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DOGS DO RULE! CATS JUST DROOL!

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April 3, 2011

(410 words)

Some wise chap once said that pets are the solution to loneliness. Dogs? Yes!
Cats? Naaah! Old grannies still do keep cats, but then how many of us find
grannies any fun? They kill tiny vermin, you say. Murderers, I call them. On the
topic of being of adorable, kittens may still be called cute, but then all pups
are cuter! (Unlike all babies!)

A bad-tempered person is referred to as a ‘bag of cats’. If you copy someone’s
answer sheet, you get labeled a ‘copycat’. If you are cranky, you are a
‘sourpuss’. Think about it, curiosity always kills the inquisitive cats but
never the sniffing dogs. Would you rather ‘cat around’ and live a fairly aimless
life or cherish a ‘dog’s life’, the simpler way out.

If you are lost in the woods who would you prefer to go to for help? Good ol’
Lassie or the lazy Garfield? Who does a detective like TinTin want around with
him? Snowy or TopCat? Who would you rather wake up to? A cheerful dog or a
mewling cat? If a thief breaks in, how many cats would bark the house down?

A dog is the only thing on this earth that would love you more than it self.
They are the first to welcome and the foremost to defend. Their unconditional
love is unquestionable. No cat would ever wag their tail when they see you. The
fact of the matter is that dogs adore and cats ignore!

So you think you own a cat? Think again! A dog would say, “You pet me, You feed
me, You shelter me, and You love me. You must be God.”  Whereas the cat’s
intrinsic belief is described as, “you pet Me, you feed Me, you shelter Me, and
you love Me. I must be God.”

“Dogs rule! Cats are fools!” Dogs can outrun cats any day. Seriously, I would
like to see a cat herding cattle. It is easier to train the brattiest of dogs
than the quirkiest of cats! Police forces, the military, the army, they all call
upon the senses of a dog to help them out. When has a cat, officially, or
otherwise, been of any help to humanity?

They lick themselves, cough up hairballs, abhor water, hence, are never clean.

Egyptians may have worshipped the mundane creatures, but thousands of years
later, they still prefer to be waited upon!

I rest my case!

 

(204 words)

Dogs are the solution to loneliness. Cats? Never! The vermin killing murderers
make cute kittens but puppies are cuter.

A bad-tempered person is a ‘bag of cats’. Copy someone’s answer sheet, you are a
‘copycat’. Feeling cranky? Hello, ‘sourpuss’. Curiosity always kills the
inquisitive cat but never the sniffing dog. Would you rather ‘cat around’ living
an aimless life or cherish a carefree ‘dog’s life’?

Lost in the woods, who would you call? Lassie or Garfield? Who’s around with
TinTin? Snowy or TopCat? Wake up to a cheerful dog or a mewling cat? If a thief
breaks in, cats would never bark the house down.

Dogs love you more than themselves. First to welcome and the foremost to defend,
their  love is unquestionable whereas cats wouldn’t wag their tails upon seeing
you.

Dogs say, “You pet me, You feed me, You shelter me, You love me. You must be
God.”  Whereas, cat’s belief is, “you pet Me, you feed Me, you shelter Me, you
love Me. I must be God.”

Can a cat herd cattle? Police, military, all call upon canines to help them.
When have cats been of any help? Worshipped thousands of years ago, they cant
expect to be waited upon anymore!

 

(96 words)

Dogs, and not cats, are the solution to loneliness. Plus, they are cuter.

Bad-tempered person is a ‘bag of cats’. Copying makes you a ‘copycat’. Feeling
cranky? Hello, ‘sourpuss’. Curiosity kills the cat but never the dog. Would you
rather ‘cat around’ or lead a ‘dog’s life’?

Lost? Would you call Lassie or Garfield? TinTin’s best friend is Snowy and not
TopCat? If a thief breaks in, cats would never bark the house down. First to
welcome and the foremost to defend, dogs’  love is unquestionable.

Dogs think you are God.  Whereas, cats think, they are.

 

(48 words)

Cats have negative terms attached to them, whereas dogs enjoy the positive ones.
Plus, dogs are cuter.

When lost, you would call Lassie and not Garfield. First to welcome and the
foremost to defend, dogs’  love is unquestionable. Dogs think you are God. 
Whereas, cats think, they are.

