First Time Flier

Bikash Choudhury



Six years ago took the first flight in life to attend a training program at Mumbai; we flew by an Indian Airlines aircraft from Chennai in a group of five- new recruits of the company. I was a green horn in travelling by air and therefore, left the responsibility of transporting us by air to the junior most colleague who had some past experience and we dutifully and very obediently followed his instruction such as screening luggage & handbag, putting the address tag, collecting the boarding pass and proceeding for security check and then craning ones neck for further announcement for boarding the aircraft and occupying the allotted seat; after taking the seat I actually heaved a sigh of relief with a thought, as if nobody has recognised me as a first time flier courtesy our junior colleague, only in age. Now, on 10 of July 2011 when I took a flight to Delhi for some urgent business (some friends joked, if I was going for my swearing in; cabinet reshuffle having scheduled for the day next.), I was trying to recall my first ever experience of travelling by air; but, nothing of importance came to my mind then. I therefore quietly observed how people are going about their itinerary at the airport. Then after some time gained courage to complete the necessary formalities and took a corner seat in the lobby before boarding the aircraft. I wish nobody should identify once again as a first time flier; but, alas our human face most of the time give away a lot of information about our state of mind without any provocation. In that vantage point in the corner seat of lobby I was able to see all the passengers of BBI-Del flight and able to identify all most all the first timers who are negotiating their steps inside the airport with caution and in each step they were trying to reassure themselves that their flight won’t leave without taking them on board and in nervousness taking unusual numbers of sojourn to the wash area, making sure, apparently, nothing unusual happens in the aircraft in the midair as there was no provision to stop the aircraft in midair to attend natures call.While taking the boarding pass, I acted little smart and arranged a window seat at the emergency doors which has little more leg space which is very comfortable for a six feet tall person like me. As the announcement for boarding the aircraft went I quietly took the bus and emplaned for New Delhi in that window seat of mine. Soon after, a beautiful and young hostess came and very politely briefed me how to use the emergency door when asked to. I remain seated with thoughts flooding in the mind about my activity at Delhi and worry to find the address of my host in the city. In the mean time there was announcement in the public address system of the aircraft about the takeoff from the commander of the aircraft. Soon our aircraft took to the skies just above the serpentine course of “Daya” river and green and beautiful Bhubaneswar city; when the aircraft climbed about thirty thousand feet and started to cruise, I saw millions of cloud formation flying past the aircraft in pure white colour which could have a feast for a painter; ordinary soul like me could only freeze the frame in mind’s eye for life Cunningly, I had nearly starved myself in the airport to enjoy the free launch at thirty thousand feet; did have a bite at a big sandwich @ cost of hundred fifty rupees, which was worth it keeping in view the taste and place. I bought a cup of coffee @ fifty bucks and savoured the process of preparing coffee at thirty thousand feets above ground which tasted very strong in the company of white clouds. One hour fifty minutes passed off so easily! It was time for the plane to descend on Delhi at T-3 terminal and it was a perfect landing in a cloudy climate (it was a Kingfisher bird, give credit wherever it is due); happy to be in time to resume the task ahead.

Peace & Happiness is Inclusive

Bikash Choudhury



Orissa celebrates "Raja Festival" in which unmarried girls after liberal amount of dressing up enjoy in Swings in group and all homes prepare typical delicacies and sweets,'Pongal' is the festival of Tamil Nadu;they prepare sweet rice called sweet pongal in a specially designed utensils, Malays world over return home in Kerala to enjoy "Onam" famous for "canoe"competition,North of India and many other parts of country celebrate "Diwali" with various type of sweets and crackers, Bengali are famous for their "Durga Puja".Muslim & Christian community World over celebrate Id and Christmas respectively. Why there is a feeling of Peace & Happiness in the air on all this occasions locally and World over? When, a community together decides to be happy, that day becomes auspicious and happiness spreads across homes like wild fire. One actually gets infected with joy in spite of personal circumstance contrary to the occasion as hearts get filled with spontaneous ecstasy and joy. This proves beyond reasonable doubt, Peace & Happiness will always remain inclusive.But,fail to understand; why then mankind produce weapons of mass destruction and conventional arms, ammunition, so much so that World spends$1.5 trillion USD in defense expenditure; half of such expenses are seer waste and counterproductive to maintain peace & towards security of Nations and World at large. But, when would mankind learn from history of two thousand years and five thousand wars small and big? When will human race come together as one community, at least conceptually? When will the boundary between Nations vanish into thin air, bringing people & Nations together as one indivisible unit on earth?

