My Interview in UPSC

My UPSC interview for the post of Deputy Super-indent of Police ( Assistant Commandant )

My interview was held on 3 OCT 2012 in the afternoon session.Though I forgot some questions, i remeber many and have presented them to you.Please give feed back of how I did.I was the first candidate to be interviewed and my interview went on for 45 minutes.My board chairman was Mr. Prashanth Kumar Mishra (PKM) .There were 4 other members in the board including one lady. I will refer them as M1(lady), M2, M3, M4. This is how my interview went along as I entered the room.
Me: Good Morning Sirs , Good Morning Madam
PKM : Good AFTERNOON Mr. Ravi kanth Varma
Me: Sorry Sir , Good Afternoon.
PKM: So you are from West Godavari District of AP
Me : Yes, Sir.
PKM ( referring my DAF ) : You said , you were a team leader at your college. What are the criteria of becoming a team leader in your college.
Me: Sir, Academics were a factor along with extra curricular activities. I'm a debating champion of our college.
PKM: What in your view are the qualities required for a leader?
Me: Sir, In my view leader is the one who creates an environment in the team from I have to do it to I want to do it. If that is achieved Sir, they go extras mile to complete the tasks.
PKM: What else?
Me: Sir, Leader should have a Vision.
PKM: What is the Vision you had for your team.
Me: My team comprises of people of different academic levels sir, So my vision was to make everyone pass with good %.
PKM : Tell me one more quality of a leader?
Me: Up on necessity sir, leader should lead from the front to motivate his men.
PKM: Ok, One more quality?
Me: LEader should invovle every one in making startegies for the achievement of the vision. He should encourage everyone to bring forth their opinions.
PKM: U mean to say he should be accessible.
Me: yes sir.
PKM: What did you do as a team leader to become accessible to your team?
Me: Sir, I have conducted exclusve doubt raising sesions for them, both exclusively and also up on necessity at an individual level. Even before exam I cleared many of the doubts for them along with providing my notes.
PKM: ok, tell me one more quality of a leader?
Me: Srry sir, I am not hitting any as of now.
PKM: What about Decision making?
Me: Yes, Sir. It is highly important.
He then passed on to madam ( M1).
M1: You said you were a debate champion. I will give you a statement and you can argue for or against it. Conventional education where answers are written by the students is better than the modern examination system of OMR sheets.
Me: Mam, I will argue for it.The very purpose of education is to enhance knowledge and interpret the viewpoints. Through conventional type students can express the understanding of their knowledge and write their opinions about it. Where as in the latter type, examination is all about quantity of information and person with highest amount of information is winning the prize. I feel quality of knowledge is always better than quantity of knowledge.
M1: OK, good. ( And passed on to the next person )
M2: Did you do your project work in your Btech? In which domain ?
Me: I have done my project work in the insurance domain and I have done it in a private company rather than under a professor.
M2: Did you work on the real time project?
Me; No sir. I was placed as an intern in an project that is completed and I was assigned to develop additional components to it.
M2: Did you work with a team?
Me: No sir. Since I was taken as an intern, I was placed under the guidance of a professional and I completed my project under him.

/* He then passed on to another member. I'am surprised because he did not inquire into the domain of my project nor the technologies I worked with. */

M3: The economics are very closely related to technological advancement and development. But India is not concentrating on it and we are only importing the technologies. What do you think is the reason for this?
Me: Sir, After independence we are faced with a myriad of problems related to people and other basic necessities. We have many people who are below the poverty line and we made the development of the people as our primary goal and have invested majority of our resources towards them. So, we fell back few steps in the development of technologies.
M3: Forget, India. What about whole of east. They are very less developed technologically compared to west.
Me: Sir, majority of the eastern countries face same problem as us where many of the people are denied even basic necessities. It is very important to look for human development rather than technological development.
M3: What about west?
Me: Western countries achieved independence way before eastern countries and they have successfully addressed the basic necessities of the people before moving onto the path of technological development.
M3: What about work ethic?
Me: Work ethic of Indians is highly spiritual in nature and they look for goodness rather than materialism  but west has a highly materialistic mindset and they look out of material benefits of everything they do.
M3: Is Caste system a hindrance for us?
Me: Caste became a road block for national development in pre independent India. But presently the barriers are broken and the mainstream development is taking place. Also caste system is basically a division of labor in India previously and I do not think that  hindered  technological advancement. For example, Iron pillar at Mehrauli was not built by people of higher caste but by a guild of blacksmiths who developed their own technology.
PKM : Boss is always right, particularly in disciplined forces. Do you accept it?
Me: Yes Sir. Boss is always right in disciplined forces.
PKM: Why?
Me: Sir, Boss is more experienced than us and experience is of highest importance is dealing with highly critical and dynamic situations that police forces face. So, knowledge of the boss combined with his experience becomes the guide to follow as I believe he always acts in the interest of the force and country.
PKM: Your boss gave you an order which is very illegal and he is adamant on it.What will you do?
Me: Sir, Firstly I cannot decide if the order is illegal or not, as that pertains to questioning the knowledge of my superior which am not entitled to. And Sir, is there any way I can talk to my Boss about the order ?
PKM: Ok, you will try to put your view point before him and he does not accept.
Me: No sir. I will not put my view point alone. I will talk to my subordinates about this matter and will take a comprehensive opinion. If they feel that the order is correct, then there will b no issue.
PKM interrupting: They too feel it is illegal.
Me: Then I will put the view point before my boss as a view point of the entire unit instead of my view point.
PKM: Even then he does not listen. Will you still follow the order?
Me: Yes sir. I will trust the knowledge of my boss and I will order my subordinates to follow the order.
/* He then asked M4 to ask me questions. *?
M4: I will ask you only few questions.Taking the example forward, if your boss asks you to go and wreck a village nearby as a retaliation to the attack on your camp. Will you follow that order.
Me: Sir, wrecking a village is a gross violation of human right which is against the very basic principles of the organisation  I will not follow that order sir and I will be ready to take punishment for disobeying the order.e M4: You said writing article is your hobby. What are some recent articles that you have written?
Me: I have recently written on child labor and a creative way of managing the wealth of Padmanabha Swamy
M4 interrupting me : Ok, you have written an article on child labor, can you give me the framework of your article .
Me: Sir, In my opinion more than 90% of children in our country are undergoing child labor. If some children are undergoing labourage in fields and factories and other such places , remaining children are undergoing labourage in the form of education in schools and colleges.Education is thrust up on them and their creativity and passions are getting killed in order to get better marks.So I feel that as a labourage even.
M4: Dont you feel that your position is a bit extreme. All parents according to this are punishable.
Me: I'm moved by the plight of children sir and i do not feel that my position is extreme. Children should be encouraged to follow their passions.I believe situation is changing now and parents are encouraging children.
PKM laughing: Yes, it is changing gradually.
M3 interrupting : Are you forced anytime?
Me: Never Sir. I'm lucky.
PKM: Ok, Ravi kanth you can go.
Me: Thank you very much sir.

