Month: December 2004

Bihar – the Write Thing? -(1) – Origin as a State

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The word “Bihari” is of more important to me and to my identity than my Bengali upbringing as well as traditional values. I accept the fact that many a times I enjoy the dual advantage of being a Bihari as well Bengali. I am born in the territory of Bihar like my parents and have the responsibility of accept the fact of being a “Bihari”.

I am writing this series of blogs to analyze the facts and the fictions behind the degradation of the word Bihari. I had felt this bitter truth for the first time when I went to Chennai 10 years ago. I was searching for a room to stay there along with my Maa. I was not only one from Bihar. There were many students like me from Bihar. There manager of a mess asked us whether we were Bengali. After being tired of seeing many rooms nearby Maa nodded her head in affirmation. I wondered how the manager told so guessed correctly that we are Bengali. Later on I knew that Bengali women’s sari wearing style and Shakhas-Polas (Shakaha – White Bangles made of Conch shells) make their appearance specific. Now the other Biharis also got room but they had to face more difficulties in getting it, there were more enquiries for them, a guarantor, and more security deposit in advance for other students from Bihar. I don’t feel sorry for the acceptance of fact that we felt easier to present our Bengaliness than Bihariness that time, although manager knew that we were from Bihar. But still today many a times we become suspected when we go outside Bihar and tell that we are Bihari.
It’s necessary to trackback the historical lineage of Bihar before discussing more on Bihar and Biharis. It’s a must to know who we are before think why we are so and what can we do.
Bihar became recognized as the administrative unit by Akbar and later on by SherShah Suri. Prior to it there are historical milestones of Bihar. Here is given a brief description (My history knowing readers please point out errors if there are.)
• 544 B.C. The rise of Magadh Empire.
• 528 B.C. Gautam Buddha became Tathagata.
• 498 B.C. Mahavira got the incarnation.
• 455 B.C. Patliputra (Present Patna) became the capital of Magadh Dynasty.
From the period of establishment of Magadh Empire to till death of Ashoka (232 B.C.) the great, the Magadh was the proud and glorified province. There were three Baudha Sangitis (The Buddhists’ Congregation) during this period.

The Period was Mughal Sultan’s reduced the status of Bihar as a province only. In the period of Mughals the province of Bihar enjoyed the peace and stability.
There came the day when a “Bihari” SherShah Suri again took over the throne of Delhi. He founded the present Patna from the Patliputra as the administrative capital of the Bihar province in the year of 1541.
The year of 1764, Battle at Buxar, the English won it. The history started writing a new chapter. The British got the province of Bihar, Bengal and Orissa from Shah Alam II .

The days of slavery were going on. There were several revolts ,among them to name few were farmer revolts (1789), Kol revolt (1830), Bhumij revolt (1832), Santhal revolt (1855).
Of course we can recall the greatness and bravery of Babu Kunwar Singh of Ara and Birsa Munda in these episodes.
There was a constant demand for the Bihar as a separate province. The voice strengthened in the year of 1906. And Yes in the year of 1911 it got declared as a separate province and on 1st April 1912 it got established formally as a province( If you have 1st April syndrome, you may ponder over it). Till the year of 1947 we had many struggles for independence from which some of them turned out as a spark to lead the national fire of revolt. Can we forget the Nil Andolan of Champaran of farmers led by Mahatma Gandhi?

And for good or bad there were two more separations in the year of 1936 for Orissa and the latest 15 November 2000 when the Jharkhand got separated.

These historical perspectives have a lot of thing to tell. If we just don’t blow own trumpet of historical richness or bravery we have something to think over why every time the Bihar become a point of specific identity of separation. Does it have something special or does it don’t have something special to it? More I think about it, more I get entangled within it. Its pity that even after struggling so much for existence we are now condensed as a small Bimaru state. We are still trying to find a ground for existence and a respectable identity.

In praise of Unique

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Your existence is unique .
Your empire is unique.

Your creations are unique.
Your stage is unique.

Your rules are unique.
Your judgement is unique.

Your stability is unique.
Your change is unique.

Your melody is unique.
Your love is unique.

Your nearness is unique.
Your distance is unique.

O my Unique ,
Am I unique?

