दृष्टिकोण – Indra's Viewpoint

M.J. Joseph Appachan, 50, a small farmer and a high school dropout in Kerala has invented a coconut tree-climbing device, which can be used by anyone to climb a tree to pluck nuts, tap the basic ingredient of toddy, the indigenous liquor, or spray insecticides. The simple and safe device consists of two steel foot pedals connected by wires and steel pipes with which one can climb a 40-m palm in just two to three minutes. This time equals half of what one usually needs to reach the treetop.

Madan Lal Kumawat, 41solved the problem of damaged grain in the threshers. The threshers available from Punjab were not multi-grain friendly and took two-and-ahalf hours to change the fitting according to the type of grain. Kumawat has refined the process by adding six meshes of different sizes that can easily be pulled out and replaced within 10 minutes. He reduced the diameter of the rotating drum, which reduced diesel consumption by a litre for every hour it ran. An air circulation system with a fan helped separate the grain from the husk. When farmers complained that they had to climb on top of the thresher to feed the grain, he brought the mouth to a lower level. Kumawat’s thresher processes wheat, cumin seeds, mustard, millet, maize, gram, and moong. He is still improvising it to process groundnut better as farmers want it to be lightweight and not wasted as much. Kumawat sells over a dozen threshers at Rs 1.85 lakh a piece every season, and makes a profit of Rs 18,000 on each.

Raghava Gowda, 54, a schoolteacher and dairy farm owner from Murulya in Karnataka has developed elaborate milking machine (Milk Master) that can milk cows and buffaloes using a set of reciprocating vacuum pumps with a gauge, a suction assembly unit and a bubble-free gasketed milk canister to collect the milk. The suction assembly has two sub-assemblies with a set of nipples and a stainless steel plate on one side and transparent conduit pipes and a regulator valve on the other. The procedure is simple and can work with a hand pump or foot pedal, as well as with an AC and DC battery that means no human intervention during the milking. As the machine creates the effect of a calf suckling the udders, it is not only painless but also soothing for the cows. It can milch about 15 litres of milk in three minutes flat. Gowda sold his at Rs 6,000, at less than one-fifteenth of existing devices. Gowda has sold over 2,000 machines at Rs 9,000 today, in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and even Jammu and Kashmir. Interestingly, Gowda has a registered patent for his innovation, the right of which was sought for over Rs 1 crore recently by a company that wanted to market it commercially.

Arvind Patel, 54, has developed a natural water cooler-one that would not require an external energy source. The water cooler cools water to 23 degrees Celsius when the outside temperature is 44 degrees. It has a copper drum, which is wrapped in a copper coil covered with viscose cloth. An overhead tank fills water in the drum while at the same time the water passes through the coil. A connection above makes water drip on the viscose-covered coil. A tap is linked to the coil to allow one to collect drinking water. Water remains stored both in the drum and the coil. The Gujarat Energy Development Agency (GEDA) has sold 250 units of Patel’s patented natural water cooler at Rs 25,000 a piece after buying them from a local industrialist whom Patel has given a manufacturing license. The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development has sanctioned an Rs 5-lakh loan to Patel to perfect the design of the one-tonne refrigerator, which requires no electricity and is targeted at farmers and small food processors.

Mujeeb Khan, 33, who hasn’t been able to walk since the age of 2 because of polio and worked to adapt cars of all makes, be it Maruti 800, Alto or Logan for the use by physically handicapped persons. Mujib now modifies the car that allows the use of either hands or feet or both, and charges between Rs 10,000- 15,000 for small cars like the lower-end models of Maruti and Alto and Rs 20,000 for bigger cars, plus a labour fee of Rs 2,000.

Mansukhbhai Patel, 54, improved the design of cotton stripping machine. The machine has brought down the cost of stripping cotton from around Rs 1 per kg to Rs 1 for 20 kg, ensuring not only quick returns for farmers but also improving the quality of processing. The main components of the machine, which costs Rs 2 lakh, are a metallic wire and a brush that work together to pluck out cotton from the cotton ball. The manual removal of cotton from the pod used to cost between Rs 10 and Rs 15 per 20 kg, with the new and improved cotton stripper, the costs have dipped to only a rupee. Patel has got both an Indian and an American patent for his research. Patel and his sons are now busy in developing a saline resistant brick, which will be useful in large tracts of Saurashtra and north Gujarat. Patel’s own enterprise, Chetak Industries at Viramgam today, along with its two sister concerns, has a turnover of over Rs 4 crore.

