we_india

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For Fynn – In memory of a loved companion.

March 12, 2013

we_!NDIA

From West Bengal to Delhi to the World

I ran away from home at the age of 11.

Home for me was West Bengal.

My grandparents’ house.

They were beating me.

One day I stole money from my uncle.

I bought a ticket and took the train to Delhi.

I was lucky.

At the first day in the streets, people found me and brought me to Salam Balak Trust.

They gave me shelter.

But I didn’t like it there.

I thought it can’t be a good place because the doors were always locked.

So I ran away again.

I worked as ragpicker.

I collected water bottles and sold them in the trains.

Then I worked in a street restaurant.

As a dish washer.

There a man found me and asked me: “Why are you working here?

At your age you should go to school.”

And he send me back to Salam Balak Trust.

This time I stayed.

And then my life changed ...

Photo © Vicky Roy

I went to school. I got good clothes and good food. Very neat, very clean.

And slowly, slowly my thinking reached a different level.

Photo Š Vicky Roy

Why photography?

In 2001 my friend participated in a photography workshop.

He went to Sri Lanka and Indonesia to take photographs.

When my teacher told me at class 10 that my grades are not very good and that I should get some training, I said to my teacher that I want to be trained in photography.

Because I thought when I am trained in photography I can travel.

I wanted to travel.

This is why I started to “click pictures�.

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Photo © Vicky Roy

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CONFIDENCE I bought a new camera.

With a loan from the Salam Balak Trust.

I looked inside the camera.

All I saw was mathematics.

I thought it’s very difficult, photography.

Dixie Benjamin, an English photographer visited our trust.

I assisted him.

Dixie explained to me everything in English.

And I didn’t understand.

But I always answered: YES, YES, YES! Because I was very excited to “click pictures”.

Before Dixie left for Sri Lanka I asked a friend of mine, who spoke good english, to ask Dixie for me: “Dixie, my English is not good.

How do I become a good photographer?”

He gave me a very simple answer.

“Look Vicky,” he said, “there are many Chinese and Japanese photographers.

And they are good photographers.

But they can’t speak English.

You are Indian, you speak Hindi and you have good eye. You will become a good photographer!”

This was when the confidence in myself started.

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Photo © Vicky Roy

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STREETDREAMS When I lived in the streets I’ve always had dreams.

Some people might come and pick me up and give me shelter.

Or some money.

I was always dreaming like that.

It is very easy for me to go back to these places and take pictures.

I go there and talk with the street children.

Or maybe I play with them.

And we eat something.

We are more like friends.

Then I start “clicking pictures”.

Sometimes I share my life with them.

When I go in the streets I never wear good clothes.

I dress like them.

Like I was dressed a few years ago.

Because if I’d wear good clothes they won’t interact with me.

They won't accept me.

Some of them also came to Salam Balak Trust.

Now they get support.

2 or 3 of them.

I asked them to go there.

Sometimes moms and dads didn’t let their children go.

I think STREETDREAMS was my first project because I wanted to show my life.

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Photo © Vicky Roy

Whenever I go out of Delhi or out of India I think this is when my chapter really starts.

I am not good at studying but I am always trying to understand – and that is my study.

Photo © Vicky Roy

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LIFE I want a simple life.

Middle class.

Not a high class life.

And I want my name to be mentioned in the world of photography.

Again, not at the very top level.

I want people to say: Vicky is a good photographer.

During my photography I realized: I am good, but I am not great.

There are others who are really great.

Photo Š Vicky Roy

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What’s next?

All I want to do is good work.

I am a role model y right now for man street children. ty not I have responsibili ng. to do anything wro ng When I do somethi ire right then I insp people. ng So I am always tryi to do things right.

Then people will be happy and say: Vicky is doing good work. sure.

I don’t feel any pres Because I work very honestly.

I have always my mind straight. e I don’t have to loos anything. ee.

That’s why I am fr

Photo © Vicky Roy

Vicky Roy’s Journey “Clicking Pictures”

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A NOTE FROM A CLOSE FRIEND

When I first saw the slogan “Incredible !ndia” on a poster in the Indian Consulate in Manhattan, I thought it had to be an exaggeration. Believe me when I say, it is not.

I came to India to work with Ulrike, founder of we_magazine, on the we_school project. After my first visit I wasn’t sure what to think about India. During the second visit I decided I liked it and on the third visit I swore I would only come back again as a tourist. I knew going in we would face challenges getting the we_school up and running but it wasn’t until the third visit that it really dawned on me the complexity of the task.

India is a rich tapestry of dichotomies and contradictions. It is almost as if there are two Indias, two “we’s” if you will.

The ancient India, with its restrictive traditions, conservative religions, patriarchal mindset and cast system is a monolith of a “we”, inert and resistant to change. This is in direct contrast to a more agile, lithe modern “we” of an India that embraces technology, new ideas and progressive behavior. Both of these Indias have to deal with the same problems of overpopulation, alarming levels of pollution, dwindling resources, misogyny and rampant corruption. To even begin to understand the intensity of life in India one has to accept the extremes of the reality there. There is no place with more glaring problems (abject poverty, disease, child labor, domestic violence, lack of infrastructure etc.).

Imagine the worst problem and you will find it in India. On the other end of the spectrum, you will encounter incredible opportunities and an optimism that is to be found nowhere else. The youth of India is an incredible resource with their agile minds, their eagerness to learn and their passion for new technologies. It’s a powerful life force and if it can be tapped into, anything is possible.

I think India’s greatest challenge will be to bridge the two worlds of modern and old. To find a way towards a collective “we” by integrating the beautiful heritage, history and culture while embracing the benefits of technology, social and gender equality and the ethics of a humanist society. If those things can be accomplished, India will find itself one of the great superpowers of the 21st century. It’s up to India. The winds of change have arrived. Will India be like the mighty oak, unyielding and inert uprooted by the wind or will she adapt the flexibility of the bamboo and survive?

Only time will tell.

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INDIA IS LIKE THE INTERNET I am finishing this editorial in Khajuraho station waiting for the train to Delhi. 13 months ago I first came to incredible India as a tourist, but a great deal has happened since then. Now I’m living here on a business visa and engaged in building a school. And I’ve discovered the joys of riding my motorbike across the countryside.

From the first I welcomed India’s diversity with open arms which also means accepting all the tensions – both positive and negative – that go with it. In times when globalization flattens diversity, it’s important to cherish it! I’m constantly amazed by all different layers, hubs, networks, relationships and combinations that keep this country running – and keep it running in an incredible democratic way. Even though huge parts of the system are not running at their level best, and so many things seem to stand in blatant contradiction to what I am saying, somehow these 1.3 billion people on all their various levels still keep the democratic system on track and fuel it every single day. Under all the amazing chaos, you can still detect a definite discernible order. And at the end of the day Indians do get things done and move forward – perhaps after all it’s just the Indian way.

For me India is pretty much like the Internet where empathy, reputation, collaboration and transparency hold the keys to survival. In India as on the Internet, there are so many different options for each and every occasion that you really have to dive in, trust your peers and go with the flow.

You have to accept that there is no such thing as a “roadmap” or knowing what’s going to happen.

You have to become part of it, live it and just let things unfold. You have to release control and let the future reveal itself in free flight. But this is not to advocate total passivity – just keep your mission in mind and make whatever adjustments are needed on the way. What might sound like a business strategy for the 21st century or a do-it-yourself manual for a great relationship is in fact daily practice here in India.

I’ve been in India for over one year now so it was only a question of time before we_!NDIA was published. And here WE are ... I hope some of its articles and interviews will give you greater insight into this vast country and its various WEs as Egon Zippel describes them on p. 23. I only hope that you get as much pleasure and inspiration from reading the magazine as I’ve had in putting it together. Many thanks to all our contributors – and special thanks to Egon with whom I spend most of my time here in India trying to figure out how to set up we_school.

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FROM WEST BENGAL TO DELHI TO THE WORLD Vicky Roy A NOTE FROM A CLOSE FRIEND Egon Zippel

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INDIA IS LIKE THE INTERNET Ulrike Reinhard

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WHY THE FUTURE BELONGS TO INDIA Gucharan Das

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THREE THINGS THE WEST CAN LEARN FROM INDIA Prem Shankar Jha

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A STORY OF CHAOS AND LOVE Lakshmi Pratury

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360째 Mehmood Khan

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THE WE OF THE SOUL AND THE MIND Brijenrdra Singh (Mamaji)

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BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE! Anshul Aggarwal

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A MOVABLE FEAST Amjad Riaz

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THE PRATHAM WAY Madhav Chavan

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IDEAS WHOSE TIME HAVE COME Sugata Mitra / An introduction by Suneeta Kulkarni

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WE_SCHOOL Ulrike Reinhard / Egon Zippel > Ulrike asking Egon > Egon asking Ulrike

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POLAROIDS Egon Zippel

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YOUNG VOICES OF INDIA Deepak Goel / Krati Sharma / Kalyan Tadepalli / Tanay Prajapati / Aishwarya Dravid / Saurabh Taneja / Amala Devi Vaithyanathan / Vicky Roy / Nirupa Rao / Anusha Yadav

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INDIA’S YOUTH IS ONLINE Shiv Bhaskar Dravid

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INTERNET – MADE IN INDIA Ulrike Reinhard

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INTERNET FREEDOM IN INDIA Kirsty Hughes

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NEXT BILLION ONLINE Durgha Ramji

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BEYOND BORDERS Zarin Shoaib

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CITIZEN ACTIVISM TO FIX GOVERNANCE PROBLEMS Ulrike Reinhard / Jyoti Thyagarajan

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OUT OF WE Raja Muzaffar Bhat

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PERSPECTIVES. NO BIASIS. Raghava K.K

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WOMEN Prabhleen / Rana Jarbou

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ECONOMY Sumit Wadhwa / David Li

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AMAN KI ASHA Yatin K. Thakur / Muhamad Farhan Janjua

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All texts are licensed under CC by-nc-sa 3.0 – by we-magazine we_magazine · Ulrike Reinhard · +91 89 66 89 67 47 · +49 151 58748588 · we@we-magazine.net

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Why the Future Belongs to India Gucharan Das

Gurcharan Das is a former CEO of Procter & Gamble India. He took early retirement in 1995 to become a full-time writer. Das graduated with honors from Harvard University in Philosophy and Politics.

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In preparing for a debate in London on the motion ‘The future belongs to India, not China’, I was reminded of a conversation with my mother. She had asked, what is the difference between China growing at a rate of 10% and India at 8%?

I replied that the difference was, indeed, very significant. If we were to grow at 10% we could save twenty years. This is almost a generation. We could lift a whole generation into the middle class twenty years sooner. She thought for a while and then said gently, ‘we have waited 3000 years for this moment.’

Why don’t we wait another twenty and do it the Indian way?

She had understood that the cost of democracy is the price the poor pay in the delay of their entry into the middle class. She did not elaborate the ‘Indian way’ but it must include taking a holiday on half a dozen New Years Days! It is easy to get mesmerized by China’s amazing progress and feel frustrated by India’s chaotic democracy, but I think she had expressed the sentiments of most Indians who will not trade off democracy for two per cent higher growth.

In referring to the ‘Indian way’, my mother meant that a nation must be true to itself. Democracy comes easily to us because India has historically ‘accumulated’ its diverse groups who retain their distinctiveness while identifying themselves as Indian. China has ‘assimilated’ its people into a common, homogeneous Confucian society. China is a melting pot in which differences disappear while India is a salad bowl in which the constituents retain their identity. Hence, China has always been governed by a hierarchical, centralized state – a tradition that has carried into the present era of reform communism. China resembles a business corporation today. Each mayor and party secretary has objectives relating to investment, output and growth, which are aligned to national goals. Those who exceed their goals rise quickly. The main problem in running a country as a business is that many people get left out.

India, on the other hand, can only manage itself by accommodating vocal and varied interest groups in its salad bowl. This leads to a million negotiations daily and we call this system ‘democracy’. It slows us down – we take five years to build a highway versus one in China. Those who are disgruntled go to court. But our politicians are forced to worry about abuses of human rights, whereas my search on Google on ‘human rights abuses in China’ yielded 47.8 million entries in 13 seconds! Democracies have a safety valve – it allows the disgruntled to let off steam before slowly co-opting them.

Both India and China have accepted the capitalist road to prosperity. But capitalism is more comfortable in a democracy, which fosters entrepreneurs naturally. A state enterprise can never be as innovative or nimble and this is why the Chinese envy some of our private companies.

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Democracy respects property rights. As both nations urbanize, peasants in India are able to sell or borrow against their land, but the Chinese peasants are at the mercy of local party bosses.

Because India has the rule of law, entrepreneurs can enforce contracts. If someone takes away your property in China, you have no recourse. Hence, it is the party bosses who are accumulating wealth in China. The rule of law slows us down but it also protects us (and our environment, as the NGOs have discovered).

We take freedom for granted in India but it was not always so. When General Reginald Dyer opened fire in 1919 in Jallianwala Bagh killing 379 people, Indians realised they could only have dignity when they were free from British rule. The massacre at Tiananmen Square in 1989, where 300 students were killed, was China’s Jallianwala Bagh. China today may have become richer than India but the poorest Chinese yearn for the same freedom.

Because the Indian state is inefficient, millions of entrepreneurs have stepped into the vacuum.

When government schools fail, people start private schools in the slums, and the result is millions of ‘slumdog millionaires’. You cannot do this in China. Our free society forces us to solve our own problems, making us self-reliant. Hence, the Indian way is likely to be more enduring because the people have scripted India’s success while China’s state has crafted its success. This worries China’s leaders who ask, if India can become the world’s second fastest economy despite the state, what will happen when the Indian state begins to perform?

India’s path may be slower but it is surer, and the Indian way of life is also more likely to survive.

This is why when I am reborn I would prefer it to be in India.

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Three Things The West Can Learn From India Prem Shankar Jha

Prem Shankar Jha is a well known journalist based in New Delhi, India. He mainly writes about politics and economics in India with a focus on globalization. His analytical and honestly balanced writings gave him more than once a hard time to survive in crucial positions within India’s newspaper landscape. In 1990 he served as the information advisor to the Prime Minister of India, V.P. Singh.

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One: Patience.

Huge countries like India take time to change. And the change has to come from within. You cannot impose change from the outside. Today the West claims it is “building” democracies in all kinds of countries. But what it actually does is first destroy the country and then try to build democracy upon the ashes. This does NOT work. Take a look around. Look at Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya ... where in any of these countries has democracy taken root?

If India is a model of anything at all it’s a model of how the world can, and indeed should, be configured in the era of the post-nation state. India has more than a score of large ethnic groups and hundreds of smaller ones based on tribe, race and religion, but has still succeeded in welding them together into a single country. It has done so through accommodation not subjugation, through assimilation, not repression. It has contained five major ethnic insurgencies by offering the insurgents the alternative of governing themselves as a part of a multi-ethnic democracy.

India is one of the most gigantic and complex countries in the world. It faces severe problems and is managing to overcome them. But all this takes time. The time span in which we expect change now – particularly in the Internet age – is a time span that just doesn’t make any sense, for it is far too short for human beings to understand and adjust to the changes that are affecting them.

This means that the West should not make a hypothetical best the enemy of an attainable second best. It should accept the fact that change is best brought about by reforming existing institutions, not destroying them. Which means that if there is a government in Chile or Brazil tomorrow or in Egypt the day after tomorrow whose actions it does not approve of, the answer is NOT to bomb it on the pretext of starting afresh, but to allow internal forces to bring about the necessary correction.

Nowhere is this more necessary than in Syria. The West has made a huge mistake: Instead of ushering in democracy it is on the point of destroying a secular country and handing it over to the most extreme and bigoted of Islamists. It needs to recognize its error and stop supporting the so-called “rebels”. Unfortunately, Western media has now heavily invested in the war against Assad which will make any change of policy very difficult. In fact relentless media coverage of government action has created a kind of global populism in which governments are no longer allowed to admit that they too are human and can make mistakes. This is precisely the type of ‘democracy’ that Aristotle warned against in his treatise on Politics two thousand years ago.

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Two: Humility.

We need to learn that we don’t have all the answers. As someone who has spent his entire life trying to understand his country, I readily admit that I still do not have the answers to its problems. I have spent my entire life worrying about things that are going wrong, but India has never ceased to surprise me. For every now and then something happens that reminds me of the innate resilience of the country and gives me renewed hope for the future. By and large the balance has remained on the side of hope rather than despair.

Three: Empowerment of the Poor.

Our government talks incessantly about inclusive growth – growth that benefits the poor and not only the rich. But its definition of inclusivity is entirely economic and entirely paternal. It believes in giving economic handouts, not making the poor capable of standing on their own feet. It creates entitlements for the poor through legislation but does not give them the power to claim them. The poor of India don’t need largesse; what they need is empowerment. Education is one such way to empowerment. Technology can make the process of social transition itself much smoother. The poor need to be made stakeholders in development. Today they are its victims.

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“Lane driving is seen as an odd, foreign practice.

The result is gridlock.”

2008: Dehli’s ring road had reached capacity with 110,000 vehicles a day.

2011: 250,000 And only 20% of the people in Delhi own a car.

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A Story of Chaos and Love Interview with Lakshmi Pratury

by Ulrike Reinhard

Lakshmi Pratury, curator and host of INKtalks, is always wearing the most beautiful saris – wonderful materials in even more wonderful colors. I’d say Lakshmi is made for saris. But besides her sense for beauty, materials and colors she also has a good sense for business. She started her career in California and then returned to India to “package” her homeland in stories and tell them to the world.

In February 2013 I spoke with Lakshmi at the One Globe conference in Delhi.

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What is your understanding of “WE” and how has it changed since the rise of the Internet.

In a strange way my return to India has started with the possibility of networking.

I’ve been away since 1983. In 2001 – when I first came back – I saw a great potential of how we can educate the next generation through the possibilities of the Internet.

For me it was not about teaching someone how to program or how to do other things. It was much more about giving them access to the tools and connecting them. The education that comes along with it is absolutely amazing.

India in general is a very connected culture.

We have cousins and second and third cousins and grandparents – and they are all close! So we each are a node, we are not an isolated point. We are connected with each other – and as a family we are like a hub with a lot of things plugged into us.

So as a culture we Indians are very connected. It’s in our DNA.

If you can teach people the possibility of connectedness through networking – I think this will become the greatest source of education.

And the recipients will get educated in the true sense of the word.

What does “WE” mean for you personally?

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You know I have been raised by a whole group of people. My father was my primary parent but my grand parents lived with us, my sister, my sister’s husband’s mother who always remembered my favorite dishes and made it for me. I am used to life containing many, many people who contribute different things. My sense of how generous someone could be comes from my sister’s mother-in-law who herself had 9 children but treated me – when I came to her village – just like them or even better.

All quietly. Without ever complaining.

Similarly each and every value I have originates from a different person who happened to be around me – not just one parent! That was my experience of being a child in India.

So to me, having moved back to India is the greatest thing that I can offer my child.