 

(22 words)

Dogs are the cutest creatures. Their love is unquestionable, unlike a cat’s.
Dogs think you are God.  Whereas, cats think, they are.

 

(11 words)

Faithful and true, that’s a dog.

Cranky, well, that’s a cat.

 

(5 words)

Dogs rule/ cats just drool.

 

 

(1 word)
Gods.

 

Tags: cats, dogs
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GLIESE 581 G UNDER THE SCANNER

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Atheist, agnostic, or an ardent believer, everyone, at least once in their
lives, is astounded by the infinity of the universe. The announcement of the
discovery of Gliese 581 g, an unconfirmed extrasolar planet was one such
momentous incident. Located some 20.5 light-years (1.94×1014 km) from Earth in
the constellation of Libra, this Earth-like Goldilocks planet, excited the
frenzied admiration of anyone and everyone associated with the astronomical
world.

Being the 21st century, the announcement of the discovery was greeted with
immense response. From press releases to audio calls, twittering to blogging,
the phenomenon left quite a blazing trail. Considering the potentiality of the
future, the media hype surrounding the discovery was quite understandable.
Writers used various techniques to make it appreciable. The same story was
reported from different angles to create an interest in the readers.

Nancy Atkinson, in one of her articles on Extrasolar Planets, interviewed Steven
Vogt from the Lick-Carnegie Exoplanet Survey. In the second article she gave an
update using the Twitter responses of several personalities renowned in the
science field.

Such was the interest envisaged in the discovery that Joe Palca even given an
audio story link, All Things Considered, in the NPR blog. Mark Kaufman of The
Washington Post, provided the readers with a video link, hence making the
experience of finding out more information as entertaining as technologically
possible.

Many of the reporters like Nancy Atkinson, Dennis Overbye and Joe Palca used the
pictorial description created by a Ms Cook. According to Charlie Petit of Knight
Science Journal Tracker, the impression left by an artistic picture does more to
stimulate the reader’s interest than could have been done by just writing about
it.

My favourite post is by Alan MacRobert, in the Sky and Telescope online
magazine, which emphasised on the fact that the planet, in all its intricacies,
might actually not be all that highly important to science after all.

But it was Charlie Petit, in his post on The Knight Science Journalism Tracker,
who attributed his sources to be Swiss astronomers, had the last laugh. “The
planet made an enormously wide splash when announced. This site linked to more
than two dozen different accounts, and left out many others. So if it goes poof
like the baby bear’s porridge, what a fast bombing news story this is. Not that
the game is done. The US team says it was careful and looked at more data than
did their collegial competitors.  However it goes in the meantime, this is a
story now with drama, rivalry, potential embarrassment and redemption, lots of
good angles.” Now, even the existence of the habitable exoplanet is under the
scanner.

Now that one has had a look at the various ways of reporting a news item, one
should sit back at take a look at things. Going over the paraphernalia available
to express one’s point of view, it is admirable how information is circulated in
today’s time. The same piece of news gets coverage in varied ways. It’s as if
writers, when expressing their opinions, don’t just believe in the four known
directions – North, South, East, West – they create other dimensions, hence
exciting the readers. It may come across as either a gigantic or a highly simple
task. In my opinion, it is neither. To be able to entice the readers into
reading something which may or may not directly concern them, the writer
requires to be quite skilled in the art of enticement itself. If you have that,
then all you need is an orderly state of mind to continue creating a
masterpiece. Nevertheless, the ‘masterpiece’ in itself is subjected to a lot of
conditions. Not that a writer should ever be against criticism of any kind.

Going back to the news item in question, I would like to conclude with what
Dennis Overbye had to say, “Nobody from Earth will be visiting anytime soon.”

 

Tags: Gliese 581 g, Goldilocks planet, Science
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DECODING DNA

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Can you imagine life without DNA printing? Forensics? Genetic engineering? If
you are a not scientifically inclined, you actually can. The forces which battle
with the likes of molecular biology, DNA structure and what not on a daily basis
can. But how exactly has this phenomenon come to be what it has today?

Let us retrace our steps half a century. It was in the year 1953 that the double
helix model for DNA was officially suggested. Deoxyribose nucleic acid, later to
popularly come known as DNA, was unfortunately chosen to be ignored by the major
media houses at that time. What may have been the greatest discovery of all
times was literally never published. Considering that James D. Watson and
Francis Crick of Cambridge University along with Maurice Wilkins were awarded
the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine almost a decade later in 1962, it may
well even have come to genes meaning  the same as jeans.

