It seems all of us have the habit of saying 'I don't like this/that' and then get busy with our life...we do not think that if the whole society is just going to say the same then the things will ever change?. Our kids learn from us and they continue the same rely race.
The reason why we do not want is take lead varies from people to people....Many times people think that one need to be empowered socially/financially/politically to drive changes but it is not the case always......We need to make something actually happen instead of all of this talking. Some people should make things happen and following example shows that if somebody wants to covert dreams/idea/vision into reality then there is possibility.........
Name : Nine star school
Location : DASDOI Gram Panchayat,KAKORI,Lucknow(25 km away)
Description : one of 8 village-level private schools that have been started since 2001 by a group of young Bahá'ís working under the guidance of Foundation for the Advancement of Science (FAS), a Bahá'í-inspired NGO located in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.
Strength : 80 students
Run by : Sri. Ram Vilas Pal( trained in television repair )
Project : to train and support educated rural youth in the processes and profession of primary education, with the goal of starting small, sustainable, and effective private rural schools.
Challenge : Most important challenge before these young innovators is to keep their schools profitable - which is the key to long-term sustainability. Problems include spiralling costs, regular defaulting in fee payment, and children being pulled out of school to be used for agricultural labour.
Highlights:
1. The owners of these schools, who are also their principals, come from unlikely backgrounds. Mr. Pal was trained in television repair. Another school founder dispensed medicine in his village as a local "doctor." Another was a farmer.What is common among all eight principals is their passion for social transformation and their conviction that school is the place for this to happen. Indeed, as the soft-spoken Mr. Pal says, "The community and the family depend on the school to create a responsible citizen out of the child. When a child is found misbehaving, people ask him, ‘Is this what your teacher teaches you in school?'"
2. School in Dasdoi has a 50-50 ratio of girls to boys, which is unusually high in the region.
3. FAS is not a funding agency and, in fact, has adopted a policy of providing most of its support in the form of training and encouragement, although the foundation does occasionally provide salaries for one or two teachers when the going gets tough.FAS acts as a catalyst. It is just helping people use their potential to find a useful area of work - and to help them satisfy an important need in society.
Cleverness vs Kindness
Founder and CEO of Amazon.com Jeff Bezos was talking at TED. His some points made me rethink of life as they went straight in.He said that everyone of us has 2 options to reflect our character in life :
1-Cleverness - Gift
2-Kindness - Choice
'Cleverness is a gift, Kindness is a choice. ' - Jeff made the case that our character is reflected not in the gifts we're endowed with at birth, but by the choices we make over the course of a lifetime.Many times( or all the time) during our lifetime we have the option of :
- being clever by our deeds and words
- being kind by our deeds and words
- being kind and clever both
Sometimes, we overestimate ourselves with our gift. And some bad decisions force us to pay an arm and a leg. Many times we realized our mistake and try to take it back but sometimes it becomes difficult to go back the way things were. If we are unlucky, it can ruin our whole life.He gave example from his life when his intention was to be admired for being clever and smart but it did not work out that well.
PS ! One can be clever and be kind, but if you are trying to be clever, then you run the risk of being neither. Trying to be clever makes it about you. Being kind is about the other.
1-Cleverness - Gift
2-Kindness - Choice
'Cleverness is a gift, Kindness is a choice. ' - Jeff made the case that our character is reflected not in the gifts we're endowed with at birth, but by the choices we make over the course of a lifetime.Many times( or all the time) during our lifetime we have the option of :
- being clever by our deeds and words
- being kind by our deeds and words
- being kind and clever both
Sometimes, we overestimate ourselves with our gift. And some bad decisions force us to pay an arm and a leg. Many times we realized our mistake and try to take it back but sometimes it becomes difficult to go back the way things were. If we are unlucky, it can ruin our whole life.He gave example from his life when his intention was to be admired for being clever and smart but it did not work out that well.
PS ! One can be clever and be kind, but if you are trying to be clever, then you run the risk of being neither. Trying to be clever makes it about you. Being kind is about the other.
IT professionals to Doodhwala ....
