A day on Jagriti Yatra - Tiloniya, Rajasthan

[Low res snaps - clicked and uploaded via mobile]

Today, the yatris on Tata Jagriti Yatra visited the barefoot college at Tiloniya, Rajasthan. The Yatris were delighted with the warm welcome by the villagers with Dhol, Manjira and Shankh. There was so much energy all around where Yatris danced their way to the pandal. After a short introduction and tea session, Yatris moved to see the solar energy projects in the village, village craft manufacturing units etc.

After lunch, Yatris walked through the fields to the Barefoot college campus and were addressed by Bunker Roy after which the Yatris went shopping at the village craft center.

[Introduction from the Barefoot college website]

The Barefoot College is a place of learning and unlearning. It's a place where the teacher is the learner and the learner is the teacher. It's a place where NO degrees and certificates are given because in development there are no experts-only resource persons. It's a place where people are encouraged to make mistakes so that they can learn humility, curiosity, the courage to take risks, to innovate, to improvise and to constantly experiment. It's a place where all are treated as equals and there is no hierarchy.
So long as the process leads to the good and welfare of all; so long as problems of discrimination, injustice, exploitation and inequalities are addresssed directly or indirectly; so long as the poor, the deprived and the dispossessed feel its a place they can talk, be heard with dignity and respect, be trained and be given the tools and the skills to improve their own lives the immediate relevance of the Barefoot College to the global poor will always be there.

Twittering away

These days, I am addicted to a new social networking fad - Twitter. I had almost stopped blogging because of time constraints - not enough time to lay out my thoughts into a presentable blog post.

I had registered on Twitter since February 2008 and found it too boring. It really didn't catch on. I had started using LinkedIn for professional networking and making a shift from Orkut to Facebook for keeping in touch with friends by then. One of my friends @b50 got me going on Twitter again and now, I just can't keep away from it during my free time. It is such a light weight and powerful tool for people to use.

Use it from the web, dozens of client software on almost every platform that you would imagine, a variety of mobile clients as well. I personally prefer Tweetdeck client on the PC, Twitterberry and m.slander.net on the mobile and of course, the Twitpic API for sharing quick pics with my followers !

I find it amusing to be with tweeple who do tweetups often and is a much closer community than anything else I have seen online. I can feel I know many of the tweeple that I follow personally, though I may not have met many of them. Imagine sending a tweet to @having and you have your own food feed . One can think of very innovative uses of the twitter technology which uses just 140 characters to convey powerful messages.

You can just update your plain daily life for those who care and find it interesting. It makes an interesting read to follow people when you have some time. Lots of learning in there too !

This one is worth trying if you are convinced of the social networking funda - you will get addicted - be warned !

Mobile & micro-blogging

Golden Temple, originally uploaded by iamshishir.

Have been experimenting with a few new tech tools to better manage my photo collections, social networks and blogs. This is one attempt to start blogging via mobile & email. If this works well, I could be microblogging a bit more during my travel time !

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Why ants migrate?

Old Version:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away. Come winter,the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.

Modern Version:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away. Come winter,the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

NDTV, BBC, CNN show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.

The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so? Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house. Medha Patkar goes on a fast along with other grasshoppers demanding that grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter. Amnesty International and Koffi Annan criticize the Indian Government for no upholding the fundamental rights of the grasshopper. The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the grasshopper (many promising Heaven and Everlasting Peace for prompt support as against the wrath of God for non-compliance). Opposition MP's stage a walkout. Leftparties call for "Bharat Bandh" in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry. CPM in Kerala immediately passes a law preventing Ants from working hard in the heat so as to bring about equality of poverty among ants and grasshoppers.

Lalu Prasad allocates one free coach to Grasshoppers on all Indian Railway Trains, aptly named as the 'Grasshopper Rath'. Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the Prevention of Discrimination Against Grasshoppers Act [PODAGA]", with effect from the beginning of the winter.

Arjun Singh makes Special Reservation for Grass Hopper in educational Insititutions & in Govt. Services.The ant is fined for failing to comply with PODAGA and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government and handed over to the grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV. Arundhati Roy calls it "a triumph of justice". Lalu calls it 'Socialistic Justice'. CPM calls it the 'revolutionary resurgence of the downtrodden'. Koffi Annan invites the grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly.

Many years later:

The ant has since migrated to the US as it discovered thereis no POTGA there and set up a multi billion dollar company in silicon valley. Hundreds of ants followed. Thousands of grasshoppers still die of starvation despite reservation. As hard working ants continue to migrate, and having to feed millions of lazy grasshoppers, India continues to be a developing country and will continue to be so for at least another century.