Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Aprahna _ Foreword (English)

This is the English translation of the foreword to my Odia poetry book
Aparahna (The Afternoon). The foreword is by Mr.Ramaknta Ratha, an
Odia poet of eminence http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramakanta_Rath
...........................................................................................
The Light in Afternoon
........................................................................................... 
The poet Sri. Hrushikesha Mohanty, himself has told of his intimacy with poetry in preface of this book. One day, the  poetry knocked at his door and suddenly it came in.  Since then everyday, during his walks in lonely nights, she comes; both keep talking while walking  along in solitude.  Then, both sit across the study table and  keep talking. That makes the poet realize the self, the present and the future in a way, that is unique to him . The intimacy of a real poet with poetry  is always like this.  That relation is neither realized  by the wish of the poet  nor by his/her efforts; it happens at the wish of poems. Sri Hrushikesha is blessed for this realisation  and intimacy with poems, that has come to him on its own .

The new style (of his expression)  I told before is visible in plenty in  this volume.  The inner-self (KabyPurusha) has revealed itself again and again from traditional bounds and rituals. He has not completely wiped off the past rather understood the present and has made the both complement each other.   It's not true the poetics has moved heavily  towards self (individualism); for the poet, the personal relations have meanings. But that relation is very different than that what he had before. Now  these are much more meaningful. It has  pains of the past. One suffers while searching self in it. But one has to  return to present. If life is a drama, one has to look for  the scenes and  the director of the drama. Unconvinced poet has indulged in self questioning .   The poet is restless in self search and almost always in off-beat mood!

The poet who travels such a large space within him, has uttered self with his uniqueness  How can it not be? He has not been writing poems for the sake of writing  poems rather he has been obliging the loving calls of poetics. I congratulate the poet and wish him the best.







Thursday, April 14, 2011

Selecting Vice-Chancellors

(Note: This is a personal view only!)

Indian hierarchical society always favous a recipe of power
and so also academia (many). Inherently, academia has less power but
just at the time of getting grey, power in Indian academia lurks
and for many it remains illusive.

For some lucky and manipulative ones, the illusion may turn reality (DB!)
if one is at right side of fortune. The right side is measured on the basis of
many real factors (that are behind the screen) like caste, religion,
connections etc. etc. But on selection, the selected one starts singing
sermons, recites the names of Stanford, Oxford and Cambridge to drown
the community with obfuscate calls for turning the university to No. ONE!
Amused academicians with tongue-in-cheek have to listen
(for no other choice) to such oratory. And some of them
return to in the same words at the end of episode. But, the university
remains (if fortunate enough) at the same for future.


A university does not probably budge to change to the whims of the
selected one for it having grey or colored image; and as it decides
to run the business as per the wish of their gurus - (they
behind the curtain are the real honchos).

Search committee - the best heard term like GoM (Group of Ministers)
is one of the most wonderful committee for academia of higher learning.
The committee is of GoDs to select another GOD for academia! It could
turn to a snake for frogs begging the Lord a GoD to their better uses.

GOD loves to be an authoritarian and and prefers mostly to live in hierarchy,
(most of the GODs). That's why GODs thrive in Indian society for its well
marked hierarchy. What happens if GODs turn to democracy and so also
the process of vice-chancellor selection adopts?

Once search committee proposes some names; each of them should talk to
University community of their dreams for the university and globally, for
the fast changing knowledge society. Ideally, if a candidate does not have
its own dream then is not welcome!

On hearing dreams, community must vote and select
the best dreamer - not an executive who can't even put a stroke using
its own brush and paints! Modern way of selecting somebody is not a top-down
but a bottom-up process.

Indian Universities need to embrace a lot of changes; if they want to
be bit closure to reality of Stanford!

(Note: This is a personal view only!)
Hrushikesha
(Bishuba Sankranti)

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Key faces of Anna Hazare's anti-corruption crusade

Key faces of Anna Hazare's anti-corruption crusade

Anna Hazare's anti-corruption campaign, which has captured the imagination of the nation like no other, has some high-profile faces lending it weight and substance. Here are the key faces:

Anna Hazare: Kisan Bapat Baburao Hazare, 73, is popularly known as Anna Hazare. The iconic Gandhian is known for his contribution to the development of Ragelan Siddhi, a village in Parner taluka in Maharashtra's Ahmednagar district. He was awarded a Padma Bhushan in 1992 for turning it into a model village. On April 5, 2011, the 72-year-old began a fast-unto-death to exert pressure on the government to enact a strong anti-corruption law that will see the appointment of independent ombudsmen at the centre and in the states to deal with cases of corruption. He broke the fast after 97 hours after the government constituted a joint panel of ministers and civil society representatives to draft the law.

Swami Agnivesh: Born as Shyam Vepa Rao on Sep 21, 1939 in Sakti in Chhattisgarh, the saffron-clad activist is best known for his work against bonded labour through the Bonded Labour Liberation Front that he founded in 1981. He is the founder of the World Council of Arya Samaj and is associated with the United Nations Trust Fund on contemporary forms of slavery. A former lecturer at St Xavier's College, Kolkata, he joined the Hindu Reformist Movement in Haryana and became a legislator. He is an also a proponent of the inter-faith dialogue and is a member of the board of the Elijah Interfaith Institute. His entry into the corruption crusade has mobilized mass opinion.

Arvind Kejriwal: The 1958-born is a crusader for greater transparency in the government. The graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur is popularly known as the RTI or the Right to Information Man. He received the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emerging Leadership in 2006 for empowering citizens to fight corruption by holding the government answerable to people. On February 2007, he was named the CNN-IBN Man of the Year. He is associated with a non-profit anti-corruption group, Parivartan.

Kiran Bedi: The 1949-born is India's first supercop. She is known for her sweeping reforms in New Delhi's Tihar Jail to rehabilitate inmates and integrate them to the mainstream. She became India's first woman Indian Police Service (IPS) officer in 1972 and retired from service in 2007. A television presenter, Bedi is also the founder of Navjyoti, for welfare and preventive policing in 1987 and India Vision Foundation for prison reforms. Hazare's crusade has inspired the former tough cop.

©Indo-Asian News Service
Courtsey: http://www.samachar.com/Key-faces-of-Anna-Hazares-anticorruption-crusade-lejmK7gcabc.html?source=recommended_news