A GREEN CONVERT

Bikash Choudhury


After marriage, took a flat on rent at Chennai and tried to raise a family afresh.While doing up the living room put a Rubber Plant near the window adjacent to the Divan(mattress on the floor).The rubber plant with regular care and affection, as the third member of the brand new family turned out to be a healthy and strong and beautiful sapling with deep green thick leaves;the sight of which I enjoy while retiring after work at home in the evenings with hot cup of tea with Gazals of Pankaj Udas in a moderately lit setting.Aha..aha those were moments of pure pleasure.Then, I always found that rubber plant more seductive than many beautiful women seen in the day.This was my first attempt to go green.Now, about fifty plants of different species give me company in my living room and two balconies in my flat at Bhubaneswar.Complements from relatives who visit my self proclaimed green home bolstered my courage and I ventured out, to plant17 saplings in front of my flat along the road on the auspicious day of "Cart Festival" Ratha Jatra as called in Orissa;and coxed two of my brothers to do the same.Further, me and my wife had taken great care to restrict our power consumption to 100 units, planning to add a com-poster to convert organic kitchen waste into manure and a solar cooker to reduce LPG consumption.On top of it, started using the envelop covers & one sided papers for my writing activities.(If Gandhian way of using envelop covers were used in Govt. and private offices;we could save half a million trees a day)Deliberately use a two wheeler for mobility in the small city of Bh8ubaneswar which is comfortable to zip in and zip out, no hassles for parking and above all very low on carbon foot print.My next target is convincing my flat association to install a Rain Water Harvesting System(RWH).Recently, quit smoking voluntarily and wish to deploy the savings in plantation.A thought gripped the mind:If the young working people(software Techies & Sales and marketing guys) contain their smoking to 50% and invest 50% of the savings in plantation, then 15 lakhs of saplings can be added every month.(Assuming, every young working persons who smokes, spends a thousand rupees on cigarette, a month and six lakhs of smokers out of two million software Techies and sales personnel on the pay roll and with cost of plantation of a sapling including tree guard @ Rs.100).I wish to appeal to all the girl friends of Boys who smoke--please persuade your future life partner to increase his life by 50% and also put a green Idea in his mind that would help your children and grand children romancing around trees that you plant today.A short story of Neo-green convert who now loves to dream in green.

