This page was designed to be viewed with a browser that supports Cascading Style Sheets [CSS] and if you are using earlier versions [pre- ver.5.0] of Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator,you are missing out on a pleasant viewing experience. It is best that you upgrade your browser soon as most of the sites will increasingly make use of CSS.

gniLogo A Personal India  Every man has a view of his land and his people. This is mine. Of India -- D V Sridharan

Preface

...an India Bias.

In every society and country, the most noticed are the celebrities and the wretched. The former gets undue attention and the latter rightly, the much needed spotlight.

So is it with India's media. At some time or the other an Indian must wonder if the values and energies, the rich, the famous and the powerful represent are all that we are going to depend on to sort the problems of the dispossessed. Is there anything at all  'out there' other than the play of the celebs.?

My own way out of my depression was to look for little known people and events that add up to a brighter future and publish their stories. Which was how goodnewsindia.com was born.

During my travels I came across many Indians, who won't make 'news' because they are not in mainstream media's two great constituencies that I mentioned earlier. Nor will these little Indians make it to the main pages of goodnewsindia.com.

But they are nevertheless the stuff and guts of India. They rarely venture out of their beat, seldom disturb

the structures they live in, scarcely interest newsmen, and are almost never unpredictable.

What is common to them all is this set: a family-centred life, modest ambitions that India can certainly help them attain, a conviction that their country is a good place to be in, that tomorrow will be better than today, a work ethic, an awareness of the power of the systems that surround them - the employer's, state's and God's.

preface

They stand in lines to vote, send their children to the armed forces,practice their religions, pay their dues, hunt for bargains, treasure their ration cards, fear taking loans, reach

out to poor relations, keep in touch with their 'native places', believe in divine justice, spoil their children, care for the elderly, venerate their ancestors, enjoy company picnics, celebrate the festivals, cultivate traditional arts, give alms, believe in destiny...

It is their collective lives that makes sociologists declare Indians are religious, have family values and are hard-workers.

Together, these little known people have powered the Indian continuum.

Material contentment comes easily to the these Indians. And once there, they begin to reflect. What next?: a new group, a skill, a charity, a happening, a journey, a discovery, a belief... the dormant social engineer in them is preparing to act.

In these pages I hope to slowly build a picture of this great Indian powerhouse, drawing on images and views gathered from travels, a long life and media fare.

What follow are notes, in no order of time or sequence. They are personal, after all. And, they are about India, which has its own logic. Together, I hope, these notes lead to an appreciation of India, and her children.   [NEXT PAGE]

 Shop at Amazon::Support GNI 
 Lonely Planet Guide to Rajasthan 
A Personal India :: Index
GoodNewsIndia :: Home
-->" target="_blank" class="services">Tell Your Friends
Reader Services