A very inspirational video ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=te7JkdUZhIY

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The Indian flag

As I promised, here's a picture of the flag I made. It isn't that proper though. I guess the safron is too light. Anyway, I pasted the chakra from another Indian flag I got from the web. After all, that is the distinct feature of the Indian flag ...distinct from all other countries.

Take a look at what I made:

I wasn't very happy with this. So, I am posting the downloaded one as well.



Hmm ....this flag does look awesome.

Jaihind

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Indepndence Day!

On this day, when I'm typing this post, the first thing that comes to my mind is one of my earlier posts, titled "Have we got Independence".

But what now I feel is that we brood a lot. We brood a lot saying "India lacks ....", "India does not have ......" and what not! But I have also been saying that we need to join hands and fight against these factors. But Indians, today is a day to celebrate THE Independence we got on August 15 1947 - THE Independence we got from the British.

On this day, let's recollect how much they had tortured us, how much they had exploited us etc.?
No - today is a day of joy. We can't say that by the entry of British, everything they did was bad for us? There were also people like Lord William Bentinck. Let's see, from http://www.indianetzone.com/23/william_bentinck.htm , what he has done for the Indian society.

________________

None of Bentinck`s predecessors handled the problems of social evil in India as Bentinck did. He tried to reform the Hindu society by abolition of the cruel rite of Sati and the suppression of the infanticide. The cult of Sati was prevalent in Bengal in the 19th century. According to that cult a devoted wife burnt herself with the dead body of her husband. The cult and ritual of Sati was contemplated as a holy rite to live an uninterrupted and perpetual conjugal union. In India its popularity was due to a false sense of conjugal duty sanctioned by the society.

However some Indian princes and the foreigners even had adopted several steps to abolish the cult of Sati. The East India Company had however adhered to its declared policy of non-interference in the social and the religious customs of the people of India. Whatever steps were adopted so long had been proved inadequate and unsuccessful.

William Bentinck as the governor General of India looked down the sati cult and declared sati illegal. In his a solemn aim to reform India, He got the assistance of the enlightened Indians like Raja Ram Mohan Roy. While Ram Mohan Roy published a number of pamphlets condemning the practice of Sati, Lord William Bentinck provided necessary legislative corrective. None of his predecessors provided any legislative assistance to stop the social evils like Sati practiced in India. Bentinck undertook the social reform as one of his administrative duties. Bentinck, before taking any steps collected relevant facts and figures about Sati cases, obtained the views of the army officers, of the judges of the Nizamat Adalat, of the Superintendent of Police of the respective provinces. Later by the Regulation No XVII of December1829 he declared the practice of Sati illegal. In the Regulation he also declared in the clear terms that the practice of sati by any means was illegal and punishable by the criminal courts. The Regulation of 1829 by William Bentinck was applicable initially for the Bengal Presidency. But right from 1830 the jurisdiction of the Regulation was extended in different forms to Madras and the Bombay Presidencies. With this step of William Bentinck though no public disorder followed, yet a few orthodox Bengalis vainly made an appeal to the Privy Council against the Government`s interference in their religious customs. But the practice of sati was completely abolished from the contemporary society with the assistance of William Bentinck.

During that time the killing of the infant girls were highly in practice. However the killing of the infant girls was most popular among the Rajputs. A girl child was considered as an evil and she mother was cursed if she gave the birth of a girl child. Many dubious methods were used to destroy the female children. Infanticide was popular in the region of Beneras Gujrat. The tribes like Jharija Rajputs, Jats and Mewatis performed this evil practice. In spite of the adequate legal measures, infanticide was still continuing in its full form. Bentinck reorganized the Bengal Regulation XXI of 1795 and Regulation III of 1804, thereby adopted vigorous steps to suppress the immoral and inhuman practice. Moreover Bentinck also stopped the child sacrifices at special occasion in the Saugar islands in Bengal. Bentinck issued prompt orders to stop this evil practice.