Kambel Chulai, 69: 8,000-strong Pnar tribe in the Jaintia Hills of Meghalaya as well, which forsook tradition in favour of Ka Khnap-Thangbru, a modern, eco-friendly crematorium designed by this unlettered 69-year-old in Jowai. Compared to the traditional method, it is a permanent structure and consumes much less wood to burn a body. Instead of Rs 5,000, the crematorium uses just Rs 200 worth of wood to cremate a body. There is no need for electricity, and that can be a boon for rural India where in most places dead bodies are burned in the open causing ecological havoc.

Anil Kumar Gupta, a professor at the Centre for Management in Agriculture at IIM-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) can be called the hero of the grassroots innovation. Gupta and his organizations such as National Innovation Foundation (NIF), Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Institutions (SRISTI), Honeybee network, and Grassroots Innovation Augmentation Network (GIAN) have done pioneering work for unleashing the innovative spirit of rural India. NIF now presides over a database of traditional knowledge comprising 75,000 innovations and practices from across the country, that touches almost every sphere, from transport, energy and food technology to agriculture and livestock. SRISTI has recently come out with two interesting findings:

Two Assamese brothers, Mehtar Hussain and Mustaque Hussain designed a windmill made of bamboo and tin sheets that costs just Rs 25,000 to pump water into their farm at a low cost. The windmill will now help poor salt workers of the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat draw water from the earth bed with no running costs, a relief from the huge amounts spent on fuel for diesel pumps. Another discovery is that made by a tribal of a local plant leaf in Orissa that helps ripen fruits in a natural, organic way. It will prove useful to the food-processing industry as a substitute for the chemicals that are currently used in ripening fruits.

There are many stories of the individual innovators that ‘India Today’ has brought out in its wonderful special issue. I requested my friend Popli to go through the issue and request every one to do that to know what all are happening in Innovating India.

I wish ‘India Today’ had provided the contact details of these innovators too.

Can we agree if the West says India can’t innovate?
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PS: Innovations must be covered in media. It is unfortunate that the people at large hardly come to know about the researches of our scientists and technocrats in defence and government institutions. It must come in media as it comes in US. Even US Army designates year’s best inventions

It was interesting to see and talk with the whole of family, thousands of miles away in US on its Independence Day evening. Broadband Internet has diminished the distance. The cheap and high quality web cameras have made it livelier. It appears we are sitting in one large room in two corners. While we had been seeing Emma and Bart quite frequently, today Svanik and then Keshav and Anvita also joined Emma. Anand normally they used to have a lot of fireworks on this occasion, but with large number of fires all over California, they dropped the idea of fireworks this year. It is good that the three families have come together to celebrate and enjoy the Independence Day of US. In India, on its Independence Day, we just listen to the prime minister’s speech from the rampart of the historic Red Fort and sleep in the afternoon.

Rakesh was wearing a T-shirt with a big car with external of an American flag. Unfortunately, I hardly find very many T-shirts here in India with India as a subject. I am sure it could have helped in developing a national unity. Perhaps the business community may be skeptical about its market with people in India having so varying number of identity. No one has taken initiative to develop the souvenir business that may have a lot of potential. The comparison becomes visible when we visit any place outside India.

Indo-US relation over the years has gone real positive. India was never so near to US. I remember the years when US was so near Pakistan that every Indian used to hate to take pride in US. I remember at least one name of Dulles.

Many feel it started with NDA government, while UPA wishes to take the credit more clearly with signing Indo-US Nuclear Deal. Thanks to Mulayam and his manipulative middleman Amar Singh, the Deal may come through with a new dawn in Indo-US relation.

Many a times I consider the affinity of US towards India is due to the Indian immigrants that are playing a significant role in various American technology sectors. Indians are making their presence felt in every field, be it with money power supporting Presidential candidates, or with their entrepreneurship and innovations.

I don’t know how many of the leftist leaders are having their children in USA. But for those with their children in USA, the country becomes the second most important one after one’s own country.

Let me also celebrate the Day with all Indians in USA and wish peace and prosperity for that nation.

Mother Dairy has started charging Rs 25 per litre of full cream milk from today. It was charging Rs 24 till yesterday. How much does it pay to the milk producers at the rural collection centers? As I understand the producers don’t get anything more than Rs 10-12 for a litre of milk.

