Punjabi Jingle Bells

A very Punjabi Xmas to all!

Christmas is becoming a universal holiday – because of its serenity, present-giving good cheer. And who loves good cheer more than a Punjabi so here is a very Punjabi Santa with a very Punjabi Xmas greeting.

Dreams end when fate, poverty and corruption collide

Today as I walked back from the HDFC Bank in Bathinda, I saw two urchins sitting outside and scribbling on a piece of paper. I asked what they were writing and were shy at first but then showed me a discarded receipt from which they were trying to copy numbers. I asked them if they went to school though I knew the answer already. No they did not go to school. One of them said "hamari kismat nahin hai" - a line obviously learnt from their parents. Further conversation revealed that their father had tried to get them enrolled several times but the school wanted Rs 5000 for enrollment. The boys had been sent out to beg but were too busy trying to write on the back of a discarded receipt. They said they were beggers, their names Aman and Happy (they were maybe 10 or 11 years old). They showed me the pictures of gods in thalis which they had in their laps as their begging tool. They said they were hungry - I asked what were they hungry for, The answer was for 'roti'- I told them I would buy them a half dozen bananas (since I didn't want to give them money)- they walked with me to the old bus stand where I bought them bananas. On the way Aman, by way of conversation, mentioned that he had no slippers. Sure enough he was barefoot. I asked them to stay exactly where they were and went to a Liberty showroom close by and bought him a pair of slippers. When I walked back to give them to him, they were where I had left them, having finished their bananas and still totally engrossed in writing on their scrap of paper. That's how I left them, feeling helpless that I could do nothing for them since it was my last day in the city. If I had more time I would have liked to go to the school where they were supposedly refused admission and tried to do something to see if they could attend school. I felt helpless and angry that I could do nothing. But the story of Aman and Happy on the streets of Bathinda is less than a drop in the ocean of dreams that are lost to povery and corruption in India....

Is there anything we can do at an individual level to help even one child have a better life?

Enjoy the Punjabi zest! - Bhangra Empire @ Bruin Bhangra 2009

Watch this stunning performance of the Bhangra by the group Empire!

(For some reason I couldn't post it as a clickable link so please cut and paste in your browser)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BxMMQs-6nQ

In a Lighter Vein ....for the computer savvy Punjabi !

If your computer starts working in Punjabi these would be the commands!


Send = Sutto
Insert = Wich Paao
Attachement = Naal Laao
Edit = Sidda Karo
View = Waikhee Jaao
Forward = Aggay Sutto
Inbox = Undar Da Daak Khaana
Outbox = Bahar Da Daak Khana
Trash = Mitti Paao
Sent Items = Bheji Gayee Dak
Address Book = Patay Wali Kaapy
Delete = Daffa Karo
Download = Thallay Laao
Properties = Jaidaad
Connect = Naal Milaao
Paste = Thook Naal Chipkaao
From = Bhejan Walaa Banda
To = Door Betha Hoya Banda
Subject = Khaas Gall
Carbon Copy = Koelay Walee Naqal
High priority = Waddee Takleef

and finally
Ctrl+Alt+Delete = Sara Syapa Mukao.

Model schools in Punjab under public-private partnerships!

Here is a news item submitted by wym -one of our active blog followers - as part of a discussion under The State of our Schools. I am placing it here because its an important bit of information that will be of interest to all of us ..

Chandigarh, Sep 24 (IANS) The Punjab government has exempted Adarsh (model) schools, coming up under the public-private partnership (PPP) model in the state, from various taxes.

‘This decision was taken at a meeting headed by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal,’ a government spokesperson said here Thursday.

The draft agreement and the lease deed between the government and the private partners were also finalised in the meeting of the Punjab Education Development Board (PEDB), the official said.

PEDB has finalised five private partners and approved 15 sites for setting up these modern and well-equipped schools in the state.

Adarsh schools would impart free education from pre-nursery to 12th class. Presently, there are nine Adarsh schools in the state.

