i-Pad mini and SR i-Pad: Latest avatara of Lakshmi and Narayana?!

Design: RK / RwB

Answers to the Statuettes and Awards Quiz

Answers to the Statuettes and Awards Quiz posted on April 15, 2012:

[Dear TSSM and Veena, thanks for taking the quiz! Congrats for getting a few right answers]

1. Golden Globe
The Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign.

2. Ashes
The Ashes is a Test cricket series played between England and Australia since 1882.

3. Bafta
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) is a charity in the United Kingdom that hosts annual awards shows for excellence in film, television, television craft, video games and forms of animation.

4. Dadasaheb Phalke award
The Dadasaheb Phalke Award is India’s highest award in cinema given annually by the Government of India for lifetime contribution to Indian cinema. It was instituted in 1969, the birth centenary year of Dadasaheb Phalke, considered as the father of Indian cinema.

5. Cannes Lion
The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity (formerly the International Advertising Festival) is a global event for those working in advertising and related fields.

6. Dronacharya award
Dronacharya Award is an award presented by the government of India for excellence in sports coaching. The award comprises a bronze statuette of Dronacharya, a scroll of honour and a cash component of Rs.500,000. The award was instituted in 1985.

7. Arjuna award
The Arjuna Awards were instituted in 1961 by the government of India to recognize outstanding achievement in National sports. The award carries a cash prize of 500,000, a bronze statuette of Arjuna and a scroll.

8.  International Indian Film Academy award
The International Indian Film Academy Awards, also known as the IIFA Awards are presented annually by the International Indian Film Academy to honour both artistic and technical excellence of professionals in Bollywood, the Hindi language film industry. Instituted in 2000, the ceremony is held in different countries around the world every year. This award ceremony has been organised by Wizcraft International Entertainment Pvt Ltd – one of India’s premier event management and entertainment agencies – since its inception.

9. Man Booker
The Man Booker Prize for Fiction is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original full-length novel, written in the English language, by a citizen of the Commonwealth of Nations, Ireland, or Zimbabwe.

10. Marcom
MarCom Awards is a creative competition for any individual or company involved in the concept, writing and design of print, visual, audio and web materials and programs. Entries come from corporate marketing and communication departments, advertising agencies, PR firms, design shops, production companies and freelancers. The MarCom statuette graces the trophy cases of some of the top business and communication firms in the world.

11. Emmy
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as an Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards (for film), the Tony Award (for theatre), and the Grammy Awards (for music).

12. Filmfare
The Filmfare Awards are presented annually by The Times Group to honour both artistic and technical excellence of professionals in the film industry of India.

13. Golden Peacock
Golden Peacock Awards have been instituted since 1991. The Golden Peacock Awards are recognised worldwide as the hallmark of corporate excellence.

14. Grammy
A Grammy Award (originally called Gramophone Award) – or Grammy – is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry.

15. ICC Cricket World Cup trophy
The ICC Cricket World Cup Trophy is presented to the winning team of the ICC Cricket World Cup.

16. FIFA
The World Cup is a gold trophy that is awarded to the winners of the FIFA World Cup association football tournament. Since the advent of the World Cup in 1930, two trophies have represented victory: the Jules Rimet Trophy from 1930 to 1970, and the FIFA World Cup Trophy from 1974 to the present day.

17. Eddy
The Editors’ Choice Awards (affectionately called Eddys) recognize the best Mac hardware and software of the year.

18. Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prize is a set of annual international awards bestowed in a number of categories by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895. The prizes in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace were first awarded in 1901.

19. Oscars
An Academy Award is an award bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers. The Oscar statuette is officially named the Academy Award of Merit and is one of nine types of Academy Awards.

20. Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American (Hungarian-born) publisher Joseph Pulitzer in the year 1917 and is administered by Columbia University in New York City.

21. Bharat Ratna
Bharat Ratna is the Republic of India’s highest civilian award, awarded for the highest degrees of national service. This service includes artistic, literary, and scientific achievements, as well as “recognition of public service of the highest order.” In 2011, the Minister for Home Affairs and Prime Minister of India agreed to change the eligibility criteria to allow sportspersons to receive the award.

