Come summer’s and you are bound to find “Water water everywhere†especially if you happen to reside in Dev Bhoomi’s own capital Shimla. Well if by any chance you are thinking of owning an accommodation or travelling to hill station, kindly be aware that you will get into situation and think about “Water water everywhereâ€. As reader you are confused as to what I am trying to convey. Well I am talking about a city which once boasted of being the summer capital of India and today hosts one of the largest populations of tourists travelling to any destination in this country in summers. However the city as of today is running dry. So if you are honeymooner travelling to Shimla, you might get a rude shock at the hotel when staff at the reception tells you “Sir, there was no water supply last night so kindly use water cautiously†meaning you just have water for bare essentials. Continue reading “Water Water Everywhere”
Garbage queen Shimla amongst garbage capped mountains of Himachal
Thinking of Shimla, Dharamshala or Manali will lead you to think of snow covered peaks, green and pollution free environs. Let’s get the record straight as most of these hill stations in Himachal will welcome you with tonnes of garbage lying along the streets or thrown along the crevices in forests. The local newspapers write every other day about the crisis like situation in Shimla with respect to garbage disposal. Few days back Nityin a blogger from Shimla raised this issue in his blog. The issue is being raised constantly but a solution is no where in sight.It will be unfair to put the complete blame on the government or Municipal Corporation. A fortnight ago, I saw a young worker of the municipality cleaning the road near bus stand in Shimla at 5:30 in the morning with temperature down to -9 degree Celsius. I distinctly remember him using a broom with bare hands. A news article in one of the prominent Hindi news daily, mentioned about the shortage of staff for keeping Shimla clean. Continue reading “Garbage queen Shimla amongst garbage capped mountains of Himachal”
Brocolli revolution in Himachal; brothers from Mahunag show way
By: Varun Rattan Singh
Often we hear people saying in Himachal: “Nothing can be done hereâ€. These words have been abused to an extent that the very idea has become firmly engraved in minds of young people in Himachal. The basic idea of Young Guns column at HimVani, here is to break this thought process. So far, the kind of youngsters the column has covered, come from a city background with families to support them. The story, which follows is, of a novel and noble idea pursued from fancy to reality by two brothers belonging to a remote village in Himachal Pradesh.
Mahunag is a small village located on the periphery of Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh. The nearest town is Karsog which is roughly 35 km from the village. Like most of the villages in the state, the civil infrastructure is well in place. Mahunag has a High School with nice small playground. There was even an eco-tourism club in the school. Other amenities such as drinking water supply, 24 hours electricity, forest rest house, rural telecom exchange, bus service, health centre are well in place. The visible signs of development were attributed to two local politicians, Mansa Ram and Mast Ram. Both belong to rival political parties and did their bit for the constituency when voted to power.
Continue reading “Brocolli revolution in Himachal; brothers from Mahunag show way”
Harrowing experience with AIRTEL
Never in my life I have written a complaint. This one is coming after 6 days of doing rounds of AIRTEL shops,talking to retailer,dealer and customer reps.
This Monday (16th April 2007) I had purchased a AIRTEL SIM from a shop in Sector 30, Faridabad. I gave the shop owner documents which he wanted and I was told that the phone will be activated in a 24 hours.
Next day (17th April 2007) when the connection did not get activated I called up the shop owner (Nishant)to inquire. He told me that the SIM which was given to me cannot be activated as it belonged to the old dealer. He than offered me a choice of 5 new numbers to choose from and said these will be activated by next day evening. He requested me to give few more documents which I promptly submitted on the same evening. Here I was given the new SIM which was postpaid connection number 9971366155. Continue reading “Harrowing experience with AIRTEL”
Farewell IRMA and batchmates!
To the Man who was always a perfectionist!
I went into the woods because I wanted to live deliberately. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life… To put to rout all that was not life; and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
When I had graduated I had no plans of doing masters. For two years I was footloose, travelling from Nasik to Delhi to Calcutta to Delhi and Himachal in-between. I was constantly trying to find an area of work which interested me. It is at this juncture that I got to know about IRMA. After a thorough research I took a decision to invest my two years in doing this course.
When I came here I already had something’s in my mind. I had to pursue my dream, no matter what happened and yet be responsible enough to take care of my family Somehow the sector vs non sector confusion was never in my mind. Probably my late father was an inspiration. He was from a very remote village in Himachal. The nearest school was 14 kms away and he used to walk every day to the school. It was in class 9 that he decided to move away from his village as my grandfather was against his education. He wanted to prove a point which he did by graduating from IIT Kharagpur ten years down the line His story always inspired me and that is why I am chasing a dream. If my father, inspite of being from poor family could dream of getting out of the village at tender age why can’t I choose a path which is less travelled After all he had provided me with every luxury which he could not get. Thanks for making me dream dad and thank you Maa for supporting my eccentricities. Continue reading “Farewell IRMA and batchmates!”
Renewing ties !
Hi,
With one month over I hope the festive mood of new year is still continuing and the year is turning out to be as good as you expected.
For almost two years I have been out of loop. Number of factors I will say. If I was not travelling than it was academics or student activity at IRMA which kept me busy.I am sure with time we all get busy in mundane tasks which life has in store for us but once in a while we should renew ties with old pals.
If the benevolence of my professors continues than I will be able to finish the course by March end. Soon after that I will be moving back to Delhi to work with social enterprise based out of there. I am joining a start-up called Community Friendly Movement (http://www.whycfm.org) It will be our endeavour to build a supply chain of rural artisans all across the country and provide them market linkages.
I hope to hear from you in near future.
with warm regards
Varun Singh
Field work experiences in rural Himachal
My only link with village life was that my father was from a rural area. My experience of a village in past 25 years of life can be summed up to be negligible. All the understanding or insights which I had were of my father. Even though my roots are in a small village of district Bilaspur, still I had never had an opportunity of an extended stay in a village. So when i got the opportunity to stay in village Dibh as part of my fieldwork with Indo German Changar Eco Development project, i was excited. This village was situated some 40 Km from our organizations headquarters in Palampur.