www.BPODigest.com i-Vortal

IPPIMail To Raise Money for Charities

ippimail a new way of emailing and helping to raise money for charities every time you use it.
In IPPIMail words:

Ippimail is a way for the average person to leverage the value of their 'Personal Information', anonymously through a trusted system, for the benefit of their chosen charities and society in general.

Our hope is to make the advertising on our site so targeted that it transcends advertising and becomes a resource. We might come to love it after all!

Ippimail aims to create a community where individuals raise funds for their favored charities on a day to day basis through using the site. It can also donate funds rapidly in response to world events, such as a natural disaster. A bit like 'Band Aid' at a moment's notice.

The concept behind Ippimail is very simple: advertisers and marketeers will pay a great deal of money to place advertisements in front of exactly the right people.

In order to do this accurately they need to know as much about each individual person as possible. They need your 'Personal Information'.

This Personal Information is the lifeblood of a marketeer. It is often gathered surreptitiously and sold on as a valuable commodity. Gathering and analysing this information is a huge industry.

It is important to understand that marketeers don't need to know who you are, they just need to know about you.

The cornerstone of the Ippimail project is our questionnaire. This is the Personal Information the marketeers need and which allows us to target their advertising. Ippimail gathers this information and allows marketeers to use it without invading your privacy.

The Death Of NewsPaper

Check out the flash movie @ EPIC 2014, narrating how Google is going to take kill New York Times.

Its kind of scary. Well, if you look at the happennings in the technology it might be possible that the connected world might be going in the direction shown, but the non-connected world will remain the same.

Comedy by East Indian American

Check out the stand up comedy by an East Indian American @ http://rack1.nethosters.com/~charles/russell/russell.ram.

Warning: Make sure that you have the sense of humor to appreciate the ethnic slurs in the show.

can't get your stand up... interested...

i'm pretty damn funny too... accents and all

i'm a writer/teacher/performer/comedian and business woman

store's called "the bombay hippi" cool funky fashion and art and masks and...

1-250-265-4766

Posted by farah tejani.

JavaDoctor - Tips/Tricks Of Troubleshooting

Java Doctor is a book about diagnosing and troubleshooting enterprise applications, covering the methodologies, techniques and tools needed to successfully identify problems in scalability, performance and availability. No, this is not another performance book. In fact, it’s quite different. Most performance tuning books look at how best to optimize your application. The missing piece is how to best identify the parts of your application that actually need tuning. The difficulty increases exponentially when such an exercise needs to be performed in production (as opposed to development, QA or UAT) environments that are faltering. This book has been written by two Sun Microsystems consultants who have been heavily involved in troubleshooting gigs throughout the world.

Sounds interesting? Would you like to contribute? Here’s how: We’ve dedicated an entire chapter to a series of bite-size tips. We are inviting members of TheServerSide.com community to submit troubleshooting tips for possible inclusion in this book. We’re looking for the best of the best, and in return for your accepted and qualified submission we’ll acknowledge your contribution in the book (and optionally your contact info). Talk about instant exposure!

For more Info visit TheServerSide.com - Java Doctor Book in Review and Community Contribution Project

I have read Chapter 9: Reality: Action & Pitfall Tips and it is extremely useful. I am working on a clob saving issue in our production environment and if the fix works, I will send over it and see if it gets published.

Sania Goes Down Fighting with Serena Ace to Ace

This is a picture of Sania while she was playing Serena. You can see a visible difference from her pervious pictures. In all her previous pictures she looks at ease and very delicate, but in this picture she flexes her muscles truly fighting. Sania showed plenty of spirit as she saved two match points on her serve but Williams completed the victory with an ace.

In her latest interview she says:

"It was my first Grand Slam. I played against Serena Williams and I could not have asked for more."

"(But) the next time, I do not want just to play against Serena. I want to defeat her,"

True Spirit of the fighter!!!!

.......ya she is supurb. She has give an identity to the women tennis players in india. she should be incouraged.

Posted by Utsav Srivastava.

Atta Girl,
Our country is proud and not just because she represents us but she has done us proud on global map........................

Posted by som.

Dad got Best Officer For Tsunami Relief Efforts

On this Republic Day, my dad is awarded as the Best Officer for the Tsunami Relief Efforts in Prakasam District, Andhra Pradesh, India. Its getting increasingly difficult for me to catch up with my dad year after year, he keeps raising the bar. Anyways, Dad congratulations.

He also adviced on the efforts needed to rebuild the fishermens lives in the article @ http://www.ramdhanyk.com/movabletype/archives/thoughtprocess/001351.html

PHP Email Script

Here is a link to a php script that can be used to send emails:

Thank you

Posted by Anas.

In post-tsunami India, caste lines re-emerge

I wonder how come Indian papers do not report such incidents, are they immune the happennings arround them?

Startribute reports: In post-tsunami India, caste lines re-emerge

Muthu Vellaithevan, a farm laborer who is part of India's untouchable caste, lost seven goats and a cow when massive waves lashed at his coastal village on Dec. 26. The water also swept away his thatch-roofed mud hut.

But he said his real problems began after the water receded, when he and his people found themselves the targets of aid discrimination by the fishermen of his village.