Some aspects of inflation are difficult to understand for every one. The rise in the prices of rice and wheat or other grains after the harvest time is only because of hoarding, be it by the farmers, traders, mill owners or the government. One can very well understand with so small a holding, the farmers can’t hoard. Farmers are always under the pressure to sell the produce just after the harvest to clear all the credits from the moneylenders or shopkeepers. The farmers are not very much united too to press their issues with the traders or the government authorities. On the other hand, the traders, shopkeepers, and mill owners do hoard as they have resources and because of the cartel increase the prices when they wish to make money. It is only for the government to find a way out to control the tricks of profiteering if the appeal for unethical price hikes fails.

Just few days back, the traders were not lifting the potatoes in Agra. Farmers were ready to sell at any price. But today, even the outlets of Safal, a unit of Mother Dairy is selling potatoes at over Rs 10 per kg, when the mandi price is between Rs 3 to 8 per kg. How much should be the transportation and handling cost? How much must be the margins? Farmers or producers are neither responsible nor getting any share of the price being charged from the consumers.

The price rise of food items that are produced sufficiently in the country is certainly not due to the global price rise. Transportation cost, which can be claimed as increased because of the fuel price can’t be that high with any rational costing.

I don’t understand two other steps of the government- one related to increase of the export duty of Basmati rice and the second is the ban on production of ethanol from molasses. Is the government doing that to provide cheaper basmati rice to the rich men of the country? Can the production of ethanol cause shortage of sugar? Perhaps the policy gets distorted because of some other reasons.

And as I understand, the rise of the prices of steel and cement contribute quite a bit in increase in inflation rate. The government has failed miserably in facilitating the increase of the production capacity of both the items in the country. The country’s per capita consumption of both the items is extremely low. Many firms have committed setting up new steel plants with 193 MOUs with various states for planned capacity of around 243 million tones and total proposed investment of over Rs 5.14 lakh crore. But in last four years the companies have failed to start the work on the project because of the policies of the governments both state and central, and its red tapes and agitation of the locals. Posco, Tata, and Arcelor Mittal are still running around to get the project started. Is there no role of the government- the state and central? Can blaming each other for the hold ups satisfy them? In the same way, the cement industry has announced a massive expansion of 110 million tonnes and has even ordered the plants. Should not the government see the execution of the projects that would have avoided shortages and price rise?

However, the impact of the inflation on the monthly grocery budget is annoying with the prices of pulses, cooking oil, and even cooking gas shooting up. What is the use of mandi declaring the price of Arhar dal at Rs 34 a kg, if it is available at nothing less than Rs 50 at any outlet, be it organized retail or shop in the neighbour?

Why are the prices of cooking oil so high when Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation, the country’s largest milk co-operative and brand owners of ‘Amul’ says, “Butter is an anti-inflationary product and inflation has no direct effect on its input costs.” And it is not planning to increase the price of butter. Why can’t others follow?

Unfortunately, there is hardly any interest in reducing or maintaining the prices through various cost cutting techniques, as the only motive of business today is to keep the profit at maximum.

Unfortunately, the price once increased never comes down significantly.

Inflation has become global phenomenon. Grumbling can only cause cardiac problem. We are to learn to live with it.Indian housewives know it best.

My problem has been my expectation to see some fast transformation and achievement. Last time Ashok came here enroute to Vadodara after visiting our village during Holi, I asked him regarding if the NREGs is effectively functioning there. His reply was in negative. Basically, nothing worth mentioning is happening, neither it is serving the purpose of the people for it was meant. Last week, I read a detail report about the NREGs in Outlook Business. The NREGs is failing to provide much-needed livelihoods and community assets as desired by those who perceived the scheme. Unfortunately, now it is the people right in the villages who are involved in rampant corruption. The beneficiaries require education about their rights. NGOs, media, and dedicated officers must monitor it by building foolproof, transparent system.

Another recent decision of the Bihar government to develop self-contained maha-Dalit colonies in every panchayat across the state, which would have a house, built on four decimal land for every such family, a school, a hospital, a park and drinking water facilities on “gairmazrua (government)” land, was really heartening. The maha-Dalits includes Mehtar, Halkhor, Dom, among others, constitute about 40 per cent of the total Dalit population in the state. And their condition still remains pitiable. I wish this is not an announcement with election in mind but a genuine endeavour to help the deprived through empowering them.