I have a nine year old boy. Raising a child is never about “I”. “I” am not raising my child. It’s “we” – the help we have at home, the people who drive us, the neighbors who take care of my son when I am late, his home teacher who lives with us and takes care of his homework, my husband and his sister, my sister – all of whom keep coming and going.

It’s amazing to have a different cast of characters being involved in doing anything you want to do. The thing you get used to in India is that you just can’t do whatever you want and forget about everybody else. You always have to take others’ inputs into account and make adjustments along the way. Otherwise you would be stuck with your own thing. Only effective for you. But if you really want to make an im-

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pact in India, you have to take into consideration multiple points of view and allow many people to participate. And this means you need to give up control ...

So I see myself as a product of “WE” and I consider myself as one part in a bigger “WE”.

What makes India India?

All the things that actually drive you crazy when you first come to India – all these things are the strength of India. Let me just mention three of them – but there are like twenty or so.

The first thing is: India is so chaotic. Chaos originated in India. Be it traffic, or be it a meeting, or be it the background of a person – no matter what it is, it’s chaotic.

It’s not at all a very clean process by which things come to you. But what I’ve learnt is: when you live with a billion people, with different capabilities, different economic backgrounds etc. – you cannot have one system that fits all.

So the chaos that you see is not really chaos.

It’s different systems that are there for different sets of people.

And once you figure that out – like you do in chaos theory – you start seeing the patterns. But if you don’t understand that there are really fifty patterns to solve one problem, you definitely will be frustrated. So the first thing is – what seems chaotic actually has an order.

The second thing is: there is no clear distinction between work and home. Completely different from America. You start work at 8 or at 9 am and you finish at 6 or 7 pm. Very clear. Very precise. Hardly any overlap. So let me give you an example. When I first started my company in India, it drove me nuts that people won’t show up at 9 am. There was always a reason NOT to be on time. I couldn’t understand it at the beginning. But then, I sat down and thought: traffic is very unpredictable, all it takes is one accident in the middle of the road and you are stuck for hours. Many people are depending on public transportation, they don’t have a car and they come from 2 or 3 hours away – again hard to predict what might happen.

So you really have to bake in all these variables when you expect people to be on time! 9 am sharp!

And then there is one more thing which adds to this: there is also no separation between work and emotion. One of my colleagues was late one day and I asked her why. “You know,” she said, “my neighbor fell down and I had to take him to the doctor.” I replied: “You must have neighbors who don’t go to work, who are at home.

Why didn’t you ask them to take care of him?” She looked at me with just a blank expression on her face, saying: “It didn’t even occur to me that I wouldn’t take care of him!”! For her, it was not about “I have to go to work; so I need to find somebody else to help”. It was in her DNA: if my neighbor falls down, my first priority is to take him to hospital.

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I understood that if there had been something urgent at work – like if she had to be here for a certain event at a certain time, then her priorities would have changed.

Since that wasn’t the case it was O.K. for her to mix the personal time with the work time.

But what became obvious to me and what I’ve learnt out of this is that I think we can’t forget our civic duty as human beings simply because we have to get to work at a certain time. We don’t question any more, “do I really need to be there at that time?”

So you really end up mixing home and work a lot. On the other hand the same person is at home from 6-9 am at her computer doing work. So you have to allow this flexibility – otherwise it won’t work. That’s the second thing.

And the third thing in my eyes that makes India India is the way they deal with their children. I have to say: I absolutely love it. Again, it’s one of the things that drove me nuts in the US. We’ve had this sort of “play date” thing. If my child wanted to play with somebody of his own age, I had to call the mother of the other child and make an appointment – so that they can play on Saturday between 12 and 1 pm for an hour before we rush them off to all the other classes we’ve arranged. We were pretty busy chauffeuring them around.

But here in India I feel there is a certain freedom for the child to go and play in the neighbor’s house and for their kids to come over. The doors are always open. I really feel that what seems to be a lack of privacy in some ways – anybody can show up at any time at your home – is actually really great. It gives your child a space to be free instead of everything being time-tabled.

These are just three things that come immediately to my mind and which used to drive me nuts – but meanwhile I’ve learnt to see actually the wisdom in them. And I am O.K. with it.

Why did you return to India?

I co-hosted with Chris Anderson. The plan was that I would co-host the event and then go back to the US. But then I started hearing all the stories and I said “WOW!!!

There is so much of India that needs to be communicated – why don’t we do it through stories?“. The “Idea of India” has never been communicated in its entirety.

It’s a sort of a “Blind Man and the Elephant” story. Depending on what aspect of the elephant the blind man touches, he says that’s how the elephant looks: it’s round and stout, it’s long and wavy, it’s thin and long – but no one has a full picture. I feel India is a bit like that. Most people have seen only one aspect of it.

But I wanted to create a platform from which we could showcase all these different aspects of India. There are so many. And storytelling is our heritage, it’s in our DNA. Our mythology is based on that. Our learning in our early age was based on storytelling. We haven’t completely lost it but we are losing it more and more. I feel it’s time we grab it and get back to storytelling and tell our stories so that the rest of the world can know what’s happening here.

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Looking at TED India, or INKtalks, as it is called – it’s a very elitist thing.

I am not saying this is bad … but I wonder how can we get the stories out there to the one billion people who can’t afford to attend INKtalks?

This is another concept about which I have changed my mind completely since coming back to India. Ironically, scale is NOT everything. The key is leverage. Can I find 300 people who really matter and influence the rest? Because they can do much more with their resources than I can on my own. It’s very unrealistic in my mind – even to think – that I can affect a billion people directly. So one leverage point is the 300 people whom we invite. Yes, we are elitist about whom we invite because we want them not just to have money but also have the capacity to impact the world. So, one is to leverage through people.

The second is to create a platform like inktalks.com where people can come and access information in an easy way and share in whatever way they want. If people watch these stories and are inspired by them – what they do with them is up to them. When eventually broadband comes to every household – and we have a government program working on this, though I don’t know how long it will take – then we need to be there with amazing content that really inspires people. If we achieve this then I think we’ve done our job!

So I feel the way you scale is not by trying to reach out to everybody but by creating platforms and groups of people that can take it to many people in an easy way.

We are in Delhi today.

I imagine Bangalore is in many ways pretty much the same. The cities are full of tension. You see the past, the present and the future.

You see unbelievable poverty on the one hand and sheer luxury on the other. Is this one of the secrets of India – living with and in these contradictions and tensions, and surviving all of them?

I think there are two things about India.

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Every possible disease, every possible negative thing in the world, every possible problem in the world, AND every possible opportunity in the world and every possible positive point in the world – it’s there!

All at the same time. So if you can make something work here, you can make it work anywhere.

And the second thing is: India is unforgiving in what it accepts! You can’t escape anything here. Birth, death, good, bad – they are all in your face. It’s not like, O.K. there is this one neighborhood in the town where all the poor people live. If you never go there you will never get to see it. It’s not like that. No. Even when you live in the most posh place you see abject poverty. So you cannot escape the realities of life in India.

It’s very uncomfortable for a lot of people – but that’s just the way it is. So it’s very unforgiving in that sense. It’s not putting any false layers and shovelling things under the carpet – the whole floor is bare. I think that is in fact the strength of India. You can’t escape it, you are forced to deal with it in a way that is acceptable for everyone. You have a great place where you can experiment, and at the same time it forces you to be honest with yourself, because – and I am repeating myself – you cannot escape. You have to live with it!

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India has been growing fast during the last 15 years.

For the first time there is something like a middleclass, 300 million people, statistics say. Still, there is a billion left behind.

How do you deal with it?

You know, for me this whole thing of “someone needs to take care of it” – I think it will go away soon. Because of two reasons: the first reason is the post-1991 generation in India. People who were born when the country was at its upswing, at its economic upturn. The way they think of what they can do is very different than what the previous generation thought. This generation is a truly free generation.

They are not looking for someone else to solve a problem. It’s them who do the things! A little bit at a time, but each of them is doing something. And they are about 500 million people! So just imagine what they are capable of doing! That’s one thing which gives me a lot of hope.

The second reason is: Broadband! It will come – sooner or later – to every Indian household. And with it comes the ability to connect, and to see the world! These young people will figure out what to do with it. India has always been and still is a very entrepreneurial country. And it’s a country where individual ownership is taken with pride. So just as there is a middle class, I think there are going to be a middle-class and lower middle-class companies which will come that will take care of me and ten others in my neighborhood.

So I am very hopeful for India 50 years from now. By then, the people who were born after 1991 are really the ones running the country. I think we’ll see a huge shift.

But the key is – and I can’t emphasize this enough – that the current parents should NOT impose on the children the rules that were imposed on them. It’s a scary ride, because after all I don’t understand how my child is learning. He’s definitely not learning the way I have learnt. But I have to give him the benefit of the doubt and say that as long as I teach him the right values at home – not to harm somebody, not to take drugs, the basic stuff – that’s all I can teach. The rest I have to let him learn the way he wants.

So it is indeed a scary ride for the current generation of parents – it is extremely important for them NOT to impose their rules on their children!

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46.9% have latrine facilities.

49.8% go for open defecation.

3.2% use public toilets.

67% own cell phones!

Source: UN census for 2011; based on India’s 24.66 crore households

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360° Interview with Mehmood Khan

by Ulrike Reinhard

Mehmood Khan quit his high-flying global career to focus fully on transforming his poor village in Haryana: Nai Nangla.

Khan is an unlikely son of the village. Unlike his peers who remained trapped in the village, he escaped – as he puts it – and led a life that people in Nai Nangla can’t even dream about. He got a good education, including an MBA from IIM-Ahmedabad, and worked for Unilever across the world. He launched Unilever’s brands in Cambodia, Mongolia, Vietnam and Laos before becoming the head of innovation at the company’s London headquarters.

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What does social entrepreneurship mean?

I define it as follows: you are working on ideas for the benefit of the society and you are bringing a transformational change. The heart of the idea is the well being of the society. And obviously you are trying to do it in a viable manner that it becomes self sustainable. It needs to stand on its own legs.

This is how the entire social entrepreneurship movement is thinking across the world in the 21st century.

Why rural India?

If you look at the global issues, the maximum poverty in terms of magnitude and numbers is in India. Rural India has 700.000 villages. On a concentrated basis I am working in 1.200 villages south of Delhi in the states of Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. But my network now is much bigger – we are working in Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Gujarat, Maharashtra and with you, if we start working together, in Madhya Pradesh. We are creating a network of people who are bringing transformation to rural India.

And we say if we can address the poverty in India than we are addressing half of the global problems because half of the global poverty is in India.

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What is key when you go into a village to start the transformation process?

Key for me is bringing hope to the hopeless. If you look at India’s development in the last 66 years it’s the rural India which has been neglected. In what ever way you want to take: education, adoption of technologies, sharing resources – it’s rural India which has been deprived.

One of the major reasons for this is that migration is and always was a one way traffic. The rural talent has come to urban India and rural India has been left behind.

Whatever is happening in enterprises or with technologies – it all begins with urban India and rural India is sort of left out. But on the other hand India’s resources have been very heavily consumed by urban India and rural India – where they all come from – didn’t benefit. I’ll give you an example: The school where I was educated 40+ years ago had science – now the school is no longer teaching science.

There was abundance of water in the area when I was born, now there is a serious scarcity of water. And ultimately the poverty is very high because people were not educated, they were not capable to make a daily living and as a result they have been left behind. And what they’ve done is they produced more children – so the poverty has even magnified.

Today when we go into the villages we ask: Why has this poverty happened? Why is here no hope? And we try to give hope to all these people by bringing education, by bringing ideas, by bringing technology, by bringing resources which have sort of gone the other way.

It’s all about to discover and encourage the entrepreneurial spirit of the people, creating in them that spirit of entrepreneurship. And this only happens by education, by building capabilities, showing them what is possible. That is what we go through in the process when we go into a village.

Transformation is a process – as you say.

And it usually takes time.

What I see in Madhya Pradesh, where I am based, is that peoples’ daily problem is somehow to survive.

How can you attract them, encourage them to your ideas?

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First and foremost to the common people you have to talk in their own language.

As you said they have to make their daily living, right? You need bread, you need to eat to survive, you need to drink water, you need to wear clothes, you need to have a roof over your head – these are daily things they struggle with. You have to address them in their language. Not in jargon. Their daily language is this: For your daily living it’s not only just bread, eating and so on – you also need to develop your brain, meaning you need to learn reading and writing. And this needs to become part of their daily living. Education is a must. And that’s the first thing we address.

Today, if you go around in rural India, 98% of the children in the age range from 6-14 are in schools. That is a major breakthrough that we’ve had in the last 5-7 years.

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But is it really like this?

Now you are asking for the quality of education.

What I was saying is the first state: they are reading and writing. The 6-14 years old go to school – they can read a bit, they can sign their signatures. They become literate.

So the next big challenge is the quality part of it – what does this literacy mean in their daily lives?

And this is how we address it: the capabilities of each individual are on a different level. Some children finished school after grade 5, others after grade 8. Or take the girls: In the areas where we are working 70% of girls drop out after the 5th grad.

The moment they reach puberty they have different needs and schools simply don’t provide them: they don’t have water, they don’t have toilets, they don’t have private spaces – and in the process the girls feel shy and they drop out.

We are trying to focus on these drop outs. They do need work to make their living as well. So within the work we are saying: start embracing technology, start doing things which will give more value than just the usual routine of a daily wage earner.

This is how entrepreneurship develops. We use their language and tell them what entrepreneurship means – for example: if you start using solar power you will have a sustainable source of energy. Or if you start raising animals scientifically then not only you will get more milk, your animal will also give you gas. Then you turn that gas into compost and through worms you make it a better compost and then you take the compost to your field and your field itself will be re-energized and it will become more productive.

We inject ideas into their daily routines that their lives start to become more scientific and then they suddenly realize: Oh! For my labour, for my work I am magnifying the value.

And that is the sort of the process we go through on various levels. With simply daily routines you start transforming their lives.

How open are they to new ideas – no matter how close they are to their daily lives.

They very often simply stuck within their routines and don’t seem to be ready to accept or try out new ideas.

Absolutely. This is why the technology we bring in has to be really smart. People in rural India want a state of the art technology. So for example everybody embraced mobile technology. Why? Because it is handy. It is clean technology, it has connected to them straight away. Mobile technology is the biggest growing market in rural India.

But there are other examples out there where technology is very poor – then of course people won’t accept it, let alone use it.

The way we have done it in the villages is we’ve brought in German machines, Japanese machines and we were showing them how they can make state of the art manufacturing clothes in the villages and many other things.

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But making clothes is one thing. There also needs to be a market for the products as well, doesn’t it?

Yes, absolutely!

What you are bringin up is a very right thing. Ultimately technology alone as an option is not sufficient. You need to get one step further – you want technology that produces products and services which have a use, which can be sold. You have to answer the question: Is there a ready market?

Ultimately it is a 360 degree cycle you have to create for the enterprise.

For an entrepreneur the ideas which are leading them to make goods and services are ultimately about the question: Have you closed the circle?

Have you connected your products and services to the end market?

And this is what we are working on: to close these loops completely – to connect it to the end consumer market. To create this 360 degree. So wether it’s an technology idea or wether it is an idea of the clothing manufacturing, whether it is an idea on the water or wether it is solar energy – for each of these ideas this loop needs to be closed. And interestingly with many things you can close the loop in the villages itself. Take solar energy. You can generate the energy in the village and you can consume it in the village. In the bio gas area you probably also can close the loop within the village. But for the garment industry you have to connect with urban structures, the supermarkets and others to close the loop. Here we provide help as well and we try to connect them with the markets.

Another missing link in all of that is finance. These people will need money. Right now we are busy creating that loop. We are setting up a banking network around all of that. I do this with one of my peers from the Alma Mater. He has created what you can call a one stop world.

Our entire work here is all about new management methods. It’s about imaging a world how India might look like. It’s experimenting, co-creation, collaboration.

Co-creation is done by the villagers themselves. Collaboration takes place with the expertise that comes from technology providers or domain experts in any kind of field.

You know, we live in the 21st century and I do believe that a single person or a single village or a single company or a single organizer can not do it.

But all together we can do it!

So it is the network kind of thing …

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Networking is part of the building process as I just described.

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It seems to me that what you are saying is basically we have to walk down two paths: one is education and the other one is making (social) entrepreneurship sustainable. Do you see any way to combine these two?

It’s one!

You see – in my mind education is a social business. Bringing technology is social business. Bringing banking is social business, bringing market linkage is a social business. In my definition of a social enterprise ultimately everything is about creating a balance where everybody gets a fair deal.

So when we take the example education: When the child is not being educated properly that school will close down – sooner or later. Because why should a parent send a child to a school if the school is not delivering value? Even in rural areas I think this will happen. I believe if government schools don’t provide valuable education they will die!

Why do I say so? The place I am sitting right now, in this state (Haryana), more than 50% of the children go to private schools. The government schools are irrelevant for these people. They don’t produce value – so they will be kicked out of the system.

You can even take this on the level of government. A government which is not delivering value has to be replaced. And this is what happens in a democratic system – a government which is not delivering value will be out-voted by the people.

The joy of democracy is that ultimately it balances itself out – because in democracy, people make the choice.

So you do have a deep trust and belief in India’s democracy?

How can we scale this all over India? We need to include more than 900 million people! Can we scale at all?

Not only in India’s democracy. In democracy in general.

Democracy is the right solution to societies problems.

Even for the biggest most complex problem societies will face, society itself will find the solution.

Yes we can!

India will be a wonderful story in the next 20, 30 years.

I generally believe in it.

What will happen in India?

It only happened in the last 5, 6 years – suddenly there is an almost universal literacy coming to India. This has not happened in India’s previous history. So literacy itself is a new phenomena. And literacy going along with our demographic structure – all these youngsters armed with education they will bring change. If they become capable of doing of what I earlier explained, if they understand the entrepreneurial idea – then India starts taking off.

India will be an unstoppable story.

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It is only February and about 40 wells have dried up already.

We don’t know what we will do in mid-summer.

Source: Times of India 2013-02-15

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The WE of the Soul and the Mind Interview with Brijenrdra Singh (Mamaji)

by Ulrike Reinhard

Brijendra Singh is – among many other things – a tour guide in Khajuraho. Everybody there calls him “Mamaji”. He has a deep knowledge of Indian’s mythology and during his lectures/tours on the famous Khajuraho temples he easily links nature, culture and where it all comes from. He gives deep insights into India’s society.

When I first saw him I was blown away by the beauty of his look (eyes) and hands.

I really enjoyed the conversations we’ve had – (not only) Khajuraho needs many more of him!

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Khajuraho – One with Culture and Nature To feel and understand the real Khajuraho – you have to feel the culture and you have to feel the nature.

I have noticed when you go to the temple complex that the tourists feel so comfortable there, they feel so peaceful, they feel like this place is charged – full of positive energy. It’s a pollution free place. At Khajuraho we don’t have that pressure that you feel in a big cosmopolitan city or in a huge tourist destination. Reaching Khajuraho, you feel like trying to harmonize nature and culture. You are trying to feel that you are a part of nature.

