institute of Medical Sciences visited my laboratory. He lifted the material and found it so light that he took me to his hospital and showed me his patients. There were these little girls and boys with heavy metallic calipers weighing over three Kg. each, dragging their feet around.
He said to me: Please remove the pain of my patients. In three weeks, we made these Floor reaction Orthosis 300-gram calipers and took them to the orthopedic center. The children didn't believe their eyes. From dragging around a three kg. load on their legs, they could now move around! Their parents had tears in their eyes. That was my fourth bliss!
Why is the media here so negative? Why are we in India so embarrassed to recognize our own strengths, our achievements? We are such a great nation. We have so many amazing success stories but we refuse to acknowledge them. Why?
We are the first in milk production.We are number one in Remote sensing satellites.We are the second largest producer of wheat.We are the second largest producer of rice.Look at Dr. Sudarshan, he has transferred the tribal village into a self-sustaining, self driving unit.There are millions of such achievements but our media is only obsessed in the bad news and failures and disasters.
I was in Tel Aviv once and I was reading the Israeli newspaper. It was the day after a lot of attacks and bombardments and deaths had taken place. The Hamas had struck. But the front page of the newspaper had the picture of a Jewish gentleman who in five years had transformed his desert land into an orchid and a granary.
It was this inspiring picture that everyone woke up to. The gory details of killings, bombardments, deaths, were inside in the newspaper, buried among other news. In India we only read about death, sickness, terrorism, crime. Why are we so NEGATIVE?
Another question: Why are we, as a nation so obsessed with foreign things? We want foreign TVs, we want foreign shirts. We want foreign technology. Why this obsession with everything imported. Do we not realize that self-respect comes with self-reliance? I was in Hyderabad giving this lecture, when a 14 year old girl asked me for my autograph. I asked her what her goal in life is. She replied: I want to live in a developed India. For her, you and I will have to build this developed India. You must proclaim. India is not an under-developed nation; it is a highly developed nation.
Do you have 10 minutes? Allow me to come back with a vengeance. Got 10 minutes for your country? If yes, then read; otherwise, choice is yours.
YOU say that our government is inefficient.YOU say that our laws are too old.YOU say that the municipality does not pick up the garbage.YOU say that the phones don't work, the railways are a joke, the airline is the worst in the world, mails never reach their destination.YOU say that our country has been fed to the dogs and is the absolute pits.YOU say, say and say.
What do YOU do about it? Take a person on his way to Singapore. Give him a name - YOURS.
Give him a face - YOURS. YOU walk out of the airport and you are at your International best.
In Singapore you don't throw cigarette butts on the roads or eat in the stores. YOU are as proud of their Underground Links as they are. You pay $5(approx. Rs.60) to drive through Orchard Road (equivalent of Mahim Causeway or Pedder Road) between 5 PM and 8 PM. YOU come back to the parking lot to punch your parking ticket if you have over stayed in a restaurant or a shopping mall irrespective of your status identity. In Singapore you don't say anything, DO YOU? YOU wouldn't dare to eat in public during Ramadan, in Dubai. YOU would not dare to go out without your head covered in Jeddah. YOU would not dare to buy an employee of the telephone exchange in London at 10 pounds (Rs.650) a month to, "see to it that my STD and ISD calls are billed to someone else."
YOU would not dare to speed beyond 55 mph (88 km/h) in Washington and then tell the traffic cop, "Jaanta hai sala main kaun hoon (Do you know who I am?). I am so and so's son. Take your two bucks and get lost." YOU wouldn't chuck an empty coconut shell anywhere other than the garbage pail on the beaches in Australia and New Zealand. Why don't YOU spit Paan on the streets of Tokyo? Why don't YOU use examination jockeys or buy fake certificates in Boston? We are still talking of the same YOU. YOU who can respect and conform to a foreign system in other countries but cannot in your own. You who will throw papers and cigarettes on the road the moment you touch Indian ground. If you can be an involved and appreciative citizen in an alien country, why cannot you be the same here in India?
Once in an interview, the famous Ex-municipal commissioner of Bombay, Mr. Tinaikar, had a point to make. "Rich people's dogs are walked on the streets to leave their affluent droppings all over the place," he said." And then the same people turn around to criticize and blame the authorities for inefficiency and dirty pavements. What do they expect the officers to do? Go down with broom every time their dog feels the pressure in his bowels? In America every dog owner has to clean up after his pet has done the job. Same in Japan. Will the Indian citizen do that here?" He's right. We go to the polls to choose a government and after that forfeit all responsibility. We sit back wanting to be pampered and expect the government to do everything for us whilst our contribution is totally negative. We expect the government to clean up but we are not going to stop chucking garbage all over the place nor are we going to stop to pick up a stray piece of paper and throw it in the bin. We expect the railways to provide clean bathrooms but we are not going to learn the proper use of bathrooms.