As per the agreement, if the private partner fails to run the school according to the set terms and conditions, the board would take over its control.

Similarly, if the government fails to discharge its obligations, the private management could take over the school, with a condition to charge fees on 75 percent students and impart free education to the rest.

For each school, PEDB is providing 10-15 acres for 99 years lease, which could be renewed with mutual consent of both parties. The operational cost of the school would be shared on 70:30 basis between the board and the private partner.

The capital cost for the construction of school building would be around Rs.4-5 crore, and it would be shared on 50:50 basis.

‘We have suggested that students’ strength should be increased from 1,000 to 1,200 in Adarsh schools,’ Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said here Thursday.

I hope this partly answers your question. I think the Punjab Education Development Board can provide more information.

A Punjabi to be proud of!

I doubt that many Punjabis are aware that Punjabi scientists, many of whom have prior affiliations with the Punjab Agriculture University (PAU), have played a key role in solving the problems of world food availability by spear heading research on enhancing rice productivity at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) headquartered in the Philippines and with offices in 14 countries. More than half of the world’s 6.7 billion people are rice eaters.

Dr. Gurdev Singh Khush a former principal scientist at IRRI, is perhaps the most well known. Dr Khush is an internationally acclaimed rice breeder and geneticist. Dr Khush won the World Food Prize in 1996. He has been awarded by at least 15 countries including China, Japan and Korea, the major rice dependent nations of the world. He is also a recipient of the Padma Shri. Dr Khush has played a key role in the development of more than 300 varieties of rice. He retired from IRRI in 2002 and teaches at the University of California, Davis (UC-Davis)

Dr Khush obtained his agriculture degree at PAU, Ludhiana before going to UC, Davis where he obtained his PhD in genetics. On 15 January 2009, at the convocation ceremonies of the PAU, Dr Khush did something that you don’t hear of in India much. He donated Rs 3.5 crore (approximately US$700,000) to PAU to strengthen its research program. This amount represented the accumulated value of the prize money of various international awards that Dr Khush has received to date. His advice to the young graduates: "Your schooling may be over but, remember, your education will continue forever; learning is a continuous lifelong process. You have the responsibility to improve the quality of life and widen the span of knowledge of our country".

I have had the honor of interacting with Dr Khush. A gentler, humbler, more gracious human being is hard to come by.

More on our other eminent rice research scientists will follow.

Saving Punjab....an article from The Smithsonian magazine...

Saving Punjab
A Sikh architect is helping to preserve cultural sites in the north Indian state still haunted by 1947’s heart-wrenching Partition

* By Geoffrey C. Ward
* Photographs by Raghu Rai
* Smithsonian magazine, September 2009


Read more: www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/Saving-Punjab-India.html#ixzz0QvRf7ISB

Punjab –the Land of Milk and Honey no more?

When I was growing up and we came home to our village for the winter holidays, I recall it used to be boasted that the milk was so pure (from cows and/or buffaloes that we owned) that not a drop of water had been added to it. I also recall my father’s lament when the first milk collection centers were established in support of the state’s dairy development scheme. Hi comment: “This is going to ruin the health of the people in the villages”. His argument was that people will start selling the last extra drop of milk for cash, depriving the children and other family members of milk, butter, ghee, curd and lassi. The money they earn will be spent on consumer goods, more expenditure at weddings, more clothes etc. The poor would suffer because they would no longer have access to the surplus “lassi” or milk from the better off households.

While the milk has been diverted from rural areas to meet the demand from the urban areas, the milk for cash culture has bred other evils. There have been reports of milk adulteration for many years. A couple of years ago, it was reported that over 90 percent of milk samples taken from private milk sellers or “dhoodh wallahs” were found to be adulterated. Now, Anil Kaura of the Tribune reports that “synthetic” milk is surfacing in Punjab in a big way. According to the report, urea, caustic soda, cheap cooking oils and commonly used detergents are used to prepare synthetic milk. Refined oil is used as a substitute for milk fat and detergents are added to emulsify and dissolve the oil in water and give this “milk’ its white color. The report also adds that synthetic milk is mixed with natural milk and is sold to consumers at Rs 10-Rs 15 per litre whereas the cost of producing it is less than Rs 3 per litre.