Wealth of Padmanabha Swamy- A Creative way

           Any discussion about the huge wealth discovery of Lord Padmanabha would be highly inappropriate without the mention of honesty and integrity of the royal family, the true ' Padmanabha Dasas ' for their protection of wealth of lord for over a millennium.

           The rise of Lord Padmanabha as the richest God outshining Lord Balaji with staggering $22 billion hidden under its vaults for over a millennium brought many people to debate about the power to manage the wealth.A school of thought says that the wealth should be used by the state for developing the infrastructure and to sponser other poverty eradication measures while the other school of thought says that the wealth belongs purely to the temple and should be maintained by a trust like TTD of lord Balaji ( Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam ) and historians argue that the wealth with its huge antique value should be moved to museums.All have their points and it would be a gross injustice to go by just one school of thought.

            However , using the wealth by state makes no sense as there are and will be huge apprehensions about the way it will be used and by the prevaling length of corruption, the amount will only be transferred to some personal accounts in tax havens instead of the poor.On the other hands enabling a trust to take over such huge wealth also give rise to equal number of apprehensions with the managament of Sathya Sai Trust still fresh in the minds of the people. The recent account of many historians conclude that the wealth has not only just economic value but also huge antique value which cannot measured in monetary terms.

            So, to maintain the sanctity of the treasure , to provide a meaning for the integrity of the family , and also enable the state to develop, we need a creative solution which can satisfy all schools of thought.Through this article I try to put forward a solution.

             Going in to the details of the wealth of the Lord , there is a magnificient statue, lakhs of gold coins, hundrends of gold chains, numerous gold staffs , diamonds, precious stones like rubies, emaralds. The argument is beyond doubt that unique articrafts which are few should find their place in the museums.However moving majority of the articrafts to the museums will be a bad idea.

            Firstly, the capacity of the museums to maintain lakhs of gold coins and other huge articrafts comes into question. By time ,they will loose their significance in the inventories of the museums as it is not possible to maintain such huge inventories.Letting the Govt. take charge of parts of welath after museums taking their share is also a terrible as they are not just gold coins or ornaments but have a history of millennium.

            So here is the way.Primarily, the articrafts every single coin of lakhs of coins should have their significance and receive their due respect.Out of say 1 lakh coins some 25000 coins should find their place in museums round the country boasting of the welath of ancient India and also the integrity of the family.Remaining coins should be used to generate revenue and yet should not be destroyed.

           This is possible by auctioning the coins to our countrymen with a rider that the items hold religious value and should be maintained with highest standards of purity.The rider also includes that the Govt can ask them to return if the necessity arises and they have to be submitted. India, with its growing billionaires and its religious fervour can generate huge revenues that can be used for the development of the state.Other advantage is that the coins list can be maintained by the Govt. efficiently and every coin will be maintained free of cost in the best possible manner along with revenue generation.

           The apprehension that the items auctioned might be lost or destroyed or can be denied maintainance will find no place.Firstly, the buying of such articrafts for such huge sums cannot be denied maintainance by anyone.These items will be brought mostly by the rich people for religious purposes or out of interest for articrafts.So the security will also be maximum from their side.However if it is lost , there is no huge situation since it is one of many.Huge fines can be imposed on persons from whom it is lost.These items should be auctioned for different amount of time like for 2 years or 5 years or 10 years just like bonds.If at all the state feels that the coins are at a risk of loosing their value it can just collect it at the end of their term of expiry.If it is an emergency which is however highly unlikely it can order the temporary owners to return the coins in return of their money.

          There are two advantages for auctioning these items for temporary periods.Firstly, on return they can be checked on how it is maintained and secondly it is a continuous revenue generation process.Their value can be increased based on their demand from time to time instead of one time sale.By this way the sanctity of every item is preserved and also maintained along with huge revenue generation.

          Regarding the statue, it would be gross injustice to make its way to the museum. The diety should not be deposed of its worship. It should find its way to the temple instead of museum where it will be wroshipped for all the time to come. The statue has a capacity to make the place ,where it will be worshipped, prominent in the map of India.A temple should be established in the most backward area in the state or where the land cannot be used productively.That can bring prosperity to the place as a whole by way of religious tourism development. Once the temple is established that can generate its own revenue through donations of the donors and also by the visitors. Also the security of the diety in the temple with daily worship is better ensured rather than in museum where it is visited only by a few visitors as the statue looses its religious fervour in it.