However, the most worrying part for me was the report that Bihar is among the states where the level of corruption is still “alarming”. The “India Corruption Study 2007”, brought out by NGOs Transparency International India (TII) and Centre for Media Studies (CMS), found that about one-third of Below Poverty Line (BPL) households in the country bribed officials to avail a total of 11 services – from police to PDS. Is it not shameful?

But many individuals from Bihar working on as missionary make one happy and proud of them. In the wonderful special issue of ‘India Today’ on 50 pioneers of change, Amitabh Srivastava has four such stories. Here are those four persons:

1.Deepak Kumar is a murder convict and has served a 14-year jail sentence for killing an influential co-villager over a property dispute. But he is changed man now. Deepak Kumar has set up a residential, 15-roomed English-medium Deendayal Kushepremi Central School up to Class VII with eight teachers and more than 365 students-most of whom are poor.

2.Abhyanand, the Additional Director-General of Police, Bihar Military Police is a legendary personality by now. His Super 30- a free IIT-JEE coaching institute for 30 select youngsters from underprivileged families in rural Bihar has created a model for emulation. This year, everyone from the Super 30 group made the grade in what is widely believed to be one of the toughest and most competitive entrance examinations in the world. Abhyanand for reason unknown will not be teaching any more in Super 30. But as reported, Abhayanand has another mission now. He ” will now expand the concept of Super 30 and pick underprivileged Muslim students and train them for competitive exams”. Is it not a wonderful mission?

3.Veena Devi, 35, a widow, is serving her second-term as mukhiya (panchayat chief) of the Loharpur Panchayat of Nawada district. She was one of the four women village heads who shared the dais with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi at a national convention of Panchayati Raj last year. There hasn’t been a single case filed against anyone since Veena was elected for her second term. In fact, she has persuaded everyone in her Panchayat not to take their differences to a police station.

4.Prabhat Shandilya and his Magadh Jal Jamaat have so far revived more than a dozen abandoned water sources including Saryu talab in Gaya, created a few new ones, and most importantly infused in the residents of several parched villages of Gaya the need to conserve water and to sustain the water table. Prabhat remains unwilling to step into the spotlight. Late in 2006, the 8-km-long water channel from Maanpur to Nanouk village was desilted bringing water to 32 tanks of the area. In 2007, it was the turn for unclogging the 11-km-long Vanshi Nallah. Shandilya and his men are presently busy clearing up the 28-km-long water channel that runs from Chapardah to Thaneta village.

5.Kaushilendra, the 2007 batch topper of the IIM, Ahmedabad, and the son of a college demonstrator in block town of Ekangarsarai in Nalanda district that is the vegetable bowl of Bihar has become a vegetable vendor “to earn money and ensure quality prices to farmers and quality product to citizens”. Kaushilendra owns today 50 carts that are selling vegetables in “right measurement and right rate”. Will Kaushilendra be able to sustain his spirit? Will he become the vegetable king of India? Perhaps, the answers are not known, but Kaushilendra has started in a revolutionary manner. I wish Kaushilendra expanded his business model with rural malls serving as hubs on the pattern of ITC’s Choupal Sagar on the GQ and East-West corridor expressway. He can promote organic food business too saving chemical and earning more price.

While all these pioneers are trying to set examples for the others in the state to participate in the development of the state, unfortunately, Lalu’s clan is happy with the gift from the sycophants of his party. Can’t there be some fast track courts as one for the dons-turned-politicians for politicians-turned-billionaires?

Last week had been hectic with the politics on Indo-US Nuclear Deal. It was a warlike coverage in media-particularly leftist politicians firing all ammunitions based on technical to emotional reasons against the deal, and the imminent journalists and columnists writing in favour of the Deal. Inder Malhotra, Shekhar Gupta, Vir Sanghvi, Rajdeep Sardesai, Prem Shankar Jha, K Subrahmanyam, and many others have been writing the lead articles in different newspapers and magazines. In a lead article, ”Why The World Backs The Deal’, Jerome Bonnafont, France’s ambassador to India wrote, “The Indo-US nuclear deal constitutes an unprecedented global offer made to India by the international community. France, Russia, the US, and many other countries, could help India accelerate the development of its civil nuclear programme without undermining India’s sovereign choices while conforming to international rules on non-proliferation.”

