Education in different Indias

A kid turned up at our hospital today with complaints that she was unable to see the board at night. Confused, I asked her 'why would anyone wanna see the board at night'. Her dad replied, that at her boarding school, they have classes during study hours at night. Thinking maybe she was in class 10 or something, I quizzed her further... she was in class 7!

On one hand it's painful the farce thousands of kids receive in the name of education, teachers aren't regular, children can 'play' during class hours itself, they can go up to class ten without passing any exam or knowing to read or write even in their own mother tongue. These are the kind of children we at Bhumi work with. We know the education they receive is inadequate but aren't sure how much to supplement that with 'better quality' education without ruining their leisure time.

Then here's this other India which extinguishes their family time and childhoods for the sake of academic excellence and better future careers!

What if everyone treated you like Tata DoCoMo - 2

Continued from What if everyone treated you like Tata DoCoMo - 1 - The real truth behind the 'Disruptive innovation' by Tata DoCoMo

I was getting fed up with all the spam from Tata DoCoMo but didn't wanna subscribe to the National Do Not Disturb registry because I wanted to receive all SMSs and calls from Bhumi.

Call 1 to Customer Care: After getting through all the hurdles, believe it or not I was put on hold for over 15 minutes after which I disconnected the line.

Call 2 to Customer Care (2 days later): Officer refuses to stop Spam from Tata DoCoMo unless I subscribed to National DND registry. I tried demanding my right to not receive marketing spam from Tata DoCoMo but to no avail.

Call 3 to Customer Care (after a few minutes): Thought I'll speak to a manager or someone higher up who could handle the issue better. My call was not connected at all and instead I heard a recorded voice message asking me to 'email listen@tatadocomo.com if I had further issues'!!! Do these people even care?!?!

Email 1 to listen@tatadocomo.com: Read through and have a laugh. I've copy pasted the email as it was sent, the parts in bold were actually the ones they missed. I'll post a screenshot of the email as an update within a day or two.

Hi,
I'm being subjected to excessive spam from Tata Docomo on my number 8148XXXXXX
I do not want to subscribe to National DND registry.
I just don't want any marketing spam call or SMS from Tata Docomo
Both are different, please do not try to educate me on the above, I'm fed up of the same from your call centre people.
Please cancel all communication from Tata docomo to my number immediately.
Please also send a list of all VAS charges that are being deducted from my account in the last 90 days, i believe all of these have been deducted through fraudulent means.

Dr Prahalathan KK

Response from Tata DoCoMo to Email 1:

Dear Mr. Prahalathan,
Greetings for the day!
This is with reference to your email dated 28-April-2012 regarding dnd related details for your Tata Docomo number 8148XXXXXX.

We regret the inconvenience caused to you.
In case you don’t wish to receive any promotional calls, OBD or SMS, you can register for Fully Blocked option or choose Partially Blocked in case you would like to receive information on any of the following topics:To activate the DND service send SMS” START DND” to 1909 and choose the options based on your requirement. 

0 - Full blocking of Telemarketing calls/SMS 

1 - Allows calls/SMS from Banking / Insurance / Financial products / credit cards 

2 - Allows calls/SMS from Real Estate 

3 - Allows calls/SMS on Education 

4 - Allows calls/SMS on Health 

5 - Allows calls/SMS on Consumer goods & automobiles 

6 - Allows calls/SMS on Communication/ Broadcasting /Entertainment/IT 

7 - Allows calls/SMS on Tourism and Leisure 

Once you activate DND, the promotional calls/SMS will be stopped within 7 working days from the date of DND registration.

And also be informed that upon checking our records the deducted amount for vas service-mobile mirchi and this service is also deactivated successfully.

And also be informed that you can call *191# select 6th option to deactivate any vas service in future. 

Please feel free to contact us for any further clarifications or call us at 121(toll free) from your TATA Mobile phone or 9043012345 from a Non Tata Mobile phone.
Assuring you of our best services at all times.

Warm Regards,XXXXXXXTATA DOCOMO- Customer Service

There is more to come.

Screenshot of above conversation.

What if everyone treated you like Tata DoCoMo - 1

I've been using Airtel for a really long time, over the past few months Airtel has almost doubled calling rates. So for Bhumi calls I ported my old Hutch number into Uninor, tried it for 2 months and dumped it because of poor signal. Then we chose Tata DoCoMo numbers some 3-4 months back. It made sense, they offer 10p/min intra network local calls like Airtel, but while Airtel is extracting 90p/min for a call to a landline or for any STD call, Tata DoCoMo charges only 1p/2seconds.