Jagnathayana:Oriya Cultural Renaissance

Bikash Choudhury



30 June 2011, Ravindramandap woke up to a quite different program; the culture Dept. Govt. of Orissa organized a program called "Jaganathayana".The day coincided with 'Navajaubana Darsan' of deity Sri Jaganatha of Puri. Last month, Jaganathayana was conducted on the background of Lingaraja Temple;which was spirituality with romance of Oriya Architecture. This was an important step of Govt. to rekindle faith in local culture and popularize "Jaganatha Sanskriti".The program started with Bhajan rendition by Sri Patitapabana Tripathy.The master of Oriya music hold the audience spell bound with deeply spiritual and devotion filled rendition of Jaganatha Bhajana--"Khaniki Karuna unaa he Karuna nidhi" And that was followed by an eloquent speech by Dr. Santosh Kumar Tripathy on "Jaganatha Philosophy" and more specifically on "saradha Bali".Mr. Tripathy with his infamous command over Oriya language, explained beautifully “Why the devotees of Jaganatha forget to ask for any favor from lord jaganatha after reaching Bada Danda? Millions of his devotees believe, that they get overwhelmed by emotion after coming in touch with blessings of Jaganatha in form of sand and dust of Bada Danda.He also spoke on folklore & history on the naming of Puri city.One thought denotes Puri as 'Completeness' the other one about 'Mahodadhi' meaning sea and the last one being a 'Divine Place' in the east coast.He also emphasized on historical facts pertaining to noting about Orissa&oriya in the "shilalekha" available in Jaganatha temple even now. Orissa in its current geographic form comprise of three States-Kalinga, Utkal and Koshala.The talk of Mr. tripathy was laced with divinity, extremely informative for those who wish to connect with their roots & history of their land, culture and rich civilization and on top of it thought provoking.
In spite of such a high quality program Ravindramandapa was only 50 % occupied. Reason could be that many people (target audience) was not informed about the program suitably in advance. Culture Dept. apart from conducting such rich program must also make an effort to reach out to the people who should be interested in such programs; namely, the senior citizens and middle aged. Special bus facility from different parts of the city to the venue can be arranged in collaboration with City bus service (Dream Team Sahara).If more people were informed and logistic in place regarding transport, then more people can attend such program and message about Jaganatha Sanskriti reach more homes in the city. Over a period of time, the demand for such programs would be such that people would be open to buy tickets to enjoy local devotional cultural programs. That should be the peak and ultimate goal of culture Dept.

POSCO EMBROGOLIO-WIN WIN SOLUTION

Bikash Choudhury



Second Steel Plant at Paradeep was one of the dream project of Late
Shri Biju Patnaik. Biju Babu wished to add value (Steel Manufacturing)
to abundantly available raw material-the Iron Ore in Orissa; instead of
exporting Iron Ore. That would have substantial Macro-Economic impact
with opportunity for large scale job creation directly and indirectly.
Fortunately, that vision of Biju Babu still holds good and
therefore, ideally, POSCO steel Plant should come up without any further
delay. The extraordinary time lag of six long years has no doubt dented
the Industry friendly image of Orissa and the Country to an
extent. There is an International angle also; as the South Korean Govt.
very keen to see the project through. Therefore, our PMO is backing the
project to the hilt in spite of some genuine concerns of green brigade
of Ramesh & Co. The toughest challenge in POSCO Project has been the
land acquisition in the designated project area of POSCO; in face of
with the organized & motivated opposition from the residents of the
project area. Nowhere in the country the protest against land
acquisition has been as effective as that of in case of POSCO, led by
organization curiously named after POSCO PRATIRODHA SANGRAM SAMITI and
its charismatic & shrewd &Media savvy leader, Shri Abhya Sahu.The
story of their struggle has consumed million pages of Local, National
& International Media. Leader cutting across Party line also supported
their cause vociferously. The face off ask for a win win solution.80%
of the land to be acquired belong to Govt. Therefore, the people of
Dhinkia & PPSS must not hold the Govt. to ransom.Govt. Also should be
sympathetic to its own people. No dispute is as big as to defy an
amicable solution through constructive dialogue. People of Dhinkia and
adjoining area can't live under sanction from their govt. and it is
also equally true, POSCO may not be able to run the plant with
complete Social boy cut in the vicinity of project area. Even if POSCO
manages to run the plant, the cost of operation would be relatively
higher in a emotionally surcharged environment.
Now the moot point is how to acquire the
land peacefully while maintaining social good will for the project in
the area? Social thinker believe, State Govt. & POSCO jointly relocate
the families of project area and their lively hood to any of the
nearby 100-200 villages in the vicinity of 10-20 Sq.Km. with the
consent of villagers; in this method the bounty and pain of the project
can be equitably shared by the community. With input of an ingenious
Architect the old habitat at project area can be identically
replicated at the new location, thereby, reducing the emotional strain
of internal displacement. Creation of conducive Eco-System for
internally displaced people should henceforth be one of the very
important issue for the managers of land acquisition for "The Peaceful
Industrialization" Paradime.The police personnel those who enforce
Govt. policy on land acquisition should & must show empathy towards
people who have to be evicted from their inherited
Eco-System; ownership can't be the sole parameter.
The other aspects of the project are
its "Net Economic Impact" as per the current terms of engagement. At
the moment, there are various shades of public opinion about National
Interest vis-a-Vis Posco Project. A section of people and popular media
believe, POSCO has got it easy. Which has never ever granted to any
domestic player or any MNC before. With 600 million tonnes of Iron ore
mining lease, Captive port, SEZ status and on top of it arrangement to
export Iron ore to parent plant in South Korea.

