Traffic Hawaldar for a day

Yogesh has given the good overview of the traffic event held this Tuesday….I would like to add few more incidents that I have experienced …
There were 8 of us who were there at yerwada bridge at 9 AM on Tuesday.

It was a pleasant cloudy day.Avdhut and Amruta (founder of this event)carrying Banners with smiling faces. Tarun-- the new member joined the team.Yogesh D&B ,Alok and Sam were looking awesome in the dress code that was White t-shirt and blue jeans.All the banners were handed over to the team . The one which I received was of Zebra crossing.

Everyone took their position with their respective banners. I took my position
Initially I could see that the truck drivers really stopped before zebra crossing but the educated public not and did not even bother to look at the boards..One man acting too smart crossed by and said”Madam aap chahe ghade ko dikhaoo ya ghodeko public nahin samjhegi”. I was a bit upset. Then a school bus stopped at the signal and all the kids where shouting as keep it up Aunty with thumbs up, that treated me as energy booster. Bus fir kya tha mein ban gayi Jhansi ki rani, haan lekin meine bachoo ko kaha AUNTY MUT KAHO NAA, hahaheheh--:-)-(Just kidding)
I realized the banner that I was holding is not to stand at one place ,but instead to roam from one signal to other . I became an lady bheem aur dikhaya public ko ki “Rules are to Follow and not to break”. Finally I was able to manage the traffic at zebra crossing .
One of the wonderful incident that I would like to share is , as I was roaming from signal to signal ,by the time I reach the signal it turned red and all the vehicles stopped before I reached there. One uncle I guess 50+ was in his car and he crossed the zebra crossing so I asked him Uncle please take ur car back ,u have crossed the z crossing please obey the rules and he replied back saying I don’t know English ,please explain me in hindi . I repeated the same statement in hindi. He said aacha aacha mein peeche jaooo.i said haan uncleji peeche thodi jagah hai aap peeche jaaeyen zebra crossing per aapki car hai..and what…. he did not even bother to see how much is the place behind and he took reverse and hit the bike .. fir kya tha .bikewala aaya aur uncleji ko laga dantne… OH My God !!!!
Uncleji ne kaha aaray baba yeh beetiya ne kaha peeche lo toe meine liya….Oh my god everyone there started laughing ,it was really hilarious..
After due course of time all the public started following the z crossing .It was good to see that Public were really respecting and responding well .One hour passed quickly.
Sam took few photographs which shows the difference in the traffic before and after.
Overall experience was Fantabulous
An Astounding achievement!!!!! Stupefying impact of public was dazzling.
Spandan Rocks!!!!
Cheers for SPANDAN, hip hip hurray!!!!!!

Spandan - Making a difference

After a lot of brainstorming and numerous planning sessions, finally it was the time when rubber hit the road.

26th August, 900 Hrs - Eight spandanites in white and blue gathered near the yerawada bridge for this much discussed event. Yes, they were there to tame the errant two-wheeler riders, teach the misbehaving four-wheeler drivers and enlighten the pedestrians. Alok and Sapna were the first to reach the venue, followed by Yogesh D. Soon Amruta, Avdhut, Yogesh P, Sameena and Tarun joined in. Avdhut distributed the posters (pinned to cardboards) to all of us. This time we had a limited stock of posters (one for Zebra crossing, another one for honking, one for giving way to Ambulance and one saying Keep Left). We soon realized that there were a few posters which were not very relevant. Also, we need to increase the font size. Oops!! I directly jumped into the lessons learnt. Bad project management!! Lessons learnt should be at the end of the project :-)

Anyways, this was the first time for all of us for such an activity. One realization that dawned upon us was that the sense of discipline among the commuters is not dependant upon the level of literacy. So called educated carwalas behaved the same way as not-so-read truckwalas. Rather in a few incidents truck drivers appeared to be more sensitive to the posters that we were holding. It was an effort intensive activity to convince people to follow some basic traffic rules. We had to literary stand on the zebra crossing and request (and at times force) people to stop behind the designated line. One incident sums this up. Avdhut was trying to persuade people to stand behind the line when one four-wheeler wala (I guess it was an Innova), almost ran Avdhut down. The driver was quite keen on not stopping behind the line but he had to surrender to Avdhut's grit and passion.
In another incident, a carwala got scared to death when Sameena gave a big thrashing.
There were some good responses as well with people raising their thumbs up to show their acknowledgement. This triggered me to think how thankless a job this traffic handling is for the traffic police. Hats off to their patience!!

