Memories beckon...

Yesterday night sleep was evading me as I had a nice afternoon siesta being on leave from office! My thoughts then slipped to my childhood and my house and life in Patna. I could not recall any exciting moment except for a trip to New Delhi during summer vacations with mom to my maternal grandparent’s place. Then my thoughts shifted to my son who is such a bholu raam that I feel worried for him all the time. But then he has inherited this from me! During such moments of brooding I analyse the weak points within me and they are being too submissive and always wanting to please others. The darkness of the night helped me go deeper in to these weaknesses and where from they emerged.

It took me back to my house and to a particular day when I was in Std. VIII and my sis a class higher. My mom was expecting (my brother was to be born) and she was on complete bed rest. We sisters were managing our day to day activities without mom’s help. As usual I went to my parent’s to get ready for school and there was dad sitting fuming in anger. He gave me a long speech which I don’t remember much as I was too shocked and confused to understand why I was being scolded right in the morning. All I can gather today is that it was about an empty jug of water which had caused “much inconvenience” to my dad as he had to go thirsty all night. I guess he didn’t know we had a refrigerator in the house stacked with water bottles! The drama didn’t end here. As my mom was on bed rest and ours was a joint family my grandmother and chachi (aunt) were slogging out in the kitchen cooking breakfast. I asked dadi for my lunch box and was answered with scolding for first taking my mom’s breakfast to her room. I then felt like crying but controlled myself, did what she said, came back to the kitchen, collected my lunch box and left for school with my sis. I don’t remember if both of us had breakfast that morning.

In school I was greeted by my friends, we laughed, we played, my essay was read out loud to everyone in the class as it was flawlessly written. I was a happy girl when I was going back home. When we reached home my dad was there and he hugged me and said sorry for scolding me. But sorry dad what is ingrained in my mind even today is the scolding for no reason. I reacted to such incidents in my childhood by accepting my situation and being submissive all the time. i knew that I am not an important part of my family and hence always wanted to please everyone. This habit stays on even today and I don’t fight for whatever wrong happens to me. It is so much ingrained that I am finding it very difficult to cope with it. Its just that my school has been replaced by my office where I am appreciated and it gives me the confidence to keep moving in life.

 

A woman's world

The morning started with the usual household chores and suddenly something went wrong. My husband screamed at me for no reason and as always I didn't do anything- just did my chores and left for office.
As I entered the office gate I saw a girl standing at the reception. One of my colleagues was on the phone and demanding to talk to a certain man. The man didn't take the call. I asked what happened? My colleague N said that this girl is HIV+ve and is an outreach worker from one of our projects. Her husband has been abusing her physically and mentally since they got married. He was HIV+ve at the time of marriage and this was revealed to her only when she became positive herself!
The husband instead of being apologetic started abusing her. he sits at home while she earns a living by working as out reach worker with us. he victimizes her again and again for no fault of hers and she said, "I continued to bear this because my husband has been stigmatized by his own family. I felt he needs love and care and my love will change him " But things went on to become from bad to worse. He started beating her up on false pretext like "Who were talking to in the train when you were going for work?" The reality was she that while travelling to a nearby block via train for outreach work someone asked her the time and one of this man's friend saw her and went and told her husband that she was chatting away with a man in the train. He then beat her up badly.
The day she came to our office her husband had crossed all limits and had abused her father. her family was in shock as they had no idea how things had been for their daughter and that they were HIV +ve. At the moment she is sitting in our office and has been asked by us to take a firm decision to leave this man after talking to her family. Once she is firm her case will be forwarded to the Women's Commission.
Yesterday a friend informed me about a girl whose uncle had thrown her out of the house and she had been sitting in a courier office since morning. We went, fed her talked to her and left her in a home for such girls.
Such things make me very sad but my soul asks me what can you do for the cause of these girls when you are not empowered yourself?
 

Any hope of getting Right to Education ensured in Jharkhand?

child rescued from worksite..which was better- the workplace or this school?

It is common knowledge that the Right to Education Act has been enforced in the state and that it aims at universalisation of education for all 6-14 year olds in the state. However where to wy stand today in its implementation?

With either the student or the teacher being absent, the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) schools are not functioning regularly. At many places the teachers are seen defending the children who have not come to school or have dropped out. However it is the responsibility of the teacher to be in control and to ensure that each child enrolled is coming to school and is benefitting.

The para teachers went on strike for more than a month. While the Human Resources Department maintained that stop gap arrangements were made to prevent the running of schools from being hampered the ground reality was that the education system had completely fallen apart during the strike period with classes not being held at all.

