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 A Personal India 
Views formed and images retained from an India life
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"In India I came to understand that one of the greatest mistakes of modern Western civilization is to believe that, whereas it is important to provide the poor with food and "housing", they have no need for beauty, no need for a dream to live by. All those crafts museums are filled with the works of poor, illiterate, but deeply civilized people - those clay horses, little lamps, bangles and earrings, puppets of kings with curled beards and queens with great black eyes, dancers' masks, demons, gods and goddesses - these are the art of the anonymous poor. As indeed are the great temple sculptures, the very genius of India.

"The reality of the need for beauty throughout society was illustrated by a story sent to me by a woman writer. It was about a woman (herself, as she later told me, when I met her) who wanted to buy a puppet to take home for a child, but had only a limited amount of money left to spend. The story describes how she had gone to the village of puppet-makers, now almost deserted, as the demand for puppets is all the time declining as other forms of entertainment become widespread. She finds just one old man who still makes puppets in the all but deserted village. He has two puppets, Radha and Krishna, and he tries to persuade her to buy both. "Look," he says, "you can't separate them; they love each other!" and he begins to play the two puppets, enacting their love. And the woman notices that the entrance to the puppet-maker's shop has become crowded with all the children, under the magic spell, the enchantment. She leaves the money she had brought, promising to return. The beauty of the story is in its understanding of the thirst for beauty and magic even among the poor."

--Kathleen Raine
British writer
in "Resurgence" magazine

 MAGAZINE   

The road from Marx turns right at Gandhi:
timbuktu
Mary and Bablu didn't settle at Timbaktu to retire, but to begin again with the conviction that nature is what really matters.

Dreams come true in Ratnagiri:
rwh
An unlikely team of clerks in government offices in Mumbai are reaching out to rural school children in Ratnagiri district

Battling for governance :
rwh
Parivartan's unknown little Indians like Santosh, have fought to clear the thickets to form tracks to good governance.

The Ganga in the sky:
rwh
Residents and establishments in Tamil Nadu have taken to rain water harvesting and water recycling proving that local action can alleviate shortages.

The two-pit privy man:
sulabh
Perfecting a simple sanitation solution and getting it to revolutionise Indian society has taken 35 years of Dr Bindeshwar Pathak's life

Young voices rising:
cwc
Nandana Reddy and Damu Acharya have approached the issue of India's working children by creating activists from children's own ranks.

Minimalism in service:
dada
Dada Lakhiani is a role model for everyone who is sitting out for the right time, funds and opportunity to do something for India.

Staring down droughts:
dharwad
Amidst the gloom of droughts and suicides, we have this transformation of farmers who will look a drought in its eye.

A Gandhi education pays off:
cherkady
Cherkady Ramachandra Rao, now 86, lost his parents when 2, found Gandhi when 7, and has not been lost ever since.

Inside China's anti-poverty success:
chIndJun04
Does China's economic performance show-up India, or are there some unique merits in our system that we do not value sufficiently?

Beyond even his dreams:
rValley
When J Krishnamurthy spotted that banyan tree in 1925, it is doubtful if he envisioned how it might change the grim landscape and lives around it.

Enfolding the lost ones in Goa:
plastoFuel
Bernadette D'Souza and Gregory D'Costa strive for the dignity of immigrants who built today's shining Goa - and, are abandoned on its streets to their own devices.

Jim Garthe's innovation:
plastoFuel
The pioneering work of Jim Garthe at the Univ. of Pennsylvania, in converting plastic waste into an energy resource has a great significance for India's environment.

Help for puzzled visitors:
shristi
Caring for autistic and special children in India, has been entirely mothers' and private citizens' effort, as typified by Shristi Special Academy in Bangalore.

World standard toilets:
fuad
Since 1999, Fuad Lokhandwala has been demonstrating in New Delhi that building and running toilets to world standards is possible along sound commercial lines.

The new Indian rope-trick :
upChain
In the decade since it opened its economy, India has survived early shocks and has now assimilated with elan the tricks of making good profits in world markets.

A daughter returns:
pWhy
Anuradha Bakhshi's sense of debt to India is over-imagined considering how little she has taken from this land but therein lies a lesson for many of us who have drawn much.

Digging deep into Sanskrit:
melkote
Prof. Lakshmi Thathachar at Melkote is a teacher, ecologist, animal breeder, computer adept and a champion of Sanskrit as an unmined knowledge source.

Where water flows in veins:
tiptur
The Smile Index of children and adults here, proves that the networked farm pond idea pioneered by BAIF's branch in Tiptur, Karnataka needs to be spread wide.