         Every artecraft which is unique should be placed in museums as protecting them is of highest imporatnce to our nation.But it is important that only those articrafts whose protection is more important than maintaing their religious fervour should be placed in museums.For example , a gold chain which weighs around 3 kilograms is found in one of the vaults. That artecraft do not have a religious fervour in itself and should be placed in museums as the characterstic of that artecraft outweighs the religious fervour in itself.

        By such measures where the sanctity as well as development is acheived , the real purpose of Kings of Travancore or Padmanabha Dasas is acheived.Diversifing the wealth among various stake holders like State , temple and museums , we can have a better accountability and checks instead of concentrating the entire power to maintain the wealth solely in one hand.Here failure of one arm does not affect the wealth as a whole

Article

CHANGING MARRIAGES

No matter where ever a civilisation had existed , however small or big it is, marriage was always instituionalised for maintaing an orderly life. Though different cultures had advocated varying degrees of functions for it , lifelong companionship and procreation are the most common. Marriage as an institution in Hinduism was mainly to perform religious duties and was a medium for “Dharma Artha Kama Moksha” , which defines the life of an individual. While in Islam , it is an honourable route to proper procreation and maintainence of order in the society.Other cultures have also adovocated similar contexts for marriages. Many imporatnt cultures prohibit celebacy.

Marriage as an institution was not inevitable to change. From being insoluble it was now soluble.Some advocte that the credibility of marriage system was eroded over time while some say that it adopoted itself to the changing mindsets and environment.The concept of divorce is now prevalent in almost all the societies anywhere in the world barring some tribals .Divorce is an unknown concept to our aryan culture and marriage can be dissolved only upon the death of one partner.But in present society that is a boon to millions of inviduals , mainly women to lead a life of dignity, though some of the neagtive effects are also known.

There were many changes in the system of mariage comapred to its text tradition .The most imporatnt change that I will be discussing in this article is about choosing life partner by the individual rather than by family members i.e., in short Love marriages.

Love marriages are a taboo in India where 70% of our population hail from rural areas. Almost whole country was prevailed by the common institution irrespective of their religions.Even among Christians of India the system of arranged marriages is prevalent, though their counter parts in the west have love marriages as part of their culture.Caste feature which is a unique to Indian society is solely reponsible for treating love marriages as a taboo. This is such a powerful institution that persons who get into a love relationships will be lynched and killed ruthlessly in some rural areas.

Hearing the term “love marriage “ will raise the pressure in heart for more than 60% of our population.It was impalnted in the mindsets that love marriage is something that should be opposed and which if encouraged will create chaos.Though love was the most important ingredient in marriage , there was no reason to believe that love before marriage is immature.Many parents, unfortunately even educated parents, believe that only the person whom they choose is worth the love of their child.

Arranged marriage had significance in the past where there was a tradition of early marriage for both brides and grooms.So the concept of parents considering the partner for their children had sense as they were too young to choose for themselves.Also the level of literacy was was absent and the person with better experiance was considered to be better knowledged and hence experianced persons, normally parents, will choose partner for their children.

But in today's scenario the average age of marriage for females came around 21 and that of males to 25 from that of 12 and 16 respectively. Apart from that literacy had also taken strong roots.Most of people are better educated than their parents and have defnitely have a better chance to choose their life partners. But the superstition of only parents can search for better partners still exists even among the educated communites mainly in southern part of our country.Many parents still consider caste and prestige of the families of match rather than the qualities of invidual person.The myth that better families will produce better children was always advocated in their minds during the search for their children.

In the past there existed joint family system in which bride coming will enter in to the family of whole rather than merely her husband and children. So it was then important that girls whom parents and other family members like should have a higher preference as it was with them whom she will be spending majority of her time.At that time female employment was an alien concept and she should be depending upon the almost all the members of the family for the sustenance.

But today joint families were rare and contribution for GDP through female employment is also significant.Persons who can compliment their lives can be better chosen by themselves.Today even caste has lost its functional significance.Though it still exists , it is only paper and will play no role affecting the oppotunities as constituion accepts and validates intercastes , inter religion and inter national marriages.Mainting pure blood by marrying someone in the caste , which was widely prevalent in the past, has totally lost its significance in the present context.

Moreover in the present day many individuals stay away from their homes and parents to pursue their education and it is the friends circle and other such environment which will shape up their personality rather than the family which used to be in the past. So the myth that better families produce better individuals is totally invalid in the present world.

Instead of marrying someone whom we never met and about whom we know nothing in particular , it is logical and better to marry someone whom we have known for quite sometime and belive that we have better chances of a good relationship rather than gambling on a person whom we or our parents know nothing.

Another most misinterpreted fact about the love marriage is its rate of success.Though it is factually correct, it is often misinterpreted.No matter what kind of marriage one enters in to , it is sure to develop some strains in the long run. Parents generally act as a glue in fixing up the starins and thus ensuring a long term compatibility. In most of the cases the parental support for love marriages is not only absent but acts as a catalyst to further develops the strains between the couple. The success rate even among love marriages who have parental support will be as high as arranged marriages. It is very important that parents should look forward for better future and happines of their children rather than stressing themselves on to matters of caste and religion which have no significance in the present world.