The SSA in its bid to take every child to school has made dual enrolments at several places and there is also no mechanism to keep a track of the child who drops out. As several media reports have highlighted in the past, the quality of the schools is poor and the system is suffering from serious shortage of teachers. Around 2000 more teachers are needed in Latehar district itself.

5138 schools in the state are functioning with single teachers and 57.8 percent schools do not maintain the standard student teacher ratio. There are also such schools where the number of children enrolled is very less and the corresponding number of teachers is high.

Having subject wise teachers is a distant dream. There is shortage of classrooms, toilets are mostly absent and many are present but non-functional and drinking water is not available in 25 schools. Ramps constructed for the handicapped in the schools are poorly constructed and have gradient issues. Library, play equipments and playgrounds are facilities which cannot be thought of in these schools.

Jharkhand being a naxal infested state has not issued any directives till date for the safety of the teachers recruited in the extremism prone areas. The result is that teachers refrain from holding classes as there have been cases in the past where the school building was destroyed by the extremists.

The state has a “force” of 28,000 untrained teachers i.e. the para teachers who are paid a pittance as compared to the regular SSA teachers.

More than 8,800 teachers for child with special needs are required and the state has about 250 such teachers on its payroll. These teachers are also not able to perform efficiently in the absence of trainings.  An example from the field can explain the status wherein a teacher for the special quoted a deaf and dumb child as “mentally retarded”.

The state does not have its own curriculum and hence no text books of its own. This issue has been pending for a decade! The SCERT is non-functional and the Director, Higher Education has been given the additional charge of Director, SCERT last week this year. The text books reached the children only after four to six months in 2012.

The SSA used to impart Bridge Courses to children who have never been to school or had dropped out so that they could come up to their age level and be enrolled in to age appropriate classes. These Bridge Courses were being run through NGOs and with complete withdrawal of this curriculum, civil society involvement in to SSA activities is completely nil today. The role of the civil society could have been vital in tracking migrant children, mobilizing of SMCs, motivating the mothers in playing an active role in the SMC, tracking bonded labour, child labour and related issues.

The “Abhyas Prayas” bridge course material developed by UNICEF and CINI for SSA is out of use and redundant today. However it has been circulated to all 30 NCLP special schools meant for child labourers at Ranchi and the educators are imparting non-formal bridge course education through these materials.

The school management committees are functional only on paper and in the current scenario the SMC is equivalent to the school head master. Community involvement, awareness of roles and capacity building of these committees are a big question mark today. They have no clue on grievance redressal mechanisms and are totally incompetent in managing ground level issues. The school development plans submitted by these SMCs are largely compiled by the school head master on his own.

The government has no mechanisms to monitor private schools. No circular has gone from the government to these schools clarifying on how the 25 percent reservation money will be sent to the schools. Owing to this, the private are schools are refraining from enrolling the under privileged and minority children.

There is a child helpline of which there is no awareness. The DIET is largely non-functional.

It is unfortunate that there has been no director SSA since April, 2012 in the state and the principal secretary is in dual charge. The director’s position is crucial and has a huge mandate which cannot be justified through such an arrangement. Even the District Superintendent of Education (DSE) are being transferred frequently. Relevant directives are either not being issued or not followed up when issued.

There are no grievance redressal mechanisms for RTE in the state and no officials have been notified for the same. Another issue of concern is the non-functional State Commission for Protection of Child Rights which was recently constituted. The commission is at a nascent stage and is grappling with issues of its own infrastructure and other logistics.

This kind of sums up the gravity of the situation which needs immediate time bound planning and monitoring. But with the current government’s fate hanging mid way it is impossible to predict the way ahead at the moment.

We can make a difference....

Since motherhood dawned on me, suddenly I found myself intolerant towards all forms of exploitation against little children. However the sad part is that like each one of us, I too have done little to make the world a better place. While we human beings are steadily moving towards complete degradation of moral character (yes now I believe Kalyug is here!), small instances of efforts being made on the positive side gives me a sigh of relief. I always wonder of the kind of circumstances my little one will have to live through when he is my age and whether the majority of the world will be populated by animals (of course with a human face) who beat their own 3 months old daughter to death, abuse little children and so on....
Global warming is one aspect of environmental degradation, pesticides in our food is another but the biggest killer in the coming times is the changing face of us human beings who have no respect or thought for anyone else in the world but for him/herself. 