William Bentinck was a genuine social reformer in spite of the British Governor General. The thugs or the cheats were concentrated in plenty in the contemporary society. These thugs were a sect of hereditary assassins and robbers who lived by preying upon innocent travelers. Due to the devastated administrative machinery after the downfall of the Mughal, the thugs emerged in plenty in the society. Petty officials of small states were unable to deal with the thugs and gave them protection in return for a share in the spoils. William Bentinck took vigorous step to stop the growth of the thugs and the evil practices. He issued legislative measures declaring the punishment for those who provided protection to the thugs. While the general public opinion was moved against the Government measure during the abolition of Sati, the public opinion solidly supported the suppression of thugs in 1830. After the law was passed, Colonel Smith arrested about 1500 thugs and subjected them to death. Due to the continuous legislative actions adopted by Bentinck the thugs on an organizing scale ceased to exist after 1837.
__________________________________________
Today, what we need to be proud of is, India is free from the evil practices, more or less, and she is free from British rule (of course, am not referring to the dress sense and life style ...but we're free from their torture!)

So let's celebrate this day by ......? This time let's do something different ....let's design the Indian flag on MS Paint, as simple as we can ...but inclusive of all details (no other software).

I will be posting it soon ....let's make India proud by doing this simple thing.

PS: Do this with a whole lot of patriotism.

Jaihind

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The new symbol for the Indian currency

Thanks to Nitisha Pande who was the first one because of whom I came to know that a new symbol for the Indian currency was going to be announced. On Thursday, 15 July 2010, a new symbol for the Indian rupee' was announced.

As soon as I woke up that morning, I brushed my teeth and opened the front door and saw the Hindu news paper. I took it in hand to see the headlines "Rupee joins elite club". It read "With a blend of the Devanagari ‘Ra' and Roman ‘R' as its unique symbol, the Indian currency will be joining the elite club of the US dollar, the European euro, the British pound sterling and the Japanese yen to mark its presence in the global arena." The article I saw on Nitisha's blog had brought in me the excitement to know what is going to be the decision. But now what is puzzling me is, in the finalists list, the symbol that has been announced was not to be found! Was this a sudden entry?

One thing that I wanted was that it should be printed in the notes and/or in the coins. It would, I guess look unique and also make all of us, mainly D. Udaya Kumar (the Bombay IIT post-graduate who created the symbol) and his family and all our upcoming generations.

Let's now hear a bit about Uday Kumar, who was, I guess just a common man till a few days ago ...but now someone who is known all over India for his contribution to make us feel proud of our nation. We are developing. We are all doing our best to stand equal in eminence with all the other 'developed' countries.

As I was browsing for a few articles on Uday Kumar, I found one on www.economictimes.indiatimes.com

Take a look at the article:

Dharmalingam Udaya Kumar was booked to fly to Guwahati on Thursday morning. On Friday he was to start his new job as assistant professor in the department of design at the Indian Institute of Technology in Guwahati. He was leaving the IIT Mumbai campus where he spent five years earning a PhD in industrial design—the first doctorate to be awarded in the discipline in India. The calls started pouring in early Thursday morning. He had won a nationwide contest run by the government to design a symbol for the Indian rupee. A symbol he designed, incorporating elements of Devanagari and Roman scripts, had been chosen to represent India’s growing economy and its currency. It would be incorporated in Unicode, computer keyboards will have a dedicated key for the symbol and it will come to be seen and recognised around the world. A designer gets to create a currency symbol just once in a nation’s life. For a man used to painstaking and solitary pursuit of meaning in symbols, typefaces and ancient Tamil manuscripts, the attention must have been unsettling. He didn’t take his flight. In the evening, cars came to haul him off to television studios. He would go to Guwahati the next day. Born in Chennai on 10 October, 1978, Kumar’s family hails from Thanjavur. The magnificent temples there must have had something to do with his decision to study architecture, which he pursued at Anna University in Chennai. Subsequently, he did his masters in architecture from IIT, Mumbai. When the industrial design centre in the campus started offering a PhD, Udaya Kumar enrolled, and started work on the evolution of the Tamil script,which dates back to 2nd century AD. “I want to continue work on Tamil typography. I find our symbols have a very heavy western influence. I will do more work on Indian scripts,” he told ET. For the design, he took inspiration from the symbols of such currencies as Korea’s won, UK’s pound sterling, euro, lira, peso and others. “Thus it has a harmonious identity as far as international currency symbols are concerned and at the same time it has the Indian uniqueness,” he said about his winning design. Among the international currencies, he likes the Yen symbol as it best reflects the country. The 31-year-old bachelor worked as a senior designer for two years with specialty magazine publisher Infomedia. _______________________________ One message I would like to pass on to every Indian ...every proud Indian who is reading this article of mine is that what he did was very little, but very big. He just drew a letter in the Devanagari script, and drew a line in between and said that this could be the new symbol for the Indian rupee, and also added that this middle line represented the national flag. Why did he do this? Because he loved our country? He wanted to do something for India? Or did he just try for luck to look for popularity? Whatever it be, by doing something small, he has done something great for all of us - for all the people who lived before us, for us, and for our future generations. Basically, for all Indians. He has made all of us feel that we are not 'low' or 'less in dignity' in any way. So, what I am basically trying to say is that even if you want to do a small thing, think over it twice or thrice. Think of various ways, as to how to make it a better work and how to prove better results, and also as to how to benefit more people. I guess that is exactly what he did and is now famous all over the country, has done something great for whole of India, has chosen something that is used or liked by most of us (the Devanagari script). Let us, from now start being a better citizen of the country and the world. From now, let us discuss on how to make India a better country ...for as we all very well know, there are so many drawbacks such as poverty, lack of cleanliness, backward thoughts, etc. Let us all together try our best to rub of all this so that we can even more proudly call ourselves as Indians. Jai Ho, Udaya Kumar Jai Ho, India and finally, Jaihind ____________________________________________________________________ PS: source for the picture: Hindu News paper