Biodiesel goes from lab to land:
svo
Prof Shrinivasa's SuTRA has proved to India's tribal people that biodiesel is the best way to electrify their homes. And they are making a revolution of it.

A Marathon man in village-India:
elango
The success of Rangaswamy Elango at Kuthambakkam village justifies the hope that Gram Swaraj will yet bloom all across India.

After micro credit, it's micro capital, now:
aavishkaar
Aavishkaar is a pioneer attempt by India's overseas professionals to bring venture capitalism to socially, environmentally relevant small businesses.

This postman delivered more than mail:
postmanSingh
This vintage classic from the 1930s should give us heart because it shows service to fellowman is intrinsic to Indian way of life.

A soldier's march into peace:
ralegan
Anna Hazare's work with Ralegan Siddhi has thrown up a model for all round development of India's villages.

Bridges to mainstream life:
bharadwaj
Girish Bharadwaj's foot bridges for isolated villages are transforming communities -- and are aesthetic as well.

Rare grit at young age:
banyar
Deciding in their teens to make social service their profession, Vandana and Vaishnavi have gone on to build the Banyan in Chennai.

Lay naturalists befriend mangroves:
mangroves
Kerala's mangroves are struggling to survive but faceless Indians with no access to power or wealth are answering the call.

A jewel in India's crown:
pMent
Ignored --and often mocked-- India's Parliament is a vastly under-appreciated engine of reforms, change and progress in this land.

Law's pastor:
jNeethi
George Pulikuthiyil guides Jananeethi's lawyers and volunteers to serve over 3000 a year that are lost and arrive at its doors.

Growing pride:
gRev
From a starving nation in 1947, India became a country of food surpluses by 1975, thanks to our green revolutionaries in the countryside.

Consumer corps:
mgp
Built on a large, stable membership, Mumbai Grahak Panchayat is a leader is addressing consumer issues in India.

Forest maker:
aKareem
Abdul Kareem has stood vigil for 25 years on 32 acres of a rocky hill to see it regenerate into a living forest.

Rain man:
sPadre
For seven long years Shree Padre has campaigned for rain water harvesting -- and the results are beginning to show.

Sifting the poverty numbers:
sIMartin
Prof. Xavier Sala-i-Martin's fresh look at global poverty is causing a wave now - and Indians can surf it for some cheer.

Farmers' channel:
baif
Holding that in India, the rural family is the sole reality, BAIF, founded by Manibhai Desai has been serving to enrich it since 1967.

A history and a testament:
manibhai
The memoirs of Dr Desai, founder of BAIF is an inspiring Indian story with rare glimpses of Gandhi and his times.

Shedding innocence:
baif
Dr Anil Gupta runs a programme to discover India's barefoot inventors and lead them to the world of Intellectual Property Rights.

Housing the poor with dignity:
shelter
Two architects of Pune are convinced that sound housing and sanitation for the poor will result in better life for all.

Grass economy:
grassE
Blades of grass have cut through poverty, instilled hope and revived the eco system in a village in the Himalayas.

Maharashtra gets it right:
gmAbhiyan
A brilliant scheme to clean up Maharashtra villages succeeds because Gadge Maharaj's spell is still potent.

India in the sky:
isro
ISRO -in barely 30 years- has become a respected space technologist and put India into orbit.

A Guru for these times:
kalbag
Since 1983, Dr.Kalbag and his wife Mira have lived in the rural wilds to deliver hands-on education to kids.

Parenting trees:
thimmakka
Thimmakka and her husband spent 45 years on a 4kM road raising 300 trees - and people's consciousness.

Naturals in forest conservation:
forestry
Not laws, not guards, not force - it is millions of unknown gentle folk that are saving India's forests.

Trash becomes wealth:
karve
"Sugar cane leaf trash is gold, not just in colour, but also in vaue," says Ashden Award winner A D Karve.

Markets minder:
karve
India's financial markets are modern, efficient, honest and world class -- thanks to the NSE.

