"Good Morning" - A look into Balaj Farms

Our flock of fowl, hens, guinea fowl, turkey, have been deployed in the watermelon field to
de-worm the place. The huge bonanza is keeping them quiet, which is a big relief as the
guinea fowl need serious counseling on noise pollution. Our mixed breed flock of doves
and pigeons too have eagerly enlisted for this industrious chore.

One of our farm hands had bought us a hen which has feathers that grow the wrong way,
making her look heckled all the time; well she has a brood of five chicks now, of which
three sport their mom’s heckled look and the family has joined this party, mother hen has
seized the opportunity to give her brood lessons in sustenance.

Also, attending the party is our inseparable odd couple - the white duck with the black hen.
The duck was abandoned as an egg by his vain mother who believed that the process of
hatching may ruin her figure, and was thus hatched by a hen. It grew up with the chicks
and did not venture into the pond for some time - when finally he took to the water his
chick siblings almost followed him, thinking that to be the logical next step. Well as time
passed the brood went its own way but the duckling, now a duck, never joined the other
ducks and hung with his sibling, the black hen. They always wander the fields together
and when the duck decides to go for a swim the black hen waits patiently by the edge of
the pond.

Our 4 dogs are fast asleep this morning, having barked themselves silly all night at tribal
folk who for some strange reason fish in the night! Its unlikely that they would have caught
any fish last night as our dogs along with the neighboring orchestras must have frightened
all the fish far out of the river, straight to the sea! Never mind the fact that they did not let
me sleep a wink as I had chosen to perch myself on the machaan (house on stilts) by the
river and was an unwilling spectator to the opera throughout the night. In fact the great
dane Sula is quite a sight - sprawled upside down at the edge of the field like a passed out
drunkard. (I did think the rum was diminishing rather quick last night.)

Their indolence has encouraged hordes of unlisted volunteers to join the de-worming
marathon. Didn't know birds supported watermelons so strongly! With watermelon seeds
beings priced close to precious metals, am hoping and assuming that our farm hands have
somehow trained the birds to to restrict themselves to worms and not pillage the tender
watermelon plants. Among the unlisted workers, a big flock of egrets have abandoned the
river and are ploughing away in the field, one is curiously examining a bush. A cuckoo is
taking a lazy walk, while mynas and bulbuls have abandoned their songs and are furiously
at work.

Not all birds are so passionate about saving watermelons, some have given this breakfast
party a miss, the geese are swimming aimlessly in the pond and the ducks are busy
grooming themselves. A pair of herons are, as always, fiercely guarding opposite ends of
the pond, having demarcated their halves. A pair of lapwings are desperately calling out to
each other as they walk the edge of the pond even though they are separated by a mere 3
feet. Our ambitious adventure project, the zipline across the pond is rarely used by us - the
kingfisher has decided it makes the perfect perch for a dive and we daren’t disturb his lofty
poise. He only shares it with the wagtails.

The cormorants have chosen to stick to the river. One is stoically standing with his
wingspan out, declaring himself king of all he surveys. A stranger sight is a pair of
cormorants flying in tandem, seems like these loners have finally learned the dating game.
The bee eaters are sticking to safe ground, in this case safe water, and casing the river with amazing speed. Back at the watermelon field, a lone crow is perched atop a pole
looking in disdain at these laborers.

A sudden flourish by the horse in the adjoining paddock sends the egrets soaring and
before one can say “billions of blue blistering barnacles” (not that I ever say it) the field is
empty. The doves have soared to the stable roof, the fowl have leaped to the edge of the
field and the guinea fowl have begun their incessant cacophony. The worms breathe a
collective sigh of relief and go back to nibbling the watermelons. None of this has had any
effect on the dogs who continue snoring. And I nursing my rum sodden, sleep deprived
head, drown myself in lemon grass laced tea.


First appeared at http://www.balajifarms.com/article/Good_Morning.pdf

Glorious Years

It is not possible to pack twelve most glorious years into a few paragraphs. But Ms Barton would say, “What rubbish! Nothing is impossible!”, so here goes…

Bound by fir trees is a little cocoon where scrawny caterpillars are groomed into ladies who are separated by communities, separated by oceans, separated by generations, but bound by deeply rooted values that make them a Loreto (Mumbai) Girl first and forever. 

That’s basically what I am – a Loreto Girl. At 41, that is still the most overpowering aspect of my persona. (You are allowed to entertain the thought that she never learnt much in life, but only so long as you meet me because Loreto Girls demolish thought processes for amusement.) Mother Ursula, whose towering personality kept bursting out of her petite frame, pretty much wrote our destiny – she established a school where girls get wrought with a strength that cannot be detracted by manipulation or circumstance. “Speak to Gandhiji” she’d say pointing to the framed picture at the end of our technology deprived hall, and no Loreto Girl has ever needed a microphone to be heard. The unstated mantra of our school was that fine ladies are a perfect balance of grace and strength, so in the same breath we sang “Make me a channel of your peace” and “God give us…. courage to fight for honesty, goodness, justice and truth”. 