In today's world a lot of people love to work in IT companies as IT is fast progressive career and it lets them good salary, cosy working environment,foreign trips and free laptop,mobile,internet and lunch(subsidized or free). Once they join an IT company , this kind of life style becomes daily routine. There are very few who have the courage to change the course of their life and get out of this mental and physical comfort zone and strive for change in society.....these guys are among those did it............
Names : Shashi Kumar, Ranjith Mukundan, Venkatesh Sesasaye and Praveen Nale
Former Employer : Wipro Ltd,Banglore
Location : Kodihalli village of Channarayapatna taluk,Hassan district.
Business venture : Akshayakalpa Farms and Foods Ltd ( milk dairy venture)
Business Partner :21
Investment : Rs 15 crore
Land : 24 acre
Stakeholders : 300 formers
Setup period : 5 months
Aim : To promote rural entrepreneurship in the agro sector to create employment and prosperity in villages, to prevent the educated unemployed from abandoning agriculture and migrating to cities
Social Benefit of Venture :
1. Farmers will be educated on modern cattle-rearing methods, milking machines and increasing milk production.
2. The company will help the farmers get loans from banks to set up satellite farms and purchase cows. The milkman will sell milk directly to our company without any middlemen, the transportation of milk and regular medical check-ups of cows will be free for milkmen registered with company
3. Each form will be equipped with sensors, GPS, pedometers and other equipment to monitor and trace the movements of cows, how much milk a cow produces every day, and to check the animals' body temperature and keep tabs on their health. All this data will be monitored by the dairy.
Names : Shashi Kumar, Ranjith Mukundan, Venkatesh Sesasaye and Praveen Nale
Former Employer : Wipro Ltd,Banglore
Location : Kodihalli village of Channarayapatna taluk,Hassan district.
Business venture : Akshayakalpa Farms and Foods Ltd ( milk dairy venture)
Business Partner :21
Investment : Rs 15 crore
Land : 24 acre
Stakeholders : 300 formers
Setup period : 5 months
Aim : To promote rural entrepreneurship in the agro sector to create employment and prosperity in villages, to prevent the educated unemployed from abandoning agriculture and migrating to cities
Social Benefit of Venture :
1. Farmers will be educated on modern cattle-rearing methods, milking machines and increasing milk production.
2. The company will help the farmers get loans from banks to set up satellite farms and purchase cows. The milkman will sell milk directly to our company without any middlemen, the transportation of milk and regular medical check-ups of cows will be free for milkmen registered with company
3. Each form will be equipped with sensors, GPS, pedometers and other equipment to monitor and trace the movements of cows, how much milk a cow produces every day, and to check the animals' body temperature and keep tabs on their health. All this data will be monitored by the dairy.
Mamta Banarjee- Where the mind is without fear
- WHERE the mind is without fear and the head is held high
- Where knowledge is free
- Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
- By narrow domestic walls
- Where words come out from the depth of truth
- Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
- Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
- Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
- Where the mind is led forward by thee
- Into ever-widening thought and action
- Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
Few years back many political stalwarts used to call her names, never thought that this lady from the dingy alleys of Kalighat, dressed in a simple cotton sari and a pair of hawai chappals, would ever be CM with such majority and will become the darling of common Bengalis....but she did so. In 1993,Mamata Banerjee, then a Youth Congress leader, stormed Writers’ Buildings and sat on a dharna in front of the chamber of then CM Jyoti Basu, demanding justice for an alleged rape victim. As she refused to budge, the police caught her by the hair, dragged her out and locked her up.Now in 2011 ,she nailed the same 'Mugal' govt. and become the CM.
Team : I see her triumph not only because of her simplicity,audacity and honesty but because of the team she has chosen in this election as well.She has fine balance of ministers which includes IPS officers,IAS officers judges ,artists and technologists and so I am very much hopeful that now she will live up to the expectations and prove the world again 'what Bengal thinks today. India thinks tomorrow'.I just want to mention some of the key people in her team as well :
- Manish Gupta(Armymen turned IAS, Former Chief Secretary of WB)
- Amit Mitra(DSE educated former secretary general of FICCI)
- Rachpal Singh(Retired IG, joined the party when Didi asked him)
- Sabeer Bhatia and Derek O'Brien(Famous IT guy and quiz master respectively)
- Abhijit Mukherjee(SAIL GM)
- Rabi Ranjan Chattopadhya ( A retired professor)
Process : Another thing which not everybody has noticed - the way TMC has fought the election this time. People like Sabeer Bhatia and Derek O'Brien had made no stones unturned to make sure that Mamta's message reached to common people in most effective manner and she should hit the right note at the right time and at the right place.Comparing the Mamta's election campaign with Obama' campaign is not hyperbolic at all. The only difference I see here is the scale,geography and audience(in WB most of it is rural).Some highlights...
