Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Where the Real Yoga Teachers Are

Taking the following topic from following post of Matthew Remski 
Keeping it here, so that I don't miss it in future.
Where the Real Teachers Are
It’s taken me a bunch of years to wipe the star-dust out of my eyes, but now I have a good sense of where the real teaching is. If you live in a city of a million or so, I guarantee you there are at least a dozen teachers who have been instructing asana and breathwork and meditation in relative obscurity for fifteen years or more. They began in the mid-nineties or before, when YTT programmes were few and far between. Maybe they took one, maybe they didn’t. They learned what they could from whomever they met, and did a lot of work at home. They stopped spending their money on the big conferences a decade ago. Some have traveled to India for ashram retreats, and some have road-tripped through the mid-sized towns visiting the older teachers who also work in low-overhead, quiet studios: mentors like Francois Raoult in Rochester, or Kim Schwartz in Albuquerque, Erich Schiffman in Ojai, or Angela Farmer wherever she shows up. They’ve practiced consistently and read and digested many of the key books. They’ve been teaching and learning and serving, largely on their own, mostly unrecognized.
But most importantly, our best not-famous teachers been living their normal lives: giving birth, raising children, paying taxes, voting, getting injured and recovering, working out sexual issues, staying put most of the time, sitting on PTA boards, getting married, getting divorced, celebrating anniversaries, getting foreclosed on, feeling tired, getting cancer, opening something new, undergoing chemo, doubting what they do, going into remission, and loving what they do, relapsing, crying in the dressing room after class. Their yoga is practical and bling-free, it’s not jacked up on power dynamics or heavy paternal pressures. Or if it was, they got over it. They know just enough to show you just enough for you to find your path. They are good-enough. You don’t have to take out a second mortgage or learn Hindi to learn from them. They are just like you, only a little older. You can see into their lives plainly. You’ll never amplify their flaws into social crises, because you reflect each other’s commonness too closely.
O precious teacher!  Precious, precious teacher – humble and good, kind and normal – however shall we find you? I’ll tell you how. It’s dead easy.
Go to any class at any yoga studio. Approach the teacher after rolling up your mat. Ask them “Who are your favourite well-rounded senior teachers in this town?” They will give you three-odd names. If they all work at that same studio, press for two more names. If they’re all under 40, press for two more. Make a commitment to yourself to go to each of the named teacher’s classes in the following months. You will definitely find somebody you resonate with. Someone who is good enough to simply start you on your own path of inquiry, which is all you really need. They won’t be perfect, and they know it, and that’s good. They can’t give you everything. Some day you’ll move on.
Forget heart-openers on the beach in Costa Rica. Forget prostrations in Chennai.
We need to learn from someone like ourselves, right where we stand.
What we need is as close as we are to each other. We’re here to learn together.
Idols stand between us because we prop them up.
Falling, they will become human again, and seek healing and integrity with the rest of us.

Thursday, August 14, 2014

लाल किले की प्राचीर से राष्टृ के नाम सन्देश

लाल किले की प्राचीर से राष्टृ के नाम सन्देश (अगर मैं प्रधानमंत्री होता )

सर्वप्रथम आप सब का धन्यवाद जो आपने प्रचंड बहुमत के साथ अपना भरोसा दिया. आपने मुझे संसद  ऐसी शक्ति देकर मुझे भेजा हैं, जिसके बल पर मैं अपने  देश  के सच्चे और सभी के विकास हेतु जो भी फैसले करने पड़ें , मैं  कर सकता हूँ.

दोस्तों हमारा देश का लोकतंत्र चार मज़बूत पिल्लर पर खड़ा हैं.
विधायिका , न्यायपालिका , पत्रकारिता एवं कार्यकारिणी।  मेरी जिम्मेदारी  यह सुनिश्चित  करना हैं की यह चारों जनता के हित मैं काम कर सकें.  (Legislature, Executive, Judiciary, and Press )

पत्रकारिता  - पिछले कुछ दिनों हमने देखा हैं की हमारे संचार माध्यमों का जिस तरह व्यवसायीकरण  हुआ हैं, वह इसे निष्पक्ष रख पाने मैं असमर्थ बना रहा  हैं . हमें ऐसा होने से रोकना होगा. ज़रूरी हैं की सारे संचार माधयम जनता का हित ध्यान मैं रख कर कार्य करें न  की,कुछ उद्योग जगत का.