When you read about Khajuraho you find out that this is the oldest volcanic site of the Indian subcontinent. The great Himalayas and the holy river Ganga – without talking about all of them we cannot glorify our culture, a culture which has developed from agriculture. You’ll find people in adverse conditions around Khajuraho, struggling with the hard rocks and trying to grow enough food for their livelihood by breaking these rocks, by transforming this angulate land into small fields and by using organic manure. But since the modern age has introduced chemical fertilizer they are losing the fertility of their land, they are no longer getting the return for what they deserve. Why? Chemical fertilizer, modern agriculture is very expensive. In the past they were doing agriculture with their own natural resources. By doing so they were growing more healthy food, they were maintaining their economy better and if any natural disaster would have come they could have hold their grains for at least two years. They used to have such a variety of food grains around here – you could keep them 100 years and they won’t spoil. This track we are losing! With these modern systems we are developing a new concept of agriculture. A concept which isn’t one with nature, which isn't one with our culture. So we become unable to understand our culture – we are losing the seed of creative art.

These temples are reduced to the source of making money – and sadly people are not trying to seek to in them any knowledge. Me being a tour guide and having the opportunity to meet many foreigners – I feel that I have to have a deep knowledge of our Indian history and culture. Only then I can give a proper answer to all the questions. I linked my lectures about the temples to the day to day life of the people so that tourists could understand these temples in a better way. These temples were built 1200 years ago. They are religious monuments, they are holy temples but they are alsoa socio-economic documentation of their time. They document how people lived 1200 years ago – Khajuraho shows such a sophisticated lifestyle, such a great culture, such a great set of human values and such a purity in mind to understand god, to understand the creation of life and to understand sex. A great balance of day-to-day life, a celebration of the interrealtion between agriculture and culture. Simply wonderful.

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Western Temples, Khajuraho

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Happiness When we think about our culture, our mythology and our daily lives one thing becomes very obvious: happiness comes from the mind, not from material things. You can be happy with limited things but you can never be happy with unlimited things – because there is no end of material things. There is a happiness which derives from your limited needs and from time to time you can enjoy the liberty of “a little extra”. But if you yield to temptation and become greedy you are losing the happiness in your life. So when life goes off the track from your own end, then what will be the purpose of your life?

Mahatma Gandhi was always trying to tell the young generation: The time will come when you will have your own independence, the time will come when you will control your own administration – that will be the true democracy. But that democracy will also give you a duty, liability and loyalty. And if you don't behave properly, if you can’t control your temptations – then you will be corrupted very soon. And that’s exactly what we are facing today.

The same thing happens in mythology. It gives us such a deep meaning and provides symbolic expressions that even a layman can understand. How did life evolve? It emerged from millions of years of evolution from nature. We are powered by nature. Even as a challenge of survival you could see the evolution of life: fish, turtle, wild boar – the mythological stories of the defending carnations of Vishnu will lead us. So if we withdraw from nature, if we lose our roots in nature we cannot remain in happiness.

Every form of life – whether it's a life form with one sense like the single cellular amoeba or the life form ofthe most perfect creation of nature, the human, with all five senses – every form of life has got its own purpose and needs. So if we just live according to nature, if we grow the kind of vegetables and fruits according to the system of nature – then we will face no problems. But the moment we want to eat tomatoes all year round our natural balance will be disturbed. You have to grow them in adverse conditions. To make them more expensive and to give them a more shiny look you have to give them extra vitamins. Anything which is growing unnatural – it might fulfill your temptation but it will never give you the “real taste”. But when you harmonize with nature and be happy which what nature has to provide – then you will maintain your appetite and it will balance the metabolism of your food system. It will never create any kind of toxin. You live healthy.

And I want to pass on this tremendous inspiration I get from these temples to all my guests.

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Caste and class In the very beginning – in the early texts of our holy Hindu culture – I am feeling that there was a class system, not a caste system. Religion these days was no institution – it was a continuous flow of philosophy. People were believing what is true is absolute. And what is absolute that’s true. They became supplemental of each other. It’s a knowledge. And knowledge should be dynamic. Because what is static is dying and what is dynamic that is alive.

So when this whole system of philosophy from Vedic age was flowing I think there was no discrimination among different levels of people. According to the personal intellectual level and according to the individual working capacity – there was a harmony and even a mixture between every class of society. Like the priest class, like the warrior class, like the business class and like the agricultural labour class.

But later on the differentiation became strictly by birth. And this was the moment when the bad influence of the caste system started and today we still see the consequences of it. The differentiation by birth was a very selfish motif. It came out of insecurity to protect the own generation.

Rules and regulations were imposed to maintain the superior status of the higher caste in the society. And this was only possible by the exploitation of others. The social harmony was disturbed and the balance within society totally disappeared.

Religion actually supported this process. Because religion always taught absolute purity. Religion was trying to justify what is wrong and what is right, what is good and what is bad. They were trying to make us understand that god loves purity. And they totally forgot that the purity of the heart, soul and mind is much more important than the physical purity of a caste.

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Responsibility There is a responsibility in all of us which one cannot force.

Our great ancestors used to tell us: Every soul is an independent soul and every soul has its right to explore its own truth. Today we are going far away from the truth. We are searching happiness which is not in the truth. The real happiness and the real truth is when you are sharing your happiness. This is our responsibility. If we can pass on this understanding of responsibility to the next generation then they will share the same feeling with their own families. And slowly, slowly it will spread.

We need a very big program of social reforming and social awareness. We are lost! We looked way too long up to the West. I was so angry 30 years ago when I was watching color-tv and seeing all these expensive goods being advertised. At the same time people couldn’t make a livelihood in the villages, they didn’t have food for the next two days. I thought it was a crime! But today our economy is much better. If the villagers are poor today it’s because they are not interested to work hard. Government is giving them tremendous amount of money – what do they do? They are looking for employees. They don’t want to work themselves. What happens? They are losing their physical strength, their stamina and they become totally dependent on the government and the social system from which they get everything for free. This tendency which is coming in a form of social help for the poor – it’s actually harming them! We need to become aware of this!

So it is very important to educate the uneducated and give them the feeling of responsibility that they need to to take care of themselves in order to develop and explore their own truth and soul.

I always ask them: How can you eat your meal without having worked at least for a couple of hours? Why do you prefer working for 150 or 200 INR for someone else instead of working in your own fields and – if needed – take then an additional paid job? First you grow, do your own stuff and when you do have extra time go and earn money somewhere else. That kind of management we need. That is what the people need to understand.

Sharing your happiness means don’t compete.

Enable others. Then all become better.

I know that is very easy to talk, isn’t it?

But if you have a real feeling, nothing is impossible!

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Be the Change you Want to See! Anshul Aggarwal

Anshul Aggarwal is a Mechatronics Engineer by education, passionate about storytelling.

He loves traveling and breaking into random music sessions.

He he also heads Design for Change.

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In 2009 six 11-year-old girls in rural Rajasthan, fought against their village and managed to stop sixteen child marriages. In 2012 a group of 12-year-old kids in Mexico constructed a civic square in their school compound to ensure that the students participate in the traditional annual school march. It worked out!

These are just two stories among many where children use their creative energy and imagination to drive the change they want to see.

Since 2009 children from over 35 countries have been implementing their ideas to change what bothers them by using four simple steps: “Feel, Imagine, Do and Share”. These children have the biggest power to make change possible, the power of I CAN. And then, all of a sudden, they can ...

Children in Taiwan leading the Change

Children from Western District Morocco say I CAN!

Kiran Bir Sethi, a designer turned into an educator and founder of Riverside School in Ahmedabad, India, founded “Design for Change” (DFC) in 2009. In its first year, DFC reached out to more than 30,000 schools all over India. The movement spread like wild fire after Kiran’s TED talk in December 2009. The meanwhile global “I CAN movement” reaches 25 million+ children every year and inspires them to change things that bother them into things which become valuable for them – with their own ideas. DFC in its core is open source. It provides toolkits and resource materials in more than 15 Indian and 10 foreign languages. It uses the concept of design thinking (the feel, imagine, do, share process) in workshops for schools and teacher training sessions.

Each year schools send in their stories of change for the annual school challenge. The winners are spotlighted and celebrated at the global “Be The Change Conference” in India. The first conference of its kind took place in Ahmedabad in September 2012. Children from eighteen countries came together to share their stories of change. The conference also brought together renowned international artistes, performers and design thinkers to endorse the power of children and their stories.

Children in Mexico participate in the DFC School Challenge 2010

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To move DFC to its next level it publishes these stories in books, comics and short movies – and these books are now going back to the schools.

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DFC also conducts an annual survey with the participating schools.

Here are some interesting results:

Source: GoodWork Project , Harvard Graduate School of Education

The results show clearly that “Design for Change” helps children to develop the 21st century skills and attitudes that should be the key focus of todays' schools.

Over the last four years, children have proven that they have what it takes to imagine and to create “their future” and that they themselves can be the change they wish to see.

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A Movable Feast Connecting People through Cultural Diversity Amjad Riaz

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The speed and short period in which the Lahore Literary Festival (LLF), came to be held reminded me of the time when we were, back in the mid-nineties, part of a four member team of experts.

It was a UN mission on its way to Kuala Lumpur to talk about the fall-out effects of a liberalized trade regime in the world.

Mr. Broome and Mr. Halvorsen were respective heads of the relevant institutions in Australia and Norway, Mr. Brusick from Switzerland and me. It was early in that month the mission had begun to be assembled and only after a fortnight we were all together in Malaysia.

Overlooking the top floor of the Training Institute of Diplomacy and External Affairs, the gorgeous green spread of palm trees of the city looked splendidly exquisite in the rain. The monsoon in the Far East begins as early as January and very graciously begins to move towards the subcontinent. Fax as a means of communication had become available world-wide by then. “How did we communicate with each other prior to the facility of messaging through fax”, wondered Mr. Broome who had managed to hop over the equator on a very short notice, just as we all had done.

In a similar vein the speed of communication available now made it possible for the Literary Festival to be held in Lahore. Kenize Mourad and William Dalrymple came over from India to attend the LLT. Reading or listening to Mourad or Dalrymple gives you the intense feeling of their gigantic effort to grapple with and reach into the inexhaustible richness and complexity of what the varied cultures through history are imbued with. For centuries and even more they have been a source of inspiration in all the fields of arts reflecting the cadence, the poetry, the music, the pulse and rhythm of varying seasons and the unforgettable changing colors of the tropical sun at dusk or dawn over the waters of a lake.

The endless themes are now taking shape and are, in fact, forming part of a Facebook revolution.

According to the latest statistics available the largest number of Facebook users (160 million) are in the US, followed by India (63 million) and Brazil (62 million). With more than eight million users in Pakistan, it is at about 28 in the ranking. A natural selection of cultural and ethical values is moving gradually ahead but definitely at a fast pace. It is spreading onto a vast canvass of meaningful words and pictures. It is strengthening responsible thinking in ways that were unimaginable only a short while ago.

Where the connectivity is assisting to bridge distances and to make the cross-cultural patterns more discernible, there is also the strong current of greater recognition of regional cultures. Life of Pi, the movie, has won Oscars but it has also done an admirable job of depicting what one may say as poetry on celluloid. But then again good movies are being shot through digital imagery now. This has made possible presentation of life-like imagery which was not possible earlier. So

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what we may say now is the poetry of digital dream and imagination. It is the new phenomenon and the ever changing face and challenge of art creation which has now become attainable. The animation in the movies has been available for many decades but presently the sophistry in presenting the whole ambience of a mood is far deeper and richer. Like a continental drift it is slow but with each shift a Himalayan change it brings in the art of imagery and presentation.

In the wake of the LLT, a landmark where people and intellectuals gathered once, the Pak Tea House, was reopened in March this year after closure of many years. Way back in 1940 it opened as a place and centre of literary activities in the city. In fact the city is reminiscent of days when one could hear the great jazz concerto through live performances by Duke Ellington and his orchestra. New Shakespearean & co. would stage plays like Tempest or others in the sylvan setting of an open-air theatre.

Mohsin Hamid, Nadeem Aslam, Muneeza Shamsie and many other notables graced the occasion. Renderings of literary passages and of poetry were aptly presented to the audience but one sorely missed the absence of names like Ghalib and some other important names in the literary ďŹ eld. One strongly hopes that such writings shall come up more proliďŹ cally in future literary settings. It was, indeed, a very auspicious beginning and revival of an intellectual tradition that has been a hallmark of this milieu through all times.

Bapsi Sidhwa was also in the town. She stated that the city of 11 million people provided the geographical location of her novels. Its ambience had moulded her sensibility. Occasionally she also refers to Kipling and his writings about the city. Rudyard Kipling took massive inspiration out of his life lived in the city and it stayed with him for all his life. Born in 1940, Bapsi grew up in the environs of this city. The literary genre is becoming ever more popular in a city that has always respected communication in tones reected in traditions as well as in modernity.

Amjad Riaz is a writer, a poet and a literary critic.

His collection of poetry was published in 2002.

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The Pratham Way Interview with Madhav Chavan

Madhav Chavan is an Indian educator, social activist and social entrepreneur.

He is the co-founder and CEO of the educational non-proďŹ t foundation Pratham.

He also started the Read India campaign, which aims to teach basic reading, writing and arithmetic to underprivileged children across India.

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What is the link between education and social entrepreneurship?

Education provides new challenges and opportunities in the new era – technology, mass education on an unprecedented scale, and huge demand like never before.

True social entrepreneurs come up with new solutions.

What should “school” stand for in rural India?

And in urban India?

And why?

School remains essentially the same where ever you go. For children under 10 it should be a combination of a day-care and a place to learn basic skills of communication, reading, writing, math, and problem solving. Above 10, the school should become a place to learn social skills, negotiating, tinkering, exploring and learning to learn from the surroundings and the vast stores of accumulated knowledge now freely available.

The school system of yesterday creates barriers.

The system of tomorrow will have to be open.

One student interacting with many sources of education, knowledge, and learning.

What role should the teacher play? What is the future of teachers?

I think “professional” teachers will be more relevant for education up to the age of 10. After that individuals licensed to impart knowledge or skills will become ‘learning managers’ and mentors for broad domains of knowledge and skills or special subjects.

Teachers will be more like private tutors these days, only better evolved beyond coaching for examinations.

And in addition to that – what role does the community play?

“It takes a village to bring up a child” will be always valid. The real role of the community is not running a school but creating a larger environment for learning.

Parents and other members of the community will be more and more educated and should be able to contribute to the learning of the children. People are living longer and possibly will have to work fewer hours to make a living. Bringing up children will become more and more a focal activity for adults.

How do you measure your activities and what are the results?

We rely on three levels of assessment/evaluation. At the rigorous and very expensive Randomized Control Trial evaluations, we check with certainty what impact our interventions can make. These have invariably shown that our interventions

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have a high level of impact at a low cost. But they also point to better solutions, which evolve following such evaluations. We are getting better. Our staff measures ‘before and after’ learning levels, which tell us how the program is going. Finally, we verify what the staff has measured through random checks and also independent assessment or process audits.

Can “your” model for India be adapted for Africa, China, Southern America?

I am not sure what people mean by “our model”. Our model undergoes transformation within regions, age groups, and situations in India. What we insist on is: 1. Define and focus on learning outcomes for stages rather than ages.

2. Focus on basic learning skills at early stage rather than on textbook ‘knowledge’.

3. Teach children according to their levels to achieve basic learning levels rather than by placing them in age-grade classes.

4. Learning by doing and combining different stimuli (not just listening or reading) with activities that help children to learn difficult concepts.

5. Simplification and demystification of skills and subjects is key.

6. Usage and practice more than learning of rules or grammar is key.

7. School should not function in isolation. Village volunteers and parents should participate in helping children during and after school hours.

I suspect these basics could be useful anywhere – even in the US and UK.

You’ve obviously chosen the way to build a new/separate model of education/learning instead of improving the existing one. Why?

Our work so far has involved either extending the present system or filling in the gaps the system fails to cover. Indian schools, for instance, do not teach “reading” so this is a field in which we have introduced some innovations. Again, Indian schools still teach English in the old fashioned way while in our view some of the new learning methods now deployed are not fit for purpose. Accordingly, we are attempting to use the natural creeping in of English in daily speech as a point of departure for improving English language skills. Most of what we do can be scaled for application across India. We are convinced that such application will significantly raise the quality of education in the present school system. Furthermore, several states are now preparing to use the pointers we suggest to improve learning levels.

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Ideas Whose Time Have Come How does one describe Sugata Mitra?

An introduction by Suneeta Kulkarni

The “Hole in the Wall” project demonstrates that, even in the absence of any direct input from a teacher, an environment that stimulates curiosity can cause learning through self-instruction and peer-shared knowledge.

Sugata Mitra, who’s a professor of educational technology at Newcastle University (UK), summarizes his educational ideas as “minimally invasive education.”

At TED 2013, Sugata Mitra made a bold TED Prize wish: Help me build a place where children can explore and learn on their own – and teach one another – using resources from the worldwide cloud.

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How does one describe Sugata Mitra?

I think I can safely say he is one of the most interesting people anyone could ever come across, and I’ve known him for 50 odd years! He is full of brilliant yet simple and eminently ‘doable’ ideas. Some like the Hole-in-the Wall, Self Organized Learning Environments (SOLE), and The Granny Cloud are already well known; yet others are emerging. Perennially curious and equipped with a sense of wonder adequately laced with humour and a hearty laugh, he is able to instill the same enthusiasm in children and adults alike. It’s a joy to watch him in action and keep figuring out what else can be done.

One of the nicest things about Sugata is that he doesn’t preach. He likes being ‘in the field’ with the children, and the teachers [and people in general] and he doesn’t go around pretending to have all the answers. He tackles tough challenges head on because he enjoys it ... in the process he hopes it will change the lives of children who otherwise would have to do without learning opportunities.

He draws upon his varied academic, social and cultural interests to address issues, not just in the field of education, but also of design, and of engineering.

His ideas have great potential. Not all of these ideas work, at least not every time, nor in every setting, but bit by bit, the critical pieces are falling into place.

Over the past 14 years many of these ideas have begun to take root and people in far-flung locations, across the globe, have begun to try them out for themselves. And I remember, quite clearly, the time these same ideas were scoffed at ...

One of the key obstacles in having these ideas work in a sustained fashion is the lack of basic infrastructure in many remote locations. Fortunately, Sugata is happy to ‘let things happen’; he recognizes and accepts that some things can’t be hurried. [though he’d love to see at least ‘connectivity’ exist everywhere!]

I see so many of the lives he has touched, not just through his work, but even because the way he is as a person. It is difficult to be indifferent to him. Most people who meet him, including children, are charmed by him. And though there are some folks who are almost hostile because they think he is oversimplifying matters or making sweeping generalizations, what they fail to recognize is that he is only pointing towards key issues that can change the lives of a very large number of children. Challenge him on this. Discuss it with him. He’s game.

That’s how he is ... practical, unconventional and open.

Sure, he is vulnerable like any other human, but that doesn’t stop him from ‘getting on with it’!