Children posing with the CM, Jharkhand at his residence

A few days back an ex-colleague called me to inform about a less than 10 year old child being exploited by couple living in the heart of Ranchi city. Similar to the Dwarka case this little child was made to do all household chores, deprived of education and the best part was locked alone in the house for days and that too on the roof! Rescue team from Labour Department went to raid the premises and found that the "smart employers" had already sent off the child to his house and feigned ignorance over the allegations against them. According to them they were doing "charity" by keeping the child with them, giving him food and "educating him". God save all the children of the world from such charitable people!
On a positive note, we as mentors of some selected numbers of children rescued from their workplaces, joined hands with UNICEF and launched a campaign against child labour on the eve of National Anti- Child Labour Day (April 30, 2012). We visited houses of the Chief Minister, the state secretariat, and other high level dignitaries' houses and our caravan paved almost all the streets of Ranchi. While we mustered support and applaud from all corners the best thing about this campaign were the 20 children from National Child Labour Project special school of Hindpiri, Ranchi. About a year back these children (9-14 years) were put in to this non-formal education centre by motivating their parents to educate them. Many of them had never seen a school before. Today they read, write, say poems, SHOUT SLOGANS :) and freely talk to the CM and high level government officials. An instance- A peon at the state secretariat asked one of the campaigning children what was going on and why they had come there. One of the children replied, "You are so grown up and how come you dont know today is National Anti Child Labour day!!".
So still there is a ray of hope with these little efforts that we can make on our behalf and to "heal the world, to make it a better place, for you and for me and the entire human race........" as sung by MJ....

Jab we met!!

We met, we chatted, had a great time together and then we parted…..this time for good or should I say now it depends on each of us whether we want to keep in touch! It was an emotional moment on 23^rd march, 2012 where farewell gifts were given away and everyone vented their hearts out on how much they had enjoyed their tenure with CINI and gained from working with different government departments, agencies and especially the Sahiyyas, women, children and adolescents. The very fact that ex-colleagues like me were given an opportunity to be a part of the get together and wish everyone good luck shows how much we all bond together as a team though now working or going to work in different places and organizations.

Last but not the least one man deserves all the credit for bringing CINI Jharkhand to the fore as a premier technical assistance agency in the state and to get people on board who had the vision and technical expertise to spearhead some important developments in the state’s health, nutrition and education sector. The man of course is the Coordinator of CINI Jharkhand, our mentor Dr Suranjeen who shall always be loved and respected by all of us and his advice shall continued to be sought be it matters on handling a project, career advice, medical treatment or discussion on any technical issue under the sun!

Thanks for being there Dr Suranjeen and not to forget the leadership and support provided by Ranjan, Tapan da, Nawal, Sapna, Anup and the list is unending J

New projects will soon bring a new set of people in to CINI Jharkhand and we all shall continue to cooperate with them.

22 Government Departments of Jharkhand sensitized on the issue of child labour

The Department of Labour, Employment and Training, Government of Jharkhand organized a sensitization workshop on the issue of child labour under the International Labour Organization supported initiative “Converging Against Child Labour: Support for India’s Model” at Hotel Capitol Hill, Ranchi. This training program aimed at familiarizing all concerned departments on the issue of child labour and to discuss with them the legal provisions, schemes as well as roles that different departments can play in tackling the issue. The ultimate objective was to create a pool of trainers in the issue who can further sensitize their respective departments on the issue and on the strategies that can be adopted to help move towards elimination of the issue. “Education of every child is very important and the Right to Education has to be actualized. Awareness on the issue has to be created at the grass root level, for instance, at the Panchayat level”, said Sri Vishnu Kumar, I.A.S., Principal Secretary, Department of Labour, Employment & Training, Jharkhand inaugurating the two days training programme.

“Child Labour is not only an issue of Labour Department and all our stakeholders have to converge to tackle the issue. The Convergence Model initiative supported by ILO has brought in a model which is being piloted in two districts viz. Ranchi and Sahebganj and is already showing positive results in abating the issue of child labour,” add Smt. Aradhana Patnaik, I.A.S., Labour Commissioner, Jharkhand. Secretary, Child Labour Commission cum Nodal Officer, Convergence Model Project Dr Shyam Sunder Pathak coordinated the event along with State Resource Cell, ILO Convergence Model Project staff.

The departments who attended the training were Department of Labour, Employment & Training, Department of Human Resource Development, District Administration, District Social Welfare Women and Child Development, Welfare Department, Information & Public Relations Department, Department of Health & Family Welfare, Department of Rural Development, Department of Urban Development, Panchayati Raj, Department of Finance, Environment & Forest; Law, Officers from Department of Personnel Administrative Reforms and Rajbhasha, Food, Public Distribution & Consumer Affairs, Child Welfare Officers of Special Juvenile Police Units, Agriculture & Sugarcane Development, Industries, Animal Husbandry & Fisheries, Food, Public Distribution & Consumer Affairs among others.