It is a shame that in the state known all over for its milk based diet and for its robust population, milk should become such a tarnished commodity. Could it be that this is also linked to the high rates of stunting and malnutrition among children and women in Punjab? After all, availability of milk in a rural household was always a marker of its overall well-being.

In a Lighter Vein

Name dropping, from being a somewhat refined pastime in the past, has evolved into a crass habit that seems to pervade every conversation these days. Whenever I visit Punjab I am surprised at how pervasive this habit has become. People are always trying to find out who knows who, making a mental note of these connections so that they can be used in the right place at the right time. Doors, otherwise firmly shut, will fling wide open when the right name is dropped at the right moment. This phenomenon is beautifully caricatured in this encounter our very own Santa Singh has with the cops:

Santa Singh is caught cutting a red light and is stopped by the traffic police. Asked to show his papers, Santa twirls his mustache and says “I know your IG traffic very well”. As expected, the police immediately let him go. As he drives off, from a safe distance, he yells to the police, “But your IG does not know me!”

The State of Our Schools

I read a rather disturbing piece in the news recently about public schools in Bathinda. The news item said that the Government schools in Bathinda district had been reduced to being schools for Dalits because the other communities have deserted the government schools and opted for private schools that seem to have mushroomed in the villages. It appears that the private schools are coming up to meet the growing market demand for better quality education than is being currently provided by government schools. This emerging lack of confidence in state schools – and I do not know how widespread it really is - has many dimensional consequences.

It is a shame if education, the one medium that can ensure equity and lessen the social inequalities for which India is infamous, becomes the very medium that indirectly exacerbates the social divide. It is also a blot on Sikhism, which has its strongest roots in rural Punjab, that we can allow government systems to inadvertently bring about a divide based on caste – a notion rejected by the Gurus and alien to Sikh values. If Dalits are the main community left to patronize the government schools it is not because of caste considerations. It is due to the prevailing income inequalities that are biased towards the weaker communities who have no choice because they cannot afford to send their children to private schools that charge fees. But the social implications of this situation should not be ignored.

A key factor that affects the quality of education is the teachers. One hears complaints about teachers all the time. Talk to any one in a village who has a school going child and instantly they will tell you what is wrong. It is common that teachers in village schools send the children off to get milk from their homes and then make tea for them, get “saag” and other vegetables from the fields, to baby sit their children etc. Some years ago the Government actually had to ban knitting in schools. It is common for teachers to mete out differentiated treatment to children based on their economic or social standing in the village. Research also indicates that this is a major cause for children dropping out of school.

Government teachers are better paid than their counterparts in private schools – not only do they get higher salaries but also have a variety of benefits which teachers in private schools do not enjoy. Teachers constitute the largest segment of government employees. This places a heavy demand on Government’s recurrent budget which caters to salaries and benefits of government officials. Of the money government spends on education, at the primary level generally over 90 percent goes towards teacher salaries. So, if teachers are not doing their job, it is a huge waste of state resources and teacher salaries or working conditions cannot be used as an excuse for non performance by teachers.

Private schools are preferred over government schools due to the perception that private schools offer better education. People are willing to pay to get a good education for their children. Thus, there is a strong demand for good quality education which is not being met by government schools.

The image of private schools is of providing good quality education – the child going to a private school in the village has a neat uniform and has something to show for the day in class – an exercise book has been checked and corrected. Parents can see progress everyday. The teacher in the private school probably is less qualified and earns half of what a teacher in a government school earns but is seen to be delivering better results. It is an interesting dilemma all over the developing world – why do teachers in private schools with lower salaries produce better results than their better paid counter parts in government schools? The reason is simple: accountability. In order to keep your job, you have to deliver good results and ensure that the school’s reputation is protected. A private school is run like a business and its clientele needs to be maintained and that can only be done if the children are seen to be happy and learning well.