"Forty families from my community took shelter in a school building outside the village," recalled Vellaithevan, 35, a father of three. "But in two days, the fishermen's families at the shelter began troubling us. They did not allow us to sleep and eat with them. They did not want to be under the same roof with us. We were forced to leave. Our homes were destroyed and our children were hungry. Where could we go?"

The South Asian disaster has ripped open centuries-old fault lines of caste in rural India's rigid social hierarchy. In the district of Nagapattinam, where more than 6,000 people died, untouchables from about 10 villages have openly protested what they call discrimination against them in the provision of relief supplies and access to shelters.

The Indian constitution outlaws the country's 3,000-year-old caste system, in which society is organized into groups ranked in a strict hierarchy. But many Indians retain the system mentally. Untouchables are at the bottom of the rural social order; people of other castes often consider them unclean and refuse any contact with them.

The chief of Thirumullaivasal village, Shankuntala Natesan, a woman from the fishing community, denied the charges of aid discrimination.

She said the losses suffered by the untouchables were small because they had little to begin with. She said 90 fishing people and three untouchables died in the village.

"We have lost everything. Our homes, boats and lives," Natesan said, as she showed a television set and refrigerator that lay broken in her home. "They lost their thatch roofs, a few goats and maybe a sickle and a spade."

The fishing families lived closest to the sea in this coastal community and appeared to have suffered the most damage, in loss of both lives and livelihood, in this area. The bulk of relief supplies, from the government and private organizations, has gone to them.

"The fishermen have cornered all the relief supplies that come into the village. The whole world thought that only the fishermen are the victims," said Selvi Thangavelu, 40, whose husband washed fish that were brought from the sea and loaded them into trucks. "When we queued up for food or clothes, they said, 'Go away, we have suffered the most because we have lost lives and boats. What have you lost?' Our lives and our work are closely tied to theirs. But nobody paid any attention to us."

A senior bureaucrat looking after relief operations in Nagapattinam district acknowledged some problems with supplies not reaching the untouchables.

"In such a big calamity, there is bound to be some complaints about distribution of relief supplies. We are trying to address these gaps," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Fishermen bore the brunt of the tragedy. The untouchables also faced the problems, but to a lesser extent. Naturally all the attention was on the fishing community. But there is no deliberate caste discrimination."

When they were thrown out of the school building, Vellaithevan and others went to a marriage hall and lived separately there for 10 days. The government built plastic-roofed tents for 10 untouchable families in the village, while all the fishing families received shelters, he said. Vellaithevan's family now lives near the road in a small tent that he made by tying old borrowed saris to three bamboo poles.

When the government gave the family the equivalent of $90 and two sacks of rice as immediate relief a week ago, they returned to their village. "Now we cook our own food with the help of the money," he said.

In Thirumullaivasal, 55 untouchable families have been living in a school building away from the fishermen's tents. A private charity group cooks community meals in the village, but the untouchables allege that they mostly have served the fishing families.

"The fishermen say we will be fed only if there is extra food," said Neesa Madiazhagan, 28, an untouchable mother of two small children, living in the school building. "Whenever a relief truck enters the village, they unload it for themselves first. Whatever is left over is sent our way."

I keep argueing with many friends in US that untouhability is still practiced in most parts of India. All these guys who have never lived in villages tries to argue back that it is not there any more. When I saw the article I really felt bad that my arguement emerged to be correct, I really wished it to go wrong.

Learning How to Think!!!!

Atanu Dey writes: "I think that at a minimum, an educational system must teach people how to think". After reading that I started wondering whether I really know the process of thinking and realized that I really do not know how to do it effectively. I was trying to figure out what to do to learn it and tried to talk to a couple of friends but did not gain much insight into that.

Lately I have been working on preparing essays to apply for Ivy League MBA colleges like harvard, stanford etc. I worked on drafts of a couple of essays and Swapna helped me out a little bit in framing them properly. Last week I asked a long time friend Uday Bhaskar aka Venkata Challagulla to help me out to refine them. Uday has 3 masters and doing his phd now, not a bad bet to rely upon. I met him yesterday evening at starbucks and showed him the essay questions and my answers. He saw the first question and answer and told me that what I wrote there as a complete essay is actually the premise for the essay. He explained that I need to write what kind of situations and thinking process forced me to do such things and what I learnt from each of those experiences. There you go I got my first lesson of 'How to think?'. I was so happy that I got this info from a dear friend of mine. After that we sat on the essay and in about 3 hours we condensed the most of the essay into three sentenses. By that time we were exhausted and we took a hour dinner break and after sat for another 3 hours and completed the main draft of the essay. The evening gave a new insight into the process of thinking. I promised myself to bug Uday every weekend and prepare essay on various subjects and post them on my blog. When I told him about that, he agreed to work with me. I am on the row now, soon I am going to emerge as a guy who knows the brasstracks of 'How to think?', I am completely excited about what is happenning. Wish me luck.

Yo Stanford ain't in no ivy league. The Ivy League has only 8 schools - Harvard, Yale, Princeton, UPenn, Columbia, Dartmouth, Brown , Cornell .