Although parents in many families of north india, mainly of educated class have opened up their minds to intercaste and inter religious marriages, rural households still regard that as taboo and go as far as to kill their children. Many parents in southern part of the country are still mythical about old forms of marriage and accpetance of love marrigaes is quite low in this part, even among the educated class.It is quite ironical that southern states have better literacy rate than their north counterparts but yet acceptance ratio is much smaller.

It is yet to be noted that Love marriages is an abstarct concept and should be carefully abided.The proposal of love makes sense only when made at a matured age rather than in teen ages where the harmonal effect on invidual will be at its peak.The ability to choose a life partner comes only with proper education or outlook of the world.It is quite ridcuolous to oppose love marriage of two engineers and both working in MNC's drawing huge salaries where as it is absolutely correct or even necessary to stop same kind of thing between two teen agers.It is important here to note that eductaion is not important but outlook of world and life is important for attaing the credibility of choosing one's own partner.

With changing form of lifestyles it is also necessary and important to ensure and accept changes in the marriage system or else it would as a whole will endanger itself of loosing the credibility.

Ravi.K.Varma

ravikanthvarmag@gmail.com

Full Report of Chitrakoot

My visit to Chitrakoot

Before I start writing I would like to thank Shobit for suggesting me this place. It was a great learning experiance for me to have spent 18 days there and these days will be very important throughout.

It is with great difficulty that am writing this report short and yet am sure it will run pretty long.Today I happened to hear the speech of Dr.Kamal Narang who said that volunteerism is not helping others but ourselves to become better human beings.This is exactly what my experience to CHITRAKOOT is.

I read that India is in a transistion phase and I feel it convincing. After my Fellowship program of YFS I believe it. To see the change we wish to see we need not have macro institutions in the play. It is all about Will to change and patience for that change. In Chitrakoot its not the volunteers of DRI but results that spoke to me. Success, success and success in all aspects.How? The answer is pretty simple for the complex question and in fact the answer solved many complex questions. Self Help and People Participation is the key for wonders. Every work starting from Hygiene to watershed, done by the villagers themselves for themselves with little expertise provided for them by a non voluntary organisation, DRI ( Deendayal Research Institute) . They have done this not in the best part of the country but in the most challenged and neglected part where majority of people, as high as 93% of them, were below poverty line. They had no water to drink and the agriculture was left to monsoons which troubled them almost every year. Every project was undertaken based on necessity and suitability. They have truly developed model villages. So inspiring that APJ Abdul Kalam presented Chitrakoot Model of PURA ( Providing Urban Facilities in Rural Areas in his website.

Any place on earth I believe has two parts-geography and people. In this report I would emphasise more on the latter part. Meeting people always excite me. I claim myself to be blessed to have met spectrum of people throughout my visit to Chitrakoot To name a few, I met Agricultural Scientists, Labourers, Farmers, Ex civil servant, volunteers, Indian and foreign doctors, research specialists, botanists, professors and American students. List is huge, so is my learning and experience. Many intellectuals that I have met till now gave beautiful analysis of the problems that our society and country in particular is facing and it is in Chitrakoot that I found the answers. Zero unemployment and all children in schools, zero water problems and high levels of hygiene.

I visited a village by name Kalla in UP around 30 Kms from Chitrakoot on Masik Shraad of Hon'ble Nanaji Deshmukh.The village got no electricity.That wondered me as I never visited a place which has zero electricity. But much is in store for me that day. The world in which sons are are skipping monthly rituals of their parents, people here perform rituals of Nanaji with whom they share no blood relation.People of that village collected Rs 40000/-...i repeat...Rs 40000/- for the masik shraad of Nanaji.Total self contribution. Village volunteer by name Shukla ji told me about the progress in the village and claimed that all the houses in the village that day were cleaned and neatly kept. He asked me to choose a house in the street and made me visit it to show me how clean it is. Am dumbstuck. The feeling of gratitude for which Indian people and particularly Indian villages are known for was experienced for the first time in my life .At that point of time I found Nanaji to be the most richest man. I learnt that when one truly works for his brethren without any personal motive , he lives with them for generation although he may not be in this physical world.

I visited Babupur Village and Patni Village and saw the developments there.I felt happy seeing the contentment of the people.I think even Ratan Tata has many problems but these people are happy with sufficient food to eat and savings by the end of the year.I think this is the true enjoyment of life.Loving the work to do and returning everyday with a satisfied heart is what I learnt that life is all about.

Many projects of DRI like Arogyadham,Udhyamitha,Education research center,Goshala,Rasshala, Naturopathy center and Krishi Vigyan Kendras ( KVK ) really inspired me as they provide best training and other facilities at the most reasonable cost possible for the people of 500 villages. They are totally self sustained. They have their own ayurvedic hospital to treat them, their own medicinal research center, their own medicine manufacturing unit, their own entrepreneur workshop.

Visiting of KVK's is very special to me as they are involved in Agricultural Research and they provide best seeds to the farmers after testing them thoroughly. It is by their efforts that the farmers are having two crops per year at least. Visiting KVK's is like visiting a place in fairy tale for me. Green fields with modern agricultural practices with ponds in between and solar street lights. Great experience.

Another important innovation of DRI is to encourage kitchen gardens. More than 95% of the houses in almost all the villages have their own kitchen gardens. Their own livestock provide manure for them and they were almost maintenance free. Just imagine how wonderful it is to have many vegetables grown in the backyard as it saves the important expenditure of the village folk. Barter system crept in as villagers exchange vegetables with their neighbors. I thought these were not possible in the modern world but they made it possible at Chitrakoot.