- Advertisements were published on not only on TV,FM channels,mobiles but also on web portals, Facebook. Twitter was used as well for minute to minute feedback and thought exchange.
- Positive Campaigning - Bodla noy, Amra bodol chai', (We don't want revenge, we want change)
- Bengalis are intellectual, emotional, poets, and philosophers but not fighter.Mamta is projected as fighter to these people who loves her fighting spirit.
- Connect at the local level and try to penetrate the feelings with personal touch.
What is the Best Breakfast ?
I guess my stay in Norway is making me more and more health concious everyday and I look for the reasons to eat anything ( or look for the reason for not eating something). In the same context for many days I was thinking what could be the 'the healthiest/best/ideal breakfast'.
Breakfast should include protein and plenty of fiber; the combination will help satisfy our hunger and will keep us feeling full until lunch time.The protein can come from low-fat meat, eggs, nuts or dairy products. High-fiber foods include fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Mind it that we all are living in busy+expensive world and so a healthy breakfast doesn't need to be extravagant or take a long time to prepare.
Recently I read about a survey conducted in Britain where people between 19 and 64 years of age were involved in sampling to find out what breakfast works among them as 'best'.
Conclusion : The best way to start the morning is with-a bowl of cereal+egg, as it makes people less likely to turn to fatty, sugary food through the rest of the day.People who eat breakfast cereal generally eat less fat, saturated fat and sugar than those who do not and have better intakes of protein and important micro-nutrients, such as iron, vitamins and calcium.
Cereal should be combined with an egg(preferably boiled with or without yolk).
Why Cereal ? Cereal is a good source of calcium and numerous other key nutrients, such as fibre, protein and carbohydrate.There are many options in cereals we have :
- Corn flakes ( less fibre ,less iron )
- Bran flakes ( made of wheat and has more fibre and iron )
- Musli
- Seeds ( Muskmelon Cantalope i.e kharbooja..)
- Raisins
- Oat-based cerials like Cheerios ; oatmeal - contains helps in decreasing LDL(bad cholesterol)
- Shredded Wheat
- PLUS - Adding some fruits like banana and strawberry can enhance fruity touch to breakfast as well.
Tips : If possible then go for fortified cereals as they have more nutrients.
Why Egg ?
- One egg contains 5.5/6 grams of protein and some healthful unsaturated fats.
- The average large egg contains 212 mg of cholesterol. All the cholesterol lies in yolk.
- Eggs are also a good source of choline, which has been linked with preserving memory, and lutein and zeaxanthin, which may protect against vision loss.(More than 90% of Americans are choline-deficient.)
- Egg also contains - vitamin D which is necessary for health of the bones, vitamin E which repairs cells and Vitamin B2 which is required for normal blood formation.
- One egg contains 65 calories.
- eggs and cardiovascular disease : No evidence of an overall significant association between egg consumption and risk of CHD(-coronary heart disease) or stroke in either men or women.Higher egg consumption appeared to be associated with increased risk of CHD only among diabetic subjects.
Egg Myths:
- All that cholesterol goes straight to your bloodstream and then into your arteries. Not so. For most people, only a small amount of the cholesterol
in food passes into the blood. Saturated and trans fats have much bigger effects on blood cholesterol levels.
- Eating eggs is bad for your heart. The only large study to look at the impact of egg consumption on heart disease—not on cholesterol levels or other
intermediaries—found no connection between the two. In people with diabetes, though, egg-a-day eaters were a bit more likely to have developed heart disease
than those who rarely ate eggs.