The most incomparable aspect of school was the relaxed view of academics, worldly success and competitiveness – our teachers just took the wind out of the “life is a race” theory, letting each one of us move ahead at our own pace. Stalwarts, each in their own right, they knew where they were leading us and did not need to shift the onus of the educator onto the student, as is the norm today. So we languidly sauntered though hours of linking and unlinking fir leaves, playing in the rockery (impressed in our minds as a large adventurous place, it is in fact a diminutive landscape feature), playing four columns, overfeeding Brownie the school dog (who was envied for his audacious rights to sleep through any class and walk in & out at will), whilst the theorems, formulae, figures of speech, world chronology, syntax, and so much more suffused our minds.

“Loreto’s standard bearers we
In girlhood springtime gay
O may we e’er be loyal and true,
To the school friends of today.”

Of those 12 years I cherish most my friendships – chaste, unbiased and fun. And while some friends got distanced by spaces, the warmth persists, as does a predisposition for stable, wholesome relationships and a healthy regard for humanity at large, despite living in a world that seems to keel us over with antagonism. Today, I cannot run to the humble chapel that filled me with awe and strength, but I carry the Loreto Chapel deep inside me. It gives me the right answers, the ability to distinguish right from wrong, the strength to persevere and the strength to win without letting others lose. (Though I have to admit, since you may have noticed, I did give the humility class a miss.) 
But the truth is that words cannot express my gratitude for all those who made my life glorious, the quintessential nuns of the Loreto Mission, the consummate teachers, the meticulous staff, and the diaspora of students who will perpetually be part my consciousness. May the good Lord bless and keep you, whether near or far away…

Preeti Sharma Menon
June 1973 – April 1985

First appeared on http://www.loretoconventschool.org/glorious-years.html

Viira Cabs – the truth about women empowerment and women’s safety

Viira Cabs is a taxi service for women passengers by women drivers. Viira Motor Training School is the only driving school in the country that exclusively trains women from low income groups to become taxi drivers.

A taxi service by women is an answer to the demand for a safe, reliable, door-to-door transport service in a metropolis.  Inclusion of women in transport services has a two-fold aspect – a safe transport system for women and more significantly employment opportunities for women from low economic backgrounds. At Viira Cabs we take this a few steps ahead by providing a green, eco-friendly fleet and encouraging safe, defensive driving.

History

The first lady taxi service was started in Mumbai by Revathi Roy in 2007 called Forsche which later partnered with Orix and became Forshe - a cab service and a training school. It shut down in 2011. Then an NGO called Sakha trained some lady drivers in Delhi but developed into a service much later, albeit with little success. Priyadarshini, a cab service started later in 2007 in Mumbai has so far never crossed 25 cabs, it doesn’t not have a training model. Viira Cabs started in Mumbai in 2011 as a cab service and a motor training school, and today has 17 cabs. There have been feeble attempts to start similar services in Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad but with little success.

Reasons for Failure

Anyone would think taxis by women drivers is a brilliant and much needed concept, and the demand being so huge, it has to succeed. But the truth is that not a single women’s taxi service has been successful, most have closed down. And the main reason is that a scalable model needs a funnel of drivers, which in turn requires large scale interventions in the following areas:

1.     TRAINING: There are no ready lady drivers. Women have to be trained to become taxi drivers and it takes three months of grueling and expensive training to do so. Most of the services that started with a handful of girls, stopped as they had no funnel of drivers. Potential women drivers hail from an economic strata where they can probably count the times they have had a ride in car – so from there, to becoming a taxi driver who is on the roads 10 hours daily, is a long journey. Viira Cabs taught 207 girls to become commercial drivers. Around 80 of them completed the 3 month long training. No single other organization has trained so many women as both sourcing and sustenance are formidable challenges. Viira Motor Training School has had to stop training as it simply doesn’t have the funds to do it anymore. For the girls fighting the societal barrier is a challenge enough, they just can’t afford to pay for the training. And forget about recovering through employment as most quit (explained in Point 2) in between. The obvious conclusion is that training has to either be a state initiative or that of an NGO with deep pockets. However, when it comes to women empowerment in India, the governments as well as the NGOs don’t go beyond tokenism - the one time gift of a sewing machine is a proud achievement of many a Lions Club event. Training women in skills that will earn them a livelihood anywhere in the world, at any age, is just not on anyone’s agenda. 

