Dear Friend Shiva

I am not good at writing these pieces but I thought I should make an exception in Shiva’s case. I had known him for the last 3 years to be precise. Through his days in the Sironj team of Pradan he always made his presence felt in any gathering with his “different” thoughts ideas and ways of perceiving a situation. Always ready to share his thoughts, engaging with others with an infectious verve were his traits which I admired. Was not in touch with him for the last year or so but I still remember him telling me standing in the Bilaspur railway station platform, like it was yesterday, that one has to take some risks to get what one wants in life. 

It still is a little unbelievable to come to terms with the fact that he is no more with us.

He touched  many lives in his own inimitable way that no one else could……. And I will always remember him for that. He takes away a part of me with him! Dear Friend …Rest  in Peace!

My Work!

IT has almost been two months since i shifted to Digital Green from PRADAN. I am already finding it very exciting because i see myself addressing one of the major problems of the development world - upscaling by mobilising the very people who are the recipients of benefits of any development program - the community. Something which is missed out by many.....something which I thought I had missed out for so many years till i had an opportunity to work in a certain place called Kesla. More about Kesla sometime later....as now its time for my new place of work and the nature of work.


I was always convinced that information communication technology had a huge role to play in development provided the right place to introduce it was found.One was the area of market interface for disadvantaged populations and the other is as we are doing in Digital Green- taking the best practices in farm and off farm livelihood options and the experiences of good farmers to other farmers.  Basically we are trying to bring down the lag time between early adopters of innovations and late adopters. And being a development -wallah I believe that it is us who have make sure that agricultural adoptions are the business end of our services. Yes i know it is a not a two way process and that most of our partners and their overall methods of extension would also play a huge role; but i am under no illusion when I say that such short films made by youngsters from the villages and on farmers is the way to go forward to achieve greater numbers in any intervention and with quality. The reason - Quite simple! Farmers learn by observing...and who better to observe than someone who is their own?! so Play on..and lets make this happen.....Ohh!! and Krishnaa.......well i promise the next post will be about him and his new life that hes come around to.

Chapter 1: The Awakening!

Slowly……..my eyes open……the blur of the neon lights are painful and my eyes flinch trying to get accustomed to the glare. It’s as if a long time has passed since I saw this familiar glare of the tubelight. But why do I feel that a long time has passed since I saw this familiar glare. Strange indeed!

My gaze slowly adjusts itself to the brightness around and falls on this elderly woman who I see in front of me. She has a smile on her face and her eyes are tearful. I can make out by looking at her face that  she has been crying for a long time and waiting for this very moment… for me to open my eyes….why? My eyes move around trying to see the reaction of all others in the room and I see similar expressions on everyone’s faces. There are a couple of men one in his thirties, tall, quite handsome; he has a smile in his face a very genuine smile. There another who is in his sixtys and I could see that his eyes like the woman in the room were moist with recently welled tears and yet he was smiling amongst all of it. He looked quite stoic and beautiful like someone who had lost everything and by some miracle had got it all back.

 And then I became aware of a dull pain in the back of my head which was there ever since I had opened my eyes but it took me sometime to realize that it was painfull. This realization was disturbed by the first words from someone..it was the woman who had lowered her face and brought it nearer to me and asked me “Krishnaa! how do you feel?” “There is a slight pain here” I said pointing to the back of my head when I realised that my head was all taped up. I also saw that the room was a hospital and all the implements were there in place…the ECG machine, the Temperature and the Blood pressure display blipping away incessantly.  Suddenly a splurge of thoughts started to flood my mind……what am I doing in this hospital room? who are these men?  who is this woman? who is this woman talking to? who is Krishnaa? Where am I?....and then the next question struck me and struck me hard….WHO AM I?.......I did not remember who I was. I blinked my eyes hoping that all this was a dream but I did not get up from any sleep. I was wide awake and yet I could not answer this simple question….Who am I?

to be continued.....!

Yet Again

No this ones not about Krishnaa. Much though i like writing about superheroes..I like cricket better. Another series is all but gone and the people can do without any further ennui from Test cricket. What purpose does a pitch such as the one in SSC, serve is beyond my understanding. Maybe the Sri Lankan Board will have more accurate answers. This series has been like two boxers sparring at each other much like Davids searching for the Goliath in the other where there is none to be found. India's bowling is toothless without Zaheer and Ishant needs to find self belief. The rest of them are pedestrian in their efforts and talent ( i would exclude Harbhajan from this comment as he needs time to recover from the flu that he had had).

But coming back to the old issue of that 22-yard long strip called the pitch. It seems the subcontinental teams are hell bent on making test cricket obsolete...which is ironical considering that both India and Sri Lanka are the world number one and three in test rankings. Aaah!..... but test cricket doesnt fill the coffers and neither it will if we continue give such dull and drab wickets for our players. It is better to give under-prepared wickets at least there is some sort of a contest. People come to see a contest of skills and not players going through the motions. Oh God for those blades of grass, the uncovered pitches of yore and the brownness of the asian wickets! I would trade them for 5 dreary days at the stadium where runs are scored, records are broken but skills not tested. But yet hats off to Tendulkar the modern day great for keeping his resolve and scoring a Double! but thats about it for this test match! Thank you Sri Lanka!

My superhero!...Krishna!

i have found the name for my superhero ....Krishnaa! thats the name of the man who is the superman amongst men and yet is fallible. Watch this space for more on Krishnaa