If you were impressed by the above activity, then the concept dispute free villages will only make you wondering for a long time if am cooking up a story. Am not. All the villages under DRI were dispute free. From almost past 9 years , no cases were registered by anyone against anyone from these villages. Apart from that they also withdrew old pending disputes in courts and solved it among themselves. Few days before I visited Patni village, there was a theft in the village and yet there was no complaint to the police. Villagers got themselves into a team and began to hunt for the culprit.

Another important thing that I had noticed in the activities of DRI is the value addition they bring in to the products. With Amla, they make juice, pickles and even sweet called Murraba .In Goshala they make variety of products from Health products to beauty products .I just learnt how cow urine can be used in so many ways. They even generate power in goshala and make manures for the fields. It is with this value addition that income of many farmers was doubled.

To discuss in short about the Educational Research centers that I have visited, they are helping students to develop many skills to sustain themselves if they stop their schooling after 10'th standard. Skills include stitching, Agarbati making, soap making, toy making, washing powder making and cooking. Basically it is the education with a difference that I have seen in these schools. Students are so sweet that they performed a dance for me and made me taste sweets prepared by them. I took a few classes for children of 12 standard and upon the request of principle gave a presentation to them about various opportunities available to them after passing out.

A concept school called Nanhi Duniya ( Children World ) was developed for children up to class 1.Beautiful with outdoor classes in winter and garden which has prototypes of wild life. Big prototype of India was also being made which shows all the terrains and rivers flowing and important places. I liked the idea of involving education in the play style. I believe that students will inculcate interest towards education which will definitely help them in the long run to enjoy education.

One of the best projects of DRI,at least for me is its Watershed Management project. It is by this project that the water problem became a history in all the villages and hundreds of acres of barren land was brought under cultivation. Project is pretty big and the canal through which water runs is around 11 Kms. Ground water level rose by 10-15 feet in a matter of years and problem of soil erosion often caused by runoffs is eliminated.

I talked to many members of DRI, many of them highly educated from very good institutions and yet working for very meager salaries. When I asked them the reason they told that they were all emotionally attached to Nanaji and his activities. They all have a sense of satisfaction in them and which I can find in very few professionals these days.

However my most memorable moments in the visit is my travel with Hon'ble Bharat Pathak, the general secretary of DRI.I visited KVK along with him and had an opportunity to attend a Bandara ( Villagers common lunch ) with him. Spoke about a lot of things during the travel with him and he told about the open secret of DRI.” We will not work for the change we wish to see..we work for the change villagers wish to see”. When I asked about the problems they faced while dealing with people, he said that when people see something done to their benefit they will follow us. I've learned lot travelling with him than I learned reading books for many years.

Next important person whom I met at DRI is Dr.Nandita Pathak ( Wife of Bharat Pathak ).She spoke Telugu as she is from Hyderabad and I felt extra pleasure speaking to her in my mother tongue. Spent lot of time with her during my 18 days of stay and learnt a lot from her experiences.

I met a very interesting man at Patni village who I feel can be a true role model for many. He is versatile. He is an old tribal man who teaches farmers how and what to sow for effective results. He is the chairman of Watershed Management works, a singer and a musician. He sang for me when I visited that place and no words to describe it.

Finally, I had an opportunity to spend some quality time with students and professor of IOWA university from America. I spent around 4 days with them. Good experience particularly with the professor. Had lot of discussions with him on a variety of subjects starting from some books to economics

Before I sum up , I always read that religion is to bond people but never to divide. But the events like Ayodhya, Godra,etc made me believe that religion today is no good. Am again enlightened regarding this at Chitrakoot.I found the power of religion there. Breaking the barriers of caste and class everyone joins in bhajans and kirtans praising lord Ram. I myself for the first time in my life spent DEC 31 in Ram Bhajan. Ironically I enjoyed it the most.

These are all some of my experiences at Chitrakoot and I thank YFS for giving me this opportunity to enhance my knowledge along with offering some service. I wish every volunteer of YFS will take out sometime from their busy schedule and visit places which can make difference to the people whom they visit and also to themselves .Its just win-win situation. It is for me and it will be for you.

JAI HIND

-----Ravi.K.Varma

ravikanthvarmag@gmail.com

DRI Chitrakoot Visit

 Journey

                  My journey to began with a 20 hour journey from secunderbad to Satna in MP . Journey from Satna to Chitrakoot took around 2.5 hrs travelling through many villages and scrub forests in a typical rural bus signiying local culture.
                  The onset of chitrakoot itself comes with change with an organised village system and aweome infrastaructure developed by the institue over a span of 2 decades.I was directly placed in Arogyadham and was allocated a room where monkeys greeted me outside my window.With forest to north and west of room,I think am going to have some exciting and chilling days.

17-Dec-2010

Visit to Rasshala

                 Ayurvedic production center where the manufacturing,packing and marketing of diversified products ranging from diabetes to facial care takes place.The equipment used was purely indegenous and simple unlike sophisticated and complex used in factories.The hygine conditions were significant which shows the concern and professionalism of even unskilled persons taking part in the production.
                The activities takes place at various levels in the manufacturing of the medicines.Primarily the villagers with local and ancient knowledge of herbs available in the surrounding forest areas will collect them and handover to the people who dry them and then pass onto the manufacturing unit where the whole process starts.Visit was very cordial will get back soon with some photographs and videos.

Thats all for now.Care to visit tommorrow for more info.

18-Dec-2010

                Today the day started a bit late, around 11.45 a.m. If there is any day till now for me in which I have learned maximum in such a short period, then it is this day.