2.       ABSENTEEISM & ATTRITION: The women who become taxi drivers are from families where they are usually the primary care givers. If there is a crisis in the family, their jobs get sacrificed first. Minor illnesses to altercations at home, anything can become a cause for absenteeism; and major illnesses, weddings, deaths, all become reasons for quitting. At Viira Cabs the absence and attrition has led to huge losses as each day of a car standing unused hits a small fleet really bad. And that’s the main problem with all the other failed attempts – the dependency on a handful of drivers makes the business unsustainable. If this business has to be viable it should have a driver surplus – which brings us to problem number 1 – there are no training providers.

3.       PERMITS: Central and State Transport Authorities in India are still living in eras long past, they have failed to create regulatory framework for emerging services. Taxis are largely divided into two categories:

a)       Permit Taxis with Meters for point to point services - include Black & Yellow cabs (single driver who applies for a permit and runs a B&Y) and Fleet Cabs (a large fleet cab company that buys expensive licenses & permits and then contracts the vehicles to drivers)

b)       Tourist Taxis for long term hire

Now women taxi services are point to point services but there is no permit provision for them. Unlike B&Y drivers, women drivers don’t have the wherewithal to buy their own cab, maintain it and source their own business. They need the support of a Fleet Cab firm - but since women’s fleet services are so small they are not eligible for fleet licenses which usually start at 100 cabs a fleet; nor can these small companies afford these fleet permits which are auctioned in lakhs. So all women’s taxi services are working loosely as Tourist Taxis, which is technically incorrect.

An interesting point to be noted here is that there is absolutely no regulatory framework presently for aggregator services like Uber which have gone above the head of the permits system, roped in small time tourist taxi operators and posed as a Fleet Cab Service. Transport Authorities do not require tourist taxi companies to furnish details of their drivers – hence the aggregator services have no clue who the drivers of the tourist taxis are.

Ever since the Uber Cab rape incident in Delhi the concept of women’s taxi services is in focus. So the media covered existing operators, ran stories on the grit of the KungFu drivers and the phone numbers of the service providers were flashed on social media and whatsapp. But where were the cabs to service this demand – forced into losses and extinction.

In all this hoopla what really added to insult to injury was certain aggregator services making tall claims that they would start women’s taxi services. These aggregator services don’t even know the names of the drivers who they enroll through their mass technology platforms– they think they can run a women’s taxi service where the employers have to handhold, nurture the women – be with them when their child is sick and stand with them when they get beaten by their husbands? Or have they designed an app for that too?

Starting and running a women’s taxi service is a labour of love, it is a commitment to change the way women are treated in our society. In India it’s really difficult to get funding for social enterprises so small do-gooder firms cannot scale up. And it is really sad that those who can are not interest, not the transport authorities, not the NGOs, and certainly not the big businesses & investors. 100s of crores are invested in applications and technology, which is excellent but last checked, vehicles still need human drivers and don’t work on autopilot. Larger companies need to understand employee challenges before entering a human resource dependent arena. And those displaying concern for women’s safety, they need to get more skin in the game if they wish to employ women drivers and scale the model.  

Sincerely,

Preeti Sharma Menon

Founder & Promoter Viira Cabs

preeti@viiracabs.com

The booking number to call for Viira Cabs is 9819806120

Amethi – Slavery circa 2014

Everyone must come to Amethi. It is a destination second to the Taj Mahal in India. The Moghuls created monuments to grandeur, but the Nehru-Gandhi family has created a monument to India’s despair, despondency and shame!

No, don’t think all UP towns are in a miserable state. Don’t think, we know all about rural poverty. You don’t know anything until you visit Amethi. It’s said nothing can prepare you for the overwhelming grandeur of the Taj, likewise nothing can prepare you for the blot on the nation that is called Amethi.

Roads, electricity, tapped water, all these are dreams for most of the nation. We know that. Shameful as it is, we live with it. A 65 year old citizen in Amethi told us that his only dream is to see a tap in his village (please note ‘village’ not home) before he dies. But there is far more despair here, and you don’t even have to dig for it.

When we enter any small town (not even B towns) in India, there are basic but visible signs of civilization - hoardings, shops of tractors & farm equipment, garages, 2 wheeler showrooms, shops selling large storage containers, many shops selling basic construction material. Most small towns are bustling with computer institutes, learning academies, their hoardings.  Most towns have construction work going on round the year.

Amethi has nothing. Only decrepit decay stares at you through blank, tired eyes. Ramshackle markets sell cheap clothes and plasticware that you find at Adivasi fairs. There are no medical facilities, government or private; even remote towns in Vidarbha have a plethora of private medical hospitals and clinics. When you get out of the railway station the only eatery is a dhabba, but don’t get romantic ideas of robust dhabbas on highways; this dhabba transports you to the “3 Idiots” like black-n-white frame… not a single spoon there is less than a few decades old. The only noteworthy building here is the rest house where Rahul Gandhi stays. There is one seedy hotel, we are forced to stay in the neighbouring district Sultanpur and travel back & forth daily. Sultanpur is a bustling town. The basic difference is that all other towns have an economy, Amethi has none.