Sex, Technology and Police

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Recent news of DPS MMS case, where the director actor duo of the sexually explicit movie are still to be arrested or questioned and on the other hand the arrest of the Avnish Bajaj, CEO of Bazzee.com, and the student who sold the movie on the site could puts our police system in a questionable position.
The legal selling of the material can not be justified, but what do we think when just searching the same on Google or Yahoo gives the same material in return free of cost? Are not they doing their business in India? Why not police takes any action for them? Why not the mobile operator be punished who allowed the transmission of such media across the Indian territory?
This whole drama revolving around money and sexuality needs a fresh thinking of our technological challenges regarding the transmission of such vulgar material over the net or such media.
Ok ,Avnish have supported police to track the culprit down. He may not have other way to escape the episode. But filtering the objectionable material for the specific territory is sure a challenge for the computer professionals as well as managers of the companies who are doing e- business.
Section 67 of the Information Technology Act (transmission of obscene material through electronic media) is quiet a useless law in practical sense. If we don’t get diversify our attention towards the premier educational institutions and their students in this episode, the whole matter needs fresh recapitulation of the IT Act of India and the role of Police in implementing it.

Makar Sankranti Specials

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Recently I read the blog of Jaya which is a very good cuisine made up of poetry and other food ingredients. I felt responsibility to extend the food blog chain a bit.There comes the opportunity of enjoying Lai’s on the eve of Makar Sankranti which falls on 14th January in North Indian communities. Everyhing is good here except the situation, when someone is guest and served with Big lai on this eve.
That day if one goes to any home home here, there the guest is served with at least two Lai’s in a plate along with other items. Mostly a combination of Moodhee or Chura’s lai with a Til's . It’s easy to eat the til’s lai .But the situation becomes awkward when one is bound to eat the Moodhee or Chura lai sitting in front of many people .There are exclusive two ways to eat them. Either you break it in pieces with your hands or try to bite the part of whole stuff wide opening your mouth  . If one takes first option to break, the lai will break making a cracking sound and to spread some of it’s parts down the plate. For many it becomes difficult to eat the big Lai while talking. And if one takes the second option one can feel some parts of the lai sticking near to mouth. There is no solution available to this problem. No one either serves broken lai or no one likes to get broken lai  . In the next generation I will suggest to prepare miniature lai. If some like to feel the festival more, better go to some village on this eve and have Lai made of roasted rice. It’s so hard to crack that, it’s a real test of Dabur’s Lal Duntmunjan’s effectiveness. While at home one can take lai with the milk which makes it more tasty. Anyway I like lai very much, it becomes a daily ready made breakfast for at least 10 days even after Maker Sankranti. Our Navodaya days are the proof of it when many of the students will get a poly bag full of Lai from their home.
Pirikiya, the all time favorite, is a fast food in a sense of readymade food and it’s preparation is lengthy one. The preparation of inside mixture of Suji, Sugar ,Coconut , Spices , Ghee needs experienced hands and rolling it into a nicely designed maida bread packs is an artistic work. I don’t know to prepare it. Occasionally to please my Mom I can make nice Laddoos of Coconut ( We call this laddoos as “Narkeler Naru”).

There are some excellent cuisines in Bengali community adding to the existing ones and one of them is Pithe / Patisepte. It’s nicely rolled bread (Like bread but not bread) with sweet coconut preparation kept inside. Then it is fried in ghee for a while. It’s soaked in concentrated milk. Allow it to cool. Once cooled completely it becomes ready to serve ……… . 🙂

Motto of MH and its realization

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“sarve bhawãntu shukhiñ sarve sãntu niramaya”

This is a part of Sanskrit sloka which is the motto of Project MeraHealth (MH). For me it seems difficult to bring out it’s essence in English and I take courage to do so. It means that let everybody be happy, prosperous and free form illness. There is another line also added to it in the original Sanskrit sloka which is, “Sarve bhadrani pasyãntu ma kashyachit dukhã bhagã bhãwet”. – Let everybody be seen as gentle and let not anyone suffer from sorrow.

The project MH understands the underlying philosophy in it and suggests the ways through which it can be achieved. And it can be achieved only after people to people interaction. One person can help other if one wishes to do and finds out the time for it. On internet there are several people who are needy and equally there are people who can help them. Project MH is meant to join such people together. To make everyone happy and healthy each one of us can contribute. I draw an example from a typical Indian society in the health domain:

Mr. Trivedi used to have a normal BP. But one morning no one could ever expected that the severe pain in his chest was due to heart attack until the family doctor told so. It was like a shock in his family. Within 24 hours the news spread to the whole colony and the relatives. Among them there were few persons who also heard this news. Each one had specific information that can help Mr. Trivedi. Mr. Das knew about B. M. Birla Heart Research Centre at Kolkata with its phone no. 033-456-7890/7777. Mrs. Rao knew that there is provision of 75% concession in fare for the heart patient and the companion in trains. Mr. Suman knew that there were medicines which can cure the disease at the first stage and there was no need of operation at this stage. Ms. Gupta had experiences at the hospital, when she went to treat her father for similar kind of treatment as suggested by Mrs. Rao. All these persons give their little but vital information to Mr. Trivedi’s family, their pains lightened automatically. His family members got moral support to face the difficulties coming ahead.