Visit to Ayurvedic Laboratory

               Visited the laboratory at around 12.00 noon and went through different medicine testing and other equipments. Many people including students and staff were working together trying out different things. They were mostly working on indigenous plants and herbs and thus directly help the local people to scientifically develop their traditional knowledge. They were also developing the database of Ayurvedic medicines coordinating with other government agencies. Though they have not claimed any patents yet, they said they were ready now to take their research on to the next level and claim the patents.

               Next I visited Herbal garden in the backyard of the laboratory where they have collected almost all the available herbal plants in the nearby forest area to serve as a live catalogue. There are about 250 varieties. There is no large scale production though.

              I thought this would be the most important visit of the day, but by the end it became only a formality to mention it in my blog.

Visit to Siyaram Kutir

             Vineet ji had then took me to Siyaram Kutir where I met Mr.Bharat Pathak (Dadaji), General Secretary of DRI . Super personality with confidence and pride for the work he has undertaken over a span of 2 decades. Getting 500 villages under self reliance and changing many hectares of barren land near mountains in to cultivable land is no small task. Had a brief talk with him for about 20 minutes and then retired for lunch.

Visit to Udhyamitha Vidyapeeth  

             After lunch, I visited Udhyamitha Vidyapeeth, an entrepreneur workshop where work shops vary from food processing to handicrafts. Though my detailed visit to this place is planned at a later stage , I visited it for meeting  Mrs.Nandita Pathak (Didiji).She was also a Hyderabadi and enquired about my stay. Pleasure meeting her.

Travel with Dadaji


            From Udhyamitha Vidyapeeth , I got an opportunity to travel with Dadaji to Tribal girls hostel in Majghawon.The residential school which takes care of tribal girls at free of cost from all the surrounding villages. The important aspect of the school is teaching the self reliability to all the students from the very childhood. The school children cultivate their own vegetables in their backyard & cook their own food.I tasted a sweet made by children themselves.Hmmmm tasty.

            From there we visited a tribal village which had a get together function.had some food sitting along with them in a typical village fashion.Two tribal guys , Tripathy brothers, took me around the area, once barren, now flourishing with Amla and other fields by the water shed project and contour bounding project undertaken by DRI.

            The most important part of travel is thought sharing with Dadaji . He explained that anything that is done for free or without the participation of the villagers will not stand long . So in order to develop villages any individual or organisation should identify the needs of the villagers and devise ways so that villagers themselves can solve their problem.We can only provide the technical know how and show a path to travel to solve the problems of the villagers.They have to repair the path and bear the fruits of travelling on it. Noble idea, isn't it?For all the people and politicians in general who think that this cannot be done,please visit Chitrakoot and 500 surrounding villages.Every project including construction of checkdams,contour bunding,watersheds, converting barren land to agricultural lands were mostly undertaken by villagers themselves with very little help from Govt.

          Dadaji was of the view that construction of efficient checkdams and watershed projects can simultaneously bring lakhs of hectares under cultivation as well increase the seepage level in the surrounding areas.Totally implemented in Chitrakoot.So the doubts that if that is workable will not stand as it is implemented effectively in mountaneous terrain.So the success  implementability in plains and Plateaus should not be doubtful.Immediately the Polavaram project in AP stuck my mind.12000 crores were already pumped in and still the project was not even 10% completed.Thousands of tribals were displaced and beautiful Papikondalu hills were on the verge of extinction due to this project.If at all this simple solution would have been undertaken,it would have been something different.

         Well, this was my day 2 experience and will come back tomorrow with more exciting things as I will touring in and around Chitrakoot. Take Care.

19-Dec-2010


          The programs for today were preplanned.Since,it is a Sunday,the staff were off.So,Vineetji planned a tour for me with Gautam ji. So started my day on a bike towards Kamad giri, the holy abode of Lord Rama in his exile.The parikrama was a total of 5 Kms. But me and Gautam ji up on my insistence took the hard route. We trekked the holy mountain, though not to the peak but I can almost say around 80%. Since it is a holy mountain for the locals, we have decided to trek with bare foot. Amazing experience . Slopes were steep and ground was harsh to us.Yet it is awesome.We got some photographs which even locals might not have had.By the time we finished this tour it was time for lunch.

         Well, after lunch we started towards Sati Anasuya , the mountain dedicated to wife of Athreya Muni, the great pativrata, (listen all girls...lolz).Well the architecture was good.More importantly the route to Sati Anasuya was a great experience.Travelling through jungles and monkeys greeting us on either side of the roads.

          From there we next headed our bike to Gupt Godavari.Wow,wow and wow. No one knows from where the water is coming from inside the mountain.Travelling through caves , centuries old with the polished stones and trekking to great heights. Experience of a life time.

          Then on the way visited Ram darshan, a place dedicated to tell about life of Rama through paintings and sculptures,developed by DRI.

          At night I was invited to Siyaram Kutir,  to meet Dadaji and Didiji.Had dinner with them and it was a great experience.

Well, Thats all in for the day. Catch you up with more exciting things in the coming days.

20 Dec to 26 Dec


Well, long time since I updated my blog as I was unable to access net and was quite busy visiting places.Here is my summary of all the last week visits and experiences.

Visit to Udhyamitha Vidhyapeeth


Udhyamitha is a workshop training center where candidates from villages will be trained in various self help activities ranging from food processing  to brick making to tailoring. Value addition to products are eye catching.Amla is processed into pickles,juice and sweet called Murraba.Similarly with lime and other things.Training varies from 1week to 3 months.Everything was highly professional with packing the products, labeling them and printing the expiry dates.Also there is a bakery training unit making people proficient in cake and biscuit making.