Tata DoCoMo claims to be a 'Disruptive innovator', but what they don't tell you is they will 'Disrupt' your life with unbearable amount of spam text messages and marketing voice calls.

As I am blogging this post
67.5% of text messages on my Inbox is SPAM from Tata DoCoMo
40.0% of the calls I've missed are marketing calls from Tata DoCoMo
35.0% of the calls I've received are marketing calls from Tata DoCoMo

So why am I blogging about Tata DoCoMo, don't all telecom companies cheat us?
(Airtel for example is yet to return approx Rs.4,000 billed in excess over a 3 month period on my broadband connection in 2010-2011)
Because the other telecom companies are not misleading the world with ads like 'What if everyone treated you like your Mobile Operator'

Check out how Customer care treated me @ What if everyone treated you like Tata DoCoMo - 2

There is more to come!

Can you give, when you've lost someone?

Today after an hour's drive into the interiors of Kancheepuram we reached a sleepy village to collect the eyes of an old woman who had expired just this morning. As we waited outside people especially children started coming to look at us... (happens all the time...) suddenly a man came running out crying 'no I won't allow the eyes to be taken!...'

Apparently, one of the sons had promptly informed the eye bank about his mother's death, while the other wasn't even aware, many village elders and the brother pleaded with the other to no avail. The whole drama played out for about half an hour on the streets as everyone watched, finally we left the place without completing the eye donation.

This is not the case everytime though. I must have collected at least fifty pairs of eyes in the last 3 years. Generally people are gracious in spite of their loss and when people thank us for coming, I'm often frozen, not knowing how to appropriately return the courtesy.

An instance I remember, once a son who was in final year medical school requested if he could be around when we were doing the procedure, I couldn't refuse, I don't know what he must have gone through, but I'm sure it must have been painful.

What has struck me is the profound impact the whole thing must have on the children of the house... how they would be positively impacted when their grieving parents explain to them with pride that their grandpa/grandma is giving their eyes and sight to two unknown people...

I'm sure these children would turn out to be good people, making this world a better place... :)

How many more should Die?

How many more of us should we lose to terrorism before we as a nation take decisive action against terrorism?

How long are we gonna rest on the laurels of capturing Ajmal Kasab alive? If we can't even show resolve in punishing Kasab and Afzal Guru what about the zillion other things we need to do?

If USA can be free of terrorist attacks for a decade why shouldn't we be too? Aren't we supposed to have one of the world's best security forces? Isn't that what the home minister tells us so often?

Isn't USA free of terrorism because they have taken the battle to the terrorists training camps and safe havens? When are we gonna even think about culling this menace at the source?

Isn't it well known to the government that there are terrorist training camps in Pakistan occupied Kashmir? Does the government even allow maps to published showing PoK? Even if we don't wanna attack another country (Pakistan) why can't we attack training camps in our Kashmir occupied by Pakistan?

How long are we gonna believe our government who are only worried about vote banks and go around hooting that saffron terrorism is a greater threat than that from across the LoC while our people continue to die?

Jagriti Yatra Diary - Okhai, Mithapur, the last stop

Jan 9 - The whole day was spent in the train as various teams finished off their role model presentations and we were briefed about making presentations on TJY. We reached Mithapur by late evening almost 10 hours ahead of schedule so we had to park the train at some place 10km away.

Jan 10 - The penultimate day and the last stop of the yatra. We were loaded on funny buses with sleepers etc and split into various groups that visited various places. While some groups visited the Okhai SHG groups, my group visited Tata's watershed programme for a village.

After a short bus journey, we had to endure probably a kilometre of rocks and shrubs to reach the place. Out of nowhere in the barren land a large man made dam stone lined dam. The dam served two purposes, it has stopped the inflow of sea water by increasing the ground water and replenishing the wells. It provided for an extra season or two of farming apart from the summer crop. The Tatas, the villagers and the government had all contributed for the small dam. There was little water when we went, but we were told that the benefits of building the dam recover the money through agro-produce in one year itself!

We were then taken to the Tata Chemicals plant where through a short photo exhibition we were told of the history of the plant. After lunch, the yatris had to be extracted from their dancing shoes to visit the stalls set up by Tata Chemicals Society for Rural Development.

