Water level is dropping at alarming rate in Patna

As per this report, it seems that water table is going down in Patna, at the rate of 13 cm per year.
This is already showing its impact in PATNA as people have to start using submersible pumps to get groundwater.

This is a long term threat to Bihar and India's food and social security.

Water conservation and urban planning are needed urgently.

Challenging Bihar on Primary Education

Rukmini Banerji has done a great job of reviewing primary education in Bihar

A ground level view of primary education in today’s Bihar and an attempt to understand what it means to “demand” or “deliver” development show the state government keen to bring about a major educational change with an increase in allocations and inputs. But is this enough to turn around a system of behaviour in government and among citizens that has evolved over a long period of time? It is clear that inputs and incentives do not automatically translate into higher participation in education. Within the system, “business as usual” is accompanied by apathy, while new opportunities and innovations seem to generate energy and can activate both citizens and front-line government workers to behave differently. View Full Article

March against Corruption at Patna on 30-Jan-2011

People of Patna marched against Corruption on 30-Jan-2011.
You can see pics here

Gems of Bihar - Camille Bulcke

Camille Bulcke was born in Ramskapelle, a village in Knokke-Heist municipality in the Belgian province of West Flanders [2]

Bulcke had already acquired a B.Sc. degree in civil engineering from Louvain University, when he became a Jesuit in 1930 [3] After doing his philosophical training in Valkenburg, Netherlands, (1932–34) he left for India in 1934 and after a brief stay in Darjeeling, he taught Mathematics for five years at Gumla (present Jharkhand). It was here that he developed his lifelong passion for learning Hindi, as later recalled:

"When I arrived in India in 1935, I was surprised and pained when I realised that many educated people were unaware of their cultural traditions and considered it a matter of pride to speak in English. I resolved my duty would be to master the language of the people." - The Faith Of A Christian — Devotion To Hindi And To Tulsi.
In 1949 Bulcke was made Head of the department of Sanskrit and Hindi of St Xavier's College, Ranchi. But early hearing problems led him to go more for a scholar's than a professor's career.

He felt much attracted by the 17th century's Hindi poet Tulsidas on whose writings he made his doctoral thesis. Bulcke was often invited to give conferences on the Hindi poet and his devotional Rama-songs, which he did with much enthusiasm.

He brought people in touch with the profound values of their own spiritual traditions, and, according to him, Tulsidas was also an excellent introduction to the values of the Gospel. He obtained Indian citizenship in 1951, and - highly esteemed by the Government of India - was made a member of the National commission for the promotion of Hindi as the national language.

He took on the name Bihari after acquiring Indian citizenship.

He died in Delhi on August 17, 1982.

Gems of Bihar - George Orwell

George Orwell is a famous English Novelist who got critical acclaim for his novels, 1984, The Animal Farm.

He was born at Motihari.

Some details are

25th june 1903- 21st jan 1950

Birth Place-Motihari, Bihar

Novels- Animal Farm(1945), Ninteen Eighty four (1949)

A N College Patna is going places

A N College, Patna is going places. It has got quite a few partnership with European Universities and it is bearing fruit.

Read this story about Dutch students joining A N College, Patna for doing their work on Solar Power plants and Arsenic removal.

Must Read - A Father who failed

Pritish Nandy has aptly described the agony of nation in enduring one scandal after another. There is no stopping it - CWG, Adarsh Colony, 2G Spectrum, 3G Spectrum, Koda.

Read the article for sure.

Protest against Stampede at New Delhi Railway Station on May 17. 2010

I have filed a complaint against Railway officials responsible for stampede at New Delhi Railway Station on May 17th, at GOI public grievance site.

http://pgportal.gov.in/

I have had qualified success with this site regarding my complaint about train not being cleaned at Howrah Railway Station and TTE taking bribe to seat people in AC Chair car even though they did not have AC Chaircar tickets. This happened during my December 2009 visit to India.

I filed complaint in January end and got a reference no. I got an email from PR officer from Eastern railway,Howrah stating that cleaning work was outsourced to a private company and that company has been fined. Railway is yet to respond to my 2nd query about TTE taking bribe to seat people in AC chair car.

However, this episode has made me have some faith in system that, at least, people would be heard.

So, I went ahead and filed a complaint with Railways at http://pgportal.gov.in/

My complain is as follows and I would request you all to spare 10 mins to file another complaint about the same.