22. Webby
The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet. Established in 1996 during the Web’s infancy, The Webbys is presented by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, which includes an Executive 1,000-member body of leading Web experts, business figures, luminaries, visionaries and creative celebrities, and Associate Members who are former Webby Award Winners and Nominees and other Internet professionals.

23. Sangita Kalanidhi
Sangeetha Kalanidhi or Sangita Kalanidhi is the title awarded yearly to an expert Carnatic Musician by the Madras Music Academy. This honour is considered one of the highest awards in Carnatic music.

24. Jnanpith
The Jnanpith Award is a literary award in India. Along with the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship, it is one of the two most prestigious literary honours in the country. The award was instituted in 1961. Any Indian citizen who writes in any of the official languages of India is eligible for the honour. It is presented by the Bharatiya Jnanpith, a trust founded by the Sahu Jain family, the publishers of the The Times of India newspaper.

25. Sangeet Natak Akademi
Sangeet Natak Akademi Puraskar (Akademi Award) is an award given by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, India’s National Academy of Music, Dance & Drama. It is the highest Indian recognition given to practicing artists. The award consists since 2003 of Rs. 50,000, a citation, an angavastram (a shawl), and a tamrapatra (a brass plaque). The awards are given in the categories of music, dance, theatre, other traditional/folk/tribal/dance/music/theatre and Puppetry, and contribution/scholarship in performing arts.

26. Ramon Magsaysay award
The Ramon Magsaysay Award is an annual award established to perpetuate former Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay’s example of integrity in government, courageous service to the people, and pragmatic idealism within a democratic society. The Ramon Magsaysay Award is often considered Asia’s Nobel Prize. The prize was established in April 1957 by the trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund based in New York City with the concurrence of the Philippine government.

27. Wisden
The Wisden Cricketers of the Year are cricketers selected for the honour by the annual publication Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack, based primarily on their “influence on the previous English season”. The award began in 1889 with the naming of “Six Great Bowlers of the Year”, and continued with the naming of “Nine Great Batsmen of the Year” in 1890 and “Five Great Wicket-Keepers” in 1891.

28. Fifa Golden Boot
The Golden Boot or Golden Shoe Award goes to the top goalscorer of the FIFA World Cup. It was introduced at the 1930 FIFA World Cup.

The Art of Reusing

Some of the below mentioned activities are advisable for children, some are not, while some are fine with parental guidance.

It’s time for more nostalgia on RwB. Wherever you see or read today, the one word that hits you is REUSE and RECYCLE! Just remembered a few things that we used to reuse as kids. So here goes:

Empty Cigar packs : This was between 1st standard till 3rd standard. Me and my friends dutifully hunted for used cigar packs on the footpaths, roads and near any petty shops. As soon as we got a few, we threw away the torn or soiled ones, while the OK looking ones were wiped and taken into the ‘secret production chamber’, that no parent knew where it existed! The packs were carefully made into a walkie talkie phone, which when you held in your right palm (between the index and thumb fingers facing you), would open up. The main tools used were a strong rubberband and a ball point pen (blue and red) to customise the phone to your requirements!

Any cousin or relative to visit the home would be shown the proud possession! And when they asked to give our phone for them to hold, we wouldn’t let them touch it,and we would run away to our production chamber to make some changes, lest our enemies duplicates the hi-tech phone!

***

Cycle tyres : Around the same time, it was a pastime to play with thin cycle tyres (Some boys would have small and plumpy scooter tyres, which made a ‘tob-tob- noise when you hit them). Cycle tyres were quite easy to get, as the nearby cycle shop owner would happily get rid of unwanted tyres. When Amma used to send us to buy a soap or when we suddenly found a 25 paise (on the window sill, with which we bought a Double Bubble Gum), we would hit the tyre along side (either with our palms or with a smooth chota stick), and as we turned so would the tyre, which obeyed us only when we had that small stick). As we stood at the shop, we would hang it on to our right shoulder, and would be back home in a jiffy if the house was down the road! Where most of today’s cars are parked on the roads would be our rightful lane to play the Tyre aata!