The Resource Persons were from Department of Labour, Employment & Training, UNICEF and Department of Social Welfare, Women & Child Development. Besides this, I.G. C.I.D. Police, Sri Anurag Gupta sensitized the participants on the issues of human in Jharkhand and various penal provisions for the issue. The training programme was entirely participatory and well taken by all participants.

We Rock!!

Now I have to be prompt and write as frequently as I can :)

Today was hectic day, morning chores, getting my son ready and on time to school, going to the bank, reminding my mom n dad to pick ansh from school, visiting government departments to ensure participation to a training programme we are organising this week, attending a meeting for my media fellowship, going to the state secretariat to meet the labour commissioner, fetching ansh from nani-nanu's house, getting household stuff from the market, getting ansh to do his "exam preparations" and then finally blogging while feeding ansh his dinner!!!!!

all I can say yet again "Hats off to me and all the working women of today's era!!" We Rock ladies :)

and I am back!!!

I cant believe myself!!! Its about to be a year since I visited my blog page, leave alone posting one!

Thinking of the reasons; the only one that comes to my mind is my new job. I joined the Labour Department in July 2011 and wrote m

y last blog a month before. So I guess its no one but my new job that is to be blamed. However I should not be using the word "blame" as I am not complaining but liking the new assignment as much as I loved my last organization. Its just that the new place is demanding and six days a week. The only Sunday left to relax is "reserved" for my little one :)

He is 4 yrs, 4 months old now.

So much has happened ......

I quit my 6 years old job, got to work with the system, recieved a government media fellowship, my best friend is a mommy now :) my son completed 4 years, we applied for his school admissions and then decided on his continuing with the play school, Ansh had a bad year and had been constantly ill, Ranchi city kept growing only in terms of the brands (KFC, Fab India, Satya Paul, W, Subway, etc.) and no infrastruct

ure got developed accordingly,

my grand mother passed away and also some such stars who you thought will always keep entertaining you ( and they still are..) jagjit singh, devanand, shammi kapoor...

Of all this the most enriching and memorable part was getting to interact with children who study at the National Child Labour Project special schools being run by the Labour Departmen

t. The smiling faces of these children always makes me wonder whether I really h

ave any issues in my life! The pain and suffering overcome with the smile and a feeling of being out of the rut (tem

porarily) is overwhelming. These little children though rescued from work know very well the huge responsibilities awaiting them and the struggles ahead in life. Some get their little siblings with them to school as there is noone at home to take care of them.

Work, daily chores, responsibilities, family, my little one .......and life goes on................

and this time i log off with a promise that blogging will go on. :)

We are the best!

Yet again I found the bucket in the backyard, the maid forgot to put it back in my bathroom after washing the clothes. While I could not help getting irritated I also realised there was no point in getting irked over the same everything everyday. You need to just live with it!

There are list of such things which irritate you or are to your dislike and yet you cannot do anything about it as they are bound to happen everyday. It is interesting to go through the daily list of such things :) In a regular day I live with-

1. Missing out on having a relaxed morning tea as some or the chore stands waiting

2. My hubby leaving the bathroom lights on

3. Dishes half laid on the table for lunch

4. The car not cleaned from inside

etc...etc...

Well the point is that there are so many nitty gritties in our everyday lives and its so amazing how women manage everything and that too so well! Men will surely be in for a disaster if women go on a strike! What will they do if they have bathed and find there towel is missing, they sit to have breakfast and see that its not served, they sit in their office and recall that the morning medicine was not taken...

We work, we care, we love, we give and yet we make all efforts to stay fit, dress up well and look good!

Yes we women are the winners all the way :)