A seat of the Nehru-Gandhi clan, this is shocking!  How come they did nothing to develop the place? Politicians tend to contribute to the development of their constituency, even if it is for voter appeasement. But in Amethi, it seems there has been a concerted effort to keep the place backward! And if that be so, it’s the worst kind of conspiracy on the citizens of India. In order to use the citizens as fodder, in order to make them dance to their will, the Gandhis have kept the people in such abject conditions that they have no voice, no ability to think, to desire or to demand. This is slavery of the worst kind! They have preyed on fatalist attitudes and made an entire population believe this is their lot, they have denied them education or chances to develop so that they can control them like slaves whose tongues have been cut off.

And then to add the proverbial insult to the injury, they take the credit for the supposed ‘development’ of Amethi! The people here were not aware that they count, they have been schooled to just bow down and accept their fate. That’s the problem with India, we don’t get outraged enough. I am not the first to visit Amethi, millions know this truth , but there is no reporting, no attempt to change this rotten system. NGOs should be flocking here, this is as backward as it gets. But no one has the courage to stand up and say that the Emperor has no clothes.

 The only silver lining is the advent of Kumar Vishwas. Kumar has reached everyone and provoked all to think, to question. The district is in a state of collective wonder.. they can’t believe that they are actually being spoken to, being consulted and counseled, as against being ordered. Meet anyone in the streets or villages and they dote on ‘Kumar Bhaiya’, they say they admire his hard work and oratory skills, but what really astonishes them is that he treats them as his equals – because thus far the Gandhi clan has ensured that fundamental rights of equality and liberty do not enter this unfortunate land.

Let us just forget the elections for a moment and focus on the people. Let us build on what Kumar has started – I urge all to visit Amethi, get shocked, get outraged, and start a movement against economic and mental slavery. 

One word can make you a terrorist!

Aam Aadmi Party believes that religion should not be used to divide people. We believe that politics and politicians should focus on issues that are concerned with the welfare of the state and the well-being of the citizens. A ruling party ghettoizing a community to use it as a vote bank is a crime that is as bad as a ruling party inciting violence against a community.

Shazia Ilmi had a meeting with the Aman Committee in Mumbai and her unfortunate use of words has created a controversy. Everyone who has followed Shazia’s public life knows that she not remotely connected with communal ideas or actions. But we are being fed this propaganda through edited video clips. The theatre of the absurd is being played out with the media (which seems to be on the same diet as paid trolls) spewing out the kind of outrage that Togadias and Owaisis deserve, on this progressive woman.

Yes her choice of words is wrong, yes she seems like she is saying she wants Muslims to be communal. No the party does not endorse it. There are people who have staked their reputations, livelihoods and their very lives to be part of this movement and it is their right to expect the leaders to be responsible when they speak. The party should discipline all those whose words and actions damage the credibility of the party or compromise its ideals.

Though no one will care to hear a sane voice once the electronic media has raised a din, I will attempt to explain what she said. The meeting with Aman Committee – a respected group working towards maintaining peace between communities, was arranged by youngsters from First Time Voters, whose endeavour is to bring politicians and society together. Their representatives, and the representative of AAP, were present at this meeting as well as a number of other people, from both communities.

Shazia was attempting to say that Muslims are frightened into giving votes to the so called secular Congress which has by and large let them rot in their ghettos so that they can keep using them as fodder. Muslims are not communal, they never vote for any Muslim party, they vote for so called secular parties as they are frightened of their plight if the Hindu fundamentalists take control. Shazia said they must give this secularism/fundamentalism issue a backseat and think of their community – how it will be fed, clothed and developed. They must fight against corruption as that is the biggest stumbling block in their progress. So if thinking for what is best for their community is called being communal, then so be it. They must give up being secular (voting based on secular/communal politics) and become communal (vote based on selfish agenda of welfare of their community).

67 years of misrule, and the target of the media and status quoists is this one year old party which wants to end this misrule, not the two national parties who have reduced us to this state. Prime time politics has no use for explanations and logic, there is no room for irony, sarcasm or any nuanced ideas; in this volatile atmosphere one word can wipe out credibility. One word and a progressive patriot can be equated with someone who only job is spreading hate & perpetrating violence. Given such a manipulated atmosphere, the AAP leadership needs to set standards of what can be said and what cannot, we need to set examples of conduct that will take this nation to the next level.