The discovery was probably a niche affair. It was certainly not widely reported
in the mainstream. It was only in the British scientific weekly Nature, where
the article was published on April 25, 1953, that the article received any kind
of publicity. As a general rule, media does choose to sensationalise the
conclusion, but never focuses on the main issue itself. Ignorance becomes the
norm.  The paper itself was as simple as they come. The single-page was
described by Tom Zinnen as, “The paragon of elegance, this paper is renowned for
its simplicity, clarity, durability and understatement. The four key
characteristics of this model of DNA endure: DNA is double-stranded,
anti-parallel, complementary, and the double strands are in a double-helix.”

Other simplistic things about the article included the diagrammatic figure
popularised by Watson and Crick in their paper which was illustrated with a
schematic drawing of the double helix by Crick’s wife, Odile.  A coin toss
decided the order in which they were named as authors.

Although recognized today as one of the seminal scientific papers of the
twentieth century, Watson and Crick’s original article in Nature was not
frequently cited at first. Its true significance became apparent, and its
circulation widened, only towards the end of the 1950s, when the structure of
DNA they had proposed was shown to provide a mechanism for controlling protein
synthesis, and when their conclusions were confirmed in the laboratory.

According to the Profiles in Science from the National Library of Medicine, “The
discovery in 1953 of the double helix, the twisted-ladder structure of
deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), by Watson and Crick marked a milestone in the
history of science and gave rise to modern molecular biology, which is largely
concerned with understanding how genes control the chemical processes within
cells. In short order, their discovery yielded ground-breaking insights into the
genetic code and protein synthesis. During the 1970s and 1980s, it helped to
produce new and powerful scientific techniques, specifically recombinant DNA
research, genetic engineering, rapid gene sequencing, and monoclonal antibodies,
techniques on which today’s multi-billion dollar biotechnology industry is
founded. Major current advances in science, namely genetic fingerprinting and
modern forensics, the mapping of the human genome, and the promise, yet
unfulfilled, of gene therapy, all have their origins in Watson and Crick’s
inspired work. The double helix has not only reshaped biology, it has become a
cultural icon, represented in sculpture, visual art, jewellery, and toys.”

“Crick and Watson recognized, at an early stage in their careers, that gaining a
detailed knowledge of the three-dimensional configuration of the gene was the
central problem in molecular biology. Without such knowledge, heredity and
reproduction could not be understood. They seized on this problem during their
very first encounter, in the summer of 1951, and pursued it with single-minded
focus over the course of the next eighteen months. This meant taking on the
arduous intellectual task of immersing themselves in all the fields of science
involved: genetics, biochemistry, chemistry, physical chemistry, and X-ray
crystallography. Drawing on the experimental results of others (they conducted
no DNA experiments of their own), taking advantage of their complementary
scientific backgrounds in physics and X-ray crystallography (Crick) and viral
and bacterial genetics (Watson), and relying on their brilliant intuition,
persistence, and luck, the two showed that DNA had a structure sufficiently
complex and yet elegantly simple enough to be the master molecule of life.”

I, myself, would have chosen to ethically report the discovery. In all my
enthusiasm, I would have blogged about it if only. 1962, after Rosalind
Franklin’s death, Watson, Crick, and Wilkins were awarded the Nobel Prize,
giving no credit to Franklin for her invaluable work. Nobel Prizes are still not
awarded posthumously. I would have fought against this baseless prejudice of the
awarding system. In trying to get my work produced I might even have had to face
the editor’s wrath. But courage would not have been lacking at any instance.

The paper, in all its glory, finished with the concluding remark: (The Greatest
Understatement ever)

“It has not escaped our notice that the specific pairing we have postulated
immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material.”

But it is not like they were not aware of the profundity of the situation.
According to legend, as they walked into the Eagle pub in Cambridge, Crick
announced, “We have found the secret of Life.”

And find they did.