Shalu's fantasies

Nidhi was playing with her 3 year old son and waiting impatiently for her maid. It was her husband’s birthday and a lot of cooking was yet to be done before guests arrived for dinner. The door bell rang and Shalu walked in. Nidhi noticed her dark lipstick, dangling earrings and new salwar kameez. “Anything special?”, enquired Nidhi. Shalu smiled and replied, “No you have guest coming , so I thought I should dress up for the occasion!” She laughed and went in to the kitchen.
At night Nidhi told her husband of how fashion consciousness and an urge to be at par with the world had penetrated even in lower middle class. Her husband was in agreement. As kids we never saw children of the house helps getting any education and today every person be it a daily wage labourer ensures that his child goes to school. It is a different matter what quality of education is received to these children or whether they work and earn for the family post school. Yet it is reflects the positive development of the community to seek education and hence seek a better life.
Nidhi started noticing that the maid tried to ape her in every possible way be it dresses, jewellary or make up, needless to mention the numerous phone calls she got. Shalu got increasingly difficult to cope with. She asserted that she could not cook any more as it hindered her evening “freaking out”. She kept demanding for increase in wage and Nidhi kept succumbing to her as she could not manage her little one and the household alone.
One fine day Shalu turned up and announced that she was leaving for “Dilli” with an acquaintance. She was extremely excited about her new life waiting for her- the big city, the lavish life, the salary etc. Nidhi let her go with a heavy heart but had no other option. With passage of time a new maid arrived. However Nidhi always thought of Shalu and wondered how she was doing.
The new maid one day brought news which almost choked Nidhi. Shalu was no more…………
The news was heavily reported in the media. She was yet another victim of trafficking from poor performing states like Jharkhand and Orissa. Abused, tortured and exploited on a regular basis the girl was made to work long hours. One day her owner beat her up on the pretext that “she had not worked enough for the day”. The beating was so severe that Shalu succumbed to her injuries. Today her parents can do nothing but lament her death.
The issue is not as simple as the want of a teenage girl to live a good life and experience all the joys that any well to do girl does. It is far more complicated which has led to a vicious cycle of such instances in the country. The poor states having very little to offer coupled with the big money and false promises are able to lure parents who send away their little children to far off cities from where they are never able to come back. Many work as bonded labours. The Government is struggling to handle the situation and yet finds itself ill equipped. The department of labour conducts raids and rescues these children but have no facilities of keeping these children in transit homes of their own. In many cases they have to let go of these children who ultimately return back to their employers and all the effort goes in vain.
It is time when we open our eyes and report any suspected cases of abuse and torture of house helps. In fact a recent survey has reported maximum cases of child labour in the form of domestic servants and we can make our contribution by reporting such cases.
Lets pray for justice to Moin, a 10 year old who was beaten up to death by his employer recently in New Delhi at a bidi factory…..

Girls this is for u!

Today being the world cup finals and seeing the excitement all around I wished to invite all my friends over and enjoy the match over snacks and drinks. This made me think that how lucky I am to have so many good pals when the world today lives behind closed doors..... have been working with this NGO for the past 5 years. Have made several friends all these years but the “girl gang” that we have here today is the best part about working together under roof. I call it a “girl gang” though 70 percent of us are above 30 and married with kids! Our enthusiasm and flair for fun makes us as young as a 20 year old college girl :) When I had joined CINI, there was a group of young girls freshly passed out from TISS and XISS and I had come back home from Delhi after working with Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). At CSE I had made friends for a life time and am still very much in touch with them and never lose an opportunity to meet them. Back in Ranchi I was not expecting the kind of crowd I actually across in my new office. Ranchi had also changed a lot (see my post- The changing face of Ranchi) and by the way Ranchi has come a step further from the time this post was written with a Five Star Hotel (Raddisson), a 4 star, International food fests, Dominos, the National Games complex, a new mall with 3 screen multiplex, 2 exclusive outlets of Satya Paul and many more… Well I love to see my town progressing! Coming back to the point…so I was having a nice time in my new office at Ranchi with the girls, shopping at Delhi and Bangalore and organising trainings at resorts in Puri. Then there was a lag phase, the girls left, I got married and then pregnant, and then my little one came like a spark in my life. As he grew up gradually changes kept happening on the office front with new people coming in and many leaving (we have a very high turn over rate). None of the new faces were exciting (specially the men!) and then like luck would have it suddenly the office was bubbling with girls! They were from Bangalore, Kolkata, Ranchi itself and from varied backgrounds with strong qualifications (Cornell & Columbia alumnus too :)). As we got to know each other better we found that we may not have much in common yet we all gelled along very well. Then came this idea to us that we should get together beyond office and have fun (of course getting out kids with us). Since then we periodically try and break the monotony in life with our outings and get togethers. Everyone in the gang has her own specialty from good cooks, to bakers, to homemakers, to singers, to number queens, to community workers and yes all of us are good dancers :) This girl gang too is destined to split some day, the process has already begun but I also know for sure that we will always be in touch and good friends. Isn’t it girls?