After one hour of raising the posters, dancing with the posters and at time standing with the posters, we headed towards office with a resolve to come back.. next week, same day same time!!

A different lesson

Learning never stops, isn't it? And when a group decides to learn on its own, the lessons can come from all directions. This Wednesday was one such day where Spandan saw participation from very small number of people. It is probably because of the rains and other high priority things that people have. Just a handful of us were together mulling over what should we do with this small audience. We decided to take on a unique topic this time, away from our day to day technological topics. And we asked Sameena to give us insights into Islam and Quran.

Sameena, being a muslim and a very learned one, educated us on the details of the religion and its origin. She told us about Paigambar Mohammad and how he got blessings from 40 farishtays (good spirits) on god's directives of leading a life. How these lessons were scripted as Quran . She told us about the history of Mecca and Medina and how each Muslim is expected to complete his responsibilities before getting an approval for the Haj travel. We now know why goat, bird and fish are allowed as food for Muslims. Why did Burqas come into use and what is their primary intent ? Why are men allowed to marry 4 times and how can a lady ask for separation. We felt elated learning about another religion and the way these beliefs have impacted such a large group of people.

A good storyteller that she is, Sameena intertwined the mythological stories with the ways lessons are twisted in the present world to taint the images of Muslims. Little do we realize that we know so less about the people around us and roots of their values and principles. All in all it was an extremely insightful session for all of us.
Thank you Sameena! God bless you….

SPANDAN visits orphanage

CHILDREN OF THE LESSER GOD – SPANDAN VISITS ORPHANAGE

Since ages, we the mortal souls have been talking about salvation….salvation of the soul. As we evolved from being a speck of dust in the universe to the human forms that we are today, the quest for salvation and truth continues. It was this unquenched thirst of soul searching that walked the four members of SPANDAN to an Orphanage in DAPODI, Pune.
Located much inside a vicinity that is crying for help, Saraswati Sanstha, a help center for the Children of the lesser god ( I rather not call it a orphanage) they aren’t orphans. God provided those angels so that they would live to see a civilized world. Each step that we took brought us more close to the truth that life ain’t worth complaining. We should thank god each day that we live.
This was our first attempt in our effort to do something constructive and we had our questions and apprehensions. It was a call of the heart that led us to the gates of the orphanage. It was our turn to give back to the society. It was a call of the conscious. Every single step has to be from inside.
As we stepped inside, we saw the smiling faces. “ Pauna ala” ( guests have come ) pat came a twinkling little voice and we met an extremely cute girl who was more than happy to see us. It was a Saturday and kids were in a happy mood. They did not shy nor did they make any attempt to hide from us. It sure was a warm welcome from them. As we talked to the caretaker, kids happily lined up to receive the goodies. Each kid was very well behaved and knew how to say thank you after receiving the chocolate and biscuits we had carried for them. We were informed that most of the kids could speak English, courtesy Akansha, an NGO who looked after the educational needs of these kids. They were looked after well, however were short of ration. We were also told that there were elder kids too who were aiming for a college studies.
It was amazing to know that this orphanage started with just six kids and now accommodate some 50 kids of all ages. It was heartening to see their life without a family. Guess for them this was family. They seemed happier than most of us are. We fight and we crib and have thousand excuses of avoiding family affairs.
Wonder how these kids felt.
We departed with a wish in our hearts that we shall come back with a solid plan for doing something concrete for them. It’s not always monetary help that would help them. Even talking to them or playing games or just spending time would mean the world to them.