***

Magnets and Ball bearings : When with the cycle tyres, I remember collecting a box full of ball bearings (again this came free and easy, as there would be plenty of them lying in and around the cycle shop, some visible, some hidden in the dark soil, some shining, some black and out of shape…)

There was nothing as fascinating as seeing the ball bearings stick on to each other (similar to 3-4 people holding on to each other on a cliff, one holding the other’s leg) when a Magnet made its presence. The ball bearings would wobble when the magnet moved near it. Magnets would suddenly be in so much demand, that the round badge like things that Amma had purchased from 8th cross Rayara Gudi, and pasted on the metal window frame in the kitchen (or later the refrigerator) on which were Krishna, Rama, Raghavendraswamy, Lakshmi, Ganesha, Saraswathi etc. etc. would all be left to pile up on each other in the shelf as the magnet behind them would have been robbed!

***

Coloured Glass pieces : This was a very short lived hobby. Maybe during 2nd standard till beginning of 3rd standard. When we used to play Mann-aata, we would suddenly get dark brown glass pieces, while digging. While walking to the bus stand with Amma, I would chance upon a yellow shining glass piece. I used to collect these and watch the world through them. Such a surreal feeling!

***

Film Reel : Lengthy film reels would be thrown on roads, which we would collect and try to see if we could see the characters moving when we moved them really quickly. Negligible movement! Unless I found a reel with Rajkumar in it, I would not bring these into the secret production chamber. And I never found a reel with Rajkumar in it!

***

Scud Missile : These were clearly during the Gulf war, when I was in 9th standard. All that was required to make the scud missile was a small wooden plank (as big as your palm), 3 small nails, a rubberband and some matchsticks. The 3 nails would be partially hit on the plank to make a triangle. Two nails would be wound by a rubberband. A matchstick would now be placed, ready to be shot. When one of the nails having the rubberband around it would become hot (due to the heat transferred by another matchstick), the scud matchstick would fly into the air, to the enemy’s camp!

***

Hand made Cork ball : When in 4th standard, me and my friends spent considerable time in the summer trying to make our own cork ball. For this, we would go in search of Gobli mara / Rain tree (Acacia).

Once we collected lots of pods from the tree, we would then climb on to the parapet of my friend’s house to crush the pods (Why there? Who knows!). We would suddenly realise that Oil was missing -  so we would ask our friend Umesh to get some oil really quickly – he would sometimes get cooking oil, sometimes coconut oil. Now the grinding would start until it became a fine paste with a smooth texture. We would then make a ball, pouring oil on our hands and rolling the stuff in our hands in a circular motion. Then, it was the turn to keep the ball for drying on top of our house for a week.

After the exercise, we would wash our hands usually with 501 bar soap (used for washing clothes). However long we washed, the smell of the pods would stay for atleast for a day!

***

Grandpa’s Walking stick : Every house would have a walking stick -either Thatha’s, or your father’s Kashi Yatre stick, which would suddenly be more important than the cricket bat… because the stick would turn into a hockey stick overnight!

***

Magnifying glass : Commonly called Lens, we would keep it in our small pockets, take it to school, not to use it for what it is actually meant for, but to burn paper or dry leaves during Lunch break (January till March.) I think this was during 5th standard.

***

Matchbox : Collecting and sharing different matchbox covers was a hobby between 1st standard and 4th standard. But by 6th standard, only men of steel would learn the trick of using the ‘striking surface’ in various ways. Firstly, we would cut the piece and paste it onto the shoe heel. A match would always be hidden, unknown to the opponent. During a face off, the stick would appear out of no where and be rubbed on to the shoe… the lit matchstick would be put off by blowing it in a very stylish way, with the eyes seeing the opponent and only the lower lip moveing (as close to what we had seen our hero doing in films!)

[Got caught doing this during SUPW class... made to paint 15 more chairs than others as a punishment]

Another use of the matchbox was to put small insects into it and release them in school / classroom!