 

Tags: DNA, Watson and Crick
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UNNAMED SOURCES~

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Usage of unnamed sources is necessary when they provide information of market or
public interest that is not available on the record. The Newspaper alone is
responsible for the accuracy of such information and not the reporter. Often a
journalist has no alternative to attributing his information to an anonymous
source when reporting, say, a criminal investigation or from a war zone.
Likewise, many national-security stories cannot be reported without citing
unnamed sources.

 

Quantity means quality.

The credibility of such sources can be said to be directly proportional to the
number of sources citing the same information. Presenting multiple sources would
increase the likelihood of the source being accurate.

 

Unnamed sources should have only unpublished opinions.

According to the above school of thought, it becomes real easy to slip in sloppy
and highly unnecessary unnamed sources. Editors and reporters need to protect
the credibility of valuable stories by raising and enforcing high standards in
the use of confidential sources. Letting sources spout opinions would only lead
to stories getting out of spin.

Confidential sources can present some valid questions and tough decisions: How
can we trust this source? How does this source know what he or she is telling
us? Can we find someone who will tell us this on the record? Can we find a
document to confirm what this source is telling us? Do we have enough sources to
be sure that we are ready to publish this story?

 

The infamous Watergate scandal was in the 1970s and we have come a long way from
then. With the recent increase in tackling unnamed sources, one would say that
its glory days are over. Nevertheless, the debate is an endless one.

 

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TALES OF “TRAFFIC”

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Seen your reflection in Chennai’s Porus lake recently?

Thanked the helmet-god when you were saved from a brutal accident?

Heaved a sigh of relief on coming across wide roads?

Appreciated the lack of hawkers on the streets?

Rejoiced over congestion-free free pedestrian pathways?

If you have been a denizen of Chennai city and have had opportunity to exclaim
upon any of the above mentioned situations then you have one person to thank –
“Traffic” Ramaswamy. Directly or indirectly, the septuagenarian, since he first
began in 1998, has managed to file PILs enough to shame the county into
improving the traffic scene in Chennai.

 

Stoplights don’t deter him. Zebra crossings don’t slow him down. T-intersections
just signal the start of another fight to be fought. He interprets all road
signs as green. Red tape certainly does not limit his speed. Tunneling through
the bureaucratic system he has created a subway of safe paths. He may have once
stood upon crossroads of life, but there definitely seems to be no end junction
to his works. Bypassing all comfort, he has lead a rollercoaster of a life.
Plotting his day to day activities around roundabouts which halt the system from
functioning properly, he has done what no traffic controller has done before –
voluntarily controlled traffic.

 

You may be a pesky pedestrian or a tattling truck driver, his attitude towards
you will always remain the same, of optimistic zeal. Jaywalking on touchy
issues, the brave crusader has made a level crossing out of the complicated
courtroom jargon. On friendly terms with the local police authorities, he
doesn’t stop to consider how much it will cost him as long it’s a matter of
right of way. Wielding his weapon of Public Interest Litigations, this new-age,
very much real hero, certainly has what it takes- truckloads of enthusiasm and
tons of energy. For him, it’s a one way ticket to impacting the public and there
is no slowing down till he overtakes the judicial system. Cruising the highway
to justice, he definitely doesn’t plan to quit anytime soon.

 

Tags: Chennai, Traffic Ramaswamy
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MURDERING WITH A PAPER CLIP MADE EASY

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Sleek. Stark. Sharp. Purchasing it might be a microscopic investment but its
results are definitely macroscopic.

The personality of a paper clip has been viewed  by many as of a stereotypical
office essential. Nevertheless, it’s evolution from that to an everyday killing
machine, which may not have been predicted by Nostradamus, seems to have caught
on the fancy of a few Neanderthals on Facebook. Crediting their inspiration to
be the after-effects of a smoke-up session and referring to the stolid paper
clip as their muse. the creators of the page, “Five Ways to Kill With  A Paper
clip!” definitely have something huge in their hands.




So if you have one of those irritating people who question the viability of
existence, as opposed to survival, as friendnow what to do. Just facebook the
above mentioned page. Started on May 15, 2010, it already has a fan following of
491 profiles. So don’t be wary, if you are genuinely interested in murdering
someone please feel free to partake in the information available.

Some of the suggestions ought to be patented. Copyright might not be a bad idea
either.