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Short Q & A with Sugata Mitra Why is teaching English crucial for rural India and how does your “system” support this?

English is important for everyone today, everywhere. It is the language of the Internet. An historical accident caused by the last and biggest empire on our planet.

In India, if you speak English properly, with the right accent and mannerisms, you belong to another class. Every Indian parent knows that. Not everyone can afford what it takes to get their children into that class. The playing field is not level because the education system we use, in India and elsewhere, is a Victorian one that assumes there will be some who go to grammar schools and others who don’t.

We can level that playing field with the Internet. That is what I am trying to do.

When the field is level, the best will emerge.

So far you’ve set up seven SOLEs in rural India – self organized learning environments – only one is really working you’ve said.

Why aren’t they working – what are your assumptions of that?

SOLEs are in operation all over the world and teachers report, uniformly, that they work very well. But there is a problem. In the schools that need them the most, teachers shy away from them. I made seven in schools in disadvantaged areas of India. Not one is operational. There are many reasons given by the schools, none of them convincing. I think SOLEs don’t fit into the 19th century model of schooling, wherever it is in use. It is too alien in an era where learning is unidirectional, serious and boring.

What can the Western education systems learn from your experiments in India?

What is crawling along in India will fly in the West and, indeed, in the affluent schools of India. The message is clear: If children have wings, they will learn how to fly!

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we_school Ulrike Reinhard / Egon Zippel

Egon und Ulrike decided in March 2012 to start the we_school endeavor in Khajuraho, Madhya Pradesh. They are an unusual team – they neither fit in an expat nor in an educational start-up scheme.

They follow their intuition ‌ 81

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... and build we_school step by step – going along with their learnings.

It’s their private initiative which gives them the freedom to do exactly so. No pressure, no master plan – only small steps smartly made. None of them has ever build a school before – amateurs so to speak. But what they bring in is a huge international network, Internet expertise and lots of practical experience – the educational part is provided by members of the network who successfully run schools and who particularly deal with project and solution based learning. we_school will be a school where social, ecological and economical responsibility are smoothly combined with the traditional curriculum and where traditional values still have their place.

The first we_school in Khajuraho is designed for rural India . The concept of the school is to NOT make the students look in big cities for jobs after they finish school, therefore we embrace their environment and address the entire community.

There will be a mix of guided and self-organized learning and real life problem solving. Academia and practical applications are equally important. The kids learn rather to understand than to know, rather to collaborate and network than to work isolated and rather to practice than to write theory. New technologies will play a major role – especially when it comes to learning and assessment. It creates an environment in which kids can grow in any way they are good at.

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we_school’s first “public appearance” in Khajuraho was the implementation of two “A Hole-in-theWall Learning Stations” in June 2012. The money for the project was crowd funded.

“A Hole-in-the-Wall” It started in 1999 in Delhi. It was initiated by Sugata Mitra – meanwhile a well-known educational researcher and TED prize winner 2013.

Today you’ll find these red and yellow colored computers all over India. They are accessible for all kids – free of charge. More than 500 learning programs (English and Hindi) including educational games – for all age groups – are provided.

They run 7 days a week – from sunrise to sundown. The monitoring tells us that the computers are used hardly without any break and all age groups are involved.

The idea behind it: Teaching can start even without teachers: kids are smart enough to teach themselves and their peers – if they have the opportunity. That’s exactly what Yogesh Sen, 14 year old student, says: “I can pass my knowledge on to the smaller children!” Yogesh is going to a private secondary school in Khajuraho.

The principal of the Government School – where we implemented the stations – wasn’t a real friend of the project at the beginning, but meanwhile he is very proud that “the hole is in his wall” and he clearly sees the benefits. Ideally the learning programs will enter the Government School classrooms and become a lively part of the daily instruction – with teachers as collaborating partners. Bringing these programs into classrooms would also ensure that girls use them and the computers, which just doesn’t happen at the Learning Station outside the school. (please see interview with Sugata Mitra in this magazine, p. 76) 85

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The we_labs are our next important step towards we_school. Since we_labs are centrally located in Khajuraho – just across the street from the “A Hole in the Wall” computers – we expect that through mouth-to-mouth propaganda people will quickly know that we_labs exist.

Work started in March 2013. The place will combine an Internet working space with a library, a screening room for videos, a lab in which things can be build (hacker space) and a pretty big outdoor space for evening classes and art performances. A place where people can learn to be present online, find a space to exchange ideas, collaborate and prototype, find ways to express their civil rights and come together to watch educational and ‘recreational’ videos. The moment we manage to bring students, parents (especially mothers) and local businesses together, the hub can also be thought of as an incubator for small entrepreneurs.

But the most vital point is that the hub exposes the community via its (young) people to the presence of a new, ‘decentralized’ learning facility. Learning understood as a self-organized process, as something what I do to myself and for what I am responsible for – in contrary to education which is commonly understood as something which is done to me. A facility where ideas turn into action, where imagination and creativity turn into prototypes and sharing knowledge is taken for granted.

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Ulrike asking Egon Egon Zippel was born 1960 in Rumania. When the dictator Ceauşescu came to power in 1965, his parents decided it’s time to leave Rumania and move to Heidelberg, Germany. For the past 15 years Egon has been living in New York City. He has a diversified background that integrates visual arts, journalism, digital environment, trend research and production. He likes to follow his ideas and enjoys working with different people on different projects.

He believes in destiny and works with chance (and knows that this is a contradiction).

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What made you join we_school?

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You, being an artist, what can you contribute to we_school?

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In a country where the highest goal of a student is to get a government job or a technical degree, how do you think the average Indian student could benefit from art lessons? Would they be helpful and if so, in what ways?

What would an art session look like?

> Curiosity and the chance to start something completely new. To learn new things, to leave my comfort zone [and, hey, did I ever], to have new experiences and to change my life. All very selfish reasons, really. Remember that email I sent you asking if you had any upcoming projects I could participate in? A few weeks later you wrote me about the we_school project. And BAM-there it was. An opportunity. I think I felt a certain obligation towards the mighty mysterious forces to explore this opportunity. > I can offer a different approach to problem solving and interaction. One that is not always short-sighted, looking for the quick fix or driven purely by profit. > Well “ART” is a vehicle that encourages one to look at objects, situations and constellations in a different or new way. So an “artistic approach” could be applied to many fields, including but not limited to, engineering, banking, computing, cooking etc... In other words, art-lessons could enable a student to develop his or her creativity and to feel free to do something that’s fun without any concern for an immediate practical use. Art and creativity is the underlying force that propels mankind from one discovery to the next. Picture this: A young Homo Heidelbergensis being scolded because he is not out with the other Heidelbergensis men hunting mammoths. Instead he decides to twiddle some grass together. A seeming waste of time to his tribe until they realize he has just invented the first fabric. So basically, art lessons could make you see or do something completely new in the ordinary.

(Visual) art lessons would start with the observation and evaluation of each participant. Then we could start with observing our environment and developing ideas about what could be created. For example, we could collect plastic trash and use it to make a big “mosaic” on the wall of the community center, possibly sorted by color. Or each student could tell his story, let’s say for a month, in a “visual timeline”. Every month there would be a different story thus a different design, so we would have a constantly changing public art show.

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4

It seems to be very difficult for you to fully embrace we_school and believe in its success.

Why?

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The last two months of our stay in Khajuraho were pretty intense.

During this time you used very often the words “relentless” and “merciless”.

What is it about India or shall I say Khajuraho, that makes you feel this way?

> I think I lack the conviction and the drive that you seem to have. As I expressed earlier in a “Polaroid”, I am a “man with many talents, but no passion”, and to advance a project like we_school, one needs passion – and lots of it. Intellectually I understand “we school” as a project that will ultimately succeed but I am more an observer and ‘contemplator’ by nature rather than a ‘proactive’ person. To really push hard for something doesn’t come naturally to me, I rather ‘let things happen”. In addition I really ask myself “who the hell am I to tell them what to do”? > It’s India in general. I used the words “relentless” and “merciless” because of the intensity of daily life.

The environmental things like the level of noise, the copious amounts of trash lying everywhere, the pollution. The overwhelming numbers of men in the streets who just spit everywhere. The corruption, the overpopulation, the general chaos that reigns all around. There is so much going on yet the people don’t seem to care. Whether they are apathetic or oblivious to it all, I can’t really say but they face life with a smile. It truly amazes me. All this really gets to me and I have yet to find the right approach or the right tools to not be affected by all that. I think it was only after my third visit to India that some kind of severe culture shock really hit me, or as Lakshmi Pratury (host and curator of the INKtalks) best put it: “You can’t escape in India, you are forced to deal with it!”

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Egon asking Ulrike Ulrike Reinhard is consultant, free spirit and passionate digital native rolled into one.

Her belief in the Internet’s ability to empower people and change our lives and worlds for the better drives all her work.

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Had you ever – before you embarked on the we_school endeavor in India – thought of or planned to build a school [or a hospital or a community center etc…] somewhere else?

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Where does your ambition and drive to build this school come from?

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India, with all its challenges, seems to be an unlikely starting point for someone with no “school-buildingexperience”.

Particularly when one considers you don’t speak Hindi.

Do you find this daunting at times?

Do you think that being a foreigner was advantageous?

> No. > Pure curiosity.

And I wouldn’t call it ambition, it’s much more intuition.

Somehow I have the feeling it’s meant to be. > Why? Do you think it would be easier in Germany? Or in the US? The challenges most likely are different – but that’s it.

Since I am only one person within a huge network which is helping to build we_school, it doesn’t matter if I am school-experienced or not. Building a school needs much more than “school-experience” – especially when you are trying to explore new ways in teaching and learning. Not being an educational expert might even allow you to bring in fresh ideas more easily.

Not speaking Hindi is an issue. Of course.

And this is why it’s very high on my priority list to learn – a tough job though.

Being a foreigner – honestly – I can’t say if it is advantageous or not. I spent 9 month in India last year, but still I don’t understand the dynamics and structures of Indian daily life – far too complex and different from our “western way”.

So it’s very hard to tell ...

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4

Can you give a summary of your experiences so far, and what were the “glaring” mistakes you made and what were the positive steps you took?

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If you had a wish list for the changes you would like to see in India in the next fifteen years, what would the top three be?

> When I first arrived in India almost exactly a year ago, I had no idea about this country. Today for me India is very much like the Internet – very complex and very fast. You find everything. Chaotic. Relentless. You can’t push, you have to go with the flow. Then you get the most out of it. For yourself and for your ideas.

And since I love the Internet, I do love India.

Glaring mistakes?

I should have bought the motorbike all by myself;-) No seriously. I am sure I’ve made many mistakes in the way I behaved in this foreign culture, in the way I approached people and dealt with them, in the way I reacted. For the latter you have to know that I am very impatient by nature.

Many of my mistakes I probably wasn't even aware of. But none of them was so crucial that it became a serious issue.

One could say that settling down at this very early stage with the Gautam family was a huge mistake – because they are simply not trustworthy. But on the other hand I can say that this relationship gave me deep insights into rural India’s society in so many ways – without them my experience would have been much less intense.

I am not afraid of making mistakes. I truly believe in the concept: fail, but fail fast. And always try never to make the same mistakes twice. Only if you fail you learn. > Less trash.

More female power.

More tigers;-) 91

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Polaroids Egon Zippel

These drawings were done during my stays in India, or relate to India. I make them because there are too many situations where “taking a photo” – or a video – just doesn’t do the job for me.

I call these drawings “Polaroids”, because I create them on the spot, in an “instant”. I act as the camera and the filter but have more flexibility than a camera. I can edit the reality by adding or eliminating information from the scene, I can draw parallels. I can choose to record different “slices” of reality.

It is rewarding to limit myself, in a world with an abundance of technical possibilities, to a very restricted format. The “Polaroids” must always be drawn with a blue ball point pen, using the same size heavy drawing paper (10.4 x 7.4 cm / 4.1 x 2.9 inches). Each drawing is marked with the date and location where it was created. They can be grouped by theme, chronologically or both. I carry always my “camera” (paper and blue ball point pen) in my wallet, whenever and wherever I go.

The “Polaroids” contain my artistic universe; I have been doing these for over 20 years now, and I have thousands of them. They are a graphic history of my daily experience as well as an art diary that contains seeds of my other work as well as being a piece of art in its own right.

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P O W E R C O N C E N T R AT I O N L A C K O F T R A N S PA R E N C Y ABSOLUTE CONTROL

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S O C I A L M E D I A H AT E S T H E S E LEADERS IN THE MIDDLE EAST L E A R N T I T T H E H A R D WA Y ARE YOU HEARING THESE VOICES ALREADY? THEY’RE A PRECURSOR TO CHANGE

IT’S JUST AROUND THE CORNER ASK US HOW!

w w w. d r i z z l i n . c o m

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< Deepak Goel (31) Mumbai / Delhi Entrepreneur

< Krati Sharma (26) New Delhi Researcher & Women Rights Activist

>

>

Kalyan Tadepalli (27) Ahmedabad / Educator

Tanay Prajapati (17) Khajuraho / Student

> Saurabh Taneja (27) Jaipur Educator and Social Worker

> Aishwarya Dravid (23) New Delhi Editor at The Viewspaper

< Amala Devi Vaithyanathan (24) Pondicherry Social Worker

< Nirupa Rao (22) Bangalore Consultant, INK Talks Artist

> Anusha Yadav (38) Mumbai

> Vicky Roy (24) New Delhi Photographer

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Young Voices of India Egon came up with the questions.

Ulrike found the young Indians who answered them.

Bea visualized it.

All together, we created Young Voices of India.

Now itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s your turn to read it!

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1

India’s resources [land, water, forests] are dwindling, and the population is increasing.

Why aren’t YOU concerned about it?

Deepak Goel (31) > Well it’s not limited to India but as more people in the developing world have more purchasing power, we will see that our resources will fall short.

I don’t think its the growing population, our population has been relatively big all along, it’s the affluence.

I am concerned as I always was. But I think the answer lies in addressing it worldwide, the standards for living in the west are unsustainable and no model for growth. Unfortunately that’s how we benchmark our success.

We’re trying to find ways in which we could help communicate such change with powerful story telling using the web. Alternative exist, they are just not popular enough.

Krati Sharma (26) > With an intense population outburst and the largest base of young people being India, we are indeed struggling with depleting natural resources.The unequal division of these resources makes it all the more concerning.

I have never had a chance to work on such issues so far. But it is encouraging to see a spontaneous campaign like ‘Save the Yamuna’ where like minded people came forward and mobilized hundred of volunteers in few months through street plays, workshops, public meetings, film screenings etc. If I get a chance, I would associate with such groups.

Kalyan Tadepalli (27) > The dream is to get my professional degree, and settle abroad. Why should I be concerned. I am not going to be here, right? I shall read about my country through the warm, safe columns of an international newspaper in the comfort of my centrally heated home. I shall then make suitable noises and throw in the extra pinch of rightful indignation. But hey, how the hell does it matter to me, which way my country goes. Agreed, India has highly subsidized education, and I am one of its beneficiaries, but I cannot be indebted forever. My job is to carve as big a slice of the cake as I can, not worry about such petty concerns.

Tanay Prajapati (17) > I am concerned about it. I am concerned about everything what is happening around me. I am part of my country and I am concerned about it. From politics to poverty to illiteracy. Every evening before I go to bed, I listen to the news and get updates on all these topics. And then I ask myself: what is going wrong in India and what can be done to improve the current situation? What needs to be changed for better India? I think about a solution and the next day I start doing. I start to work on “my” solution. I talk about it to my parents, teachers and friends. I include their opinions in my thinking – that is how I deal with the situation. I am concerned and I care and I act.

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Aishwarya Dravid (23) > I think that there are enough people that are concerned about it and efforts are being made in that direction. There are organizations that are dedicated to making environment friendly housing and people are also willing to invest in such efforts. Not to mention that most high-rise buildings have their own rain-water harvesting system and sewage treatment plants. And of course there are organizations and NGOs working towards protecting the environment. So I wouldn’t say that people are not concerned; it’s taking time.

Saurabh Taneja (27) > I would like to believe that I am little bit concerned. In my personal life I cycle or walk as much as I can :) Moreover, as a teacher in my classes we had various discussions in science about this: what can we do and how can we contribute? The kids even worked on a 2-month project with the entire school on separating the wet and dry waste and to find ways to re-cyle/re-use most of it :) Vicky Roy (24) > Yes, I know about these problems and I am concerned. In 2004 when I went to Vyas River I saw them first hand. I am trying to capture them with my camera and document it with my photos. And I show it to the people that they better understand.

Our natural resources such as water are depleting because of our habitats.

Most of the people simply don’t now how to do better. The main problem is lack of education.

Regarding the increase of Indian population, I cannot say much – in huge parts it’s depending on others;-) For myself all I can say is that I will adopt one child and will have one of my own.

Amala Devi Vaithyanathan (24) > Population growth is NOT the problem. Lack of basic education and poor economic conditions are. The assumption that people have no access to family planning methods is only partly true and in any case is not the root of the problem. Population has remained a problem because EDUCATION continues to be a problem. Instead of educating rural India, it was left behind and people produced more children ... so the problems increased!

Nirupa Rao (22) > I’m actually really concerned about it, and I think a lot of people are. Perhaps the reason there is so much apparent apathy is because people think these tasks are too humongous to tackle, there is no way to earn a living out of it, and that there is too much inertia and indeed active opposition in the system.

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Anusha Yadav (38) > Everyone plays a central role in forming the history of the world. And we know that everyone cannot play the same role. My role is of an documenter and observer. Someone else’s is about working towards saving the dwindling resources of the world. And both help each other. I am not NOT concerned, but it isn’t my skill to actively participate in it.There are so many men and women who do have that skill and passion. I am grateful for that.

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India seems to be consisting only of men, at least in public.

Why are the women hiding?

Deepak Goel (31) > Women have had an interesting history in India; from being very open and visible (we’d have to go about 1500 years back for that) to finding a closed role due to historical and cultural influences. I think the tide is turning back again for them albeit slowly. The biggest reason has been the lack of education for women and that is now changing.

Krati Sharma (26) > India is largely a male dominated country. The way women experience public spaces is also determined from how gender dynamics operate within our homes. The sense of being powerful germinates from an overrated concept of ‘masculinity’. A skewed sex ratio across all north Indian states and suggestions from so called ‘learned political leaders’ to not befriend men and dress in a ‘not so provocative way’ shows how deeply patriarchal we are and the kind of deranged misogynistic mindset that prevails.

One thing that stands out from my travel dairy is an absolute dearth of single Indian women travelers. People often give me an astonished look as soon as they realize I am alone. It’s bizarre and sometimes makes me wonder what century I am living in. Particularly speaking of Delhi, sexual harassment is rampant here and men unapologetically stare at women. Most of my friends have had such experiences including groping, stalking, lewd comments etc.

Perhaps, it is one reason why many women compromise with their mobility that further strengthens male dominance in public. No wonder its only men using public spaces for leisure activities from gambling to shamelessly peeing on streets, they can be seen all around defeating the idea of ‘inclusive’ space.