***

Peppermint cover : This was one of the earliest tricks that humans learnt. After the chocolate / peppermint is totally chewed and swallowed, the cover would be pulled tightly by both hands and held close to the lips and blown. Beginners would get a ‘tussss’ sound, First graders would get a screeching noise while the Experts would be playing with the whistling sound!

***

Broom stick : Ramayana made us desperate for bow and arrow. The lucky ones would get a nice and strong stick of an unknown tree which would act as a bow while we (cursed souls) would have to be happy turning a broom stick into a bow and another broomstick for an arrow. Highly dangerous… we never managed to cause any accidents, but always heard someone tell us that some one in Rajajinagar/ Yeshwanthpura / Subramanyanagara lost an eye… we never believed it…but still we were scared of hurting each other!

***

Edges of the footpath towards the road : This was where we sat after playing cricket, and drank ‘Chombugattle’ water!. We would discuss about the game, rag, tease, eat bubble gum… While playing, if the match was ‘single side fielding’, then the batting side would sit usually on a compound wall behind the batsman (Usually there is one everywhere!).

***

Empty Bottles : These were used mainly during Deepavali, to light Rockets. In our days, we used to send some horizontally on the roads, what with such less vehicles.

***

X-Ray sheets : To watch the sun during Grahana, we would hunt for Ajji’s Xray sheet (that she had been given after her recent visit to Jayadeva Hospital near City Market). Once we started asking for the Xray sheet, Ajji would think it was being asked to discuss about her health, and she would quickly and obediently give it, taking it out from the bottom-most part of the ‘kabbinada pettige’, only to be later told that her Xray has become a toy for the young brutes!

***

Newspapers : Some of us would use newspapers for various things – to bind books, to make kites, hit flies, light the kerosene stove / hande-vole-uri, as a chart sheet to make collage, to fold and keep a piece of the newspaper under the shaking part of the Godrej bureau / shelf / almirah…

***

Soap cover : After taking out the new soap bar, the cover would be opened and kept under the clothes, for a few days, so that the aroma spread across the clothes.

***

Dairy Milk Foil : The aluminum foil one found in a Cadbury Dairy Milk, would be neatly kept in a school notebook, after rubbing out any crease on the foil! The metallic sound it made every time we held it was music to my ears. Even today, when I eat a Dairy Milk (which is the BEST chocolate in the world), I cannot forget how many foils I must have preserved in my childhood!

***

Bangalore Press Calendar : “The empty space behind the Bangalore Press calendar was where we wrote and practiced our tables, handwriting…” father used to tell this. For me, any empty space is worthy only to be drawn. And draw was what I did behind the calendar sheets! (Good, there was no back to back printing then!)

***

Old socks : This was after we came back from school, and without removing the school uniform. 6th and 7th standard. The tennis, rubber, cork or leather ball we had would be put into the socks and tied to a high beam / grill. Kept hitting the ball with SG bat to get the perfect shot, feet movement and posture!

***

Used Dalda / Farex Tins :  Rangoli powder in my house, neighbour’s house, or any one’s house would all be kept in either Dalda or Farex tin only! And these tins with Rangoli would be stolen to put the crease on our pitches i.e. my house compound!

***

Cleaning the comb: Bottom portion of any used Agarbathi would be used to clean the comb. Later on, used and dead toothbrushes would be used to clean the comb. Another typical sight was seeing my opposite house Ajji using a matchstick to clean her ears.

***

Old Ball point pen: We would love to fix the small pencils to the bottom portion of the ball point pen and write our home work faster than normal. Got a kick out of this simple act!

***

Winding the Pencil : We would twist and wind the pencil box using a rubberband and a long pencil. When left alone, the pencil would rotate, thus making us feel our pencil box is a helicopter! 3rd standard project.

Another activity was piercing the eraser with the pencil and hitting the table or the friend unecessarily, with our new tool! 1st standard assignment.

***

Eraser / Rubber as a seal : We would write our initials in reverse on the ‘rubber’ and print it on our text book /note book, hands, thighs, sometimes crazily on our forehead…. thus sealing our fate literally! 2nd standard.