Posted by ck.

Cool Dude

	One day I had this real bad pimple kind of thing on my face and it was itching and paining so badly, I put a bandaid on that to stop myself from itching. I came back after a workout that evening and here we go some cool pics that came out. See more here

hahahahahahahah u deserve itttttt band aid is very smallllll

Posted by namrata.

hello

Posted by lisa.

bud bud ding ding £2.99

Posted by PAKI CUNT.

My Mother Taught Me Life

1. My mother taught me TO APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE.
"If you're going to kill each other, do it outside. I just finished cleaning "

2. My mother taught me RELIGION.
"You better pray that will come out of the carpet."

3. My mother taught me about TIME TRAVEL.
"If you don't straighten up, I'm going to knock you into the middle of next week!"

4. My mother taught me LOGIC.
" Because I said so, that's why."

5. My mother taught me MORE LOGIC.
"If you fall out of that swing and break your neck, you're not going to the store with me."

6. My mother taught me FORESIGHT.
"Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you're in an accident."

7. My mother taught me IRONY.
"Keep crying, and I'll give you something to cry about."

8. My mother taught me about the science of OSMOSIS.
"Shut your mouth and eat your supper."

9. My mother taught me about CONTORTIONISM.
"Will you look at that dirt on the back of your neck!"

10. My mother taught me about STAMINA.
"You'll sit there until all that spinach is gone."

11. My mother taught me about WEATHER.
"This room of yours looks as if a tornado went through it."

12. My mother taught me about HYPOCRISY.
"If I told you once, I've told you a million times. Don't exaggerate!"

13. My mother taught me the CIRCLE OF LIFE.
"I brought you into this world, and I can take you out."

14. My mother taught me about BEHAVIOUR MODIFICATION.
"Stop acting like your father!"

15. My mother taught me about ENVY.
"There are millions of less fortunate children in this world
who don't have wonderful parents like you do."

16. My mother taught me about ANTICIPATION.
"Just wait until we get home"

17. My mother taught me about RECEIVING
"You are going to get it when you get home!"

18. My mother taught me MEDICAL SCIENCE.
"If you don't stop crossing your eyes, they are going to freeze that way."

19. My mother taught me ESP.
"Put your sweater on; don't you think I know when you are cold?"

20. My mother taught me HUMOUR.
"When that lawn mower cuts off your toes, don't come running to me."

21. My mother taught me HOW TO BECOME AN ADULT.
"If you don't eat your vegetables, you'll never grow up."

22. My mother taught me GENETICS.
"You're just like your father."

23. My mother taught me about my ROOTS.
"Shut that door behind you. Do you think you were born in a barn?"

24. My mother taught me WISDOM.
"When you get to be my age, you'll understand."

25. And my favorite: - My mother taught me about JUSTICE.
"One day you'll have kids, and I hope they turn out just like you!"

nice blog.. Keep updating...

Posted by cokegirl.

really enjoyed this one!

Posted by Lisa.

Questions for Entreprenuers

Source: Feld Thoughts: The Torturous World of Powerpoint

Following are the questions to every entreprenuers should address.

1) WHAT IS YOUR VISION?
- What is your big vision?
- What problem are you solving and for whom?
- Where do you want to be in the future?

2) WHAT IS YOUR MARKET OPPORTUNITY AND HOW BIG IS IT?
- How big is the market opportunity you are pursuing and how fast is it growing?
- How established (or nascent) is the market?
- Do you have a credible claim on being one of the top two or three players in the market?

3) DESCRIBE YOUR PRODUCT/SERVICE
- What is your product/service?
- How does it solve your customer’s problem?
- What is unique about your product/service?

4) WHO IS YOUR CUSTOMER?
- Who are your existing customers?
- Who is your target customer?
- What defines an "ideal" customer prospect?
- Who actually writes you the check?
- Use specific customer examples where possible.

5) WHAT IS YOUR VALUE PROPOSITION?
- What is your value proposition to the customer?
- What kind of ROI can your customer expect by using buying your product/service?
- What pain are you eliminating?
- Are you selling vitamins, aspirin or antibiotics? (I.e. a luxury, a nice-to-have, or a need-to-have)

6) HOW ARE YOU SELLING?
- What does the sales process look like and how long is the sales cycle?
- How will you reach the target customer? What does it cost to "acquire" a customer?
- What is your sales, marketing and distribution strategy?
- What is the current sales pipeline?

7) HOW DO YOU ACQUIRE CUSTOMERS?
- What is your cost to acquire a customer?
- How will this acquisition cost change over time and why?
- What is the lifetime value of a customer?

8) WHO IS YOUR MANAGEMENT TEAM?
- Who is the management team?
- What is their experience?
- What pieces are missing and what is the plan for filling them?

9) WHAT IS YOUR REVENUE MODEL?
- How do you make money?
- What is your revenue model?
- What is required to become profitable?

10) WHAT STAGE OF DEVELOPMENT ARE YOU AT?
- What is your stage of development? Technology/product? Team? Financial metrics/revenue?
- What has been the progress to date (make reality and future clear)?
- What are your future milestones?

11) WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR FUND RAISING?
- What funds have already been raised?
- How much money are you raising and at what valuation?
- How will the money be spent?
- How long will it last and where will the company "be" on its milestones progress at that time?
- How much additional funding do you anticipate raising & when?

12) WHO IS YOUR COMPETITION?
- Who is your existing & likely competition?
- Who is adjacent to you (in the market) that could enter your market (and compete) or could be a co-opted partner?
- What are their strengths/weaknesses?
- Why are you different?

13) WHAT PARTNERSHIPS DO YOU HAVE?
- Who are your key distribution and technology partners (current & future)?
- How dependent are you on these partners?

14) HOW DO YOU FIT WITH THE PROSPECTIVE INVESTOR?
- How does this fit w/ the investor’s portfolio and expertise?
- What synergies, competition exist with the investor’s existing portfolio?

15) OTHER
- What assumptions are key to the success of the business?
- What "gotchas" could change the business overnight? New technologies, new market entrants, change in standards or regulations?
- What are your company’s weak links?

City Ring water harvesting

A reader of my blog 'Rajendra Ranade' posted this city ring water harvesting procedure in response to 'Rain Water Harvesting System.

City Ring water harvesting.
---------------------------
Current status
This is mainly applicable to the cities where there is acute water shortage, plus supply it is unreliable and irregular, contaminated. People are forced to buy water. In one case , i have read that per family water expense is of the order of 1500 rs per month. Water has to be piped from reservoirs/rivers from long distances water table has gone down dangerously. In any case, water can no longer be treated as free commodity and some reasonable charges will be borne by users.

The water harvesting in the city area is quite difficult . roads and pucca surfaces make the water run off. The water is dirty. It can contain a lot of dangerous organic and inorganic pollutants.

Also A concept:

Imagine a band of about 5 kms at a distance of 5 kms from the periphery of the city after considering expansion margins is to be defines. This ribbon will be having sparse population and only farm or fallow land. Some villages and grampanchayats etc will be there. It is to be devided into about 5km x 5km squares each squarish area, should be contoured to find run offs and taalaabs. Talaabs should be dug to collect this run off as needed , as close to city perphery as possible. all the run off water from the ribbon will be collected in these multiple ponds. Current depressions/tanks should be considered. From these ponds the water should be piped or transported to the city periphery. At suitable charges. The grampanchayats should make the "works" self financing by proper pricing in the long run.

So typically a city of about 10 km radius plus about 5 km expansion will have a ring band of about 18km radius. i.e. 3.14 x 35 = about 110 kms = about 22 tanks areas. Each with a water collection of over 25 sq km , at 40 cm rainfall collection = about 10 mn cu mtrs collection. 22 tanks = 220 mn cu mtr collection. At 50 ltrs/day/person, for 10 lak persons, we need about 18 mn cu mtrs per year.

These figures canl very a lot , but still they have great potential.

- Employment generation away from city
- Earning to grampanchayats

I have done these calculations many times over, with many mistakes. I hope
they are ok now.

This concept may be worth discussing.

regards
R M Ranade

========
city ring water solution jan 2005

ltr/day/hd=50 dia city+10kms=30
days/yr=365 city area km sq=706.5
ltrs/head/ per yr=18250 ring outer dia=40
ltrs/cu mtr=1000 all area=1256
cu mtrs/per/yr=18.25 ring area sq km=549.5
population=1000000
need cu mtr per yr=18250000

usable rain mtrs=0.5
area needed sq mtr=36500000
sq mtrs / sq km=1000000
needed area km sq=36.5 549.5

========

Sania Mirza Storms into 3rd Round to Fight Serena

Hyderabad girl Sania Mirza created history by winning Petra Mandula in round 2 with a stunning 6-2, 6-1 score.

"I'm very surprised and really excited," said Sania, who swept the last 10 games as she blew away the 27-year-old Mandula, who had once rose to World No. 30, in just 50 minutes.

"It was a no-pressure match for me. I was confident but I didn't think it was going to be that easy."

Now she is all set to fight American seventh seed former World No. 1 Serena Williams. This is truely dream come true for Sania. Read more @ Sania sets up clash with Serena

Sania, You Go Girl!!!!

See How Bush and Bliar Follow Their Nose

Click @ LEADER OF THE FREE WORLD? __________________________________ to find out how Bush and Blair let their noses go.

Sania Mirza Races into Second Round of Aussie Open

Sania Mirza, who Monday became the second Indian woman to reach the second round of a Grand Slam after winning against Cindy Watson of Australia 3-6,6-3,6-0.

She told in an interview to The Time Of India

Initially I was a little nervous. I did not just want to win, I expected to win, and as a result I may have put a little pressure on myself because there were a lot of unforced errors in the beginning.

But as the game went on, my nerves settled, the winners started flowing and everything went smoothly.

Read the complete interview @ I expected to win: Sania Mirza- The Times of India

Good luck to you Sania for future rounds.