Please forward this email to all.

------------ COMPLAINT TEXT Follows -------------

I am appalled to see this news about irreplaceable loss of lives due to an avoidable stampede at New Delhi Railway Station, on 17th May, 2010, in Times of India.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/2-killed-in-New-Delhi-railway-station-stampede/articleshow/5938378.cms

What bothers me most is that Railway Station Authorities at New Delhi, announced the change of Platform very late and then brought the trains to railway station, only 20 minutes before departure. In case of Sapta Kranti Express, it was brought to platform only 10 minutes before the departure.

Anyone who has traveled from Delhi to East Bound trains to Bihar/Bengal, knows very well that there is heavy rush of passengers and it is worse in Summer.

Then, how is it possible that Railway Station authorities did not know of this and went ahead of switch of platform? Similar tragic accidents have occurred in Past at New Delhi Railway station and we have still not learn our lesson.

It is my humble request to you to institute a judicial inquiry into this incident and publish the findings so that Common man can also know the reasons.

All the steps should be taken to punish those who are responsible for this ghastly crime against innocent and hapless train passengers from New Delhi to Bihar.

Bihar: Rising From the Shadows

This article, Bihar Rising from the Shadows, is an affirmation of the fact that Bihar has changed for better under Nitish's regime.

Write is from Munger and she has done a good job of summarizing the changes which
Bihar has seen in last 4 years.

Read full article to know more here.

A Documentary about Late Dasrath Manjhi - by Singapore Television

Singapore Television has produced a good documentary about Late Dasrath Manjhi and his incredible work in Gaya.

Our own TVS (TV Sinha) is also interviewed for this.

Do watch these videos.


Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_MgjTYMtsw
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfufIc3gR7Y
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEvTVmNDH-0

US satellites unlock secret to north India's vanishing water

Following report confirms what has been feared for quite sometime now. Groundwater is getting depleted in north india and we might end up in massive drought and hunger.


US satellites unlock secret to north India's vanishing water

Indo Asian News ServiceFri, Aug 14 02:10 PM

New York, Aug 14 (IANS) Unsustainable use of water in India's northern states threatens farm output and can fuel the spectre of a major water crisis, distressing 114 million people living there, warns a new study.

Human activity like irrigation has pushed groundwater levels in India's north down by as much as one foot per year over the past seven years, says the study by scientists at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

More than 26 cubic miles of groundwater vanished from aquifers in the states of Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and the National Capital Territory of Delhi since 2002, says the study that has used NASA's satellite data.

'The amount lost is double the capacity of India's largest surface-water reservoir, the Upper Wainganga, and almost three times the capacity of Lake Mead in Nevada, the largest reservoir in the US,' says the study, which has been published in the Nature magazine.

The team of hydrologists found that the underground water supply was being pumped and consumed by human activities such as irrigating cropland and was draining the aquifers faster than natural processes can replenish them.

The finding is based on data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (Grace) twin satellites, which sense changes in the distribution of Earth's mass and gravity field distribution, including water masses stored above or below the surface.

'As the twin satellites orbit 300 miles above Earth's surface, their positions change relative to each other in response to variations in the pull of gravity,' said the magazine.

The scientists said data provided by India's ministry of water resources for the study suggested groundwater use across India was far exceeding natural replenishment, but the regional rate of depletion was unknown.

'We don't know the absolute volume of water in the northern Indian aquifers, but Grace provides strong evidence that current rates of water extraction are not sustainable,' said the study leader and NASA scientist Matt Rodell.

'The region has become dependent on irrigation to maximize farm output,' said Rodell.

'If measures are not taken to ensure sustainable groundwater usage, the consequences for the 114 million residents of the region may include a collapse of agricultural output and severe shortages of potable water.'

Although less than a third of farmland there is irrigated, crop irrigation accounts for up to 95 percent of groundwater use. 'If farmers could shift away from water-intensive crops, such as rice, and implement more efficient irrigation methods, that would help.'

The researchers examined data and models of soil moisture, lake and reservoir storage, vegetation and glaciers in the nearby Himalayas in order to confirm that the apparent groundwater trend was real.

The loss was particularly alarming because it occurred when there was no unusual trend in rainfall. In fact, rainfall was slightly above normal for the period.

The only influence they couldn't rule out was human.