Kalyan Tadepalli (27) > Lets take a look at a few numbers. A robust indicator of social development is the proportion of seats held by women in the national parliament.

India’s neighbors, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nepal, countries which have experienced extreme internal strife have respectively 27%, 22% and 33% of their national parliaments constituted of women. India on the other hand, a democracy for more than half a century now, has the ignominious distinction

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of never having more than 10% of female legislators in the national assembly.

Somewhere, in spite of a lot of prattle about gender-equality, there is still a very wide gap to be bridged. If we turn our gaze to the sphere of economic activity, more than half of India has a wage ratio that is below 70%. Even more dismal are the statistics for firms with female participation in ownership. It stands at just below 10%. (Compare this with Bhutan,where it is almost one third or Nepal,where it stands at one-fourth of all businesses.)

Of course, these sterile indicators are put into even starker contrast when we look at the statistics for violence against women. And the UNDP gender and human development indices.

Need we inquire further, why are the women hiding?

The surprise is not that they are hiding. It is that their public visibility is at least as much as it is.

Tanay Prajapati (17) > Indian women are not hiding. Indian society and the “old way” keep them “under cover”. As every where else women in India have the potential to raise and flourish. But because of social challenges and violent crimes they are suppressed. Social crimes in India are increasing. No one will forget the sad demise of a recent rape victim. It hopefully will change the way Indian police and government deal with these issues for ever. Hopefully. Finally.

In general I wish that not ONLY government and police should be punished when they suppress women. The public should be punished as well. We ALL must take responsibility – otherwise women will be banned from the streets for ever.

Aishwarya Dravid (23) > Today there is no place for a woman in India and that’s the reason why women are forced to hide. In the light of all the rape and molestation cases it is nearly impossible for a woman to do anything without being harassed.

The problem is definitely with the mindset of the people (one which some women harbor as well) and until the time this will change, every woman will be concerned regarding her own safety.

But having said that, the youth has taken this matter into their own hands; we saw them fighting and protesting after the recent rape case in Delhi and hopefully something concrete is going to come of it.

Saurabh Taneja (27) > Will I think that trend is changing now. Even in tier-1 cities like Jaipur, Pune or Ahmedabad women are giving men a good run for their money.

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Vicky Roy (24) > I believe the main reason for this is deeply rooted in the Indian family structure and their culture. Girls are strictly controlled by their families.

Boys aren’t.

They are suppressed and aren’t allowed to enjoy the same personal freedom as men. If a boy arrives at home at 11 or 12 pm, there is no problem. But if the girl of the same family returns home after 5 pm, the family will start arguing.

It’s much harder for a girl to develop her skills and capacities than it is for a boy.

There is a girls’ hostel in Delhi. Closing time used to be 10 pm. Then it changed to 8 pm because of security and now after the Delhi rape they’ve changed again to 7 pm. They’d rather punish the criminals and impose harder laws than changing hours and suppressing women.

Men at villages think that they are better human beings than women. If a woman gets a job, her husband will reject her job and say that he is not going to live on his wife’s salary. This is their attitude. It prevents women from real development. Many husbands suppress their wives and beat them without any reason. Many of them are alcoholics. And when the men are drunk they even behave worse. Hardly any woman in Indian village has enough self confidence to stand up against it! And again – many, many women are uneducated ... they don’t know how to react and to deal with it!

Amala Devi Vaithyanathan (24) > Since from the ancient days the men are supressing the women in many ways. But it is changing – especially in the cities. Today we have laws that give more rights to women and to become equally accepted in teh society. And more and more women practice this and raise their girls accordingly.

In rural areas its more difficult for a women to come out because the people think its a sin for their community.

Nirupa Rao (22) > We need to invest in women more, so that they are not seen as liabilities to their families. It’s a self-enforcing system, in which women as seen as worthless, so they are not put in school, made to work, or given exposure to public life, and they consequently become ‘worthless’. At the same time, men need to be more receptive to women of substance – they don’t like taking orders from women, or they often patronize them.

Anusha Yadav (38) > That isn’t true anymore. Women are not hiding. They are merely serving a role that was prescribed to them. They are now being offered choices. And they now start to develop a sense of deserving personal freedom. I’d like to encourage other women and men to instill that confidence in them.

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3

If you had superpowers [like Shiva or Ganesha, or Batman], or at least political powers, what would you change [first]?

Why?

Deepak Goel (31) > India needs a massive education drive. The country is self-sufficient today and is increasingly denying aid from many western donors. I think the opportunity is to re-orient our priorities to invest in this area in a big way. But having a stereo typical approach to education would be a menace.

We want to encourage grass root innovation and create an alternative model for growth within the community. We have unique problems to solve, good education would help us approach them with a fresh perspective. I of course understand this needs a lot of detailing and innovation within training itself.

Krati Sharma (26) > Superpowers allow me to think the unimaginable. Few months ago, I read about Todd Akin’s absurd views on women body and rape. He said, “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down”. I know it’s irrational, but I had been thinking since then. What if women body could actually do it?

I do not see it as measure or a deterrent. It is not really a superpower. It is a thought that struck me where sexual intercourse could only and only happen with mutual consent. For me, it is a fantasy world where one could not be sexually violated in any form, a world that would make me feel safe and powerful; a world free of violence.

Kalyan Tadepalli (27) > The education system. Extreme heterogeneity of the curriculum frameworks, the mushrooming of coaching centers and the examination-driven academic culture have: • Catalyzed the creation of a super privileged superclass for which academic institutions are just a ticket to the good life. And not one atom more.

• Promoted an assembly-line school ethos.

While much has been done in the past 5 or so years, there need to be definite measures in place to ensure education is learner-driven, ageappropriate and at par with world standards.

The PISA scores placed India at the bottom of the table. Of course, the people at the helm of affairs are very good at their blame game, and various factors and some disconnect have been blamed for the poor score.

Tanay Prajapati (17) > I don’t want to be compared with Gods.

But, if I had the superpowers of superheroes or at least the political powers, I would like to change the way how Indian people, especially Indian politicians, think. Most of the Indians never think before taking action. An easy 109

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proof of evidence is when our politicians get the mics and start speaking in the assembly or in meetings. They usually do the opposite of what they say.

That’s the real problem. They are hardly concerned about common issues, about OUR country.

They only think about themselves and how to grip the money and enrich themselves. They should think about how to develop India and how this development can be scaled all over India – that would be precious and the right thing to do!

Unfortunately same is true for great parts of our Indian population. They never think of “breaking out”, they’d rather stay within their limitations.

They never think of pushing boundaries and going beyond their limits. Even their goals seem to be limited.

So, if I had the “superpowers”, I would definitely change the “Indian way” of thinking.

Aishwarya Dravid (23) > If I had any kind of power then I would definitely do something about women security. Not just for women who live in the metropolitan cities, but especially for those living in villages and small towns; like the Dalit women who undergo innumerable atrocities and never reach a front page headline.

It’s high time that women here stop worrying about their clothes, the time, the place and whom they are with. It’s time for the men to stay indoors out of fear, and for women to roam the streets.

Saurabh Taneja (27) > I would fix-up the education system first by taking a few bold policy level decisions – even against the popular sentiments. Education is something that runs deep within the social fabric of our country and I believe it is a powerful way of instilling any hope for the future of India (even if its slow and gradual). We need to act urgently to not just end inequity in our country's education system but also to take a long and hard look at the values we are teaching in schools.

Vicky Roy (24) > When I was in class 7, I read that if you want to develop your nation the thing to do is: Develop yourself and then you develop others. This is exactly what I would do that if I had superpowers – give everyone the power to develop themselves.

Amala Devi Vaithyanathan (24) > I’d stop child labor and sex tourism.

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Nirupa Rao (22) > If I had political/superpowers, I would root out corruption at every level of the system, so that it is easier to be moral than immoral.

Anusha Yadav (38) > Instill amazing and convenient public transport and spaces.

Make honking illegal unless itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an emergency case.

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Please describe how you see India in 15 years, and your place in it [in case you decide to stay in India].

Deepak Goel (31) > I think China is a good example for us to foresee the future of India in 15 years. More consumerism, better infrastructure, deeper divide between the rich and poor. I would love to be closer to social change than I am at the moment.

Krati Sharma (26) > In the next 15 years, India will emerge as one of the largest economies in the world with global workforce. We will witness transition across various arenas from nuclear power to medical discoveries. With fearless youngsters voicing their opinion and the amount of volunteer work happening around, I can foresee a culturally and socially evolved pool of young people and dissolving boundaries of gender. Hopefully, Indian politics and government institutions will also change in line with developing concepts of human rights. If I stay in India, I would most certainly be working in the development sector on gender, sexuality and reproductive rights.

Kalyan Tadepalli (27) > Politically, I see India struggling with the incurable infestation of dynastic politics, relentless stoking the subterranean communal passions. But on a more hopeful note, I also see a more aware (though not necessarily a more empowered) voter, who could potentially turn the focus towards healthcare, infrastructure, economy and social security, something that is at the moment in shambles.

With the current low levels of investment in R&D, I see India as a hub for the service sector rather than as a high-technology development/manufacturing/research centre.

In addition, irresponsible privatization of the natural resources, which I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t see abating, leading to a pernicious combination of monopoly and acute shortages in the supply of strategically important resources.

One aspect of public life, which could go either way, is the degree to which dissenting opinion is tolerated.

On one hand we have the relentless growth of social media, but on the other we also have increasing persecution of free speech.

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Tanay Prajapati (17) > Within the next 15 years I obviously won’t succeed in having my “superpowers”. But still I see India as the no. 1 among the so-called developing countries. Indian politics as well as politicians will be improved, not in corruption but in taking India up to new limits. Security for women as well as men will be enhanced and there will be strict rules for all criminals.

India will also become one of the largest tourism spots in the world.

The revenues from that will be used to improve tourist products and services. India will become cleaner and more eco-friendly than today.

In 15 years I see myself as a proud citizen of a major developing nation (India). A citizen who is happy with his family. And I see myself as a citizen who is ready to help others, a citizen who is very popular among other peoples (friends etc.) and a citizen who has a good reputation in society.

Aishwarya Dravid (23) > I see India as a developed country. I see us having overcome economic, political, social and other problems that we seem to be neck deep in right now. And hopefully, I see myself having played a part in helping India reach that state.

Saurabh Taneja (27) > In my view, India as a deomcracy is entering a new era. In the next 15years or so, with the growing youth population, there surely will be a resurgence in energy and activism that will redefine the course of our future.

I want to be a part of this “New Order” – marching along with fellow leaders and changemakers ushering in a new-era in India’s education system :) Vicky Roy (24) > We will be more modernized than today. Today, we are accepting more and more modern things. Hence in 15 years we won’t find people with traditional dhoti and kurta easily.

I hope to be with my family at that time and that all of us have enough to survive.

Amala Devi Vaithyanathan (24) > India will still be a developing country by then, unless the basic needs of the citizens are satisfied.

I imagine that our social problems such as child labors, abuses etc will be even more.

Nirupa Rao (22) > It’s hard to predict where India will be in 15 years time, because I think we’re at a cross-roads and are currently deciding which path to take. If we 113

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start to take note of the founding ethics of our country – equality, secularism, non-violence, INDEPENDENCE – then we’re good to go. I’m not sure what my place in it is yet, but I hope when I discover it it will be impossible to ignore.

Anusha Yadav (38) > Hopefully with people who respect their own co-citizens.

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One day you will be rich, of course.

What will you do with all your money?

Deepak Goel (31) > I am not sure about that. But I have always been a guy of basics. I am sure the process of wealth generation would define its course of distribution. It was always for the community and I don’t just think of India. It’s about people’s need everywhere, an impoverished child in Africa is no less important than one in India.

Krati Sharma (26) > If I become rich someday or win a lottery, I would spend a part of money on travelling around the world and documenting the same. The rest would go on working with homeless children and their mothers. So far, I have only worked in a volunteer capacity through donation drives and workshops.

Homeless population has particularly been an area of interest from research’s perspective and therefore if I get money, I would do the same, maybe with a group of friends.

Kalyan Tadepalli (27) > Staying in India, I don’t think so.

Tanay Prajapati (17) > Some of the amount I will spend for my parents as they are doing a lot for me. Some amount will go to the bank for future spendings. And the remaining amount, I will donate for social development in India.

I am not going to hand out the money directly into peoples’ hands – as they will keep the money in their pockets and will not use it for development purposes. But, I will provide them good services such as education, food, etc. so that they can find a job later on.

Aishwarya Dravid (23) > I really don’t know actually. I’m extremely bad with money so I’m sure I won’t be handling the money myself (if I want to stay rich)!

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Saurabh Taneja (27) > I would surely set up “inclusive” schools – schools where children are seen for their limitless potential rather than their socio-economic backgrounds – in each and every neighbourhood of the country.

My message would be: Knowledge, excellence and love are the greatest equalizers! AND that is what every child needs – regardless of where he/she is born!

Vicky Roy (24) > My dream is that my work provides income for others. My work should be beneficial for others. I would like to start a business which would be beneficial for the local people. I will not waste my money in doing things which can be done by others or which already have been done.

For example: I have started a bicycle group. I have given jobs to only those who are in need and I let them participate in my profit. If they will get profit, I will profit, too. In this way I will develop myself and the society (people).

That’s the only way to go for me.

Amala Devi Vaithyanathan (24) > I’d start my own organization and address the issues of sex trafficking and child labor. I'd focus on a good rehabilitation process for the abused.

Nirupa Rao (22) > I’ll cross that bridge when/if I get there. I think my pet causes would be the environment and civic education.

Anusha Yadav (38) > First of all – with absolutely no apologies – I will make myself financially secure. Only then I am capable of doing good things for others. Such as preserving and spreading powerful and inspiring images and stories from our lives. I’d like to fund other people’s initiatives that are led by great sensitivity, respect, genuine interest and knowledge.

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6

Corruption is so much fun – if you have money.

How should people without money deal with corruption?

Deepak Goel (31) > I can see it waning a bit, with better systems in place – we will be able to reduce petty corruption. What would remain is the big brother capitalistic, political style corruption that exists in most parts of the world. We’re still trying to understand whether this society can be more democratic. Human history has always had power concentration and unequal distribution of wealth, intellect and influence. It would be interesting to see if we could turn it around this time.

Krati Sharma (26) > Money can definitely swing things your way. From bribing a constable for jumping a traffic signal to a bureaucrat for clearing a job interview, it works at all level. Corruption exists in every department whether its judiciary, ministries or any other and thus it is imperative to be a part of system for any change to happen. More people should come forward and join administrative services. For an educated citizen, Right to Information Act, 2005 works as purposeful way to seep through impermeable walls of the system. As an individual, we can at the least refuse to pay everyday bribes at signals. But unfortunately the existing system leaves no room for the powerless, in this context ‘people without money and power’.

Kalyan Tadepalli (27) > Only a few months ago, a certain Anna Hazare tried to arm-twist the government into increasing transparency in its dealings. Nothing much has come of the crusader’s zeal, except a splintering of his own core group.

How should people deal with corruption. There are three options: a) Shut up and look away b) Shut up and pay up c) Pull some strings (the third one being called umm, jugaad) Tanay Prajapati (17) > Corruption is really a huge problem in India. And it’s everywhere. For the rich, yes, it’s fun and it makes life easier for them. But for the people without money it’s a big swamp.

The following steps might be helpful in fighting corruption: 1. Be strict with the officers who ask for money.

2. Make them realize that they are already being payed by the government for the same work.

3. Illiteracy is the main cause of corruption. Try to provide the right information in the right way regarding the procedures and rules.

4. Make them realize that you don’t really have money. So that they loose hope of getting some.

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Aishwarya Dravid (23) > I think it’s easier to fall into the trap of corruption when you don’t have the money. So it’s really important that one that doesn’t fall into that vicious circle. People who are less privileged should steer away from corruption and realize that there are better options.

Saurabh Taneja (27) > We need to speak up collectively. I think it is extremely important for every individual to understand the power of their own voice. For the right reason such voices can and do unite people. Mostly we tend to stand-by and let corruption happen – thinking that we are far too weak to deal with it. A voice of truth brings out the strenght and energy, it does unite people! So please, speak out!

Vicky Roy (24) > I would argue that poor and rich act similar in this case. The main thing for me is to prepare the younger generation to face and end the corruption.

We should try over and over again to get our work done without paying bribes, even if it does take time!

Amala Devi Vaithyanathan (24) > Corruption is a huge and hot topic in India, Everyone is fed up with it. It's all over the news. As a common citizen one can do the following things to eradicate the corruption: know and follow the rules, spreading the knowledge, collect as many proofs as you can, form a group and make its voice heard, inform the Vigilance Department and involve the media.

Nirupa Rao (22) > This is a tough question. I suppose you either cannot deal with it and get trampled upon, or you look for a job that allows you to accept bribes.

Anusha Yadav (38) > Corruption comes from lack of integrity.

It can become no less than an addiction. An addiction of feeling superior.

Integrity is not something that everyone has. It is a value that is bred within families. I think some people just have a better sense of the fair and unfair.

It is a great asset to reckon with. It also shows great security and esteem in one’s own self.

That is how I think. And how I think is what I have learnt, is not everyone’s idea of life.

I would imaging the best way to deal with it is with pride. Pride of having conscience and integrity.

On my death bed, I know I will be proud of having at least that.

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Every 22 minutes a girl or a woman is raped in India!

Source: From a friend, One Billion Rising, Delhi, February 14, 2013

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“One Billion Rising February, 13 at 7:00 pm Epicentre Shohini invited you.”

I’d say that besides the 10 “likes” and 5 “comments” I get at least three invitations on a daily basis.

These are for a range of events: from music concerts to social campaigns, flash mobs, reunions; anything that can be made into a public celebration, even accomplishing something monumental (read ridiculous) like toilet training your new dog, woo-hoo, booze and grub for everyone!

According to BBC sources (2012) there are 121 million Indians that are logged on to the internet.

The most popular website in India is Facebook, whose user base has grown by more than onethird in the last six months.

Currently, there are 61,499,220 Facebook users in India which makes us the third largest Facebook market in the world. The largest number of users are 18 to 24 years old, followed by 25 to 34 year olds. Needless to say:

India’s Youth is Online!

And we are HUGE in numbers: More than 50% of the country’s population is under the age of 25 years and 70% of the population is under 35. Crazy right?

What a potential!

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Like I said, on an average I get at least three invitations a day to different events happening around the city. So clearly the youth of India is using the internet as a means of having an active social life. But there is more to it than just commenting, tweeting, liking, poking, re-tweeting, blogging, following.

After the protests on Tahrir Square and the Occupy Wall Street movement for all of us it became clear that the internet, social media in particular, has become a platform for ideating, sharing opinions and most importantly fighting for causes on a national and international level. While India is yet to see a social media revolution as big as the ones in Egypt or the Occupy Movement, we have our fair share of activism that found their roots on the web.