Posted by Ramdhan Yadav at 04:00 PM Perma Link | Write A Comment (0)

Dallas Based Java Pro's Unleash J2EE Training 2005

Dallas based J2EE Special Interest Group are going to do a 10 month long J2EE training session with one theory class and one hands on class every month. If you are interested in learning nuts and bolts of J2EE this is the best class to attend. I am not sure if they are publishing the class material on the web or not. If you are interested then you might want to visit their blog and post your interest.
They are looking for sponsorers also, feel free to point the blog to the potential sponsors.

Teachers Profiles:

Erik Weibust is a Texas A&M graduate in his nth year as a Java Developer. He is currently working at nnnnnn and specializes in nnnnnn. A dedicated Sun enthusiast and die hard believer in standardizes practices etc etc more here by Erik. He is also father of 2.

Previous positions in the Java user group community include JavaMUG board membership, webmaster, and current and previous Program Director.

Pete Carapetyan did not start his career as a developer, but got here as quickly as he could after realizing that programmers were having much more fun than anyone else in business. Part time programming from 1980, full time since 1998. A code automation and architectural enthusiast, he is currently under contract to a small Lewisville firm where he acts as Architect and lead developer. He is generally ignored at home by his two teenage children, who are much smarter than him.

I know both of them personally and they are really good at what they do.

I've heard that the Erik Weibust guy really knows his stuff. :)

Posted by Erik Weibust.

Interested for
Java Enterprise Development with the J2EE: Enterprise Java Beans
Training Program

Posted by I.S.Gill.

Gearing up to face interviews

Recently I attended an interivew at Wharton for Executive MBA. The interview lasted for about 50 minutes and I was asked 3 questions in the interview. The questions might have consumed a total of one minute, so that leaves me with a speaking time of about 49 minutes. I knew I was speaking incessantly and the admissions commitee was listening patiently. The interview started with a question somewhat in these lines: 'Tell me how your career started and how it progressed?'. I started of talking typically as if I am telling a story to them and after the answer was over I indicated that I am moving on to next part of the story and started talking talking and talking and some where in between i was asked 'Why MBA?', instead of jumping to the answer I told that, that is exactly where I am going in my talk and went on talking. In between sometimes I felt as if the environemnt is getting drowsy and so I introduced some humor to lighten the heavy talk and showed some colored printouts I carried with me that illustrate my work and my achievements and that worked nicely.

After the interview I started wondering whether the interview went well or not, so I visited some forums and realized that Wharton usually has some standard questions and I have answered all those questions even without being asked. I don't know whether this is good or bad but just a few years back, I was not able to speak in an interview b'cos of various fears that I had and now it has become revese. This interview has certainly given me a chance to me to perceive the progress I have made in the last few years in various fields.

Times of India, India has a nice article about Gearing up to face interviews . This makes a good read and I can kind of identify with the points mentioned there.

Finally one quick advice: Carry originals/printouts(color)/photocopies of documents of your accomplishments or any other things that you want to show to the interview panel. A visual is worth 1000 words, so you know how much time you save by saving to speak 1000 words. And carrying these documents actually demonstrated to the panel that you are prepared for the interview. It also instills confidense in you that you have prepared for the interview well. Confidence is the key.

Well, I have not been admitted to any school yet, so its upto your rationality whether to take this advice or not.

thanks!~ it was indeed a good post .

Posted by neha.

Sure, as long as it helps, I am glad.

Posted by Ramdhan Kotamaraja.

Great work! keep it up.

Posted by Jeevi.

I have an upcoming interview in January 2006 at wharton for the EMBA program. Any tips you would like to share?. I would really appreciate that.

thanks,
Srini

Posted by Srini.

Power Of Failure - Allowing others to 'fail successfully'

In 1996, I went to REC Surathkal to meet Madhukar Reddy, a classmate/friend of mine in intermediate. We were discussion all the spice of life and in the discussion he stated telling that the professors in his college makes sure that the students fail in atleast one subject by the time they graduate. And here I find an article, Allowing others to 'fail successfully', by Kriengsak Niratpattanasai which explains the reason.

"It was a story of a man who was watching a butterfly struggle to break out of its cocoon. After making some progress to work its way through a small hole, the butterfly appeared to simply stop its efforts. For some time, it seemed to make no headway, so the man concluded it was stuck and decided to lend a helping hand by forming a larger opening in the cocoon with scissors.

"Afterward the butterfly emerged easily but with small, shrivelled wings and a swollen body.

"It turned out that the struggle to emerge from the cocoon would have forced the fluid from the butterfly's body into its wings, a necessary process for enabling it to fly. As a result of a man's well-intentioned 'help', he had interfered with nature's life-strengthening process. The butterfly was now doomed never to fly, but to crawl around with its swollen body and shrivelled wings for the rest of its life.

"Many of our failures in life present us with the same kind of challenge that the butterfly faced. Learning, personal growth, skill development, courage, persistence, the potential to empathy, and a host of other desirable life assets can be gained from failing successfully. We cannot hope to become really successful in our lives unless we learn to fail well in a way that prepares us for greater success. If we get caught in the trap of trying to avoid challenge and backing away from our setbacks, we cannot earn the valuable lessons that we need to learn."