On the other hand, accountability in government schools is weak– absenteeism, using teaching hours for activities other than teaching and ill treatment of students etc rarely invite punishment. Jobs are secure, transfers can be bought and disciplinary action quashed by paying bribes. Teachers work within the prevailing overall work ethic where lack of accountability seems to be the norm rather than the exception.

In the past, one of the key reasons for the development of Punjab’s villages was the strong link the rural Punjabi had with his origins. Those who left their villages to take up employment in the cities did not disconnect with their roots – but instead renovated and upgraded their village homes in keeping with their improved status. Add to this the fact that the “ruling’ classes – the politicians and the bureaucracy – were drawn in fairly large numbers from the Jat Sikh community that is the back bone of rural Punjab. Their identity was often derived from the village to which they belonged. Many prominent Sikh personalities use their village name in lieu of their surname. It was a matter of prestige to upgrade your village home; to allocate a school; a health center; a bus service; water works etc to your village. It enhanced your own prestige as well as that of your village – a mutually complementary agenda. The early broader thrust towards developing the villages can also be attributed indirectly to this strong link with the villages that the ruling classes had.

Why is it then that the interest in maintaining the quality of public services in the villages has waned among those who can make a difference – the politicians, the bureaucracy, and the village elders? I could be wrong but with the passing of the older generation that was more strongly rooted in the rural areas, the well-to-do are shifting their investments as well as residences to urban areas and land is increasingly seen as a source of bi annual income. Besides, with land holdings getting smaller, the attachment to land is no longer as strong as it once was. Educated Sikh youth from rural areas who have the means are immigrating in search for better education and employment opportunities.

The back-bone of Punjab is its villages. Despite the big hoardings all over Punjab heralding progress, the villages have made little progress in the last 20 years. There are more roads but not necessarily better roads, there may be more grants for schools but the quality of education is not necessarily better. Services continue to be highly personalized – if you know someone, things happen. If not, that’s a whole different story. If you engage in conversation with anyone even for five minutes the topic invariably turns to the rampant corruption. It is interesting to note that almost everyone speaks of corruption with awe and disgust simultaneously so much so it’s hard to tell whether they are condemning it or justifying it. Integrity and self–respect seem to have lost the battle to money. As an occasional visitor, it is distressing to hear that there is rampant drug use among the village youth due to unemployment or lack of avenues to fulfill their hopes and dreams. Attitudes have changed little over the years, parents are still struggling with trying to keep their children in school but able to offer little help being themselves illiterate or semi literate.

The system will not self-correct. There seems to be little indication that there will be any major effort by the State to enforce discipline and accountability. The role of the communities and the village elders has been eroded due to politicization of the panchayati elections, there is no common purpose among the village communities any more. All conversation in the village is about party-baazi. And yet, there is no better watchdog that the communities. Only the people for whom the services are provided can hold the system accountable. The retired, educated people who still have roots in villages can fill the leadership vacuum by encouraging and even mobilizing village communities to take greater bipartisan interest in the service delivery of education, health and other development programs in the rural areas. The benefits to society would be immense. It is a challenge for the idealistic and the inspired to provide the leadership to restore Punjab’s pride and potential. There is no better place to start than in its schools. If we wait for government to intervene we may wait forever.

Watch "Signature" - Michael Jackson moves and Bhangra combo

Bhangra is so mainstream now that its passé to even say so. Signature, a talented duo from Britain, came in second at Britain’s Got Talent 2008 contest – an American Idol style dance competition. The dancing duo comprises Suleman Mirza and Madhu Singh, both of whom hold regular day jobs and give expression to their dancing talent in the evenings. They presented a mix of Michael Jackson moves and Bhangra – a combination that obviously floored audience and judges alike. They were voted in second in the competition. Here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaoFYEx0crQ

Shiv Batalvi.....

