lallu prasad yadav

I still remember a photo in one of the issues of the now defunct wonderful political magazine "Sunday" where the newly become chief minister Lalu prasad Yadav, a staunch Lohiaite and disciple of Karpuri Thakur going around villages and personally overseeing hair cutting and bathing of children of Yadav and Dalit communities. He was pursuing the Karpuri Thakur's idealism and he turned upside down the entire caste equations and its power structure in Bihar. The Non 'upper' caste emerged a reckoning force in the land of Chanakya. When Advani's Ayodhya rath yatra was unleashing havoc across the country including riots in state after state (interestingly Advani, later on, gave complete credit for that rath yatra to current prime minister Narendra Modi, who was co-ordinating the yatra) , only Lalu Yadav had the guts to arrest Advani and stop that reckless and politically ambitious Advani and his rath yatra. Lalu was a maverick of Indian politics then, who never bend before anyone. Unfortunately, like all power politician, he also fell for the trappings of power dynamics and shoddy dealings: money, crime and power grab of family, where idealism had no role. His ill-reputed brother in law Sadhu Yadav was also instrumental in bringing down Lalu's reputation. Prakash Jha even made a film on the kidnap culture of Bihar under him. Luckily for Bihar, Nitish another Lohiate, came to power to take Bihar forward, where Lalu prasad abandoned it for hs family and personal fiefdom.

It is interesting with all his capacity for political manoeuvring, he could not muster the strength to escape fodder scam, perhaps not even a scam but a bureaucratic mishandling at local civic bodies.

Now with the IT raid, his fate look like sealed, or at least with his son at the helm of affairs, it looks like he will be restraint.
A wonderful photo by Praveen Jain shared by Kusum Kohli

art and design 2

2
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Although this year most of the Indian cities are struggling with an unusual drought and water crisis that is often ascribed to a climate change, but almost all housing colonies and gated communities have a fully operational swimming pools!

Large scale landscaping is done in all urban housing colonies and children are allowed to play only in a small corner sandpit!

Tiles are vitrified in every household to make it aesthetically pleasing and contemporary where old people often fall and break their thighbones!

People spend lakhs of rupees on marble tiles and granite floors and negotiate cheap Chinese art reproductions as cultural quotient for their walls

Will buy expensive branded taps worth hundreds of thousands for washrooms and negotiate hundred rupees to a plumber to fix it.

We will negotiate with a potter for ten rupee discount and will happily pay a lakh and odd for pottery professor who can talk about pottery.

Roads will be widened to accommodate ever increasing vehicle population and at traffic junctions, old people will stand to wonder how to cross the road with their tired legs.

The forms of real human problems are very large and this is not even the tip of iceberg, but still we are worried about forms of serif and sanserif that makes no sense anymore on earth considering the largest text media today is visual media and smartphones, where sizes of the fonts are immaterial or can be altered for legibility and comprehension on a finger tap.

We are worried about layouts and compositions when billions of selfie photographs are taken every second and have already redefined the conditioned human aesthetics and that too beyond anyone’s comprehension. World today see the world, not by well-defined compositions and layouts but see it by 13 MP cell phone camera viewfinder and its pixel rate and automated post-production software: be it grotesque accidents or serine beach lands. In other words, image production is not anyone’s specialised territory anymore
- Neither the artists nor the designers.

Catchy phrases as the literary genius is a pass, as billions of twitter short messages are flying thick and fast across the world making it a common practice. All the physical boundaries seem to be crumbling in front of Internet technology and network cultures while in practice nations are becoming regimented, racist and boundaries are closed. While education is reaching its pinnacle in human society and diabolically there is million times more funding available for entertainments, mythological fantasies and gaming than poverty alleviation programs, civic amenity improvements and healthcare systems. Cities pay more liquor bills and multiplex tickets than basic infrastructure investments and taxes. There is no dearth of criticality, intelligence and creativity in academia those chooses to remain politically silent at the brink of human disaster.

There are more human frustrations, rigidity and relationship failures in the highly designed western societies than in the least developed. There are more assault rifles and manslaughter weapons made and exported from these highly sophisticated, aesthetically developed and intrinsically designed western societies than its least developed counterparts in the world.

Still, designers and artists across the world use the texts, methods, processes, philosophy and aesthetics as a form of aesthetical and conceptual human utopia or benchmarks of human development from these countries to enlighten and organise human societies on other parts of the world that are lesser complicated, serine and if at all may be little chaotic.

What design and aesthetics are we talking about?
What is the problem of this form we are talking about?

art and design

After 15 years in art and Design world as a practitioner, student and teacher, finally, when I hang my shoes in next five months, I walk out having no regret of ever pretending giving solutions either as designer or artist. Also, I always paid back many times more than what I drew in kind or courtesy. In other words as per the benchmarks of design solution in business, it was a flop business or loss making venture ☺. So whatever I am going to write next few days or so are only for subjective acceptance. You are welcome to accept or reject.

Let us accept, a cut here to show the thighs, a cut there to show belly buttons, a cut at the top to show cleavage in dress or a milliradian curvature at the edge of table or a colour swatch at the edge of your dining tray, a copy of tribal art on bag, or a fold on a chair as design intervention do not address a human problem but are only socio-cultural anxiety of a society manipulated, just like fair and lovely sells fairness cream.

Yes, you heard it correct, in this post-modernist world, art and design are only the sale of fair and lovely creams to a brainwashed society who are told and confused that they are Incomplete without that extra cut on a dress, possession of accessories, extra milliradian curvature on table and chair, a piece of culture on the wall, an extra line on a commode, an extra glitter and smoothness on floor tiles, an extra edge of concept or imagination and so on and so forth.