Story From Trenches: Life Of Fishermen and reforms needed

My dad, Dr. K. K. Raju, is a highly motivated , dedicated, public service minded person. He truly believes that he is a 'Public Servant' and lives by the same principle. I have been urging him for a while to write about his observations and finally he is here with his first article (edited by me)

This article is based on the observations of fishermen's life and covers the following topics:

1. Lifestyle

2. Victims of money lenders

3. Impact Of Education

4. What they need

1. Lifestyle: Fishermen live is small villages on seas shores headed by Panchayat of 4 to 5 persons and all the fishermen of the village abide by the panchayats rules and regulations. (If you have seen 'Swadesh' movie you will know what panchayat looks like.) They usually live in small huts beside sea with bare minimum amenities and almost no luxury items. They usually don't have deep contacts with people in villages/towns on the main land.

   Fishermen go for fishing on the sea and stay there for about a week and come back with good catch. They sell the catch to the middlemen and earn handsome(in their terms) money. But all of this handsome money is immediately spent on alcohol. Once they come out of alcohol influence they realize that they need money to manage their families and so go to money lenders to borrow money. According to my research 70% to 80% of the fishermen above the age of 30 are alcoholics. In lean periods i.e. when the time is not conducive for fishing their debts keep mounting as they don't have land or cattle or any other occupation to earn a living.

2. Victims of money lenders / middle men: Who are these money lenders? They are the same middlemen who buy their catch, supply alcohol to drink . Lets see how this cycle works:

   • Fishermen go for fishing and come back with their catch.
   • They sell the catch at drop dead prices to the middlemen.
   • They spend almost all of this money on alcohol.
   • Then they go to moneylenders for debts to manage their lives until they go for fishing again.
   
   
   So a regular fisherman is money generation tool for middlemen and the middlemen makes sure that the fishermen are mired in poverty, illiteracy, ignorance and alcoholism.

3. Impact of Education: I have mentioned earlier that about 70%-80% of the fishermen above the age of 30 are alcoholics. To my surprise I realized that only 20%-30% of them below the age of 30 are alcoholics. And I had to ask these questions:

   Q: “How did this change come?”

   A: “Some of the youth are educated and education changed our perspective. We got exposure to the people on the main land villages and towns and became aware how abstaining from alcohol increased our social status. As non-alcoholics we command more respect in the society.”

   Q: “How many people are educated? What education do they have? ”

   A: All elders are uneducated. Kids are going to school, but the school has facilities to teach only up to 5^th class. Very few of them will go for further studies as there is no local high school and there is no proper road and bus facility to the nearest high school. Hence out of 90 families one intermediate and two tenth class students are there in the village.

   Its surprising that these few meagerly educated people of the village are coming forward to embrace change and the change started with adopting non-alcoholism. Education's impact is not stopping at alcoholism, it continuously keeps displaying its charms. Previously middlemen used to buy fish at exorbitantly low prices and exploit the fishermen. Now the educated youth are coming forward and asking help to form co-operative societies. They explain that co-operative societies at Cochin in Kerala are doing wonders to the fishermen. By forming co-operative societies they can sell the fish without middlemen, distribute the profits among themselves and entirely changing their lifestyles. Benefits of co-operative societies also include capacity to construct cold storages to store fish for longer periods of time, loans/grants from government/banks to safeguard themselves from fishermen, group insurances for fishermen their nets and boats. They are aware of this benefits and they need assistance and guidance to go about this process.

4. What they need:

   • More Education Facilities.
   • Infrastructure like bus, road and may be telephone and other forms of infrastructure.
   • Proper Housing.
   • Land to cultivate and Milch Animals to earn during their lean period and food assurance in their lean periods.
   • Cold storage to store their fish for longer periods and thus command better prices.
   • Insurance facilities.
   • Co-operative societies.

   About The Author: Dr. K. K. Raju, Joint Director, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries, Prakasam Dt. Managing director of Prakasam Dt. sheep breeders co-union ltd. In addition to managing animal husbandry department he also manages works of agriculture, horticulture, sericulture and fisheries departments as an incharge ATMA. He is currently working as a special officer for TSUNAMI, at NG Padu mandal, Prakasam Dt, Andhra Pradesh, India, to look after the welfare of the fishermen at sea coast. When he was young he has to travel almost 20km everyday on foot to get a high school education.

   Dr. K.K. Raju can be reached at +91-94408-10756 or arun_raj_yadav at yahoo dot co dot in

Good article on the fishermen folk, I must say.

Posted by jammy.

Hi Jammy,

The article is not to tell a story about fishermen, instead it is aimed to change the perspective about their problems. Providing them with fish nets and boats will solve the problem in short term. For long term they should be basically be provided with education and co-operative unions and help them change their future on their own.

Posted by Ramdhan Kotamaraja.

i agree with jammy, it is a good article on fishermen folk!

Posted by Gracie.

Social Worker's Throat Slit - Govt. Callous - What Is Needed?

Varupi Jain
wrote an article Delhi authorities condone vicious attacks in India Together

In the sixth incidence of violence against Parivartan workers in the last year and a half, Santosh, a young worker was attacked murderously on 30 December 2004. India Together readers will be aware that the Delhi-based NGO Parivartan is spearheading a continuous campaign in helping poor citizens in slums and resettlement colonies get their due ration supplies using the state's Right to Information Act. An unidentified person slit the the upper part of Santosh's throat when she was on her way to work. Santosh is 20.