Congress was quiet. BJP kept on challenging the government to go ahead.

As it stands, Congress seems to have agreed to save Man Mohan Singh from his embarrassments at G-8 meet and allow him to go ahead on the Deal. Man Mohan Singh confidence is clearly up. Surprisingly, Sonia had been pretty miser in words and vague in favour, perhaps to keep the door for the leftists open. On the hand, the leftists have issued the ultimatum, ‘Going for the deal means withdrawal of support’. However, the leftists have not threatened any voting to pull down the government. Congress is already wooing Mulayam to keep the number. Many negotiators are working overtime. Amar Singh as usual considers himself the Krishna in this Mahabharat between the Man Mohan and Prakash. Karat is very shrewdly heating at Man Mohan rather than the Congress that Sonia heads and leads. Even politicians like Ajit Singh have started talking in favour. Shiv Sena has openly talked in favour of the deal.

As it appears, Man Mohan Singh will ask its negotiators to go ahead. Leftists will withdraw its support. But the government may continue till the general election in normal course. Even if Congress had agreed with the leftists and not gone for the Deal, the leftists would have certainly withdrawn its support before the election. It couldn’t have gone to the election while supporting the government. To them, the Deal is a better excuse for withdrawal of support for the visible consumption of voters. Sonia must accept this truth. The leftists are not the right choice as bedfellows.

To me, the Deal is a necessity to keep India in the community of scientific research and technology. India can’t keep itself isolated and think of becoming a super power or alleviate the poverty. It hardly matters if one day in distant future, India breaks the agreement in the interest of the country and gets a sanction again. It must be able to buy uranium or for that matter work together with the developed countries for any cutting edge technology or material as others biggies can. It must be able to develop its own technologies and sell its resources freely. With China as a shrewd rival, India must become strong.

In emerging scenario, no developed country worth name can do without India. It’s potential for growing as an important economy makes the nations keep it on its side. They find it more comfortable to work with India. It gets reflected in the remarks made by many heads of the countries and their leaders.

Unfortunately and historically, the biggest enemies of India had been from inside the country. India must develop its own strength and set a tradition of working in national interests with confidence. The politicians must shun short-term goals and anti-people motives. I wish the people of India could understand these black sheep working for vested selfish interest to remain as their rulers.

India has nothing much to lose by going for the deal. It must cross all the steps cautiously but fast enough to receive the uranium supplies soon to avoid the existing nuclear power plants from starving and new plants to meet the time frame. It will be the test of India’s diplomacy. India is to see who ultimately are causing delays.

Let Sonia not be afraid of BJP exploiting the deal for electoral gains, neither of the leftists who are hardly of any help in pushing the country ahead. Soniaji! Be fearless, don’t go by the advices of the sycophants in the party, show the steely resolve to make the country great.

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I was talking to Anand Friday night. They got a new vehicle big enough to accommodate the expanding family. Naturally, it means more on gasoline cost. All the big vehicles consume much more gasoline. It is quite a deterrent for the present gas price in US that has almost doubled in last three years, as Anand informed. Anand excitedly talked about the Tata Motors’ Nano and its low fuel consumption that he has heard and read about in media. Many households in US can think of having a ‘Nano’ in their fleet as an addional vehicle for a short run or single drive for some shopping or routine chores around the residence.

Every automaker in Japan developed and sold small cars for the women in the Japanese households. Bigger cars were for long drive or for use to keep the status in tact. Japanese small cars had all the sophistications unlike India where all the manufacturers did away with all those features to cut down the cost and the price to the consumers. Suzuki in India also did the same with its Maruti 800 model.

Perhaps the festivities of the coming Durga Puja or Dessehara in India will get a booster with the appearance of Nano -the ultra cheap car of Tata Motors that has enhanced the prestige of Indian manufacturing capability globally. The Nano also became a hit at the Geneva Motors Show, and brought admiration for the Tatas to come up with a cost effective product. As I understand millions of people are waiting for Nano’s availability. And why should not they be? The younger generation of a farmer requires sparing the produce of only 2 acres to buy a Nano. With improving rural roads, Tata Motors must cash on at least few potential customers in each of the six-lakh villages of the country and that will run in million.