Next is the flour processing in a typical traditional manner where the nutrient value is not lost.They showed me the difference between normal flour making and their process.Quality differs. Similarly is oil making.Oil is extracted from seeds and then oil cake is also value added in the form of fodder.Machinery used for all the activities is very simple and was brought from neighbouring towns.

Next were the printing workshop,then cement brick making workshop, then the carpentry workshop and then tailoring workshop.Every workshop has a master trainer who in turn will be constantly upgrading his skills by undergoing training at various places across the country.

The training was provided at minimum cost as the institute believes that people will not value that comes something for free and the items produced in the workshops during training were sold in the counter at very nominal prices.Apart from this, when the strength is more trainers themselves go to villages to conduct workshops for 2 months.Also micro finance is provided for people who want to start their own ventures at practically 0 interest by forming self help groups.The magic of SHG's can be seen here as almost hundred such groups exist.

The whole idea is to make villagers self reliant and to establish home based industries so that a minimum income is guaranteed for them.The idea was a success with hundreds of people trained till now. The pay back rate for micro finance was also almost 100%.

Visit to Educational Research Centers


ERC's were divided in to three parts - Nanhi Duniya , Surendrapal secondary school and vignan kendra ( 11 and 12). Starting from Nanhi Duniya , it's a concept school. Simple, great and an awe. There were both outdoor and indoor classes and the burden of learning was made 0. Education is imparted through games and developing value system.On birthday of a particular child, they make them to plant a sapling and transfer the responsibility of bringing it up to the child who should water it daily.Should see the pics to more clearly understand the concept.Total strength of 250 students till class-I . Fee was also very nominal with 180/- p.m.

Next is Surendrapal school which operates from class-2 to 10.Ordinary school I can say.Then is Vignan kendra with classes 11 and 12.Again ,an ordinary school.

Visit to Gurukul


Developed inline with traditional Gurukul system where 1 elderly retired couple are made in charge of around 25 students of all ages.They were given separate bulidings and separate kitchen.As a group it is their responsibility to maintain it properly.Every building has a separate study hall and dining area.There around 12 such buildings.

Interaction with Students


I had 2 instances of meeting with the students of class 12. First is when I took a class for them in mathematics for around 35 students and other when I presented a career counselling for them.Well, lecturers were impressed at both the instances and invited me for taking further classes at every available opportunity during my stay.Well, Great experience as I received invitations from students themselves to take some classes for them.

Visit to Krishi Vigyan Kendra ( KVK )


Most important place of visit till date.Its in short and agricultural laboratory established with the help of ICAR ( Indian Council of Agricultural Research).Different varieties of crops are first experimented by scientists and depending up on the success rates, they will next be tested on some real fields under the care of farmers with supplying technical knowhow. Then they are prescribed for all the villages under their spectrum.

Crops under experiment were diverse ranging from wheat to mustard seeds to bajra to brinjal.Different types of irrigation system such as sprinkler and drip types were also experimented for various crops.

Visit to Ramnath Ashram Shala


A tribal Co-ed hostel.Financed by the govt. but maintained by DRI. Administration was good and transparent. Students from here represented Wrestling at state level and even won a bronze medal in inter state competitions. Classrooms were available and also students were taken classes under huge trees in a typical Gurukul style. I was shown the students registers of past few years and the pass percentage in 10 was good with around 75%. Along with education, students were given training in Agarbatti making, washing powder making , tailoring, etc.. to make them self reliant after their schooling in case they stopped their eduction further.
 There was  also a computer lab to provide basic computer education to children from classes 4 to 10.Kitchen was also well maintained and 12 students were accommodated in a single room.

 Well guys. lot to report. but gotta go. Will report soon. C ya

Articles

Child labour in my view  is a spiritual disease, infact an epidemic that is caused and even spread

 because of the lack of compassion. All the activities, those of which can degrade the future and 

motivational levels of children to a considerable extent come under the meance of child labour 

and it  needs to be curbed at an exponential rate to transform our developing nation in to a superpower.

It has been a major hurdle for our country since the time of independance and the inefficient 

methodologies adopted for the past several decades resulted in an impotent workforce needed to bulid the 

nation in the new century.

Child labor usually means work that is done by children under the age of 15, which restricts or 

damages their physical, emotional, intellectual, social, or spiritual growth as children.There are 

many reasons for the existance of child labour in our country.Majority of child labour hail from 

the rural,tribal and slum areas of our country and are forced in to labourage  because of poverty

and worst economic conditions of their families and by failure to realise the importance of 

education by their parents. Also child labour is encouraged by some vested interests in order

to get cheap labour.
 

Child Labour is the mother of many ailments such as poverty,illetracy,inequalities and poor 

workforce. For the elimination of poverty in our country, education is the primary weapon 

which can only be promoted by rooting out child labour.We have to realise that child labour 

and poverty are inevitably bound together and if we continue to use the labour of children as

the treatment for the social disease of poverty, we will have both poverty and child labour to 

the end of time.

On the humanatarian side , it is an utter injustice that the education and fututre of a child depends 

on the economic condition of the family he is born in to rather than his own vices and virtues. 

Children do not constitute anyone's property: they are neither the property of their parents nor

even of society. They belong only to their own future freedom.It is time for parents to realise that

education for children is not only their right, but a passport to a better future - for their families 

and for the country. 

The problems of child labour if listed can fill in terabytes of memory, for everything is a problem 

in the country with the existance of technology and illeteracy(  fruit of child labour ) side on side.

Child labour in our country has two faces - One face is the with regard to the children who were 

labouraged in the fields of rural,tribal and slum areas and the other face is regarding children who

were undergoing labourage in the name of education in schools and colleges.These two need to

be tackled at an alarming rate for providing assured results for our future generations.
 