विधायिका - दोस्तों , हमारी चुआव प्रक्रिया का सुधार अत्यंत आवश्यक हो चला हैं. चुनावों को  पैसे की ताकत के गलत उपयोग से बचाना हैं. ताकि जनता का विशवास हमारी संसद और विधानसभा मैं वापस  लौट सके। हमें जनता का विश्वास जीत कर चुनाव जीतने होंगे, ना की पैसे के दुरूपयोग से उन्हें गलत तरीके  प्रभावित करके. 

न्यायपालिका - न्यायपालिका की स्वतंत्रता  महत्वपूर्ण हैं. यह दुर्भाग्यपूर्ण है की  कुछ दिनों से राजनैतिक हस्तछेप के आरोपों से इसमे भ्रष्टाचार की बातें सामने आई हैं. जिन भी किसी  कारणों से राजनैतिक हस्तछेप संभव  हैं, मैं उन्हें समाप्त कर दूंगा 

कार्यकारिणी (Executive ) - दोस्तों आज हमारे समाज के सबसे गरीब तबके को हम न्याय, शिक्षा, स्वस्थ्य सुनिशिचित कर सकें इसके लिए ज़रूरी हैं  की,भ्रष्टाचार की सभी संभावनाओं को  खत्म  किया जा सके. यह कटु सत्य हैं की, आज भी बिना रिश्वत के पुलिस काम नहीं  करती, सरकारी हॉस्पिटल के डॉक्टर फी मांगते  हैं, यह ग़लत हैं।  स्कूल्ज बहुत कम  हैं,और जो हैं उनमे शिक्षक नहीं हैं. मैं वादा करता हूँ की आप सब के सहयोग से मैं इन समस्याओं को एक साल मैं ख़त्म कर दूंगा।  इसके लिए स्वराज का विधान अपनाना होगा, आप सबको अपने क्षेत्र के लिए बजट मिलेगा, जिसका आपको सदुपयोग करना होग. भ्रष्टाचार की शिकायतों का तुरंत निवारण होगा, और दोषी पाये जाने पर सज़ा सुनिश्चित की जाएगी. 

करने और बहुत से काम हैं, लेकिन जो बातें मैंने  कहीं,उन्हें पूरा करके ही आपके सामने अगले वर्ष फिर उपस्थिति दर्ज़ करूँगा। 

जय हिन्द !!!

Saturday, March 22, 2014

A Post by GV Dasarathi

30 % OF BJP, CONGRESS MP CANDIDATES HAVE CRIMINAL CHARGES AGAINST THEM. 13 % of them face serious charges like murder and kidnapping.

AND YET WE KEEP VOTING FOR THESE CRIMINALS, year after year.

WHY ?

Which of these reasons warrants voting for a criminal as our MP ?
1. India needs a 'strong' Prime Minister to root out inefficiency and corruption, and BJP will ensure this.
2. I want a Hindu Rashtra, and BJP will ensure this.
3. I don't want the BJP in power at any cost, so I'm voting Congress because I don't think AAP will win, and don't want to divide the votes.

WHY DON'T WE THINK THIS WAY ?
1. Is the BJP bothered about corruption ? Ask any businessman (like me) who does business on Gujarat about corruption in government purchases there - they'll tell you it's alive and kicking today. The earlier BJP government in Karnataka looted the treasury, raped the environment, and now 2 of the kings of Karnakata corruption have been invited (begged ?) back into the BJP - Yediyurappa and Sriramulu.

2. Does the desire for a Hindu Rashtra include the desire to have moral police thugs like the Sri Rama Sene in Karnataka and the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra (8 of whose current 10 MPs have criminal cases against them) with whom the BJP has an electoral tie up now ? Do we want this : While corrupt politicians are making our economic life miserable, their corrupt moral thug brigade is making our personal and social life miserable ?