Changes in underground water mass affect gravity enough to provide a signal that can be measured by the Grace spacecraft. After accounting for other variations, such changes in gravity are translated into an equivalent change in water.

Rice Husk ash filter can useful in villages

TCS developed Rice Husk ash filter which can be useful for Bihar as we have many villages where water is not pure.

Brief Technical details are here.

Filter is priced at 200 and cartridge costs 25 rupees & lasts for 6-8 months.

Playing politics with floods

Do read this article by Dinesh Mishra ji.

http://www.indiatogether.org/2007/sep/gov-floods.htm

Other articles worth reading are
http://www.indiawaterportal.org/blog/index.php/2007/12/03/bihar-floods-relief-wo\
rk-contd/

Excerpts from 1st article are
----------------------------
State and Centre funding football

The responsibility of providing relief in the wake of natural
calamities including floods primarily rests with the concerned state
governments. The government of India supplements the efforts of the
state governments where necessary by providing logistic and financial
support. For this purpose, the state governments are allocated
Calamity Relief Fund (CRF), which is contributed by government of
India and the state government in the ratio of 3:1. Additional
assistance is also provided to the state government in the event of a
calamity of severe nature from the National Calamity Contingency Fund
(NCCF) after following the laid down procedure.

In August 2003, a corpus fund of Rs.108.97 crores was available with
the Bihar government in the CRF, as per the government's own reports.
Out of this money, only Rs.19 crores were released from the fund for
carrying out relief operations in the state till August that year.
Yet, the Rabri Devi Government in Bihar repeatedly flayed the central
government for not helping the state with the requisite money.

Anirban Roy wrote in The Hindustan Times (13 September 2003), "The
state government is yet to get the central assistance of Rs.112 crores
allotted in 2002-03 under special package for relief distribution in
the flood affected districts. The central government has not released
the money as it has taken the stand that the state government should
first spend the CRF money before it seeks the release of more central
funds." Obviously, the state government was not in a position to
provide the utilisation certificates for the funds sanctioned to it
earlier and wanted the flood victims to believe that the central
government was responsible for it. That was the time when the RJD was
in power in Bihar and the NDA was ruling in Delhi.

It is now 2007, and the scenario has reversed. The two governments
have exchanged positions. Lalu Prasad Yadav at the Centre suggests
that the state government has not made any demands to the Centre, and
that the Centre on its own initiative sent relief money to Bihar
although the state had not submitted the expenditure accounts for the
previous year. The NDA Government of Bihar says that whatever
assistance comes from the Centre is provided for under the regulations
of the 12th Finance Commission and is not at the behest of any one
minister at the Centre. Even so, according to a press report, Sushil
Kumar Modi, the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar said in early August
that the state had not received any money from the Centre.

A beautiful politician

This tribune article by AJ Philip is worth sharing with others.

He writes about TARKESHWARI SINHA who was elected as MP at the age of 26 years. She was named “Baby of the House” and “Glamour Girl of Indian Politics” by media.

She was from Nalanda and quite active in politics till 1969. She had been a Union Miinister twice.

It is sad that no one in media wrote about her death.

Mr Philip is right when he writes this:
It is a pity that when this stormy petrel of Indian politics died after a prolonged illness in New Delhi last week, few newspapers cared even to report her death.

Since, tribune does not link to story directly, I am copying whole article here....

A beautiful politician
by A.J. Philip

Tarkeshwari Sinha

TARKESHWARI SINHA stepped out of college to step into the portals of Parliament House where for 19 years she spread radiance of a kind the august institution had seldom been accustomed to. Hardly 26 when she was sworn in as a member of the first Lok Sabha in 1952, the two sobriquets she earned instantaneously and which stuck to her indelibly were “Baby of the House” and “Glamour Girl of Indian Politics”.

Her face might not have “launched a thousand ships” like Helen of Troy but it certainly turned fellow members’ heads every time she strode into the House or stood up to make an intervention. When girls of her age were reading Mills and Boons by the dozen, she plunged into the 1942 movement as a student of Bankipore Girls College, renamed Magadh Mahila College in Patna.

Her family thought her honeymoon with politics was over when she tied the nuptial knot with the scion of an aristocratic zamindar family of Chapra, whose tenant was once the first President, Dr Rajendra Prasad. Married life in Kolkata did not keep her off from politics for long.