***

Exam pad : Invariably, every boy’s exam pad (brown color with metallic clip) would be broken in at least one corner. That was because it would be used as a cricket bat after the exam!

***

Cardboard in the Agarbathi pack: would be used to as a make-believe telescope…which would be used on a hot summer afternoon as we stood in the middle of the road to see if the Joy ice cream gaadi is coming or not! Seeing through it, we always believed ‘objects looked closer than they appeared otherwise’.

***

Blade and Compass : To make carvings on school furniture (Some of my teachers follow this blog…so no more details)

***

Tamarind seed : We would have this in our pockets anytime of the day. We would rub it on the wall or the ground and keep it immediately on the cheeks or necks of those who would annoy us.

***

Notebook Cover : The hardbound covers of our previous year’s notebooks Lekhak, later Vidya Lekhak, would have the pages torn out, and the hard cover would be used as a table tennis bat.

This post has become much much longer than what I actually thought initially. If you’ve read it fully , thanks for getting till here. Hope you have enjoyed this post. Let me know even otherwise.

RwB Exclusive: Kannada-Kannadiga-Karnataka-Bangalore City Trivia

Kendriya Vidyalaya Malleswaram: Nostalgia 2

Design: RK
Click on the image for a larger view

Click here to read posts about KENDRIYA VIDYALAYA

Swine Flu Cartoon – 2

Cartoon: RK

Another cartoon related to Swine Flu:

Swine Flu Scare

Also visit the Cartoon page on RwB.

Chandrayaan 1!

Cartoon: RK

Also visit the Cartoon page on RwB.

People who drain our energy

by Latha Vidyaranya 

We often come across people after speaking to whom we feel so drained of our energy! Perhaps we can call them ‘energy-vampires’! They keep talking to us endlessly about themselves and their woes and constantly complaining on somebody or something that they seldom allow us to talk in between and make a contribution to the talk. It becomes a monologue rather than a dialogue. In spite of getting bored and irritated with such people, we continue to give them our precious time thinking that we are in some way obliged to listen to them. S/he may be our friend, our sibling or our own parent, especially mothers, who go on talking about their past difficulties or their present poor relationship with another child or in-law or about anything else that least interests us. But we simply surrender to them and continue to give them our time.
 
STOP! We are in no way obliged to listen to them always! It is fine to give our ear to somebody who may badly want to share his/her difficulty to lighten their emotional burden. We are doing a good job by helping them to relieve themselves of some life problem that they had been suppressing all these days. In fact at the end of the session they feel so grateful to us that we were patient enough to listen to their woes and perhaps even gave a few valuable suggestions to overcome those troubles. It is perfectly laudable.

But not so laudable is lending our time to listen to the same old stories of our own kith and kin day in and day out! We have every right to withdraw ourselves from such people because we are ending up as victims ourselves! This surely is an abuse on our time! Please understand that as adults we all have our own priorities set and we need time and energy to reach these goals. We can not let someone eat up all our time and constantly weep on our shoulders. We have an obligation to help them realize that it can not go on and on and that we will not be available to them henceforth to discuss things that may not have any solutions and that we are all obliged to cope with certain of these difficulties that have no visible end. In fact we are doing a disservice to them by developing a kind of dependency in them upon us.

Once this is stated matter-of-factly the ‘energy-vampire’ realizes that each one of us adults is responsible for our own upliftment or digging our own graves! We all have to draw energy from our own inner resources and help ourselves out of difficulties or learn some coping strategies. They need to very clearly see that their continuous outpours everyday with us is creating distances in our own relationship with other family members. Others (our spouse, our kids) have an equal right to demand our time, all of which is currently being drained by this particular person. You can not let other relationships get damaged because of your misplaced priorities on this person’s woes. Please wake up now and keep people at right distances and allow yourself the precious time and space that is very much required for your own growth.

Latha Vidyaranya’s articles featured on RwB:

• Learning Disability in children
• Fathers also need to balance home and work
• Postpartum Depression
• Celebrating Differences in Life
• Synesthetics can see smells, hear pictures, and smell colours and numbers
• Parenting

(Latha Vidyaranya is a Special Educator and Counsellor and has founded ‘Empower Counselling Centre’ in Malleswaram, Bangalore.)