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Is this fair?

The standard 12th exam results Tamil Nadu have been announced. Now what? Now the students need to try to find a seat on a college in a desired place, in a desired college, which provides a desired course. Now, a person with good marks is eligible to get admitted in a good college, in 'dote'. When the government announces the 'cut off' mark required by the student to get a seat in colleges, people come to know if they can get into the college by 'merit', on the basis of marks.

Now, let's say a set of 10 friends have attained good cut off marks, out of which three friends belong to the caste "FC", and the rest belong to SC, ST, MBC, BC etc. Now two of these FC friends have scored more than all the others. But are the seven friends who are not FC having a better chance to get a seat in a college, though their marks are lesser, just because they belong to these castes?

I don't think this is fair. People belonging to the Forward Community (FC) have scored more, which probably means they have more talent and ability. Okay, let's leave alone the third FC who has scored lesser marks ...he might not have that much capability. But, though getting less marks, are these SC, ST, MBC, and BC students going to get into the colleges in an easier way?

Every student needs to get the opportunities he/she is eligible to avail. But they are deprived of these privileges just because they come from Forward Community?

How efficient is our future going to be, if we have people with less knowledge in job? I do agree that Non-FCs also have talent. But does that mean they only have talent and knowledge? Everybody with knowledge and talent should be given a chance to prove themselves? Don't you think so?

Jaihind

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Republic Day!

Republic Day!

Today is 26th Jan 2010, the date during which the constitution of India came into force, the date which is celeberated as

Republic Day, ever since 26 Jan, 1950. During this day, parades will be held in many parts of the country. The parade in New

Delhi will be visited by the leaders of the country, since it is the capital of the country, having the National Head Office there.

This year's parade was indeed a grand one. I watched the live parade on Doordarshan. I really loved it. They performed many

events, which were really enjoyable and informative. There were many 'Republic Day Special' programmes going on on the TV,

though not many when compared to last year. I found the Parade eye-catching. Republic Day is always a day that brings out

the patriotism hidden in people who live in even the remotest places of the country.

Schools generally celeberate Republic Day, by organising functions, where the students would perform a march-past, some

music, and sometimes spell-binding speaches given by students or celebereties. It was really nice watching the parade, and

thinking about our country. There are indeed innumerable facts about the India, which enhance patriotism amongst people who

hear them. When we think about the various languages, the various religions, and the historical cultures and traditions that

have been followed in most of the places of the country from ancient times till date, we feel really proud to be Indians, don't we?

According to me, and Indians like me, today is more than any other festival. For me, today and Aug 15th are the best days of the

year.

26th Jan - the day when our constitution came into force

15th Aug - the day when we got our independence from the British

So far, I've been posting about what is to be done to India. In a way, it may look like critisism, though the actual motive behind

these posts is that we want to make our country a better place. Today, we need to discuss about the positive points of our mother

land, our country, our India.