The art of uncurling it and stabbing someone with it is remarkable. But do make
sure you sharpen it first. Another option would be to just stuff it down
someone’s throat or esophagus (whatever appeals to you at the moment). Namrata
Sahoo(21), a paper clip enthusiast quips, “Dip it in cyanide and make it the
support for a lollipop and let the ‘you-know-who’ die licking.” The old school
philosophy is to stab someone in the eye with it. Said to be painful, the
procedure has been followed by quite a few rational and not so rational
adolescents.

Some of the popular acts include shoving it in an electrical socket (I am
guessing that is where the international singer, Robyn Rihanna Fenty’s “I’m
gonna stand there and watch you burn” comes from.) Taking the lead out of a
pencil and substituting it with a paper clip, sharpening it, and then attack
people with it also seems to be quite a favourite. You could also opt for a less
violent approach by threatening to stab someone with it and then watching them
topple off the edge of a building.

Next time someone questions you on the uses of a paper clip you might wish to
opine saying that, “a creative cells in a person’s brains raised to the power of
infinity would not be sufficient to explain the phenomenon”, or you could just
try out a few of the above mentioned ideas.

I rest my case.

Tags: Facebook, Paper clip
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WHY THE NREGA DOES NOT WORK

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Why no one seems to want the NREGA around, other than the officials.



Raichur: The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act has not
caught on in the district of Raichur in the state of Karnataka. One of the main
hurdles felt was that there was hardly any work available under the scheme.

 

The scarcity of jobs for the NREGA workers was alarmingly high according to the
villagers. “There is no work available, neither for me, nor for my neighbours”,
said a landless farmer, Basappa Patil. So they opted for jobs which gave them a
regular source of income. Villagers also complained about the lengthy process
involved in procuring a job card. Even though they had handed over their
identification papers, submitted all their details, they still had not received
their blue Job Cards yet, which was mandatory to be allotted work under NREGA.

 

If they did work under the scheme – after going through the whole process of
registering themselves, getting job cards, somehow even managing to find work –
they still did not get paid on time. In some instances, due to the accounts not
being maintained or the paperwork not having been updated in the required 15
days, the workers do not even get paid. Basvaraja Gowda, a paddy field worker,
said, “I was in desperate need of money for my daughter’s marriage but as the
NREGA officials did not pay me I ended up taking an expensive loan, instead”.

The guarantee part of the act escaped quite a few of the people who required it.
In the Bengali Rehabilitation camp in Manvi Taluk, Amol Biswas was witness to
the fact. Reduced to his silhouette, he sat away from the orange glow of the
street lamp. With his glazed eyes, he looked like the druggist that the
villagers had labelled him as. How exactly had he been reduced to such a
pitiable state? When prodded into answering the question, he gurgled out his
story of how he had not been able to find work after the hundred days of NREGA
work quota, which had been used up by his family. He stressed on how he had
first ventured into the city and become addicted.

All in all, the NREGA did have quite a few jarring loopholes, which did not seem
to work for the benefit of the people. Not for the people of Raichur district
for sure. For the rest of the country, that might be another issue in itself.

 

Tags: Covering Deprivation, Raichur
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RETURN OF THE NATIVES

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This is the story of two people who came back. Not from the dead… but from the
big bad city, back to their rustic lives in the villages.

Raichur: Imam Ibrahim and Malik Arjun Patil are residents of Harvi village, who
came back home instead of pursuing their dreams in the respective cities they
went to. But that is where the resemblance ends.

Ibrahim is from the Minority Muslim Community and is part of the Other Backward
Castes. Patil, as his name suggests, is from a Scheduled Tribe, a Harijan. Their
reasons for returning are also very different. One came back to marry off his
sisters and help in the family farmlands and the other is an orphan boy who came
back to help his adopted family, function after the village was struck by
industrialisation.

Ibrahim is 26-years-old and has two sons, the youngest of whom is five months
old. He has a family of 14 and is the second of four brothers. His family owns
three acres of land. Quite a normal affair for any Harvi Muslim. But his story
is slightly different from the others. Unlike the rest of his neighbours, he is
a literate. He graduated from a Madrassa in Chennai – with honours. He took
further training to become a Maulvi in Bangalore where he practised for two
years. He came back, as he explained: “I had to”. My family needed me here. My
sisters had to get married. My father fell sick. We could not afford to pay for
the weddings as well as my rent in the city. I had to return to help the family
in their need and not continue being a burden myself.”