India at Sixty

 

by TS Srinivasa Murthy

Janani janma bhoomischa swargadapi gareeyasi
- The mother and the motherland are greater than even the heaven
(Lord Sri Rama to Lakshmana and Vibheeshana after conquering Lanka)

India celebrates 60 years of independence on 15 August 2007, but the punya bhumi called Bhaaratha (land of the virtues) is far more ancient. After all, what is a Country, without its people and its Civilization and its heritage? This article salutes the nation builders.

It is the political, social, economic, cultural and spiritual strength that has made India a vibrant country. Imagine being told in the 60s or 70s that India will attain super-powerdom by 2050. I would have laughed my head off. But what the heck, it is going to be a reality very soon, may be in our own life time. During Indo-China war, there were air-raid sirens, rationing and so on. Poverty was literally dripping off the streets. Most of the common household objects now were considered luxury and beyond reach. Consider this: Today, airports have become like railway stations, Every other family in big cities has a relative or a friend in the western/ eastern world. What’s more, many of them want to return to India for good.

Political: India’s liberation signalled the end of colonialism all over the world. During the last six decades, China and Pakistan waged war on India, India liberated East Pakistan. India has had a leading role in NAM, SAARC, G-15, G-77. India is inching closer to ASEAN, G-8, and the permanent seat in the UN Security Council. The last would be sooner than later. I would love to see India wielding its vetoing finger. Gandhi, Nehru, Vallabh Bhai Patel, Shastry, Indira Gandhi et al have generously contributed to the big political canvas that India is.

Social: Many Indians credit the caste system with contributing to maintaining social order in the second most populous country in the world. On the other hand, the caste system has also been viewed as the sole bug-bear of the social order, preventing social equality in terms of birth and growth. Despite India’s rapid strides in the World Order, little or no development has happened to break the caste factor in Indian legacy. The issues of poverty, gender and equality are still haunting the nation. While Gandhi led the path for social upliftment, Ambedkar, Vinoba Bhave, Jaya Prakash Narayan etc., followed either similar or their own paths.

Scientific: India has the cutting technology in respect of Space, Nuclear Energy, Defence Research, Fundamental Mathematics, I.T., Pharmaceutical research etc., Visionaries and Missionaries like Homi Bhabha, Vikram Sarabhai, Satish Dhawan, Prof. U.R.Rao, Dr.Raja Ramanna, Dr. M.S.Swaminathan, Abdul Kalam have taken the country on a ballistic trajectory.

Sports and games: Names like Ved Prakash, Jaspal Rana, Prakash Padukone, Michael Ferreira, Dhanraj Pillai, Baichung Bhutia, P.T.Usha Aswini Nachappa, Milkha Singh, Rajyavardhan Singh, Vishwanthan Anand, Kunjurani et al have done the country proud.

Cultural: India has taken a beating post independence, thanks to the onslaught of western culture. India now is a ‘pot-pourri’, culturally, but still, there are vibrant pockets all over India retaining the old flavour. Stalwarts like Pandit Ravi Shankar, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Pandit Jasraj, Sultan Khan, Zakeer Hussain, Kelucharan Mohapatra , Mallika Sarabhai in the fields of fine arts & music have enriched the tradition and have enthralled the spectators/ audience the world over.

Spiritual: There is a resurgence, going by the huge interest shown in learning/ understanding Yoga, meditation, Vedas – thanks to the doyens such as Krishnamacharya, B.K.S Iyengar, Maharshi Mahesh Yogi, Sri Ravi Shankar, Jaggi Vasudev, Yogi Ramdev to name a few, who have built the super structure based on the foundation of Swami Vivekananda, Paramahamsa Yogananda, Swami Rama and other great saints. ‘Enduro mahaanubhavulu’ !.