...list of all stories
 SUPPLEMENTS

Nov 13, 05 | NewsClip::Water
Approaches to a water economy

Oct 29, 05 | NewsClip::Environment
Mumbai mill lands, retrieved for the people

Oct 19, 05 | NewsClip::Sciences
Bird flu : the scare and some sense

Oct 13, 05 | NewsClip::Reforms
The Right to Information Act is headed right

Sep 15, 05 | NewsClip::Governance
More transparent, less international

Aug 29, 05 | Spring::A report
An opportunity to serve Sanskrit

Aug 22, 05 | NewsClip::Energy
Biodiesel is on centerstage now

Aug 02, 05 | Spring::An announcement
Mumbai: Shanghaied by floods

Jun 18, 05 | NewsClip::Water
The Plachimada promise

Jun 15, 05 | IdeasForIndia
Food forever, for nothing

May 30, 05 | Spring::A report
A clothes-line from cities to the country

Mar 19, 05 | NewsClip::Economy
Elements of India's emerging success

Feb 20, 05 | NewsClip::Environment
Time for a pledge to Ganga

Feb 16, 05 | NewsClip::Events
Remembering Dr H Narasimhaiah

Jan 13, 05 | Spring::A report
Reasons for GNI's silence

Dec 23, 04 | NewsClip::Sciences
An apology to Dr. Herbert Kroemer

Dec 21, 04 | Spring::A report
The busy, busy bus

Dec 10, 04 | Elsewhere in the media
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Dec 04, 04 | NewsClip::Innovation
Children's own bank

Nov 30, 04 | IdeasForIndia
Safe water from SODIS and SPOWTS

Nov 09, 04 | NewsClip::Events
The import of EDUSAT

Nov 08, 04 | Spring::A report
Surfacing from a dive

Oct 18, 04 | Enthusiast
Ashok Tungal: People-built check dams

Oct 14, 04 | Spring::An announcement
A space for Mr Pattnayak

Sep 09, 04 | NewsClip::Energy
Bio-diesel moves you can make right now

Sep 08, 04 | NewsClip::Governance
Villagers teach how projects impact people

Aug 22, 04 | NewsClip::Innovation
Somender Singh builds a better IC Engine

Aug 09, 04 | IdeasForIndia
Population control for a democratised India

Aug 03, 04 | NewsClip::Environment
Electric vehicle, Eco-Rick

Jul 20, 04 | NewsClip::Environment
Indian villages in global carbon trading

Jul 05, 04 | IdeasForIndia
People-sized desalination

Jul 01, 04 | NewsClip::Environment
Plastics recycling is out in the streets

Jun 03, 04 | NewsClip::Trends
A doomsday film, Lovelock and India

Jun 01, 04 | Update::Bio-resources
ARTI develops a novel biogas plant

May 11, 04 | NewsClip::Resources
Gas hydrates: a gift wrapped in problems

May 07, 04 | NewsClip::Reforms
Dubey may yet inspire Indian whistleblowers

Apr 13, 04 | NewsClip::Reforms
Supreme Court arms the Securitisation Act

Apr 05, 04 | Elsewhere in the media
Konkan Rail in E Sreedharan's words

Apr 02, 04 | NewsClip::Economy
A strong rupee is good for India's economy

Mar 31, 04 | Elsewhere in the media
The incredible Dr Shripad Dabholkar

Mar 29, 04 | NewsClip::Markets
Is India's Simputer bad for industry?

Mar 04, 04 | NewsClip::Markets
Bamboo futures

Mar 01, 04 | NewsClip::Reforms
India's elections go electronic with EVM

Feb 19, 04 | NewsClip::Economy
Arun Jaitley's insider-view

Feb 15, 04 | IdeasForIndia
The M S Swaminathan Plan

Feb 09, 04 | NewsClip::Governance
Why be afraid of TI?

Feb 05, 04 | MemorySpeaks:: UP
A 'family' that was Hindu and Muslim

Jan 27, 04 | Elsewhere in the media
India's Surge: a fresh round-up

Jan 21, 04 | NewsClip::Resources
Boom time ahead for Rajasthan?

Jan 19, 04 | Support::HealthCare
Jeevodaya - a cancer hospice

Jan 15, 04 | Elsewhere in the media
Arun Shourie surveys IT - India

Jan 13, 04 | MemorySpeaks::Rajasthan
Papad prophesies

Jan 12, 04 | NewsClip::Environment
Two recycling successes

Jan 09, 04 | NewsClip::Economy
Drucker on outsourcing, India and China

Jan 07, 04 | NewsClip::Trends
At Future's gates

Jan 02, 04 | MemorySpeaks::Punjab
More than a cooking stove

Jan 01, 04 | NewsClip::Innovation
The importance of Master P S Athavale

Dec 31, 03 | Elsewhere in the media
The Indian Army as development agent?

Dec 25, 03 | NewsClip::Events
Signs from a village fair

Dec 24, 03 | Elsewhere in the media
The biodiesel imperative

Dec 23, 03 | NewsClip::Economy
The less known boom at NMCE

Dec 19, 03 | MemorySpeaks::Tamil Nadu
A touch of Gandhi

Dec 16, 03 | Spring::A report
Is Satyendra Dubey really dead?