He returned to farming but could not sustain that for long. His upbringing had
been different from his siblings. So he found himself a job with Amreshwara
Traders in the village. “They needed someone to maintain their accounts.” In the
beginning he used to do just that, but, for the last two months, he has started
operating the rice threshing mill as well. He gets around 25-30 people per day
from whom he earns around Rs 7000 to 8000 per month out of which he pays the
owner, Amresh Patil Gowda, Rs 2,500. “This is good money, not better than what I
was getting in the city but at least it comes without the hassles.” Upon being
asked if he would ever like to go back, he replies with a faraway look in his
eyes, “… maybe, someday, when I do not have so many responsibilities.”

A few houses away, Malik Arjun Patil also has the same faraway look in his eyes.
But this he attributes to the fact that he is actually glad to be back home. His
is the story of an orphan who was ‘adopted’ by a young childless widow and her
mother-in-law as a four year-old. Since then, he has been trying to repay them
for their kindness.

Better known as Mali, this 19-year-old never attended school. He was sent to the
city of Karnool to pick up basic mechanical work from a mechanic shop. This
hardworking man came back, built himself a working table, and set up shop
outside his house. He buys material from the town of Manvi and charges around
Rs. 1800 to overhaul a tractor. “There are no other mechanics in the village. It
is quite a fulfilling job.”

His adopted family used to own eight buffaloes but sold off five in a distress
sale when industrialisation hit their village. “We were not able to provide
fodder for the cattle as there was no waste left over to pick from the fields
after the crops had been harvested. Though it was a pitiable situation, I still
am in favour of industrialisation and mechanisation. Look how it has affected my
work” said a jubilant Patil.

These are indeed some very wise words coming from a 19-year-old, but then this
stratum of the Indian nation’s population seems to have learnt to fend for
themselves from a very young age. Such revelations are secondary to their
nature.

 

Tags: Covering Deprivation, Raichur
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LAWYERED RESPONSE

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The story of the only educated woman in the village of Govinna Doddi – why she
is what she is.

Raichur: The only woman in the village of Govinna Doddi, with an LLB degree
among her many achievements, Gita B. Patil is 25 years old and owns the only
house with a toilet in this village. Six months into her marriage with a
contractor from a neighbouring town she plans to pursue her Masters in Law as
well.

What sets this firebrand apart from the other women in her village? With a
confident shrug she said, “Unlike the other women in this village, I have
finished my schooling. Even the men dare not compete with me.” When asked if her
husband would allow her to continue her studies, she replied with surety, “He
did not get to decide what I want to do in life.” Gita did not bring any dowry
but was gifted two acres of farm land by her parents. “Just so that I was not
dependent on my husband.”

Her liberal views of her parents helped her elder sister too: “My parents had
always wanted my sister and me to study.” My elder sister also trained to become
a Lawyer and started practicing the Bar in Raichur. Her parents wanted the girls
to study further as they did not want their daughters to start working at age
ten, which was the prevalent practice in their village. But both her brothers, ,
preferred working in the farm to studies. Their family owns 25 acres of lands
which kept the brothers busy. Both the sisters were able to study further due to
their Scheduled Tribe educational reservation quota.

Her views on the local politics were also quite refreshing. Due to the Scheduled
Tribe Reservation, the Panchayat President elect was always, without an
exception, an illiterate female. The women who were elected were obviously
controlled. “They barely knew how to sign. They signed, where and when, as
guided by the male members of their family.”

She believed that the main problem faced by the villagers was a self-created one
– that of information dissemination. Mostly they did not have the information,
and in cases when they did, they chose not to make use of it. For example, the
problem faced by many regarding the private money lenders. Private lenders were
quicker in finalising loans than the government banks; so most of the villagers
preferred taking the expensive loans from the private lenders instead of waiting
upon the government. As Gita put it, “What was more important? Money in two days
to get a sister married off or a wait for two months and still not being sure if
their loan had been approved?”

She did not approve of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee
Act (MGNREGA). Even though people were interested, there were neither proper
accounts maintained nor any names registered. She did mention that there was a
pond made by the Government under the MGNREGA, but no one had any idea why it
was even dug.