This is the healthy situation in a sound social set up and not everyone is fortunate to live in such a society. MH is intended to be such a sound society on the web and is meant to cater the needs of the people using the knowledge available to others. It’s users base will be mainly from Indian subcontinent. I have used the word continent because there are a lot of people from our neighboring countries, who have similar health problems as ours and they seek help in Indian hospitals.

To see others happy first need is to find out the pains which the other person is suffering and share the pain and gradually help him to overcome it. Each moment of time, each one of us is in at least one of the role among two roles .First is our role to help other and second is in need of help from some other. Project MH brings the people together where one role complements other. Consequently MH will be able to ease out the mental sufferings which are stronger than the physical pain. The healthy society will make the society happy.

Let the small information disseminate among us freely to make better and healthy society. Each one of us has something to share and contribute to make the motto true.

Next Topic:
Structure of MH project

MeraHealth – Foundation stone

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Dear Sir/Friend,
Being a computer science and application student and my enthusiasm to serve the sick people of India has motivated me to devote my constructive attitude for the applications of e-health.
I will be writing on this topic through out my blogging life along with other similar friends on net. I have a dream of reaching medical applications for the lakhs of needy people and to aid doctors whose many of the needs can be assisted using the computers. It needs doctors, NGOs, Govt. officials, developers, supporters and the common man. A small contribution will be helpful .The purpose of this blog is not to generate money for it but the interaction between the similar enthusiasts like me or more than me. I need your ideas, your time, your services for this project. This project on e-health will not generate any money from the common man and doctors. It will give their life an ease. Project is to be called as MERAHEALTH or MH in short (I have registered www.merahealth.com for it but files need the sponsorship to upload). The word “MERA” is a Hindi word which means “my”. So this project is meant for myhealth, the health of million Indians. The module-1 have been started at NIMHANS, Bangalore two years early as my MCA project work. I choose not to do my MCA project work in any company due to this reason. I like to innovate according to our need or better to say I like to apply the innovations of other great people.This module deals with psychiatry and mental health. Why I choose this topic primarily, I will write other day.From that time, we have two professors Dr.N.Pradhan,MD, Dr.C.R.Chandrashekhar ,MD from Bangalore and from Saltlake software park,Kolkata I have Amitabha Sinha,M.Tech. in this project. More are needed in our team. I wish Dr. Sujay Rao, MS ,Manipal Hospital Bangalore will join us very soon.
The plan for MH is clear to my eyes revolving around it. You will be happy to know that the director of NIMHANS appreciated the module-1 and told about the support he can give for it.
I will not make any monetary profit from this project, the money generated from it will be invested in it again.Some medical companies can sponsor it, I am searching for the suitable one. The companies can run ads on the site in return of their sponsorship.

At last to sum up get a glimpse of my dream:

Situation:
My neighbor is having a kidney problem.
a)What can I do now?
I go to the nearby doctor or enquire in some medical shop about kidney specialist. We can also go to the bigger town where a nephrologist may be available. Using computers what we can do is search Google for kidney topics and at last receive a lot of information of no immediate use for him.
b) What can be done with the MERAHEALTH project?
Logged on to www.merahealth.com and searched for the kidney doctor and can find the doctor's address and the contact no. along with the fees and the availability of appointment. May we find that a famous nephrologist comes in the same town tomorrow.Yes this kind of situation happens but we don't know about it most of the time. So we sent a request for an appointment with him instantly. Or we got booked a concession ticket for train instantly and set an appointment at CMC Vellore sitting in a colony of Saharanpur in UP.
The need of hour is make the dream true.

Yours truly,
Prem Piyush.

