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PURETICS...

PURETICS...


Interesting Findings And World Unfolding Through My Eyes.

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

Naipaul And Bombay

I had four blank, frightening days in the glamorous hotel, during which I did the dispiriting thing of keeping a self-conscious journal with nothing to say. I didn’t like the journal form; it blurred vision. I preferred distance, and the sifting of memory. The comparison that comes to mind now is that of Ibsen, still more poet than playwright, struggling to keep a journal on his trip to the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. Momentous days, fabulous sights: made for a journal, one would have thought; but it must have fatigued Ibsen to be on the outside, dealing only with the externals of things, and he simply stopped. In some such way in Bombay I broke down and gave my dour journal up; and looked around to make another kind of start.

A big board in the hotel lobby advertised a resident or “in-house” fortune-teller; I was often tempted in those four days to go for a reading, to find out whether I would do the book. I didn’t have to do that. One does more in anxiety than one suspects. The book did get started — “Bombay is a crowd” is the opening line I alighted on, and then it moved fast.

Ideas are abstract. They become books only when they are clothed with people and narrative. The reader, once he has entered this book and goes beyond the opening pages, finds himself in a double narrative. There is the immediate narrative of the person to whom we are being introduced; there is the larger outer narrative in which all the varied pieces of the book are going to fit together. Nothing is done at random. Serious travel is an art, even if no writing is contemplated; and the special art in this book lay in divining who of the many people I met would best and most logically take my story forward, where nothing had to be forced.

I had to depend on local people for introductions, and it was not always easy to make clear what I was looking for. Many people, trained in journalistic ways, thought I was looking for “spokesmen” for various interests. I was in fact looking for something profounder and more intrusive: someone’s lived experience (if I can so put it) that would illuminate some aspect, some new turn, in the old country’s unceasing adjustment to new thought, new politics, new ideas of business. So in this book one kind of experience grows out of another, one theme develops out of another.

Part of my luck was the decision, made for no clear reason one day in the Taj Mahal hotel in Bombay, to do the religiously inauspicious Indian thing and travel round India in an anti-clockwise direction. To have gone the other way, north to Delhi and Calcutta and the Punjab would have been to get to the meat of the book too quickly, to leave the rest of the country hanging on, in a kind of anti-climax. To go south first, as I did, was to deal in a fresh way with important things like the influence of caste on the development of Indian science, the little-known century-long caste war of the south, the dispossession of the brahmins. This could be said to prepare the reader (and the writer) for the disturbances of the north: the British in Calcutta, Lucknow, Delhi — all the history of the past century, just below the present.

I have often been asked about note-taking methods during the actual time of travel. I used no tape-recorder; I used pen and notebook alone. Since I was never sure whether someone I was meeting would serve my purpose, I depended in the beginning very often on simple conversation. I never frightened anyone by showing a notebook. If I found I was hearing something I needed, I would tell the person I wanted to take down his words at a later time. At this later time I would get the person to repeat what he had said and what I half knew. I took it all down in handwriting, making a note as I did so of the setting, the speaker, and my own questions. It invariably happened that the speaker, seeing me take it all down by hand, spoke more slowly and thoughtfully this second time, and yet his words had the rhythm of normal speech. An amazing amount could be done in an hour. I changed nothing, smoothed over nothing.

Ambitious and difficult books are not always successful. But it remains to be said that in England this book has been reprinted 32 or 33 times. I marvel at the luck.
For more:http://www.tehelka.com/story_main28.asp?filename=hub070407The_cartographer.asp

