I have never known any of the Raagas, the Taalas of Carnatic Music nor with the Raags and Alaaps of the Hindustani kind… I dont even understand the concept of notes!! But I am a firm believer that you dont need to understand any of these to appreciate good music. The concept of rhythm or melody to me is just appeasing to your ears and then to the mind. Once it reaches the mind I firmly believe that it can work magic there – transporting you to mythical worlds, escaping from the mundane worries that plague you through the day. Not long ago there was this effort by TM Krishna and Bombay Jayashree to make a feature film with just Carnatic Music compositions. Top notch sound recording and an accoustic delight. You could sample the same at the embedded youtube video below. Sitting with Nam at Fun Cinemas in Cunningham road, surrounded by Silk clad maamis, Veshti clad maamas and the Fab India Kurta donning younger lot – the day was magical. Coupled with the December Chill it was a beautiful evening to just close your eyes and just hear the sound and allow your mind to do the imagination. A journey like none other!
Quick Update – Past few days have been a mixed bag.
1. Summer placements for the current PGP1 batch was a blockbuster event. 4.5 Days for 350 students is not an easy task. Last year it was 4.5 days for 250 students.
2. Been a long time since I made the trip back home. I should go home sometime in the next few days.
3. I lost my watch at L^2. Well this was even before the dancing and drinking. Felt miserable about it and continuing to feel so.
4. Sloth. Procrastination. Longing. – Have always been a part of my DNA … Major guilt trips.
Next few days
1. Submissions and assignments galore. Too much to do. Too little time.
2. Thank you for youtube. Been listening to some real nice songs. Case in Point – Aaj Jaane ki Zid Na Karo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh_UZuNUZR0&feature=related
3. Deadlines. Deadlines and more deadlines. Term V coming to an end. Should start putting things together for the Stanford trip.
4. Should go cry with Andhra Bank for loan amount to fund travel in firang land. A miserable feeling.
5. Contacting companies for the Business Visits for the visiting team from Stanford. It happening in the last week of December doesnt help considering that’s the time when corporate folks would want to go on a vacation.
6. Yes, should find time to write. Been wanting to write… Is it twitter that is killing the urge to write? http://twitter.com/csathya
…If you were me, might be you would be afraid too…might be not…
And then it was morning…When dreams had to be interrupted
PS: This slide stream’s purpose was/is to highlight the utter state of disarray of my room and not my photography skills, which btw is par excellence(insert emoticon for sarcasm here :$)
Mother of all clichés. Seems like it was just yesterday when we were young. Seems like it was just yesterday when we walked along the tree lined road adjoining that famed busy road. Seems like it was just yesterday when we spoke all night of things – some inane and many profound. Seems like it was just yesterday when we jumped in eclectic happiness. Seems like it was just yesterday …It has been four years now. Here’s looking at you…for a lifetime more.
The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme is a landmark scheme in many ways. With a budget outlay of 39,000 Crore in the current budget(2009-10) there is an increased attention towards this scheme and its efficacy in improving quality of rural life.
The scheme has not been without its fair share of detractors. For a larger period, there were questions being raised about leakages in the system to the potential of the programme to be rolled out in such a large scale in all districts across the country. Today, we have moved beyond such questions and we are questioning the nature of works being adopted and whether the assets being created are of a permanent nature and whether the state should be spending huge amounts on this scheme without any tangible long standing assets being created and whether investments are being made in improving the skillset of the beneficiaries which would help them in the longer run. A set of academicians have argued that in the light of non permanency of the assets being created under this scheme, this is nothing but a cash transfer scheme which in the lack of an unique identity scheme can not materialize.[1]
Another issue that the program has to grapple with is the non-uniformity of implementation across different states. Some states like Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu have taken the lead in implementation, whereas other states are still being seen as laggards. What is needed is a national oversight team, under the ministry of labour or ministry of rural development that can identify the best practices across states and disseminate this information.
Issues of lack of awareness amongst beneficiaries, inadequate trained engineering staff to monitor the nature of works being undertaken, inadequacies in staff at the panchayat and taluk levels to provide for the administrative back bone of this scheme – resulting in delayed job cards delivery, delay in processing applications and eventually payments are complaints that have for long plagued the scheme.
On another front, what the NREGA has silently achieved through its payment mechanisms is a larger inclusion of the rural poor into mainstream banking, a move which hitherto was not considered easy. The scheme also scores on transparency measures that are being inbuilt into the program. The MIS systems provided on the program website are fairly comprehensive and ensures information symmetry amongst several stakeholders.
At our visits to gram panchayats in the Kolar district we found that all the problems that we have mentioned about the program still continue to exist. Awareness in several quadrants about this scheme was low, nature of works being adopted appeared ad-hoc and without sound reasoning of long term value being generated and there did exist complaints of delayed payments and procedural delays. However, working silently were people like the secretary of Shivarapatna Panchayat(Malur Taluk), who were working in their own silent ways to ensure that things improved on the implementation front. We commend this indomitable spirit of ground level workers to bring in a transformation at their own level.
At this stage, what is required is critical evaluation of nature of works being undertaken, the ground level issues that hamper the streamlined work delivery and a greater emphasis on parallel up-gradation of beneficiaries’ skill levels.
[1] http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/nrega-vs-nilekani/363493/
Conclusion of “Implementation issues with NREGA” – A submission for “Managing Government Studies” course – Term IV
YST goes down…
This post is an extremely Me-Me-Only post. While some might argue that this blog has always been an exercise in vanity, I still maintain that at several different stages, this blog has served several different purposes.
Take I – Handwriting. Inspired by post at Austere’s, here is a bad resolution photograph of a page from my class notes from a subject called “Managing Government Studies”
Take II – This one is an embedded video from NDTV.com. and as Selukar says, in a sense we shared screen space with Pranab Da himself and I personally feel youths is not the right usage. But maybe I am wrong.
http://www.ndtv.com/news/videos/video_player.php?id=1132742
Take III – This one is for the love of Bangalore, from Times of India. Thanks Darinia. At some levels its a lament on the city, at another level a trip down nostalgia lane or maybe just that I am a glutton.
In the absence of a thumbnail preview. Please feel free to click http://tinyurl.com/m6khr9
End of Narcissistic Content. Regular programming shall continue soon.