Recommendation :
- If you like eggs, eating one a day should be okay( especially if you cut back on saturated and trans fats ).
- Boiled egg is healthier than an omelette.
- Store eggs in the refrigerator where they will stay fresh for about one month.
- Nutritionists suggest that you can consume three eggs in a week to receive adequate health benefits.
- healthy people can safely enjoy eggs without increasing their heart attack risk.
- eggs' satiety index is 50% than that of most breakfast cereals
- The shell's colour is not related to the quality or nutritional value of the egg itself.
- eating two eggs for breakfast can help us to lose weight.
Breakfast should include protein and plenty of fiber; the combination will help satisfy our hunger and will keep us feeling full until lunch time.The protein can come from low-fat meat, eggs, nuts or dairy products. High-fiber foods include fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Mind it that we all are living in busy+expensive world and so a healthy breakfast doesn't need to be extravagant or take a long time to prepare.
Recently I read about a survey conducted in Britain where people between 19 and 64 years of age were involved in sampling to find out what breakfast works among them as 'best'.
Conclusion : The best way to start the morning is with-a bowl of cereal+egg, as it makes people less likely to turn to fatty, sugary food through the rest of the day.People who eat breakfast cereal generally eat less fat, saturated fat and sugar than those who do not and have better intakes of protein and important micro-nutrients, such as iron, vitamins and calcium.
Cereal should be combined with an egg(preferably boiled with or without yolk).
Why Cereal ? Cereal is a good source of calcium and numerous other key nutrients, such as fibre, protein and carbohydrate.There are many options in cereals we have :
- Corn flakes ( less fibre ,less iron )
- Bran flakes ( made of wheat and has more fibre and iron )
- Musli
- Seeds ( Muskmelon Cantalope i.e kharbooja..)
- Raisins
- Oat-based cerials like Cheerios ; oatmeal - contains helps in decreasing LDL(bad cholesterol)
- Shredded Wheat
- PLUS - Adding some fruits like banana and strawberry can enhance fruity touch to breakfast as well.
Tips : If possible then go for fortified cereals as they have more nutrients.
Why Egg ?
- One egg contains 5.5/6 grams of protein and some healthful unsaturated fats.
- The average large egg contains 212 mg of cholesterol. All the cholesterol lies in yolk.
- Eggs are also a good source of choline, which has been linked with preserving memory, and lutein and zeaxanthin, which may protect against vision loss.(More than 90% of Americans are choline-deficient.)
- Egg also contains - vitamin D which is necessary for health of the bones, vitamin E which repairs cells and Vitamin B2 which is required for normal blood formation.
- One egg contains 65 calories.
- eggs and cardiovascular disease : No evidence of an overall significant association between egg consumption and risk of CHD(-coronary heart disease) or stroke in either men or women.Higher egg consumption appeared to be associated with increased risk of CHD only among diabetic subjects.
Egg Myths:
- All that cholesterol goes straight to your bloodstream and then into your arteries. Not so. For most people, only a small amount of the cholesterol
in food passes into the blood. Saturated and trans fats have much bigger effects on blood cholesterol levels.
- Eating eggs is bad for your heart. The only large study to look at the impact of egg consumption on heart disease—not on cholesterol levels or other
intermediaries—found no connection between the two. In people with diabetes, though, egg-a-day eaters were a bit more likely to have developed heart disease
than those who rarely ate eggs.
Recommendation :
- If you like eggs, eating one a day should be okay( especially if you cut back on saturated and trans fats ).
- Boiled egg is healthier than an omelette.
- Store eggs in the refrigerator where they will stay fresh for about one month.
- Nutritionists suggest that you can consume three eggs in a week to receive adequate health benefits.
- healthy people can safely enjoy eggs without increasing their heart attack risk.
- eggs' satiety index is 50% than that of most breakfast cereals
- The shell's colour is not related to the quality or nutritional value of the egg itself.
- eating two eggs for breakfast can help us to lose weight.
In land of sunshine, Indians suffer Vitamin D deficiency ?
I am living in Norway and most of the time Indians here say that we Indians don't have any problem related to Vitamin D deficiency as we are from land of sunshine. Later I read something and realized they are partly correct. So here, I want to highlight the following which is not very well known.Indians in most part of the country suffer from Vitamin D deficiency.
