Writings that catch your attention

I read a lot. ( I am sure most of us read a lot :) ) As I read the various magazines and newspapers, I come across some beautiful thoughts or writings that catch my attention – either for the topic or for the way it has been written. Sometimes I cant help but treasure those writings. In this post I am sharing with you a few of such writings. Also along with the excerpts of the articles that I am sharing with you, is also a link to the complete article. Please click on the article name ( for eg: " Barefoot: Children beyond divides " etc. ) to go to the actual article.

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A young boy of 10, Anil, peeps into the hostel room of Harsh Gupta, delivering his laundered clothes one evening, and asks him tentatively, “Do you know how electricity is produced?” Harsh, a student at IIM Ahmedabad replies: “Yes! You want to know about it?” Anil nods eagerly. Harsh tells him electricity comes from water. When huge amounts of water fall from a height, electricity is produced. But Anil is unconvinced. “In my village whenever there are rains, we don't have electricity for days and weeks.”

Barefoot: Children beyond divides – Harsh Mander in The Hindu

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Ashish Jha, a student of IIM Ahmedabad, meets 12-year-old Mujahid in Juhapara, a Muslim ghetto in Old Ahmedabad that swelled with victims of the 2002 carnage who were unable to return to their villages, in another after-school centre supported by the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation. Among the children there, he found Mujahid the brightest and most confident.

Ashish describes the communal divide, which has grown between children after 2002. The children were sharing jokes, and “there was a particular pattern that I found amusing. There were these jokes on a Hindu, a Muslim and a Christian trapped on the 20th storey of a building on fire. They all jumped one after another and due to some funny reason the Hindu kept dying every time. I recalled listening to similar jokes in my childhood; only that the Muslim kept dying in them." Ashish adds: “I asked if any of them has Hindu friends. All went silent. Only Mujahid quietly said, ‘Not any more'.”

Barefoot: Children beyond divides – Harsh Mander in The Hindu

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A red brick wall encloses the sprawling, shaded campus of India's finest business school, the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. On the pavement just on the other side of this wall live a large cluster of homeless families — rag pickers, construction workers and beggars. One of my students, Manish Verma, remarks on the irony that ‘a mere 100 metres separate the lives of those who wage a battle with hunger each day, and those who wage a battle for securing a high-paying job out of the best business school in India'. The chasm that separates life on the two sides of this brick wall seems the distance between two planets, separated by light years.

Barefoot: Worlds Apart – Harsh Mander in The Hindu

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It was a cold December evening in the north. I had just bought myself a pair of leather stiletto shoes that I had been lusting after. Returning home late from work, I walked up the quiet street. Most homes had their doors and windows tightly shut against the cold and there were very few people outside. In the hutments a little away, I could see people huddled around the open fires over which their meagre meals were being cooked.

The sassy clickety click of my shoes on the road was an immensely pleasing sound and I walked happy. Suddenly, from nowhere appeared a street urchin, a little boy of four or five. Driving an imaginary scooter, he buzzed past me in a thin shirt and leggings, his bare feet thumping loud and clear on the cold asphalt. The shame at my own vanity and the embarrassment at not being able to silence the harsh sound of my heels that night has stayed with me to remind that true happiness does not lie in stuff, it lives inside of the heart like it did in that little boy’s.

Hail Happiness - Shefali Tripathi Mehta in Sunday Herald

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Nelson Mandela - Long Walk To Freedom - The Tribal Model of Democracy

I am reading "The Long Walk to Freedom", an autobiography by Nelson Mandela. The book talks about his childhood and the circumstances that turned him to a Freedom Fighter. It talks about the African Freedom Struggle and important events that took place in the last 100 years in African politics.

There are a lot of things to devour in his book, but the writings that really catch your attention are Nelson Mandela's eloquent speeches. In his address to the white court in the Old Synagogue ( converted into a court room ) in Pretoria from October 22 to November 7 1962, Nelson Mandela made this speech invoking the inspiring and historical heritage of his own Black people. In the speech Nelson Mandela described the initial formation of his political ideas:

"Many years ago, when I was a boy brought up in my village in the Transkei, I listened to the elders of the tribe telling stories about the good old days, before the arrival of the White man. Then our people lived peacefully under the democratic rule of their kings and their 'amapakati', and moved freely and confidently up and down the country without let or hindrance. Then the country was ours, in our own name and right. We occupied the land, the forests, the rivers; we extracted the mineral wealth beneath the soil and all the riches of this beautiful country. We set up and operated our own government, we controlled our own armies and we organized our own trade and commerce. The elders would tell tales of the wars fought by our ancestors in defence of the fatherland, as well as the acts of valour performed by generals and soldiers during those epic days.

The names of Dingane and Bambata, among the Zulus, of Hintsa, Makana and Ndlambe of the Amaxhosa, of Sekhukhuni and others in the north, were mentioned as the pride and glory of the entire African nation... The land, then the main means of production, belonged to the whole tribe, and there was no individual ownership whatsoever. There were no classes, no rich or poor, and no exploitation of man by man. All men were free and equal and this was the foundation of government. Recognition of this general principle found expression in the constitution of the Council, variously called Imbizo, or Pitso, or Kgotla, which governs the affairs of the tribe. The council was so completely democratic that all members of the tribe could participate in its deliberations. Chief and subject, warrior and medicine man, all took part and endeavoured to influence its decisions. It was so weighty and influential a body that no step of any importance could ever be taken by the tribe without reference to it...