We want Indian Airlines and Air India to provide the best of food and toiletries but we are not going to stop pilfering at the least opportunity. This applies even to the staff who is known not to pass on the service to the public. When it comes to burning social issues like those related to women, dowry, girl child and others, we make loud drawing room protestations and continue to do the reverse at home. Our excuse? 'It's the whole system which has to change, how will it matter if I alone forego my sons' rights to a dowry.'
So who's going to change the system? What does a system consist of? Very conveniently for us it consists of our neighbors, other households, other cities, other communities and the government. But definitely not me and YOU. When it comes to us actually making a positive contribution to the system we lock ourselves along with our families into a safe cocoon and look into the distance at countries far away and wait for a Mr. Clean to come along & work miracles for us with a majestic sweep of his hand or we leave the country and run away. Like lazy cowards hounded by our fears we run to America to bask in their glory and praise their system. When New York becomes insecure we run to England. When England experiences unemployment, we take the next flight out to the Gulf. When the Gulf is war struck, we demand to be rescued and brought home by the Indian government.
Everybody is out to abuse and rape the country. Nobody thinks of feeding the system. Our conscience is mortgaged to money.
Dear Indians,
The article is highly thought inductive, calls for a great deal of introspection and pricks one's conscience too....
I am echoing J. F. Kennedy's words to his fellow Americans to relate to Indians.....
"ASK WHAT WE CAN DO FOR INDIA AND DO WHAT HAS TO BE DONE TO MAKE INDIA WHAT AMERICA AND OTHER WESTERN COUNTRIES ARE TODAY"
Lets do what India needs from us.
Thank youAbdul Kalaam
[Dr. APJ Abdul Kalaam is the President of India]
(News Forwarded by Ninan Maret)
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
HOW TO BE HAPPY, THOUGH HUMAN
" Ours is a world where people don't know what they want and are willing to go through hell to get it ".
- Donald R Marquis
If you are not basically happy, consider the following suggestions for increasing your happiness, some of which are based on the work of David Meyers, a Psychologist and Professor at Hope College in Holland , Michigan.
* Relax often. You will reduce stress and balance your spirit.
* Get adequate sleep. Your body needs the recharging sleep provides. Don't shortchange yourself; You won't be at your best.
* Develop close relationships. Share love and positive feelings. We're social beings ; We don't exist very well in a Vaccum.
* Identify your beliefs. Affirm your beliefs and your relationship to God (or your own Higher Power). Walk in alignment with your beliefs.
* See life and yourself in perspective. Don't catastrophize problems or overreact to everyday concerns.
* Be optimistic. What have you got to lose by expecting things to work out well ?
* Have mutual respect . You can't expect others to respect you if you don't have self - respect. At the same time , respect others. Realize that everyone including you deserves respect.
* Take pride in your work . Realize that each person's work - no matter what the task - is a contribution to society.
* Set realistic goals and expectations. What can you reasonably expect from any given endeavor or situation ?.
* Identify joyful activities and engage in them regularly.
Taken from the book
How to Feel is up to You '
By Gary D McKay, PH.D
Don Dinkmeyer PH.D
- Donald R Marquis
If you are not basically happy, consider the following suggestions for increasing your happiness, some of which are based on the work of David Meyers, a Psychologist and Professor at Hope College in Holland , Michigan.
* Relax often. You will reduce stress and balance your spirit.
* Get adequate sleep. Your body needs the recharging sleep provides. Don't shortchange yourself; You won't be at your best.
* Develop close relationships. Share love and positive feelings. We're social beings ; We don't exist very well in a Vaccum.
* Identify your beliefs. Affirm your beliefs and your relationship to God (or your own Higher Power). Walk in alignment with your beliefs.
* See life and yourself in perspective. Don't catastrophize problems or overreact to everyday concerns.
* Be optimistic. What have you got to lose by expecting things to work out well ?
* Have mutual respect . You can't expect others to respect you if you don't have self - respect. At the same time , respect others. Realize that everyone including you deserves respect.
* Take pride in your work . Realize that each person's work - no matter what the task - is a contribution to society.
* Set realistic goals and expectations. What can you reasonably expect from any given endeavor or situation ?.
* Identify joyful activities and engage in them regularly.
Taken from the book
How to Feel is up to You '
By Gary D McKay, PH.D
Don Dinkmeyer PH.D