So let us start an academic critique of art & design practice and its education. Let us talk about the problematic holy grail

1. the problem of form and form as the problem.

NPA

The government of India should immediately take over all the NPAs from Nationalised banks. There is a huge risk of politically being accused of corrupt, but it is much better than the collapse of Indian banking system, a catastrophic consequence of piling up NPAs: the result of nepotism of previous governments and world economic problems. The Banks should be given equivalent bonds to start afresh. Since 1992 the biggest tragedy of Indian banks was the NPAs they inherit year after year. Most of their resources and efforts have always gone into even out this problem and not giving enough room for productive investments.

Thereafter Government should start a debt recovery board to recover those loans and allow banks to redeem their bonds.

For demonetisation, a reckless thinking was enough, but this action requires a decisive leadership and hope the government does that.

RSS's manusmriti

that is not a bad idea. Considering the ability of RSS to distort facts and history, they will make sure Manusmriti changed beyond recognition :-)

joke apart it is time to develop the academic and political critique of these social and philosophical texts to bring them down from Sanskrit altar of mysticism to realistic perspective of common man. Manusmriti's texts, perhaps almost to the tune of 80% were rejected or refuted by the later date Indian philosophical schools since the idea, understanding and inference of truth and duty had undergone radical transformations in Indian society, especially among Hindu schools of philosophies.

In the beginning in Vedas, if it was Rit (a complex manifestation of dharma and duty) that was primordial, in later date philosophical schools it got transformed into satya (vaguely truth) then tatwa ( method with moral obligation and hierarchy or priinciple
) and then to tathya. By the time it reached satya itself in Indian philosophical schools, most of the Smritis were refuted or were rejected, including the Manu Smriti.

It is the neo-liberal RSS founder's flawed idea of Hinduism as inferred by the mimamsakas is the core of the problem. Manusmriti was rejected and refuted by all post smriti period Hindu schools of philosophies.

RSS outfit wants Manusmriti reworked

According to Chand, fresh research should be commissioned on Manusmriti.

INDIANEXPRESS.COM

few funny points on economy

few funny points on economy :-)

-Government's chief economic advisor says piling up of NPAs in banks is the biggest problem, but isn't the same defaulters joining global billionaires club during the period is the real problem?

-He says low inflation at 3.2 is a great achievement but taking the cue from his own words that there are no loan takers in banks, then isn't it low inflation the sign of no market demand (or inability to increase price) or economic stagnancy?

- He says export growth at 18% is another great achievement but isn't it with a strong rupee, net export yield evens out?

-He refuses to comment upon demonetisation and digital money effects. isn't it a fact that RBI and government of India lost track of currency in circulation as the money returned to RBI is yet to be accounted and its equivalence (more???) is already in circulation? Isn't it also a factor that without a proper identification for individual unit- currency, like number and series, RBI is in a complete confusion how to infuse money into the economy?

- Isn't it a factor with GST going to be implemented, next few years will unleash its cascading effects, clashes and confusion all across the market that is going make everything into a mess pointing a no recovery sign for the economy in the coming years?

- Above all isn't it a very bad idea that Government is not spending to boost the economy in the name of fiscal control and RBI is tightening interest regime for a liberalised market economy that is getting stagnant?

-isn't it a tragedy that banks are flooded with forced deposits of public money in the name of digitisation and with no loan takers, tight interest regime by RBI, Indian banks are forced to levy the public with unusual and illogical service charges to negate the interest payment burden on those forced deposits, they supposed to pay back the depositors ?

The tragedy of this government is that they are trying to be the fiscal manager and economic planners of both planned and unplanned expenditures without investing and being the largest consumer!!

Worst Government discourses religious morality and not economic pragmatism and prudence as the principle benchmark of economic needs of a nation that is transforming from socialist economy to a liberal economy!!!

it industry

from 2008 onwards, even as industrialists have been becoming richer and richer, banks were becoming poorer. It was also a period of negative job growth economy. The government of India's claim of 7% growth will have to be taken with not a pinch but a large tablespoon of salt. Now with US, UK and UAE nationalistic policies, the crisis is growing bigger day by day. The largest contributor to Indian economy the IT both in terms of revenue and job is looking ahead at very dark days.

One of my friend who is heading a private banks' home loan section says, he is having sleepless nights these days as he expects a serious repayment crisis in the sector. Another day, there was a news that 80% engineers are not employable, but the fact was there are no jobs created in India anymore. Above all country is facing largest ever draught eroding entire rural agriculture economy on which the GDP actually rests.

But Interestingly country's top priority lies in cow vigilantism, ram mandir, anti-Romeo hooliganism, warmongering with Pakistan, how to dislodge opposition governments, massive propaganda of least achieved.

If the news is to be believed, then the central government is planning a massive campaign to the tune of more than 4000 crores or so about its achievements, named M.O.D.I developments. One only will have to recall the India shining campaign by Advani and its consequences to predict the outcome.

The classic theory of propaganda is, it is a lie built on a lie, and it is only a bought out time before the delivery of actual promises. it is not a concoction for to cover up a failure. One should not confuse with the impact of advertisement, that is pitched against real facts with the capacity of propaganda, that are only 'jumlas'( as famously said by BJP's national president Amit shah. )

I feel sad for this generation. Our generation and before that have tasted success slowly and saved steadily, tragically this generation has started with success and has flaunted their earning are going down very fast and in an unbelievable pace. Sad!!

Big layoffs in India's IT sector: Techies protest sacking by Cognizant, seek govt intervention

India's software companies like Wipro and Infosys are in the process of laying off employees on a massive…

BUSINESSTODAY.IN

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