Tata Motors has taken too much time after it launched Nano in January 2008 at Auto Expo in Delhi for coming out commercially in the market. It could have taken a different strategy to come out with the first 1,00,000 cars in one of its existing plants for faster market entry, if it had a freeze on its design or through simultaneously work on manufacturing facilities. It could have got the first timer advantages. Moreover, the recent spiraling inflation will certainly impact Nano. If Tata Motors keeps the prices even after providing for the vendors as it has promised, it is great job almost like a magician on cost cutting through value engineering and innovations.

I still don’t understand the Nano pricing. Even the depreciation and interest cost on the huge investment of Rs 1700 core that as reported has gone up to Rs 2000 core will be considerably significant. For that matter, Suzuki Maruti with its plant totally depreciated can always cut down its price of Maruti 800 to the level of Nano, though it keeps on brushing aside Nano competition.

Durga Puja is just few months away. But if market accepts Nano warmly, the volume build up must be fast along with the creation of infrastructure for handling the services for rural market. As the market expected, Tata Motors will be using a distributed manufacturing strategy to make Nano available to its prospective customers in every part of the country.

But as it appears, Tata Motors has restricted itself to Singur for manufacturing, perhaps as some sort of commitment to Buddhadeo Bhattacharya. Somehow with my bitter experiences of the work culture with the leftists unions, I am still not sold on Singur as the right choice for Nano manufacturing. Perhaps, Tata Motors might have kept some of the plans secret. In the mean time, according to the media reports, Tata Motors is seeing a huge global interest with enquiries pouring up for setting up plants from countries like the US, Latin America, Europe and South East Asia. What a pride moment!

I wish Nano to set a record performance to boost the image of India’s manufacturing capability on the line of T-model of Ford or Beatle of VW. I dream of many dedicated ships carrying Nanos and its variants to different parts of the globe. Can Tata Motors do it? It will certainly be possible, if Tata Motors can keep the quality of the cars to the global standard and keep on innovating to remain the best in its class. Competition will come for Nano, may be sooner if it succeeds. And it may be not only from Bajaj Renault Nissan combination as reported in press, perhaps the Chinese will be faster with their Nano’s fakes, may be as ‘Bano’.

Let the Indian manufacturing excel through Nano.
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PS Latest from Rattan Tata: New Nano model underway to fight fuel price hike

Once one of my teachers Dr. Sahodar Pandey recited the first geet of ‘Nish Nimantran‘: ‘Din jaldi jaldi dhalta hai’. It touched me so much that I became a crazy fan of Senior Bachchan, Late Haribans Rai Bachchan, a popular Hindi poet.

In Sunday Times of India June 29, 2008, I read the following excerpts from http://www.bigb.bigadda.com. I really liked it. Perhaps as a father at the age nearing 70, it suits me. I don’t know when it happened with Amitabh, but with years passing the problems with sons or may be, with parents are getting accentuated. I shall like the younger generation to appreciate the older one that had to travel much more difficult paths.

The avenues and opportunities open to the youth today in an economically liberated India were absent in the late 50s and early 60s. After graduation what? Where to find a job? What job? How? When? And the idealism and debate and the coffee house banter soon converts itself to anger. The anger was because of not knowing what to do with ourselves. Amitabh writes:

Angered, frustrated, strengthened and armed with unreasonable thought, I walked into my father’s study one evening and for the first time in my life, with choked emotion, raised my voice at him and screamed: “Aapne hamme paida kyun kiya?”(“Why did you give birth to me?”)

My father, immersed as he always was in his writing, looked up at me with some initial surprise and then settled down to a more understanding posture and remained so for almost eternity. No one spoke. Not him. Not me. Not a sound. Just the measured clicking of the timepiece on his desk – and my unmeasured breathing! When nothing came across from the parent quarter, I turned and left. It was an uncomfortable night for me. The next morning my father walked into my room, woke me up and handed me a sheet of paper and left. I opened it. It was a poem he had written overnight – titled Nayi Leek or The New Generation.

Zindagi aur zamane ki kashmakash se / Ghabrakar mere ladke mujhse poochte hain, / “Hamme paida kyun kiya tha?” / Aur mere paas iske siwa /Koi jawab nahin hai /Ki mere baap ne bhi mujhse bina pooche / Mujhe paida kiya tha, /Aur mere baap se bina pooche unke baap ne, unhe, / Aur mere baba se bina pooche unke baap ne, unhe…/ Zindagi aur zamane ki kashmakash / Pahle bhi thi Ab bhi hai, shayad zyada, / Aage bhi hogi, shayad aur zyada. / Tumhi nayi leek dharana, / Apne baytoen se poochkar unhe paida karma!