Next topic :
Motto of MeraHealth

Prestige

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There is a tailor shop at distance of 100 meters from our house. The tailor “Kalim”
used to stitch my Papa’s dresses, he will charge less to my father. Kalim gives home service to us to take and deliver the cloths as my Papa prefers. Kalim also used to do our minor cloth repairing works. In our medium class family our all cloths are dear companions to us hence we use it until they refuses to fit us. This time Kalim did not returned our cloths, it has been 20 days since he took our cloths. Among the repairable cloths there was new costly suit length of Papa too. He was about to deliver those after 3 days only when he took our cloths. Papa got concerned and he went to his shop to enquire about him. Even after frequent visits he always found his shop closed. Kalim told us that he is about to go his relative’s house after some days. Did he went early or he is sick at home or some thing else? We can never think that he will escape after taking the cloths. He is very simple tailor. His stammering voice and delayed delivery date is well known to us. His red tooth coloured due to pan, looks like a window of his mostly unshaven face. I used to wonder why did not Kalim’s own dresses fits himself well. May he is not able to take his own measurement correctly. The concern for missing Kalim was directly proportional to missing cloths too. The owner of his rented shop was the staff of my Papa’s department. His name was Mr. Sen. Now after expire of Mr. Sen, his wife and two sons take care of the shop. Papa met them and enquired about Kalim. Where he knew that Kalim have closed the shop since last 15 days but they did not told the reason of his shop closure. Baba informed them Kalim have to deliver the stitched cloths to us. So they should inform us whenever Kailm opens the shop.
Next day, Mr.Sen’s son informed us that Kalim have opened the shop. And he also informed that the he is vacating the shop today. We were shocked .Why is he vacating the shop? Anyway Papa told me to go to him at once and bring the cloths back since he have paid most of his sewing charges on his request earlier itself. I went there and saw several people standing at the shop gate for their cloths. He was busy in taking out the cloths from one poly bags and to other. People were busy taking their cloths. On seeing me he gave the stitched trouser of Papa. I asked about the other cloths which required repairing. He told that he will deliver those tomorrow at our house. I was not the only one, he was telling same to everybody who were taking the unstitched cloths. He seemed to beg the persons “please don’t take your cloths, I will deliver all your cloths to your house”. But the people were taking their cloths. May they were feeling insecurity after he will leave the place. “How can we believe you, where you will set your shop, How can we know”a person commented. “I will get another shop some where near this colony only” came the confident reply. In his confidence I saw the weakness of misery. He was sweating and kept begging .My conscience did not allowed me to take the cloths. I was thinking that even if he takes my repairable cloths at least some person will use them. May someone be benefited using these old cloths? Mrs. Sen was standing near by along with his son. On enquiry I knew that he have not paid the rent since last two month. So he was noticed to vacate the shop today itself.
Returning home I told Papa about Kalim’s leaving the shop and my unwillingness to leave the cloths there. Papa suggested me that I should have taken the unprepared cloths too. This time seeing me busy he went to Kalim’s shop for getting the remained cloths.
After one hour Papa was back home without taking cloths. He told me that Kalim will not leave the shop from there because he have settled the dispute of the Kalim and the Sen family. Actually mrs. Sen have told him to pay the rental of shop which was due since last two months .According to Kalim, he has been paying the month’s payment in advance and there is only one month’s rent due to him. He told about the details of the currency notes and the place he have given to her. And now they were proving Kalim a lier. Each months’s rental calculation matters for Kalim. A poor tailor’s argument was more powerful than the owner, His remembrance of dates seemed correct. But a owner’s logic is more supported by the public including other shopkeepers in that building. Kalim’s customers have nothing to do with his payment so they were neutral.
In this materialistic world, money has power, it got logic too, it got votes, it got support. It makes arguments stronger even if these arguments are not connected with the eternal truth ultimately. The common man like Kalim may have truth on his side but most of the time his voice will be lost in the thousand of similar chaos of truth. Deprived of shop, deprived of truth, deprived of support, vanishing base of customers, only companion Kalim possessed is his Prestige. He did not have prestige for his customers to whom he wanted to serve, to whom he begged not to take their cloths. Papa knew the both the parties well he became the voice of Kalim, and found the logical contradiction between them and sorted out the dispute. Papa told the owner to make the diary of rents paid and let him stay there. By this time most of the customers had taken the cloth from him. His shop looked empty with few repairable cloths including ours.On that evening he brought back my cloths, his eyes were gleaming.

Note: This post title is renamed as an effect of suggestions coming in.

Plane of Curves –

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There was an infant, crying to sleep on the crib’s plane.
Mom sung for fairies and assured herself, is crib really plane?If one believe, there are ears, telling him will not go in vain.
No one knows his plane, and soul can feel him something to gain.

But there was the world, full of curves, the domain was not sane.
He climbed the stair of steps; where each step seemed a plane.