3. Do we want the Congress, that quotes Gandhiji and Nehruji, and does 2G and CWG ? That has ensured that we don't get water and power in every home, but definitely get corruption in every home ?

Why don't we think like the Delhi-wallah, who, faced with an unknown party with no track record but good intentions and clean candidates, said "This is enough for me", and almost voted in AAP with a majority ? Who, today, is saying "I made a mistake last time by not giving AAP a majority. I will not make this mistake when the MLA elections are held a second time in a few months". You doubt that this is what they're saying ? If you go to Delhi, just do a casual survey of people (I did it recently, with friends, auto and taxi drivers and shop keepers that I met) and listen to what they say.


Copied above post from Facebook, written by https://www.facebook.com/dasarathi.gv?hc_location=timeline
So that I can share it with world via twitter. @sutikshna

Friday, March 21, 2014

Questions to answer for AAP Candidates

  1. How are you convincing your voters to NOT to vote based on Caste & Religion but Vote based on real issues like "Jobs", "Education" , "Health"?
  2. Have you visited Govt Schools of your constituency, identified the problem being faced by childrens there? Now please visit their parent's houses, with solution you would offer to solve their children's problem in school.
  3. Have you met elderly in your constituency? Did you listen to their problems due to poor conditions of Govt Hospitals? Do you offer concrete solutions to them?
  4. Do you abide by SC 2006 Directive on Police Reforms. Do you provide assurance of voters in your area that you will implement them? It will give them assurance that they will not have to run to any religious Guru in case of riots in village, competent police force will ensure their protection.
  5. Are you able to convice your voters that poor conditions in school/hospitals are due to incompetent MPs who distribute money/liquor during night of elections.

Sunday, March 9, 2014

BSNL post paid broadband installation contractor issue

I emailed following to different email-ids
dgmhradminmh@bsnl.co.in,
 cgm_mah@bsnl.co.in,
 pgmpune@bsnl.co.in

Dear Sir,
I am BSNL fixed line & Internet broadband customer. When I got my broadband connection installed, I opted to use my existing ADSL modem, and refuse to buy new modem from BSNL contractor who came to install broadband at my home and asking me to buy new modem. I configured my modem and used the internet for few months. I changed my address, and got my connection to transfer to new address, but forgot my internet password. I called the same guy for password, but he is refused to tell me and asking me 250/- as installation charges and refusing to give me receipt. I am helpless in following ways :-

1. I am not able to register myself in self-help care portal, :-
I am getting different errors from last few days, each time I try, right now I am getting following error:-

"Broadband User ID is Invalid or You do not have Active Broadband in Your Service." ,

 I want to logon to this portal to change my password.

2. No one is picking phone on Customer Care Help Line numbers (I am trying this number from last 6-7 days) :- 1800-345-1504

My details are :-
Customer Id - 1022370758
Account Number - 1022370765
UserName for Internet - du2026898336
Phone - 020-26898336

My personal mobile number - 8888998716 / 8888877189
Sir please help me in resolving this issue.

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Few Critical Questions to Arvind Kejriwal


1. Why you never bother to acknowledge contribution of Parties like Loksatta/Nav-Bharat, during your interviews and talks?

Even though Rajdeep Sardesai asked you that with whom AAP can align with, you mentioned all other parties are corrupt, but you didn't bother to acknowledge these new small parties with similar intent as AAP. 
It shows that you are failing to involve anyone else who don't fall in line to align with AAP, isn't it?
I witness that it was Loksatta, which was responsible to spread JanLokPal movement in South India. They did it without mentioning their name in any of the gathering of IAC, silently, even though their leaders were not fully agree with Janlokpal draft prepared under your leadership.

2. You failed to align with people with right intent, but different views/ideas. Will you acknowledge this failure?
You often asked by journalists that, do you introspect? Have you learnt anything? May be They ask this as they fail to find any fault in you, during all these years, and leave this exercise on you. 

