Balu's musings

2nd Oct 08:

The day finally arrived! Looking back the last one month, I feel that we have come quite a distance, both figuratively and physically. The walk of 400 km has not left us exhausted as I had initially presumed.… Continue reading

Posted By Dr Balu Posted on October 3, 2008

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30th Sept 08:

The way in which people are rushing ahead with their lives here is amazing! All of them seem to be in such an undue haste. They hardly seem to have time for anything. Some people that we tried to interact with curtly asked us to be brief.… Continue reading

Posted By Dr Balu Posted on October 1, 2008

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29th Sept 08:

…This Yathre also showed us the real situation regarding the caste divides prevailing in rural India. At many places, when we went to drink water from a hand pump or a water tank, people would wash them with a bit of cow dung and ‘purify’ the same before and after our use.… Continue reading

Posted By Dr Balu Posted on September 30, 2008

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Dear friends,

The Jaagruthi Yathre will be reaching Bangalore as planned on the 2nd of October. We will arrive at the Gandhi Statue on M.G.Road at around 12 noon and will be received by Hon’ble Justice M.N.Venkatachalliah, the former Chief Justice of India and Rashtrakavi Sri G.S.Shivarudrappa.… Continue reading

Posted By Dr Balu Posted on September 29, 2008

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25th Sept 08:

The Secretary of the Gram Panchayath at Shivanahalli met us and explained to us the difficulties he was facing in the Panchayath because of his honesty…It is indeed a tragedy that we have managed to keep the honest people in the Governance system subdued or suffocated.… Continue reading

Posted By Dr Balu Posted on September 29, 2008

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20th Sept 08:

We started our walk after breakfast through the town of Malavalli. On the way, our team went into the Junior college and broke up into smaller teams. Each team went into a classroom and interacted with the students regarding RTI.… Continue reading

Posted By Dr Balu Posted on September 25, 2008

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19th Sept 08:

We are now proceeding towards Malavalli. On the way, we interacted with students of a D.Ed College and Morarji Desai Residential School. At lunch time (in a village called Pandithahalli), we had a long discussion on the history of the organization.… Continue reading

Posted By Dr Balu Posted on September 20, 2008

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17th Sept 08:

We started after a sumptuous breakfast, provided by Rotary Midtown of Kollegal. We walked through the villages Hosahanagalli, Saragur, Naripura, Dhanagere and finally reached Sattegala. Today’s walk left us feeling low for many reasons. One, the response of the community was varying between indifference and apathy.… Continue reading

Posted By Dr Balu Posted on September 19, 2008

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13th Sept 08:

…We first visited the nearby hamlet of Karadimoole, where the women received us in large numbers. We spoke on RTI, NREGA and PDS. Everywhere we find that people immediately relate to PDS. PDS by itself is another wonderful scheme of the government but is one of the most corrupt too.… Continue reading

Posted By Dr Balu Posted on September 17, 2008

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Today we were joined by Mr.Jayaram, CEO of Zilla Panchayath, Chamarajanagar and Mr.D.R.Patil, former MLA of Gadag. The discussion with Mr.Jayaram on the functioning of the bureaucracy and administrative system in India was a real eye opener. Mr.Patil and his friend (an ex-MLA from Bagalkot) wished to organize similar walks in their areas.… Continue reading

Posted By Dr Balu Posted on September 13, 2008

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9th Sept 08:

We left Gundlupet after having the breakfast provided by the JSS Mutt. The entire team was charged up and spent nearly 2 hours in Gundlupet walking to every shop and person that they saw. They spoke to each one of them regarding RTI and sold books too.… Continue reading

Posted By Dr Balu Posted on September 12, 2008

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7th Sept 08:

There is now on and off cellphone connectivity and i’m now able to understand how dependant i have become on technology and its tools. Wanting to live in a village and actually doing so on the terms of the villagers themselves is a completely different proposition.… Continue reading

Posted By Dr Balu Posted on September 9, 2008

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Amidst much fanfare, hope and expectations, the ‘Jaagruthi Yathre’ – a walk for community awareness – undertaken by Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement as part of its 25th year celebrations, got underway at Saragur in H.D.Kote Taluk yesterday.

Dr.Prabhushankara, senior litterateur and Dr.M.S.Nagaraja… Continue reading

Posted By Dr Balu Posted on September 5, 2008

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‘Information is Power’, especially in the context of rural India. Our development experience of more than 20 years in rural India has repeatedly demonstrated to us that people who are able to access information, process them effectively and use it to their own benefit are the ones who are more easily able to get out of poverty; the others are condemned to merely cope with poverty.… Continue reading

Posted By Dr Balu Posted on August 1, 2008

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