We human beings

Human mind is the most complicated of all. Had heard this but now as years are passing by and the mind is gaining �maturity that comes with experience� this fact has been vindicated by so many real life examples! I have also realised that females are much more complicated than men (sorry girls!!).
This is probably because of the social structure which permits men more space and freedom of speech as well as actions. A woman has to curb her thoughts and this suppression further leads to resentment, envy and negative thoughts. The best part is that its mostly a fellow woman who is responsible for curbing another woman�s thoughts!!
Getting to the point, there have been certain instances which makes one wonder why? I know of a female who is seemingly normal, pretty, has a good career and family life and yet there is something about her which makes me always think that she is not normal! I remember when I was going around with my current hubby and he had bought a bike. We used to go on his bike for long rides. Isn�t this something normal? Now what is abnormal is that this girl I mentioned started dating a guy and then came one day to specially mention that she went on a bike ride with her sweetheart and that the whole world was looking at them and marvelling at the perfectness of their togetherness and how happening they looked in the bike.
Another incident- while talking to a friend I happened to ask about A and B who were ex-colleagues and were about to marry. The friend said they never married. A had got arrested at the wedding venue as a girl landed up with the police and accused A of using her sexually in the pretext of marrying her. Today B lives a life of seclusion while A walks free. Today when I think of A I can never get myself to imagine he was capable of doing something so horrible. What kind of a living being would be that? Definitely not human!
Another one- this dear friend of mine sent across her pics from a wedding. She was looking just perfect, saree, jewellery everything and that too sans make up! Another girl C told her that she was looking okay and that her saree was outdated. Again one fine day C called my friend to ask where had she bought her jewellery from. My friend didn�t give any details and said that all her stuff is outdated, so don�t bother! And then here it comes.....a posting of pics that show similar saree and jewellery and an email of self praise to my fnd describing how C had stolen the show! Isn�t that weird? Would any normal person ever do something like that? Self praise and declarations of a happening life are only indicative of something more complicated and fake. Alas the world today is full of such people and their lives ROCK (though I am not sure how much is the reality)!

online shopping?

I might sound outdated but a few days back i "introduced" myself to the world of online "window" shopping as I never trusted or cared about what was making it such a big thing today. A friend of mine sent me a link www.fashionandyou.com. I was getting worked up with a project proposal and thought of unwinding briefly with this link (as there was no friend online to chat with and no interesting updates on FB!). The site was interesting with a lot to offer specially all the stuff thats not available in a small town ranging from designer perfumes to fake jewellary to western wear to lovely phulkari duppatas...
Chatting with my best friend I asked her if these sites were safe and whether its okay to shop online. She being a part of this communications business and being very well versed with the advantages and risks recommended to go ahead. She also suggested many new links like www.99label.com and burntsienna (the latter has lovely silver jewellary which are not available in my city at all).

I finally decided to buy some cosmetics from one of the sites but I dont know what went wrong with the payment gateway, it simply vanished after I hit the pay tab! My transaction was not approved. Then a few days later I tried buying books from flipkart and besides numerous attempts my transactions always ended with error messages. I have been browsing and window shopping but nothing has actually moved from the wishlist to my wardrobe! I wonder if my location has something to do with it or may be its some server issues. However I must say that I am amazed at the deals offered online and at the ease with which one can access all the stuff in the world with the click of a mouse!
Its really fun to be shopping sitting on my bed, doesnt exhaust me at all :) yet I wonder when my wishlist will turn in to real stuff that I can actually use.

A hilarious encounter

The other day I had a meeting with a very senior IAS Officer at his office in one of the departments of Government of Jharkhand. He wanted to the review the project for which I had been a short term consultant. He asked me and the nodal officer for project to wait outside for 5 minutes. That was when his PA “introduced” us to him as he has been newly appointed. The PA asked whether we had been asked to wait for 5 mins. and added that "you wont be called before an hour." He gave us a lot of extra information alongside like there has been no work happening since this IAS has joined and that he is an embarrassment as he does not take phone calls even of senior officials.
Everytime the man inside rang his buzzer we thought we would be called in and after a long wait we were finally called. As I entered I saw a man buried between loads of files and writing on a green note (government office speciality!) in a particular fashion with his fingers twisted at a certain angle. So horrible was the hand writing that even doctors would take pride on their handwriting. We were asked to sit and we waited in his cabin for another half an hour. It was in this half an hour period that I noted all the peculiar actions of that man and battled with myself to control my laughter. He gulped glasses of water in one go and then picked one phone after the another to fire someone or the other and the receiver somehow always refused to sit at the right place! At one point of time he got up and pulled his trousers up along with himself almost up to his chest (a la Boman Irani from 3 idiots)!
He suddenly looked at us and asked if I was the consultant named so and so. I said yes sir and then he was back in to his files. He tore off several pages from some of them and deposited them under his table. He shouted at his typist for poor Hindi language skills and then suddenly asked us, “yes tell me what is your business here.” Taken aback I wanted to tell him at that moment that its you wanted to have a review! However, I had to refrain from opening my mouth while the nodal officer took out another ragged file which was our project file. The IAS officer pulled out an ancient diary in which he had scribbled 1000s of numbers in his ugly handwriting and asked us for contact details of the project donors.
Then he perused the file and folded some pages to be photo copied for him. He then shifted his attention to me and asked where was I working since my consultancy period had expired. I gave him all the details. He then declared that the meeting was over (and so was the review!!!!).
I turned towards the door and he asked me to stop and interviewed me on my education, work experience and family background. He noted my number and asked me to leave. I was greeted by the PA outside who quickly asked me if I had been asked for my mobile number and provided free advise that I should now keep my cell switched off at all points of time (whatever it implied)!