Orissa would bear the brunt of environmental impact of large scale
mining of the project, pollution generated at the plant and our own
people would have to become refugee in their own land. In exchange our
people get some white collar jobs and some construction contracts at the
max.Is this fare bargain? The provision of SEZ & Iron ore export are
entirely against the interest of people of Orissa; as Govt. would lose
huge amount of revenue in the life span of the project; which otherwise
could have been deployed for uplifting people from bottom of pyramid in
the State. A neutral Economic Impact Assessment of the POSCO Project
would vouch for ten percent equity of State Govt. to compensate
against the Environmental impact and consumption of Natural
resources. If POSCO does not agree, then Orissa Govt. should have the
option to carry on with the project in "Technical Collaboration with
POSCO" in partnership with domestic investors. Time and tide waits for
no Man and no Industry. The FDI perspective and Competitive landscape
has under gone unprecedented changes since the first signing of the
MOU six years earlier; therefore, Orissa Govt. must rethink before
inking the renewal of MOU with POSCO in larger and long term interest
of the State & Nation.

ACCOUNTIBILITY IN GOVERNANCE

BIKASH CHOUDHURY


Lokpal Bill in any form can't be the be all and end all on prevention of corruption though Lokpal would be an important piece of legislation to control the mindset for corruption to an extent.There are much more pernicious "Systemic Problem" that destroys unimaginable proportion of public money & assets on a daily basis;which needs urgent attention,if we wish the taxpayers money actually reach the people who needs the most.Not surprisingly, that would be also in the interest of people living in the top quadrant;as more people migrate from BoP(bottom of pyramid) to middle class, the profit & surplus generated out of additional consumption would go to those who hold the factors of production & services.News report of food grains being destroyed and assets created out of public money going waste is very common and people take that on their stride.Sad, people don't realize more the public money goes waste and assets destroyed more would be the demand for public fund and therefore higher rate of taxes.Question that usually rings in the mind is Why such things does not happen under private sector in such large scale? Other thing that is regularly over looked is more efficient the system of Govt. better would be the quality of public services(Bijli,Sadak & Pani). Therefore, need a system that deal with core structural issues in governance and make a govt. organization responsive & accountable.That should minimize the scope for corruption and indiscretion.
At present, a lot of information on Govt. operation and expenditure related to its performance,assets&liabilities conveniently swept under the carpet.And, that comes handy to stone wall inefficiency, wrong doing,professional lapses and seer incompetence in some cases.What is way out? First of all Govt. also need to have a "quantitative measure" of assessment of its efficiency in line of "profit & loss Account and Balance sheet" of private sector with mandatory public disclosure on a quarterly basis for each Govt. Dept./Office with authority of public expenditure.CAG(comptroller & auditor general) has very recently come out with guidelines for anew accounting system "Accrual based financial reporting system" to track and assess assets created out of public money.This may be a partial solution to the larger problem in public expenditure.As, there is a need to validate decisions of Govt.Dept./Office and evaluate the efficiency of public spending with a numeric tool that reflects clearly and transparently;how the govt. dept./Office has fared compared to the last quarter/financial year.Therefore, Accrual method of accounting must also include a new dimension of "Economic Value Creation" on annual basis for each Govt. Dept./Office.Further, Economic Value should be part of the Annual Financial Statement with complete picture of assets and liabilities and performance ratios like:economic value creation on expenditure outlay, administrative expenditure to operational expenditure,salary expenses to total outlay.(that is feasible within the constraints of public accounting system).
If these wishes were answered soon, then hopefully Govt. sector efficiency would be enhanced greatly and with substantial macro economic impact and GDP numbers.Apart from economics of public expenditure, a revamped system would travel a long way to enlighten the bureaucracy, create enthusiasm in entire administration on the back of information & knowledge;which was earlier denied to them and public under a closed colonial system.Need we change?