- Calcium source : Milk is actually only one of many sources of calcium—dark leafy green vegetables and some types of legumes are among the other sources.
- 100 gm milk has 120 mg of calcium.
- Skimmed cow's milk contains slightly more calcium than full-fat milk because calcium is found in the watery part, not the creamy part.
- If you are taking a supplement to get your daily calcium make sure you are also taking magnesium with it.Magnesium is the transport that brings the calcium to your cells. The ratio of magnesium to calcium should be 2:1. In other words if you are taking 1200mg of calcium you should also be taking 600mg of magnesium for a complete solution.
- While skimmed milk is a perfect health drink for adults and is excellent as part of a fatcontrolled diet, it should not be given to children under five because of its low calorie, fat and vitamin content.
- Soya milk has long been regarded as the healthy alternative for those who are intolerant to lactose - the sugar found in cow's milk.
Yes, in the land of plentiful sunshine (which makes this vitamin in the body), we suffer from Vitamin D deficiency. In short, it’s right to say that people of both north and south India suffer from this deficiency, in many cases even poor bone health.
One big reason: lack of calcium in the diet. Vitamin D helps in the absorption of calcium in the body. Indian doctors who’ve studied this say in
- rural India, due to exposure to sun, Vit-D levels are good in the body but calcium intake is poor
- urban India, due to better diet, calcium levels in the body are sufficient but Vitamin D level is poor. Blame it on long indoor hours (often under air conditioner) and inadequate exposure to sun.
D FOR DEFICIENCY
The causes:
Indoor confinement during the day
Darker skin pigmentation
Use of sunscreen
Poor intake of calcium
Low maternal levels of vitamin D
Vegetarian diet as vitamin D occurs only in foods of animal origin
Living at higher altitude
Preventive measures:
Direct exposure to sunlight, at least 30 minutes/day
Good calcium intake (equivalent to 1 litre of milk)
Artificial fortification of dairy products or infant foods
Supplementation to lactating mothers
If on supplements, check for optimum dosage
So recommended Calcium intake is :
- Babies( between 0 and 6 months ) - at least 210 milligrams of calcium/day.
- Kids( between 7 months and 1 year )- 270 mg/day
- Children( between 1 and 3 year)- 500 mg/day
- Children( between 4 and 8 year)- 800 mg/day
- Children( between 9 and 13 year)-1300 mg/day
- Adults( between 19 and 50 )- 1000 mg/day
- Calcium source : Milk is actually only one of many sources of calcium—dark leafy green vegetables and some types of legumes are among the other sources.
- 100 gm milk has 120 mg of calcium.
- Skimmed cow's milk contains slightly more calcium than full-fat milk because calcium is found in the watery part, not the creamy part.
- If you are taking a supplement to get your daily calcium make sure you are also taking magnesium with it.Magnesium is the transport that brings the calcium to your cells. The ratio of magnesium to calcium should be 2:1. In other words if you are taking 1200mg of calcium you should also be taking 600mg of magnesium for a complete solution.
- While skimmed milk is a perfect health drink for adults and is excellent as part of a fatcontrolled diet, it should not be given to children under five because of its low calorie, fat and vitamin content.
- Soya milk has long been regarded as the healthy alternative for those who are intolerant to lactose - the sugar found in cow's milk.
Interesting experiment ?
Location : Delhi Slum Area.
Experiment participants : Poor slum dwellers who did not have a ration card but wanted to apply for one.
Strategy : Divide all these people into 4 groups in random manner and then they are asked to randomly apply for ration cards.
Group 1 : The first group applied for the ration card and then did nothing more about it
Group 2 : The second attached a letter of recommendation from an NGO to their ration card application.
Group 3 : The third paid a bribe after putting in their application
Group 4 : The fourth enquired about the status of their ration card application through an RTI request shortly after the initial application.
Result ....Guess.........................Winner is Group 3.
i.e the group who paid a bribe was by far the most successful, in that its application was processed faster.
But who was Second ......But interestingly, the group that put in an RTI request was almost as successful.