Face One

According to the statistics only around 64%[optimistic view] of child population are enrolled in

schools in our country. Many of them are being forced into work from a very early age of 8 years 

to support their families.The result of decades of child labour is clearly visible at present in the 

form of poor economy that resulted because of poor agricultural economy, backbone of our nation.

Child labour infact cretaes a vacuum, for the cyclone of destruction to sweep the whole nation .

It is not “ a problem “ but rather “ the problem” as it can give rise to many more inequalic disturbances. 

Any major problem in our country is intertwined with child labour and all steps for tackling those 

problems can go futile unless this menace is curbed off to the most possible extent.

The emergance of black markets for basic commodidtes is also a branch of child labour as the 

illetrate farmers are taken advantage of by the middle men whose pose themselves as the mediators

 between rural and urban areas.The  illetracy of farmers is not only a bane for them but also for the

 urban people who buy basic commodities at the whim of these middle men.The tree of child labour 

is turning our farmers  in to poor peasants and then into daily workers as they enter into slavery norms 

of stingent money lenders who advantage their backwardness to their own greeds. 

The low agricultural productivity in our country is also a fruit of child labour.The traditional agricultural 

practices used in our country are extinct in other countries with the development of technology and the 

methods of high yielding and harvesting.Despite ours being an agricultural country unfortunately the 

technical advancement is on the negative side.The basic cause for this trend is the lack of skills for 

farmers to bring in on the innovation in to farming practices and their inability to bring in smart work 

in place of hardwork.For example , majority of farmers in our country plough their fields with the help 

of oxen which is very much time taking , while the technolgy arrived where a plough machine can be 

installed on motor bikes which can plough 10 acres of land in just a couple of hours compared to the

 week work in the former case at a very affordable cost.

The advent of child labour also prevents the coming generation from actively participating in the 

politics or other services that can directly constitue the growth of our nation.Because of prevalence 

of child labour over the past few decades, the number of persons in various competitive exams 

such as UPSC or IIT-JEE from rural areas are very less.The development of the country can be

 exponential when the farmers participate in its process directly rather than indirectly.

Moreover, child labour curbs off the confidence and motivational levels of our young children 

which can cost a fortune for our nation. For country to reach in par with world super powers,

the morals and attitude of the people must be very high and competent in various fields.The

leaders arise only when child grows in an environment of knowledge and morals.The child

labour prevents a set of generation to analyse the problems with the modern developments.

The day when fellow citizens of our villages can understand the basic terms such as economy

,GDP,inflation,etc. - that day my country, our country is transformed into a super  power.This is 

possible only we can devour the menace of child labour from its roots.
 

Face Two

As previously stated , that child labour is a coin with two faces, the above discussed kind of labour

 forms only one face. The other face of it is also equally dangerous in the interest of our nation.

This second form of child labour is artificially created for the fiscal benefits by many organisations

 and individuals in the name of education.This might take you by surprise , but this fact is undeniable.

If labour is defined as something hard, stressfull and mentally upsetting, then today's education

 in schools in the name of competition(marks alone )is transformed in to a form of labour for 

the children.It is infact this stress that is forcing some  students to volunteer out of the schools 

in the rural areas.According to  a survey  conducted in 800 schools( elite schools ) across the 

country,more than 90% of students are found  not to be enjoying  their education.Most of the 

children infact devloped a kind of nausea towards education , which inturn can deliver a

thunderblow for our nation, as the education with no basics creates an impotent workforce

 which our nation cannot afford presently.Infact this kind of labour was absent in our country 

during the pre-British regime.But the introduction of western culture and western education 

system and with the advancement of competition in the recent decades has turned the divine

 education in to a labourage.Many of the technical institutes teaches us how to do things rather

 than why to do things. As a result of our present education system, we are using our development

 for technology inspite of using technology for our development.

Another example is that many of our students including those from universities , fail to explain that 

papers blow away under the fan because of bernoulli's principle inspite of studying that principle 

from class 8.This kind of stressful education is infact killing the sensibility and analytical ability of

 many students.

Only when the students are really able to enjoy the education, can we get some scientists and

researchers with thoughts whose findings can revolutionalise the world.The education becoming

a labourage for most of the students denies the very purpose of it. The education, inspite of being

pursued as a gift is becoming the burden for the students.The results are directly visible in the 

form of suicides by many students.I strongly assert that the ruthless educational system at present

and the competition that it had developed in the form of marks and ranks had in fact become a kind 

of burden or labourage for the children.

Thanks to Govt. for taking some steps like introduction of grade system rather than rank system 

in schools to reduce the stress level of the students.This kind of labourage need to be curbed 

and education must be delivered in a more interesting and innovative way developing the 

overall personality of the child rather than his marks alone.

Moreover the education system in rural areas should be differed in such a way that it helps 

in their daily needs. For example, teaching some basic laws of physics for farmers helps 

them to bring in innovation in to their daily activities as explained in the earlier example 

of ploughing with a motor bike.When the advantages of education are seen in the daily

 lives of the people, we can expect the encouragement from parents for their children in 

the rural areas that will automatically curb both forms of labourage for children.

Finally, for our nation to restore the glory, we have an urgent need to raise the level of

 understanding and thinking of our people that is possible only by imparting quality 

education rather than mere education and eliminating the child labour by roots from 

our country and also the world.There is a plethora of laws but nothing can eradicate child 

labour unless there is awareness among parents and children, which will go a long way in saving 

the future of millions of working children in India. Lastly it is to be realised by all that, in serving the

 best interests of children, we serve the best interests of all humanity and the future generations.