SOCIAL CHANGE IN ODISHA

Bikash Choudhury



Thirty year ago, an old lady was reprimanded by gang of her own grand children; the criminal offense of the old lady was, she couldn't pronounce the English word 'Change' correctly and instead she said '' Chende".Kids from English medium school generally make a spectacle of their English pronunciation & diction before their less fortunate classmates from Odiya medium schools; and, their English speaking ability caricatured in the college canteens & near bus stops. But, for 75 long years, Odisha was wrongly written in English language and not a single voice went up or a little murmur heard any where until recently. No other language would have put up with such affront as Odiya language and its people did. Correcting the English spelling of Odisha may or may not bring any substantial change in society or in the economy; even then also, the change must happen as it is the question of pride and reputation of a five thousand year old language and over four crore Odiya speaking people. The amount of time and money in this mission is immaterial.
Not many will agree, emphasis on Odiya language and culture over a period of time, may bring about a change in the "social thinking" in Odisha and in course of time in the "Social system”. The current social practice of Odisha put a lot of importance over academic excellence and on getting into Govt. jobs like I.A.S, O.A.S,Engineer,Doctor,Bank officer and Software Engineer.Odiya people put less premium on extracurricular activity; as such misdemeanor very strictly discouraged inside Odiya family. Therefore, many times, very bright sports persons does not see the light of the day, a singer constrained to the boundary of his or home or at best exposed to the extended family and friends, actor castigated as evil omen for the family. May be, it sounds little exaggerated but if a survey conducted on Odiya family value system the truth will emerge. Individual excellence and passion subjugated to societal model of acceptance which stifles growth of individual and his domain of interest. This could be due to five hundred years of colonial rule which has created a mindset that prefer structured work environment, assured income; therefore they favor routine white collar jobs over Entrepreneurship.
Emphasis on Odiya language, literature and culture would trigger a new and fresh social thinking. As native language/mother tongue connects the hearts and mind of an individual with most efficient conductor available to mankind; therefore, the love for one's own language would create an individuality and pride in one's being that would drive a person in search of his own strength and identity and sooner than later it will propel him in the direction of Innovation-Excellence-Enterprise. Eventually, burying the old antiquated typical Odiya social practices with a more open liberal social system where individual right to pursue his passion would be respected and that will drive Odiya people to excel in their chosen field. However, it is easier said than done to attract Odiya people to their own language; because, English as commercial and Hindi as cultural language has taken deep root in the psychic of an average person living in Odisha.There is actually no harm in developing competence in English and Hindi; but, should not be at the expense of their own Odiya language. If Odiya people don't show passion to learn read, write and speak Odiya language then who will? 'Charity begins at home' and therefore, Govt. needs to take initiative to use Odiya language in administration from bottom-up by creating Odiya language cells in each Dept. and each office in the State to prepare the Babus to learn to use Odiya language in a time frame of 5-10 years. From ancient times, literature and culture flourished under the patronage of rulers and therefore, the current rulers like Ministers and M.L.A must take interest in promoting Odiya literature(Poetry) that will encourage young people to follow Odiya poetry, script writing for movie and create an eco-system for high quality music, feature films in Odiya language; eventually help drawing Odiya people to their own language.Paradox.This piece was written with help of English language owing to poor computer skills in Odiya language; which needs to be fixed in schools and colleges as part of learning Odiya language.