a quick update

I am back after a rejuvenating trip to Delhi. It was official work mixed with some unwinding (and of course loads of shopping!). Got to meet friends who are more than just friends and the best people I have ever met. The biggest surprise package was my ex-roomie landing up in Delhi at the same time for office work. Our get together needs special mention because it happened after a number of "adventures" like changing of the venue at the last hour and me not knowing about it!, standing in queue for getting entry in to the mall (ever heard that before? i hadnt!), escalators not working, lifts taking ages but finally we got together and I m sure all of us cherish every moment of it. This time our kids were with us and they enjoyed too!

Back in Ranchi my deputation to the government has ended and I am back to CINI. The biggest learning is the apparant difference in working with a good NGO and the government, the former being enthusiastic over every encouragement recieved from the latter while the latter waiting for the former to make things move for them!

my love

Being a mother is one of the biggest gift God has entitled a woman to.

This is something that had heard and read several times but never related to it till today. Being "mamma" of a 2.7 yrs old is definately more fulfilling than anything else in the world! The little soul makes you feel so special (and he enters the room while I blog :)).

The first words uttered every morning is mi mi, mi mi which means mamma I am awake, come and hug me :) and noone can bathe and feed my little one besides mi mi. He proudly perches himself next to the driver's seat in mamma's car wearing his sun glasses and raising his head slightly with loads of attitude. The best part is the way he greets me when I am back home after work. That look on his face, the glitter of his eyes and the hug he gives me rejuvenates me totally.

Now I know how important a child is to his mother and vice versa.. and that the labour pain, sleepless nights, weakness and exhaustion all hold no place in my memories today.

Let me also take this opportunity to share what my little one is up to these days. He observes and records all minute details of things and people around him and in case he "misses out" on any piece of information or does not understand something he will quickly shoot a precise question and the resultant information will be stored forever with an "ooh"!

The latest joke in this context is - Ansh went visiting his Nani. He asked her to play a bike and sat on her back. Poor Nani after sometime gave up and said "Nani is tired now. All petrol is finished!" and the grandson quickly retorted waving at someone "500 ka petrol dena...NORMAL"!!!!

kids of 21st Century eh!

Babus rule!

This is not about the Bihari Babu or the Bengali Babu but our very own babus who rule our government offices - the sarkari babus. Noone can ever win a prize for locating a sarkari babu in a crowd.
Now that I am a part of the system (though temporarily) I am getting a "hands on" experience of why things move at a slow pace. While corresponding to a donor agency is as simple as clicking the send button on your email, its not easy when you are a part of the system. On one hand the funding agency is always in a hurry and on the other the sarkari babu is just not able to move! You can very well imagine the state of someone sandwiched between a donor agency and the "system". The letter that you could simply send through the "send button" still follows the centuries old route of sitting in files and moving from table to table till the issue dies its own death! An example is a letter sent by my funding agency on May 5 and reaching me on May 22! So even if you are prompt and sincere and particular about meeting deadlines you are "not required" to the same under the "system".
The babus "work" from monday to saturday (a day extra as compared to any NGO or corporate) yet things are the same from monday to saturday. Its not that all babus are the same. There are many who actually work and are prompt but are marred by the weight of files and number of portfolios they are supposed to handle.
The bottom line is that before talking about globalisation the government should go back to the office where it sits and globalises it first cum first! Some of basic capacity building issues are:
Computer skills, introduction to the world of internet and email, introduction to the choice of language be it hindi or english and last but not the least, some sense of "fashion" and "whats in". Now the last one is tooo much to ask for yet we can try for the best!
God bless the system!

Menacing with mosquitoes?