My first introduction to Shiv Batalvi came when I chanced upon the song “Mai Ni mai main ik shikra yaar banaya” sung by Pushpa Hans. The song was so poignant, and Pushpa Hans' crystal clear voice added to the pathos of the lyrics. We were intrigued by the word “Shikra”. Research indicates that “shikra’ is a bird that, once it abandons its nest, never returns there to nest again. Of course, the initial curiosity about understanding the song led inevitably to the man who had composed it – and that man is Shiv Batalvi.

Shiv was born in 1936 into a Brahmin family in Pakistan. The family moved to Batala after partition. Shiv died in 1973 at the age of 36 and his young life encapsulates tremendous talent nurtured in an otherwise ordinary Punjabi life. Shiv’s father was a “patwari” – the lowest ranking, but not the least powerful, revenue official in the hierarchy of Government officials. Shiv passed the matriculation (grade 10) exam from Punjab University but never finished college. His father managed to get Shiv a job as a “patwari”but it didn't last long. Shiv moved to Chandigarh where he worked in the State Bank of India but his main focus remained his poetry.

Shiv was fond of drinking and, according to one of the many legends that surround his young life, he would recite his poetry, in a state of drunkenness, at the traffic round-about in Madhya Marg, Chandigarh, for the benefit of anyone who was willing to listen.

Shiv’s poetry is characterized by an overwhelming sense of loneliness and loss. Some of his finest love poems are believed to have been written to lament his love for the daughter of Gurbaksh Singh “Preetlari” who was married off to someone in the United States . The poem “mai ni mai main ik shikra yaar banaya” is said to refer to her leaving India for the US .

Shiv Batalvi has emerged as a major Punjabi poet and has been likened to Waris Shah. His epic poem, Loona, is now recommended reading for Punjabi literature courses in both Punjabi and Punjab Universities. Don’t miss out on this great Punjabi poet! Even if you do not know how to read Punjabi you can listen to some of his finest poetry in the album titled "Birhan Da Sultan" by Jagjit and Chitra Singh. My personal favorites on this album: Eh Mera Geet Kise Na Gaona, Rog Ban Ke Reh Gaya Pyar Tere Shehar Da and, of course, Mai ni Mai.

Shiv often recited Asaan taan joban rutey marna – was it a death foretold? or the expression of a death wish stemming from some deep sorrow that found expression in his poetry? Although the image of Shiv as the eternally suffering lover heightens the aura of tragic love around Shiv's poetry, Shiv himself denied any connection between his personal emotions and his poetry and was supposed to have been happily married.

Punjab shocks on child malnutrition and stunting.

Here is a SHOCKER! Punjab, the breadbasket of India, a state we are so proud of, has devastating statistics on the health of women and children.
The Tribune, the English daily published out of Chandigarh, reports that over 80 per cent of infants in Punjab are anemic, every second child is stunted and every third child is undernourished.
The article quotes the state wise reports from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3) 2005-2006 that became available recently. According to this article, the NFHS survey conducted under the stewardship of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare government of India, shows 80 per cent of the children in Punjab in the age group six months to three years are anemic. Surprisingly in both Punjab and Haryana more than 60 per cent of the children of educated mothers have been found to be anemic and 37 per cent of the children under 5 are stunted, one in ten is wasted and almost one fourth are underweight. Thirty-eight percent women in Punjab suffer from anemia. The child mortality rate (1-5 years) is particularly high for girls in Punjab. While 6 boys (per 1000) die before they are five years old, as many as 16 girls die before they are five.
The bias against the girl child also shows up in the vaccination trends ascertained by the surveys. In Punjab, only 54 per cent of girls between the age of one to two years, compared to 65 per cent boys in the same age group, are fully vaccinated.
What can be done to correct this? Why do we, who pride ourselves on being such a progressive community, allow this to happen in our midst? Clearly this situation has not arisen due to shortage of food, or poverty. Is it a result of ignorance and social bias against women who as care givers of infants and children do not have free access to food for themselves or their children? Whatever be the reasons it is a shame for all Punjabis. What does this say for the future of our community?