The INA trial in Delhi rekindled her passion for politics and soon she found herself elected President of the Bihar Students Congress, which broke away from the All India Students Federation. She was among those who received Mahatma Gandhi when he arrived at Nagar Nausa in Nalanda district to quell the anti-Muslim riots in the aftermath of Partition. The Mahatma also had a taste of the people’s fury when he was “manhandled” there.

Within a few months, Tarkeshwari was at the London School of Economics doing her M.Sc in economics. “Harold Laski had just left LSE when I joined there”, she had told me in an interview. However, she had to cut short her research on Indian taxation and return to India when her father died.

By then India had become a Republic and the first general elections had been ordered. She won from Barh defeating veteran freedom fighter Sheel Bhadra Yajee. The “Beauty Queen” took such an active part in the debates in the Lok Sabha that Jawaharlal Nehru immediately noticed her debating skills.

However, it was only in 1958 that Nehru chose her for a ministerial assignment. She became deputy to Finance Minister Morarji Desai. They became so close that tongues began to wag. And, when the Congress split in 1969, she sided with Morarji Desai and it marked the end of her political career.

Indira Gandhi disliked her so much that when greenhorn Dharambir Sinha defeated her in 1971, she rewarded him with information and broadcasting portfolio. Tarkeshwari returned to the Congress and contested on its ticket in 1977 when every Congress candidate in Bihar was routed.

Eventually, she quit politics and took up social work. It was in that capacity that she once came to invite me to Tulsigarh, her native village in Nalanda district.

Tarkeshwari wanted to show me a hospital she had set up in memory of her brother Capt Girish Nandan Singh, an Air India pilot who died in an air crash in New Delhi. During the journey to Tulsigarh, she told me how she had raised nearly Rs 25 lakh, a big sum those days, to construct the two-storeyed hospital where treatment was almost free.

She also prided herself in taking the initiative to construct a road to link the village with Chandi and Harnaut in Nalanda. During the return journey, I summoned up courage to ask her about her insinuated closeness to Morarji Desai.

“We became Central ministers on the same day. He trusted me and I trusted him. When Lal Bahadur Shastri died, I felt that he should have been elected Prime Minister. There was nothing more to our relationship”, she replied in a matter of fact manner.

Caste also cemented their relationship. Bhumihars of Bihar, of whom she was one, trace their ancestry to Lord Parasuram. They believe that Morarji Desai, too, was a Bhumihar.

It is a pity that when this stormy petrel of Indian politics died after a prolonged illness in New Delhi last week, few newspapers cared even to report her death.

My India - Paramhansa Yogananda

My India

Not where the musk of happiness blows, Not where darkness and fears never tread;
Not in the homes of perpetual smiles, Nor in the heaven of a land of prosperity
Would I be born If I must put on mortal garb once more.
Dread famine may prowl and tear my flesh, Yet would I love to be again
In my Hindustan.
A million thieves of disease
May try to steal the body's fleeting health;
And clouds of fate
May shower scalding drops of searing sorrow -
Yet would I there, in India,
Love to reappear!
Is this love of mine blind sentiment That sees not the pathways of reason?
Ah, no! I love India, For there I learned first to love God
and all things beautiful.
Some teach to seize the fickle dewdrop, life, Sliding down the lotus leaf of time;
Stubborn hopes are built
Around the gilded, brittle body-bubble.
But India taught me to love
The soul of deathless beauty in the dewdrop
and the bubble -
Not their fragile frames.
Her sages taught me to find my Self,
Buried beneath the ash heaps
Of incarnations of ignorance.
Though many a land of power, plenty, and science
My soul, garbed sometimes as an Oriental,
Sometimes as an Occidental,

Travelled far and wide,
Seeking Itself; At last, in India, to find Itself.
Though mortal fires raze all her homes
and golden paddy fields, Yet to sleep on her ashes and dream immortality,
O India, I will be there!
The guns of science and matter
Have boomed on her shores
Yet she is unconquered.
Her soul is free evermore!
Her soldier saints are away,
To rout with realization's ray
The bandits of hate, prejudice, and patriotic
selfishness;
And to burn the walls of separation dark Between children of the One, One Father. The Western brothers by matter's might have conquered my land;
Blow, blow aloud, her conch shells all!
India now invades with love,
To conquer their souls.
Better than Heaven or Arcadia
I love Thee, O my India!
And thy love I shall give
To every brother nation that lives.
God made the earth;
Man made confining countries
And their fancy-frozen boundaries.
But with newfound boundless love
I behold the borderland of my India
Expanding into the world.
Hail, mother of religions, lotus, scenic beauty,
And sages!