This is about a hoard of unwanted intruders who are found everywhere in my household! They are in the bed room, they are in the kitchen, they are in the verandah, they are in the living room and most importantly they are the bathroom too. No amount of baygon, HIT or any other pesticide is of any help. They seem to be increasing in numbers everyday to the extent that a late evening chit chat in the lawn becomes a dancing session trying to avert the irritants. You cannot concentrate on anything but the head of the person you are talking to over which hover hundreds of them. Well someone told me that these dancing mosquitoes in groups don’t cause malaria as they are all males trying to attract the female anopheles. Don’t know about the anopheles but that dance definitely causes the worst form of distraction to me.

They gaze at you while you lie inside your mosquito net reminding you of what could have been your state had this wall of net not been there. One or two of them manage to get in once the lights go off. Suddenly you are awakened by the most annoying song on earth, a humming sound which is enough to drive you crazy when you are in a “half alive state”. This annoyance turns to anger in my case when I realise that the creature has bitten my little son and I turn on the lights and don’t go back to sleep till I “hunt it down”.
Surprisingly every morning all of them are found sitting on the nets, installed on the windows to keep them off, trying to find a way out. Guess they prefer a morning walk and outing in the day only to return back and transform our evenings in to hell. A few days back a brilliant idea struck my brain. The window nets were sprayed with ample amounts of Baygon and wow every morning I found all of them dead on my window. I know this sounds bizarre as marvelling at a mass murder is not acceptable but this is being done for the safety and well being of family and guests. However they still keep coming and coming and coming, hundreds and thousands of them. I get bewildered when I see some people carry on with their work undeterred in a crowd of mosquitoes. They can even sleep in their presence and I cannot even slice a lemon! I don’t know what stuff these people are made of.
There is an urgent need to do something about these unruly creatures as no research has been able to produce a fool proof solution against them. I often get to read sentences like this - Of the 5 million confirmed cases of malaria reported each year from countries outside Africa, nearly 3 million are from India and Pakistan. There are so many huge programmes to combat this disease like the WHO’s Roll Back Malaria programme. I don’t know how successful these are but my life has definitely been made difficult with the mosquito menace

For now, I have already smashed atleast 6 or 7 of these menacing creatures while writing this up! God Help Us!

long weekend?

Long weekend with no exciting plans.... well this can be very very detrimental to mental health specially of a woman who works 9 to 5 and does monotonous and tiring household chores the entire week! Me being one of these "women" is deperately planning to avoid a bad mood swing.

The first good news at this end was a call from a friend who has come visiting Ranchi from Hyderabad. So that will mean a few hours of nice chill out. This is what I am envisaging and hopefully it will be executed as desired. Another day might be spent at a movie hall watching "any god damn movie"just to spend the day differently. Now you must be wondering whats wrong with me. Why is this such a big issue? So let me clarify, hubby dear does not subscribe to my idea of entertainment and would prefer watching TV or a nice nap any day. So I make these individual plans to break the monotony of life.

But on the third day hubby dear's nap or TV is surely to be sacrificed for another outing and that too at his expense! He being a lawyer has been warned of keeping divorce papers ready if the third day is not executed as per instructions! lol.....

There is another proposition that gives me some excitement and its called cooking. So a delicious spread of chole bhature has been planned and hope fully will be executed well.

So here is my list for the long weekend -

1. Freaking out with a friend

2. Watching movie

3. Freaking out with hubby

4. Cooking

Shall get back on Monday on my report on this check list! Till then enjoy the weekend everyone and pray for my mental health!!! lol..

Earth Hour?

Earth Hour, the WWF initiative is indeed laudable and innovative. However I dont know how many of us switched off the lights of our houses. In my case, well I had no choice, the Jhk State Electricity Board celebrates unnumerable earth hours in our state. So we do our bit everyday voluntarily or involuntarily. Interestingly, in Jharkhand you dont need to blame on anything for forced "earth hours" we have a special custom here unheard of in any other state! On festivals like Ram Navmi and Sarhul (tribal festival) we all are prepared for half a day long power cut which runs late in to the night. The reason? There are massive processions on the streets and such is the religious fervour that people dance and (are perhaps drunk) on the streets for hours not caring about live wires on their heads. Hence the electricity board snaps power for safety! Such is the uniqueness of Jharkhand!

Coming back to this Earth Hour. Seemed like a very glamourous event with Junior AB as the Brand Ambassador. Though the objective is deeply appreciated but I doubt whether it actually served the purpose. Why I am saying this is because I caught a glimpse of the "earth hour celebrations' in New Delhi. Please forgive me but I think it was simply hilarious! The India Gate lights had been turned off and in front of it there was Indian Ocean performing which meant lots of electricity being spent on sounds, lights and mikes. While 100s of people were enjoying the band it seemed ridiculous to blacken the pride of India and celebrate in front of it spending the same amount of energy! I really wish I could do the exact plus minus calculations!