Everybody remembers the recent India Against Corruption (IAC) campaign which saw thousands of people gathered at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi to support Anna Hazare. The campaign was orchestrated mainly through the digital space with Facebook events and chain messages that were sent out to draw people in. The IAC campaign was one was the only campaigns in India, orchestrated through the social media space, that received the kind of participation and outreach like it did.

While this is an example of activism on a large scale there are countless smaller action on the Web. The Mumbai shut down after the death of Shiv Sena, founder of Bal Thackeray. A 21-yearold from Palghar made the horrible mistake of expressing her feelings on Facebook. The girl’s status update questioned the shut down ordered by the city because of one man’s death. Her update became a punishable “offence” and the girl was arrested. Since when did the expression of ones feelings become a punishable offence? Isn’t that what the “status” section on Facebook is meant for?

So what if she was trying to start a logical debate on the site, does that call for an arrest?

Hers is not the only outcry. Social media and the internet have become the answer to any issue that one might be facing. Facing discrimination at a top rated college in Delhi? Go ahead and create an event on Facebook; invite 500 of your friends and get them to invite theirs and you have a flash mob on your hands to raise a voice against discrimination and ragging at Delhi University.

It’s the 21st century, and it is the time of the youth.

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If you think that you could brutally rape a young girl and get away with it, better think again. We’ll come at you with protests, candle marches, and even inventions that would make sure that you never make this mistake again. If you think that you can ban women from education then, forget hundreds, only one of us is enough to expose your ugly truth to the international media. Burn our schools down and we will find a way to sneak past you and get education. Shoot us in the head – a couple of bullets aren’t going to keep our mouth shut – and we’ll get back out there and fight you, louder and stronger than ever. We may not have a say on the budget or on government and judicial procedures, but we do have the guts to drive out the Chief Minister when she isn’t welcome (which happened during the protest held in New Delhi for the Delhi rape case victim).

Just look at the pure numbers.

We are going to be the leaders of tomorrow.

Whether you like it or not.

It is inevitable.

At some point, India’s youth is going to decide the budget and re-write the laws that govern this country. It will constitute the Indian media and lead this country towards a new tomorrow.

Sure, we haven’t had our “Arab Spring” or “Occupy Wall Street” yet but we aren’t that far behind.

It’s only a matter of time before India’s youth rises collectively to fight for the society that they want to live in.

And when this happens, WE won’t take no for an answer!

Shiv Bhaskar Dravid, 26, is the founder and creator of The Viewspaper, a citizen journalism based youth media company. He was an early entry winner of the Changemakers and Google Citizen Media competition, and many other awards for his leadership in giving a voice to the world’s young people through new media.

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Internet – Made in India Ulrike Reinhard

Outsourcing and call center for software products – this is what India is known for when it comes to IT. Maybe some people will know that Wipro Technologies is Indian or Infosys Technologies – both huge multinational IT companies.

But Internet companies? Hm. Maybe some programmers contributing to it;-) But there are at least some faces and companies from this incredible subcontinent one should be aware of. And I am sure we’ll see more as India’s domestic B2C market is growing rapidly – 35-40% each year. There are four major reasons for this growth:

1. People are spending more and more money on e-commerce (250 billion USD by 2025) 2. The Indian population and especially its middle class is still growing – India adds one Australia (= 26 million people) each year.

3. Venture capitalist are heavily pumping money into e-commerce start-ups. One billion USD alone in 2011.

4. And last but not least the number of households with broadband access and cell phones with Internet access are also growing fast.

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And maybe the most important reason – which is not found in any business book – there are more than 500 million young people out there, born after 1990 with at least a decent education, and they are all ready to do something!

What a great resource! So India’s Internet future seems to look bright!

Made it!

There are a few worldwide known Internet companies which have their roots in India – those who “made it” so to speak.

Let’s start with SlideShare, the world’s largest community for sharing presentations. With 60 million monthly visitors and 130 million page views, it is amongst the most visited 200 websites in the world. And its heart is Indian. Two of the three founders are coming from the subcontinent: Rashmi Sinha and Amit Ranjan. Rashmi made into FAST’s list of the 10 most influential women of the Social Web in 2008. And: the SlidShare office in Delhi can easily keep up with its sister’s office in San Francisco.

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Saran Babu < The success story of Saran Babu started when he was 17. And as most other success stories, this one too began with a risk. At that time, Saran was on the lookout for a part-time job so that he could take over the family burden from his retiring father. He did not have much to expect as he was just out of high school. It was that time when Zoho came out with an initiative. It was to hand-pick deserving high-school students who are on the verge of dropping-out, and train them on software development. There was no promise of being recruited because this was more of a test-drive for Zoho. It is said that 3000 INR was all they initially offered to these students. After 18 months of realtime training and assessments, they would be placed as regular employees.

Saran being the very first chosen one, had a tough time taking the call between a conventional college education he could hardly afford, and trusting this then-never-heardof company. Looking back, it might be one of the best decisions he has ever made. Five years later, Saran finds himself at the heart of Zoho 126

Sridhar Vembu’s Zoho is certainly another company which made it. They are in the outsourcing business – but in a new way of outsourcing: they offer a cloud based office suite supporting collaborative working. TechCrunch voted them as the best enterprise start-up in 2007. So far Sridhar resisted tempting USD from Salesforce and kept Zoho’s independence. But Sridhar Vembu is not only known for his software but also for the unique staffing practices of Zoho: Zoho University. There economically disadvantaged high school graduates can find a place. The program and puts them through two years of education with a strong focus on engineering/software. Such “Zoho University” graduates now make up 10% of their workforce. (see Saran Babu’s story to the left …)

Contests2win, Media2win and Games2win are part of the successful 2wingroup founded by Alok Kejriwari. Out of Mumbai the serial entrepreneur is running his businesses. Games2win is one of the biggest online gaming portals worldwide. His mobile endeavor mobile2win was sold in 2007 to Disney China. Rediff.com – a combination of search and e-commerce – has its roots also in India. Its founder Ajit Balakrishnan graduated from the wellknown IIM. Also out of Mumbai comes Justdial.com – a local search engine and – among other things – VoIP-service provider. Today the number one search in India! VSS Mani founded “India’s Google”) in 1996 with 750 Euro seed money and 6 employers. From India Justdial.com expanded to USA, New Zealand, Australia, Great Britain, Hongkong and Singapore.

Ready to take off India’s start-up scene is lively – but mainly in the big cities Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai. Where ever you go you will find start-up weekends covering all the topics from financing to networking. Most of them are in the e-commerce sector. Among the “hottest” start-ups in India is Flipkart.com, the Indian amazon.com – no wonder both of its founders used to work for amazon. Unlikely to the West cash-on-delivery is the most accepted payment method and the delivery process itself is one of the biggest challenges for the e-commerce companies. It’s still very costly, a kind of “uncertain” and it does take time. So the current development plans at flipkart are focussing on expanding its courier service network and allowing their customers to track their orders in real time. Flipkart’s business results simply mirror the growth of the entire e-commerce market in India. They double their sales every quarter!

Another hotshot is makemytrip.com – an online travel agency and tour guide. No. 1 in India – in 2009 one out of twelve domestic flights were booked on the platform. It runs also 20 “real world” offices within India and two in the US. What makes makemytrip.com kind of unique is the fact that the

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Creator, a star service of Zoho, and now earns nearly 40,000 INR a month. Never mind the money; He is adored by all for his simple ways and humble attitude; Even by those few who might envy him for his technical expertise. Saran stands tall and most of his successors turn to him for guidance.

Of the two sides to everything, the less-seen side need not always be the dark side.

Education has always been thought of as graduation from a famous and costly college. The overlooked fact is that the other side too is changing lives. Zoho plays in a market ruled

by Google and Microsoft. How could it afford to employ people who never went to high-school and college? Well, that is just what they are doing, and they are doing just fine. It is 10% already, and Sridhar would love to see around 40% of his proud followers to be graduates of Zoho University. He humbly says that it is not charity that they are doing; It is a win for the company too, because these employees are the ones with the greatest vigor and passion of a young and fresh mind.

The most loyal ones too.

CEO Deep Kalra believes people should work as entrepreneurs within his company and he really fosters them to do so. “In our selection process, we see how hungry a person is and give 20% more weightage to people who may have worked in unstructured environments,” says Purva Misra, Human Resource Manager at makemytrip.com. And that has triggered an organizational structure where about 70% of the workforce is risk-driven while the remaining adheres to processes. “The risk-driven profiles come from e-commerce backgrounds, startup firms and also from business schools with an ambition to run their own ventures,” says Misra. Even when Trippers (as the makemytrip staff is called) decide to quit and build their own company the CEO gives support: “If they have been good Trippers, I don’t want to be a career-blocker for them,” he says.

And then there is Innoz – for me THE example for what I described “not found in any business book”. There is a need and locals find THE solution.

So Innoz has tapped into such an important niche – the need for ordinary phones and users to be connected to the internet, or, as they term it, internet for offline people. In India there are about 1 billion mobile users and less than 10% use mobile internet.

The Innoz story is very simply and inspired by Apple founder Steve Jobs who had famously asked, “Why join the navy if you can be a pirate?” For Deepak, Hisam, Abhinav and Ashwin, four dropouts from LBS Engineering College in Kasargod, a small town in north Kerala, these words became a driving force and they developed this idea to link the gap between the online and offline world.

In 2008, during their sixth semester at the engineering college, they incorporated Innoz Technologies. Commercial operations started in 2011. Its first product was SMS Gyan and Airtel became the first service provider in India to roll out the service. Any Airtel user can SMS a query to 55444.

Service providers charge the user Rs 1 a query and offer a package for Rs 30 a month. The service provider gets about 70 per cent of the revenue; the rest goes to Innoz. After seeing the success of the value-added service other service providers followed quickly. In the first 18 months of its operations, Innoz answered a billion queries through SMS Gyan. Currently, it has about 120 million active users, and responds to about five million queries a day.

The company adds one to two million users every month.

Last year Innoz raised about $3 million from Seedfund, an early-stage venture capital fund. With the venture capital raised they plan to widen their reach to other emerging markets such as South Africa, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Nepal, West Asia and other countries in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation region. For additional revenue Innoz is planning to to push mobile advertising based on user behaviour.

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Internet Freedom in India Kirsty Hughes

In the aftermath of an Index on Censorship debate in New Delhi, Kirsty Hughes says India’s web users are standing at a crossroad.

If debate is a sign of a positive environment for internet freedom, then India scores highly. From debates in parliament, and panel discussions to newspaper editorials, blogs and tweets on the rights and wrongs of internet freedom, controls on the web, and India’s position in the international debate, there is no shortage of voices and views.

India has around 120 million web users – a large number but still only about 10 per cent of the country’s population. As cheaper smart phones enable millions more to access the net on their mobiles, India’s net savvy population is set to soar in the next few years. But what sort of online environment they will find is open to question – and to wide debate.

India has some very broad laws that could apply to a wide range of online speech, comment and criticism. These laws have been so far rather randomly applied. But the cases that have arisen – 128

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from individuals criticising politicians by email, Facebook or Twitter to some of the big web companies such as Google and Facebook (both facing numerous takedown requests and court cases in India) — show just why India needs to look at limiting both the range of some of its net laws, and to stop these laws criminalising a range of speech.

In 2012, there was widespread outcry in India when two women were arrested for complaining on Facebook about the disruption caused by the funeral of Bal Thackeray, leader of the right wing Hindu party, Shiv Sena. They were arrested under the infamous section 66A of India’s IT Act (2008) which criminalises “grossly offensive” and “menacing” messages sent by electronic means, but also “false” messages sent to cheat, deceive, mislead or annoy, taking online censorship beyond offline laws.

India’s telecom minister Kapil Sibal spoke out against the arrests. And as part of the fallout, guidelines were announced that in future any such charges could only be brought by senior police.

But how effective such a restriction might be was challenged, with a Times of India editorial suggesting “rampant political interference in law enforcement is itself a burning issue ... so to argue that senior police officers will always resist mob pressure or political diktats isn’t persuasive.”

Other parts of the IT Act (2008) are also causing a chilling atmosphere in India’s cyber sphere – with new regulations introduced in 2011 obliging internet service providers to take down content within 36 of a complaint (whether an individual, organisation, government body or anyone else) or face prosecution. The law covers a sweeping range of grounds for complaint, including “grossly harmful”, “harassing”, “blasphemous” and more. It also is confused on liability – holding intermediaries large and small responsible for content on websites and platforms.

One of India’s leading policy centres on digital issues, the Centre for Internet and Society, decided to test how this 36-hour takedown rule could result in censorship of innocuous and legal content on web sites. They sent complaints to four main search engines across a range of content – and as a result got thousands of innocuous posts removed; a censor’s dream outcome.

Despite a debate in parliament calling for repeal of the 2011 rules, for now they remain.

Some observers suggest the Indian government is catch-up mode, not fully understanding the reach or nature of social media or how to deal with the international range and speed of the web today – something plenty of other governments around the world are showing some confusion about. Some think the lively debate on net freedom in India reflects the voice and demands of the growing Indian middle class. But whether those demands remain pro-freedom is yet to be seen as internet penetration grows apace.

There are some other encouraging signs. While many in India are not keen at US dominance of key parts of internet regulation, there was concern from business and civil society ahead of the International Telecommunications Union summit in December 2012, when the Indian government looked like it might advocate some form of top down control of the web as an alternative.

In the event, India, like the EU and US, did not go along with Russia, China and others keen to include net governance into the ITU’s remit.

India is going to be an increasingly influential voice in global internet debates – with its rapidly growing number of netizens and its increasing clout more widely in a multipolar world.

Its healthy and lively debate about digital freedom stands as a beacon of hope in the face of some of its more disturbing laws. But the laws will need to change, if India is to be a country that stands for internet freedom.

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Next Billion Online Sparking Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Internet Revolution Durgha Ramji

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In a past life I must have taken the incarnation of a long distance migratory bird – a swallow or a falcon perhaps. The essence of this migratory existence is still within me! As my friends and family will tell you they often have to ask me “Where in the world are you?” The UK, France and the Palestinian Territories have all been designated home for various periods of time. Home for the past eight months has been Bangalore, India, where I have joined the Google – INK Ambassadors Network in a campaign to get the Next Billion Online in India.

On arrival in Bangalore, I was sitting in a rickshaw, trundling down 100 Feet Road, leaving the INKtalks office in Indiranagar, after meeting my eclectic team and speaking to the ever inspirational Lakshmi Pratury about her vision for the Next Billion Online project that I was truly excited about what laid ahead.

Since this moment all that has followed and continues to follow is adventure. The Next Billion Online project powered by the synergies between INKtalks and Google has been evolving from strength to strength.

A quick Google search will show that India has achieved a 10.2% internet penetration rate at 121 million users, out of a population of 1.21 billion. Compared to the mobile revolution which has seen mobile communication rise exponentially in the past 10 years, the Internet revolution is lagging far behind. However for so many of us the Internet has become so integrated into our work and personal lives that we cannot imagine life without it. Whether to skype family on the other side of the world, to share photos on Facebook or to access the wealth of information on absolutely everything at the touch of a button, the Internet has unarguably become a very powerful tool.

However access to the Internet is not the daily reality for millions of people in India.

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This is why Google and INKtalks set up the Next Billion Online initiative to increase the reach of the Internet. Our experiments prove that connecting individuals and communities to the Internet enables access to information, increases household income and provides greater social freedom. The experiments we are designing demonstrate how the Internet can be used as a tool to make the lives of individuals and their communities more productive and prosperous. They follow the design thinking framework of

empathise > define > ideate > test > prototype The experiments throw the team into the deep end of interacting with our target group. The only way to understanding their reality.

We gained a whole host of feedback and insights. Here are just a few: • In urban areas school children frequent cyber cafes to play online games and watch music videos on YouTube. They were not using the Internet for academic purposes.

• Many people were unaware of Internet data plans available on their mobile phones or thought they would be too expensive.

• In schools, computer labs were treated like temples, shoes must be removed and equipment should be handled with utmost care.

• There is a lack of online content in local languages – to draw on the benefits of the Internet it seems you must know English.

Theses insights highlighted that the four key areas of awareness, availability, accessibility and affordability needed to be addressed before non-internet users in India get online.

To address awareness we designed the E-nabling Curriculum. The 10 hour curriculum addresses first time users who may have never used a computer. First we guide them through the basics of how to get online. Then they get tasks such as completing a Google search, creating an email account and using the Internet as a key communication tool. The curriculum includes an assessment rubric to track the progress of students.

Our video story project aims to generate local content in local languages and make it available on the INKtalks platform. We aim to collect inspiring stories of local people and showcase them.

And so we as part of this project are searching for unheard and untold stories of every day heroes.

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Both projects aim to increase the demand of Internet accessibilty among Indian citizens. To ultimately raise their desire to get connected. Even with the might of Google – accessibility and infrastructure, which curbs the reach of the Internet, cannot be achieved without Indian citizens vociferously demanding it. We have often been asked why don’t you just install Internet, install the power lines, install the networks, provide free dongles ... This might be something we could deliver for a single school or even a community we work with – but what about everyone else?

The only scalable solution to get people online pan India is to educate them on the power of the Internet as THE resource for education, business and entertainment.

Finally the answer to affordability lies in simple economics – as more people demand data on their phones and demand stationary Internet infrastructure – sure enough the Internet revolution will materialise (faster).

So if you are an entrepreneur, educationalist or individual with an interest to get the Next Billion Online in India, join us in our mission to design the blueprint which leverages the power of the Internet for a more prosperous India.

My single passion is nomadic travelling – I love the adventure of backpacking: London to Berlin in Europe, Cochin to Amritsar in India and Zagreb to Istanbul in the Balkans are journeys I’ll never forget. I believe you can learn something from everyone and so I am most content in a room full of new people from different parts of the world during international seminars. I truly believe in taking risks because they will lead you to wonderful people and places!

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Beyond Borders Zarin Shoaib

I am an educationist, a corporate trainer and a writer with a keen eye on what’s happening around us!

Currently I am principal at the Sharif Education Complex in Lahore, Pakistan.

It was on January 30th, 2013 when I went to pick up my German friend, Dr. Ulrike Reinhard from the internationally famous Pakistan India border at Wagah. The road there is part of the Grand Trunk Road which used to be the only road link between the two countries before the opening of the Aman Setu in Kashmir in 1999. We stayed back to witness the border closing ‘lowering of the flags’ ceremony – also called the Beating Retreat Border Ceremony – which is a daily military practice that the security forces of India (Border Security Force) and Pakistan (Pakistan Rangers) have jointly followed since 1959. This ceremony takes place every evening before sunset. It starts with an intense and boisterous parade by the soldiers on both sides and ends up in the perfectly coordinated lowering of the two nations’ flags. An unbelievable theatreperformance including all aspects of drama and love.

For this article I developed a questionnaire in order to understand the opinions and feelings of people from both countries better. During this process I came in touch with a number of Indians across the border, especially through social media – who have now become good friends. Although these people initially held a more rigid opinion, connecting with each other on a personal level allowed us to look above our differences and enjoy a more harmonious friendship.