Posted by Ajay :: 5:32 PM :: 0 comments

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Story Of Ramesh

There is lot of things happen around us but few things really set us to think like this one where bonded child labour explotiation happened which is still continue in india.
" Ramesh is wiser to day. And "revolt" is the lesson that this 12 - year - old bonded labour has learnt from his agonising stay in the Capital. "I will revolt against my father if he tries to send me back to my master's house," said the domestic help, who was rescued by Delhi government officials, in association with NGO Bandhua Mukti Morcha, from a flat in Timarpur. Though still struggling to come to terms with his new-founded freedom, Ramesh does not hide his eagerness to reunite with his family in Supol district of Bihar. He is not deterred by the fact that it was his father, a poor farmer with five sons, who forced him into bonded laobur. His father had consciously pushed him into the drudgery of bonded labour for a sum of Rs. 3, 500. Another Rs. 1,000 were received by his elder brother from the couple, who exploited Ramesh as domestic help. Even five hours after his rescue, Ramesh, appeared to be living under a threat. The numberous scars on his body - apparently inflicted with a hot iron road by his masters, explained why. "Till the time I return to my village, I get this felling that Mummyji (his master's wife and his main tormentor) would come and take me back," he said, sitting in the office of Swami Agnivesh, Chairman, Bandhua Mukti Morcha. Ramesh used to address his masters as daddyji and mummyji but they rarely treated him like their child. Besides extracting over 17 hours of work from him, his masters allegedly used to beat him up and threaten him that he would be handed over to the police on false theft charges. This class five student's 10 month-long tale of horror also included a three-day confinement in the flat when his masters had gone to a relative's place. During this period, he was made to cook rice - which he had never done earlier - and eat it with sugar. Even this bland three-times-a- day meal didn't come without tabs. "Mummyji used to call up to tell me that I could have my meal," he said. Ramesh claimed he was often beaten up for taking too long in fetching the groceries from the market. His attempts to complain to the neighbours also allegedly invited severe punishment. Ramesh's brother works as a mason in Timarpur area and it was he who left him at the Timarpur flat. Today, Ramesh can't contact him because he doesn't know his address. But, thankfully, he remembers the address of his village house. Probe ordered

NEW DELHI : Divisional commissioner Naveen Chawla has directed Civil Lines SDM Arun Mishra to conduct an inquiry into Ramesh's alleged case of bonded labour. The SDM has been told to submit his report within three days. If the change of "bonded labour" are proved against Ramesh's masters they may be jailed for three years and fined Rs. 2000 under the provisions of the Bonded Labour Abolition (System) Act 1976, he said.

Social workers from the Morcha are likely to take him to his village and Ramesh claimed he can't wait for that moment to arrive."

Posted by Ajay :: 5:16 PM :: 0 comments

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Guru Gregg And His Eternal Controversies

Since Gregg Chappel took over as coach of India two years back he has been in controversies by and large.But,why?he seems find fault with everyone except he himself.What he has to do is manage just 11 boys of indian cricket team but he even failed to do so.Let us examine what he has done and said from when he took over as coach's chair.First he fired Gangulay because of saying he (gangulay) is bad to game as he is badly performing and his attitude is not upto the mark we can swollow this argument as some truth in it .Second thing he said that he want every player should play at any order ,player should be adjustable.Third thing he said he is preparing every player with world cup 2007 in mind.But what we achieved since then by reshuffling players he broke all players rhythm and mental stats as no body was sure when and what his role is.Chappel not been able to fix players on the top and we haven't seen any drastically improvents from his experiment.Why ?Because he failed to do one most important thing which is require is that develop side in cohesive unit.In one word he failed as maneging 11 boys and unable to motivate them as this two things is most important to do anyone who is coach.Lets look how he leak his email,sms etc to media about whats happening in team ,don't he know doing so he is indirectlt breaking team confidence and image as well.John Wright as cocah become succeful because he knows how to combined players who are from differnt background ,from different culture and past baggage as well.He motivated all of them because he understood everybody's strength and weakness and worked on each and every player as their temprament is.Not forced his views but went into their mind and motivate in which manner they wants thats very important as you can't say players are not behaving professionally and maturely while you are coach.You have to make them professinal as thats your job.Not creating excuses.Chappel become failure as coach no doubt about it and his way of funtioning is also looks more like politician than sportsman.He is stubbborn .He must go when he questioned Sachin's credibility .As Sachin is few of those great players who never went into controversies and played without any ego clash.Questioning Sachin's integreity is blunder what Chappel has done.He don't know what he talking about.He must go.........

Posted by Ajay :: 10:32 AM :: 0 comments

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