The Okhamandal area is drought prone, so the Tatas formed Self Help Groups (supposedly the first in the country) in villages of the area to not only promote better livelihoods but also nurture handicrafts of the region. Now hundreds of women of the area benefit through the sale of handicrafts produced by them under the 'Okhai' brand. Some Rural BPOs are also running in the area which support various Tata companies.

In the evening we had the final CNBC TV 18 panel discussion at Tata Chemicals itself, 'the power of one'. The panelists included Mr.Elango of Kuthambakkam, Mr.Anshu Gupta of Goonj and Mr. Anand Kumar of Super 30.

Mr.Anand Kumar, runs Super 30, Ramanaujam school of Mathematics, which for the last seven years has been identifying talented students among the under-privileged around Bihar, providing them free boarding, lodging and coaching to ace the IIT entrance exams. Hundreds of students have benefited and he was hilarious during the panel discussion.

We had a good discussion, which was aimed at telling us what we could achieve as one person even in the absence of a team. We had the closing ceremony of the yatra at that venue itself. Late into the night we had valedictory sessions for all the groups where certificates and medallions were given to every Yatri.

PS: I'll update the blog with some pictures later

Jagriti Yatra Diary - Barefoot College, making doctors and engineers out of illiterate women

Jan 8 - We crossed over into Rajasthan, some goof up by the railways caused us to overshoot our scheduled stop at Tilonia and land at Kishangarh instead. After a short wait a few people from the Barefoot college came over and made a presentation through some form of Rajasthani puppetry to explain us the concept before we were taken to Tilonia to have a look at things. The founder Mr.Sanjit 'Bunker' Roy had gone to meet the Dalai Lama so we couldn't meet him :(

Illiterate women from places around Tilonia, other parts of India and Africa were being educated in the fully solar powered campus of the 'Barefoot College'. We saw people being trained to be dentists, solar engineers, electronics, lab technicians, OPD doctors (Homeopathy, Allopathy and Ayurvedic) etc. We were all stunned to see people of several nationalities in a room, not knowing Hindi or English but learning and assembling several electronic good using Circuit boards etc :O

People are taught communication through puppetry, handicrafts etc The 'Barfeoot College' which was established in 1972 and has centres across the country uses puppetry to communicate with the villagers. Check www.barefootcollege.org

We were taken to Ajmer to re-board our train only to learn two of our coaches including mine had failed the mandatory Brake Power Check (happens every 4 days I guess) and had to be replaced. At short notice we had to pack our bags and shift while the rest of yatris waited on the platform. The train with two new coaches chugged off to our last destination in Gujarat sometime about midnight...

PS: I'll update the blog with some pictures later

Jagriti Yatra Diary - Goonj, Clothing as a tool for Social Change

Jan 7 - We woke up after Sub 5 degree night, it was time for my alternate day bath, I braved my way to the train's bathing coach to find none of the hot water we were promised :( I filled up buckets of water and had a steam bath (steam coming off my body every time water touched the skin) :P In the process I also got some perspective of bathing habits of people, every south Indian who complains about 'north Indians' who don't bathe, should be made to bathe like this :P

We arrived at New Delhi 9 hours late and reached Goonj quite later in the evening, Mr.Anshu Gupta was waiting for us as promised. He made a passionate plea for clothing and dignity for the poor. The statistics he belted out left no one without guilt. Giving away old clothes is the most frequent form of charity he said, followed by a stinging query if giving away something you don't need/can't use is charity. By the end of his presentation he had 400 more fans!

We visited one of their sorting centres where clothes are received, sorted, repair and salvage is done before being channelised to the people who need it.

The 'Cloth for work' programme of Goonj motivates villagers to collectively work for community infrastructure projects like building bridges, digging wells, repairing roads, building schools etc in exchange for clothes. The 'School to School' programme collects discards from urban schools like School bags, pencil boxes, books etc and channelises them to rural schools. Annual events brings together both groups and sensitises the urban parents and their children

Not a piece of cloth is wasted, one of their major programmes is to provide sanitary napkins to rural women. They also provide clothing during disasters and they work almost across the country through their branches or partners. They now channelise over 50 tonnes of materials every month not just limited to clothes to various parts of India!! Check www.goonj.org

PS: I'll update the blog with some pictures later