India and the Nuclear Deal

Got this article from Nitin. Posting it as is.
~alok

With the all important vote of confidence behind us and the government winning it with a respectable margin, India is all set to go ahead with the nuclear deal with the US of A. While we have seen and heard many voices speaking eloquently, both for and against the deal, I would still like to add my humble inputs for the deal.
How the deal will help India cut down on its carbon emissions by reducing its dependency on coal and gas has been analyzed in detail by a number of experts. Instead, I want to take a different approach, a slightly longer term one. In my view, the deal is not just about immediate energy fulfillment and pollution. It is also about India choosing sides and doing so publicly in the rapidly changing political and military environment of the world. On one end of this balancing beam is the as yet lone super power of the world, the United States and on the other, the rapidly growing economy, China. China, already the most populous nation of the world will soon overtake the US in GDP. It already has great political clout on the world stage and is always looking for ways to enhance it. While the US has been antagonizing the Arabs by invading Iraq and its headstrong attitude towards Iran, China has been wooing them for oil and building strategic partnerships with the Muslim world. It is also aggressively modernizing its armed forces, being only the third country in the world to shoot down a satellite in space. This means that the US too is looking to recruit countries in its camp. India being one of the few countries on Earth, having the capability to stand up to China, both economically and militarily seems a very attractive choice. India also has a lot of other commonalities with the US. Both are democracies and staunch advocators of democracy. Indians like the openness of the American lifestyle and Americans are attracted to the Indian culture. Both countries have oodles of soft power. On the other hand, relations between India and China have always been strained. India, like China, has been growing rapidly. Both the economies have an exponentially increasing energy demand which cannot be met by the dwindling natural resources of the planet, be it coal, gas, petrol or even nuclear fuel. Hence the cat and mouse game of outmaneuvering the other party for gains in oilfields and nuclear supplies has already started with China many steps ahead in this game. This has also lead to China seeing India more as a rival than as a partner. China refuses to accept Indian sovereignty over Sikkim and Arunachal while India has a disjointed foreign policy over Tibet. China also carries a grudge against India for giving asylum to the Dalai Lama and his followers. China realizes that India partnered with the US can pose as a deterrent to the Chinese interests and is therefore trying to contain India by trying to encircle it with its own spheres of influence. It has always been a silent but strong advocator of Pakistan, supplying it with missile and nuclear technology. It has close ties with the military junta in Myanmar with Chinese bases on Burmese islands close to the Andaman and Nicobar. Recently it offered to help the Sri Lankan government fight the war against Tamil rebels by providing it with weapons with offensive capabilities against India’s policy of supplying weapons that are primarily defensive in nature. It is also seeking ways to increase its influence in Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh. Recent news of Chinese nuclear submarine bases is an example of continued Chinese interest in the India Ocean. On the other hand, India has recently risen up to the energy crunch facing the world and the growing Chinese influence in the oil rich areas of the planet. With these inputs in mind, the old Indian policy of non-alignment is no longer valid. With the advance of the information age and international trade, nations are becoming more and more dependent on each other. A market meltdown in US can have reverberations around the world. As Thomas Freidman put it in his book, the world is becoming flatter by the day. Hence, even if India and China do not have a direct confrontation, there are indirect ways of weakening each other and India is beginning to realize this. India is already a regional power with ambitions of becoming a world power and as such needs to be more engaging. Any country harboring such ambitions cannot afford to let major decisions be taken without its interests not being represented while those decisions are being taken. It is imperative that India take a stand and it has done just that by going ahead with the nuclear deal.
It is too early to say how things will turn out. However, it is clear that with the planet’s resources going down, the competition to have access to them will increase. With both India and China trying to come on-stage as great powers and with the USA not wanting to go out quietly and add to that the erstwhile super power contender Russia and the usual gamut of European nations and all I can say is that it will be interesting times ahead.