Dec 07, 03 | IdeasForIndia
Holistic farming

Dec 02, 03 | NewsClip::Environment
Karan Grover's building is Green Platinum

Dec 01, 03 | Elsewhere in the media
Bt Cotton: an Indian workaround?

Nov 30, 03 | MemorySpeaks::Bihar
A dip in the river under 'cloud cover'

Nov 29, 03 | NewsClip::Reforms
A turnaround story from Assam

Nov 27, 03 | NewsClip::Economy
GoodNewsIndia names it, 'the Surge'.

Nov 25, 03 | MemorySpeaks::Maharashtra
Life in the wadas

Nov 23, 03 | NewsClip::Innovation
The karaoke way to literacy.

Nov 09, 03 | Update::Projects
Dignity for urban poor

Nov 09, 03 | Elsewhere in the media
Indian wheels on foreign fields

Oct 29, 03 | Update::Ideas
Plastic recycling moves ahead

Oct 21, 03 | Elsewhere in the media
Gandhi's revenge?

Oct 21, 03 | NewsClip::Genders
Poor and female, but smart

Oct 08, 03 | NewsClip::Environment
Forests envelop a steel town

Oct 07, 03 | NewsClip::Trends
Another surprise from Bihar

Oct 07, 03 | Enthusiast
Shivdutt Pandey: A priest into development

Sep 25, 03 | Update::Ideas
Toxic wastes reclaim land

Sep 18, 03 | Update::Bio Diesel
Rising bio-diesel tide

Sep 02, 03 | IdeasForIndia
Seed balls for greening India

Aug 23, 03 | NewsClip::Trends
Mainstream and the Muslims

Aug 21, 03 | NewsClip::Events
Good cheer on IDay-56

Aug 09, 03 | Support::Activism
V N H Rau connects need with plenty

Aug 08, 03 | Update::Bio Diesel
Low Road and the high road

Jul 29, 03 | Elsewhere in the media
The Indian edge in education

Jul 27, 03 | Enthusiast
Hariyali facilitates nature in Thane

Jul 22, 03 | Elsewhere in the media
A fresh insight into changing India

Jul 21, 03 | IdeasForIndia
A final solution for waste?

Jul 21, 03 | NewsClip::Events
A tryst with monsoons

Jul 17, 03 | Elsewhere in the media
Pre-history of democracy

Jul 16, 03 | Elsewhere in the media
India v. China debate [contd.]

Jul 15, 03 | Spring::An announcement
The fight to save Kali

Jul 15, 03 | NewsClip::Reforms
Exposing the PDS flaws

Jul 15, 03 | NewsClip::Economy
Gathering pace

Jul 05, 03 | Elsewhere in the media
Indian grit at Australian UltraMarathon

Jul 04, 03 | Spring::A report
A bookseller's bit for the neighbourhood

Jul 04, 03 | Elsewhere in the media
Two game men and a tricycle

Jul 02, 03 | IdeasForIndia
An Indian use for geodesic domes

Jun 22, 03 | Enthusiast
Col S S Rajan: Walking to reconnect with India

Jun 10, 03 | IdeasForIndia
Tube wells in the sky

Jun 08, 03 | NewsClip::Governance
Justice on faster track

Jun 05, 03 | NewsClip::Events
In praise of Bihar

May 31, 03 | NewsClip::Events
A gathering of water warriors.

May 23, 03 | NewsClip::Events
Bunker Roy wins the St Andrews's Prize

May 21, 03 | IdeasForIndia
Hydrogen power for India's villages?

May 20, 03 | NewsClip::Sciences
Two breakthroughs

May 16, 03 | Enthusiast
Niraj Mohanka: Amateur Historian and Indologist

May 14, 03 | NewsClip::Governance
Implications of Uphaar Cinema judgement

May 12, 03 | IdeasForIndia
Can't commerce and heritage combine?

May 07, 03 | Update::Bio Diesel
A national biodiesel policy is in the works

May 06, 03 | NewsClip::Environment
Green India socks three offenders

Apr 28, 03 | Enthusiast
Dr. N H Athreya::A pioneer advocate of excellence

Apr 17, 03 | NewsClip::Reforms
A new broom for India's power sector

Apr 14, 03 | NewsClip::Genders
Women astir all across India

Apr 08, 03 | NewsClip::Economy
Not by software alone

Apr 06, 03 | NewsClip::Innovation
220 volt cow power

Apr 03, 03 | Update::Digital Bridges
India keeps on connecting

Mar 27, 03 | NewsClip::Reforms
Corrective surgeries on electoral law.