When it came to understanding the emotions people in both countries hold for each other, most felt that they neither liked nor hated their neighbor. Few had developed more affable emotions since they have been interacting on various platforms – today they think more positively about each other. However, on the other extreme, few had very strong negative feelings since their ex134

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perience with the people of the “other side” had proved rigidity in the attitudes of some in not acknowledging the country’s sovereignty. Twitter and Facebook are the best examples of such global social media platforms. Twitter more so than Facebook. While Facebook is a cozy way of staying close to people we know or in other words to know what they are up to in their lives, Twitter is much more an avenue that allows one to automatically attract individuals from around the world – people who are like-minded. Twitter has also allowed me to befriend a number of wonderful people from across the border – although not every breeze that travels across is that friendly.

Speaking of the ‘Indians’ that I have come across on Twitter, I would prominently mention two individuals. Both humanitarians. One of them is part of a team that runs an NGO which is doing a beautiful job of catering to the needs of ‘special’ children. The other person runs an NGO that works on suicide and self harm behaviors. The good part is that these people always speak against the ‘wrong’ whether it is in India or in Pakistan. Similarly many hearts here in Pakistan, including mine and those of many of my friends, bleed when they experience any ‘wrongdoing’ in Pakistan or in India. Many of us cried for the Delhi gang-rape victim as we did for our own symbol of heroism Malala Yousufzai. Maybe this is how we can relate to each other; by crying AND by smiling together.

The Pakistan India cricket match is another very, very interesting phenomenon. I call it a phenomenon because this is when ‘emotions’ run really, really high in both countries. People are literally ‘emotionally charged’. People scream, shout, laugh, dance, cry, pray, jump with joy, keep fingers crossed until the last ball has been bowled and the winner has been decided. Although there are still many who happily deride people of the other nation at a time when their nation wins but surprisingly so, I have now come across individuals both in my country and from across the border who actually ‘congratulate’ the people of the other nation for their victory. Believe me, being a Pakistani and having ‘cricket’ in your blood, reaching across is no menial task.

While I was writing this article very interestingly a person from India had enquired of my nationality on Twitter. Finding out that I am a ‘Pakistani’ he immediately ‘unfollowed’ me. Such strong feelings of animosity and rigidity are held by many people in both countries. The questionnaires that I got filled basically concentrated on a more educated sample target market. However, within groups that are less educated and lack ‘critical thinking skills’, a ‘hate’ for the other country is something that is unfortunately ingrained in them. And our societies take a great share on his!

At a time when technology enables easy interaction WE on both sides should take advantage of it and to start listening to each other’s stories in order to understand each other better. Most of the people are actually wanting this.They feel that there has been enough hatred. Some feel that more open interactions might even result in more economic development in the region through trade and collaboration.

So, please go for it!

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Bangalore, the capital of Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s modern economy and home to many of its high-tech workers, is drowning in its own waste: 4,000 tons of garbage a day.

Source: NY Times, October 26, 2012

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Citizen Activism to Fix Governance Problems Ulrike Reinhard and Jyoti Thyagarajan

The B.PAC, the Bangalore Political Action Committee is an organic coming together of like-minded people from Bangalore. They share similar dreams and expectations and aim to address a host of political ills in Bangalore.

It was founded just a few weeks ago, in February 2013.

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You have to bribe for everything – says an utterly frustrated TV Mohandas Pai, former Head of Human Resources at Infosys who is now helping set up B.PAC. Move over mining mafia, the state has a land mafia, garbage mafia, debris mafia in addition to corrupt corporators.

Karnataka is fed up. Once India’s showpiece state — the new economic power, the IT hot-house, the mining hub and iron exporter of choice. Today, its mining industry has been destroyed by cronyism, corruption and ecological devastation, with good and bad, legal and illegal mining tarred with the same brush and viewed with equal suspicion. The state is desperate for change, say the state’s top corporate honchos. In a bid to deal with daily bribes, petty crime, corrupt police, the state is now hoping to use citizen activism to fix its problems. Irrespective of which party comes to power, Karnataka’s citizens want change in their daily lives.

What B.PAC was setting out to do is a greater common good – a greater “WE”, as we would put it. Its agenda aims high: • • • • • •

Proper governance structure for the city Promoting citizen inclusion in governance Strengthening the finances of the local body and other city agencies Ensuring accountability of civic agencies Developing strong infrastructure Strengthening the foundations of urban politics

And – as a note from the editor – we would love to see the corporations addressed as well because those are the ones who usually pay the bribe and who keep the system running. More honest governance isn’t enough, we also need more honest corporations living up to the values mentioned above.

All this should happen based upon citizen activism.

They set up a platform (www.bpac.in) and try to engage as many citizens as possible. “Citizen activism is the answer,” insists Pai. “More than any other state, we need to get together and file cases against the political leaders. Identify bad people and shame them in public.” As far as I understand it a much broader approach than the Rights To Information Act. Since it just started and expectations are very high, it is too early for results. However the initiative alone is a step forward in the right direction.

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Out of WE Raja Muzaffar Bhat

Raja Muzaffar Bhat is a native of the Kashmir Valley, Jammu and Kashmir. He is a dentist by training and profession. Since 2006, he has been one of the foremost Right to Information (RTI) activists in his home state, focusing his attention on raising awareness and use of the RTI. He was a co-founder of the Jammu and Kashmir Movement (JKRTIM) which he left in 2012 to spearhead transparency as member of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). Muzaffar has rejoined JKRTIM after resigning from PDP in protest against the hanging of Mohammad Afzal Guru. © Shailendra Pandey

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Muzaffar, what made you become an activist?

By training I am a dentist. People used to come and talk to me. They had different issues. Soon I started to ask them questions – I wanted to find out what is happening in the different areas of our state. I used to visit villages on my motor-bike – just like you. I became curious to know what ISN'T working out there on government issues. From my conversations it seemed to be a lot! Poor people used to be crushed by the government, by the police, by the rich. I started to take them to the government and police offices trying to sort out their problems and help them. We figured out public health issues, electricity problems, agriculture issues – anything you can imagine in daily village life came on the table.

They were thousand and thousand of issues, complaints, things that went wrong. People have been and still are deprived of their rights and nobody is helping them.

Because all educated people are busy professionals, they are earning money and they don't have time and they don’t have any interest to get involved in this kind of social responsibility. This is why I started the Right to Information1 movement in Jammu and Kashmir.

We started to ask government officers very officially questions: to the government officers: Why? When? How? And we succeeded pretty fast. The RTI movement in Jammu and Kashmir spread out fast and became pretty big within 5 years. The Jammu and Kashmir State was in fact a pioneer in enacting the RTI Act.

Why did you join politics after 8 years heading the RTI movement so successfully?

Some of the issues which were raised by the people required political solutions – this is why I thought I might be better off in politics. And the RTI movement was strong enough to continue without me.

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The Right to Information Act 2005 (RTI) is an Act of the Parliament of India “to provide for setting out the practical regime of right to information for citizens.” The Act applies to all States and Union Territories of India except the State of Jammu and Kashmir. Jammu and Kashmir has its own act called Jammu & Kashmir Right to Information Act, 2009. Under the provisions of the Act, any citizen may request information from a “public authority” (a body of Government or “instrumentality of State”) which is required to reply expeditiously or within thirty days. The Act also requires every public authority to computerize their records for wide dissemination and to pro-actively publish certain categories of information so that the citizens need minimum recourse to request for information formally. This law was passed by Parliament on 15 June 2005 and came fully into force on 12 October 2005.

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But you quit politics shortly after you joined. Why?

I resigned 2 weeks ago when Mohammad Afzal Guru2 was hanged. In my opinion he didn’t got a fair trial – among a few other things which went wrong during this entire procedure. I felt that I couldn’t lie to my people back home – I have no trust in the government in Delhi if they act like they did in the Afzal Guru case. I felt very uncomfortable. This is why I left the political arena and started working again as a social activist. Back to the roots – so to speak.

For what goals are you fighting as a social activist in Kashmir?

I will give you some examples of our work in the RTI movement – let’s start with our latest success: A Right to Information query showed that the son of a senior Jammu and Kashmir minister was given permission to blast into forest land in violation of a Supreme Court order. It is a blatant misuse of power and was to benefit Mian Mehr Ali, son of the state’s Forest and Environment Minister Mian Altaf Ahmad. The minister has, however, denied the allegations. The RTI findings clearly establish how Mehr Ali has been granted permission to blast fragile mountain zone, partly in the Kangan forestland so that his stone-crusher could get cheap rock material. The powerful forest and environment minister, who is the legislator of the Kangan constituency, has even managed to get the approval from other departments to get this government order passed. For the villagers, this controversial order has hit their daily existence. “The mining happens in the mountains and the rocks fall on our villages,” said a villager. “The rocks fall on our fields and harm our crops, they can be dangerous to people as well,” another villager added.

In another case a resident from Kutabal village has won the CNN IBN Citizen Journalist award in 2012 for his fight against corruption. The 36-year-old Fayaz Ahmad Wani, a semi-illiterate man used the RTI Act to expose a scam in Indira Awas Yojna (IAY). An amount of Rs 5.53 lakhs was recovered by the Government after the RTI expose. The local media and CNN IBN had highlighted this issue as Fayaz turned a citizen journalist (CJ) to expose the scam.

So the same people who have been surpressed by the government officers turn now openly against them and win their cases – no matter if they can read or write. This is a change!

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Mohammad Afzal Guru was a convict in the December 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament, who was sentenced to death by a special Prevention of Terrorism Act Court in 2002. The Delhi High Court confirmed the judgment in 2003 and his appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court of India in 2005. The sentence was scheduled to be carried out on 20 October 2006, but Afzal was given a stay of execution and remained on death row. On 3 February 2013, his mercy petition was rejected by the President of India Pranab Mukherjee. He was hanged at Delhi’s Tihar Jail 9 February 2013

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Do many people know about the RTI Act?

Surprisingly in rural areas more people know about RTI than in urban areas! I think this is partially the result of our work. We started out in the rural areas and we got huge support from both: the local and from the national media. They tracked many cases and interviewed the people.

What are the impacts of RTI? What kind of change do you see?

I cannot say that corruption drastically came down in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, but at least it dropped a little bit. But what is really important is that government officers all of a sudden realize that there is a “control” function coming from the public, the community including poor Kashmiris – the officers’ job is no longer only “serving” their superiors! So government people start to act differently including police and security officers!

Does the Internet help you in your work?

Actually people in the rural areas in Kashmir – they don’t know what the Internet is. Only a few. The situation is improving in smaller towns – there the people get information from Facebook and other sites. Therefore the Internet played only a minor role in getting the word out there. This was pure mouth-to-mouth communication plus traditional media as explained above.

But for the movement itself, for connecting us with other movements in India – the Internet was and still is very important. It is our platform to collaborate and communicate over the various states.

How do you see the future of Kashmir?

We should address this issue according to the wish of the people – we should democratically address it. We ask the Kahmiri people. Our options are: • Do you want to remain with India?

• Do you want to remain with Pakistan?

• Do you want to become a sovereign state?

I for myself I’d go for a separate state.

Not that I don’t love India and its constitution but we Kashmiris have suffered a lot since 1947 ... and the entire issue is hugely emotional.

Pakistan for me is no choice – without any further explanation.

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Š Raghava K.K.

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Perspectives.

NO Biases.

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“The truth is I’m an Indian – I’m bloody biased, but I want my work to be biased with as many perspectives as possible.”

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Raghava K.K. is Indian. He is an artist. These days he lives with his family in New York.

Pop-It, a children book for the iPad by Raghava K.K., let’s you change the outcome of the story. Children can actually shake the iPad to change the parents in the tale from a gay couple, to a lesbian one, to a straight one.

Another book about Indian independence changes to see that history with Pakistani and also with British eyes. Raghava is teaching perspectives and, in turn, teaching children to think in terms of perspectives, as opposed to pure bias.

Perspectives – he says – is one of the best ways to teach children creativity.

From both – perspectives and creativity – EMPATHY will emerge.

And EMPYTHY is needed for a better understanding.

This is why we encouraged the following three conversations.

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Prabhleen (25) Social Activist Delhi (India)

asking Rana Jarbou

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Rana Jarbou (31) Social Documentation & Research Riyadh (Saudi Arabia)

asking Prabhleen

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Prabhleen asking Rana Jarbou

Do you think skill based education for girls, especially for those who have dropped out of schools will lead them towards empowerment.

If yes, then what would be the skills you think should be imparted?

I wholeheartedly agree that skill-based education leads towards empowerment of the female population of Saudi Arabia. Women need to work much harder than men in order to prove their competency. The educational system and on-the-job training alone are insufficient to pave the way for successful careers for both men and women in the kingdom, hence why many foreigners are a competitive threat in the workforce. With virtually no foundation for critical thinking in the educational curriculum, strict censorship of literature, and little importance given to humanities, the average citizen is unequipped and thus required to proactively seek the necessary tools and skills for success.

Language and computing skills are obviously indispensable and basic for all factions of the society. But I would stress on acquiring knowledge-based skills and research experience, in order for women to become better informed and more aware and critical. Being knowledgeable, analytical, and multi-disciplinary, a woman becomes more confident and ambitious in an otherwise disheartening and male-dominant society.

Is sexual harassment in public spaces recognised as an issue of violence or an issue which is normalised and nothing can be done about it?

In the gender-segregated society, it is hard to address let alone acknowledge sexual harassment.

It is not supposed to exist because I am not supposed to interact with my fellow male citizens. It exists of course but by addressing this problem – we are encouraging women to be exposed to men.

Domestic violence is a ‘hidden issue’. Here is an example of where skill-based education has empowered women in their contribution to public policy and advocating against child abuse and violence against women. It is becoming more and more inevitable that something indeed must be done about it. It is a health concern and the medical institutions are playing a role in recognizing it as an issue. However, it is empowered, ambitious, and hard-working women in such institutions that have pushed boundaries. Without them, it would indeed be a ‘hopeless’ issue.

Are there basic essential services like toilets for women in public spaces such as schools, markets etc? Does that affect the mobility and access of women in the area?

Yes, there are. What affects mobility and access of women is not having these essential services available, but rather their inability to drive and a lack of public transportation system (more details on this in the last question).

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Rana Jarbou asking Prabhleen

If you could be a man for a day, and hence be able to exercise any of the rights given to your male counterparts, how would you spend this day?

This is a tricky question. I don’t know what I would like to do in one day and what I can do. But the first thing that comes into my mind, is that I would like to be a newspaper seller – a men's domaine in India. Newspaper sellers deliver newspapers in the morning. I always wanted to experience the city in different hours and certainly I would feel great if I could access the city in the morning through my work – walking from door to door spreading the news.

Women are never seen as newspaper vendors or ‘postmen’. They are always called names and men say that they love to ‘gossip’ and are very ‘talkative’. But, when I would get an opportunity, I would like to do all these male dominated tasks or at least some of them. So the next day – when I am woman again – I confidently can say that women can do the same things, that it's not a purely ‘men’s job. I have experienced it now.

What is the biggest hindrance to your daily activities and everyday life as a woman?

The biggest hindrance in my life is the lack of support from my siblings. In India, ever since you are a child, you are taught about the significance of family in one’s life. This inherently nurtures the urge to strengthen the relationship within the family, especially with your siblings. In a situation like mine where you have a six years older brother, there seems to be a very thin line between what is seen as friendly relationship and what it really is.

As a child I remember being compared with my brother and his interests in things like maths – which neither I liked nor had an interest in. But this permanent comparison these days was painful. Gradually – as I grew older – I showed signs of confidence in making my decisions, when I faced serious repercussions. My brother, of whom I thought he would understand me the most and would encourage me, actually diverted his energies in ‘controlling’ me and asking me to be under his ‘supervision and guidance’. This constant struggle to balance my own choices which define my personal identity with those of my family members has been – I think – the greatest challenge for me so far.

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Prabhleen asking Rana Jarbou

How disabled friendly are the your public space?

Do you have ramps for disabled, voice announcements for the hearing impaired or any such things?

It depends from place to place, from city to village, etc. I have never needed to inquire about such, and so I cannot give an informed answer. My guess, however, would be that public places are indeed disabled friendly. However, “public spaces” to me mean “malls”. (Apart from the public space in the street). Otherwise, all public buildings have elevators.

Given a chance – what are the three important changes you would make in the current legal, political and social system of your country to ensure rights of women?

The important changes I would like to see in my country could fall into multiple categories, as the legal, political and social systems are all overlapping. This question is rich, but I gladly answer.

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Political: Change the educational curriculum – Many things need to be changed. Critical thinking and more weight to literature, humanities, and research need to be adopted, while at the same time many Wahabist religious teachings that promote intolerance to alternative interpretation and practice of Islam need reform. The hindrances for enforcing reform in the educational system are solely political. Addressing the flaws in the educational system poses a threat to the current political system in place. If the current political system is to apply true political reform, reforming the educational system would go hand in hand.

Abolish the Religious Police – Islam is part of us. It is imbedded in our history and culture. The Mutaween or CPVPV (Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice) have exercised much power in patrolling the streets of the kingdom enforcing their interpretation of Islam. This has been a source of controversy, fear, and a misalignment of national priorities. I would never need to contact the Mutaween in order to protect me from sexual harrassment (because according to their application of Islam – I’m not allowed to be in contact with men in the first place). I would never need to contact the Mutaween to ‘solve’ a problem, because for me personally, they have been the main source of my problems. Instead, I suggest a body that fights corruption and domestic violence and promotes a green environment just to name a few. They do not need to be eliminated altogether, they can continue to exist, but their powers over my daily life and how I practice my faith need to be relinquished. They can be an organization and not a police.

No imposed closing hours during prayer time – Businesses, government institutions and public and private offices should continue to function during prayer times. Prayer should be an individual practice and not a collectively imposed one. If a store owner needs to pray, he can do what other store owners do in other Muslim countries: pray while having another employee cover in their absence. They take turns by agreeing on their slots, which should not be more than 20 minutes apart. The fact that everything closes during prayer is a major hindrance to the functionality and productivity of the every-day life.

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Rana Jarbou asking Prabhleen

What has been more influential and impacting in empowering women to seek personal independence and freedom and take charge of their lives within the Indian society at large?

• education, documentation and awareness programs, • money/financial backing, or • granting rights & changing/adding a law to protect/facilitate women?

Please rank according to efficiency and give reason.

Women are a heterogeneous constituency and therefore empowerment would mean different things to different women. So, while for a woman in the country side, it would be money and financial banking that would have had the most positive impact in her life on the other hand, it would be awareness programmes for a woman living in suburban areas which become a platform for her to realize her strengths and reclaim her rights. Having said that, I want to reaffirm that no one strategy could ever achieve a complete sense of empowerment and a society based on rights.