Economic: In 1960 India had a higher per capita GDP than China; today it is less than half of China’s. In 1960 it had the same per capita GDP as South Korea; today South Korea’s is 13 times larger. The United Nations Human Development Index gauges countries by income, health, literacy and other such measures. India ranks a dismal 124 out of 177, behind Syria, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and the Dominican Republic. Things look pretty bad, don’t they? But look at the turn around. Agricultural self sufficiency was achieved only by the end of 70’s thanks to green revolution. The farmers of Punjab, Haryana took the initiative to spike the productivity. Today, India is the biggest producer of rice, cotton and sugarcane. It leads in milk production.

Today, other sectors like manufacturing, services have together overtaken Agriculture’s contribution to GDP. It is a booming scenario for infrastructural development, manufacturing and the services sectors, such as roads, power, irrigation, housing, health, education, IT, BT, telecommunications, automobiles, shipping, aviation, aerospace etc., They are creating wealth, contributing to the nation’s development and creating employment for the masses. In each of these fields, there are not one but many leaders who can take on the world on their own. Kudos to the captains of all these various Industries. They are too numerous to be named here. To all of them I offer my ‘ hazaar salaams’. India is today the Fourth biggest economy in the world. Indian Diaspora is 20 million strong, spreading India’s wings.

To the previous generation, the future did not seem so bright.

Will India’s giant elephant take on China’s giant dragon?

A report states that while China’s rise is already here and palpable—it has grown at almost 10 percent since 1980—India’s is still more a tale of the future, but a future that is coming into sharp focus. It is projected that over the next 50 years, Indian economy will be the fastest-growing of the world’s major economies (largely because its work force will not age as fast as the others). The report calculates that in 10 years India’s economy will be larger than Italy’s and in 15 years it would have overtaken Britain’s. By 2040 it will boast as the world’s third largest economy. By 2050 it will be five times the size of Japan’s and its per capita income would have risen to 35 times its current level. Predictions like these are a treacherous business, though it’s worth noting that India’s current growth rate is actually higher than the study assumed.

It is now certain that India, China and EU are the future superpowers. A disadvantage for India in the modern era, as compared to its competitor China, has been its location in a relatively unstable region with little or none of abundant resources. China’s is surrounded by strong neighbours such as Hong Kong (now a part of China) Taiwan, South Korea and Japan. In contrast, India is surrounded by weaker nations like Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Srilanka, Pakistan, which have there own political/ethnic instability, save for Bhutan.

What makes India a Super Power?

India has politically a stable system of democracy and judiciary. Geographically- it has vast and diverse areas. Culturally – it is a pluralistic, tolerant, society. Its Military might is among the largest defence forces in the world and economically it is thriving on a very broad based economic development with an enviable rate of growth and possesses a fairly large chunk of natural resources. Also it has established sound financial and banking institutions. Demographically it has a rich talent pool with a relatively young population and spiritually- it is regaining its strength.

If 19th Century belonged to the Britain, 20th Century to the Americans, then 21st Century certainly belongs to India.

Vande Maataram

***

RwB celebrates India at 60:

• Tricolour Marble Cake and Eggless Tea Cake: Recipe by Bridget White Kumar
• Sare Jahan se Accha, Hindustan Hamara by BR Usha
• Rangoli-16 by Srilakshmi Suresh
• Independence Day by Cuckoo
• ‘India at 60′ collage

Pencil sketch: Salim Ali

‘Salim Ali’ by Satish G
Tools used: Pencil
Time taken for completion: 2 days
Inspiration: Showing white hairs in pencil sketch.

Other works by Satish G:

• Infinite Lizards
• Corridor
• Roots & Ripples

***

It was on this day, 20 years ago, when the world lost a legendary Birdman, Dr. Salim Ali, born Sálim Moizuddin Abdul Ali, (November 12, 1896 – July 27, 1987), an Indian ornithologist and naturalist. Ali was among the first Indians to conduct systematic bird surveys in India and his books have contributed enormously to the development of professional and amateur ornithology in India.

To know more about the legendary ‘Birdman’, visit the below mentioned link:

Dr. Salim Ali: …One day young Salim shot a sparrow which had a yellow streak below its neck….