In such a society are contained the seeds of revolutionary democracy in which none will be held in slavery or servitude, and in which poverty, want and insecurity shall be no more. This is the inspiration which, even today, inspires me and my colleagues in our political struggle."

A little bit about Nelson Mandela -
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born in Transkei, South Africa on July 18, 1918. His father was Chief Henry Mandela of the Tembu Tribe. Mandela himself was educated at University College of Fort Hare and the University of Witwatersrand and qualified in law in 1942. He joined the African National Congress in 1944 and was engaged in resistance against the ruling National Party's apartheid policies after 1948.

On June 12, 1964, eight of the accused, including Mandela, were sentenced to life imprisonment. Nelson Mandela was released on February 11, 1990.

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Acknowledge

This post was written as a year end post in the last week of 2010 by my husband. I have always liked it and have been wanting to share this with all of you for quite some time. And since it is the beginning of a new year, what better time to do it than now.
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acknowledge ac·knowl·edge means ... 1: to recognize the rights, authority, or status of 2: to disclose knowledge of or agreement with 3 a: to express gratitude or obligation for b: to take notice of c: to make known the receipt of
4: to recognize as genuine or valid

Inflected Form(s): ac·knowl·edged; ac·knowl·edg·ing Etymology: ac- (as in accord) + knowledge Date: 15th century

Source : http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/acknowledge

This post is not about English !, but more about the act of acknowledgement. Look at the third meaning "to take notice of "

This is the last week of the year and good time to reflect on the year passed by. As Socrates said “The unexamined life is really not worth living”. I have been sharing my thoughts on leadership for quite some time and one of the most important traits of leaders is that they always acknowledge. They acknowledge their successes, failures, fears, victories, limitations, ideas, contributions and teams.

By acknowledging we accept things the way they are and get an access to create something new.

Also look at the meaning “.. to express gratitude”.

Year end is also time to acknowledge all the contributions (however small or big ) by people in your life !
Acknowledge your
- Parents
- Children
- Boss
- Spouse
- Friend
- Neighbor
- Classmates
- Room mates
- News Paper Guy
- Milk man
- House maid
- Driver
- Car wash person
- Security Guard
- Traffic Police
- Shop keeper
- Mechanic
- Doctor
- Bank Manager
- School friends
- College friends
- Community
- Association
- .. ….

So on and so forth….

And last but not the least, dont forget to acknowledge yourself for the contribution you make to the world, society and life itself.

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My first entrepreneurship -The library

When was the first time you created something, ran it as a business, had costumers and made a revenue. No.. I am not talking about the business you ran after you graduated from college..No.. Not that.. Go a little back... It could be games stall you could have put up in the annual school fair or some services you could have provided for which you would have earned money, way back when you were in school.

The one I started was when I was around 8 years old and even today it brings a smile on my face when I remember it.

It was a library that we had started.

One evening as I was playing on the terrace of a friend's home, I overheard her mother share with another aunty that the children in a nearby colony had started a library. In my mind I thought, “We too have a lot of books…”

We did read a lot - my brother, especially, was known for his interest in reading and we had a huge collection of Amar Chitra Kathas(ACK) at home. Brother read the ACKs and I read the Twinkles:) And of course, there would be the odd chacha choudaris or Phantoms or an Alice in Wonderlands. “But yes! We did have books!” I thought as I slept that night.

The next day, I woke up with a plan in my mind.

I needed a team :D and I spoke to my brother and the two next door neighbourhood girls and enrolled them in to the idea of starting the library.

We put all our story books together and made a collection of about 25 books - not bad at all to start a library. And then we looked for a big bath tub.

Why did I need a bath tub? Because my friend's mother had mentioned that those children had kept their books in bath tubs. So of course, we needed a bath tub to keep our books.

We finally found two huge bath tubs in my neighbour's house and borrowed it. We placed the books in the bath tub – we placed the books vertically and then placed them horizontally and then placed them against the bath tub sides – but the books just wouldn’t stay. Finally, after some juggling, we did find an arrangement to display the books. We fixed a membership fee at two rupees per person.

The next thing we needed to do was marketing - so we made small handwritten pamplets and went to each of our friends house to distribute them. The aunties there seemed to be curious and amused at our idea. Some of them seemed incredulous. Well, it was embarrassing - but we went about our duties. In the silent moments I would have in between setting up a library, I would silently wonder though - what was the incredulous look about. :D

The library started the next day – two bath tubs and twenty five books. Five friends came in and enrolled into the library. The library was operational! We had started with zero investment and we had made ten rupees too!

Now the big question, what could we do with the ten rupees? So we discussed and bought two new amar chitra kathas.

At the start of day 2 we had two new amar chitra kathas and more curiosities from some more aunties.

Not knowing what more to do with the library and not able to handle the curious attention, we sat together at the end of day 3 to decide the fate and future of our library.

And here was what we decided - The two new ACKs would go to the neighbourhood girls who had contributed their books. The tubs would go back to its rightful owner. We would ensure that the borrowed books would be returned back to the library and we would close down our first successful venture.

What was your first entrepreneurship ? :)

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Happy New Year.. !

May you have the mischief, curiosity, and happiness of a child this year... ! :)

Happy New Year once again... !

- Veena, Raghav and Nishka.

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