Culturally, both, the men and women drank. This she linked with the fact that
they did exhausting labour jobs in the fields. But the smokers were mostly only
the men. She said that several people were waiting for the government to provide
them better houses. She believed that due to her village, Govinna Doddi, being a
part of the irrigation belt of Karnataka, the government ought to provide free
bore wells for at least every five acres of land.

When asked how she would like to help the villagers in the future she replied
with what she said was also her favourite quote – “Be the change you wish to
see”. In a village where no one else has passed their 10th grade, Gita, with her
LLB degree, definitely sets a shining example.

 

Tags: Covering Deprivation, Raichur
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MADRASSAS IN MADRAS

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Madrassa, is derived from the Arabic word “darasa” which means “to read and
learn”, these became places of learning. Instrumental in imparting education to
the masses, they inculcated secularism as their second nature. A chain of these
madrassas were spread throughout the country. Two different types of madrassas
in Chennai, one a high-end madrassa for males and the other for females, a
down-market version, remain true to form.

The Kilakarai Bukhari Aalim Arabic College, Vandalur, will be celebrating 10
years of its existence next month. Situated in a lush-green habitat, next to the
Co-ed Crescent Engineering College, it is the only madrassa in Tamil Nadu which
prescribes a pass in Secondary School Leaving Certificate (X standard) as a
basic minimum qualification for admission. Being an all male madrassa, females
are allowed inside only as an exception.

Seated in front of the principal, Dr. Syed Masood Jamali, with my head covered
with a dupatta and drinking refreshing ginger tea, it felt like I had stepped
back into the 19th century. The walls were covered with Persian and Arabian
calligraphic texts and paintings depicting scenes of wars and times of peace.
“We take 10th pass (male) students and teach them Arabic in the first year,” Dr.
Jamali explained. “In the second year we prepare the students for Higher
Secondary exam. Then we enroll them for Bachelor of Business Administration. By
the time they finish the Aalim Course they will have finished BBA; gained an
Afzalul Ulema diploma from University of Madras. Everything gets accomplished in
five years.” But he added in a forthright manner, “There are no
job-opportunities in such courses. We are different from other institutes as we
combine religious and secular studies.” Dr. Jamali estimated that there are
about 150 big madrassas in Tamil Nadu of which Chennai has five to six big
colleges and around 100 small ones.

My next stop is the Ummu Kulsum Women’s Islamic College. Located on M.K.N. Road,
St. Thomas’ Mount, one reaches this secluded building after a frantic search for
a good half an hour. It is evening and Azaan calls can be heard over the
loudspeaker. On the busy street outside, is the mosque, beside which is the
college. The marbled dome of the mosque is in stark contrast to the college
building.

For the young women of the college it’s a different world inside these walls.
When asked by a translator what they studied everyday, they perked up and
chirpily listed out the names ranging from the Quran, Hadith, Fiqh,
Usool-e-Fiqh, Usool- e-Hadith, Tafseer, Islamic History, Arabic prose and poetry
etc. The women study for three years to become eligible for their Halima course
certificate.

Those who are here for a shorter term give their attention to Dheniyat courses
which range from three months to one year. For them the concept of someone being
interested in their welfare, other than their parents, teachers and principal,
was refreshingly new. When questioned about the importance of running a women’s
college, the Principal, Zainab Cadar said, “Madrassas serve as an alternate
platform for education. For these girls, away from home, it becomes their only
interaction with the outside world before they actually go into purdah after
marriage.” Apart from academics, the women are trained in stitching and sewing.
Aged between 15-22 years of age, 40 of them are housed in a hall which also
serves as their dormitory. They do not have any jobs outside the madrassa nor
are they allowed to take up any. Aisha Siddiqui, who teaches Computer Science,
said there were two computers on which the women learned basic computing skills.
She stated, “The girls do not require internet facility”. When curiosity does
spring its head, the women keep in touch with the outside world through Tamil
newspapers.

At the end of the day, getting back to my own comfortable life, I observe the
irony of the system. Trained for a disciplinary life, the difference between the
institutes arise when one realises that the men folk are trained to become
maulavis with MBA degrees but the girls, who are equally educated, recede to
their fates as housewives.

Tags: Chennai, Dr. Syed Masood Jamali, Kilakarai Bukhari Aalim Arabic College,
Madrassas, Tamil Nadu, Ummu Kulsum Women’s Islamic College, Vandalur
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