(Pulled and torn by the strains of life and living / My sons ask me / “Why did you give birth to us?”/ And I do not possess an answer to this / That even my father did not ask me before giving birth to me, / Nor my father was asked by his father / Nor my grandfather did ask his father before bringing him. / The trials and tribulations of life and living / Were there before / And are there now too, perhaps more / And shall be there tomorrow, even greater. / Why don’t you make a new beginning, a new thinking, / Ask your sons before giving birth to them!)

How did yoou like it?

As reported, ‘the Union Government will spend a total of Rs1, 346 crore on the construction of the 385-km-long Dandi Heritage Route between Ahmedabad and Dandi in Surat district where Mahatma Gandhi had defied the British Salt Law after a long march in 1930. If it is not an election stunt, it’s a wonderful project. The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) will construct a four-lane highway at a cost of Rs 1,200 crore.’ Will NHAI or some other Gandhian institution be trying to retain or reconstruct the places attached to the memories of that journey of the father of the nation so that a tour on the route becomes part of Incredible India for the posterity to come, see, and feel proud?

Grand Heritage Route: For a long time, I have been thinking on a similar journey, rather two journeys undertaken by Lord Rama: the first was with Lakshman and Vishwamitra from Ayodhya to Janakpur and back. The second was a long one from Ayodhya to Lanka, covering almost he whole of India from north to south. Can one not think of creating an Epic Heritage route covering all the important places Pryag, Chitrakoot, Pachwati, Pampapur, Kiskindha, and then Rameshwaram ending on the Ramsethu? It can get into Sri Lanka if it permits. Will it not be a better memorial than the temple BJP has committed to build at Ayodhya?

I can’t say if Rama is a historical figure. But millions of people visit these places. For thousands of years the places have got mentions in the writings of great saints and poets. However, all these places have one thing in common. The places remain unplanned and filthy with no facilities worth name for the people visiting it.

Will it not be a great heritage road, something better than the temple at the birthplace, if created, for millions who go to all these places following different routes and means of transportation?

I appeal to all the religious-minded ones to participate and do their bits in improving the cleanliness of all the religious places, be it Badrinath or Banaras, Gaya or Gangotri. It will also inspire and motivate millions of the people to improve the conditions around their households.

It would have been the Gandhi’s wish too.

We were in Hind Motor, when India helped Bangla Desh to become a separate nation out from Pakistan born out of malicious ambitions of the politicians. Those were exciting days. We heard the Indian general asking for the surrender of the Pakistani army and saw the great surrender.

After the Bangla Desh Independence war, Sam Bahadur (images) became an icon. Sam once had refused to let Indira Gandhi into the operations room for the debriefing, as she had not taken the oath to secrecy. It was Pandit Nehru era. Sam had some more skirmishes with Indira Gandhi. But those were the days, when the political leaders were much more magnanimous unlike the present breed.

I was expecting that the morning newspapers would carry the news of the end of a glorious life of a son of India on its front pages with all the stories as special honour to the departed soul. However, the media perhaps look for the news that is hotter that makes more readers, such as all useless details on Arushi murder. Sam got some space only inside pages. But the more horrendous was the news that only an MOS represented the government of India. Even the chiefs of services didn’t join the funeral. Why is there so much of coverage for the politicians by the media? Why are the country’s politicians so mean in giving respect to a person of other fields who has been a national hero? Dr. Man Mohan Singh could have set a precedent by attending the funeral of the first Field Marshal of the independent India, as it can hardly be expected from the present president. However, the former president also couldn’t make it and neither the leader of the opposition.

I expect the government to name some of the institutes of the defence forces such as National Defence Academy after Sam Bahadur. But will it? Perhaps, one day the country would find again the name of some Gandhi-Nehru as prefix.

How can one expect some magnanimous steps from the politicians in hurry to get the vote banks on their sides at all cost even to the great institutions such as IITs?

I am waiting to see if the national weeklies such as India Today, Outlook, or Week or the monthlies come out with some special issue on Sam Bahadur. Even if they don’t Sam Bahadur (pictures) would remain unique and outstanding for generations to come.