My parents, especially my mom is highly involved in social activities. For many years I used to have a bad feeling that they might get hurt or get into some sort of trouble due to the good work that they do, fortunately nothing like that happened(knock wood). After some observation what I realized is that, my parents are backed up by some powerful people like relatives/friends who are big officials in govt. and lawyers/doctors/other social activists who are influential in the society. I think this display of muscle when needed made a big diference and kept the dangers away from them.

Based on the above observation what I believe is that, social organizations which are trying to do some good work need to go out and seek suport from local officials like collectors,police,lawyers, doctors, other influential social workers etc... so that the anti-social elements know that the organization and its volunteers are backed up with enough muscle and this acts as a nice deterence. I was involved in some soical/political movements; from my personal experience what I can say is that, just a display of the strength/solidarity makes a huge difference how the enemy perceives. And believe me there are lots of good influential people out there who loves to rally arround the good causes, if they are approached. Doing good work is not enough, one need to know how to manage it will too.

SEVEN RULES OF COMPUTER CONTRACTS

1. No Computer Project Is Ever Completed on Time
2. No Computer Project Is Ever Complete
3. If You Can't See the Software
4. There Are No Industry Standards
5. Don't Buy Brand New Technology
6. Salespeople Know Absolutely Nothing
7. Contract Negotiators Are Never Around Later

Icon with a Mission: Swami Vivekananda

PRANAV KHULLAR writes THE SPEAKING TREE: Icon with a Mission: Swami Vivekananda in The Times of India about how the youth can get inspiration from Swami Vivekananda. Here is the article:

Vivekananda exhorted the young to "arise" and "awake", to reject all doctrines and dogmas that were based on superstition and prejudice. Instead, he encouraged youngsters to mine the wisdom of ancient philosophy and tradition. In spite of his fondness for drawing on ancient thought to aid modern living, he was hugely popular, especially among the young and impressionable.

"Jiva is Shiva", he would often say, encapsulating all Vedantic thought in that simple precept that conveyed the importance of treating all humans as equals. Sanyas, for him, was a mere calling. He did not allow it to become an ivory-tower pursuit for himself and his band of brothers. The roadmap to Narayana was through "Daridra Narayana", or service to the poor and the needy. Nirvana was not an escape route to personal salvation; it was a goal to be achieved through collective social uplift.

Brought up in the intellectual climate of late 19th century Calcutta, and touched by the simplicity of Ramakrishna Paramahansa, Vivekananda focused on social uplift — he was deeply perturbed by the terrible poverty of rural India. His dynamism and motivation woke up the youth from a self-induced slumber. Vivekananda advocated body- building and exercise to help boost one's morale and strength. He said: "It would be better to play football than read the Gita..." and the statement was a powerful metaphor for the way he wanted the youth of his time to evolve — fearless, strong and independent in the right sense. It was a call to action, to karma, rather than passivity and inaction.

Vivekananda saw the world as a gymnasium where one learns to become strong and fearless. He dared to attempt to revamp all that was rotting in Indian society, and to enrich and learn from all that was noble. He was a man with a mission, and he was the first to present Vedantic thought in the most simple terms possible. Romain Rolland said of him: "...his words are like great music, phrases in the style of Beethoven...".

Vivekananda's days as a wandering monk shaped his social vision as he came into contact with ground realities in a diverse India. This was to inspire Mahatma Gandhi later to go on a Bharat Darshan to acquaint himself with the 'real' India. "Give me 100 energetic young men and I shall transform India", Vivekananda would say and this led to the founding of the Ramakrishna Order of monks, young men committed to bring about common good.

Vivekananda's message to the West was that we in India were in possession of an enduring and altruistic philosophical legacy that was crucial to keep humans connected not only with one another but also with their environment. He highlighted the unique and redeeming features of Indian culture, but he was also aware that India was slipping in basic socio-economic issues. That's why he felt the need to inspire the young to stir them to act.

Rabindranath Tagore once told a group: "If you want to know India, read Vivekananda". He could well have said to the youth of today: "It is time to read Vivekananda again". Maybe some of his enthusiasm and vigour to bring about a transformation — in the way we relate to one another, think and act — will motivate those among us who need just that little bit of inspiration to start ticking right.

Could you kindly tell me how to reach Pranav Khullar's e-mail address? Thank you!
The Revd Prof J M DAY

Posted by James M. Day.

Could you kindly tell me how to reach Pranav Khullar's e-mail address? Thank you!
The Revd Prof J M DAY

Posted by James M. Day.

Understanding and Reading a Blog

John C. Dvorak writes on Understanding and Reading a Blog

Sell your Electronic Waste at eBay-Rethink

Via: Phil Shapiro's DDN Blog: "ebay pushes computer recycling initiative"

eBay announced that they were supporting a new program called RETHINK to encourage consumers and companies alike to recycle more of the roughly 400 million electronic products that get through away every year.

The new site, available at www.ebay.com/rethink will be a central location where consumers can resell, recycle or donate used electronics.