Your split with Anna and reasons behind it, are well known in public, and you have fair reasons on this. As this separation was due to huge ideological difference. But it is still a failure on your part to not able to convince them and loose them in longer run.
More examples for which, "Reasons" are not available in public domain are :-
  • Your separations from Aruna Roy and team.
  • Not being able to align with R.K. Mishra and his Nav-Bharat party (still hoping that you would manage to align with Loksatta.)

I am sure, You would not doubt intent and core ideology of JP & RK Mishra, but did you try equally harder to walk a mile for including them in this fight against corrupt politics?


3. Failing to include larger but different views on important subjects.
Mr. Jayprakash Narayan did an awesome job in organizing Round Table Conference, inviting eminent personalities to discuss Lokpal proposal in detail. Why do I fail to see such attempts by you? 
India is very large country, as now AAP has gone national, ability to invite inclusion of larger audience on important topics and fight, going to be very critical.

All three questions have common theme, but answers to these could be different. I supported data for my questions. I hope, either Arvind mange to answer these, or some journalist ask these specific questions from him, or any supporter convey these to him.

I am still an AAP supporter, and try to spread the word everyday. But I believe, we should never stop questioning our favorite leader. A mistake, which I often observe in traditional political parties like Congress/BJP/TMC etc. I believe it is responsibility of every AAP/Loksatta/NavBharat supporter to ensure it does not happen with their party, what has happened to Congress/BJP. As we all know, how noble was the beginning of Congress/BJP.


Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Why I don't like FDI in retail

Even JP of loksatta criticises AAP moves to block FDI in retail in Delhi.

All I know, I found local Marwari Kirana dukaan cheaper than current star bazaar and big bazaar.  One logic which opposer gives is, we will learn from Walmart on supply chain and retailing. But how come RAmdev baba manages to open worlds largest franchisee stores in every town of India w/o any experience and skills. I believe no need to copy business models of USA in India. What works their may not work here. We can't have monopolised market driven economy like US, we have billion hands and we need millions of entrepreneurs, we should encourage that. There should be a lot more safety net for local Kirana before allowing FDI, even SC observations said same.

Hence, I would expect to encourage local business with 

Saturday, January 4, 2014

Dream Team of AAP as central Govt.

Imagine,


  1. Captain Gopinath as aviation, 
  2. @meerasanyal as Finace Minister, 
  3. @AapYogendra as Human Resource & Development, 
  4. Bala as Information Technology minister, 
  5. Prashant Bhushan as Law, 
  6. Missing @thekiranbedi as HM, 
  7. Mr. Shantanu Bhagwat an ex IFS from Indore as foreign minister, 
  8. Ashwin Mahesh of loksatta as Urban Development minster & Science & Technology ministry
  9. Prof Anand Kumar as Social Justice and Empowerment minister
  10. Mr. Jai Prakash Narayan of Loksatta as Railway minister or Defence Minister

Any suggestions for Defence Ministry?

Does Congress/BJP has such talented people to fill the cabinet of Central Govt.?
...and there are many more eminent personalities to occupy other important portfolio, please comment below what would be your choice to award ministries, if AAP form the Govt in Center.

who bothers now about PM post, to which media made sole issue :D (NaMo vs RaGa rubbish)
And I think biggest responsibility of PM is usually, building his cabinet to run govt. (remember the role of king in game of chess).  Lets play this game friends, put the name of AAP leader, which you would choose to give specific ministry as comment below.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

MyNeta.info Portal Enhancements

Allow User to Register and Login

Note:- Login/Regstration of User won’t be mandatory for User to browse home-page as per his, any specified location. We can store his specified location in cookie/localStorage to open in by default, if he opens, myneta.info next time.
1.       Allow User to login (using OAuth) and Register. During Regisration Ask User’s
a.       Location,
b.      Date of Birth,
c.       Name,
d.      Email
e.      Ask if he has Valid Voter ID Card?
2.       Allow user to edit this above basic information. Ask User’s Twitter/Facebook credential too if he has not authenticated via these services.
3.       After Registration/Login Navigate user to “Home Page”.