What about others......Hardly anyone in the other two groups received their ration card during the 11-month duration of the study.
Hint for future: Lokpal bill must ensure that 'accountability is fixed' ASAP and process of fixing the accountability i.e legal implementation of lokpal bill should be the top priority of Govt.Also the RTI was filed in court so even RTI filing can become a big business and courts later submerged with millions and millions of RTI applications.
Here we have to consider that Union Law Minister M Veerappa Moily, who is also the convenor of the Lokpal Bill Joint drafting panel can play a pivotal role even out of the committee as he can expedite the initiative to dispose of all pending cases in various courts across the country.
PS : India has most number(30 million) of legal cases pending in the whole world.
Experiment participants : Poor slum dwellers who did not have a ration card but wanted to apply for one.
Strategy : Divide all these people into 4 groups in random manner and then they are asked to randomly apply for ration cards.
Group 1 : The first group applied for the ration card and then did nothing more about it
Group 2 : The second attached a letter of recommendation from an NGO to their ration card application.
Group 3 : The third paid a bribe after putting in their application
Group 4 : The fourth enquired about the status of their ration card application through an RTI request shortly after the initial application.
Result ....Guess.........................Winner is Group 3.
i.e the group who paid a bribe was by far the most successful, in that its application was processed faster.
But who was Second ......But interestingly, the group that put in an RTI request was almost as successful.
What about others......Hardly anyone in the other two groups received their ration card during the 11-month duration of the study.
Hint for future: Lokpal bill must ensure that 'accountability is fixed' ASAP and process of fixing the accountability i.e legal implementation of lokpal bill should be the top priority of Govt.Also the RTI was filed in court so even RTI filing can become a big business and courts later submerged with millions and millions of RTI applications.
Here we have to consider that Union Law Minister M Veerappa Moily, who is also the convenor of the Lokpal Bill Joint drafting panel can play a pivotal role even out of the committee as he can expedite the initiative to dispose of all pending cases in various courts across the country.
PS : India has most number(30 million) of legal cases pending in the whole world.
Can Social networks assist job hunting ?
Here in Norway ( and in many other western countries like States,UK,Canada...) most of the recruiters invariably do Google to find out the suitability of prospective employees who have foreign origin( it does not mean that they don't do it for native people) .They do it because as foreigners it is difficult for them to find out the personality of another foreigner( because culture plays a role in personality) who comes from a not only from a different country but from a different continent.Dating partners,Landlords do online research about each other before they get into deeper waters. Even neighbours do digital social network snooping on neighbours.
How it works for Employers :
- They Google search on their prospective candidates and explore social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn to cross-check before they hire anyone.
- They read blogs,comments,posts to understand your attitude.nature and philosophy.
- All the time they give a call to reference (mentioned in resume) and confirm about his behaviour , attitude and work-ethics( not much emphasis is there on technical side as these calls are made by HR guys- who typically do not have much idea about the technical aspects).
Positive side : Now one can use these social networking sites as an extension to resume and
SO DO NOT RESTRICT YOUR RESUME TO RESUME....LET MAKE DIGITAL SOCIAL RESUME.
Recommendations :
- Create Blogs and share your technical and social ideas with others.
- Post your response on others blogs.
- Have a detailed(matching) linked-in profile which gives the SAME information but in different style( so that you can explain your career in different perspective)
- Avoid sharing your spur-of-the-moment opinions, risque photos and outrageous experiences with others including strangers, the danger of compromising your digital identity, privacy and social reputation and, consequently career prospects, is tremendous.
- Try to avoid making public comments ( which have many meanings) as when information goes viral, we cannot recall it a curse of the digital age. Eg. Many Indian politicians/celebrities have been discovering that people have taken their twitter comments in different context.
- Always remember that our digital pasts may not be undone and can haunt us.
- Settings : On all the networking sites they have provided some features that can help us to limit our personal information available online; so change your private settings, delete unwanted comments and remove your names from any photos tagged to identify you ( that is not needed). recently I have a call from friend of mine and he asked about some information that I changed on my facebook account and then I realized that I have to change my Facebook privacy settings to restrict some information outflow......
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