Thy wide doors are open,
Welcoming God's true sons through all ages.
Where Ganges, woods, Himalayan caves, and men
dream God -I am hallowed; my body touched that sod.

- P.Yogananda - From Songs of The Soul

Another Jewel from Bihar - Late Bismillah Khan

Recently I came across an article from Hindustan times which details the life of Late Shehanai Maestro, Bismillah Khan. He was awarded Bharat Ratna also.

Here is the info.

Bismillah Khan was born on March 21, 1916 in a family of professional shehnai players of a princely state Dumraon in Bihar.

He came to his maternal uncle Ustad Ustad Ali Bux, an eminent shehna player in Varanasi and at the tender age of six, started his practice in solitude on the banks of the Ganga and in the holy temples of Balaji, Jaru Mandir and Mangala Maiya etc.

Since his ancestors were all shehnai players including his great great grandfather late Ustad Salar Hussain Khan, great grand father late Ustad Husain Bux Khan, grand father late Rasool Bux Khan and father late Paighamber Bux Khan, Ustad Bismillah Khan carried forward his legacy of shehnai.

He gave his first public performance at the age of 14 in 1930 at an all India music conference in Allahabad.

He also played shehnai for the free nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort on August, 1947. Khan has also rendered shehnai in a famous movie Goonj Uthi Shehnai.

Gauravshaali Bihar - An Unique Book about history of Bihar - is available in USA and India

It gives me an immense pleasure to announce the availability of an unique book about proud history of Bihar, in USA and in India.

Book is called "Gauravshali Bihar " and it is first of its kind to cover the period of more than 2000 years of Bihar's history. This book is written by 22 authors who have penned 55 chapters. Whole book is printed at Patna and it is truly Made in Bihar.

Book was released by Dy CM of Bihar, Shri Sushil Modi in Patna on 20th Jan 2007, during 1st ever NRB meet at Patna.

OneBihar - a group of like minded Bihari professionals from around the globe - have published this book. It was conceptualized by Naveen Sharma and art work was done by Chandan Singh & Mayank Krishna.

We have launched a T-Shirt also which is a good way to express our support for our culture, land and the people we are - Bihar and Biharis.

Prices are

Book -
$19.90 + Shipping Charges (Bay Area - Local FREE delvery will be made)
390 Rs + Shipping Charges (India)

T-Shirt
$9.90 + Shipping Charges (Bay Area - Local FREE delvery will be made)
190 Rs + Shipping Charges (India)


Book is available in USA at following address:

Saroj Kumar, sarojk@gmail.com, 1-510-712-9087

Book is available in India at following address:
order.gauravshalibihar@gmail.com

or call / SMS us at 91 612 6450916
Gaoravshali Bihar 1CR

One.Bihar,249.Above Rimzim, Main Boring Road
Patna-1, +91 612 645 0916

Please checkout following links to find more details.

Gauravshali Bihar Book
http://proudbihari.com/index.html
http://flickr.com/photos/scorius/352048579/

Gauravshali Bihar Book Release
http://flickr.com/photos/scorius/373731218/

Book- Table of Content
http://proudbihari.com/_wsn/page2.html

T-Shirt
http://flickr.com/photos/scorius/373731232/
http://flickr.com/photos/scorius/373689778/

Others
http://flickr.com/photos/scorius/389472765/
http://flickr.com/photos/scorius/373731221/
http://flickr.com/photos/scorius/373704434/

Nalanda University's ruins on YouTube

Naveen Sharma ji has uploaded quite a few nalanda videos...

Some of them are

1) Part-1

2) Part-2

Entrance to ancient Nalanda university found

Rediff.com says...

A team of archaeologists of the Archaelogical Survey of India have discovered the main entrance of the ancient Nalanda university in Bihar.

Read more here..

This can be a model for Computerized Education in Bihar

This post can serve as a model for providing Quality education in schools of Bihar.

We can try to get some schools to start working in this direction.

Linux is almost free and older computers should be available in Patna or Delhi.