Personification Personified...

This world is not perfect. Well accepted, but what about the want for perfection? Isn't it in the intrest of every living person to have a perfectly balanced environment, both locxally and globally? Why can't people rise above their egos, and think logically in the face of calamity?Why do people have to take advantage of chaos to forward their selfish needs, even if it at the cost of human lives?

These are those questions whick are asked around in every drawing room, brooded over in every party, and touched upon every now, and then by the numerous news groups. These are the questions that more often die out with the answer, "This is India....". These are the questions that are not just limited to to the present context, but have a much larger mandate, globally, and perhaps, if extra-terrestrial intelligence exists, even greater. Self-intrest drives people to do a lot of things, that may or may not be appreciatable by society at large.

Bengal today is in a complex political, natural, and psycological mix-up, which (almost) perfectly compliment each other as the raw ingredients for chaos. What started with the Tatas' plan to launch a ultra-cheap car, has now resulted, with inputs from external sources like the Aila, LS Elections, the maoists etc, into a dangerous poison that is killing the mind and the body alike.

Tatas' Project Nano was supposed to come up at Singur, a 30 minute drive from the Calcutta airport. Singur is an area lush green with paddy fields, Shady fruit trees, and in general a very pleasant place. The Govt. of Bengal identified this area for it's proximity to the city's transportation hubs, easy availability of required resources, manpower etc. The catch- a fraction of farmers would lose their land. Well, every development project comes at this cost, be it Highways, Rail tracks etc. Enter Mamta Banerjee. The so called champion of Farmers' causes. There were dharnas, hartals, and, well, violence. CPM and TMC cadres clashed, with both sides suffering human losses. Mamta forces Tata to relocate to gujarat, who welcome it with open arms. No wonder Gujarat is doing wonderfully well financially. The result, 4 major SEZ projects, including two from Rajarhat in Calcutta, cancelled. Business Houses now fear investing in WB. The state is becoming what Bihar was in it's darkest years. It's economy is soon to crumble, and the reason is that no stimulus is offered to enhance  natural disasters like floods, and the most recent example, the Aila. What was the strongest cyclone in years, Aila threw life in sunderbans to shatters, destroyind entire villages, and salining almost a fifth of Bengal's fertile agricultural land. The economy is stressed to the maximum, and relief rotsat BDO storehouses. All because of differences in political ambitions. Just before the Aila, the people had given Mamata Banerjee the mandate to the Lok Sabha, severely crumbling the Left. now, the weak Left is left to fend for itself in the aftermath of these events. Right now, no one really cares about the suffering at ground zero. It is just another opportunity to get political ground for the TMC, and the maoists. What follows, is Gunbattles, bloodshed, and human losses. What political ambition, when the voters are being sunk into a deeper abyss of poverty, illetracy, and unemployment?

Bengal, sure is going to dogs.

I added a page to the site dedicated to grassruotes. Not much at the moment, but it has the video of the presentation made by the Bindaas Banjaare on Local Drinks...

Go the Grassroutes page Here.

In a highly welcomed move (mostly by students of MIT, manipal), Dr. S.S. Pabla, Director, MIT, and Pro-vice-Chancellor, Manipal University, has agreed to assume the responsibility of the Chancellor, Sikkim manipal universsity. It means that he will be thousands of miles away from us come june. Good riddance, I say. He is a brilliant guy, but also the worlds strictest nincompoopish disciplinarian. Made life difficult for a lot of people around. Hope with a new director, MIT revels' 10 (thats the annual fest) will have a better band coming in. Hopefully delivery boys from eateries will be allowed inside campus after hours. Hopefully Techtatva '09 will be a bigger success. Amen.

Bindass Banjare is the name of the team I am a part of, for the Grassroutes program. It's me, Rachit, and Anshuman. The Banjare recently ran a small campaign regarding the Impact of Branded drinks on local/natural drinks.

Get the Presentation Here.

The presentation was videotaped, and the video shall be up on youtube soon. Check back for updates.