Customized Home page for Logged-in User

1.     Specification if no election scheduled in next two-six months of time.

Display following Details to User in his customized home page:-
Details about sitting Representatives:-
  • Show Details* about “Parshad / Corporator” of his location with contact details
  • Show Details* about sitting MLA of his location’s legislative assembly
  • Show Details* about Member of Parliament of his location
Details of Representative should include –
Criminal cases or conviction in any crime, education, total assets, Liabilities, His known performances in his location etc. Also provide link to his party manifesto, and ask logged-in user to provide feedback of his representative.
Also display comparative analysis of candidates he fought election against using Google Visualization API.
Allow User to contact his sitting Representative
  • Encourage user to email/phone and ask his representative, his stand on critical issues/bills.
  • Display his candidate’ or his party’s views on pending Legislations and bills.

2.     Home page specification if election is scheduled in next two-six months of time

Show all the details in section 1.
Additionally display details of candidates (if declared) scheduled for upcoming election.

3.     Zoom-out utility at home page

It should be allowed to user to zoom-out the details , if he zooms out, we should display details at following levels :-
  1. Default level showing Details of his own parshad, MLA & MP.
  2. District Level - about all MLAs/Parshad in his district, if he zoom out to level  1
  3. State level - At Level 2 we will display state level details of all the MPs/MLA/Parshad
  4. National Level Details

4.     Change in Location

User should be able to change the location on the fly, and home page should be updated to display the details of specified location, apart from his current location as per his profile.

5.     Utilization of Google Visualization API to represent information in effective manner

We can use Pie Chart to display
  • share of party-wise criminal candidates
  • Share of assets candidate wise for given location
  • Bar chart to show rise in income of candidates, as compared to information provided for previous election.
  • Line Chart to show rise in income of candidates
  • Bar chart to show party-wise educated candidates.
  • Geolocation chart to display intensity of criminals, location wise, Assets details richness , location wise, “most educated representatives” location wise.
  •  

Integration with Social Media 

  • Allow User to Tweet or share in Facebook “a specific visual chart” presented anywhere in portal.
  • Send Email or write to registered user’s time-line, if election due is in his constituency, and whenever ADR get additional data related to his constituency (Candidate details, voting date, etc.). Remind him to vote, One month before voting day.
  • Help User to register his name in his constituency as Voter. Get Data about Voter Registration process in his local area, and update him with details. So that he can share these details his friends and followers.

General Information Section

  • Display Roles & Duties of people representative at “Parshad”, MLA, MP level.
  • Publish Result Report of feedback gathered of elected representatives by users of myneta.info portal.
References:-

Technological Recommendation


Presentation Layer
  1. Open Source Twitter-Bootstrap, AngularJS, Google visualization API
Backend layer
  1. REST Service layer using PHP and MySQL (Dart language of Google, or NodeJS can also be replacement for PhP.). Further Guidance :-
    1. REST URL design should be well-thought upon
                                                               i.      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCcAE2SCQ6k

                                                             ii.      RESTful API Design - Second Edition

  1. Source Code Control
    1. We have to keep it open source and invite developers to contribute. GitHub is best choice for same. We can also use GitHub for issue tracking.
  2. Heroku or Google App Engine (GAE) , GAE also provides free packages for NGOs (needs to explore further)
  3. <<Please Suggest>>
Development RoadMap
Following Epics should be taken up in given order
  1. Offer current MyNeta.info database as REST layer in READ only mode (allowing only GET request).
  2. Inclusion of Google Visualization API and Location based Charts & graphs
  3. Registration of user
  4. Integration with Social Media
  5. User Specific PUSH notifications.
Note:- “General Election” is scheduled in Apr-May 2014.

Ways to encourage Users to Spread Information

MyNeta.info User should earn "reputation", in line with Stackoverflow portal, to encourage them earn as much point as possible. This can be achieved with integrated Facebook APP.