The program is a massive step in the tech industry which has largely ignored the problems inherent in disposing of the toxic materials that make up computer parts, says Ted Smith, senior strategist for the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition.

"There is a growing awareness of the magnitude of the problem, and we'd rather have an industry-driven solution than a government one," Intel CEO Craig Barrett says. The No. 1 chipmaker will help create advertising campaigns promoting reuse and recycling of computers. "EBay is a powerful way to spread the message" to its 125 million users, Barrett says.

I need to sell my hp laptop through this, this has been lying arround from the time its power adapter broke.

Rajesh Jain Reflects on Swadesh

Rajesh Jain shares his feelings about the movie Swadesh.

Swades is about an India most of us don’t know – and probably don’t want to know. It is an India around us that is very different from us. We cannot get away from it. It stares at us in the form of children begging outside our car’s closed window and us wishing that they’d just go away. It is an India that sits in between all those fancy high-rises and malls that are coming up – we wonder if these eyesores could be erased. It is an India that we encounter occasionally as we take trips to ancestral hometowns – and leave thinking how time has, for the most part, stood still. Even as Swades is about rural India, we cannot escape the symptoms in the slums of urban India. It is as much about the India we did not build after Independence – poverty, overpopulation, illiteracy, malnutrition, darkness still reign across parts of India.

Swades is also a film about hope. It is about the difference that each of us can make in this other India. What this India lacks is vision, will and co-ordination. People there have for the most part accepted that things will be the way they are. The British may have left more than half a century ago, but large parts of India are still in a subjugation mindset – some of it forced by circumstances, some of it accepted due to ignorance. One of us can transform the lives of a thousand. If Lagaan was about how a Bhuvan can bring about change from within, Swades is about how a Mohan Bhargava can bring about change from the outside – freed from the shackles of the past of tradition and culture.

Each of us has to do what we are best at and at the time of our chosing. This change in us has to come from within. Some of us may accomplish this by being entrepreneurs, some by being engineers or doctors to bring about innovations that can make a difference, some by adopting schools or orphanages in this other India, and some by contributing financially. Swades is not about dramatic top-down change, it is about slow bottom-up transformation. It is about many micro-revolutions which need to take place all around.

Swades reminds us that even as one India grows, there is another India that’s still far behind. And whether we like it or not, the land that both occupy is the same. One India cannot go too far leaving the other behind. We are one nation of a billion people. We are all part of one India. What the more fortunate among us have to do is to provide the leadership that can help bring about change in the other India. As we think about the problems of the other India, there are solutions that exist. But for making these real, we will have to leave aside some of our old mindsets.

Atanu Dey captures the essence of this one world: “With maturity comes the realization that one is not just an Indian, or an Indian with a bit of American thrown in, but that one is a member of the extended human family…Some of us have more money, or are more educated, or have different pigmentation. But seen from a sufficiently far remove, we are fairly indistinguishable. We have the same hopes and aspirations, fears and longings, desires and dreams. Our station in life is dictated by a random draw that was made by forces beyond our imagination even, leave alone our control.”

Each of us (as the movie’s byline puts it – “we, the people”), wherever we are, needs to make a commitment in our lifetime to bring about positive change in the land of our birth, one that was once great. We have the potential to make it great again. But for that, each of us has to discover a Mohan Bhargava and Ashutosh Gowariker in us to make a difference and “go, light our bulbs.” Swades beckons!

I can see Mohan Bhargava in our Youth who are ready do something for this country only need is for right direction and right people. This is the right time to come forward and do somthing for our country ( our India).

Posted by Kamal Verma.

I can see Mohan Bhargava in our Youth who are ready do something for this country only need is for right direction and right people. This is the right time to come forward and do somthing for our country ( our India).

Posted by Kamal Verma.

ARC - Alert Retrieval Cahce

What is ARC?
Alert Retrieval Cache. It's a system of collecting, sorting and routing SMS messages for the puposes of alerts and relay communication.

How can a single SMS can save people's lives?
If all the people relevant to that message can receive it, instantaneously. In the following system, the SMS message also contains a way of deciding which recipients are relevant to the message.

Why do we need ARC?
The failure of state-owned and hierarchical warning systems to alert us about the South Asia earthquake & tsunami, despite prior information has put into focus issues of forums for information exchange. What we need is to get credible, real time information from the grassroots to save lives.

How does this ARC work?
Here's a scenario -

Morquendi is a relief worker in Middle Earth, and he runs short of medical supplies, specifically antibiotics. The supplies are needed immediately. He needs to inform someone from his location. He sends out an SMS to ARC, which goes in a format, like this:

Date Time Number Who Where Related to Major issue Specific need Suggested action
Jan03 06:53:26 919819107418 Morquendi Middle Earth Supplies Medical Antibiotics Despatch

The Sorter program looks for similar keywords in the cache, as in Morquendi's message. After the program is done sorting, it links this message to all those numbers that are attached to similar attributes as in Morquendi's original message. Then it flashes this message to all these numbers.

Real-time, instantaneous. People in the vicinity, and anyone across the world who is awake, or knows Morquendi, receives this message.

More Info @ Tsunami Help - ARC