On such planes, there were some highlands and valleys between,
Top of highland seemed a plane, as the valley looked just a plane.

He felt there were friends on different plane, some were high, some low.
Magic planes gleamed and disappeared, and also changed like a see-saw.

Some pushed up, some pulled up, some tried to push him down.
Some times he became king of the plane and some times just a clown.

Sitting on such a plane, thought, why people had told, the Earth was a plane?
When one day they accepted that, everything they believed went in vain.

Moon appears plane, Sun appears plane, on the first sight every thing looks like plane.
Moon round, earth round, sea have curves, as life have curves, Never was such a plane.

Newton’s Law of (E)motion

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“Every action have equal and opposite reaction.”

It’s the formal definition of Newton’s third law of motion that we have learnt in our school days applicable to all physical objects. I take courage to widen it’s domain beyond the physical objects. For me this new (old) domain is made of abstract feelings. In other words the every emotion have equal and opposite reaction. Love gives love back, Hate gives hate back, terror gives terror(ism) back.
But many of us might have seen the reverse situations in our life which may seem to defy this rule of emotion. Like..
A person laughs when the opposite wants to tell something else. A person laughs when the opposite cries.A person frowns when opposite could not express something.
These emotions may appear in any combination. When we start thinking of these it seems a quiet complex situation. But I like to find out the simplicity in every complexity.

First of all I never believe that any person wants to hurt the other person knowingly. When he/she want to make other laugh because after seeing opposite’s laughing face he/she will be happy .How the person cruel may be , he/she will prefer to see a happy face rather a angry or sad face. For getting this ambition she/he will go to any measure. This is where the fault starts. This is where the person is blamed to be cruel or rude.
And the fault is breaking the law of emotion.

Actually we did not allow to complete the emotion (action) of the person. In a case when I want to make a person laugh, do he is sitting with some untold emotions?If I want to tell some pains in my heart to a person does already she is crying himself? Should I tell my pain to other when he/she is happy? Let his/her emotion complete, and it’s me who can return the emotion’s action (flow) and the person will get all the energy back.After this I can start a new action wishing that it will complete. The law is quite simple like our own Newton, like me, like you.

What do we need to think is, did the first action have completed the reaction ?

Still in simpler words…
“I need to cry when the other cries” even though I have a great news to be happy.
“I need to hear when the other wants to tell” even though my life is facing disaster.
“I need to laugh when my friend laughs” even though I have untold pains in my heart.

But still the fallible human like me thinks that if sometime I fail to do so, my friend will pass the test of time.

Lok-Nayak – A Prakash Jha Film

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Last night I started my TV set, which never had a cable connection. Usually I don't have patience to sit before the box for any movie or soap.
Surprise to me the movie Lok-Nayak was going to start. This is a bio-epic on the life of Jai Prakash Narayan, the great contemporary thinker from Bihar, made by Prakash Jha. Again Prakash Jha have succeeded to bring forth the widely talked issues of Jaiprakash Narayan’s (JP) life quite efficiently. There is a good balance between the documentary and a real life drama in the movie. Prakash succeeded to touch the delicate issues related to JP's life like his role in emergency, the couple's decision to lead a "brahmacharya" life ,the surrendering of dacoits of MP.

For me, I have been interested in Prakash Jha and his movies since 1990, because our Principal Dr.S.N.Jha taught him at Sainik School, Tilaiya. Quoting him Dr. S. N. Jha inspired us to take part in the dramas and he made us an instant stage setter for the cultural activity within the notice of 12 hours. Any one here from the first batch of JNVP ? Moreover Prakash Jha is the creator of some of the well-known movies like Gangaajal, Damul and Hip-Hip Hurray.
In this film too his craftsmanship included the interviews of some of his near associates. Although most interviews seemed to be the dumb statement of his life history and very few voices seemed to stick the principles of JP. The film seemed to be short and running fast. The photography and the music is appreciable. The scene in which JP's wife was dying on bed after taking the hands of JP and telling him to chant “RAM SHREE RAM” will leave an impact on some atheists. These are the moments, when the great weakness of human comes out, when he have no laws, no ethics, and when humanity overtakes everything. The film is a reflection of Prakash's in depth study of the contemporary politics. May Prakash Jha is confirming his decision to join the politics of Bihar. His independent thinking may not lead to any particular party. But let's see what the future have in store. Will this Prakash will follow the footsteps of predecessor Prakash for implementation of his principles in the society