Education, formal or informal, literary or artistic has been a catalyst in women accessing their right to information and knowledge. This directly impacts their ‘defined’ roles in the society and on the contrary opens new avenues for women to participate and thus have their voice in decision making. Undoubtedly, documentation of processes of empowerment have always been an encouraging factor for several women who feel the solidarity amongst all to fight for their fundamental rights and live a dignified life. Several studies have shown that a woman’s daily work at home is a non visible contribution to the economies of the countries. So, having financial stability to ensure economic empowerment definitely would give an impetus to women’s rights. The law enforcement agencies have a curative as well as preventive role to play in endorsing women’s rights. All these and several other measures are also related to the law agency which can ratify identified strategies of empowerment as compulsory for women. For example, the Right to Education in India guarantees right for every child to attend free school till age of 14, the Sexual Harassment at Workplace guidelines have been a breakthrough in women being able to create safer work environments, and so on and so forth. Legal systems also are redressal for survivors of violence who are seeking justice and act as a deterrent to further crimes against women. So, I think all the given options have to go hand in hand in the road towards women’s empowerment and dignified life.

How does an Indian woman’s plight vary across the country?

Is it relevant to the place / location, educational background, social status, cultural norms, religion practiced or all given different importance – and can you please give me a broad picture?

Do you do things differently when you travel from one part of India to the next?

Do you dress differently?

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Prabhleen asking Rana Jarbou

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Legal: Legalize driving for women – there are perhaps many more important laws that need to be changed, enforced and/or imposed, the law forbidding women from driving however is very symbolic. Once the women driving ban is lifted, many aspects of the social and cultural norms will by default adjust to the mere fact that a woman is mobile and not dependent on a male ‘driver’ to take her from point A to B. Driving is merely a symbol for mobility, and mobility is crucial in women empowerment and independence.

Lift the imposed gender segregation – the system of gender apartheid in the kingdom ensures that women remain second-class citizens. Having minimized interaction with fellow male citizens makes women feel inferior.

Imposed segregation ensures that they are not equal citizens.

Information and censorship – the subject of censorship and access to information is very broad. Any step taken in addressing censorship in the kingdom is a positive and effective step. I would like to enter the country without having to worry about my books showing in the customs’ bags inspection. While beginning the process of unblocking, more libraries and book stores need to be built. It would be nice to have as many public libraries as shopping malls.

Social: Civil Society Organizations – CSO’s are imperative for citizens to practice full citizenship. Organizing, community building, engaging in civic duties, creating workers’ unions, etc. is unheard of in Saudi Arabia. This is rather more a political change I would like to see, but a significant demand is required from the society.

Veil & hijab – first, I am against the imposed veil. Many women wear the veil in neighboring Gulf countries but out of choice, which I appreciate. The imposed veil in Saudi is a law. Yet there is a social aspect. I would like to see the perspective on ‘modesty’ change and be less painfully ironic. For example, I would like it if the Saudi female citizens whom wear the hijab abroad to do just the same in the country. I would like to see more consistency in the logic of modesty in both its interpretation and application. I would like to see women’s faces in all-women’s spaces and buildings (because even with gender segregation,most women remain fully covered in many female public spaces).

Public Transportation – aside from taxis, systematic public transportation available for citizens to move around in the city is virtually nonexistent. I would like to be able to walk to a bus stop from home, even if I am given the right to drive. The idea that this is not possible in our culture is very telling. Female citizens are dependent on low-paid foreign drivers, male relatives, and taxis for them to move around. It is absurd, and this (my immobility) is literally the biggest frustration I face daily in my country. Because of this, I am less productive and more dependent on men. And of course, this is also a source of family quarrels between the female members of my home. My wonderfully considerate mother asks me every morning: “Do you need the driver?”.

We coordinate daily.

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Rana Jarbou asking Prabhleen

What are the limitations of what thoughts and opinions you can express in certain places or context?

There is a very common adage in India that it is a land of “UNITY in Diversity”. So, from the beginning the differences are highlighted constantly which at times rises ghettos of certain communities based on their indigenous identities.

India across is not unilateral or uniform. Social identity of women like age, class, caste, religion, disability, occupation have been governing factors. But there are certain statuses that are always vulnerable. For example, a transgender is never guaranteed basic citizenship rights, be it in rural or urban setting, a child of a sex worker will rarely be able to enjoy right to education or leisure.

Personally speaking, I feel more comfortable and safe when I am in a different location. My sense of enjoying the same public spaces like markets is very different if I am in a new city or even in the country side as compared to my home town. When I reflect back, I think it’s the anonymity that a new place gives me that I am able to feel more comfortable. The realization that there would be no ‘judgmental’ values to my actions and behaviors by strangers and even if there are, it won’t be restrictive in my further actitives , makes me explore what all I can actually do.

I can write pages on this. I don’t see a difference in love defined by me versus love defined by the society if I look at the society from my eyes. But if I check the reality, there is very less scope for ‘acceptance’ to relationships between a girl and a boy. This surely varies from community to community and from city to city. For most in the society, love is seen only within heterogeneous relationships. In several communities, the idea of love only begins after marriage, which has worked for some women and for many others it is a different story.

In some cities, it is very common to be in relationships. Actually, for many college going girls and boys being in love is considered as a ‘status symbol’ which has been unfortunately very problematic. For example, violence within intimate partner relationships is neither recognized nor spoken about. So, the fact that there would be little space for you to share with your family, specially for girls, many a times makes them more vulnerable. ‘Control’ in the name of ‘love’ is very common among the youth and has proved harmful in several situations specially for girls. Till today, a greater acceptability and respect is given to ‘arranged’ marriages where parental choice is of utmost importance.

Love follows life and not the other way round.

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Gurgaon, Haryana

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Sumit Wadhwa (26) Consultant Financial Services New Delhi (India)

asking David Li

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David Li (40) Programmer Shanghai (China)

asking Sumit Wadhwa

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Sumit Wadhwa asking David Li

As we all know, the stock market is the barometer of economic development.

However, China’s rapid economic growth and long-term sluggish stock market are in striking contrast, something rarely seen in worldwide securities markets. What is the reason behind this phenomenon?

The Chinese stock market isn’t really for companies to seek capital for expansion but much more a private liquid capital absorbing machine for the state owned enterprises, thus the state.

The real big growth sectors in China reside in the private owned enterprises. Most of the companies managed to grow to large size without outside investors; thus no need to be listed in public and no need to provide exits to investors.

They do not need the capital for expansion either.

From past few years, Chinese economy has maintained a momentum of rapid growth (9% to 12%) while many other economies in the world have slumped. As far as China is concerned, what are the reasons behind such dissimilarity?

Will China continue to maintain such strong momentum?

The stimulation packages deployed by the government have worked well to create consumption of white goods and home appliances in the third and fourth tier cities as well as in the rural areas in the past few years. One of the key thing in the package is the cash incentive to more energy efficient white goods. This coupled well with the “Go West” policy which encourages companies to invest in the western regions. It has caused a large number of migrant workers moving back home from the costal cities. There are reports of labor shortage in the costal cities. Surprisingly the workers’ move was rarely mentioned. The returning workers from the cost brought back their savings and stimulated the economy back home. This had a huge impact!

I think the country will continue to grow in the short term – driven by the demand of modernizing the rest of the country. The real challenge is whether the more developed costal cities can transform themselves under the new economic circumstances.

What are the effects on Chinese economy from the global slowdown?

What were the policies taken by the government to curtail the repercussion on the economy?

What steps are further taken or planned to make economy immune to potential slow-down in western countries going forward?

Domestic consumption is always a big push. With the return of woofers from the costal cities, the construction and real estate development also moved west. These are all key measure to shield from global slowdown.

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David Li asking Sumit Wadhwa

The lack of infrastructure and the huge slums in major cities have been one of the problems cited by foreign investors about India. What plan does Indian government have to improve the situation?

China and India are often evaluated as “equal” by western executives when it comes to where to expand business or where to outsource. But the reality is that China is decades ahead of India regarding infrastructure – an important consideration for industries reliant on power, water, transport or information infrastructure. Currently India’s infrastructure is rather depressing, but most of the problems are within reach and can be sorted out if well planned and invested.

Is the situation going to improve? India’s government has committed itself to improve the nation’s power grid. But in the world’s largest democracy very often such commitments aren’t more than election campaigns. A pity. And not for the best of the nation’s growth.

It’s not that the government of India doesn't realize the importance of such investments to tackle the country’s decreasing economy. It has doubled the investment in infrastructure from INR 20.5 trillion to INR 40.9 trillion during the Twelfth Plan’s period. The total investment in infrastructure including roads, railways, ports, airports, electricity, telecommunications, oil gas pipelines and irrigation, was expected to increase from 5.7% of India’s GDP in the first year of the Eleventh Plan to around 8.3% in last year’s plan. The Twelfth Plan proposes to increase the share up to more than 10.5% by the end of its period. These figures – if realized – can propel the country’s economic growth.

The manufacturing sector in India does not play as an important role in the economy as the service sector.

Do you think manufacturing should become a priority?

While the service sector has its own significant role to play, the manufacturing sector is certainly high on India’s priority list. And I assume this is true for any third world economy. In order to grow further India’s economy must develop its manufacturing sector. Especially when you keep in mind that every new job in the manufacturing sector is creating four additional jobs in related areas. So prioritizing this sector is a must since it will create millions of new employment opportunities for the Indian youth.

So far, despite its obvious contribution to the country’s growth, the Indian manufacturing sector has contributed only about 15% to the GDP – which is minor compared to the service sector’s share of approximately 57%. Therefore the Indian government’s initiative, the “National Manufacturing Policy (NMP)” is meant to increase the role of this sector.

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Sumit Wadhwa asking David Li

The effect will be felt in the costal cities with their strong reliance on export. Another (maybe negative) effect for them is the matter of fact that the low cost labor factories moved and are moving to the Western regions. However with rapid development of the Western regions, the overall economy may not see an overall slowdown.

From the central government, the policy is tiled towards the western region while leaving the rich costal cities to solve their own problems.

It’s important to note that all provinces and cities in China are governed locally without much central government assistance and they are free to experiment with different kind of models.

Lately, the Chinese Government has issued a certain scale of long-term treasury bonds for construction and to promote infrastructure development in the economy every year. Where have the treasury bonds been invested?

What part have they played in facilitating China’s overall economic development?

Yes the treasury bonds are one more tool for the Chinese government to use and with the slowdown of other economies they will look much more attractive. The governments tend to invest in infrastructure projects. They are still needed since most of China is still in a status we would call a “developing country”. The facades of Beijing or Shanghai hardly reflect the real needs for infrastructure in China. So the bonds will be used for the massive build up of infrastructure in the western region of China. They are a help since foreign direct investments as well as domestic investments are slow for this region.

Tax revenue has become an important source to accumulate wealth and increase national strength for China as it has grown more than 20% in past few years. Since reform and opening up, what reforms have been conducted on the taxation system?

What are ideas for future reform?

The taxation reform is still mainly focused on the business sector. Cities like Shanghai are experimenting with VAT. Taxing will come gradually and carefully as this is one issue that could easily agitate the public. However taxes would be a great source of revenue for the government – and to be honest, a revenue which is really needed. Large parts of the country are still operating in a grey market economy.

In the future we might see much stricter tax codes and higher taxes for large companies. Especially for those which received foreign investments. State owned enterprises (SOE) will probably know better how to sidestep taxes – presumably by spending a lot of them on the employees. Taxes on luxury items as well as property taxes are likely to come.

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David Li asking Sumit Wadhwa

The differences in the political systems between China and India have often been attributed / attached / associated to the differences in the economy development.

What do you think are the strength and weaknesses of the current political system in India?

The Indian political system is rather known for its weaknesses than its strength. It’s often described as chaotic. Sadly speaking, many parliament members are facing criminal charges. Many of them dealing with the countries biggest epidemic: corruption. The scams are endless: Colgate, 2G, common wealth scam – just to name a few – and the legal investigations are more or less a joke.

India’s society is diverse. Its population is divided by religion, region, language, caste and race. This has led to the rise of political parties with agendas serving one or a mix of these groups. Some parties openly assert their focus on a particular group for example the “Shiv Sena’s” pro Marathi agenda. Such narrow focuses together with the vote bank politics of most parties, even in the central government, are counterproductive to systems such as economic welfare (poverty, inflation and unemployment) and national security. They also destabilize India’s internal security – violence between two opposing groups is a frequent occurrence.

If we can tackle these issues as fast as possible then most certainly India’s economy will flourish: fiscal deficit, inflation, unemployment and poverty will then become history.

Bollywood is one of the biggest movie production areas in the world and its influence is now been felt even in Hollywood. China has been trying to promote its media/creative sectors without much success.

What can China’s creative industries learn from Bollywood?

Indians love cinema much more than the Chinese do. With 2.9 billion box office admissions per year India is ahead of the US, ranking No. 2, with double the amount of people going to the movie theatre. Apart from being at the top in domestic box office admissions, India also has the highest percentage of admissions for local films and the lowest percentage of admissions for US films in the world – meaning that Indians watch more local movies and less American movies than any other country in the world. One reason why Bollywood is second regarding international box office admissions.

The film industries of many East Asian countries primarily China, Japan, Hong Kong, are very often suffering from cliché and genre overdose – e.g. Kung Fu movies in China, whereas Bollywood productions are expected to contain catchy music and appealing dance performances. Love triangles, comedy and devil thrills are all mixed up in a threehour extravaganza.

The Indian audience is expecting full value for its money – paisa vasool (or “Money Worth”).

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David Li asking Sumit Wadhwa

Export oriented services (= outsourcing) have been one of the key economic growth drivers in India.

How is this sector dealing with the global economic slowdown?

Or is the slowdown becoming an opportunity for growth?

Presently the export sector is contributing around 20% to India’s GDP and outsourcing only 1%. On that note, we can certainly say that the export sector is one of the key drivers for our economic growth. And its share is increasing every year. Outsourcing plays only a minor role – as I pointed out above.

The financial crises in the West (EU and USA) has adversely affected India’s exports and its outsourcing sector. It is very much apparent that the global slowdown causes lower demand which subsequently effects exports of any economy. And this has been observed in India as well. To fight this, governments generally create internal demand by using monetary and fiscal policies or both – e.g. the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently cut down the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) to push industrial growth and achieve higher production.

Indian statistics clearly show that global slowdowns have always had an negative impact on India’s economy including the outsourcing sector – even though counter initiatives were taken. The “netto” results were only negligible.

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Aman Ki Asha Attari â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Wagah Border Ceremony, India/Pakistan

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Yatin K. Thakur (27) Director at wiser.org New Delhi (India)

asking Muhamad Farhan Janjua

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Muhamad Farhan Janjua (23) Blogger / Editor Lahore (Pakistan)

asking Yatin K. Thakur

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Yatin K. Thakur asking Muhamad Farhan Janjua

What is your perception about Indians?

My perception is that Indian people are just like us or anybody else in the world. It’s based upon these two things: • watching Indian culture in form of Bollywood movies and TV and • meeting Indians in person.

I haven’t found much difference. They are pretty much the same as Pakistanis are; welcoming, hospitable, polite and of course lovable.

India and Pakistan has been one for a very long time, and this partition was created by the British, what do you think has been the biggest impact of this partition on both our nations?

You see, this is exactly the kind of misunderstanding we have: you and perhaps many Indians, if not all, believe that the partition was created by the British! To an ordinary Pakistani, this is insulting. It’s shaking the very foundations our country is built upon. Our leaders and founding fathers feared that the British oppression would turn into a Hindu oppression. They fought and struggled for a greater autonomy for the Muslim people and they called for a separate homeland within Muslim majority areas.The call was responded by the masses. They joined the movement, put on pressure and made the creation of Pakistan possible. So it was the right and the choice of the Muslim people to self-determine their future.

I’d reserve my opinion whether the partition should have taken place or not! Regardless of that, it was a people movement.

The biggest impact in my opinion is: even though both, Pakistan and India gained independence from the British, both were hostile towards each other and the enmity led to a number of wars. The division turned out to be very bloody and brutal – many people lost their relatives during migration. Until today several Pakistanis have relatives across the border whom they haven’t seen in ages.

So I think the way forward towards peace is to be open-minded and try to understand and accept each others roots.

Has Pakistan’s youth a general understanding of the political structure in the country?

I think the majority of the educated youth has a pretty good understanding of Pakistan’s political structure, its governmental system, the federation and the provincial governments. The youth seems to be pretty much aware about the differences between a democratic government and a military regime.

But if we look at the country as a whole there are many people who’d like to believe in conspiracy theories. There are stories out there such as the Americans or the RAW (Research and Analysis Wing – the external Intelligence Agency of India) are somehow controlling Pakistan’s political scenery and hindering the peace process. Now, this is unfortunate but to be honest, many people believe so.

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Muhamad Farhan Janjua asking Yatin K. Thakur

What’s your perception about Pakistanis? Do you hate us?

Pakistanis are always loved. No matter what we hear, there is surely a bonding between north Indians and Pakistanis as most of our ancestors came from Pakistan and settled in New Delhi. We like the Mughlai food and some of the handcrafts of your artisans.

How much do you think Indian people care about what politicians say about Pakistan?

Politicians always try to influence the people of India. In fact you will be surprised, in rural areas they do not even bother too much about Pakistani or Hindustani. It’s just some bad phases during partition which have left a memory in the minds of our grand parents. However, slowly that is also fading away.

Would you like to visit Pakistan?

Which Pakistani place do you like the most?

Given an opportunity I would surely like to visit Pakistan, specially Lahore as my grand parents are from Lahore.

They were born there.

Do you think sensationalistic media of both sides have the power to escalate the tensions between India and Pakistan?

According to me, media just want to gossip and to create news which generate a greater audience and revenues for them. But besides this they do play a big role in changing peoples’ perception. Some sources say that the media is actually controlled by a few international organizations which do not want peace between our nations. Given that situation it is obvious sensationalistic media tries to escalate tensions.

Suggest one thing every young Pakistani should do to advance friendship with India?

I feel that neighbours don’t need to advance friendship – my home is your home. Good neighbours should be good neighbours in good as well as in bad times. Once each Pakistani youngster starts supporting one Indian youngster and exchange their thoughts, I am sure friendship can be strengthened. We see exactly this among many Indians and Pakistanis staying abroad. Why can’ we follow them?

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Yatin K. Thakur asking Muhamad Farhan Janjua

Do you foresee economic growth in Pakistan?

Are you happy staying in Pakistan?

Economic growth right now is slow in Pakistan because we are facing big challenges like corruption, poverty and unemployment. But if you ask how I foresee our future, I think we’re slow but we’ll get there.

I have often thought about leaving my country but then – at the same time – I think about all the opportunities we have which aren’t available elsewhere. As an entrepreneur for example I can get started at very low costs. Setting up a company is cheap, workforce is cheap – we can get up and running in no time. This is only one of the several opportunities ;)

Do you think art and artists have a major role to play in promoting peace between India and Pakistan?

Absolutely! I have always advocated the arts and sports. It gives people of both nations something to cherish. We love Bollywood movies and Indo-Pak sports. Same way Indians love Pakistani musicians and actors. And don’t get me started on Indo-Pak cricket;-) It’s simply mesmerizing to experience a cricket match between both nations. I am sure Indians feel the same way ... ;-)

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