It is very easy to say "India lacks this ...", "India does not have this ....", "India has too many negatives ..." etc., while it is also

easy to say "India is good in so many ways ...", "India's good points are ....", "India's specialities are ..." etc., but we hardly

praise our country. Why do we find this difficult?

Let's make it a point to praise our country, at least on these two days (Independence day and Republic Day) ...and we can

also add October 2nd, Gandhijayanthi in this list.

If we praise our country only on these three days, what do w e do during the rest of the days? We need to think of the negatives

of India, and try our best to rectify them. Certain things may not be in our hands ...but many of the problems can be rectified if

we join hands together, and work as a whole - as Indians, rather than working as people representing the state or caste, etc.

Having chosen this day to be a day to praise the country, let's discuss a bit about the freedom fighters.

Let's start with Mahatma Gandhi. He was born on October 2, 1869 in Porbandar, a coastal town in present-day Gujarat,

India. His father, Karamchand Gandhi was the diwan, i.e., the Prime Minister of Porbandar. Gandhi was a really great

soul. He believed in ahimsa, or non-violence. He started the Satyagrah movement. He lead the Dandi March, and he is known for his broad heart.

Time magazine named Gandhi the Man of the Year in 1930. Gandhi was also the runner-up to Albert Einstein as "Person of
the Century" at the end of 1999. Mahatma Gandhi Peace Prize to distinguished social workers, world leaders and citizens. Nelson Mandela, the leader of
South Africa's struggle to eradicate racial discrimination and segregation, is a prominent non-Indian recipient.

Gandhi never received the Nobel Peace Prize, although he was nominated five times between 1937 and 1948, including the first-
ever nomination by the American Friends Service Committee, though he made the short list only twice, in 1937 and
1947.Decades later, the Nobel Committee publicly declared its regret for the omission, and admitted to deeply divided
nationalistic opinion denying the award. Gandhi was nominated in 1948 but was assassinated before nominations closed. That
year, the committee chose not to award the peace prize stating that "there was no suitable living candidate" and later research
shows that the possibility of awarding the prize posthumously to Gandhi was discussed and that the reference to no suitable
living candidate was to Gandhi.When the 14th Dalai Lama was awarded the Prize in 1989, the chairman of the committee said
that this was "in part a tribute to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi."

Yes, he was indeed a great soul. He played a major role in our independence.

Motilal Nehru (Kashmiri/Hindi: मोतीलाल नेहरू) (May 6, 1861 – February 6, 1931) was an early Indian independence activist and leader of the Indian National Congress. He was the founder patriarch of India's most powerful political family, the Nehru-Gandhi family.

Jawaharlal Nehru (Hindi: जवाहरलाल नेहरू, pronounced [dʒəʋaːɦərˈlaːl ˈneːɦruː]; 14 November 1889–27 May 1964^[1]) was an Indian statesman who was the first, and is to date the longest-serving, prime minister of India, having served from 1947 until 1964. A leading figure in the Indian independence movement, Nehru was elected by the Congress party to assume office as independent India's first Prime Minister, and later when the Congress won India's first general election in 1952. As one of the founders of the Non-aligned Movement, he was also an important figure in the international politics of the post-war era. He is frequently referred to as Pandit Nehru ("pandit" being a Sanskrit and Hindi honorific meaning "scholar" or "teacher") and, specifically in India, as Panditji (with "-ji" being a suffix to the honorific).

The son of a wealthy Indian barrister and politician, Motilal Nehru, Nehru became a leader of the left wing of the Indian National Congress when still fairly young. Rising to become Congress President, under the mentorship of Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru was a charismatic and radical leader, advocating complete independence from the British Empire. In the long struggle for Indian independence, in which he was a key player, Nehru was eventually recognized as Gandhi's political heir. Throughout his life, Nehru was also an advocate for Fabian socialism and the public sector as the means by which long-standing challenges of economic development could be addressed by poorer nations.

I was browsing for some more information about the freedom fighters, and I found http://www.whereincity.com/india/great-indians/freedom-fighters/ really informative and interesting. Please go through the website.

PS: source for words in italics: wikipedia

After reading the website (to which I've given a link), come back to this post, and read this:

I'm sure you now feel really proud to be an Indian ....after all, we belong to a nation whose history if filled with so much of great souls.

JAIHIND!

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